January 19, 2025 – A Study of Matthew – Called

Called

Hosea 11:1-11 – New International Version (NIV)

¹ “When Israel was a child, I loved him,
    and out of Egypt I called my son.
² But the more they were called,
    the more they went away from me.
They sacrificed to the Baals
    and they burned incense to images.
³ It was I who taught Ephraim to walk,
    taking them by the arms;
but they did not realize
    it was I who healed them.
⁴ I led them with cords of human kindness,
    with ties of love.
To them I was like one who lifts
    a little child to the cheek,
    and I bent down to feed them.

⁵ “Will they not return to Egypt
    and will not Assyria rule over them
    because they refuse to repent?
⁶ A sword will flash in their cities;
    it will devour their false prophets
    and put an end to their plans.
⁷ My people are determined to turn from me.
    Even though they call me God Most High,
    I will by no means exalt them.

⁸ “How can I give you up, Ephraim?
    How can I hand you over, Israel?
How can I treat you like Admah?
    How can I make you like Zeboyim?
My heart is changed within me;
    all my compassion is aroused.
⁹ I will not carry out my fierce anger,
    nor will I devastate Ephraim again.
For I am God, and not a man—
    the Holy One among you.
    I will not come against their cities.
¹⁰ They will follow the Lord;
    he will roar like a lion.
When he roars,
    his children will come trembling from the west.
¹¹ They will come from Egypt,
    trembling like sparrows,
    from Assyria, fluttering like doves.
I will settle them in their homes,”
    declares the Lord.

Where did God call his son from (verse 1)?

What did Israel do when God called more (verse 2)?

Who healed Ephraim (verse 3)?

How did God lead them (verse 4)?

What will they refuse to do (verse 5)?

What will “devour their false prophets (verse 6)?

Where are God’s people determined to turn from (verse 7)?

What is aroused within God (verse 8)?

Why will God not “devastate Ephraim again” (verse 9)?

Who will “they” follow (verse 10)?

Where will God settle the ones who come (verse 11)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about being called by God?

Matthew 2:13-18 - New International Version (NIV)

¹³ When they had gone, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. “Get up,” he said, “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him.”

¹⁴ So he got up, took the child and his mother during the night and left for Egypt, ¹⁵ where he stayed until the death of Herod. And so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

¹⁶ When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. ¹⁷ Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled:

¹⁸ “A voice is heard in Ramah,
    weeping and great mourning,
Rachel weeping for her children
    and refusing to be comforted,
    because they are no more.”

Who told Joseph “take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt” (verse 13)?

When was Joseph to return from Egypt (verse 13)?

When did Joseph leave for Egypt (verse 14)?

What was fulfilled (verse 15)?

How did Herod feel when he realized “he had been outwitted by the Magi” (verse 16)?

What did Herod order (verse 16)?

Who was “weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted because they are no more” (verse 18)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about being called by God?

In your opinion, what is the difference between God’s son that was called out of Egypt in Hosea 11:1-11 and God’s Son that the fulfillment of Hosea’s words are claimed for in Matthew 2:13-18?

Romans 8:28-39 - New International Version (NIV)

²⁸ And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. ²⁹ For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. ³⁰ And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

³¹ What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³² He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? ³³ Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. ³⁴ Who then is the one who condemns? No one. Christ Jesus who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us. ³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ³⁶ As it is written:

“For your sake we face death all day long;
    we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

³⁷ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹ neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

In what things does God work “for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (verse 28)?

Why were those that God foreknew “also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son” (verse 29)?

Who did God justify and glorify (verse 30)?

Who did God give up His Son for (verse 32)?

Who justifies (verse 33)?

Who is “also interceding for us” (verse 34)?

What will not separate us from the love of Christ (verse 35)?

What do “we face all day long” (verse 36)?

How are we “more than conquerors” (verse 37)?

What is Paul convinced of (verses 38 and 39)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about being called by God?

In your opinion, how does Israel’s struggle to allow God to lead them “with ties of love” in Hosea 11:1-11 (which sometimes is also our struggle also) make the Romans 8:28-39 promise that “those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son” more powerful and more comforting?

In your opinion, what does God calling Joseph to take Mary and Jesus to Egypt to escape Herod in Matthew 2:13-18 help us understand about God’s love that Romans 8:28-39 teaches keep us, who are “sheep to be slaughtered”, from being separated from God?

1 John 3:1-3 – New International Version (NIV)

¹ See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. ² Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. ³ All who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.

What has the Father “lavished on us” (verse 1)?

What are we called (verse 1)?

Why does the world “not know us” (verse 1)?

What “has not yet been made known” (verse 2)?

Who will we be like (verse 2)?

What do “all who have this hope in him” do (verse 3)?

In your opinion, what is the basic message of this passage?

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about being called by God?

In your opinion, how is the aroused compassion of God proclaimed in Hosea 11:1-11 also revealed in 1 John 3:1-3?

In your opinion, how is the difference between the ones who know God and the ones who don’t revealed in both Matthew 2:13-18 and 1 John 3:1-3?

In your opinion, how do all the difficulties listed in Romans 8:28-39 help us understand the true value of being a child of God as described in 1 John 3:1-3?

In your opinion, what do these passages from Hosea, Matthew, Romans and 1 John teach us about what we are called from, and what we are called to?

In your opinion, how can all who have hope in God’s calling purify themselves today?

(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)