Luke 11:1-13 is a very important part of the Gospel of Luke. This passage starts out with Jesus praying. Then, one of the disciples asked Jesus how he should pray. Jesus teaches us how to pray and gives us the most famous prayer of them all; the Our Father. “Jesus told them, “When you pray, say: ‘Father, uphold the holiness of your name. Bring in your kingdom. Give us the bread we need for today. Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who has wronged us. And don’t lead us into temptation. ’” (Luke 11:2-4). Jesus relates how prayer works to the way we would act towards a friend.
If a friend came over to our house asking for food because he needs to treat his guest we would give our friend the food he needs. The same works with prayer. We ask God to help us and He does. Jesus says, “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ” (Luke 11:9) In other words, God will help us with what we need when we pray towards him. Jesus then gives another illustration on how we should pray to God as “Father” too. This is something which is new to Jesus’ followers for they did not address God as Father yet.
Jesus shows us this by giving an example of an interaction between a father and his son. If a son asks for a fish, the father would not give his son a snake. This is example of how God helps us and gives us what we ask for. God cares and loves his people so He would not be cruel or evil to us. God is looking out for us so when we come asking for something, God helps us. The themes in Luke 11:1-13 can be found throughout the passage. In verses 5-11, the reader is taught about persistence. Verses 5-11 of Luke deal with the scenario Jesus gives us that we will go to a friend’s house around midnight because we need food to feed our guest.
Our friend replies to us and declines because he is already in bed and has locked up the house. Now this friend will give us the food we need not because he is our friend, but because we need it and our persistence. Then, in verses 11:9-13, Jesus gives us an admiration about prayer. Prayer was not fully understood so Jesus was giving assurance to how it worked by relating it to how if we asked our father for a fish he would not hand us a snake. Hosea 1:2-10 opens with God talking with Hosea. God orders Hosea to marry a woman but he God has a specific type of woman he needs Hosea to marry.
God orders Hosea to marry a “promiscuous” woman. God explains why he needs this type of woman by saying “an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the Lord. ” Hosea does as he was ordered to do and marries the daughter of Diblaim, Gomer. Gomer bears a son for Hosea and God already has the name for the son in mind. He says,“Call him Jezreel, because I will soon punish the house of Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel. In that day I will break Israel’s bow in the Valley of Jezreel. ” Hosea does have more children after Jezreel.
Gomer conceives again and gives birth to a daughter. Again, God has a name in mind for the child. The child is named Lo-Ruhamah. This name means “not loved”. God gives the daughter this name to show that God will no longer show love to the nation of Israel. Judah is exempted from this and God will show love and save the people of Judah. Another child is conceived from Gomer and this time it is a boy. God tells Hosea that the child will be named Lo-Ammi. This name means “not my people”. God is showing that He is no longer the god of Israel along with saying that they are no longer his people.
The people of Israel are then compared to sands on a beach. The comparison is made because like sands on a beach, they will not be able to be counted and the passage ends with the words “In the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘children of the living God. ’” Hosea’s family life is a symbolic vehicle for divine communication. Each child had a specific name given to them by the Lord as a symbol. The role this plays in the book as a whole is it shows that the Israelites were being unfaithful towards God and clearly God did not like this.
The Israelites were becoming very unfaithful at the time and this did not please God. Because of the way the Israelites have been acting God was angry but he does love his people. “The Book of Hosea is a prophetic accounting of God’s relentless love for His children. God has always loved his people despite how these people sin and can be ungrateful. The people have always been accepting of this love by God when it comes. Hosea’s marriage is also a symbol. It is a symbol of the covenant between the Lord and Israel.
Hosea speaks about the first love, the short period of Israel’s loyalty in the desert, which was then followed by a long history of unfaithfulness. ” The book of Hosea takes place during a bad time for Israel. The events of the book occur during the fall of the Northern Kingdom in the 8th century BC. During the life of Hosea, the leaders of the Northern Kingdom were leading people away from the Law of God. The kings of the Northern Kingdoms began even worshiping other gods along with the people of Israel. Besides false worship, there were also a number of other sins occurring as well.
The people were not in any way respecting or following God. Then,”Hosea declares that unless they repent of these sins, God will allow their nation to be destroyed. “Along with the nation falling, the people would be enslaved by the Assyrians. The book opens in the chapter where my passage was taken from. In chapter one, God orders Hosea to marry Gomer, an adulterous woman. As said earlier, the two conceive three children and God gives them the names which translate to “No Mercy,” “Not My People” and “God Will Sow. ” God is clearly angry with the Northern Kingdom but He still loves Judah.
In chapter two, the meanings of the names change and the entire tone of the story changes as well. The name Jezreel is given a positive interpretation in contrast to its original, harsh meaning. Then, the name “Not Pitied” is changed to “Pitied”. There is another change in the names of the children. The child named “Not my people” has the name changed to “My People. ” God then uses Hosea’s marriage as a metaphor to explain how the relationship between God and his people is going. Hosea then says that Gomer will regret the day she left and then he will bring her back to him. In chapter three, Hosea takes his wife back.
There is imagery ere obviously. Just as Israel must experience purification before the restoration of the covenant relationship, Hosea’s wife must undergo a period of purification. Hosea buys the woman and compares it to Israel by saying, “For the Israelites will remain many days without a king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, without ephod or household gods. Afterward the Israelites will turn back and seek the Lord, their God, and David, their King” (Hosea 1:4-5). Next, Hosea lists all the types of sins which the Israelites have committed. Immediately, the people feel guilty and turn back towards God.
God does not take them back because of their faithlessness. The Israelites are later taken over by the Assyrians. At the end of the book God tells Israel to come back to Him. God loves Israel, despite Israel’s mistakes along the way. After reading both Hosea 1:2-11 and Luke 11:1-13 I had thoughts about the messages each of the passages gave off. I will start off with Hosea 1:2-11. From what I have read, I feel the message that is given off is we must always be faithful to God and we cannot take God for granted. The Israelites were unfaithful towards God and the Lord asks us to be grateful and worship him.
As Christians, we must realize all that God does for us and we must be grateful for it. What really struck me in that passage was when God orders Hosea to name his child Lo-Ammi, meaning “not my people”. Just thinking about God abandoning his people and myself is a very scary thought and Christians must be thankful for God every second of the day. I also had thoughts about the messages given off by Luke 11:1-13. This passage obviously shows off a more loving God than in Hosea 1:2-10. Jesus teaches us to look at the Lord as a father and that is really powerful. Many people have the wrong idea of God.
Some people think of God as a judge where He judges everyone on how great of a person they are and He only cares about the non sinners or as like a police officer and He punishes those who sin brutally. God is not like that and Jesus shows us this in this particular passage. God cares for us. The words “Ask and it will be given to you,” shows how much God truly loves us. That is what Christians around the world must comprehend. Just as a father forgives his kids and tries to help them, God does the same for all of us. Jesus teaches us how we should pray here and also give us the Our Father.
