June 5, 2002
Coming Home to God's Love
Part 2 - Living With an Unfaithful Wife
By Woodrow Kroll
You know, this marriage thing, right from the start, has been a tough thing, has it not? Man and woman, husband and wife, it seems like marriage jokes provide more material for stand-up comedians than any other subject. However, I do not know of a person in the Bible who had a tougher time in his marriage than this man, Hosea.
We come now to Hosea, chapter one, and verse two. In verse two, I want you to see what God told this man, Hosea. Now, remember, they are living in very, very good economic times. We read in verse two of Hosea, Chapter one, "When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, 'Go, take to yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness, because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the Lord.' So he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son."
In verse two, God commands Hosea to take an adulterous wife. In all honesty, friends, most of my colleagues who teach God's Word are like I am; we would prefer to skip over this verse and go right on to the next one. This is tough stuff. You are brave people, because when we have to deal with Hosea taking a wife of adultery, it is really a hard thing to deal with. Stay there a minute. You do not have to turn to this. I just want to read a passage to you. I want to set the stage for why it is so strange that God would even suggest that Hosea take a wife like this.
Let me read a few verses to you and I will identify the passage later on. I want you to listen and not to watch. "At the window of my house, I looked out through the lattice. I saw among the simple, I noticed among the young men, a youth who lacked judgment. He was going down the street near her corner, walking along in the direction of her house at twilight, as the day was fading, as the dark of night set in.
Then out came a woman to meet him, dressed like a prostitute and with crafty intent. (She is loud and defiant, her feet never stay at home; now in the street, now in the squares, at every corner she lurks.) She took hold of him and kissed him and with a brazen face she said: 'I have fellowship offerings at home; today I fulfilled my vows. So I came out to meet you; I looked for you and have found you!
I have covered my bed with colored linens from Egypt. I have perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes and cinnamon. Come, let's drink deep of love till morning; let's enjoy ourselves with love! My husband is not at home; he has gone on a long journey. He took his purse filled with money and will not be home till full moon.' With persuasive words she led him astray; she seduced him with her smooth talk.
All at once he followed her like an ox going to the slaughter, like a deer stepping into a noose till an arrow pierces his liver, like a bird darting into a snare, little knowing it will cost him his life. Now then, my sons, listen to me; pay attention to what I say. Do not let your heart turn to her ways or stray into her paths. Many are the victims she has brought down; her slain are a mighty throng. Her house is a highway to the grave, leading down to the chambers of death."
That, by the way, is not a John LaCarr novel; that is the book of Proverbs, chapter seven. These are very poignant words, though, about the prostitute, and God's feelings about prostitution and about adultery. Now, here we are in Hosea, chapter one, right in the very second verse, and it appears to us that God says to Hosea, "I want you to take, as your wife, a prostitute."(Paraphrase)
I think perhaps the greatest thing we have to wrestle with in this series is why God would suggest that Hosea take a prostitute. How could God allow His holy prophet to marry a prostitute? That is a good question! You have to wrestle with that. We cannot really go on in this book and talk about coming home to God's love until we deal with an issue like this.
So, let me suggest to you today some of the reasons that God might have told this man Hosea to do this. I want to suggest four possibilities to you and we will weed them out as we go along so we might get some insight into why God would tell Hosea to do such a thing.
The first possibility is that when He told Hosea to marry Gomer, to take a prostitute as his wife, that this marriage was only a hypothetical marriage. It did not really happen. This is a vision that Hosea has. God is telling him, "Look, if this were the case, Hosea, this is what I would have you to do. If you did marry a prostitute, this is how things would work out. You remember all that I have to say about prostitution."(Paraphrase)
Therefore, some people would argue that this is simply a hypothetical marriage that never happened. It was not physical. It was not real. It was, perhaps, an allegory. Maybe God was revealing something to Hosea the way He revealed it to Daniel, in a vision or in a dream. One possibility clearly is that this is not real. This is only hypothetical.
You may ask yourself, why even advance a theory like that? I think the reason is that this theory would sidestep the thorny issue of God telling his man to marry a prostitute. That just does not make any sense, Friends. In order to sidestep the moral difficulty of having a holy God tell a holy prophet to marry an unholy woman, some have suggested that perhaps this was hypothetical. It never really happened. It is just here to teach us a lesson.
Look with me please, at Hosea, chapter three. It is a short chapter. Let me read it to you. "The Lord said to me, 'Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another, and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.' So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley.
Then I told her, 'You are to live with me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will live with you. For the Israelites will live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred stones, without ephod or idol. Afterward the Israelites will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the Lord and to his blessings in the last days."
Now, does chapter three sound hypothetical? Rather, it is straightforward, is it not? The way he writes in chapter three sounds like this really happened. Therefore, I do not think we can explain away the problem by simply saying this is a hypothetical case. The possibility is that God told this man, Hosea, to take a prostitute, but it was only a hypothetical situation. I do not think that is what happened here at all.
A second possibility is that this marriage was only spiritual and not at all physical. See, if it is only a spiritual infidelity, then the infidelity is not infidelity to another man, it is to another god, and that happens all the time.
Now, in this theory, Gomer is unchaste because she has gone after other gods, not gone after other men. Her adultery is spiritual adultery, and I think we can see that in church, we can see that in our nation, we can see that in nations around the world--spiritual adultery. So, there is a theory that this is only a spiritual thing and not a physical thing at all.
Again, you have to ask yourself, well why would this theory even be advanced? And, again, I think presumably it addresses that same issue that it does not then have God telling His holy man to take an unholy woman as his wife. This is talking about what Israel did in an unspiritual way.
Again there is that problem that it is addressed straightforward, and it does not seem to be hypothetical or spiritual. So, let me suggest a third possibility to you, and that is that this marriage was an actual, literal marriage, that Gomer was, in fact, a prostitute, and that God did say to Hosea, "I want you to go marry a prostitute."(Paraphrase)
Now, that is the literal translation. That is the literal understanding, the literal interpretation of this passage. The marriage did occur. Gomer was already an unchaste woman, an unfaithful woman. God specifically told Hosea to go find an unfaithful woman and to marry her and to bring her into his life. However, this theory, again, though it is very plain in its language, does not deal with the issue of a holy God telling a holy man to take an unholy wife. Therefore, let me suggest a fourth theory, or possibility, to you.
The possibility exists that when God told Hosea to take a wife, she was chaste at that point, but became a prostitute later in her marriage to her husband. Now, if you look at the language, it can clearly support this fourth possibility. It does not say that he was to go find a prostitute and marry her. It simply says that this was going to be a wife of unfaithfulness.
Go; take to yourself an adulterous wife--not, perhaps, an already adulterous wife, but one who would become an adulterous wife. The language does permit us that interpretation. Why this theory? Well, I suppose one would have to say this theory exists because we do not know what else to do with this passage.
Moreover, since it is a possibility, it is as good as any of the others. So, we can run on that track for a couple of days. Let us assume that God told Hosea to take Gomer as his wife, knowing that at some point in their marriage relationship, Gomer was going to be unfaithful to him. Let us assume that happened. If that happened, how does this relate to Israel? Remember, this entire thing is a picture of God's love for Israel, and Israel's unfaithfulness to God, so, you fit Israel into your interpretation, whether Gomer was a prostitute already, or one who was coming down the line.
Let me suggest to you that there are several things we do know about Israel that can help us interpret how God could tell this man to take such a woman as his wife. First of all, we do know that Israel was chaste when she was espoused to God. She was a chaste nation. When God selected Abraham, drew him out of the country, and took him to the Promise Land, when God created a people, this was not an existing adulterous people. This was a people, who were, at that point, chaste to God.
Put your hand in Hosea and turn back a couple of books to Jeremiah, chapter two. Listen to what Jeremiah, the prophet, has to say about the chastity of Israel when God began his love relationship with her. Jeremiah, chapter two, verse one: "The word of the Lord came to me: Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem: I remember the devotion of your youth."
Now listen, chastity. "I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved Me and followed Me through the desert, through a land not sown. Israel was holy to the Lord, the first fruits of His harvest; all who devoured her were held guilty, and disaster overtook them,' declares the Lord." We do know that when Israel first came to God as a nation, she was a chaste nation. We know that, and we have to fit that into our understanding of how Gomer could be chaste or unchaste.
Secondly, we know that again, and again, God extended His love to Israel. Let me read to you just a few verses out of Jeremiah 31. Beginning at verse one, listen at the love of God to Israel. " 'At that time,' declares the Lord, 'I will be the God of all the clans of Israel, and they will be My people.'" This is what the Lord says: 'The people who survive the sword will find favor in the desert; I will come to give rest to Israel.'
The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying: 'I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with loving-kindness. I will build you up again and you will be rebuilt, O Virgin Israel. Again you will take up your tambourines and go out to dance with the joyful. Again you will plant vineyards on the hills of Samaria; the farmers will plant them and enjoy their fruit. There will be a day when watchmen cry out on the hills of Ephraim, 'Come, let us go up to Zion, to the Lord our God.' "
See, when it comes to Israel, she began as a chaste virgin to God. Again, and again, and again, God says, I am going to show My love to you even though you have been unfaithful to Me, Israel. I will show My love to you at any time, Israel; any time you feel the need. I want you to know you can come back to Me. My arms are open. I will not overlook your sin, but I will welcome you back. You can always come back to God's love.
The third thing we know about Israel, we learn from Hosea, Chapter14, and the last chapter in this book we are studying together. Listen to this. "Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God. Your sins have been your downfall! Take words with you and return to the Lord. Say to Him: Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously, that we may offer the fruit of our lips. Assyria cannot save us; we will not mount war-horses. We will never again say 'Our gods' to what our own hands have made, for in You the fatherless find compassion. I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for My anger has turned away from them."
See, God's love is ever-present love. We know that Israel was chaste when she began. We know that God reached out to Israel time, and time again, while she was away from God, being unfaithful to Him. We also know that at the end of the book, in the last chapter of the story, God says, Repentance will always lead to your restoration. All you have to do is come home to God's love, and you can enjoy the love of God forever. (Paraphrase)
You may remember that a few years ago, a man went to the Rijks Museum, in Amsterdam, took out a knife, and began to slash some of Rembrandt's famous paintings, especially the Night Watch. Soon after that, another guy, who was a little bit crazy, rushed into St. Peter's in Rome, took a hammer, and began to chip away at the Pieta, Michelangelo's Pieta.
I want you to think with me. Those are modern day examples of how people try to destroy a relationship between people and something they take pride in, something they possess, something they enjoy. In this case, it was artwork. However, the Pieta was not thrown away because it was damaged. Neither was the Night Watch thrown away. Experts were brought in and both of them were repaired, so, today, both of them can still be seen. One is in Amsterdam, and one is in Rome.
You see, my friends, when you and I really mess up our lives, like Israel did, God does not throw us away. He holds out His arms to us, and welcomes us home to prepare us, to restore us, to allow repentance, to bring restoration to us. And, the wonderful thing about God's love is how He can love us when we are so far from Him, how He can love a nation that was so far from Him, His own people!
Because of His love, He can love our nation; He can love any nation. He can love any family, any person on the face of the earth. How can God love us when we are unfaithful to Him? If Gomer, the wife of Hosea, was chaste when he took her as his wife, and she became unfaithful to him, remember that God says to him, I want you to go back and I want you to buy her out of the marketplace of sin, and I want you to love her again. (Paraphrase)
In this obscure book in the Old Testament, a book that hardly anybody ever reads, a book that hardly anybody ever preaches on, we have this wonderful and delightful picture of God reaching out to us and saying, Come on home to My love. Welcome home to My love. (paraphrase) If you simply confess your sins, God is faithful and just to forgive you your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness. The arms of God are ever reaching out to us to help us to come home to His love. In my opinion, it is the best book in the Bible from which to learn the lesson about the love of God.
Next week: Part 3 - Married With Children
By Woodrow Kroll
www.backtothebible.org
Copyright �1996-2002 The Good News Broadcasting Association, Inc.
All rights reserved.
June 12, 2002
Coming Home to God's Love
Part 3 - Married With Children
By Woodrow Kroll
We've talked of the relationship man to woman--Hosea and Gomer in the Book of Hosea. But this first chapter isn't finished, friends, until you're married with children. And that's what we need to look at now.
Notice on your notes, it says that not only do you have to wrestle with the issue of, Does God ask Hosea to marry a prostitute? but look at the next part. Hosea is married with children. And with kids like these, who needs in-laws. I mean, wait 'til you meet his family. You talk about dysfunctional. Well let's not talk about it, let's find out what God has to say in His Word. Hosea 1, again at verse four.
"Then the Lord said to him: "Call him Jezreel."
This is the firstborn son to Hosea and Gomer. The preceding verse says that he took Gomer as his wife, she conceived and bore him a son, and He says, "Now, Hosea, I want you to name this child Jezreel." In fact, He even tells him why.
Now, you see, when you have a name like Woodrow, you ask questions like this. Why? See I think everyone at age 21 ought to have the right to change their name if they want to. My publisher, Multnomah Publishers, Inc., has tried to shorten my name.
Some of you have seen the last couple of books that came out this year, and it's not Woodrow on the cover. It's Wood. Now that's my wife's fault. I have to tell you this.
When I was a little boy, they called me Woody. And, when we were married, she said, "You know, one of these days you're going to have a doctorate. And they're still going to be calling you Woody." So she shortened it to Wood. And it kind of stuck. She calls me Wood; my friends call me Wood. So it's okay, you can call me that, too, just don't make it any shorter than that!
Now don't you wonder about these names? I mean, God says I want you to call your boy, not Hosea, Jr., I want you to call him Jezreel. It's like saying, I want you to call your son Asheville. Because, you know, Jezreel is the name of a place. Call your son North Carolina.
Or, if your son is going to play football some day, call him Nebraska. Why would you tell a man, after he has taken a wife who he knows is going to be unfaithful to him, why would you tell him to name his son Jezreel. Well there's a good answer for that, friend, and the Bible tells us what it is. Look at this. He says,
"�because I will soon punish the house of Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel. In that day I will break Israel's bow in the Valley of Jezreel."
Well, I'm glad we got that straight! "I want you to call your son Jezreel because I will soon punish Jehu for the massacre in the Valley of Jezreel." And probably, like you, Hosea is scratching his head saying, "What on earth is all that about? Jehu? Who introduced Jehu into this story?
Jezreel? You want me to call my son the name of a place?" Well now, let's take it easy. Good Bible students always ask questions of the text. And I know you're dying to find out why Jehu is introduced here and what this has to do with Jezreel and why God would ask Hosea to name his son Jezreel?
By the way, Jezreel means "God sows." And the only way I know to find out why Jehu would be introduced, and why Jezreel was important is for us to go back to the story of Jehu in the historical books and find out. And, fortunately, we have a whole Bible to teach us this. So put your hand in there, in Hosea; and turn back with me to 2 Kings 9.
I'm going to read some selected verses. It's a long passage, and we don't have time to read it all. But you'll get the gist of the story. This is how Hosea could possibly name his son Jezreel, and it would say that God was going to punish Jehu for his wickedness in the Valley of Jezreel.
2 Kings 9, let's begin right at the first verse:
"The prophet Elisha summoned a man from the company of the prophets and said to him, 'Tuck your cloak into your belt, take this flask of oil with you and go to Ramoth Gilead. When you get there, look for Jehu son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi. Go to him, get him away from his companions and take him into an inner room. Then take the flask and pour the oil on his head and declare, "This is what the Lord says: 'I anoint you king over Israel.' Then open the door and run; don't delay!"
You think preachers have it tough today! Deliver your message and get out of there as quick as you can because Jehu is a man of some prominence. And you are to anoint him to be king. And he is going to rid the nation of the sins of Ahab, the wicked king of the North. Well that's what he's going to do. Let me jump into the story.
Look down at verse 14, 2 Kings 9:14: "So Jehu son of Jehoshaphat, the son of Nimshi, conspired against Joram."
Now Joram is the son of Ahab, he's now the king. Now God is telling Jehu, "I want you to punish the family of Ahab for the wickedness they've done against God." So he's conspiring against Joram.
"(Now Joram and all Israel had been defending Ramoth Gilead against Hazael king of Aram, but King Joram had returned to Jezreel to recover from the wounds the Arameans had inflicted on him in the battle with Hazael king of Aram.)"
Now here the king has been in battle over in Syria, across the Jordan River in the northeast corner of the country; and he's been wounded in battle. So he comes back home to rest. And the King of Judah comes to find out how the King of Israel is doing, and that's what happens in the middle of the story. But God sends Jehu to take vengeance on Joram because Joram is the son of Ahab and to destroy the family of Ahab. So let's go ahead in the story, look at verse 22:
"When Joram saw Jehu he asked, 'Have you come in peace, Jehu?'"
"'How can there be peace,'" Jehu replied, "'as long as all the idolatry and witchcraft of your mother Jezebel abound?'"
Well, Jezebel was his mother. So "Joram turned about and fled, calling out to Ahaziah, 'Treachery, Ahaziah!'"
Ahaziah is the king of the South that came to visit him.
"Then Jehu drew his bow and shot Joram between the shoulders. The arrow pierced his heart and he slumped down in his chariot."
Now Jehu was anointed king for the express purpose of taking God's vengeance out on a wicked, wicked family. And now, it is "mission accomplished." But he didn't stop there. Look at verse 30:
"Then Jehu went to Jezreel. When Jezebel heard about it, she painted her eyes, arranged her hair and looked out of a window."
Now men, I just know you're wondering about this. [She] Put a little eye shadow on, and fixed her hair because Jehu was coming. What on earth is all this about? I don't think she was intending to entice Jehu. I mean that was impossible. He was there to kill her. But she was a very vain woman. She couldn't go out in public until she'd fixed her hair and done her eyes. So she got all dolled up here, and she looks out the window.
"As Jehu entered the gate, she asked, 'Have you come in peace, Zimri, you murderer of your master?'"
"He looked up at the window and called out, 'Who is on my side? Who?' Two or three eunuchs looked down at him." 'Throw her down!' Jehu said. So they threw her down, and some of her blood spattered the wall and the horses as they trampled her underfoot."
It's a good thing she fixed up. This is her last public appearance.
"Jehu went in and ate and drank. 'Take care of that cursed woman,' he said, 'and bury her, for she was a king's daughter.' But when they went out to bury her, they found nothing except her skull, her feet and her hands."
Now I want you to know that Jezebel was a very wicked woman. But God did not tell Jehu to kill Jezebel. God told Jehu to take his vengeance on the throne, not on the queen--on the king, Joram, the new king. And what happened was, Jehu enjoyed God's vengeance so much he went a little farther than God suggested he go. And it all happened right here in the Valley of Jezreel.
Now, come back with me to Hosea. God says to Hosea, "I want you to take your firstborn son and name him Jezreel because that is going to remind everyone of the sinful wickedness of Jehu in going overboard in doing my will when it came to the city of Jezreel." And then He says in verse five:
"In that day I will break Israel's bow in the Valley of Jezreel."
Breaking the bow of Israel simply means I'm going to destroy the people there. This is the biblical way of saying that I am going to take My vengeance and no one will be able to stand in thy way. Psalm 46, for example, verse 8:
"Come and see the works of the Lord, the desolations he has brought on the earth. He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth;he breaks the bow and shatters the spear, he burns the shields with fire. "Be still, and know that I am God;
Notice "breaks the bow." That's a biblical way of saying he is victorious. And that's what this man Jehu did. He was victorious over all the enemies. So the name Jezreel then is going to be a constant reminder to this man Hosea of the horrible things that Jehu did and the fact that God still loved His people, even though they had lived in sin against Him.
"I want you to name your son, Jezreel. Because every time you look at that boy you're going to think of the punishment of God for sin. But I want you also to be reminded that underneath all this lies the love of God. I even loved My people when they were sinning against me. I loved my people while Ahab was the king and Jezebel was the queen." That's the kind of love, my friends, that comes from this kind of God. "So name your firstborn Jezreel."
Look at verse six, Hosea chapter one, verse six: "Gomer conceived again and gave birth to a daughter." Now, things are getting better.
"Then the Lord said to Hosea, "Call her Lo-Ruhamah, for I will no longer show love to the house of Israel, that I should at all forgive them. Yet I will show love to the house of Judah; and I will save them--not by bow, sword or battle, or by horses and horsemen, but by the Lord their God."
Okay, child number two. If you have trouble thinking up a name for child number one, child number two gets easier. You buy a book and you come up with the name Lo-Ruhamah. Now I know, you're wondering what on earth does Lo-Ruhamah mean. Well, it's a daughter, so it's a female name. And it means "she is not loved." In fact, that's exactly what it says. "Call her Lo-Ruhamah, for I will no longer show love to the house of Israel."
So while the first son, his name is designed to constantly remind Hosea that God is mindful of the fact that Israel has sinned against Him. The second child, the daughter, is named a name that will constantly remind Hosea that God is going to withhold His love from His people for a short time in order to bring them to repentance. Now remember, in verse seven, it says, "I am going to love them. But I'm going to withhold that love."
Now it seems that way when you parents are correcting your children. Isn't that true? I mean, punishing children�when you correct a child for something that child has done wrong, that action seems to be your withholding your love. It isn't, of course, "the Lord loves whom He chastens." But it seems to that kid that you're withholding your love.
Certainly, and we're all experienced in that area, both as a child and as a parent. And here it looks like this daughter is constantly going to be a reminder to this man that God is withholding His love from His people.
Verse eight: "After she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, Gomer had another son. Then the Lord said, 'Call him Lo-Ammi, for you are not my people, and I am not your God.'"
And now things are getting serious, friends. Son number one, call him Jezreel so you've a constant reminder, this boy's a constant reminder that my people have sinned against me just like Jehu did back in the Valley of Jezreel. Child number two, a daughter, Lo-Ruhamah. Call her that because it will be a constant reminder to you that for a time I'm going to remove my love from my people so that I can bring them to judgment. And then call the third child, a boy, call him Lo-Ammi because you are not my people and I am not your God.
Now, what does Lo-Ammi mean? Well the Hebrew word for man or for people is am. If you want to say "my people," add the personal pronoun, the personal possessive pronoun, you add an "i" on the end of the word. So, ammi becomes, "my people." Am is people, ammi is my people. It's like in the New Testament, you know the word "rabbi." Rabbi means "my teacher." The word is rabbin. But if he's your personal teacher, one you follow, you call him "my teacher," rabbi. So ammi is "my people."
Add the "lo" in front of it, the negative--lo-ammi--no my people. Not my people. You've just had your first class in Hebrew 101. And you all passed. Don't get used to it!
God says, "I want you to name your third child, Not My People." I have to tell you, folks, this is tough because it is bad enough being called Jezreel and being reminded constantly of Jehu's sin. It's bad enough being called Lo-Ruhamah and knowing that God, for a time, is going to withhold his love to bring the people to repentance.
But the most devastating thing in this story has got to be the name of the third child--not the fact that Gomer was unfaithful to her husband, Hosea. But that God told Hosea to name the third child, Not My People. What's worse is the last clause in verse nine. Did you notice it? "For you are not my people, and I am not your God."
Now why would God say this to His people? We're talking about the Israelites here. These are the Jewish people. These are the good guys in the Old Testament. Why would God say this? Because the good guys in the Old Testament, my friends, are living like the bad guys. And God does not allow His people to live like the pagans around them forever and get away with it.
See God is very interested in those who know better because they know something about God and His Word, living better because they want to live God and His word. But when God's people forsake the Word of God and don't know the Word of God and when they forsake God and they live like the devil--God says, "I won't put up with that forever."
Sin always leads to judgment. Israel hadn't learned that. I'm not sure we've learned that yet.
I'm not a prophet nor the son of a prophet, but I just know how to read. And I can read and know what's coming next. For any time God blesses a people and they take the gold and the silver and the oil and the wine and the grain and they worship other gods with it, and if there is any lesson for us to learn from this passage, surely it is that we are exactly where these people were. And we're doing exactly the same thing. And God says, "I am not going to be your God." In fact, it's even stronger than that.
Remember when Moses asked God, God was calling him at the burning bush, Exodus chapter three, and Moses said, "Look, I'm going to go to these people and they're not even going to recognize me. They won't listen to me. Who will I tell them sent me?"
"And God says to Moses, 'Tell them, "I Am sent you. I Am that I Am.'" Boy, that was enough. You say that, you have an "in" immediately. And what He said to Moses in Exodus chapter three, He is reversing here in Hosea chapter one. When He says, "I am not your God." Same expression. And, my friends, that is very�that is absolutely scary. That God would not be among His people. He would have to withdraw Himself from His people because His people were living such sinful lives. Well this is how the chapter concludes, verse 10:
"Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted. In the place where it was said to them, 'You are not my people,' they will be called 'sons of the living God.' The people of Judah and the people of Israel will be reunited, and they will appoint one leader and will come up out of the land, for great will be the day of Jezreel."
Hey, this is a tough chapter. But notice it ends on a very, very strong upbeat. My people will come together and they'll come out of their captivity and they'll come back to the land and they will worship the Lord. And great will be the day of Jezreel.
Now that's the time you want a name like Jezreel, isn't it? And God said, "Look, I'm promising you that my temporary compassion shut down for my people is only temporary. And it's only designed to bring them back to myself--to withhold My goodness from them, My grace from them, all the good things they are enjoying now, to withhold--so they come to their senses."
What God wants, He wants His people to come to their senses. He wants His people to be convicted of their sins, and He wants His people to confess their shortcomings. And when they do that, God says, when they do that, "My arms are open to them and I will welcome them back," and they can come home to God's love again. That's the promise of God.
And how Hosea can end this first chapter with the promises of God absolutely amazes me because this is really a downer chapter. This is why everybody wants to skip this chapter when they read this book. I'd like to skip the whole book! But, I can't. It's in there for a reason, friends. And I think the reason is that when God makes a promise, you can trust that promise. It doesn't matter what it looks like now, it doesn't matter how God withholds His blessing--you can trust the promises of God.
Standing on the promises that cannot fail. See that's what we sing, when the howling storms of doubt and fear assail, by the living Word of God, I shall prevail. Standing on the promises of God. If God said it, you can trust it.
Next Week: Part 4 - Seven Ways To Know You're A Nation In Trouble
By Woodrow Kroll
www.backtothebible.org
Copyright �1996-2002 The Good News Broadcasting Association, Inc.
All rights reserved.
June 19, 2002
Coming Home to God's Love
Part 4 - Seven Ways to Know You're A Nation In Trouble
By Woodrow Kroll
In this session, we're going to look: at the way we are; a good look at society in the time of Hosea; and society in the 21st century. Mark Twain, the American humorist, said, "If there was an all-powerful God, He would have made all good and not all bad." That's our Mark Twain who said that. Bertram Russell, the British/English philosopher said, "My own view on religion is that it is a disease born of fear, and is a source of untold misery to the human race."
Frank Zappa, the musician: "To go to somebody else's country, and attempt through food or medical treatment to capture souls for Jesus, presumes that the guy with the travel budget and the hypodermic needle has a spiritual edge over the native he's going to save."
Margaret Sanger, who is the founder of Planned Parenthood, said, "No Gods. No Masters." Ted Turner, who founded CNN and the whole Turner Empire, said of the Ten Commandments, "We're living without noted rules; nobody around likes to be commanded."
Now, I tell you what these folks have said because, my friends, that's the way we are. That's the kind of society in which we live today. And I want you to see how close the correspondence is between our society today and the society in the day in which Hosea lived. Here we are in Hosea, chapter 2 today, beginning at the very first verse. Hosea, chapter 2--this is where God's people rebel against God.
They say, 'No Gods. No Masters. We don't want to have any God rule over us. We'll do our own thing.' And we're hurting the One Who loves us more than anyone else in the world.
Listen to this, chapter 2, verse 1: "Say of your brothers, 'My people,' and of your sisters, 'My loved one.' Rebuke your mother, rebuke her, for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband. Let her remove the adulterous look from her face and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts.
Otherwise, I will strip her naked and make her as bare as on the day she was born; I will make her like a desert, turn her into a parched land, and slay her with thirst." (verses 1-3; NIV) Now, that's a pretty dire, dire prediction, isn't it? If the nation does not turn back to God, God will strip the nation of everything that clothes that nation--all the blessings, all the wonderful things that it enjoys from God.
Now, this is talking about Israel. I want you to understand the context. God is making this prediction about His people, Israel, but I think there are some very, very strong parallels, friend...(those of you who are Americans). I think there are some very strong parallels between what God did for His people, Israel, and what He's done for America; and we are doing exactly to God what Israel did in the days of Hosea.
I want to explore with you seven ways you know your nation is in trouble. Seven ways you can tell if your nation is in trouble. And I'm not going to take these from the latest CNN/USA Today poll, I'm going to take them right out of the Book of Hosea. So let's look at them quickly.
Let's go to chapter 4--Hosea chapter 4, verses 1 and 2: "Hear the word of the Lord, you Israelites, because the Lord has a charge to bring against you who live in the land: 'There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgement of God in the land. There is only cursing, lying, and murder, stealing and adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed.'"
How do you know when your nation is in trouble? Number one: you know you're in a troubled nation when your nation breaks all the rules. They just simply break all God's laws and they don't even care about it. Did you notice here that He's talking about the Ten Commandments?
Five of the Ten Commandments are listed in verse 2, and in order they're: commandment number 3, number 9, number 6, number 8, and number 7. Your nation is in trouble, friends, when that nation breaks all the rules and they don't even care about it. Israel refused to recognize God's authority in (their) lives, and as the result of that God said, "I will have to punish you, because sin always brings judgment." That is one of the themes of the Book of Hosea.
Now when He talks about cursing there, He's not talking about swearing. He's talking about calling a curse down upon someone from God. Every time someone asks God to damn something, that's calling a curse down upon someone or something. And what He is saying here is that when a nation chooses to break all the rules, you know you're in a nation that's in big trouble.
Secondly, (of seven ways to know that you're in a nation that's in trouble) you live in a nation of Biblical illiterates. See, one of the problems of the people of Israel is that they did not know God. They didn't know His Word very well. Look at verse 6 of chapter 4: "My people,"--the end of that verse--"My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge." One of the key elements to know when your nation is in trouble is when your nation doesn't know anything about God's Word. And my friends, we are in big trouble today, because we know almost nothing about God's Word.
Have you watched Jay Leno? Now Jay Leno is not a great spiritual theologian. Jay Leno is a late-night talk show host, and much of what Leno does is tasteless, to be sure. But he does this one little bit where he takes his...he does his 'Jay walk.' He goes out on the street with his microphone, and he asks people questions. And some of the times, he asks them Bible questions. He goes out, and he puts a microphone under someone's nose and he says, "Name one of the Ten Commandments," and the answer comes back, "God helps those who help themselves." I've news for you friends, that is not in the Bible.
He puts the microphone under someone's nose, and he says, "Can you name any of the apostles?" And there's silence. They can't name one of the apostles. But when he says, "Can you name any of the Beetles," they say, "Yeah, sure; George, Paul, John and Ringo." I mean, just like that, they know the Beetles; they just don't know Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, or any of the other apostles.
When he asks them who was swallowed by a great fish, the confident answer comes back, "Pinocchio." You say, 'well, that's the people in the world, I understand that.'
My friends, I was so concerned about Biblical illiteracy in the United States, that this year I wrote a book on it entitled: Back to the Bible. This is not the history of the ministry of Back to the Bible, this is a book citing how very little we know about God's Word. In fact, a year ago, we at Back to the Bible began to do something called the "Bible Challenge." You can go online and take the Bible Challenge from Back to the Bible.
All you have to do is go to biblechallenge.com, and you could take the challenge. The challenge is at three levels: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. Come in at any level you want, and it's in any category of five different categories: Bible geography, Bible verses, Bible characters, Bible doctrines. So you can come in at any level and any category you want and take the challenge for yourself.
Now, there are 20 questions in each challenge. When you take the challenge, don't tell anybody what your score is, unless it's really good, because one of the things we've discovered . . . (And you would anticipate that people coming by the Back to the Bible Web site to take the Bible Challenge might have a little more Bible knowledge than the average public.) What we've found is, the average score is 71% from those who take the Bible Challenge.
Now, if you're a teacher today, you know that's a very lenient C-, probably more like a D+. That's below C level, friends. That means we Christians don't know a great deal about God's Word, either. You know you're in a nation that's in trouble when the nation is a nation of Biblical illiterates.
The Gallup poll has a knowledge test, a Bible knowledge test as well, in which they ask questions like, "What is the first book of the Bible?" And you'll be happy to know that 49% of Americans knew that Genesis is the first book of the Bible...49%. Which, of course, meant 51% did not know that Genesis is the first book of the Bible.
Can you name one of the Old Testament prophets? Only 21% of Americans could name a single prophet in the Old Testament, according to the Gallup Bible knowledge quiz. When they asked, "Who delivered the Sermon on the Mount?" Only 34% knew that Jesus delivered the Sermon on the Mount. See, we've a problem today, and we live in a nation in which Bible illiteracy is a significant problem.
Some of you are familiar with the name George Barna. George Barna has also done a lot of research on the issue of Bible literacy. George Barna says that 10% of Americans believe that the Bible is an ancient book of myths and legends and fairy tales...10% of the population in this country! George Barna says that only 2 adults in 3, or about 64%, know that Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Can you imagine? A third of Americans don't know where Jesus was born! If you need any more information about this, you can contact the educators in Christian institutions today.
About a year or so ago, there was an article in Christianity Today by Gary Berga. Gary Berga is the Professor of New Testament at Wheaton College, in Wheaton, Illinois. Now, the kids who come to Wheaton are sharp kids, they're intellectual kids, their heart is right; they come out of the church. Generally, they are good kids--they know a lot about the Bible.
And yet, when Gary Berga devised a test for incoming freshman to Wheaton College, he found out that half the freshmen entering Wheaton College could not sequence Moses in Egypt, Isaac's birth, Saul's death, and Judah's exile. They could not put it in sequence. They did not know enough about Old Testament history to do that.
Twenty years ago, I was the chairman of the Division of Religion at Liberty University in Lynchberg, Virginia. It was my responsibility to give a Bible quiz to incoming freshmen--a Bible knowledge test--so we could place them in Bible 101, in various sections. The last year I gave that test, I gave it to 1100 freshman. Now, like Wheaton, the kids who'd come to Liberty had come right out of our churches, right out of Sunday school . . . they'd come up through. They'd been at Bible study groups; they'd done it all. They ought to know better than anybody coming to college, who knows God's Word.
Yet, the last year I gave this test, there were 150 questions on the test. In order to pass the test, you had to get half right: 75 questions out of 150. That's pretty lenient, I think you'd agree. Half right passes--50%--and yet, when I gave it to 1100 freshman (the last year that it was my responsibility to do so) only 45 freshman passed that test...45!
How do you know when you're in trouble as a nation? You know you're in trouble because you live among Biblical illiterates, and in the 21st century, we are in trouble as a nation.
Thirdly, you know you're in trouble...(we're looking at seven ways you can tell from the Book of Hosea you're in trouble.) we know we're in trouble as a nation because in chapter 4, verses 7, 8, and 9; it tells us that a nation (in trouble) is filled with sinning clergy--the clergy of a nation are involved in great sin.
Listen to verse 7: "The more the priests increased," Hosea says, "the more they sinned against me." (The voice of God) "They exchanged their Glory for something disgraceful. They feed on the sins of my people and relish in their wickedness. And it will be: Like people, like priests. I will punish both of them for their ways and repay them for their deeds." You know you're in trouble when you're in a nation that is absolutely filled with sinning clergy.
Now, that verse there (in verse 7) where it says, "I will change their Glory into shame." The rendering there may not be exactly what the Bible translators were attempting to get to. The whole business about sinning against God, 'exchanging their Glory for something disgraceful . . .' I think it's talking there about the people, and the priests themselves, getting the promise of God's punishment because they have exchanged the Glory of God for something shameful. They've exchanged their responsibility to uphold the holiness of God, and in place of that, they fall into a lot of wicked things.
You're familiar with the case of Henry Lyons who was the President of the National Baptist Convention here in the United States. He took about $244,000 that was donated by the Anti-Defamation League, (designed specifically to rebuild churches that had been burned down tragically) and he absconded with that money. He's doing prison time for that now. But that's an example, my friends, of what happens to clergy when they live in a nation and they do not stand out as a light against sin in a dark place, in that nation. You know you're in trouble, when you live in a nation that's filled with sinning clergy.
Number four: you know you're in trouble as a nation because you're a nation that cannot control its lust. Now, I'm not making this up because I saw a movie last night. I'm telling you exactly what it says in the Book of Hosea. Look at Hosea, chapter 4, at verse 12. (Hosea 4:12) "They consult a wooden idol and are answered by a stick of wood. A spirit of prostitution leads them astray; they are unfaithful to their God. They sacrifice on the mountaintops and burn offerings on the hills, under oak, poplar and terebinth, where the shade is pleasant. Therefore your daughters turn to prostitution and your daughters-in-law to adultery." (v. 13)
"I will not punish your daughters when they turn to prostitution nor your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery, (because) the men themselves consort with harlots and sacrifice with shrine prostitutes--a people without understanding will come to ruin!" (v. 14) The shrine prostitutes by the way, were not women, they were men. You know you're in trouble when a nation cannot control its lust, and specifically in this passage, it's talking about the lust of a man for a man. That's how you know your nation is in trouble.
Number five: (Hosea) chapter 7, the first three verses; you know your nation is in trouble when it's filled with sinning leaders. The leaders cannot control themselves in their sin. They cannot see the way of God, they see only their own way. Verse 1, of chapter 7: "whenever I would heal Israel, the sins of Ephraim are exposed and the crimes of Samaria revealed. They practice deceit, thieves break into houses, bandits rob in the streets; but they do not realize that I remember all their evil deeds. Their sins engulf them; they are always before me. (v. 2) They delight the king with their wickedness, and the princes with their lies." (v. 3)
They delight the king with their wickedness. You know you live in a nation that's in trouble, friends, when you are filled with rulers who delight in the wickedness of the people. Hosea understood that, because he had just lived under a king in the northern kingdom in which that was very true.
Number six: you know you're a nation that's in trouble, when you're a nation of deceitful prosperity. Look at chapter 10. Chapter 10, the first two verses, talks about deceitfulness; the deceitfulness of prosperity. "Israel was a spreading vine," that talks about prosperity. Now, think of the usage here of this botanical metaphor that He's using: "Israel was a spreading vine; he brought forth fruit for himself. As his fruit increased, he built more altars; as his land prospered, he adorned his sacred stones. (v. 1) Their heart is deceitful, and they must now bear their guilt. The Lord will demolish their altars and destroy their sacred stones." (v. 2)
Now, let me interpret that for you, all right? As Israel spread like a vine--using the botanical metaphor--as Israel prospered, as their tentacles went out further, as their roots went down deeper, as they saw more and more prosperity in their nation; they turned that prosperity into more and more ways to use their deceitful lust. And what He was saying was this, 'They were deceived by their own riches.' Things were going very well for Israel. This was a time of economic boom. And while they were living in economic boom, they were living in social decline, and moral raggedness. You know your nation is in trouble when it is deceived by its own riches.
Jeremiah, chapter 2, verse 21 says: "I had planted you like a choice vine. How then did you turn against me into a corrupt, wild vine? 'America, America, God shed Thy grace on thee.' How did you turn into a wild vine? See, this is the question that Jeremiah asks of Israel. It's the same question Hosea is asking.
You know your nation is in trouble when you live in a nation that's filled with sinning clergy, when you live in a nation filled with Biblical illiteracy. You know your nation's in trouble when you cannot control your own lust. You know your nation is in trouble when you have sinning leaders who relish and take delight in the sin of their people. You know your nation is in trouble when you're living in prosperity but you're being deceived by it. You don't even see that God will remember the sins of that nation.
Now, if you have the ability, and I'm sure you all do, to make the connection between the description of a nation in trouble in Israel's day, Hosea's day, and our day--I'm sure you can make a very strong connection. But I said there were seven; I've only given you six. If there's any question in your mind about whether or not these verses describe us today, as people, then number seven ought to convince you.
Look at (Hosea) chapter 10, verse 4: "They make many promises, they take false oaths and make agreements; therefore, lawsuits spring up like poisonous weeds in a plowed field." You know you're in a nation that's in trouble when that is a nation of excessively litigious people; people suing one another for ridiculous reasons. So that today, McDonald's has to print on its hot coffee, "CAUTION: Hot Coffee." Now, how ridiculous is that? If it wasn't hot coffee we'd send it back! Right?
How do you know when the nation's in trouble? You pick up on all the things God told Hosea, and you recognize that what God told Hosea about Israel is true in the 21st century, too. See the message of Hosea: that sin brings judgment and repentance brings salvation, and underneath it all are the arms of God, holding us and loving us. That message is as contemporary today as it was in the 8th century B.C. All you have to do is change the names to protect the guilty, and it fits us to a "T." You know your nation is in trouble, when your nation does not wish to recognize God, and in the place of God, wishes to recognize its own lust.
Hosea knew his nation was in trouble. I don't think you and I have any difficulty seeing that the same thing is true with ours today. But underneath it all, underneath it all, God holds out His arms to us, and He says 'all you need to do is repent of your sins. All you need to do is seek my salvation and my arms are open to Canada, my arms are open to China. My arms are open to Australia. My arms are open to America. My arms are open to welcome back in love, any who has strayed from me.' A nation in trouble doesn't have to remain in trouble unless it remains opposed to God. And that, my friends, spells the biggest trouble anybody has ever seen.
Next Week: Part 5 - When Life Grows Nothing But Thorns
By Woodrow Kroll
www.backtothebible.org
Copyright �1996-2002 The Good News Broadcasting Association, Inc.
All rights reserved.
June 26, 2002
Coming Home To God's Love
Part 5 - When Life Grows Nothing But Thorns
By Woodrow Kroll
You are probably familiar with the name Alexander Solzhenitsyn. We haven't heard much from Solzhenitsyn in the last few years; but back in 1983, Alexander Solzhenitsyn gave an address. I want to quote just a couple of lines from that address. Because Alexander Solzhenitsyn, I think, clearly shows us the response of God to sinning people.
See, if a nation decides to sin against the Lord God, God doesn't sit back and say, "Oh, isn't that too bad." God responds to that. And the response God is, that God always judges sin. God does not let us get away with our sin forever. Listen to Alexander Solzhenitsyn, back in 1983. He says this: "When I was a child, I recall hearing a number of older people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia. They said, 'Men have forgotten God.' Since then, I have spent well-nigh 50 years working on the history of our own Revolution. I've read hundreds of books, hundreds of personal testimonies, and contributed eight volumes of my own towards the effort of clearing away the rubble left by that upheaval.
But if I were asked today to formulate the main cause of that ruinous Revolution that swallowed up more than 60 million of our people, I would repeat, 'Men have forgotten God'." So Alexander Solzhenitsyn says, You know, those old timers in my nation weren't wrong, after all. They saw a nation that followed God. Then they saw a nation that turned away from God, and all the horrible things that befell that nation, because they had forgotten God. Now, think that what Solzhenitsyn said about Russia, Hosea would surely say about Israel.
The Book of Hosea is wonderful, because the story of Hosea is really included in only three chapters. I said the other day that we're in big trouble, because we are only looking at 14 chapters; and here we are, we're not very far into this book yet. But the great thing is, we don't have to go through the entire book. Oh, we will; but we don't have to, because the story is found in the first three chapters.
Look at chapter 1, chapter 2, and chapter 3. Chapter 1 introduces Hosea, introduces the fact that he is to take a wife named Gomer, and this wife is going to be unfaithful to him. This wife is going to be a wife that will wander away from the life of the family.
But by the time you get to chapter 2--look at the end of chapter 2 (verse 23b)--He's talking about "Then I will say to those called not My people, 'you are My people.' And they shall say 'You are My God!' " By the time you get to the end of chapter 2, God's people are coming back to Him. And the life of Gomer and Hosea must parallel the life of God and Israel. Because the life of Gomer and Hosea, as a married couple, is designed to be a picture of what it is like for Israel to walk away from God. And by the time you get to chapter 3, it is the reconciliation, the bringing back of Gomer to Hosea.
In chapter 3, he goes and he buys her back out of the market place of sin, and their lives are put back together again. This is a wonderful story. A story of love gone right, and faithfulness gone wrong. The love of Hosea for his unfaithful wife Gomer is the story of the love of God for His unfaithful people, Israel. But the story is over by chapter 3.
Chapter 4, all the way to chapter 14, are footnotes on the story. As we go through this book, and we learn something about Hosea, it is also something about God's unfailing love. We will go to every chapter in the book, but the real story is in the first three chapters. So if we learn the story, we can go then to the footnotes of chapter 4 through 14, and reveal the proof of what he says in the first three chapters.
That's what we're going to do today. So, let me take you back to chapter 2. Chapter 2, beginning at verse 4. The question being asked here is: How does God respond when a people like Israel sin against Him? Well, notice in verses 4 and 5, it tells us that God will temporarily withhold His love from His people, in order to bring His people back to him. This is what it says, chapter 2, verses 4-5: "I will not have mercy on her children, for they are the children of harlotry. For their mother has played the harlot; she who conceived them has behaved shamefully. For she said, 'I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my linen, my oil and my drink'."
Now, here's a mother who would not stay home. Here's a mother who was unfaithful to her husband and to her family. And God says, I will judge the sin of Israel by withholding temporarily My love for My people. Now, you have to understand, when God says I'm going to withhold My love temporarily, that doesn't mean He doesn't love His people. Remember Jeremiah 31, verse 3a: "Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love."
Do you know what a good definition of the word everlasting is? Everlasting means it lasts forever. He says, "I have loved you with an everlasting love." God doesn't give up on His people. But He says, in order to bring them back from their sin, in order to bring them back from judgment, in order to let them come back to their senses, I will temporarily withhold My love from them.
So, what does God do when He responds to a sinful people? Number 1. Verses 1-5, chapter 2 tell us that God will temporarily withhold His love from His people. Look at verse 6, chapter 2. God will block Israel's path to success. It says in verse 7 of chapter 2 that God will, first of all, deprive Israel of her sinful lovers. This woman, Gomer, was going after lovers, going after men who were not her husband. Israel was going after gods who were not the God of Israel. And so He says, here is how I'm going to deprive them, here is how I'm going to judge them: I will deprive them of success in their lives, as long as they go after false gods.
Now remember, these were people who had been successful. They were living in strong economic times. God says, in effect, I'll bring a down-turn in the stock market. I'll let there be another crash. I'll show My people, that if they going after other gods, with the goods that I gave to them from the blessings of My hands, I'll withhold My love for them for a short period of time, and I will block their path of success, so all their e-trading, all the things that they do, none of these things will produce income for them. And I can do it. God says, You just watch Me!
Notice in verse 7, first of all He says He will deprive Israel of her sinful loves. Secondly, He says He will refuse to take the unrepentant Israel back. See, they'll say, hey, my fortunes are turning. So, she'll recognize--the end of verse 7--she will recognize that she was better off with God; she'll want to go back to her original husband. "Then she will say 'I will go and return to my first husband, for then it was better for me than now'." (Hosea 2:7b) And God says, No, you won't! See, you wandered away from Me when I fed you, when I gave you great goods, and now you want back to Me because you know you'll get goods again. That's not the reason you come back to God.
You don't come back to God because of a loss of blessings; you come back to God because of repentance. And a lot of Christians haven't learned that yet. There's a lot of sin in the Church today, that is swept under the carpet because people miss the blessing of God, and they're forced to say, 'OK, I'm sorry. Let's just get on with our lives.'
Listen friends, you don't just get on with life, when you sin against God; you have to come to repentance about your sin. That's the only way to come back to God. And God says, in effect, Look, I will block Israel's success; first of all, Israel will be deprived of her lovers; secondly, I refuse to allow repentant Israel back to me; and thirdly He says, in verse 9, that God will withhold his blessing from unrepentant Israel. As long as they are unrepentant, God says, He will not bless them. This is God's response to Israel's sin.
A popular message for the twenty-first century? Hah, not on your life! It wasn't a popular message for Hosea either. But it was God's message, and the book hasn't changed, friends. And God's response to sin hasn't changed. GOD--WILL--JUDGE--SIN ! You've got to mark that down and keep it with you all the time. Because a nation that sins against God doesn't get away with it FOREVER!
I'm not sure Israel learned that lesson; in fact I'm not sure America has learned that lesson, either. So, how does God respond? First of all, He temporarily withholds His love from His people. Secondly, He blocks their path to success. Notice at verse 10, God responds by punishing the idolatry of Israel. Verse 10 talks about exposing her sin. Verse 10 also talks about making her lovers powerless to retain her. Verse 11 talks about bringing a stop to Israel's joyous celebrations. It's talking probably about their annual festivals, and their monthly new moon festivals, their weekly Sabbath observances.
Look at Verse 12. In verse 12, He talks about destroying her vegetation. God can bring a great drought, and destroy the crops of any nation. He can withhold vegetation. This goes a little deeper than that. Vegetation was regarded as the pay that was given to Israel's paramours, for allowing her to become adulterous with these others . They would provide their grain and their wheat as payment to the Baals, the gods of this world. And so He says, I'll withhold your vegetation, so you can't pay your lovers.
And why? Why did God punish His people? It's pretty simple, folks. When you read the Book of Hosea, you'll learn that God punished His people because His people forgot God. They just moved on in their prosperity. This is not simply a mental lapse; this is a refusal to acknowledge the goodness of God in their life. And God said, I will not forget that. And I will not let that go unpunished. That's a lesson Israel had to learn. It's also a lesson we have to learn today.
Let's go to chapter 5. Chapter 5 is a footnote on God punishing His people. Chapter 5, verse 6. "With their flocks and herds, they shall seek the Lord, but they will not find Him. He has withdrawn Himself from them." Now, is there a contradiction in the Scripture? Sometimes, God says Seek the Lord while He may be found. Other times, God says, Go ahead and seek Me, you wont find Me. Haven't you found that--what appears to be a contradiction in the Scripture? There's no contradiction here.
What God, in effect, is saying is this: 'Any repentant person who seeks Me, will find Me. Any unrepentant person who seeks Me, will not find Me.' And Israel here is unrepentant. So He says, I will hide myself from My people. They'll get to the bottom of the rope, they'll get to the end of their rope, they'll get to the point where they have no more crops, they have no more grain, they'll have no more festivals, and they'll say, what happened, it must be that we went away from God. If we go back to God, He will give us blessing again. Thus, He says, I'll hide Myself, so they can't make that error. Can you imagine: the people of God, Israel, the Chosen Nation, seeking God, and God hiding Himself from His people? That's a part of God's response to unrepentant sin. God withholds His blessing; God hides Himself from His people.
Look a couple of chapters later. Chapter 9, another footnote. In chapter 9, He says that God will judge His people through other nations. This may be difficult for Israel to appreciate. They were strong. They had a good army at this point. They were economically viable. But it says (chapter 9, verses 1-3): "Do not rejoice, O Israel, with joy like other peoples; for you have played the harlot against your God. You have made love for hire on every threshing floor. The threshing floor and winepress shall not feed them; and the new wine shall fail in her. They shall not dwell in the Lord's land; but Ephraim will return to Egypt, and shall eat unclean things in Assyria."
Now when he mentions Egypt here, Egypt is always a symbol of exile, a place of sin, the place where God's people are destroyed, the place where they are punished. Assyria, well, that's the actual location of this exile. I mean, it's less than two decades, friends, when the King of Assyria is going march into Samaria, the capital of these ten northern tribes, and carry off these people into exile, into captivity. God will keep His Word.
So God says, I will hide myself from My people, I will judge My people with other nations." And then He says that God will destroy Israel's hope for the future. Notice here, He makes reference to the fact that (chapter 9, verses 11-12): "As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird--No birth, no pregnancy, and no conception! Though they bring up their children, yet I will bereave them to the last man. Yes, woe to them, when I depart from them!"
See, the blessing of a nation in this time was its young people, just as it is today. And here is a nation to which God says, I will destroy the future of these people; if their women attempt to become pregnant, they will not become pregnant. And if they are pregnant, they will miscarry. And if they do carry their children to full term, I will bereave them early in their lives. See, God was trying to get attention, the attention of His people. This is serious stuff. I mean, it's one thing for God to touch the great wealth of a nation; it's another thing for God to touch the future of that nation.
Now, does that mean that God is out there killing children? No, it doesn't mean that at all. This is a nation that kills it own children. God doesn't have to do anything. This is a nation that causes it own miscarrying wombs. This is a nation--if they had such a thing as fetal alcohol syndrome--that would be plagued with fetal alcohol syndrome. This is a nation which has turned it's back on God. And a nation that is reaping what it has sown.
Well, finally, notice in verse 6 of chapter 10. God will bring disgrace and shame on Israel. Verse 6 says: "The idol also shall be carried to Assyria as a present for King Jareb. Ephraim shall receive shame, and Israel shall be ashamed of its own counsel."
America, America, God shed thy grace on thee. You know, God can remove grace, just like he can shed grace. God can disgrace a nation, just like he can build a nation. And sometimes when nations become proud, they're like people; they become proud, they become arrogant, they become invincible, they decide they don't need God any more.
Israel had come to that point in her life, and God said, I will withhold my blessing, I will see to it that I will hide Myself from My people. Other nations will plunder these people, they will carry them off as captive; the hope of their future will be gone, because their children will not be raised. And I will bring shame and disgrace on these people, because they have turned away from Me.
I read a story one time about an arrogant young man who was waiting for a bus. And while he was waiting at the bus stop, he noticed the crowd behind him looking in the window of a taxidermist shop. He was intrigued why everyone was looking in this window, so he kind of peeked through the crowd, and there he saw a bird, an owl, in the window. And he looked at it; he was an arrogant fellow, so he said, "Listen, if that is the best job I could do, I would just give up; I'd find another line of work."
And everybody looked at him, because this owl was perfect; it was beautiful. He said, "Look at that owl, look at the head. The head is out of proportion to the rest of the body. Look at the pose, the pose of the body is unnatural, an owl doesn't sit like that. Look at the feet, they're pointed in the wrong direction." And just then, the owl turned around and winked at him. And he kind of slinked away, back to his bus stop. Because in his arrogance, he thought he knew more than the taxidermist.
Israel in her arrogance thought she knew more than God. She did not attribute the great financial success of her nation to the blessing of God. She turned her back on God. And the response of God to sin is always punishment. God will always judge sin. And just like He judged Israel, God will judge any nation today that does the same thing, that turns her back on God.
I think that is a great and deadly lesson. God can withhold blessing, just like he can give blessing. And if we're not tuned-in to God, if we are a living arrogance as a nation, God will, in fact, respond to our arrogance. And the response of God is always the judgment of sin.
Next Week: Part 6 - When God Saves His People
By Woodrow Kroll
www.backtothebible.org
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