October 5, 2025 – A Study of Matthew – God’s Desires

God’s Desires

Hosea 6:1-6 – New International Version (NIV)

¹ “Come, let us return to the Lord.
He has torn us to pieces
    but he will heal us;
he has injured us
    but he will bind up our wounds.
² After two days he will revive us;
    on the third day he will restore us,
    that we may live in his presence.
³ Let us acknowledge the Lord;
    let us press on to acknowledge him.
As surely as the sun rises,
    he will appear;
he will come to us like the winter rains,
    like the spring rains that water the earth.”

⁴ “What can I do with you, Ephraim?
    What can I do with you, Judah?
Your love is like the morning mist,
    like the early dew that disappears.
⁵ Therefore I cut you in pieces with my prophets,
    I killed you with the words of my mouth—
    then my judgments go forth like the sun.
⁶ For I desire mercy, not sacrifice,
    and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.

Who has “torn” Israel to pieces (verse 1)?

Who will “heal” Israel (verse 1)?

Why will Israel be revived and restored (verse 2)?

What should Israel “press on” to do (verse 3)?

What is Ephraim and Judah’s love like (verse 4)?

How did the Lord cut Ephraim’s and Judah “in pieces” (verse 5)?

What does the Lord want instead of sacrifice (verse 6)?

What does the Lord want instead of burnt offerings (verse 6)?

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

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about what is important to God?

Matthew 12:1-8 - New International Version (NIV)

¹ At that time Jesus went through the grainfields on the Sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick some heads of grain and eat them. ² When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, “Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.”

³ He answered, “Haven’t you read what David did when he and his companions were hungry? ⁴ He entered the house of God, and he and his companions ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do, but only for the priests. ⁵ Or haven’t you read in the Law that the priests on Sabbath duty in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are innocent? ⁶ I tell you that something greater than the temple is here. ⁷ If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent. ⁸ For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”

Who was hungry and began to “pick some heads of grain and eat them” (verse 1)?

What did the Pharisees says when they saw this (verse 2?

Who did Jesus say entered the house of God and “ate the consecrated bread” (verses 3 and 4)?

What did priests do on the Sabbath and yet remained innocent (verse 5)?

What did Jesus say was there (verse 6)?

When would the Pharisees “not have condemned the innocent” (verse 7)?

Who is “Lord of the Sabbath” (verse 8)?

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

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about what is important to God?

In your opinion, what could the Pharisees who criticized the disciples in Matthew 12:1-8 have learned from the instructions in Hosea 6:1-6?

Romans 14:13-15:1 - New International Version (NIV)

¹³ Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in the way of a brother or sister. ¹⁴ I am convinced, being fully persuaded in the Lord Jesus, that nothing is unclean in itself. But if anyone regards something as unclean, then for that person it is unclean. ¹⁵ If your brother or sister is distressed because of what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not by your eating destroy someone for whom Christ died. ¹⁶ Therefore do not let what you know is good be spoken of as evil. ¹⁷ For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, ¹⁸ because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and receives human approval.

¹⁹ Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. ²⁰ Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a person to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. ²¹ It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother or sister to fall.

²² So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the one who does not condemn himself by what he approves. ²³ But whoever has doubts is condemned if they eat, because their eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.

15 ¹ We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves.

What should Christians make up their minds not to do (verse 13)?

When is something unclean (verse 14)?

When are you “no longer acting in love” (verse 15)?

What is the kingdom of God “a matter of” (verse 17)?

Who is “pleasing to God” (verses 17 and 18)?

What should we “make every effort to do” (verse 19)?

What is “wrong for a person to eat” (verse 20)?

What should we “keep between” ourselves and God (verse 22)?

What is “everything that does not come from faith” (verse 23)?

What should the “strong” bear with (verse 1)?

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

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about what is important to God?

In your opinion, how is the “mercy” that God desires in Hosea 6:1-6 shown in Romans 14:13-15:1?

In your opinion, why is there not a conflict between Jesus rebuking the Pharisees in Matthew 12:1-8 and Paul instructing restraint in Romans 14:13-15:1?

Colossians 2:6-19 - New International Version (NIV)

⁶ So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, ⁷ rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

⁸ See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.

⁹ For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, ¹⁰ and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. ¹¹ In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ, ¹² having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.

¹³ When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins, ¹⁴ having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. ¹⁵ And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

¹⁶ Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. ¹⁷ These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. ¹⁸ Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you. Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind. ¹⁹ They have lost connection with the head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.

How should Christians “continue to live” their lives (verse 6)?

What should Christians “overflow” with (verse 7)?

What does “hollow and deceptive philosophy” depend on (verse 8)?

Where does “the fullness of the Deity” live (verse 9)?

Who is the “head over every power and authority” (verse 10)?

What was “put off” when we were “circumcised by Christ” (verse 11)?

How are those who are buried in baptism with Christ raised (verse 12)?

How are people who are “dead in . . . sins” made alive (verse 13)?

What was nailed “to the cross” (verse 14)?

Where did Christ triumph over “the powers and authorities” (verse 15)?

What should we not let anyone do by what we “eat or drink” (verse 16)?

Where is the reality found (verse 17)?

What puffs up the person who “delights in false humility and the worship of angels” (verse 18)?

How does the “whole body” grow (verse 19)?

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

In your opinion, what does this passage teach us about what is important to God?

In your opinion, how would the warning about being made captive of a “hollow and deceptive philosophy” in Colossians 2:6-19 have applied to Ephraim and Judah in Hosea 6:1-6?

In your opinion, what does Colossians 2:6-19 help us understand about the Pharisees in Matthew 12:1-8?

In your opinion, how do we reconcile the teaching in Romans 14:13-15:1 about not letting our eating “destroy someone for whom Christ has died” with the teaching in Colossians 2:6-19 about not letting “anyone judge you by what you eat or drink”?

In your opinion, what do these Scriptures from Hosea, Matthew, Romans and Colossians teach us about what God desires for us in our relationships with other people?

In your opinion, what do we learn about what God desires for us in our relationship with Him?

(sprucewhispers.blogspot.com)