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44. Hosea 11: “Dealing
with HIS People”
Four
Seasons Campground Lodge in Pilesgrove, NJ –Evening Coffeehouse on 4/26/2014
(edited
June 2020)
(Remember Hosea from
our last study? He was also mentioned again about five studies ago? Hosea
prophesied to the Northern Kingdom (called Ephraim or Israel) long before
Malachi was God’s messenger to the Southern Kingdom (called Judah). These two
kingdoms were the result of a civil war in Ancient Israel after the reign of
Solomon. Hosea was a forerunner of Jeremiah who also ministered in the Southern
Kingdom, but after Hosea’s time. So, the
times changed and some of the circumstances changed, but the messages of these
men all share a similar tone of desperation in Ancient Israel.)
Hosea begins with a history lesson for them, straight from God:
Verse
1: “When
Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.”
There’s a cool reference here to what we read in Matthew 2:15 in
the New Testament, a prediction that young Jesus would be called back from
Egypt with His parents after having to flee from King Herod. But the Old
Testament context here is more foreboding. It won’t be pleasant to look into,
but we need to (at least I know that I do). It is also the Word of God:
Verses
2-4:
“ As they called them, so they went from them: they sacrificed unto
Baalim, and burned incense to graven images. I taught Ephraim
also to go, taking them by their arms; but they knew not that I healed them. I
drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love: and I was to them as they
that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them.”
Ephraim, the Northern Kingdom of Israel, had recoiled from the
love and care of their Lord. They rebelled not because of mistreatment by Him,
but because of their own selfishness and sin.
Verses
5-6:
“ He shall not return into the land of Egypt, and the Assyrian shall
be his king, because they refused to return. And the sword shall abide on his
cities, and shall consume his branches, and devour them, because of their own
counsels.”
With their enemies in Assyria closing in on them, Ephraim had
tried to look back to the power of their old slave masters in Egypt for help.
But what they needed was to rely upon God, not military aid from Egypt. The
Lord was not going to allow their plans to prosper because their aspirations
and were far from Him. I need to remember today and not try to carry out my
plans, even my religious plans, in a way that dishonors God. And I am very
capable of doing just that.
Verse
7: “ And
my people are bent to backsliding from me: though they called them to the most
High, none at all would exalt him.”
O, they worshipped Him in a public way but they weren’t doing it
in Spirit and in Truth. They were religious, big time religious, but lukewarm on
the inside. And because of this, they were going to be carried away just like
any other heathen nation might be. What a tough message Hosea had to bring to
those people! And he’s still bringing it to us. We must not “play” at church
today. If we don’t fully exalt Him in our heart and our lives, in the end, it
just doesn’t work. Half-trust and half-devotion to the Lord are no more
acceptable now in Hosea’s time.
Now, I think, the main one we are meant to judge on this point is
ourselves. Only we, and the Lord, REALLY know what is in our hearts. I will say
this to you tonight: my own heart is wicked and, but for Christ, I will say I would
be lost and undone. Even with Christ, I struggle spiritually too many times.
Verse
8: “How
shall I give thee up, Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee, Israel? how shall I
make thee as Admah? how shall I set thee as Zeboim? mine heart is turned within
me, my repentings are kindled together.”
The Lord, by the way, was not happy to have to judge these people of
Ephraim in Northern Israel. Nor would He take any pleasure in condemning any of
us.
The nation, as a group, did fall in back those days but
individuals who responded openly to the Lord were. . . well let’s just say, I
expect to Hosea in Heaven one day as much as I expect to see anyone from our
time who has accepted Christ! That’s what I think.
Listen now as the Lord, speaking through His prophet, shows
temperance even toward the sin of Ephraim:
Verses 9-12: “ I will not execute the
fierceness of mine anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God,
and not man; the Holy One in the midst of thee: and I will not enter into the
city. They shall walk after the Lord:
he shall roar like a lion: when he shall roar, then the children shall tremble
from the west. They shall tremble as a bird out of Egypt, and
as a dove out of the land of Assyria: and I will place them in their houses,
saith the Lord. Ephraim
compasseth me about with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit: but Judah
yet ruleth with God, and is faithful with the saints.”
Have you ever wondered why God even bothers to try to understand us?
I have. Especially when feel like I’ve let Him down.
Well, even in the face of total betrayal, the Lord is large in
heart toward us. If the passage above doesn’t convince you, just take a long
look at Calvary and think about it. Notice here that even while the Northern
Kingdom was floundering and getting to be beyond hope, God still held out mercy
to them and, I think amazingly, He continued to nurture within Himself genuine
hope for the Southern Kingdom of Judah. That’s the God we serve! And until the
last heartbeat or the last breath of every person on earth, the Lord has a
genuine hope for each one and continues to extent opportunities to that person
to come to Him through Christ and be saved. One of the thieves on a cross next
to Jesus just barely made it into Heaven. But he did make it! If you think no
one loves you today, or really cares about your final outcome, you would be
incorrect. God cares and He’s ready to help you.
Some people question, and I used to be one who did, how can God be
loving and still judge mankind as described in the Scriptures. But I got passed
that, beloved. I was underestimating His Love. In the end His Love will be
found to have been so great and so pervasive among us, for so long, that it
will justify all of His actions. It’s not His wrath that will make every knew
bow to Him in the end. Rather, it will be the FULL realization by everybody of
His unmeasurable Love. God wants the BEST for you and me. And we can ALL find
just exactly that today, in Christ.
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