In his first letter, the apostle Peter was writing to Christians, probably both Jews and gentiles, in what is now Turkey (1 Peter 1:1). He reminded them that they were “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession” (1 Peter 2:9 NIV). That is, he said that they were the new people of God, the new Israel. Peter also said that they had been rescued from darkness and brought into God’s kingdom of light. Then he added, “Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy” (1 Peter 2:10). This makes sense since he was partly writing to gentiles, who once were not part of God’s people but who had now become part of God’s people through faith in Jesus.

But there is more to this image. Peter was quoting from the Old Testament prophecy of Hosea. Hosea was told by God to marry Gomer, a prostitute/unfaithful woman. This relationship symbolized Israel’s unfaithfulness to God. God had made Israel His special people through a covenant (similar to a wedding covenant), saying, “I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people” (Leviticus 26:12). But Israel was unfaithful to that covenant. As a result, Israel was separated from God. In Hosea’s time, most of the Israelites had already been exiled for their unfaithfulness, and those who remained, the Jews, would also soon be exiled. God told Hosea to symbolize the Jews’ separation from God through the naming of his children: Hosea’s first daughter was to be called Lo-Ruhamah (“not loved”), and his second son was to be called Lo-Ammi (“not my people”). But then later, after Gomer had returned to prostitution, God told Hosea to buy her back from sex slavery. This symbolized God’s promise to restore the Jews from exile and to restore His relationship with them. God said, “In the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘children of the living God’ (Hosea 1:10). Further, God said they would as numerous as “the sand on the seashore” (Hosea 1:10), fulfilling God’s promise to Abraham (Genesis 22:17). And they would “appoint one leader” (Hosea 1:11) and “seek the LORD their God and David their king…in the last days” (Hosea 3:5). Peter understood all of these phrases, not as referring to the Jews’ return from exile, but as referring to both Jews and gentiles coming to faith in Jesus. After the Jews returned from exile, they were not too numerous to be counted, but the members of the worldwide community of Christians are that numerous. It was Jesus who taught His followers to call God their Father and gave them an opportunity to become “children of God.” And it was not the returning exiles but the Jews and gentiles of a later period who sought “David”—that is, Jesus, the Son of David.