Our focus passage for the week takes a look at the connection between Hosea and the book of 1 Peter, but if you are not following along with those, here’s a short summary. Peter quotes lines from the prophet when he is addressing the believers–both Jew and Gentile. He makes the bold assertion that they are now part of the people of God, brought in by his mercy to the family of faith, not based on blood, but on their being chosen in Christ. When he writes that those who were once not God’s people and who did not receive mercy are now God’s people and have received mercy, Peter is grafting believer’s into the history of Israel, assigning to them the words that had been first used to speak of God’s people in Hosea.
Especially for those Gentiles who had been kept at a distance before Christ came, this would have been an overwhelming affirmation of their place within the Kingdom of God. They are made to be God’s people and have been chosen to be a royal priesthood so that they may all declare the praises of God, who has saved us from the darkness (v9). To be brought in from the darkness into the light, to be made a people who were once not a people, to be called priests who were once pagans, is a great reversal and a humbling work of God for which he is to receive all praise.
Year in the Bible 