Hosea Chapter 7
vs. 7:1-2
- “When I would have healed Israel...” They would do something else. God wants to heal us. He wants to take all that is bad, and make it good...
- But in the case of Israel... (and most of the time us as well...) they turned time and time again to their sin... more and deeper every time. “When I would have healed Israel... the iniquity of Ephraim is uncovered.” One more thing added to the long list of sins. (Ephraim's capitol was Samaria.)
- “Samaria is filled with liars. Thieves are on the inside and bandits on the outside!”
- I know this may not be relative... but in my mind it makes sense... I heard a Flogging Molly song once (Irish band...) that was a song about getting drunk every night. (I don't recommend the song...) Every night when the guy came home drunk, he found something else in his house that just didn't quite belong there. Like one night he came home and there was a horse tied outside his door... and so he goes in and asks his wife whose horse it is... and her reply was... “oh that's not a horse! That's a pig that my mother sent me!” And the husband says... hmm... I've never seen a saddle on a pig before... DUH... And finally one night he comes home and says “there was a head upon the bed, where my own head should be...” and the wife told him it was a baby boy her mother sent to her... and he says “A baby with its whiskers on... I've never seen before!”
- God's not coming home drunk. You can't pull one over on him. He knows exactly what's going on under His roof and in your life. He as spouse... knows everything... you can't commit adultery without Him knowing about it... can't even think about it without Him knowing about it.
- The people of Israel were trying to hide their sin. They walked the walk... and talked the talk... but in their hearts, and in their secret actions... (and sometimes their not so secret actions...) they had ceased to follow God... they had ceased to even really try to follow God. Had ceased to be faithful to Him.
- So the place was filled with liars and thieves. The message translation reads as follows: “Two-faced and double-tongued, they steal you blind, pick you clean.”
- But God sees... “It never crosses their mind that I keep account of their every crime. They're mud-spattered head to toe with the residue of sin. I see who they are and what they've done.”
- Ever been thinking about sinning and had the thought “well... no one will know. It's not something that will be seen... and tomorrow... I can go on like nothing ever happened.”
- A lie from the pit of hell itself. If no person on this earth ever knows... God still does. And He's the witness that counts! When you stand before God, your pastor doesn't get a say in your eternity... Neither does your mother, or your grandmother, or your sister... They may not see your sin and their view of you may not change... but God sees all...
- And I know that sounds a little scary... gives me visions of Big Brother Watching... But God watches because He cares. He's not watching and waiting on you to fall. He's there cheering you on, hoping you win the battles you're faced with. He's hoping that you call on Him when temptation comes. He's hoping that you will dig in and grow deep in Him.
- And this is all dependent on Grace. Undeserved favor. A gift... with no strings attached.
- But this is all to say that in those times when temptation comes... when it seems like it would be easier to give in and follow the crowd or do something “fun” for once... Don't fool yourself into thinking that God doesn't see.
- God is not One to be ignored... He is still a Jealous God. He is jealous for your attention, for your time, and for your love... He expects and needs you to be a faithful spouse. Faithful and loving to Him just as He is to you.
- Granted, we all fall. No one is perfect. Even after initial salvation... no one is perfect. We fall over the smallest things sometimes...
- But the point is to get back up. When you fall... don't run into a corner and cry because you failed. Turn and ask God to help you back up and let Him hold you for a while. If you run from the One thing that can help you... you will most certainly fall again. And again. And again. What God desires, is for you to turn and ask for forgiveness at the instant of sin.
- When you were a little kid... do you remember trying to hide something from your parents? Maybe you broke a window, or a lamp, or maybe you accidentally dumped all your mom's shampoo out and tried to refill the bottle with water... lol
- Whatever it was... if you had gone directly to your parent(s), punishment would have been immediate, sure... but it may not have been as bad as what you got later... for the act itself... with the added charges of lying and conniving to cover it up...
- Running from God, only leads to trying to hide things from people first... and then God Himself... and eventually, to trying to lie to people about the state of your soul... and then even to try to lie to God.
- Remember the story of Cain and Abel? When God came to Cain and said “where is your brother?” Cain tried to cover it up. “Am I my brother's keeper?” Am I supposed to be keeping track of somebody else? Oh... didn't know that... nope... don't know where he is... sorry... ugh... God already knew! “Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground!” He knew!
- Cain was punished... in a way that to him seemed too much of a punishment to bear... but God in effect gave him a second chance. Even if He did make life more difficult for Cain as punishment.
- Ezekiel 24:3-27
- Micah 7:1-20
- Jeremiah 9:1-10:25
- Isaiah 28:1-30:33
- Psalm 78
vs. 7:3-4
- In a Kingdom, the king or leader is the one who sets the general mood for the kingdom. He's the one who sets up taxes and figures out how strict the police will be on the people. If you get a leader who is lax in his rulings... the people will generally do whatever they want to do.
- In Israel, “the people entertain the king with their wickedness, and the princes laugh at their lies.”
- The leaders, laughed at sin. It was funny!
- My cousin is 4 years old. She was a late comer... her sister and brother are about 12 and 14 years older than she is. She's been around older people all her life. She doesn't always think like a 4 year old. Her siblings find it funny to teach her things she's not supposed to do or say... and then have her do it to the parents or grandparents. Granted... most of the time it's pretty funny... however, because she's been laughed at, she's gradually finding more ways to get in trouble because she thinks it's funny...
- If discipline isn't put into action, that child will be a handful and a half by the time she starts school. Not only disciplining her... but to the ones who teach her as well...
- Israel was there. The kings were teaching the people to sin... teaching them the sins of other nations... and then sitting back and laughing at them and with them. They took part just as much as anybody else... but instead of disciplining the people... the leadership laughed. And encouraged.
- “They are all adulterers, always aflame with lust. They are like an oven that is kept hot while the baker is kneading the dough.”
- Ready to jump at anything. Ready to bake at any given moment... lol
- I was thinking about being in college and hearing people talking about sleeping around with random strangers... just because they were available and thought it would be fun... and I remembered a story of a girl who went on vacation somewhere... and she met this guy... well they had a blast for the week or so they were there... They partied all over town... and by the end of it, they'd had sex. Well she went to get on the plane to come home and he handed her a note and said “don't open it until you get on the plane.” And so she did. She waited and got on the plane all excited... what could he have sent her off with? Was it some way to contact him later? Was it some expression of how much he'd enjoyed his time with her?...... The note only had one line. It read: “Welcome to the world of AIDS.” (This woman later did indeed end up with AIDS and so she went around the country for a while speaking about abstinence and the dangers of sleeping around in general. I think she has since died from her disease... if I remember correctly...)
- I heard that story sometime in high school I think... and so when I got to college... and a lot of the people I knew were telling stories about sleeping around... I always remembered that story... What will you give up for a few minutes of pleasure? What is the price you will pay for a few minutes of feeling like you're getting away with something?
- Israel had started to look at correction or discipline as only an inconvenience. It would cause them to hesitate for a time perhaps... but not to change their hearts.
- Instead, they turned and laughed.
- Can you imagine if you were a parent, and your kid did something that was HORRIBLE... Something they knew you didn't tolerate... and you started to discipline them... and they LAUGHED at you? Oh man... I couldn't handle it... but that's me...
- God on the other hand... tried to reason with them. Tried to get them to see the error of their ways. So He sent His prophets. He sent punishment. He thwarted their plans. And yet... they still wouldn't follow.
- Jeremiah 23:5-40
- Ezekiel 14:1-16:63
- Matthew 23:1-39
- Amos 2:4-6:14
vs. 7:5-7
- “On royal holidays, the princes get drunk with wine, carousing with those who mock them.”
- The next few verses talk about the leaders “burning like an oven.” They lusted after power. And they were willing to make contractual agreements with just about anybody to make it happen... even people they knew weren't the greatest of allies... even people who laughed at them to their faces.
- God said they got drunk and allowed these alliances to happen.
- footnote- “Their hearts are like an oven blazing with intrigue” refers to the lust for power and intrigue that was burning in these leaders' hearts. Three Israelite kings were assassinated during Hosea's lifetime—Zechariah, Shallum, and Pekahiah (2 Kings 15:8-26). The kings' foreign relations and domestic lives were ruined because they ignored God and His word.”
- I was talking to mom the other day about the different kings of Judah and Israel... there were more than a few times that Judah allied themselves with Israel against God's directions. It was just something that the king decided would be a good thing to do... or a nice thing to do... since they are technically family after all...
- The one was with Ahab. (I Kings 22) They were getting ready to go up to battle and Ahab called in all his prophets to tell them how the battle would go. Of course they all said “yeah sure! Go ahead! You'll win no problem...” Well, the king of Judah asked if there was a prophet of God somewhere that they could see to get direction for the battle. Ahab said “There is one more man who could consult the Lord for us, but I hate him. He never prophesies anything but trouble for me!”
- Well huh. Living in sin, worshiping idols, refusing to listen to God... yeah the prophesy probably wouldn't be the greatest...
- At that moment... Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, should have turned around and walked out of the alliance... regardless of consequences... but he didn't.
- Prophet got there and he sarcastically tells king Ahab to go up! Go to battle! You'll be victorious! Go ahead!
- “How many times must I demand that you speak only the truth to me when you speak for the Lord?”
- Now wait... he just said he hated him because he never told him good things... but somewhere... deep down, Ahab really did want the truth.
- Long story short... the prophet tells Ahab that he will go to battle, and he will die. What does Ahab say to that? He arrests the prophet and throws him back in prison. Well huh.
- This was the attitude of the kings of Israel all the way through the chronology. There was never a good king in Israel. They all did whatever they wanted for the most part.
- They were always ready to raise themselves up in the world. These verses as a whole come together to say that the princes are conspiring and making alliances with others just to kill off the kings and take their places. Hence the three kings that were assassinated... just in Hosea's time.
- “They kill their kings one after another, and no one cries to me for help.”
- As the people of God, we are instructed to pray for our leaders... maybe not agree with them on everything, but definitely to pray for them. In doing so... I believe that eventually, the fate of a nation as a whole can change. If there are people who are praying for their leader to have wisdom in his decisions etc... then I believe that God will lead and guide... even if he's not a Christian... and I hope that eventually... his heart softens enough to become a Christian. If he's not already.
- If instead, we turn and just get mad at our leaders for not understanding where we are, or what we're dealing with, or if we just bad mouth all the time without ever attempting to make a change... we just become more of the problem.
- Some of the princes of Israel had decided that they could do better. So they started knocking off the kings so they could take over. And once it was done once... well why not try it again... maybe they'd have better luck this time. Lol
- Instead of crying out to God for help in their political systems... they turned to yet another sin... murder. A continual downward spiral.
- Jeremiah 3:1-25
vs. 7:8-11
- “The people of Israel mingled with godless foreigners, making themselves as worthless as a half-baked cake!”
- footnote- “The people of Israel had intermarried with foreign people and had picked up their evil ways. When we spend a lot of time with unbelievers, either professionally or socially, we can easily pick up their attitudes and begin to imitate their actions. Beware of the influence they may have on you. Instead of drifting into bad habits, see if you can have a positive influence and point these people to God.”
- The half-baked cake thing was like a pancake that was only fried on one side. They hadn't flipped it... so it was baked on one side, but the other side was still raw batter... not so fun to eat...
- But if you take that as a cake... like birthday cake... then it's still yucky sounding... can you imagine cutting into a cake only to find that the batter is still raw in the middle? I mean there are filled cakes... but... I can't imagine trying to eat a half raw cake...
- Because they had started intermarrying with the godless nations... they had picked up the bad habits of those nations.
- Solomon was the first example that we see in the kings. As he married foreign women, he built altars for their gods to appease them. And then he himself started worshiping there too. The man who at first asked God for wisdom... failed to do so on a continual basis.
- As Israel continued to take in these other religions, they became like that half-baked cake. Yucky. Unusable. Worth nothing.
- Remember when God said that He'd prefer you to be hot or cold... not lukewarm? Well if you were a drink... then hot things are used for healing purposes, or for comfort. Cold things are used for revitalization, for a wake-up. Lukewarm... well it's not really used for anything.
- Israel had become lukewarm. They weren't doing anybody any good.
- “Worshiping foreign gods has sapped their strength, but they don't even know it. Their hair is gray, but they don't realize they're old and weak.”
- Have you ever had a moment when you realize you're older than you feel?
- My dad was playing basketball one day. He and his friend were going at it... playing like they were in high school... and he jumped up for a shot... and landed... and sprained his ankle pretty bad... lol
- Maybe you USED to be able to do it... but not now...
- Because Israel had started worshiping idols... they were aging faster. They didn't realize what their sin was doing to them.
- Remember the story of Samson? He grew so far apart from God that when Delilah finally cut his hair... he didn't realize that the spirit of God had left him. He woke up ready to fight... and couldn't.
- Israel was there. God's spirit had left... and they were so busy with their sin... that they didn't even realize that He was gone.
- footnote- “Arrogance (pride) keeps a person from turning to God because arrogance claims no need of help from anyone, human or divine. Pride intensifies all our other sins because we cannot repent of any of them without first giving up our pride.”
- Israel's arrogance “testifies against them, yet they don't return to the Lord their God or even try to find Him.”
- “I'm fine on my own. I don't need YOUR help. I'll make out okay. Eventually my ship will come in and I'll have all I ever dreamed of... Hard work, sweat of my brow, and some good old fashioned business sense... and I'll be fine. I don't need God to tell me what to do or how to do it.”
- They were so prideful. So full of themselves. They refused to seek God's help... even when He was the only One Who could help them.
- Because of their pride and distrust of God, “the people of Israel have become like silly, witless doves, first calling to Egypt, then flying to Assyria for help.”
- They turned everywhere BUT to God.
- Moses led them out of Egypt. That was the place that had enslaved them for YEARS. And where do they turn to for help? Their former taskmasters! Hello!
- We do the same thing. We get tired of situations, or we get caught up in life... and the next thing you know, we're turning to other things for stress relief... like alcohol, or food, or drugs, or adrenaline rushes... Or maybe none of that... maybe we turn to TV.
- All of those things can keep a hold on our lives, on our minds, on our hearts... And sometimes... we get away from it. We turn and say okay, I'm going to spend less time on this, or I'm going to do this less... I'm going to change something in my life... and the next time things get rough... where does life find you? Back in the same hole again? Or maybe a different hole?
- Why is it so hard to ask for help! It's like we can't seem to ask for fear that God will say no! He doesn't say no!
- So why is it so hard to turn and say “God... I'm struggling with this... can you help me?”
- Because our pride gets in the way. We start thinking that we're not worthy to walk into God's presence the way we are. So we have to fix ourselves before we can enter into God's presence...
- You know what? You're right. You're not worthy. You're not worthy to tie his sandals... as one of the disciples said... However... we don't fix us. God is the only handyman. He's the only one with a hammer.
- When we find ourselves in a hole... God doesn't want us to start trying to claw our way out... all that does is make the hole deeper... and wider... and then more people can join us in the same hole...
- What God wants... needs us to do... is to call out for help! So He can come and reach down in the hole and pull us out! Otherwise, we not only hurt ourselves... but we also start attracting others to our hole by all the dirt that's flying out of it.
- What does it take for us to give up our pride and ask for help?
- In Israel's history... some of the same nations they allied themselves with... later took them into captivity...
- The things we ally ourselves with in hope of help and safety... are the very things that put us in chains.
- Anything but Christ is bondage... and yet He's the last place we look to...
- Stifle pride! Let go of arrogance! Call on your Salvation! Call on He Who Helps! Call on the One Who is the ultimate Ally!
- Jeremiah 2:2-37
- Isaiah 64:1-65:25; 1:2-3:26
vs. 7:12-16
- “As they fly about, (chasing after help from other nations) I will throw my net over them and bring them down like a bird from the sky. I will punish them for all the evil they do.”
- God wants to bring His people back down to earth so to speak. He wants them to see reason. He's going to try to bring them down... take their pride down a notch or two... trying to get them to see that He's right there and He still loves them!
- “What sorrow awaits those who have deserted Me! Let them die for they have rebelled against Me.”
- Ouch... harsh much? I mean God just condemned them to die... I thought He was the loving God. The God Who wants the best for His people...
- “I wanted to redeem them, but they have told lies about me. They do not cry out to me with sincere hearts. Instead, they sit on their couches and wail. They cut themselves, begging foreign gods for grain and new wine, and they turn away from Me.”
- God loves His people... but justice eventually has to come...
- Israel had turned almost completely to the worship of idols. Their hearts were cold towards God. Cutting was used in idol worship to sort of... wake the god up.
- If you read the story of Elijah and the prophets of Baal in I Kings 18, when Baal didn't answer, the prophets started cutting themselves hoping that the smell of blood would attract their god to their plea.
- Israel abandoned the True God... for images that had no reply to their petitions... but they could live however they wished! No unseen God was making unreasonable demands on their lives! They were FREE! Free to die in sin and go to hell. Free to feel pain all the time. Free to be miserable and always desperately thirsty for more of... something... Free to watch their children grow up in a sin filled world that preys upon the young and innocent... But they got to do what they wanted! Yippee!.....................
- “I trained them and made them strong, yet now they plot evil against me. They look everywhere except to the Most High. They are as useless as a crooked bow. Their leaders will be killed by their enemies because of their insolence toward me. Then the people of Egypt will laugh at them.”
- God did everything for them. Said “call on My Name and listen to My instruction and all will be well.” Sounds easy enough right? All they had to do was rely on God.
- But their self-sufficient human minds... couldn't handle that. They wanted to feel their pride get some adulation. Wanted to have their “self” feel like he was on top of things. Like he was king of his little mini-kingdom.
- So now... they look everywhere BUT to God. Again... they have made themselves to be useless. Lukewarm.
- So their leaders will be killed and their enemies... Egypt... the ally... will laugh at them.
- A lot of the time Egypt is seen as being the same as “the world” in the Christian view of things. The world will entice you away from God... give you things to fill your time and take your interest... and then they will laugh when you fall into the abyss.
- footnote- “...In reality, only God can truly satisfy the deep longings of the soul. Look first to heaven, to the Most High God. He will meet your spiritual needs, not all your materialistic wants.”
- Yes God does indeed have your best in mind. He does love you. He does want you to succeed. He does want you to be good at what you do. He wants you to feel good about yourself...
- But He wants you to depend on Him to gain those things...
- I was listening to something the other day and they were talking about marriage in general... Men have this need to be needed. They need to feel like they are the provider of the family. Feel like they are the head.
- Women feel this need to be protected.
- Whether or not we admit it... we were made that way. And as self-sufficient as you may feel... we still have those feelings of needing someone else. Men need women to need them. Women need men to care for and feel protected by. It's a great partnership.
- God is the same way. He IS our provider, our sustainer, our everything... and when we turn and try and do things on our own... it's like turning to your incredibly rich and sweet husband who has provided everything you could ever ask for... both materially and emotionally... and saying “well sweety... I'm just not getting enough out of this... you're not providing for me... so I'm gonna go get a job as a prostitute to make ends meet... cause we're just not gonna make it if I don't have some kind of job...” seriously? That's not gonna fly...
- Don't look to the world for happiness... God is waiting with an armload... just waiting for you to ask for it... You may have to lay a little pride down first... you may have to actually ASK for help... but in the long run... it'll be SO worth it...
- So my friend, how can God help you today?
- Ezekiel 12:1-13-23
- Nahum 1:2-15
- Psalm 30; 33; 46; 70
- Mark 7:14-23
- Proverbs 16:4-6
- James 4:4-10
