The Book of Hosea
The Book of Hosea
By Richard St.James
Bible 1611.Com / Old Paths Baptist Mission © 2023
Hosea © 2023
By Richard St.James
Hosea is the first
of the Minor Prophets. [The Minor Prophets are
not minor in importance but in the length of
their prophecies.]
There are 14 chapters in
the book of Hosea.
There are 197 verses in
the book of Hosea.
There are 5174 words in
the book of Hosea.
The name Hosea is
also spelt Oshea or Osee in the
Authorized King James Bible of 1611.
See for this in the
third book of Moses, called Numbers, in chapter
thirteen, verse eight: “Of the tribe of Ephraim,
Oshea, the son of Nun.” [Numbers 13:8]
Thus, we see the name
Hosea is also known as Joshua or
Jehoshua.
For this skip down to
verse sixteen in that same chapter:
“These are the
names of the men which Moses sent to spy out the
land. And Moses called Oshea the son of Nun
Jehoshua.” [Numbers 13:16]
In the New Testament the
Apostle Paul references Hosea’s prophecy calling him
Osee:
See the book Romans
9:24-26:
“Even us, whom he hath
called, not of the Jews only, but also of the
Gentiles?
As he saith also in
Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my
people; and her beloved, which was not beloved.
And it shall come to
pass, that in the place where it was said
unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall
they be called the children of the living God.”
[Romans 9:24-26]
Thus, we have: Hosea =
Oshea = Joshua = Jehoshua= Osee.
The name Hosea means
GOD IS SALVATION or SAVE, O GOD!
Hosea, chapter one:
Verse one: “The word
of the LORD that came unto Hosea, the son of Beeri,
in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and
Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of
Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.”
The word of the LORD
The word of the LORD is
TRUTH: T-R-U-T-H:
·
“Sanctify them through thy
truth: thy word is truth.” [John
17:17]
·
“And ye shall know the
truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
[John 8:32]
This BOOK is herein
identified: It is the Authorized Bible of
1611, or any of its editions! It is the
word of God in the English language!
“The words of the
LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of
earth, purified seven times. Thou shalt keep
them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this
generation for ever.” [Psalm12: 6-7]
Amen!
At this point the word of
the LORD by Hosea begins .
Hosea, the son of Beeri, (Osee)
Note: The word of God
came to a man. [There are men called
of God.]
This man was
called to be a Seer or a prophet.
What is a seer? A SEER sees into
the future. For this we reference the First
Book of Samuel, chapter nine, verse nine:
“(Beforetime in
Israel, when a man went to inquire of God, thus he
spake, Come, and let us go to the seer: for he that
is now called a Prophet was beforetime called a
Seer.)” [1 Samuel 9:9]
God reveals himself
to a man by the word of God. This is
seen in the calling of a prophet in
the First Book of Samuel, chapter three, verse
twenty-one:
“And the LORD appeared
again in Shiloh: for the LORD revealed himself to
Samuel in Shiloh by the word of the LORD”
[1 Samuel 3:21]
Note here: the
revelation of God is by the word of God.
There is something else
that is to be seen here. A prophet
is a man that has God’s words put into his
mouth that he shall speak.
Deuteronomy 18:18: “I
will raise them up a Prophet from among their
brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in
his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I
shall command him.”
[Note: This particular
Prophet spoken of here is none other but Jesus
Christ.]
Thus, we have the word
of God coming unto Hosea, the son of Beeri.
The SEER has God’s
words put his mouth that he
shall speak!
The four kings of Judah
Hosea was cotemporary
to these four Judean kings.
1.
Uzziah
2.
Jotham
3.
Ahaz
4.
Hezekiah
1.
Uzziah [the son of Amaziah] was king
of Judah in Hosea’s day.
2
Chronicles 26:1: “Then all the people of Judah
took Uzziah, who was sixteen years old, and
made him king in the room of his father Amaziah.”
Uzziah
did right before the LORD till he was
strong:
2
Chronicles 26:16: “But when he was strong, his
heart was lifted up to his destruction: for
he transgressed against the LORD his God, and went
into the temple of the LORD to burn incense upon the
altar of incense.”
2.
Next, Jotham [the son of Uzziah] was
also king of Judah in Hosea’s day.
2
Chronicles 27:2: “And he did that which was
right in the sight of the LORD, according to all
that his father Uzziah did: howbeit he entered not
into the temple of the LORD. And the people did yet
corruptly.”
3.
Then next, Ahaz became king of Judah
also in Hosea’s day.
2 Kings 15:38: “And Jotham slept with his
fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city
of David his father: and Ahaz his son reigned in his
stead.”
Ahaz did
wrong!
2 Kings
16:2: “Twenty years old was Ahaz when he
began to reign, and reigned sixteen years in
Jerusalem, and did not that which was right
in the sight of the LORD his God, like David his
father.”
4.
The last Judean king during
Hosea’s ministry was Hezekiah.
2 Kings
16:20: “And Ahaz slept with his fathers, and was
buried with his fathers in the city of David: and
Hezekiah his son reigned in his stead.”
Hezekiah
did right in the sight of the LORD.
2
Chronicles 29:2: “And he did that which was
right in the sight of the LORD, according to all
that David his father had done.”
Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.
Hosea was also
cotemporary to Jeroboam a king of Israel.
[Note: Do not confuse this Jeroboam with the
Jeroboam of the son of Nebat.]
2 Kings 13:13: “And
Joash slept with his fathers; and Jeroboam sat upon
his throne: and Joash was buried in Samaria with the
kings of Israel.”
Now, Jeroboam did evil in
the sight of the LORD.
2 Kings 14:24: “And he
did that which was evil in the sight of the
LORD: he departed not from all the sins of Jeroboam
the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin.”
Thus, we see here that
Hosea’s ministry spanned these five kings.
Before we proceed
to verse two, we need to consider something rather
heavy: What will it will cost us to love and to
obey God.
It is that we will
suffer affliction!
·
Moses considered the cost,
and nevertheless he went ahead, and obeyed
God: “Choosing rather to suffer
affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the
pleasures of sin for a season;”
[Hebrews 11:25] Moses loved God, and
therefore, suffered affliction.
·
David
considered the cost, and
nevertheless he went ahead, and obeyed
God: “Before I was afflicted I went
astray: but now have I kept thy word.”
[Psalm 119:67] “It is good for me that I
have been afflicted; that I might learn thy
statutes.” [Psalm 119:67] David loved God,
and therefore, suffered affliction.
·
Jesus Christ considered
the cost, and nevertheless he went ahead,
and obeyed God. It is this way: HE set
HIS like a flint, and went forward to the CROSS of
Calvary’s hill!
Isaiah
50:7: “For the Lord GOD will help me; therefore
shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my
face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be
ashamed.”
Isaiah
53:3-7:
“He
is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows,
and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were
our faces from him; he was despised, and we
esteemed him not.
Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our
sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of
God, and afflicted.
But
he was wounded for our transgressions, he
was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement
of our peace was upon him; and with his
stripes we are healed.
All
we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every
one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
He
was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened
not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the
slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is
dumb, so he openeth not his mouth.”
Jesus
Christ, the SON of GOD loved the FATHER and
therefore, suffered affliction.
Now,
do we love God?
Then, we
will most assuredly suffer affliction.
Thus
with Hosea we will see the prophet of God
suffering affliction.
Now, we
are ready for word of God located in verse two.
Verse two: “And the
LORD said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of
whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land
hath committed great whoredom, departing from
the LORD.”
And the LORD said …
Now, it behooves us to
keep what the LORD says. Will we
obey God, or will we disobey God? This will be
in our lives the acid test. Here is the
question. Do we love God? To
love God is to keep God’s commandments:
John 14:21: “He that
hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is
that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved
of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest
myself to him.”
Go, take unto thee a wife…
In the BOOK [The King James Bible]
the first mention of the word “wife” is in
[Genesis 2:24].
“Therefore shall a man leave his father
and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and
they shall be one flesh.”
In this verse God establishes a BASIC
TRUTH.
A man needs a wife for several reasons:
1. A good woman
tied to a good man can together bare the
troubles of life. “Yet man is
born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward.” [Job
5:7]
2. As God is to Israel,
a man and his wife yoked together will see
great deliverance even when up in years as
gray-heads. “And even to your old age I am
he; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have
made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will
deliver you.” [Isaiah 46:4]
3. The man and his wife
will stay together even after all life’s years
for better or worse! “Let thy fountain be
blessed: and rejoice with the wife of thy youth.” [Proverbs
5:18]
4. The man and his wife
working together will be a TEAM. “I
will make him a help meet for him.” [Genesis
2:18b] The man cannot make it without his wife.
For emphasis, let’s put: “I
will make him a help meet for him” of Genesis
2:18b back together with the first part of the
verse, [verse 18] and read it again to see the
context:
“And the Lord God
said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I
will make him an help meet for him.”
Do you believe what
GOD said in THE BOOK?
If things are to go
good for a man, then a man a man
needs to find a wife.
“Whoso findeth
a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth
favour of the LORD.” [Proverbs
18:22]
Finding a wife is
called by the LORD … a good thing. A
good thing does not bring evil.
Question: What is a
good wife? Well, first off, a good
wife is virtuous. This is according to
the BOOK!
Proverbs 31:10: “Who
can find a virtuous woman? for her price is
far above rubies.” Look at that price!
Only a virtuous
woman can provide a safe haven for her
husband’s inner most thoughts and aspirations …
which haven reposits his very life.
How do we know this?
Well, for the answer to this we must read the next
two verses, [verses eleven and twelve]:
“The heart of her
husband doth safely trust in her, so that he shall
have no need of spoil. She will do him good
and not evil all the days of her life.”
[Proverbs 31:11-12]
Bottom-line: A good
wife will do her husband GOOD all the days of her
life.
And this goodness
comes from where?
It comes from her
faithfulness to him. She will be
faithful to him, and loyal to him, [and only to
him] with her whole heart.
Portrayed here
is an illustration by the Holy Spirit of God in the
word of God the deliberate intention of Jehovah to
have an intimate relationship with the nation
of Israel that is true, that is faithful, that is
beautiful, and that is pure. These four
attributes taken together add up to the quality of
virtuous.
1.
TRUE,
2.
FAITHFUL,
3.
BEAUTIFUL,
4.
PURE.
= VIRTUOUS
Israel [as a type of a
wife] was to respond to her God in
faithfulness, in loyalty and in trueness as a people
[and as a land] to her God. She was to be
V-I-R-T-U-O-U-S!
“Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms.”
This is a very strange
and a totally bizarre command given by God to the
prophet of God, or for that matter to any man on the
face of this earth.
Note: this command is
not unlike the command that
Peter faced in the book of the Acts of the Apostles
in chapter ten [Rise, Peter; kill]:
Acts 10:13-14: “And
there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter; kill, and
eat. But Peter said, Not so, Lord; for I have never
eaten any thing that is common or unclean.”
Now hear this:
Obedience to God shows our faith in God!
·
Hosea, go find a whore,
and then, marry her.
·
Hosea, go find a harlot,
and then, marry her.
Now, a whore or a
harlot is one who is not true to her
husband.
·
To be not true is to
be unfaithful.
·
To be unfaithful is to
be disloyal, and to be disloyal is to be
rebellious.
The land hath committed great whoredom.
The first instance
of the word whore in the Bible is found in
the third book of Moses called Leviticus, chapter
nineteen, verse twenty-nine:
“Do not prostitute thy
daughter, to cause her to be a whore; lest the land
fall to whoredom, and the land become full of
wickedness.” [Leviticus 19:29]
Now note: Prostitution
produces a whore. The proliferation of whores
reduces a land to whoredom.
A land reduced to
whoredom is a polluted land … a land
that is polluted with BLOOD!
Psalm 106:38: “And
shed innocent blood, even the blood of their
sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed
unto the idols of Canaan: and the land was polluted
with blood.”
When a land, and a
people, go this way, it’s because there is a great
underlying and festering problem: The
people hate God!
Now, read the book
of Romans, chapter one, verse thirty: “Backbiters,
haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters,
inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents,”
[Romans 1:30].
The HATERS of GOD
despise God’s words.
In Israel’s case, they
were shown over, and over, and over again, to have
been guilty of despising God’s words.
They repeatedly did evil which thing showed
their rebellion to God.
And look at this.
This all the while God was so merciful and
so loving to them even in [betimes] sending
to them HIS prophets to warn them. We can see
this is so very true by reading an account of this
found in the book of Second Chronicles, chapter
thirty-six, verses fifteen and sixteen:
“And the LORD God of
their fathers sent to them by his messengers, rising
up betimes, and sending; because he had compassion
on his people, and on his dwelling place:
But they mocked the
messengers of God, and despised his words, and
misused his prophets, until the wrath of the LORD
arose against his people, till there was no
remedy.” [2 Chronicles 36:15-16]
Departing from the LORD
Now for the last part of
our verse: Notice Israel departed from the
LORD their God.
Now, this departure
from the LORD occurred in steps through
various states. These states are
the state of marvel, the state of
mediocrity, the state of malaise, and the
state of malady.
The states of
marvel, mediocrity, malaise, and
malady aggregated reveal the
downward progression in a relationship
due to the unwelcome presence of unchecked
sin.
Do you see the
regression?
We first, marvel
in Jesus Christ with our first love.
Then, we cool to a
doctrinal mediocrity.
Then, we descend to a
morbid malaise.
Then, in our malady
our relationship dies.
We lose our fellowship
with Jesus Christ.
Why? Well it is
because of unchecked sin.
Let’s review: First sin
is in the world because of one man’s sin.
In Adam we died:
Romans 5:14:
“Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even
over them that had not sinned after the similitude
of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him
that was to come.”
But in Jesus Christ, we
are made alive when we get saved:
1 Corinthians 15:22:
“For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all
be made alive.”
We are at first
totally amazed with our Savior. We marveled
in Him.
Then second, with the
passing of time we begin to relax in our
knowledge of Him.
Then, the familiarity
with Him all puts us to sleep.
Then, soon after in our
sleep we have no thought of our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ.
This scenario is what had
happened to Israel time, and time again [betimes].
Israel went through the
states of marvel, of mediocrity,
of malaise, and of malady. They
had departed from the LORD.
Verse three: “So he
went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim; which
conceived, and bare him a son.”
A son born to trouble from an unfaithful
wife.
So Hosea, without
questioning God, obeys God. Is this not
what we should do also? Oh, yes, we should!
No matter the consequences OBEY God.
See for this the book of
Jeremiah, chapter forty-two, verse six:
“Whether it be
good, or whether it be evil, we will obey the
voice of the LORD our God, to whom we send thee;
that it may be well with us, when we obey the voice
of the LORD our God.” [Jeremiah
42:6]
Hosea instead of marrying
a virtuous woman marries Gomer a
whore to his grief.
Obey God and leave the
consequences of obeying God with God.
Hosea believed
God’s words! His obedience to those words
showed he believed them!
For us living today, we
see this truth of this played out in the
Gospel according to John, in chapter fourteen, verse
twenty-one:
“He that hath my
commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth
me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my
Father, and I will love him, and will manifest
myself to him.” [John 14:21]
Verse four: “And the
LORD said unto him, Call his name Jezreel; for yet a
little while, and I will avenge the blood of
Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will cause to
cease the kingdom of the house of Israel.”
Call his name Jezreel.
The LORD tells Hosea,
name your son Jezreel.
Let’s look at this
name. The name Jezreel first
appears in the Authorized Version of the Bible
in the book of Joshua, chapter fifteen, verse
fifty-six. Look there and read: “And
Jezreel, and Jokdeam, and Zanoah …” [Joshua
15:56].
Now, note: Jezreel
was given as part of “the inheritance of the
tribe of the children of Judah according to their
families.” [Joshua 15:20]
Now Jezreel is a
location in Israel. Further, Jezreel is a
valley.
[Note: There is also a
day of Jezreel as we shall see later. The
day of Jezreel is concerning … JUDGMENT and
WAR.]
The valley of Jezreel
is also known as the valley of Megiddon.
In the valley of Megiddon is a city
called Megiddo. Megiddo
is beneath Jezreel according to the
book of First Kings [1 Kings 4:12].
We find that the first
mention of Megiddo in the book of
Joshua, chapter twelve, verse twenty-one.
Megiddo
is part of the tribe of Manasseh on the west
side of Jordan, which is among the possessions
of the tribes of Issachar and Asher in the northern
part of Israel [Joshua 17:11, Judges 1:27, 1
Chronicles 7:29].
I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon
the house of Jehu.
Much blood has been shed
in the valley of Jezreel. The LORD will
avenge! The house of Jehu has blood on
their hands. The LORD will remedy.
Though Jehu did right by destroying Baal out of
Israel Jehu departed not from the sins of
Jeroboam.
See what is recorded
about Jehu in the book of Second Kings, chapter ten,
starting with verse twenty-eight this:
“Thus Jehu destroyed
Baal out of Israel.
Howbeit from
the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made
Israel to sin, Jehu departed not from after them,
to wit, the golden calves that were in
Bethel, and that were in Dan.
And the LORD said unto
Jehu, Because thou hast done well in executing
that which is right in mine eyes, and
hast done unto the house of Ahab according to all
that was in mine heart, thy children of the
fourth generation shall sit on the throne of
Israel.
But Jehu took no heed
to walk in the law of the LORD God of Israel with
all his heart: for he departed not from the sins of
Jeroboam, which made Israel to sin.”
[2 Kings 10:28-31]
Somehow
the blood of Jezreel accrued to Ahab’s household was
transferred to the house of Jehu. Remember
the house of Jehu
departed not from the sins of Jeroboam.
Pay back came after the fourth
generation to the house of Jehu:
1.
The first generation – is Jehoahaz,
the son of Jehu.
2.
The second generation – is Jehoash
[also called Joash], the son of Jehoahaz.
3.
The third generation – is Jeroboam,
the son of Jehoash.
4.
The fourth generation – Zachariah,
the son of Jeroboam.
Shallum
the son of Jebesh smote Zachariah, and thus,
judgment was executed on the house of Jehu for
the blood of Jezreel.
I … will cause to cease the kingdom of the
house of Israel.
This prophecy was
fulfilled in the year of B.C. 721. The
Kingdom of Israel ceased.
2 Kings 17:6: “In
the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took
Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and
placed them in Halah and in Habor by the
river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.”
Verse five: “And it
shall come to pass at that day, that I will break
the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.”
I will break the bow of Israel.
There is a day of
Jezreel. The day of Jezreel is
about … JUDGMENT and WAR.
Jeremiah 30:7: “Alas!
for that day is great, so that none is
like it: it is even the time of Jacob's
trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.”
The time of Jacob’s
trouble involves more than trouble for Israel.
It involves a great controversy between the
LORD GOD and the nations of this earth.
Jeremiah 25:31: “A
noise shall come even to the ends of the
earth; for the LORD hath a controversy with the
nations, he will plead with all flesh; he will give
them that are wicked to the sword, saith the
LORD.”
It will happen in the valley of Jezreel.
According to the book of
The Revelation of Jesus Christ God will
gather all the nations together in a great
battle at Megiddo in “the valley of
Megiddon” “called in the Hebrew tongue
Armageddon.” [Revelation 16:16]
Now, Jezreel [or
“the valley of Megiddon”] is set to be
the climactic valley of decision for all the
nations of the earth.
“Multitudes,
multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of
the LORD is near in the valley of decision.”
[Joel 3:14]
The boy’s name is Jezreel
born of an unfaithful wife. Question: Can it
get worse? But before we proceed to verse six
we need to delve in a certain word called mercy,
M-E-R-C-Y.
Webster’s 1828 dictionary defines: MER'CY,
n. L. Misericordia:
“That benevolence, mildness or
tenderness of heart which disposes a person to
overlook injuries, or to treat an offender better
than he deserves; the disposition that tempers
justice, and induces an injured person to forgive
trespasses and injuries, and to forbear punishment,
or inflict less than law or justice will warrant. In
this sense, there is perhaps no word in our language
precisely synonymous with mercy. That which comes
nearest to it is grace. It implies benevolence,
tenderness, mildness, pity or compassion, and
clemency, but exercised only towards offenders.
Mercy is a distinguishing attribute of the Supreme
Being.”
Let’s now read verse six in Hosea chapter
one.
Verse six: “And she
conceived again, and bare a daughter. And God
said unto him, Call her name Loruhamah: for I will
no more have mercy upon the house of Israel; but I
will utterly take them away.
A daughter born to trouble from an
unfaithful wife.
“O give thanks unto the
LORD; for he is good; for his mercy
endureth for ever.” God’s mercy
was intended by God to endure forever.
[1 Chronicles 16:34] O how sin
messes things up!
The God of Israel signals here to Israel that the mercy of God, which had been flowing to them [for generations] has finally come to an end. It can be said: This was the end of the run. The mercy seat is to be taken away. The mercy seat of pure gold would no longer be found in its place below the two cherubims in the most holy place within the tabernacle of God set amongst the congregation of Israel. [Exodus 25:20].
Ichabod! “The glory is departed from Israel” [1 Samuel 4:21].
Lesson: God will depart
from those that depart from HIM. Loruhamah:
I will have mercy no more!
The girl’s name, Loruhamah, born of a wife
of whoredoms means the end of God’s
mercy has come to Israel.
Surely now, it cannot
get worse? We shall see
later. But let it be made known there is still
found mercy for others.
Verse seven: “But I
will have mercy upon the house of Judah, and will
save them by the LORD their God, and will not save
them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses,
nor by horsemen.”
Mercy to the house of Judah
Notice that very first
word in this verse [seven seven]: BUT. The
word but shows an exception by way of
a connection to something that precedes
to what follows. God’s mercy
was to stop flowing to the people of Israel but
God’s mercy was to keep on flowing to the people of
Judah.
O for us to have God’s
mercy. “O give
thanks unto the LORD; for he is good; for his
mercy endureth for ever.”
We ought to always turn
toward the God of mercy. And again, we
ought to always be found in way of the MERCY of God.
Amen!
Now hear the promise of
MERCY ultimately prevailing in a psalm in a
promise of God!
Psalm 136:1-26:
“O give thanks unto the
LORD; for he is good: for his mercy
endureth for ever.
O give thanks unto the God
of gods: for his mercy endureth for ever.
O give thanks to the Lord of
lords: for his mercy endureth for ever.
To him who alone doeth great
wonders: for his mercy endureth for ever.
To him that by wisdom made
the heavens: for his mercy endureth for ever.
To him that
stretched out the earth above the waters: for his
mercy endureth for ever.
To him that made great
lights: for his mercy endureth for ever:
The sun to rule by day: for
his mercy endureth for ever:
The moon and stars to rule
by night: for his mercy endureth for ever.
To him that smote Egypt in
their firstborn: for his mercy endureth for
ever:
And brought out Israel from
among them: for his mercy endureth for ever:
With a strong hand, and with
a stretched out arm: for his mercy endureth
for ever.
To him which divided the Red
sea into parts: for his mercy endureth for
ever:
And made Israel to pass
through the midst of it: for his mercy endureth
for ever:
But overthrew Pharaoh and
his host in the Red sea: for his mercy endureth
for ever.
To him which led his people
through the wilderness: for his mercy endureth
for ever.
To him which smote great
kings: for his mercy endureth for ever:
And slew famous kings: for
his mercy endureth for ever:
Sihon king of the Amorites:
for his mercy endureth for ever:
And Og the king of Bashan:
for his mercy endureth for ever:
And gave their land for an
heritage: for his mercy endureth for ever:
Even an heritage unto
Israel his servant: for his mercy endureth
for ever.
Who remembered us in our low
estate: for his mercy endureth for ever:
And hath redeemed us from
our enemies: for his mercy endureth for ever.
Who giveth food to all
flesh: for his mercy endureth for ever.
O give thanks unto the God
of heaven: for his mercy endureth for ever.”
I will save them!
Now, look back again to
verse seven: “…and will save them by the LORD
their God, and will not save them by bow, nor by
sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen.”
2 Chronicles 20:15: “And he said, Hearken ye, all Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou king Jehoshaphat, Thus saith the LORD unto you, Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God's.” The battle is God’s! We cannot do it by ourselves! Do you understand this? Only God can do this!
Zechariah 4:6:
“Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This
is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying,
Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith
the LORD of hosts.”
A new creature by a new birth.
No amount of works
derived by the flesh can ever earn a man’s salvation
from the fires of Hell [Matthew 9:47].
A man, a woman a child
must needs become a new creature [in Jesus Christ]
by the operation of God: THE HOLY
GHOST. This is a very straight and a very
narrow truth from none other than the BOOK
of GOD.
See this thing for
yourself written in the Epistle of Paul the Apostle
to the Galatians, in chapter six, verse fifteen:
“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision
availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new
creature.”
A person becomes a Christian by becoming a new creature which new creature comes by way through a second birth. Warning:
1. This birth is not gained by inheritance.
2. Nor does this birth come by the strength [or the will] of the flesh,
3. Nor furthermore does it come by a man’s sheer will.
It only comes by the power of God:
John 1:13:
“Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of
the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”
Ye must be born
again! :
John 3:7:
“Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born
again.”
Verse eight: “Now when
she had weaned Loruhamah, she conceived, and bare a
son.”
First a son, Jezreel,
then a daughter comes, Loruhamah, and now
another son is born. Remember, these are
the children of whoredoms born of a wife of
whoredoms.
Verse nine: “Then said
God, Call his name Loammi: for ye are
not my people, and I will not be your God.”
Another son born to great trouble from
this very unfaithful wife.
Loammi
is his name. There is a divorce
coming into play. It is coming to thee O
Israel.
Yet let the divorce be
done according to the law.
Ezra 10: “Now
therefore let us make a covenant with our God to put
away all the wives, and such as are born of them,
according to the counsel of my lord, and of those
that tremble at the commandment of our God; and let
it be done according to the law.”
The Law
Deuteronomy 24:1:
“When a man hath taken a wife, and married her,
and it come to pass that she find no favour in his
eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her:
then let him write her a bill of divorcement, and
give it in her hand, and send her out of his
house.”
The LORD GOD is going to send Israel out of HIS HOUSE.
Loammi I am going to put your mother away for her unfaithfulness to me [for her transgressions].
Isaiah 50:1:
“Thus saith the LORD, Where is the bill of
your mother's divorcement, whom I have put away? or
which of my creditors is it to whom I
have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye
sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your
mother put away.”
For my thoughts are not your thoughts.
Now, we will pause here
[in our study in the book of the prophet Hosea] and
turn to the prophet Jeremiah for a purpose, and for
a reason. This reason is for us to
search out some thoughts of the
LORD God [so as to properly formulate
Bible-believing doctrine].
You say, but where can
we learn of these thoughts of God? Well,
these thoughts of the LORD God are
revealed in a BOOK called the SCRIPTURE
[THE BIBLE].
THE SCRIPTURE is THE
BIBLE: 2 Timothy 3:16-17: “All
scripture is given by inspiration of God, and
is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for
correction, for instruction in righteousness:
That the man of God may be perfect, throughly
furnished unto all good works.”
Now, the nation of
Israel was given these thoughts of the
LORD as oracles of God [Romans 3; 2].
It is in these oracles that we find the
things revealed by God to man. Let’s go further
into this matter. It is in the book of
Deuteronomy, chapter twenty-nine, verse twenty-nine,
that we will find who the owners are
of the secret things and of the revealed
things: “The secret things belong
unto the LORD our God: but those things which are
revealed belong unto us and to our children
for ever, that we may do all the words of
this law.” [Deuteronomy 29:29]
Bottom-line:
·
The secret things belong
to God.
·
The revealed things belong
to us.
The worthy goal for one’s life is clearly given:
We need to have our thoughts line out with God’s thoughts!
First, to discern
these revealed thoughts, [and in order to be
perfect] we need to pray to God that HE
would search our hearts, and next, for
us to cry out, TRY ME!
Psalm 139:23: “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:”
Second, come to terms
with God and agree with God that your
thoughts are not HIS thoughts:
Isaiah 55:8:
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither
are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.”
Realize God’s thoughts are higher than
man’s thoughts:
Isaiah 55:9:
“For as the heavens are higher than the
earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my
thoughts than your thoughts.”
Now we are ready to turn
to the book of Jeremiah, chapter three, and we will
read starting with verse six:
Jeremiah 3:6: “The
LORD said also unto me in the days of Josiah the
king, Hast thou seen that which backsliding
Israel hath done? she is gone up upon every high
mountain and under every green tree, and there hath
played the harlot.”
As we already have learned in the book of Hosea, Gomer [a type of Israel] was a harlot, and was unfaithful to her husband [a type of God].
Jeremiah 3:7:
“And I said after she had done all these things,
Turn thou unto me. But she returned not. And her
treacherous sister Judah saw it.”
Israel refused to return to
God.
Jeremiah 3:8:
“And I saw, when for all the causes
whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had
put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet
her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went
and played the harlot also.”
Note this: God puts her away! The LORD gives her the bill of divorce.
Jeremiah 3:9:
“And it came to pass through the lightness of her
whoredom, that she defiled the land, and committed
adultery with stones and with stocks.”
Whoredom destroys: It is
what defiles a people and a land!
Jeremiah 3:10:
“And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah
hath not turned unto me with her whole heart, but
feignedly, saith the LORD.”
Judah is next. Notice, The LORD God wants your whole heart.
Jeremiah 3:11:
“And the LORD said unto me, The backsliding Israel
hath justified herself more than treacherous Judah.”
Summary:
Divorce is a Bible
doctrine.
The actual divorce
occurs when you leave the love of your life.
Israel divorced the LORD her God when she
departed from God. God thoughts
were not her thoughts, neither were
God’s ways her ways!
The one who is
left behind therefore, becomes the innocent
party.
The innocent party
can now give the guilty party the bill
of divorcement.
The bill of
divorcement is the paper [the legal]
dissolution of the bond of the marriage of the
husband and the wife granted by a judicial
sentence.
For my thoughts are not your thoughts signifies divorce.
The converse is true:
My thoughts are your thoughts.
Marriage = Agreement:
Amos 3:3: “Can two walk
together, except they be agreed?”
At this juncture we need
to summarize concerning marriage, divorce
and remarriage before we
continue our commentary in the book of Hosea.
God’s view of marriage, divorce and remarriage encapsulated.
1. The ideal Biblical pattern for marriage
is set in Genesis chapters 1 and 2 … one man - one
woman for life.
2. God provided legislation (by the giving
of the Law) to Israel, governing multiple wives;
i.e., marriage privileges, responsibilities are
delineated, including the regulation of divorce and
re-marriage.
3. God gives the New Testament order: National Israel set aside, and the institution of the Church established with the Jew and the Gentile in one body, which re-sets Genesis 1-2 for marriage, one man, one woman, for life as ideal.
He reveals only two Biblical reasons for divorce for
New Testament Christians, that is, for adultery, and
for desertion by the unbeliever. Remarriage is
allowed only in these two cases, plus for the reason
of the death of the spouse.
Adultery brings the dissolution of the marriage.
Jeremiah 3:8:
“And I saw, when for all the causes whereby
backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her
away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her
treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and
played the harlot also.”
The LORD in so many words in
the sands of time said betimes: O Israel
put away your abominations, and I will not put you
away [I will not remove you!]
PLEASE HEAR ME!
Jeremiah 4:1:
“If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the LORD,
return unto me: and if thou wilt put away thine
abominations out of my sight, then shalt thou not
remove.”
God wanted to keep her. He wanted Israel to get right!
Ezekiel 43:9-11:
God’s Plan for the nation of Israel: DO THEM!
“Now let them put away their
whoredom, and the carcases of their kings, far from
me, and I will dwell in the midst of them for ever.
Thou son of man, shew the
house to the house of Israel, that they may be
ashamed of their iniquities: and let them measure
the pattern.
And if they be ashamed of
all that they have done, shew them the form of the
house, and the fashion thereof, and the goings out
thereof, and the comings in thereof, and all the
forms thereof, and all the ordinances thereof, and
all the forms thereof, and all the laws thereof: and
write it in their sight, that they may keep
the whole form thereof, and all the ordinances
thereof, and do them.”
They did not do them!
The
exception: Saving for the cause of fornication
Matthew 5:31-32:
“It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his
wife, let him give her a writing of divorcement:
But I say unto you, That
whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the
cause of fornication, causeth her to commit
adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is
divorced committeth adultery.”
The divorce is
finalized.
Yet this is not the end!
There is hope. There is a promise.
The Promise:
“He hath made every thing
beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in
their heart, so that no man can find out the work
that God maketh from the beginning to the end
[Ecclesiastes 3:11].
Restoration of the Marriage
Verse ten: “Yet the
number of the children of Israel shall be as the
sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor
numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in
the place where it was said unto them, Ye are
not my people, there it shall be said unto
them, Ye are the sons of the living God.”
In the putting away
of his wife, Hosea represents a type of God
casting his wife Israel away.
[Now a type
illustrates a showing of something, which represents
something else.] Hosea is a type of the God of
Israel. And Gomer is a type of
unfaithful Israel. Gomer commits adultery
which adultery constitutes the actual
divorce from her husband. It is
Gomer who dissolved her marriage to Hosea.
The responsive
action of Hosea only forms the legal
divorce [by the putting away of Gomer].
Thus, the thing is shown in type: The
nation of Israel dissolved her own marriage
to God by her continual
transgressions. The LORD
God responded by putting her out!
But there is something
else her. Israel’s treacheries can be
shown to be part of a great mystery.
Now, what is this
mystery? This great mystery is now
revealed to us living today by way of the
illumination of the Holy Ghost in the New Testament
Epistle to the Romans, in chapter eleven, which see.
We can see in verse fifteen that the casting away of Israel [which in itself formed a great grief to the LORD GOD of Israel] brought about with the passing of time a most wonderful thing, the reconciling of the world. This unfolding wonderful truth displayed in verse fifteen:
“For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?” [Romans 11:15]
This reconciling of the world will conclude with the bringing forth of a restoration of the marriage [that God had with the nation of Israel in the Old Testament] in the beginning of the millennial reign of Jesus Christ. This is what we all will see happen in the restitution of all things [Act 3:21].
Restoration = Remarriage
The concluding
story located within this mystery is so
beautiful and is a story likening the raising of
life from the dead. See this
thing with your own eyes [your eyes of faith] in
verses twenty-five through verse twenty-seven:
“For I would not, brethren,
that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye
should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness
in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of
the Gentiles be come in.
And so all Israel shall be
saved: as it is written, There shall come out of
Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness
from Jacob: For this is my covenant unto
them, when I shall take away their sins.”
[Romans 11:25-27]
What happened to Israel
[[shown here in the book of Hosea] allows the
Gentiles to come into the fold. The One
forwent [Israel] becomes the opportunity for
another {the Gentiles]. The Gentiles were now
in line to receive the mercy of God. Go
to First Epistle of Peter, chapter two, verse ten:
“Which in time past were not a people, but are now
the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but
now have obtained mercy.”
The Gentiles have always
been on the outside [with very few exceptions, i.e.
Ruth] of “the commonwealth of Israel.”
The Gentiles were strangers to the promises
of God … “having no hope”. The Epistle
to the Ephesians tells us this is so, very
plainly. We see in chapter two, verse
twelve: “That at that time ye were without
Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of
Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise,
having no hope, and without God in the world:”
[Ephesians 2:12].
Before Jesus Christ went
to the Cross of Calvary, we Gentiles were not the
people of God. We were as dogs at the
table of Israel. We were all dogs, just like
the Siro-Phoenician woman said we were, in the
Gospel of Mark, chapter seven, verse twenty-eight:
“And she answered and
said unto him, Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the
table eat of the children's crumbs.”
[Mark 7:28]
Now bear with me a
little, my friend. I will tell you what has
transpired. It was by the precious blood of
Jesus Christ that God opened up the Gentiles to the
mercies of God … even the GRACE of God.
Let’s go back to Ephesians chapter two starting with
verse thirteen to see that this is true. Are
you ready for this?
“But now in Christ
Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by
the blood of Christ.” [Ephesians
2:13] Before this time we were OUT, but
now, we are IN. The mercy of God …
towards us … made us part of the family of God.
Amen! God brought us into the sure mercies and
promises of God … along with Israel … so that we
would be made one body. Look at this in verse
fourteen and fifteen with me: “For he is
our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken
down the middle wall of partition between us; Having
abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of
commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in
himself of twain one new man, so making peace;”
[Ephesians 2:14-15].
The WALL was taken
down! We Gentiles have become the people of
God … along with the Jews. The Jews and
the Gentiles have been made into one body for the
last two thousand years. We see
this truly amplified in verse sixteen through
nineteen in Ephesians chapter two:
“And that he might
reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross,
having slain the enmity thereby: And came and
preached peace to you which were afar off, and to
them that were nigh.
For through him we
both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.
Now therefore ye are
no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens
with the saints, and of the household of God;”
[Ephesians 2:16-19]
Verse eleven: “Then
shall the children of Judah and the children of
Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves
one head, and they shall come up out of the land:
for great shall be the day of Jezreel.”
War
comes, and judgment arrives, mercy
runs out, and finally they are put away, and
thus, we find them cast away,
and seemingly, they are undone.
Jezreel, Loruhamah, and
Loammi were the children of
whoredoms that were born of a wife of whoredoms.
The divorce came. It came to thee, O
Israel!
Who can save thee?
The LORD WHO is mighty
will save thee, O Israel!
Isaiah 63:1:
“Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed
garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious
in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his
strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to
save.”
BUT the promise of the
LORD GOD of ISRAEL arrives, and just in time, and
interrupts this whole downward process with
this which is found in the book of Jeremiah, chapter
thirty, verse ten and eleven:
“Therefore
fear thou not, O my servant Jacob, saith the LORD;
neither be dismayed, O Israel: for, lo, I will save
thee from afar, and thy seed from the land of their
captivity; and Jacob shall return, and shall be in
rest, and be quiet, and none shall make him
afraid.
For I am with thee,
saith the LORD, to save thee: though I make a full
end of all nations whither I have scattered thee,
yet will I not make a full end of thee: but I will
correct thee in measure, and will not leave thee
altogether unpunished.” [Jeremiah
30:10-11]
There you have it, my
friend, ISRAEL SHALL BE SAVED!
They will finally
obtain the mercy of GOD.
Isaiah 45:17: “But
Israel shall be saved in the LORD with an
everlasting salvation: ye shall not be ashamed nor
confounded world without end.”
Israel will appoint for themselves Jesus Christ as their HEAD in that climatic day which is the great day of Jezreel at the end of the GREAT TRIBULATION.
This is a story with a happy
ending.
There you have it, my
friend.
If you have been saved,
you have already obtained the mercy of God.
You now belong to God. God is
the King of the Hill … in your life. You are
no longer offended by Jesus Christ.
Instead, the work of grace is in you and makes Jesus
Christ precious to you.
Amen! Amen!
Amen!
This brings us to a close
of Hosea chapter one.
Before we go to chapter
two, we will need to consider the Law and its
weighty qualities.
The Law of God are the
testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments.
Deuteronomy 4:44-45:
“And this is the law
which Moses set before the children of Israel:
These are the
testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments,
which Moses spake unto the children of Israel, after
they came forth out of Egypt,”
Deuteronomy 6:17:
“Ye shall diligently keep
the commandments of the LORD your God, and his
testimonies, and his statutes, which he hath
commanded thee.”
The strength of your diligence in the keeping is a measure of the depth of your love to the very one who gave you these testimonies.
Gomer, how much do you love Hosea?
Israel, do you love the Lord THY GOD, and HIM ONLY?
Deuteronomy 6:5: “And
thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy
might.”
Deuteronomy 10:12:
“And now, Israel, what doth the LORD thy God
require of thee, but to fear the LORD thy God, to
walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve
the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy
soul,”
Deuteronomy 11:1: “Therefore thou shalt love the LORD thy God, and keep his charge, and his statutes, and his judgments, and his commandments, alway.”
Deuteronomy 30:6:
“And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine
heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD
thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul,
that thou mayest live.”
Over and over and over again fidelity, loyalty, and faithfulness, is what God desires of Israel [and of you and me].
Let’s go deeper! The attributes of fidelity, loyalty, and faithfulness are sourced from something else. It is this: TRUTH.
Psalm 51:6: “Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts: and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom.”
Our inner most parts need to be deliberately made to be the repository of truth.
John 17:17:
“Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is
truth.”
“BETH. Wherewithal shall a
young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto
according to thy word.
With my whole heart have I
sought thee: O let me not wander from thy
commandments.
Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.” [Psalm 119:9-11]
Let me focus here on these testimonies and the relationship that these testimonies have to your separation unto Jesus Christ. How much are we only for HIM, and not distracted by an allurement to someone else?
Now, God separated
Israel for HIMSELF from all other people on the
earth:
Leviticus 20:24:
“But I have said unto you, Ye shall inherit their
land, and I will give it unto you to possess it, a
land that floweth with milk and honey: I am
the LORD your God, which have separated you from
other people.”
2 Kings 17:15:
“And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant
that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies
which he testified against them; and they followed
vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen
that were round about them, concerning
whom the LORD had charged them, that they should not
do like them.”
Psalm 93:5:
“Thy testimonies are very sure: holiness becometh
thine house, O LORD, for ever.”
There are 27 instances of
the word: testimonies in Psalm
119
Israel was separated
out from all the other nations of the earth to be
the bearer of God’s testimonies.
These testimonies
were to be the rejoicing of the heart.
It always comes back to matter of the heart.
Read with me here in Psalm 119:
1.
Psalm 119:2:
“Blessed are they that keep his testimonies,
and that seek him with the whole heart.”
2.
Psalm 119:14:
“I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies, as
much as in all riches.”
3.
Psalm 119:22:
“Remove from me reproach and contempt; for I have
kept thy testimonies.”
4.
Psalm 119:24:
“Thy testimonies also are my delight and
my counsellers.”
5.
Psalm 119:31:
“I have stuck unto thy testimonies: O LORD, put me
not to shame.”
6.
Psalm 119:36:
“Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to
covetousness.”
7.
Psalm 119:46:
“I will speak of thy testimonies also before kings,
and will not be ashamed.”
8.
Psalm 119:59:
“I thought on my ways, and turned my feet unto thy
testimonies.”
9.
Psalm 119:79:
“Let those that fear thee turn unto me, and those
that have known thy testimonies.”
10.
Psalm 119:95: “The wicked have
waited for me to destroy me: but I will
consider thy testimonies.”
11.
Psalm 119:99: “I have more
understanding than all my teachers: for thy
testimonies are my meditation.”
12.
Psalm 119:111: “Thy testimonies
have I taken as an heritage for ever: for they
are the rejoicing of my heart.”
13.
Psalm 119:119: “Thou puttest away
all the wicked of the earth like dross:
therefore I love thy testimonies.”
14.
Psalm 119:125: “I am thy
servant; give me understanding, that I may know thy
testimonies.”
15.
Psalm 119:129: “Thy testimonies
are wonderful: therefore doth my soul keep
them.”
16.
Psalm 119:138: “Thy testimonies
that thou hast commanded are righteous
and very faithful.”
17.
Psalm 119:144: “The righteousness
of thy testimonies is everlasting: give me
understanding, and I shall live.”
18.
Psalm 119:146: “I cried unto thee;
save me, and I shall keep thy testimonies.”
19.
Psalm 119:152: “Concerning thy
testimonies, I have known of old that thou hast
founded them for ever.”
20.
Psalm 119:157: “Many are my
persecutors and mine enemies; yet do I not
decline from thy testimonies.”
21.
Psalm 119:167: “My soul hath kept
thy testimonies; and I love them exceedingly.”
22.
Psalm 119:168: “I have kept thy precepts
and thy testimonies: for all my ways are
before thee.”
Keeping
the LORD’s testimonies proves one’s
fidelity to HIM.
The ring on the finger is
to show forth your fidelity to your husband,
or to your wife in marriage.
Fidelity
to Jesus Christ is an indicator of one’s oneness
with Jesus Christ. For two shall be
one. Oneness with HIM displays the
dominant characteristics of a true marriage
i.e. fidelity, or loyalty,
commitment, and faithfulness.
The statement of the LORD, the God of Israel:
Ezekiel 16:8:
“Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee,
behold, thy time was the time of love; and I
spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy
nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into
a covenant with thee, saith the Lord GOD, and thou
becamest mine.”
God married Israel.
Hosea, chapter two:
Verse one: “Say
ye unto your brethren, Ammi; and to your sisters,
Ruhamah.”
Now, notice something here in this verse, the word brethren is plural, which signifies many brothers. Ammi is the son of Gomer. Notice here also, the word sisters is plural, which signifies many sisters. Ruhamah is the daughter of Gomer. Thus, the prophet Hosea is commanded to speak to the brethren [Ammi], which brethren represent all the men of Israel, and to all the sisters [Ruhamah] which sisters represent all the women of Israel.
Verse two: “Plead
with your mother, plead: for she is not my
wife, neither am I her husband: let her
therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight,
and her adulteries from between her breasts;”
Marital Status:
Something has happened to both Gomer and to Hosea. What has happened? Why, their marital status has changed. It changed just as the marital status of the married woman the New Testament example [located in the First Epistle to the Corinthians, in chapter seven, verse ten, and eleven] had changed.
Let us read from these verses of Scripture very carefully with believing hearts:
“And unto the married I
command, yet not I, but the Lord, Let not the
wife depart from her husband:
But and if she depart, let
her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her
husband: and let not the husband put away his
wife.” [1 Corinthians
7:10-11]
Do you see what
happens to the wife upon her
departure from her husband? Why, it is as
clear as a bell! The departure dissolved
her marriage to this man! She became
unmarried. This is called
desertion!
She threw the testimonies of her own husband away! Though he had pleaded with her betimes:
Turn to me!
Turn to me! O My
wife, behold only me. Stay
with me, and be true to me.
But this was all to no avail. She had thrown his testimonies away for another lover!
To the Law of her God, Gomer said, NO I WILL NOT OBEY: further I could care less for my husband’s testimonies, and his statutes, and his judgments.
She plainly just said NO to
the God of the BIBLE, and to what it says in the
book of Proverbs, chapter thirty-one, verse twelve:
“She will do him good and not evil all the days
of her life.”
Gomer displayed the ultimate
treachery that could be brought to a
husband that purely loves his wife.
So, Hosea is now not a husband to Gomer, and Gomer is now not the wife to Hosea. Her departure and her adulteries [her whoredoms] effected divorce.
Now, here in this sad story, no one wins, except the Devil, in the destruction of a marriage. Many times when one sins someone else gets hurt. In this situation that we have here, there is an innocent party, who has been badly hurt. And it is Hosea!
Yes, there are hurts in this life. May you not ever be the author of them!
If only Gomer would repent, and put away her whoredoms out of her sight! Oh, that Gomer might experience a restoration of what once was to Hosea [called a remarriage].
Or what?
Verse three:
“Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day
that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and
set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst.”
Sin has its awful and very horrible consequences!
Nakedness brings shame by a downward spiral to sad and to tragic end. The Spirit of God graphically lays out the downward sequence of the nation of Israel’s destruction both spiritually and physically through HIS prophet Ezekiel.
Now, go to the book of Ezekiel, chapter sixteen, and we will begin reading starting with verse thirty-six:
“Thus saith the Lord GOD;
Because thy filthiness was poured out, and thy
nakedness discovered through thy whoredoms with thy
lovers, and with all the idols of thy abominations,
and by the blood of thy children, which thou didst
give unto them;
Behold, therefore I will
gather all thy lovers, with whom thou hast taken
pleasure, and all them that thou hast loved,
with all them that thou hast hated; I will
even gather them round about against thee, and will
discover thy nakedness unto them, that they may see
all thy nakedness.
And I will judge thee, as
women that break wedlock and shed blood are judged;
and I will give thee blood in fury and jealousy.
And I will also give thee
into their hand, and they shall throw down thine
eminent place, and shall break down thy high places:
they shall strip thee also of thy clothes, and shall
take thy fair jewels, and leave thee naked and bare.
They shall also bring up a company against thee, and they shall stone thee with stones, and thrust thee through with their swords.
And they shall burn thine
houses with fire, and execute judgments upon thee in
the sight of many women: and I will cause thee to
cease from playing the harlot, and thou also shalt
give no hire any more.” [Ezekiel 16:36-41]
The whoredoms of
Israel [in departing from God] brought them to their
judgment and to their removal from the
LAND of PROMISE.
The divorce, or the putting away of Israel.
Now, we read of these sad
chronicles in the Second book of the Kings,
in chapter seventeen, starting with verse six:
Verse six: “In
the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took
Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and
placed them in Halah and in Habor by the
river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
Verse seven:
For so it was, that the children of Israel
had sinned against the LORD their God, which had
brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under
the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared
other gods,”
They allowed themselves to
be distracted from the One who loved them!
Verse eight:
“And walked in the statutes of the heathen, whom the
LORD cast out from before the children of Israel,
and of the kings of Israel, which they had made.”
Israel lusted after
the way of the world!
Verse nine:
“And the children of Israel did secretly those
things that were not right against the LORD
their God, and they built them high places in all
their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the
fenced city.”
Warning: Be sure your sin
will find you out!
Verse ten: “And
they set them up images and groves in every high
hill, and under every green tree:”
They did with theirs hands
what was already in their heart!
What is in the inside
will come out to the outside.
Verse eleven:
“And there they burnt incense in all the high
places, as did the heathen whom the LORD
carried away before them; and wrought wicked things
to provoke the LORD to anger:”
She provoked the LORD with
her embracing her strange lovers.
Verse twelve:
For they served idols, whereof the LORD had said
unto them, Ye shall not do this thing.”
Yet they went ahead, and did
this thing, even though GOD straightly commanded
them in the second book of Moses not to do
this thing! “For thou
shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name
is Jealous, is a jealous God:”
[Exodus 34:14]
Verse thirteen:
Yet the LORD testified against Israel, and against
Judah, by all the prophets, and by all the
seers, saying, Turn ye from your evil ways, and keep
my commandments and my statutes, according to
all the law which I commanded your fathers, and
which I sent to you by my servants the prophets.
Verse fourteen:
Notwithstanding they would not hear, but hardened
their necks, like to the neck of their fathers, that
did not believe in the LORD their God.
We are at rock-bottom
now!
Observation:
Unchecked sin produces an increasing and
downward slide. “Such
is the way of an adulterous woman; she
eateth, and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done
no wickedness.” [Proverbs
30:20]
Verse fifteen:
And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant
that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies
which he testified against them; and they followed
vanity, and became vain, and went after the heathen
that were round about them, concerning
whom the LORD had charged them, that they should not
do like them.
Verse sixteen:
And they left all the commandments of the LORD their
God, and made them molten images, even two
calves, and made a grove, and worshipped all the
host of heaven, and served Baal.
Verse seventeen:
And they caused their sons and their daughters to
pass through the fire, and used divination and
enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the
sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.
Verse eighteen:
Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel, and
removed them out of his sight: there was none left
but the tribe of Judah only.”
[2 Kings 17:6-18]
Summary: The land, with the people of the land, were to be made, as a wilderness, as a desert.
Now, we go back to our text in
Hosea chapter two:
Verse four: “And
I will not have mercy upon her children; for they
be the children of whoredoms.”
Loruhamah: I will have
mercy no more!
Verse five: “For
their mother hath played the harlot: she that
conceived them hath done shamefully: for she said, I
will go after my lovers, that give me my
bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil
and my drink.”
How did this happen
[this declension] to a people who had the oracles
of God given them? [Romans 3:2a]
“because that unto them were committed the
oracles of God.”
Do you remember the order
of regression that we found earlier in
chapter one, verse two? In the case of Israel
we find the very same pattern:
Israel first, marveled
in their God as like the freshness found in first
love.
Then, they cooled to a
doctrinal mediocrity.
Then, they descended to a
morbid malaise.
Then, in their malady
their relationship died.
In the end, they
departed from God.
Why? Well, it is
because of unchecked sin.
In the New Testament, the
person who has had the word of God sown in their
heart can experience this very same downward slide,
and become UNFRUITFUL:
Mark 4:19: “And
the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of
riches, and the lusts of other things entering in,
choke the word, and it becometh unfruitful.”
Lesson:
Sometimes what begins well, does not end well.
Remedy:
Maintenance is what is needed in our relationship with Jesus Christ. [Indeed, all our relationships with others will benefit with maintenance.]
Maintenance Instructions:
1. Read God’s word every morning. Ephesians 3:4: “Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ)”
2. Pray to LORD while you are reading your Bible. 1 Thessalonians 5:17: “Pray without ceasing.”
3. Meditate on God’s word to you. Psalm 119:97: “O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.”
The Value of the Hedge
Verse six:
“Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with
thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her
paths.”
We see in this verse a peculiar standout. It is the word hedge.
Now a hedge has tremendous worth and is of great value.
Question: Who made the hedge?
Well, the LORD is the
inventor of the hedge.
God purposed the hedge is for a
certain operation. It is
for division! It is used
to divide, or subdivide, a parcel of
ground by acting as a fence or a
boundary, and is formed by a dense row of shrubs
or low trees.
Now, the most
effective hedge is one that contains sharp
projections such as with thorns. This
describes a physical hedge but others hedges
are spiritual in nature, and therefore deal
with the supernatural, which deals with
things beyond the human senses.
Hedges can hurt those
that are hemmed in for safe keeping from
escaping, or hedges can be used to keep the
enemy from coming into the protected ground.
We need to realize
something very important at this point.
Are you listening?
Something that hurts may actually be a friend.
Example: This was so, as
recorded in a far off scene, which can be seen in
the book of Job, chapter one, verse ten:
“Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about
his house, and about all that he hath on every side?
thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his
substance is increased in the land.”
[Job 1:10]
God used a hedge to protect Job, his wife, and his children. Furthermore, God used this hedge to prosper him with great worldly substance. God’s use of the hedge here was purposed so as to surround Job with a defensive fortification.
For this reason, the Devil, and all his subordinate devils, and all the wicked of the earth hate hedges. Ecclesiastes 10:8: “He that diggeth a pit shall fall into it; and whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him.”
Other times God uses
the hedge to enclose [or hem in] or to
obstruct one from escaping to their own harm.
This is exactly what here in verse six: I
will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall,
that she shall not find her paths.
One can always tell when God has given up on a person, or a people, or a land. It is when the hedges have been taken away.
Now, the nation of Israel has
been likened to a vineyard.
Consider what happens to vineyard
of the LORD after Israel decides to leave
[or depart] from all the commandments of the
LORD.
This happening is found
in the book of the prophet Isaiah: “And
now go to; I will tell you what I will do to my
vineyard: I will take away the hedge thereof, and it
shall be eaten up; and break down the wall
thereof, and it shall be trodden down:
And I will lay it waste: it
shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall
come up briers and thorns: I will also command the
clouds that they rain no rain upon it.
For the vineyard of the LORD
of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men
of Judah his pleasant plant: and he looked for
judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness,
but behold a cry.” [Isaiah 5:5-7]
Commentary: For nearly
two thousand years, and until A.D. 1948, this nation
in the absence of the hedges has only found
oppression as they wandered homeless
among the nations of the earth.
Verse seven: “And
she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not
overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall
not find them: then shall she say, I will go
and return to my first husband; for then was it
better with me than now.”
Gomer [Israel] now, hits
the road to follow after her lovers.
She pursues worldly fulfillment. She is
looking for whatever will satisfy her
fleshly desires.
But all was to no avail.
She was found endlessly, and always, coming up dry
with a thirsty mouth in her fruitless pursuit of
something she could never really identify, which
was her true need. This true need was for
her first husband.
She was in some ways
like the Samaritan woman at the well [in the Gospel
of John, chapter four] who was questioning the
veracity of the PERSON WHO claimed to be the
source of the water that she would never thirst
again, if she would only drink. Go to
the Scripture there, and we will read:
John 4:13-19: “Jesus
answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of
this water shall thirst again: But whosoever
drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall
never thirst; but the water that I shall give him
shall be in him a well of water springing up into
everlasting life.
The woman saith unto him,
Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither
come hither to draw.
Jesus saith unto her, Go,
call thy husband, and come hither.
The woman answered and said,
I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast
well said, I have no husband:
For thou hast had five
husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy
husband: in that saidst thou truly.
The woman saith unto him,
Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.”
The run with the five previous husbands, and now, presently with another man, has left this woman finally in a condition ready to have her eyes opened to the solution now offered by Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
Until Israel, as a nation, perceives that their true Messiah is none other, but Jesus Christ HIMSELF, they will continue to suffer thirst. The perception that it was better with me then, than it is now, will be their turning point. The return of Israel to her first husband will occur in a future noted day, which day is the day of her trouble when she will mourn for HIM and want HIM.
The Great Tribulation = Jacob's trouble
[The Great Tribulation, Matthew 24:21: “For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.” [Jeremiah 30:7] “Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.”]
This aforementioned event is prophesied in the book of Zechariah the prophet in chapter twelve, verse ten:
“And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.” [Zechariah 12:10]
Verse eight: “For
she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and
oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which
they prepared for Baal.”
Gomer just believed in her deceived heart that her first husband contrived to withhold the good things in life from her. Sad, but true, the Devil put that same old tale over on to Eve. Yea, hath God said?
Genesis 3:1:
“Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of
the field which the LORD God had made. And he said
unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat
of every tree of the garden?”
Baal is found kin to THE DEVIL.
Sometimes the only way a man,
or a woman, ever learns something is through hard
way [through the school of hard knocks].
The thorns, brambles,
sweat, sickness, hunger, and even death
lie in the hard way. See this in
the book of Proverbs 13:15: “Good
understanding giveth favour: but the way of
transgressors is hard.”
Verse nine: “Therefore
will I return, and take away my corn in the time
thereof, and my wine in the season thereof, and will
recover my wool and my flax given to cover
her nakedness.”
Man’s reasoning’s will always come up empty.
Gomer thinks she is in
control. She says, I will
return. Israel says, I
will return.
Gomer presumes she can return [on her own terms]. Israel presumes she can return [on her own terms], but something is very wrong with this thought process.
Analysis: God’s word shows we are a presumptuous lot to think we can map out own plans for our life. This presumptuous reasoning is a telltale sign of the presence of the sin of pride in our life:
Proverbs 16:18: “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.” [P-R-I-D-E always brings destruction].
Conclusion: It can be
said that there is a class of presumptuous men whom
age has not made cautious, nor adversity wise.
Gomer has presumed wrong. Israel has presumed wrong.
Remedy: Gomer must return by Hosea’s terms. Israel must return by the Lord’s terms.
What Gomer [or Israel] must receive from her first husband is the form of application of incremental judgments that slowly increases in intensity over the expanse of time [approximately 2500 years] to bring her to the time of Jacob’s trouble [the Great Tribulation] [Jeremiah 30:7].
So she receives:
1.
Terror
2.
Consumption
3.
Burning ague
4.
Sorrow of heart
5.
Sowing in vain
6.
Killed, or slain
7.
Enslavement
8.
Humiliation
9.
Exhaustion
10.
Fruitlessness
11.
Devouring wild beasts
12.
Desolation of the land
13.
War
14.
Pestilence
15.
Famine
16.
Cannibalism
17.
Faintness of heart
18.
Rejection
19.
All this and more:
Hosea [as type of the God of Israel] appoints judgment Gomer [as type of Israel].
The proof text for
this: Leviticus 26:15-39:
“And if ye shall despise my
statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so
that ye will not do all my commandments, but
that ye break my covenant: I also will do this unto
you;
I will even appoint over you
terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that
shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart:
and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies
shall eat it.
And I will set my face
against you, and ye shall be slain before your
enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you;
and ye shall flee when none pursueth you.
And if ye will not yet for
all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you
seven times more for your sins.
And I will break the pride
of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron,
and your earth as brass:
And your strength shall be
spent in vain: for your land shall not yield her
increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield
their fruits.
And if ye walk contrary unto
me, and will not hearken unto me; I will bring seven
times more plagues upon you according to your sins.
I will also send wild beasts
among you, which shall rob you of your children, and
destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and
your high ways shall be desolate.
And if ye will not be
reformed by me by these things, but will walk
contrary unto me;
Then will I also walk
contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven
times for your sins.
And I will bring a sword
upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of my
covenant: and when ye are gathered together within
your cities, I will send the pestilence among you;
and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the
enemy.
And when I have
broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake
your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver
you your bread again by weight: and ye shall
eat, and not be satisfied.
And if ye will not for all
this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me;
Then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and
I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your
sins.
And ye shall eat the flesh
of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall
ye eat.
And I will destroy your high
places, and cut down your images, and cast your
carcases upon the carcases of your idols, and my
soul shall abhor you.
And I will make your cities
waste, and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation,
and I will not smell the savour of your sweet
odours.
And I will bring the land
into desolation: and your enemies which dwell
therein shall be astonished at it.
And I will scatter you among
the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you:
and your land shall be desolate, and your cities
waste.
Then shall the land enjoy
her sabbaths, as long as it lieth desolate, and ye
be in your enemies' land; even then
shall the land rest, and enjoy her sabbaths.
As long as it lieth desolate
it shall rest; because it did not rest in your
sabbaths, when ye dwelt upon it.
And upon them that are left
alive of you I will send a faintness into
their hearts in the lands of their enemies; and the
sound of a shaken leaf shall chase them; and they
shall flee, as fleeing from a sword; and they shall
fall when none pursueth.
And they shall fall one upon
another, as it were before a sword, when none
pursueth: and ye shall have no power to stand before
your enemies.
And ye shall perish among
the heathen, and the land of your enemies shall eat
you up.
And they that are left of
you shall pine away in their iniquity in your
enemies' lands; and also in the iniquities of their
fathers shall they pine away with them.”
After all of this, blindness is then added to the nation of Israel’s maladies.
Blindness is added.
The LORD has added a final judgment for this people, which is revealed through the prophet in the book of Isaiah:
Isaiah 6:9-10: “And
he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed,
but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive
not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make
their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see
with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and
understand with their heart, and convert, and be
healed.”
Israel was blinded, and they are blinded to this very day as to who Jesus Christ is.
2 Corinthians 3:14: “But
their minds were blinded: for until this day
remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading
of the old testament; which vail is done away
in Christ.”
A general observation concerning mankind:
When we sin, and sin, and sin, and in our pride, think we can presume to come back to where we were, we will find instead ourselves stuck in place, and in subjection to nothing but abject spiritual darkness. We will find that we are undone. We will found naked without God, and HIS mercy to cover for us. [What a sad lot for any people!]
We will hear with the ears the word of God, but we will not understand with the heart the word of God. [What a sad lot for people!]
Verse ten: “And
now will I discover her lewdness in the sight of her
lovers, and none shall deliver her out of mine
hand.”
Gomer’s sin has been found out. And it is all out in the open for others to see! She has become a spectacle in the sight of all her lovers. And as one might say, one does not wash one's dirty linen in public. The LORD GOD brought the thing out! Gomer, a type of Israel, has been smoked!
Numbers 32:23:
“But if ye will not do so, behold, ye have sinned
against the LORD: and be sure your sin will find you
out.”
“…and none shall deliver her
out of mine hand.”
God’s hands are like a vise grip. There is none like the LORD in HIS might! His hand is mighty! See this for yourself in the book of Joshua:
Joshua 4:24: “That
all the people of the earth might know the hand of
the LORD, that it is mighty: that ye might
fear the LORD your God for ever.”
This fear of the LORD is fearful thing. This nugget of truth is according to word of God, which is found in the book of Hebrews, chapter ten, verse thirty-one:
Notice: “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” [Hebrews 10:31]
Verse eleven: “I
will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast
days, her new moons, and her sabbaths, and all her
solemn feasts.”
Observation: “Hold ‘er, Newt; she’s heading for the rhubarb!”
The vise grip is applied
with the sure and the steady hands of the living
God. The LORD knows what
is in man, in his heart.
The thing is true, as the prophet said it is
true, in the book Jeremiah, chapter seventeen, verse
ten: “I the LORD search the heart, I try
the reins, even to give every man according to his
ways, and according to the fruit of his
doings.” [Jeremiah 17:10]
The LORD searches their heart, and gets
the reading.
God knew the things in
the heart of Israel that were most important to
them, and HE has determined to crash their party.
There will be no more
fun. There will be no more singing in Sing
Sing. All the joy is gone…gone…gone.
It is so sad that it came to this. It didn’t
have to be!
What does God have to do to you and me to get our attention?
Verse twelve: “And
I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, whereof
she hath said, These are my rewards that my
lovers have given me: and I will make them a forest,
and the beasts of the field shall eat them.”
Onward it goes.
Downward it goes.
God says, I will
destroy your infrastructure. I will
take it out! Your vines and your
fig trees are going to die. I will do all
of this to get your attention. [Turn back
to me!]
Verse thirteen: “And I
will visit upon her the days of Baalim, wherein she
burned incense to them, and she decked herself with
her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her
lovers, and forgat me, saith the LORD.”
Problem: Israel forgot
her God, and went full bore for Baalim.
This is the problem
for all the nations of the world. There
is pay day coming according to the BOOK!
Psalm 9:17: “The
wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the
nations that forget God.”
This is what exactly
has happened to us, too. We
[the United States of America] likewise, have
forgotten God. The United States of
America has forgotten the God of her
forefathers [The God of the Bible]. We
have deliberately killed our memory of God by
the removal of the Bible and of prayer from
all our public schools and colleges in all our land
for over four generations. Pay day is here!
We used to know of
our connection [as a nation] to the
governmental precepts which are located in
the word of God.
John Quincy Adams [our
sixth President], referred to the "insoluble
bond" between Christianity, and our form
of government.
The Supreme Court said we
must "select and prefer" Christians
for our elected rulers (or officials).
Our forefathers believed
that religion and morality could not be divorced
from politics.
The House Judiciary
Committee Report [March 27, 1854] said of the
adoption of the Constitution and its amendments that
"the universal sentiment [of our
founding fathers] was that Christianity should
be encouraged."
Two months later, the
House Judiciary Committee Report said: “The great
and conservative element in our system ... the thing
that holds our system together is the belief of our
people in the pure doctrines and the divine truths
of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.” Our
forefathers wanted to keep Christian
principles in our government.
Blackstone's
Commentaries On Law are Bible based
and were used by our Supreme Court for guidance for
over 150 years of our nation's history.
The branches of
Government: The legislative, the executive, and the
judicial branches, have their very roots in the
Bible. [Isaiah 33:22]
The 1844 Supreme Court,
in Vidal Vs. Girard, affirmed that our public
schools will teach that Christianity is our
nation's foundation.
The 1892 Supreme Court
decision in Church Of The Holy Trinity Vs. United
States stated that “We are emphatically a
Christian nation.”
So from our nation’s
birth right up to the year 1947, our Supreme Court
had steadfastly maintained that the intent of our
"founding fathers" was for our nation to
preserve its Christian principles in order to
perpetuate its existence as a nation.
However, the 1947 Supreme
Court, in Everson v. Board of Education,
totally pulled out of context Thomas Jefferson's
reference to a “wall of separation between church
and state” which reference was in his letter to
the Danbury Baptist Association of January 1, 1802.
The letter was to express to the Danbury Baptist
Association that there was nothing to fear with
respect to the federal government establishing a
national church [or a national denomination).
The 1947 decision, in essence, declared that we
were no longer a Christian nation. And
ever since then, the Supreme Court has over and
over again, used this phrase “separation of
church and state” to remove Jesus Christ
out of our government and out of our public schools
and colleges in the land.
They did this one step at
a time till we forgot God.
Fact: “The wicked
shall be turned into hell, and all the
nations that forget God.”
Here are the steps:
1.
The Supreme Court, in Engel
versus Vitale, decided to strike out against
school prayer [June 25, 1962].
The goal simply was to get God out of our public
schools.
2.
On June 17, 1963, in Abington
versus Schempp and Murray v. Curlett, the
Supreme Court outlawed Bible reading in the
public schools [without regard to any historical
or legal precedent]. In this
decision, “Bible reading” was considered
psychologically damaging. Downward
we went!
3.
With DeKalb versus De Spain
[1967], the decision was to not allow the “Ten
Commandments” to even be posted in the public
schools of our land. Children would no longer
get to see “The Ten Commandments” posted on
the wall of the school telling them not to lie,
cheat or steal!
4.
And if that was not enough, in 1980,
with “Stone v. Graham”, the Supreme
Court decided that the word of God could not even be
mentioned in a public school.
So, we [as did the nation
of Israel before us] will pay the piper.
And we all are paying today!
Remember this particular RULE
of life: “The wicked shall be turned into hell,
and all the nations that forget God.”
Verse fourteen:
“Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her
into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto
her.”
What is allurement?
Webster’s 1828 dictionary defines it this way:
ALLU'REMENT, n. That which allures; any
real or apparent good held forth, or operating; as a
motive to action; temptation; enticement; as, the
allurements of pleasure, or of honor.
The visitation of judgment comes to
the end, just in time.
The great allurement begins.
The dark clouds
begin to roll away. The visitation of
the days of Baalim passes. The sun
begins to shine.
Here shows a marvelous
thing, the LORD is taking the initiative
to turn the wayward people of Israel [Gomer]
back to HIMSELF: “behold, I
will allure her”!
In the wilderness
God will allure Israel
while she is in the wilderness of Paran in the
latter half of the near future Tribulation
coming to this earth [this according to the
book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ, in chapter
twelve, verse six]: “And
the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a
place prepared of God, that they should feed her
there a thousand two hundred and threescore
days.” [Revelation 12:6]
Now, this allurement is called grace, G-R-A-C-E. Gomer deserved harsh speech from Hosea, but she instead receives comforting words from the prophet. Isn’t that something?
Verse fifteen: “And
I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the
valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall
sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in
the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.”
Now, the valley of Achor is the place where Achan, and his family were buried under a very great heap of stones, and thus, this valley became a cursed valley.
We have here [in this verse] a promise from the word of God that during the Tribulation, the valley of Achor will become a door of hope instead of a curse. In the end, the valley of Achor is destined to become a place where great joy comes to the people of Israel in a so great salvation.
What is more, this very valley [of Achor] lies in the path of the return of Jesus Christ to establish the Kingdom of Heaven on this earth.
Verse sixteen: “And
it shall be at that day, saith the LORD, that
thou shalt call me Ishi; and shalt call me no more
Baali.”
Ishi: an expression of endearment.
In that day they will finally recognize WHO Jesus Christ is: GOD come in the flesh!
Then will this prophesy be fulfilled which is located in the book of Zechariah, chapter twelve, verse ten:
“And I will pour upon the
house of David, and upon the inhabitants of
Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications:
and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced,
and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for
his only son, and shall be in bitterness
for him, as one that is in bitterness for his
firstborn.” [Zechariah 12:10]
The nation of Israel is destined to cleave to their Messiah in a manner much like the Christian in the body of Christ does today when he cries: Abba Father!!! Here it is, in the epistle to the Galatians, chapter four, verse six: “And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.” [Galatians 4:6]
Verse seventeen: “For
I will take away the names of Baalim out of her
mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their
name.”
The cleansing remedy foretold.
When Israel finally receives her Messiah, [WHO is none other than the Son of God, Jesus Christ] Baalim will finally get the boot from the Jewish national scene, and will be cleansed from the hearts and from the thoughts of the Jewish people, for the former things are passed away. Call it the great memory wipeout! What occurs here concerning the names of Baalim reminds me of how God [in the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ] is going to wipe away all tears from our eyes after a new heaven and a new earth is established:
“And God shall wipe away all
tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more
death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall
there be any more pain: for the former things are
passed away.” [Revelation
21:4]
I am looking forward to
this! Amen!
Now, let’s read our next
verse.
Verse eighteen:
“And in that day will I make a covenant for them
with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of
heaven, and with the creeping things of the
ground: and I will break the bow and the sword and
the battle out of the earth, and will make them to
lie down safely.”
There is a day coming when God [Jesus Christ] will make a covenant with all mankind, as well as with all the animals [the beasts], with all the birds [the foul], and with all the creeping things of the earth. And within this covenant God promises to convert all the implements of warfare that man has accumulated in the 21st century in space [above the earth], on the land of the earth, and within the oceans of this earth, and all the creation will live safely together in beautiful harmony. Do you doubt me? Then check it out in THE BOOK for yourself. It will be a world-wide utopia that all men will enjoy living in peace and safety.
It is found in the book of
Isaiah, the prophet, chapter eleven, verse
one:
We read: “And there shall
come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a
Branch shall grow out of his roots:”
So we see this rod, and we see this Branch.
Verse 2: “And
the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the
spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of
counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of
the fear of the LORD;” [This is none other but
the same person that was identified in the Gospel of
John chapter one, verses twenty-nine through
thirty-six.]
Verse 3: “And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears:” Who is this person of quick understanding? We shall see!
Verse 4: “But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked.” Why he is the same person shown in the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ, chapter nineteen, verse fifteen.
Verse 5: “And
righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and
faithfulness the girdle of his reins.”
This is Jesus Christ, the SON of GOD.
Amen!
Look what happens when HE
comes to this earth, soon. The
restitution of all things will occur.
The earth will enjoy a one-thousand year
Sabbath or REST.
Verse 6: “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.”
Verse 7: “And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.”
Verse 8: “And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den.”
Verse 9: “They
shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain:
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the
LORD, as the waters cover the sea.”
The Branch
There is more to consider
concerning this Branch. In
the Gospel according to John, chapter fifteen, in
the first part of verse five, we have this: “I am
the vine, ye are the branches…”
We, who are in the body of Christ, are the branches.
To understand our heritage as branches on the true vine, we will need to understand WHO the BRANCH is [in the Bible]. In the Bible, it is shown that a righteous Branch will come from the legal line of David [a KING].
This is found in the book of Jeremiah, the prophet, in chapter twenty-three, verse five:
“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch, and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth.” [Jeremiah 23:5]
Note, all of this:
• Jesus Christ will be the KING.
• Jesus Christ is the BRANCH.
Now, let me pause here for a moment, in order to make this acknowledgment.
We are very much indebted to Israel. We owe so much to the Jews! Amen!
Now, why?
Here is the reason why:
• From the Jews we received our Bible:
“Much every way: chiefly, because that unto them were committed the oracles of God.” [Romans 3:2]
• From the Jews we received our SHILOH [our SAVIOR, and our salvation]:
“The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be.” [Genesis 49:10]
Now, the BRANCH [Jesus Christ] in the book of Jeremiah came forth from a stem, growing out of the roots of Jesse [Israel], to become the TRUE VINE [Jesus Christ].
In the TRUE VINE, we [the believers in the Son of God Jesus Christ] need to abide as the branches [small case].
There in Psalm eighty is a prophetic picture of this. “And the vineyard which thy right hand hath planted, and the branch that thou madest strong for thyself.” [Psalm 80:15]
Verse nineteen: “And I
will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will
betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in
judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies.”
Twelve times the words
betroth or betrothed appears in God’s
BOOK – the Bible. Two of these instances
are here in the book of Hosea.
Now, what does it mean to
BETROTH?
To betroth is to
commit to a future marriage [by promise] one
to be the future spouse of another.
We certainly can say this
much about betrothing. It has its
origin in the Holy Bible with the first
betrothal being seen in full display in
the First Book of Moses called Genesis in the
story of Isaac and Rebekah. This practice of
betrothing had marriage as its primary
goal.
In this view, which is
through the eye of faith, is seen a PERSON [WHO
is Jesus Christ] WHO will institute a promise
of marriage to the nation of Israel that will
literally last forever. We read it
again: “I will betroth thee unto me
for ever”.
The development of
the special relationship between two: The
LORD GOD, and Israel is to come to an agreement:
“Can two walk
together, except they be agreed?”
[Amos 3:3]
This then, becomes the
central pillar to betrothing: The walk of
two together as one in a future marriage
means: AGREEMENT!
Betrothing
is bathed:
1.
In righteousness
2.
In judgment
3.
In lovingkindness
4.
In mercies
Commentary: The LORD
doesn’t fool with dating Israel. Why?
It is because dating is involves a tasting
experience, and is something only contrived
in the sinful hearts of men.]
Conclusion: This practice
of dating has destroyed God’s institution of
marriage and family as can be seen by its fruit
ever since the 20th century.
Verse twenty:
“I will even betroth thee unto me in
faithfulness: and thou shalt know the LORD.”
The fruit of the
betrothal relationship produces a marriage
steeped in faithfulness.
Proverbs 20:6: “Most men will proclaim
every one his own goodness: but a faithful man who
can find?” If the LORD is
in it [the betrothal] then it shall surely
happen!
Verse twenty-one:
“And it shall come to pass in that day, I will
hear, saith the LORD, I will hear the heavens, and
they shall hear the earth;”
The very nature of a man is earthly, he hears the earth. Man’s focus is on here and now. The LORD hears all else in all the heavens above.
The phrase “that day” points to the millennial reign of Jesus Christ over the earth.
[See Isaiah 2:11, 17, 20, 3:7, 18, 4:1, 2, 5:30, 7:18, 21, and many more places in the Bible.]
Isaiah 11:10: “And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious.”
Verse twenty-two: “And the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel.” Israel will endure the coming tumult in Jezreel [Armageddon], and the day of Jezreel shall surely pass. The earth shall come through and it shall be regenerated. There is life after death. There will be indeed victory after Jacob’s trouble. [Jeremiah 30:7]
Verse twenty-three:
“And I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I
will have mercy upon her that had not obtained
mercy; and I will say to them which were not
my people, Thou art my people; and they shall
say, Thou art my God.”
The promises of God to Israel concern the
earth. This is an earthly type of
promise which involves an inheritance to a LAND.
This is called a LAND GRANT:
“In the same day the LORD
made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed
have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto
the great river, the river Euphrates:”
[Genesis 15:18].
Hosea, chapter three:
Verse one:
“Then said the LORD unto me, Go yet, love a woman
beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress,
according to the love of the LORD toward the
children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love
flagons of wine.”
God is their friend! Israel is the apple of his eye. [Zechariah 2:8, Deuteronomy 32:10]
Verse two: “So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an homer of barley, and an half homer of barley:” Israel [and Judah here] are a purchased people. They are purchased! See for this truth, Exodus 15:16:
“Fear and dread shall fall upon them; by the greatness of thine arm they shall be as still as a stone; till thy people pass over, O LORD, till the people pass over, which thou hast purchased.”
Hosea chapter three:
Verse three: “And I said unto her, Thou shalt abide for me many days; thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be for another man: so will I also be for thee.” The LORD commanded the nation to not play the harlot.
Verse four:
“For the children of Israel shall abide many days
without a king, and without a prince, and without a
sacrifice, and without an image, and without an
ephod, and without teraphim:”
BUT they played the
harlot!
Here is the command given to
Israel.
“And the LORD spake unto
Moses, saying,
Speak unto Aaron, and unto
his sons, and unto all the children of Israel, and
say unto them; This is the thing which the
LORD hath commanded, saying,
What man soever there be
of the house of Israel, that killeth an ox, or lamb,
or goat, in the camp, or that killeth it out
of the camp,
And bringeth it not unto the
door of the tabernacle of the congregation, to offer
an offering unto the LORD before the tabernacle of
the LORD; blood shall be imputed unto that man; he
hath shed blood; and that man shall be cut off from
among his people:
To the end that the children
of Israel may bring their sacrifices, which they
offer in the open field, even that they may bring
them unto the LORD, unto the door of the tabernacle
of the congregation, unto the priest, and offer them
for peace offerings unto the LORD.”
Conclusion: The children of Israel need a tabernacle or a temple for their sacrifices!
NO TABERNACLE – NO TEMPLE then
NO SACRIFICE!
Now, we
need to pause here and see just what has happened to
the nation of Israel as a consequence or their
harlotry. For this we must to
the turn to the Gospel according to Matthew,
to chapter twenty-three, and we will start
reading at verse thirty-six:
Verse 36:
“Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come
upon this generation.
Verse 37: “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!”
Verse 38: “Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.”
Verse 39: “For
I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till
ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in
the name of the Lord.”
Go to chapter
twenty-four, and read verse two:
Matthew 24:2:
“And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these
things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be
left here one stone upon another, that shall not be
thrown down.”
Next we need to turn to the
Gospel according to Luke, to chapter
twenty-one, verses twenty through twenty-four:
“And when ye shall see
Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the
desolation thereof is nigh.
Then let them which are in
Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are
in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that
are in the countries enter thereinto.
For these be the days of
vengeance, that all things which are written may be
fulfilled.
But woe unto them that are
with child, and to them that give suck, in those
days! for there shall be great distress in the land,
and wrath upon this people.
And they shall fall by the
edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive
into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden
down of the Gentiles, until the times of the
Gentiles be fulfilled.” [Luke
21:20-24]
Now, this SIN had its
consequences! Israel would be
found:
1. Without a king
2. Without a prince
3. Without a sacrifice: No sacrifice, because there is no tabernacle or temple.
4. Without an image: Therefore, no images of the idol gods.
5. Without an ephod: There is no ephod for the priest to wear in performing any sacrifice: No sacrifice, because there is no tabernacle or temple.
6. Without teraphim: Therefore, no fashioned with hands, idol gods. Teraphim = IDOL = gods. See what Laban said in: Genesis 31:30:
“And now,
though thou wouldest needs be gone, because thou
sore longedst after thy father's house, yet
wherefore hast thou stolen my gods?”
We find in the BOOK of in
the fifth book of Moses called Deuteronomy
the prophecy concerning Israel that they would be
plucked from off the land if they played the
harlot to another, and not be true to HIM.
The consequences
of Israel playing the harlot were already
clearly spelt out in the fifth book of Moses called
Deuteronomy.
Deuteronomy 28:63: “And it shall come to pass, that as the LORD rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you; so the LORD will rejoice over you to destroy you, and to bring you to nought; and ye shall be plucked from off the land whither thou goest to possess it.” They are a plucked people!
Verse 64: “And
the LORD shall scatter thee among all people, from
the one end of the earth even unto the other; and
there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither
thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood
and stone.” They are a scattered
people! They are
dispersed among all the nations.
Verse 65: “And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, neither shall the sole of thy foot have rest: but the LORD shall give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and sorrow of mind:”
Turn to the book of
Ezekiel.
Ezekiel 20:23: “I lifted up mine hand unto them also in the wilderness, that I would scatter them among the heathen, and disperse them through the countries”: This is called the diaspora.
DIASPORA =
[The dispersion of the Jews among the Gentiles
after their captivity.]
The two major
dispersions of the Jewish people occurred in
[B.C. 610] and [A.D. 70] and this resulted in them
having to suffer the following maladies. They
were to have:
1.
No ease
2.
No rest
3.
No peace.
Which produced in the
people:
1.
A trembling heart
2.
The failing of eyes
3.
A sorrow of mind
Summation: Their
unfaithfulness to the God of Israel [in all
their harlotry] brought them steadily
downhill to all of this. Now, see with
me in the book of Jeremiah:
Jeremiah 30:5: “For thus saith the LORD; We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace.”
Here is the very sobering
scene that we can see for Israel in this situation.
For this we go the book of Psalms.
Psalm 137:1-4:
“By the rivers of Babylon,
there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered
Zion.
We hanged our harps upon the
willows in the midst thereof.
For there they that carried
us away captive required of us a song; and they that
wasted us required of us mirth, saying,
Sing us one of the songs of Zion.
How shall we sing the LORD'S
song in a strange land?”
There is now found in the people’s hearts a continual sorrow. Harlotry does this. Harlotry, or adultery, destroys a marriage. It dissolves the prior relationship.
Now, hear what the Scripture saith concerning their sorrow:
· Jeremiah 30:15: Why criest thou for thine affliction? Thy sorrow is incurable for the multitude of thine iniquity: because thy sins were increased, I have done these things unto thee.”
· Jeremiah 45:3: “Thou didst say, Woe is me now! for the LORD hath added grief to my sorrow; I fainted in my sighing, and I find no rest.”
· Lamentations 1:12: “Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me, wherewith the LORD hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.”
·
Lamentations 1:18:
“The LORD is righteous; for I have rebelled against
his commandment: hear, I pray you, all people, and
behold my sorrow: my virgins and my
young men are gone into captivity.”
Lamentations 3:65: “Give them
sorrow of heart, thy curse unto them.”
There is more than sorrow that is experienced by this people, hear now what the Scripture saith of this people’s [Judah] perpetual state of mourning and of lamentation:
· Lamentations 2:5: “The Lord was as an enemy: he hath swallowed up Israel, he hath swallowed up all her palaces: he hath destroyed his strong holds, and hath increased in the daughter of Judah mourning and lamentation.”
· Amos 8:10: “And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring up sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head; and I will make it as the mourning of an only son, and the end thereof as a bitter day.”
There is more, hear now what the Scripture saith of this people’s [Judah] perpetual state of confusion and of their shame:
· Ezra 9:7: “Since the days of our fathers have we been in a great trespass unto this day; and for our iniquities have we, our kings, and our priests, been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, and to a spoil, and to confusion of face, as it is this day.”
·
Jeremiah 3:25: “We
lie down in our shame, and our
confusion covereth us: for we have sinned
against the LORD our God, we and our fathers, from
our youth even unto this day, and have not obeyed
the voice of the LORD our God.”
There
you have it! It is for Israel to have:
1. Continual sorrow
2. Mourning and lamentation
3. Confusion of face and of shame,
And all of this was to continually dog all this people as seen in the last two thousand years of history.
Hosea chapter three:
Verse four:
“Afterward shall the children of Israel return,
and seek the LORD their God, and David their king;
and shall fear the LORD and his goodness in the
latter days.”