Ages 3-7 10

Fruit: What could yours look like?

Parents, we will only cover select verses from Hosea 10 today. See the older children’s page for more thorough text materials.

Memory Verse Also: Practice the Minor Prophets Song : 3 “So let us know; let us press on to know the Lord; his going out is sure as ​ the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.”

Hosea Chapter 10

Hosea 10 lists ’s many sins and the things God would allow in hopes of bringing about repentance​ and proper worship of Him. As a reminder from the Hosea 6 lesson, “​repentance is a big word for being sorry for doing the wrong thing. It starts with understanding that you did something wrong, and asking for forgiveness. The big part of repentance is that you don’t keep doing the wrong thing that you did. If you keep doing the bad thing - are you really sorry?”​ Israel’s actions showed that they were not sorry and were not showing signs of repentance. However, stay tuned for Chapter 11, where we will see that God’s love and mercy are more powerful than Israel’s sin (and our sin as well).

Hosea 10:1-2

1 Israel is a luxuriant vine that yields its fruit. The more his fruit increased, the more altars he ​ built; as his country improved, he improved his pillars. 2 Their heart is false; now they must bear ​ ​ their guilt. The LORD will break down their altars and destroy their pillars.

Israel was a growing vine but their fruit was not good fruit; it was to build altars to false gods and was not in keeping with the repentance that Hosea asked of them. Color the picture below and think about what good fruit (kind things) could you do or say today that would spread God’s love to others.

Color the vine brown, t​ he leaves green, ​and the fruit purple.

Hosea Chapter 10:12

12 Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, ​ ​ for it is the time to seek the LORD, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.

Complete the Word Search below to find 3 phrases that appear in vs. 12. These phrases tell Ephriam, and Israel what God wants them to do to the soil of their hearts. (Hints: a longer word is substituted for the word “up” in the verse and you will not need the name Hosea. Younger students may need to have the words circled so they can color them in.)

Hosea 10:12 - W​ rite the 3 phrases below using the words that you found. Write one letter for each space. (Fallow ground is ground that hasn’t been used to plant anything for awhile.) __​s_​ ______​r​______

__​r_​ ______s​ ​______l​ _​ ______

__​b​______​a​______​f​______​g​______

Circling back around to the theme of repentance, look up Matthew 3:8 and write it below. In this passage, John the Baptist is speaking to Pharisees. His message, capsulized in this one line is very similar to what Hosea is imploring Israel to do.

Matthew 3:8

“Bear ______in keeping ______repentance.”

What would fruit “​that is in keeping with repentance​” look like in your life this week?

______

______

Ask your parents to pray for you this week, that God would show you how to sow seeds of righteousness, (obey) reap steadfast love (be kind) and to break apart fallow ground in your heart (be ready to listen and learn) in order to bring Him glory and love others well.