Hosea 3 commentary excerpt, by Beth Stovell

The first SVS Workshop has opened with a selection from Dr. Beth Stovell‘s upcoming commentary on the Minor Prophets. Check out the abstract below, and then sign in on the forum to read and interact with the paper!

This is an excerpt from the Hosea section from my commentary, Minor Prophets Volume 1: Hosea-Micah, which I am writing for the Story of God Bible Commentary Series with Zondervan. This section discusses Hosea 3 in terms of its ancient Near Eastern background, interprets the story, and suggests ways to “live the story.” The intended audience for this commentary includes pastors, Sunday school teachers, small group leaders, and committed Bible students. For this reason, the writing is intended to be accessible with relatively few footnotes. The purpose of this commentary series is to “study and probe the Bible as God’s story, to discern and then articulate how we can live the Bible’s story faithfully and creatively in the culture today.” For more information on the series, please see http://storyofgodseries.com/about/

For my purposes, I am hoping to hear from people about the following questions:

1. Was the explanation of the ancient Near Eastern background accessible and helpful? Was there anything in the passage that remained unexplained in this area?
2. Were you left with any lingering questions from the “interpret the story” section that you felt needed clearer answers?
3. (In my mind, the MOST important!) To what degree did the “live the story” section touch upon issues that were actually relevant to your ministry context?

Interested to read more? Head on into the Workshop.