[0:00] Okay, if you will open your Bible once again to the prophecy of Hosea, commonly referred to as the first of the minor prophets. Although in some ways, and in many ways, these minor prophets are not minor at all, as the song suggests.
[0:16] There is a pattern that is found throughout the Old Testament in regard to the nation of Israel. From the time that God first called them and established them as a nation, and actually, I guess we should accurately date that from their origin in Egypt.
[0:33] So, the seedlings of the nation of Israel, of course, began with Noah and Noah's son Shem, and eventually it funneled down to this man Abraham and his son Isaac, and then his son Jacob, and then the twelve sons of the twelve tribes.
[0:51] But for all practical purposes, insofar as their national identity was concerned, that was really pretty much formulated in Egypt. And as cruelly and as unfairly as the Egyptians treated the Jews during its 400 years, much of which was spent in slavery, nonetheless, prophecy promises a blessing in the future for the people of Egypt, and for some of the others living in the Middle East that we would not think would be in store for God's blessing, but many of them will be.
[1:31] And the pattern that is repeated once the nation of Israel is formulated, and they accept and recognize Jehovah as the one true God, they continually fall prey to idol worship.
[1:45] And that starts all the way back in Genesis. And they are judged for their idol worship. And the way God usually judges them is by bringing a pagan nation, whose God they also may have worshipped, against them to defeat them.
[2:05] In other words, God takes his own people to the woodshed, sometimes through the auspices of a pagan nation, and disciplines them. They cry out for deliverance.
[2:16] They repent of their sin. God raises up a deliverer, whether it's Moses or Joshua or one of the other prophets in the Old Testament. And they repent. And then they have a time of spiritual prosperity and material prosperity.
[2:32] And then they become proud and lifted up. And they fall back into idolatry again. And the cycle is repeated over and over again. And this time, God is going to do a more permanent work with not only the nation of Israel, but with Judah too.
[2:50] So when I mention those two, let's back up just a little bit. And I want to remind you that since we only meet once a month, there is a need for a little bit of review and repetition.
[3:01] But for those who are listening online and hear one session after another, it's more repetition than they need. But you've gone 30 days without it, and sometimes they've gone 30 minutes.
[3:12] But at any rate, we're doing it primarily for the benefit of the group that gathers here. And those online are welcome to listen as they will. But this is our main concern. When the nation of Israel divided because of the secession from the Union of ten tribes to the north, that became identified and will hereafter be referred to as Israel.
[3:38] I suspect the reason they maintained the name was because they also constituted ten-twelfths of the entire nation of Israel.
[3:48] So it's probably only fitting that they retained the name Israel. And the two tribes in the south were Judah and Benjamin. And they are going to have separate governments and separate monarchies and separate prophets.
[4:03] For instance, Hosea is only going to be ministering to the northern kingdom. That's the northern ten tribes. And this cleavage in the Union took place about 931 B.C.
[4:21] So we're talking about the reign of King David, which was 40 years. It was already passed. Saul's reign was 40 years. That's gone too. Solomon's reign, another 40 years.
[4:32] That's gone also. Rehoboam comes to the throne. And it is in Rehoboam's reign that the kingdom is divided between the north and the south due to their pulling out of the Union.
[4:43] And in the year 722 B.C., which is a little more than 200 years after the cleavage in the Union, the Assyrians are going to come down from the north and invade those northern ten tribes, the capital of which will be Samaria.
[5:05] You can read about this in the Kings. This is when things got so bad, the city was under siege. Nobody could get in. Nobody could get out. No food could get in or anything.
[5:17] And they were eating, as a last resort, the heads of a donkey. And some of the people even resorted to cannibalism to survive during that time of siege.
[5:30] This was a really, really rough time. And it's recorded in 2 Kings. And then when they are carried away into northern captivity, focus turns pretty much to the southern two tribes.
[5:48] They are maintaining some degree of stability. And one reason they were was because they at least had Jerusalem and they had the temple. And that provided them with some spiritual center.
[6:02] But nonetheless, most of the kings that sat on the throne in Judah, which was still following in the line of David, still the royal tribe, still everyone on the throne in Judah came from the tribe of Judah, the royal tribe.
[6:20] They had a few kings that were godly. Most of them were not. In the north, which is the element to which Hosea will be ministering, they did not have one single person sit on the throne who had any respect for the true God at all.
[6:40] They were all involved in paganism. Every king was really bad. Probably one of the worst was Ahab. He was not helped along because his wife was Jezebel.
[6:54] And if you want to read some very grotesque stuff, I was telling Scott here, when you read this stuff of what happened back in 2 Kings 9 and 10, which is the Jezreel area spoken of by Hosea here in the first chapter, it reminds me of modern-day Isis.
[7:15] Very brutal. Very bloodthirsty. Severed a lot of heads, etc. We're not going to go back there, but if you want some background, well, let's just start reading with Hosea.
[7:26] And we'll be as brief as we can in bringing you up to date with it. But the word of the Lord which came to Hosea, the son of Beri, during the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
[7:39] Now, He wasn't ministering to the kings of Judah or to Judah as a whole, but He's saying this was during the time of this prophet's ministry.
[7:50] It's when these kings were on the throne of Judah. This is the southern two tribes that remain. And they are distinguished from the king Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel.
[8:07] And if you don't recognize the two distinct kingdoms, it's a little confusing. Because you've got to remember, Israel here is spoken of as the northern ten tribes.
[8:21] And Judah is spoken of as the two tribes in the south. Each one is going to have their own prophetic ministry. And Hosea is called to minister to the people in Israel.
[8:37] And this would approximate a time somewhere in the vicinity of 900 B.C., approximately 900 years before the birth of Christ.
[8:50] It was during the time of Elisha, who was not a writing prophet but was a protege of Elijah. It's back around that same time.
[9:01] So, we read then in verse 2, When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, Go take to yourself a wife of harlotry and have children of harlotry, for the land commits flagrant harlotry for seeking the Lord.
[9:18] And we've already pointed out to you, and I don't want to spend much time on this, but this woman was a prostitute. And they were not at all uncommon.
[9:29] In fact, if you want to know how common prostitutes were in Israel in this time, you can go back and read the Proverbs. Marie and I read one of the Proverbs every morning, along with the Our Daily Bread.
[9:47] And it is amazing, as you read through those 31 chapters in Proverbs, how many times a prostitute surfaces. And we say to each other, here she is again.
[9:57] And always the warning is given. The writer, Solomon, is giving a warning against young men not to be enticed by prostitutes.
[10:09] So, you get the impression that the ladies of the evening were available in abundance. And the warning is to steer clear of them.
[10:20] And I just throw this in for what it's worth. It is utterly amazing that the man whom God used to give that advice wasn't very good at taking it.
[10:36] Now, I'm not saying that Solomon went into a bunch of prostitutes, but he did have a whole bunch of concubines. And I suspect that none of them were paid, if you know what I mean. And that was his downfall.
[10:49] Because as you read the account of Solomon's life, even though he was able to bring the nation to a peak of prosperity, morally, it wasn't all that good.
[11:03] And it was starting downhill in his reign. And his son, Rehoboam, took it even further. But Solomon had this thing about strange women, we are told. And when you read about that in the Old Testament, it always refers to women who are not followers of Jehovah.
[11:21] These were pagan wives, and they led him astray into the worship of their gods. And it's hard for me to compute that, because everybody knows that Solomon is referred to as the wisest man who ever lived.
[11:37] So I'll just say there's no fool like an old fool and leave it there. Now, Hosea is given this command by God to marry a prostitute, and to marry a prostitute with children.
[11:51] And it was not particularly unusual for a prostitute to have children in these days, because they never involved themselves with abortions, as we're so familiar with today.
[12:03] They didn't have a morning-after pill. They didn't have any of those things. So when a woman was pregnant, she had a baby. And a lot of these had babies almost on an annual basis, or every 15 or 18 months.
[12:15] There was a weaning process, and I guess that was involved in it too. But she has multiple children. We don't know how many, but we know she had at least two that were a result of her prostitution.
[12:27] And God is telling Hosea that he wants him to marry this woman and her multiple children, however many there were.
[12:39] And we debated a little bit about whether or not that was literal. Some are of the opinion that God would never require one of his prophets to do something that the Old Testament or the Law of Moses prohibits.
[12:50] But the Law of Moses does not prohibit marrying a prostitute. It only prohibits a priest under the Levitical system from marrying a prostitute.
[13:01] It doesn't say anything about anybody else. So Hosea was not a priest. He was not of the tribe of Levi.
[13:12] And if you think that it is somehow unfair or unreasonable that God would demand this of one of his servants, I just suggest that you wait until you get the glory, and you can ask Hosea if he thought he got a raw deal.
[13:29] But I suspect that he considers himself privileged to have been in the position that he was, really, to be used this way. And the whole point of this is an object lesson. God is going to use Hosea to demonstrate to the nation of Israel how flagrant their idolatry and their unfaithfulness has been, despite the fact that he, their God, had never done anything to deserve that.
[13:56] So this is strictly a one-sided kind of thing. He had never given them any reason to be unfaithful, and yet they were. And the little word for there could very well be translated because.
[14:09] So it is go take to yourself a wife of harlotry and have children of harlotry because the land. That's, of course, speaking of Israel, the nation.
[14:20] The land commits flagrant harlotry, forsaking the Lord. And what you've got to be able to do here is equate physical adultery, which is what Hosea and his wife were involved with, compared to spiritual idolatry, which is what the nation of Israel was connected with.
[14:46] And he is using a physical object lesson of a man-wife relationship and the unfaithfulness of the wife to the husband to depict God and his relationship to Israel.
[14:59] And in other places in the Old Testament, he refers to Israel as being his wife, and he, her husband, and she has played the harlot.
[15:10] She has gone after other deities. And the principal one will be the Baals. And you read about them a lot in the Old Testament. In fact, when, well, let's go on and read a little bit about Jezreel.
[15:28] So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Deblaym, and she conceived and bore him a son. And the Lord said to him, name him Jezreel.
[15:38] Now, that's not only going to be the name of Hosea's firstborn son, but it is also the name of a geographical location where something really devastating took place.
[15:53] It was a real massacre in the valley of Jezreel. And he says, And when you read the passage that will not take time to go back to, but it's in 2 Kings 9 and 10, when you go back to it, you will discover that Jehu, who was on the throne at the time, was carrying out orders.
[16:18] And the order was from God to attack these people. And he did that. So Jehu was one of those ungodly kings of the northern kingdom.
[16:30] But what he, I guess you would say his motivation in doing it was all wrong. Because there is a lot of treachery involved. You want to read some real intrigue and treachery and betrayal.
[16:44] Read those two chapters in 2 Kings 9 and 10, because Jehu is responsible for eliminating these people who were Baal worshippers. And he gets all the prophets together, remember, much like Elijah did on Mount Carmel, and has them all executed.
[17:02] And he kills 40 of the king's sons, because he had multiple wives and many sons, and then had their heads delivered to the palace in baskets. And that's what I was saying reminds me of ISIS.
[17:14] This is a very bloodthirsty type situation. And he did the right thing in eliminating the prophets and the worshippers of Baal. But he demonstrated that he didn't do it for the right reason, because he turned right around and fell into and set up the worship of the golden calf, which was exactly what the, what's his name?
[17:49] The first king, Jeroboam. Jeroboam, the son of Nebat that made Israel to sin with that golden calf. And he turns right around and does that. So he certainly was not the hero that some would portray him to be.
[18:02] And it's because of the bloodshed of Jezreel that I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. What does that mean? That means your ten tribes are going to come crashing down.
[18:16] God is going to hand those ten tribes over to yet another enemy. And that's the meaning of I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. And that will be 721 B.C.
[18:30] And it will come about on that day that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel. That simply means that I will make Israel unable to adequately defend herself.
[18:45] She will have a broken bow and she will succumb to those who will attack her from without. Then she conceived again and gave birth to a daughter.
[18:57] And the Lord said to him, Name her Loruamah, for I will no longer have compassion on the house of Israel that I should ever forgive them.
[19:08] Now I want to ask you a question. I want you to try to put yourself back, as difficult as it is, in a position like this, a couple of thousand years, almost 3,000 years. And let's try to get a mental picture of the kind of area to which Hosea was ministering.
[19:25] These were people who by our standards would have been rather primitive, probably lived in small villages. The largest in the northern kingdom would be Samaria, which will be one of the capitals.
[19:40] And we don't know how many people were there. No census taken, but let's just take a guesstimation and say probably a few thousand people.
[19:52] Maybe not even as many as 10,000. We just don't have a good feel for that. But we do know they constituted the majority of the population of the whole of Israel at that time in these northern ten tribes, simply because, as I said, they were ten twelfths of the people.
[20:08] But in this community, wherever it was that Hosea lived, which may very well have been the capital, these things are taking place publicly. That is, he is taking unto himself a known prostitute in the area.
[20:24] Who in Samaria knew that Gomer was a prostitute? Everybody! Everybody knew everybody's business. One of those kinds of things, you know.
[20:35] They all lived in close proximity. They all worshipped together in the same place. They all had the same kind of interaction, etc. So, you can be certain that this was not a secret. This was an open thing.
[20:47] And no doubt people were shaking their heads and wondering how in the world can this be and why would he be willing to do that and so on and so on. And God makes it very clear that he is using this situation as an object lesson to talk to the whole nation.
[21:02] And if they didn't know what Hosea was doing and who Hosea was marrying and who her children were and everything, then the whole point would be lost.
[21:13] The people wouldn't be able to make any connection at all. And if there's anything God wants these people to do, it's to be able to make a connection. So, when Hosea is going through this matrimonial chaos and the children being born of it, you may be sure that it was well known to everybody.
[21:33] And Hosea is not trying to hide it or deny it. He's probably broadcasting it. And he wants everybody to know, what I'm doing is what you're doing. Only you're doing it on a much larger scale.
[21:47] Only I have a woman who is going to prove to be not only unfaithful in the past, she's going to be unfaithful to me after I marry her. And that's a perfect picture of you, Israel.
[22:01] Only you're doing it on a much larger scale. And Gomer has a flawed husband, me. But you, as a nation, you don't have a flawed husband.
[22:15] You have a husband who has cared for you and prepared for you and loved you. And this is what you've done to him. So, let's read on. Name her Lo-Ru-Ama.
[22:28] And the word Lo in Hebrew simply means no. It's a negative. Name her Lo-Ru-Ama. And the reason she's to have that name is because I will no longer have compassion on the house of Israel that I should ever forgive them.
[22:48] Now, how long has he been putting up with this? Since they started as a nation. Way back in 931 B.C. Now we're talking about 721 or 722 B.C.
[23:01] A couple of hundred years this is going on. Generation after generation. And the northern ten tribes have just morally and spiritually deteriorated. Year after year after year.
[23:13] And God in His graciousness raises up men like Hosea to deliver this warning message to these people. If you do not repent and change your ways, I'm going to make an end to this kingdom.
[23:29] And He's already prophesied that. I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. And I'll break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel. And then in verse 7, that's the two tribes to the north.
[23:50] They are going to survive. Now, the king and the Assyrians who are going to invade the northern ten tribes, they're also going to invade in the south too.
[24:02] But they are not going to conquer the south. They are not going to lead people in the south into captivity. But they are going to invade. They're going to make inroads in there. And then they will pull out.
[24:12] And they're going to leave the southern two kingdoms, the southern two tribes intact with the priesthood, with the temple, with the kingship, etc.
[24:24] And that's going to survive from 721 to 586. And during that time in between, God is going to be sending multiple prophets to the southern two tribes, particularly to Jerusalem.
[24:43] And we'll be warning them. You saw what happened to your sister up north? Same thing is going to happen to you. It'll be a different enemy from a different direction, but he's coming.
[24:55] This is the prophecy and the burden of almost the entirety of the book of Jeremiah. And it starts out in the very first chapter. So, his compassion on the house of Judah will not be forever, but he will deliver them by the Lord their God and will not deliver them by bow, sword, battle, horses, or horsemen.
[25:15] In other words, it won't be through human instrumentality, but it'll be by divine provision. And when she had weaned Loruma, she conceived and gave birth to a son.
[25:27] Now, this is at least her fourth child. It could be more because we're not told how many children she had as a result of her harlotry before he married her.
[25:40] But we know it had to have been at least two because the multiple is used of children. Now, this is the fourth. Now, she's giving birth to a son and the Lord said, Name him, lo am I, for you are not my people and I am not your God.
[25:55] And this is the message that he is delivering to the people there in the north. He is saying, God is in the process of disowning you. And that's what I'm naming my child.
[26:08] So, I don't know to what extent they had birth announcements in that day, but everybody knew when a baby was born and when the baby, if it was a boy, when the baby was circumcised on the eighth day, that's when the baby would be given its name just like John the Baptist in the Gospel of Matthew.
[26:28] And everybody would gather around and celebrate and, What are you going to name this baby? Hosea? What are you going to call him? And he tells them, I'm going to call him. No am I.
[26:39] You are not my people. And that, of course, was a message to the whole of the nation of the north. Now, that's something to stick your child with a name like that that identifies the prophetic message that is being delivered.
[26:54] But that's how critical this was. And yet, the number of the sons of Israel will be like the sand of the sea. And, of course, this is talking about the future which cannot be measured or numbered.
[27:05] And it will come about that in the place where it is said to them, You are not my people. It will be said to them, You are the sons of the living God. What's going to happen?
[27:18] Well, what's going to happen is there will be a period of contrition and repentance and returning to the Lord. And here's a principle that I want to really emphasize because this thing has just struck me big time for about the last two years.
[27:35] And that is the absolute necessity and the incomparable things that can be accomplished by way of a turnaround when repentance is in place.
[27:50] Nothing delights the heart of God like repentance. And that is why, among other places, that reference is given that there is joy, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels over one sinner who repents.
[28:07] And the reason is because when we repent, we always come from a position of being wrong to a position of being right. You change your mind.
[28:18] And changed minds are responsible for changed directions and changed behavior. So it is the behavior that is the end goal, but it has to come about through the mind first.
[28:31] Because as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he. And we do and act and behave on the basis of what we think.
[28:42] And if we think wrongly, we'll behave wrongly. And so on. So repentance is always repenting of something that you have discovered to be wrong about what you believe.
[28:55] And then you embrace that which you know to be right. That's what's going to happen here. I've referred to repentance as God's silver bullet. This makes him the God of the second chance and the third chance and the fourth chance and however many chances are needed, but each one has to be preceded by repentance.
[29:14] It is incredible what divine avenues and doors open up when repentance is in place. And this is because every time we discover we have been wrong about something, it is in that area where we have been functioning with an untruth.
[29:34] That's what makes it wrong. It's a wrong concept, wrong idea, wrong value, wrong something. And when you understand that and you change your mind, you move from what you have discovered to be wrong to what you know to be right.
[29:51] And when you move to what you know to be right, you are aligned with the plan and program of God because He is a God of truth and righteousness. And when we repent of sin and we come to this new truth, we've done nothing more than align ourselves with reality.
[30:08] God is a God of reality and of truth. And it's the sin that always blinds our eyes and keeps us walking in this wrong way. That's true of a nation, it's true of an individual.
[30:18] It just works that way. That's the way human nature is. And it will be said to them, you are the sons of the living God and the sons of Judah and the sons of Israel.
[30:31] What's that saying again? That's a reunification. That's these divided twelve tribes coming together again. You know something?
[30:45] They never have come together. There never was an actual unification between these tribes. There will be, but it has not yet happened.
[30:57] I know they're scattered everywhere. You know, this is part of the name that is given here, scattered, and Jezreel. Well, let's read on.
[31:09] Let's read on. The sons of Judah and the sons of Israel will be gathered together and they will appoint for themselves one leader as opposed to the multiple leaders they had with the division of the kingdom.
[31:23] And they will go up from the land for great will be the day of Jezreel. So, chapter 2 then, Say to your brothers, Ami, and to your sisters, Reumon.
[31:34] You see what's the difference here? The low is dropped. Now it's positive. It isn't negative. It is now, you are my sons. You are my people.
[31:45] Because that's what they will be once this restoration and repentance is in place. Then they will have a completely different relationship with the Lord.
[31:56] Contend with your mother. Contend. For she is not my wife and I am not her husband. Here God is talking about His relationship to the nation of Israel and He's saying, I'm divorcing her.
[32:09] I'm divorcing her. Let her put away her harlotry from her face and her adultery from between her breasts. He's using physical body parts here of a woman to characterize what is actually taking place spiritually with the nation of Israel and Himself.
[32:29] And I'm sure it was not lost on them. It's a very powerful thing. Lest I strip her naked and expose her as on the day when she was born. The stripping of a prostitute naked and sending her out in the public naked was a form of punishment that was often enacted upon Old Testament prostitutes when they had done something that was considered unseemly because apparently prostitution in itself was not all that unseemly or prohibited.
[32:59] It was rather common. But there were ways that even a prostitute could degrade herself. And the local punishment for that was to strip her naked and send her out through the public.
[33:10] You know, it's like Lady Godiva without a horse and expose her as on the day when she was born. I will also make her like a wilderness, make her like desert land and slay her with thirst.
[33:23] Also, I will have no compassion on her children because they are children of harlotry. Who's he talking about here? He's talking about the children, the physical children of the population of Israel.
[33:36] They are going to pay a price. Any time a nation is involved in conflict, and you know, we're seeing this right now. Did you happen to notice on TV how many tens of thousands of refugees are fleeing from Syria which has been in conflict with ISIS and with Assad's forces and with the rebels against him.
[34:04] And there are thousands of people that have left. They've crossed the border and they've gone to Lebanon. They're in Lebanon now. They're setting up refugee centers there and tents to try to accommodate tens of thousands of these people.
[34:17] And a great many of them are children. And they always pay a very, very dear price when these kind of things go on. And it goes all the way back to here. I will make her like a desert land and slay her with thirst.
[34:30] Also, I will have no compassion on her children because they are children of harlotry. This is spiritual harlotry. This is children of idolatry. For their mother, Israel proper, has played the harlot.
[34:45] She who conceived them has acted shamefully. For she said, this is again the nation of Israel, I will go after my lovers who gave me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.
[35:04] Remember when we explained the rationale behind idolatry? The worship of these idols, the worship of images, statues, whether it was Baal, Ashtaroth, Chemosh, Dagon, whatever it was.
[35:20] There is always a two-fold purpose for worshipping these idols. One is, and it is all based on superstition, one is based, one is, is a preventive thing, that is, you render service and sacrifice and worship to the idol to keep the idol appeased so she or he will not do something bad to you.
[35:45] It's like a protection racket. You pay them off for your security. And the other is, you worship them or you make sacrifice to them in order to get something from them, positive.
[35:58] And it always has to do with physical or material prosperity or control or influence over other people. And all of this, as Paul points out when he writes to the Corinthians, all of this is demonic inspired and is backed by demons and none of the idols have any objective reality to them or objective existence at all.
[36:23] They are simply conjured up by the imagination of these people's minds because when man does not submit himself to the truth, he opens himself to error because nobody functions out of a vacuum.
[36:43] If you reject anything, you will put something in its place. And in their rejection of the true God, they have replaced him with these idols, statuary, etc.
[36:58] And of course, there is a price to pay for that. And here they are actually crediting him. You see, one of the reasons you would make worship, well, I don't know which god this would be, but the Greeks and the Romans later on had their own deities as well.
[37:17] and one of them, Diana, Diana was the goddess of the hunt and if you worshiped Diana and you made sacrifice to Diana, then when you went hunting for game, you could expect it to be profitable because you paid homage to Diana and she will see to it that you get game.
[37:40] So it's talking about food, food for the table. And when you make sacrifice to certain gods, there is a god of rain and he will see to it that you have an abundance of rain for which your crops will benefit.
[37:55] And this is what he's talking about here. I will go after my lovers, these false deities, who gave me my bread and my water. I have these gods to thank for that.
[38:06] And Jehovah is saying, no you don't. But they believe that. And you know, as has been proved time and again through some of the evil deeds of the radical Muslims, it doesn't make any difference whether what these people believe is actually true or not.
[38:27] It doesn't make any difference as long as they believe it. You need to understand that. As long as they believe it. Because we tend to act based on our beliefs.
[38:41] and if they did not believe that serving yourself up as a martyr and dying in the name of Allah was an absolute surefire guarantee into heaven, they would not have done what they did.
[39:00] But they believed that. And sometimes people become very confused about it and say, but that's so wrong, that's so stupid, that's crazy.
[39:11] Well, it isn't to them. They believe it. And they are consistent in acting out their beliefs. And as far as radical Muslims who are left behind, who are still on the scene today, as far as they're concerned, those individuals who flew those 747s into the Twin Towers and into that farm field in Pennsylvania and into the Pentagon, as far as the present crop of Muslims are concerned, all those people continue to enjoy their 70 dark-eyed virgins in heaven.
[39:50] And they believe it too. So, this belief system thing goes all the way back to Genesis for that matter. And he says, therefore, behold, I will hedge up her way with thorns.
[40:04] And this is a safety thing. this is a protective barrier. And the reason God is doing this is because he has to maintain the covenant that he's made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
[40:20] And despite their adultery, their spiritual adultery, and their rebellion, God is not going to write them off because he cannot behave as his wayward children do.
[40:34] Otherwise, he'd be no better than they. So, he's going to build a hedge up her way with thorns, and I'll build a wall against her so that she cannot find her paths. And thanks for being here, Chris.
[40:47] By the way, if anybody else needs an early exit, feel free. That's not a problem. Have a great day. I will hedge up her way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her so that she cannot find her paths.
[41:00] That is, she will not be able to go after the usual consorts that she does. I'm going to protect her from that. And so, she cannot find her paths, and she will pursue her lovers, these are the idols, but she shall not overtake them, and she will seek them, but will not find them.
[41:20] And then, out of desperation, because she cannot find them, and she thought they provided for her all of the physical things that she enjoyed, because she can no longer find them, because God shut them off from her.
[41:33] What does she say? What does she do? Then she will say, I will go back to my first husband. Who's that? Jehovah. I will go back to my first husband, for it was better for me then, than now.
[41:49] What a pathetic picture. And then, verse 8 kind of caps it off. He says, for she does not know, does not believe, does not understand, she does not realize, that it was I, who gave her the grain, the new wine, and the oil, and lavished on her silver and gold, which they used for Baal.
[42:21] How's that for the ultimate gratitude? Therefore, God says, I will take back my grain at harvest time, and my new wine in its season.
[42:34] I will also take away my wool and my flax. This is the husband's prerogative as regards an unfaithful wife. And then, I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one will rescue her out of my hand.
[42:54] I will also put an end to all her gaiety, her so-called good times, her feasts, her new moons, her sabbaths, and all her festal assemblies.
[43:07] And they were all pagan. And I will destroy her vines and fig trees, of which she said, these are my wages, which my lovers have given me.
[43:18] And I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field will devour them. And I will punish her for the days of the Baals, when she used to offer sacrifices to them, and adorn herself with her earrings and jewelry, and follow her lovers, so that she forgot me, declares the Lord.
[43:42] God has no choice. Now, is this a complete writing-off? It ought to be. It ought to be. Can you imagine a man willing to put up with this?
[43:59] And yet, let me make this point as clearly as I can. God has no choice. He has no choice.
[44:12] Why has He no choice? Because He has locked Himself in with the nation of Israel. He cannot deny Himself.
[44:24] He cannot be untrue to His character or nature. He made a covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and their seed. And these, undeserving as they are, are their seed.
[44:36] And look at verse 14. Therefore, behold, I will allure her. This is the rekindling of a romance.
[44:51] I will bring her into the wilderness and speak kindly to her. You know what we call that? I will whisper sweet nothings in her ear. I will rekindle the romance that has gone sour.
[45:06] I will speak kindly to her, and then I will give her her vineyards from there, and the valley of Echor as a door of hope.
[45:19] And she will sing there as in the days of her youth, as in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt. How far back is that?
[45:29] That's a long ways back. This is the birthing of the nation coming out of Egypt, and what we have here is many, many years later, probably five, six hundred years later anyway. And it will come about in that day, in that day, declares the Lord, that you will call me Ishi.
[45:50] That in Hebrew means you will call me my man. My man. and will no longer call me Baali.
[46:03] And that's a confusing term there because, and it's not to be confused with the false God, Baal, but this is actually a word for husband in the Hebrew, and it's unfortunate that the word is spelled that way, so people misunderstand and think it's a reference to the God Baal, B-A-A-L, but it isn't.
[46:24] It's entirely different. And he says, For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, so that they will be mentioned by their names no more.
[46:36] And in that day I will also make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, the birds of the sky, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and will make them lie down in safety, and I will betroth you to me forever.
[46:59] Yes, I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in loving kindness, and in compassion.
[47:10] And I will betroth you to me in faithfulness, and then you will know the Lord. This is after all of this calamity, after this judgment, after this punishment, there will be that returning to Jehovah.
[47:26] And you know, this has never yet been fulfilled. This has never yet taken place. And we will tie in, we won't have time now, but we will tie in in our next get-together some realizations of this, and they are prophetic, and some of them are in the Revelation, and some of the major prophets, but the time is coming when this reunion is going to take place.
[47:59] And it will tie in with the new covenant, when he says, behold, the days are coming, Jeremiah 31, when I will make a new covenant, and he says this, I really love this, he says, I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah.
[48:16] Not like my covenant which they broke, talking about the law of Moses, but this new covenant, and I will put my law in their hearts, and write it in their minds, and so on, that's future, yes, that's to come, and it is a glorious, glorious thing.
[48:32] Then you will know the Lord, and it will come about that in that day that I will respond, declares the Lord. I will respond to the heavens, and they will respond to the earth, and the earth will respond to the grain, to the new wine, and to the oil, and they will respond to Jezreel, and I will sow her for myself in the land, and I will have compassion on her who has not obtained compassion, and I will say to those who were not my people, you are my people, and they will say, thou art my God.
[49:05] This is all millennial talk. This has never yet taken place, because you see, when those northern ten tribes are carried into Assyrian captivity, they never do really return.
[49:22] They are scattered and assimilated, but they never return. And this has given rise to what some refer to today as the lost ten tribes. Well, they never were actually lost, they were just kind of assimilated, there was a residue that remained there in the land, but they never are going to return.
[49:42] Now, you've got a completely different situation with the two tribes of the north in Judah, because when they are carried into captivity, they go to Babylon, and they are there for 70 years, and Daniel was about 12 or 13 years old when that happened, and he writes his prophecy, and you find his childhood referred to in the very first chapter of Daniel, and they are there in captivity for about 70 years, and then they are able to return under Nehemiah because the people, the Babylonians who captured the Jews will themselves have been captured by another people.
[50:25] That will be the Medes and the Persians, and the Medes and the Persians are going to turn loose the prisoners that the Babylonians had, and that will be the Jews, and they are able to go back to the land, rebuild the land, rebuild the wall, Nehemiah, etc., and you know what?
[50:41] They will never have the kingdom established again. They are going to constantly be overrun by somebody, and after the Medes and the Persians comes the Greeks, and Alexander the Great, and they trod down the land, and they subject the people, and they will not allow them to have any prominence at all, and then when they pass off the scene, here come the Romans, and the Romans are occupying Israel, and they are in control at the time Christ is born, and that will continue on until Rome falls, and Israel remains in chaos.
[51:21] Well, look at what this chapter says. I think it's right here in this next chapter. Yes, let's just read on quickly.
[51:32] We've just got a couple of minutes left. Chapter 3, Then the Lord said to me, Go again, love a woman who is loved by her husband, yet an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the sons of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love raisin cakes.
[51:44] Raisin cakes, by the way, were looked upon by the people who lived in as an aphrodisiac. Raisin cakes must have been the Viagra and the Cialis of that day.
[51:58] Anyway, so I brought her for myself for 15 shekels of silver. Now we've got a new situation here. She has become estranged.
[52:11] She has given Hosea children and then she's abandoned him. She's left. And now she's on the marketplace and she's going to be sold as a slave.
[52:23] This woman has really hit the bottom. And you know what Hosea does? He goes to the slave market and he buys her.
[52:36] Now if that isn't love, maybe it's closer to insanity. I don't know. Makes you wonder from a human standpoint. But I'll tell you what, this just depicts the determination that God has for his people and to make good on his promise.
[52:52] And he's going to have Hosea go to what we would call a ridiculous length. What is the matter with you? Are you nuts? How can you go after a woman like that after what she's done to you?
[53:03] You must be crazy. And God says, I am. I'm crazy in love with these people whom I've called. Wow. And he says, I brought her for myself for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer buck.
[53:18] And he says, You shall stay with me for many days. You shall not play the harlot, nor shall you have a man, so I will also be toward you. Now look at verse four. For the sons of Israel will remain, for many days, without a king or prince.
[53:40] They have never had a king since the Babylonian captivity. Never. Today they don't have a king. They don't have a monarchy.
[53:51] They have a Knesset and a prime minister. They don't have a king. They don't have a prince. Without sacrifice, a Jew, they don't have a king.
[54:02] What do you need if you're going to sacrifice as a Jew? You've got to have that temple. But there is no temple. So there is no sacrifice that can be made. Or sacred pillar.
[54:14] And without ephod. What's an ephod? Ephod was an accrutament for the breastplate of the high priest. They don't have a high priest.
[54:25] They don't have a priesthood. They don't have any of these things. Or without household idols. And look at verse 5. Afterward, the sons of Israel will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king.
[54:51] And they will come trembling to the Lord and to his goodness. When? In the last days. This is all yet future.
[55:03] And I think we'll be able to demonstrate that without any serious contradiction at all. So this is what is coming. And this is just ties in with why I personally as your pastor am so exercised about the nation of Israel and about the Jew and about the unfulfilled promises that God has made to them.
[55:32] Because all of this stuff is coming and Israel as a nation and the Jew as an individual is going to be right smack dab in the thick of it. They are going to be the major players when all of this comes down.
[55:46] And this is going to involve, among other things, the tribulation, the 144,000 and all that goes with it. So keep these things in mind and we'll pick up here for the next chapter when we get together.
[55:59] Any questions or comments anybody would like to offer? Roger? In King James chapter 2 there's 25 I wills that I can count.
[56:10] Some of them good concerning God, some of them not. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and all of those I wills just emphasize and dramatize God's determination.
[56:23] And he's going to do what he's going to do and it would be wonderful if Israel would cooperate but this is what I'm going to do whether they cooperate or not. And we can be so glad that we can be so glad that we do not have a God capable of being fickle like his people are capable of being fickle.
[56:44] Somebody's got to have some stability and he's the one. John? John? In verse 23 of chapter 2 it says, I will say unto them which were not my people, thou art my people and they shall say thou art my God.
[57:04] Is that Israel and Judah he's talking about or is it Gentiles? I think it is principally Israel and Judah because I think that's what the context requires. Yeah.
[57:15] I know there are those who would like to read the Gentile into it and by way of application, that's true. You know, Gentiles were never the chosen people of God, quote unquote.
[57:29] You know, they never were. But when Gentiles come to faith in him, they become his people. But we were never his people in the way that Israel was his people or is his people.
[57:44] I think if we keep that in the context, but some are eager of course to lift it out of there and make the switch to Gentiles. And that is certainly going to happen and we'll see that as it develops in the New Testament.
[57:57] And that was a cataclysmic thing that a lot of people never were able to adjust to and still aren't. Still aren't. Anything else? Anybody? Yeah.
[58:08] I read on the internet that the ISIS people may be descendants of Syrians. Syria? Is that... Yeah. Yeah.
[58:19] Yeah, that's pretty accurate. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, this beheading thing goes all the way back to the Old Testament. As I've mentioned, you read 2 Kings 9 and 10 and Jehu sets the stage for the elimination of all of the king's sons.
[58:43] Because when you eliminate all of the king's sons, you don't have to be concerned about any of them contending for the throne. You just kill them all.
[58:54] You kill off all the possible competition. And that's what they did. they executed by beheading 40 of the king's sons and had their heads delivered in baskets to the palace.
[59:10] How's that for sobering? That's a special kind of brutality that these people became accustomed to way back then.
[59:23] And you read the demise of Jezebel and what happened to her and the dogs licking her blood. It's pretty gruesome stuff. And the Bible doesn't pull any punches.
[59:38] It tells it like it is. And sometimes it gets pretty ugly and it doesn't make man look very good. But it does make man look very accurate.
[59:53] It's depicted with a real undeniable accuracy. Any other thoughts? Marvis? I have a comment and a question. My comment is as you're reading I keep like you said as application I keep putting the original USA with the Christian influence and where Israel is and take a look at what lengths God went to and what he ended up doing.
[60:26] And granted we are technically not his chosen people and therefore if we're not look what we deserve compared to what they got. I think we should.
[60:38] I'm going to make a statement. It might not sit too well with you but I'm satisfied that it's really true. And it's not very comforting to think of it but I'm convinced that it is true and that is this.
[60:53] God is not obligated to the USA. He really isn't. God does not owe this nation anything. And there are I think numerous and undeniable ways that we have enjoyed the blessing and benefit of God only because of the grace of God.
[61:13] And not in any wise because God is saying well I had to do this for you because you deserve it. No we didn't. No we didn't. In any nation, any nation, I care not who it is including the United States, if it takes a national posture of honoring the God of heaven and doing what it can to adopt his ways of morality and right and wrong and justice and so on, you better believe there's a benefit to that.
[61:41] You better believe God honors it. but he doesn't owe us anything. He is obligated to Israel, not because of Israel's behavior, certainly not, but because of God's integrity and his own moral character, he is obligated to fulfill all that he has promised to whomever he's promised it.
[62:06] And for talking purposes, Israel is the focal point here, the object of it. Any other thoughts? Yes, Marv? I have a question. Back in kings and so forth, even the two tribes, when they have the good kings who did away with a lot of things, they still did not do away with the high places.
[62:29] Yeah, that's right. What, why, what was the deal about the high places that it was more beneficial to them not to do away with it than to obey God? Well, I just have, I will just give you a wise man opinion, you can take it for what it's worth.
[62:44] I'm not about to go to the map for this, but I think that this is really what it involved. The high places were primarily devoted to one massive sexual orgy.
[63:04] people and people and people and people and people and I think the reason they were not eliminated was simply because the common people were too attached to that kind of pleasure and it would have been too unwise and unpolitical and un-everything else to try to do away with them.
[63:32] They probably had a massive revolt on their hands. They could go so far but no further. And you're right, those high places did survive. And I think a whole lot of this has to do with the subject of sexuality.
[63:46] sexuality in all of its vices, in all of the ways that is removed from the kind of sexuality that God provided for and intended.
[64:05] Because you see, God has never given anything to man but what he has not found a way to pervert it and to misuse it and abuse it. And sexuality is one of those principal ways.
[64:19] And we see that all the way back to Solomon, Gomorrah, to what we're dealing with today. It's tragic, but it's true. We are very much sexual beings.
[64:33] And, well, I won't go any further with that, but I've got some other theories and thoughts along that line. And I'm satisfied that that's a powerful motivation for ISIS and for the radical movement of Islam and all the rest of it.
[64:48] You would be amazed how much of it has to do with sex, including the 70 virgins.