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[0:00] Well, we appreciate all of you being here, and we've changed this a couple of times because of necessity and conflicts in scheduling. So let me just say that as far as I know, we will be having this class the first Tuesday of each month.

[0:17] But as often is the case, sometimes there's a need for adjustment, and we try to get the word out in time. So if you want to put it on your calendar, I think it is safe, at least for the time being, to consider it for the first Tuesday of each month.

[0:32] And if we do have to make a change, we'll try to let you know in advance. Let's have a word of prayer, and we'll begin. We're grateful, Father, for an opportunity like this in a free country that we enjoy, that has been purchased at such a great price.

[0:49] These liberties and these freedoms that we often come to take for granted, and we don't want to be guilty of that. So thank you again for the memory of those who have served in the past, and for some who not only gave something, but gave everything to sustain the freedoms that we enjoy today.

[1:09] We are grateful for this nation and for the blessings you have bestowed upon it, and we do not take these for granted either. Thank you for the freedom to assemble and to search the scriptures, such as we will today, to see what you have revealed for our learning and our benefit.

[1:29] We thank you for the revelation that you've been pleased to give, and we want to express our appreciation by our obedience to it. And we commit ourselves to you and the outworking of your word in our lives this day, in Christ's name.

[1:42] Amen. Are you recording? Yes, I think. Yes, we are. We are recording. So half the time I forget to flip the switch and it doesn't get recorded, but today we are.

[1:56] So we are starting the prophet Hosea. And as we mentioned a few moments ago, Hosea is generally considered the first of the minor prophets.

[2:06] There are 12 in number. But as we remark, there is nothing minor about their message because each one of them has a word from God. And this just points out the necessity to understand what divine inspiration is all about.

[2:22] And that is simply to say that as Paul wrote to Timothy, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, instruction, and righteousness, and so on.

[2:35] To the end that the man or the woman of God may be mature, completely outfitted, furnished unto every good work. And this means that every word that God has inspired is in this book and it is fully his word.

[2:53] That means that no part of the Bible is more inspired or less inspired than any other part. And people confuse that because we know all too well that parts of the Bible are more inspiring than certain other parts.

[3:09] And I'm a lot more inspired by reading John's Gospel than I am by reading Leviticus. But that doesn't mean that Leviticus is somehow less the word of God than John's Gospel.

[3:22] Because anything that God has inspired, it bears with it the full inspiration of God. And we ought to keep that in mind. But people lose sight of that and sometimes it causes them to completely ignore certain parts of the Bible as if that's not worthy or not of any value.

[3:41] But every word that God has given is of value and has its own purpose. Before we get underway with the text, I'd just like to read an introduction that happens to be at the beginning of my Bible, New American Standard.

[3:54] You may or may not have one. If you have one of the old Schofield reference Bibles, you'll probably have an introduction here. But this is brief and I think it is helpful to just provide a brief overview for the book study.

[4:07] Hosea, son of Berai, is the only prophet of the northern kingdom who has left written prophecies. Now there were others who prophesied to the northern kingdom, particularly Elijah and Elisha.

[4:21] But we have no record of anything that they wrote. They had very dynamic ministries to the nation of Israel, but none of it is recorded as best we know.

[4:32] Hosea began to prophesy during the latter part of the reign of Jeroboam II. He lived during a time of national decline and ruin.

[4:43] The result of the sin of Israel. Hosea's fundamental idea is the love of God for his people. In love, he redeemed them from Egypt.

[4:56] Their history has been but an illustration of his love. It's in chapters 11 through 13. All his chastisements are inflicted in love, and their restoration shall be due to his love.

[5:12] In contrast with this moral being, God, who is love, Hosea sets Israel characterized always by want of affection, by treachery and infidelity.

[5:26] Yet he is able to look forward to a final redemption. So really what we have here is a very passionate love story, and it is going to be enacted or played out in literal terms between this man Hosea and the prostitute wife that he is to take to himself named Gomer.

[5:49] And this relationship is going to be a picture of the adulterous relationship that exists between the nation of Israel and God himself.

[6:05] And I say adulterous because it is that, since God characterizes himself as Israel's husband, and Israel the nation as his wife.

[6:17] And yet their adultery, because a nation cannot commit actual adultery, as it were, that's something that is limited to human beings, yet their idolatry, and those two words, the A and the I, make all the difference in the world, it is their idolatry, spiritually, that is going to be portrayed in Hosea and Gomer's life and lifestyle.

[6:45] So this is going to be depicted as an object lesson that God is going to create to communicate to Israel their unfaithfulness and his steadfast love toward them.

[7:00] So keeping that in mind, I'm just going to read this first chapter, and you follow along, if you will, in whatever translation you have, and then we'll open it for some discussion, because it is still somewhat problematic and very controversial as to whether God would actually require one of his servants to do what it appears he is telling Hosea to do.

[7:29] So we read, 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, and during the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel.

[7:48] I'm sorry, but I just have to stop here for a little while and explain something. Because all of these people who are on the receiving end of the message that Hosea is going to be giving, whether they are from Israel or from Judah, they are all Jews, and they all belong to the twelve tribes of Israel.

[8:08] In our introductory session that we had earlier, you will recall, we related to you that when Solomon died, and this was approximately 950 years before the birth of Christ.

[8:27] When Solomon died, his son Rehoboam came to the throne. And Rehoboam made it quite clear, because he had asked counsel from his own peers, those in his own age group, what they should do, now that he is king, and they said, you need to elevate yourself, and you need to start a building program, and you need to raise money that will outstrip anything that your father Solomon did, if you want to make a name for yourself, and so on and so on.

[8:59] So, Rehoboam came to the people, here they are, representatives of all of the twelve tribes of Israel, Rehoboam came to them shortly after his coronation, and said, I'm going to increase your taxes, I'm going to increase the demands that are going to be made on you, because we have things we want to accomplish, and so on and so forth.

[9:20] And, the people rose up and said, no you're not, we're not going to pay any more taxes, we're taxed too much already, we are going to withdraw from the union.

[9:34] And those ten tribes, ten of the twelve, pulled away from the two remaining, and it looks like you would think the two would be pulling away from the ten, but the ten pulled away from the two, and I need to explain why that is, because the two tribes that remained encompassed the area of Judah, and the area of Benjamin.

[9:57] And Benjamin's tribe was where the holy city, Jerusalem, was located. So, Jerusalem was the core, it was the center.

[10:08] That's where the temple was, that's where the priesthood was, that's where the throne was, that was their Washington, D.C., if you will. And the ten tribes of the north said, we are seceding from the union, to your tents, O Israel, in other words, let's get out of here.

[10:24] We have no more any interest in Jacob. And of course, they're using the term Jacob, meaning the whole twelve tribes. So, those ten tribes pulled out of the union, and they are going to establish a capital in the north, that will be named Samaria.

[10:39] They are going to create, and establish their own kingship, their own monarchy, that will not be after the tribe of Judah.

[10:50] They are even going to establish their own priesthood, which will be, of course, a renegade priesthood, and will have no authenticity at all. So, these northern ten tribes, actually constitute, a kind of rebellious ten.

[11:05] On the other hand, they felt that they were completely justified, in doing so, because of these new demands, that this new king had made upon them. So, now what we've got, is a divided kingdom.

[11:16] Ten tribes to the north. They are going to retain the name, Israel. Probably because there were ten of them, and they comprise the majority of the twelve.

[11:28] The two tribes to the south, are here and after, going to be referred to as, Judah. Because that is the principal tribe. Benjamin is the tiniest of all the tribes.

[11:40] And yet, it is key, because it is in the confines, and the geographical limitations, of the tribe of Benjamin, where Jerusalem is located.

[11:51] And that's what gave them such prestige, and such authority. So, we've got just two tribes in the south, Judah, and Benjamin, but they are both going to be referred to collectively as, Judah.

[12:04] We've got ten tribes in the north, they are collectively going to be referred to as, Israel. So, when you read Judah and Israel, you've got to keep in mind, as we see here in verse 1, Hosea, the son of Beri, during the days of, Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, who were kings of Judah.

[12:30] That's those two southern tribes. And, during the days of Jeroboam, the son of Joash, king of Israel. In other words, Jeroboam had a much longer reign, than did those several kings in the north.

[12:45] In fact, his extended beyond, one, two, three, four. While they were having four different kings, he was the only one, who was the king of Israel.

[13:00] 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, forsaking the Lord.

[13:24] So, he went, and took Gomer, the daughter of Deblame, and she conceived, and bore him a son. And just so this will be in your mind, germinating a little bit, be reminded that the question of the day, was what we posed at our last session, is to whether or not, God would actually require, this kind of behavior, from one of his prophets, and, what is our response to be to that?

[13:52] Does that seem fair? Does it seem fair to Hosea, to say, Go marry a prostitute? So, let's read on. And the Lord said to him, verse 4, Name him, Jezreel.

[14:06] This is, what the child is to be named. For yet, a little while, and I will punish the house of Jehu, for the bloodshed of Jezreel.

[14:18] Now, perhaps we'll examine that later. The incident is back in the book of Kings. We won't stop or go there now, but it is significant, because it was a time of enormous carnage.

[14:29] It was a real massacre, and there was needless bloodshed, and God was really opposed to that. But, let me inject something here. Throughout the Old Testament, and matter of fact, in the New as well, and as we well know today, there's a great deal of needless bloodshed all over the world.

[14:53] And the question sometimes surfaces, why does God permit this? And the answer is, and must always be, and Christians really need to understand this, God permits needless bloodshed.

[15:07] God permits vice. God permits corruption. God permits murder. And God permits mayhem. And he does so, not because he approves any of it, but because he has endowed man with a powerful thing called bullition.

[15:27] He has given man a will, the ability to do right, and the ability to do wrong. But God does not make us do the right thing.

[15:39] That should be rather obvious, shouldn't it? You see, unless God is going to withdraw his volition that he has given us, and take away the capacity for us to do wrong things, evil things, unless he's going to take that away from us, he has to be committed to the volition that he's given us.

[16:01] This is man's free will. And sometimes we are capable of very ugly things. The human race is not improving as the centuries go by.

[16:15] Our technology is. Our standard of living is. But the nature and character of humanity has not been improved. And for anyone who thinks it has, all they have to do is look at the years between 1900 and the year 2000, and they will find that in that 100-year period, mankind has succeeded in eliminating a greater number of his fellow man through violence and war than all of the 2000 years preceding that.

[16:52] So, we need to keep in mind that God respects the volition he has given us. And that gives us free reign to do some really ugly things sometimes.

[17:04] It also gives us free reign to do some very good things. And if it were not for those, we probably would have been down that slippery slope long ago.

[17:17] So, let's keep going here if we may. He's talking about the bloodshed of verse 4 of Jezreel, and perhaps we can explore that later. And it will come about on that day that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.

[17:33] Now, what that means is breaking the bow of someone means I will, God is going to intervene here, and he is going to, he is going to bring about a set of circumstances that will involve the incapacity of this nation to defend itself.

[17:57] To break the bow means that you don't have any means of defense. If your bow is broken, you can't shoot any arrows. And that's the meaning here, that they will not be able to defend themselves.

[18:11] And it will be in the valley of Jezreel. That too is very, very significant. This Jezreel valley, that too will surface in our examination of the prophetic portion. And we read, then she conceived again, that is, Gomer, conceived again and gave birth to a daughter.

[18:29] And the Lord said to him, name her Lo-Ruhamah. Why? Why is she going to be given that name? What does that mean? What does that say? Well, in Hebrew, it says something very significant.

[18:43] The Hebrew translation of that is, no compassion, or not mine, or doesn't belong to me, for I will no longer have compassion, on the house of Israel, that I should ever forgive them.

[18:56] Now, bear in mind, we've been talking about Israel as being the northern ten tribes, and they are the ones to whom Hosea is called to preach.

[19:07] We do not have any evidence that he preached to the two kingdoms in the south, but he seems to have been called exclusively to the ten tribes in the north, and they are referred to as Israel.

[19:21] Name her Leruamah, for I will no longer have compassion on the house of Israel, that I should ever forgive them. These ten tribes are not going to respond to the message of Hosea.

[19:37] And by the way, that sounds like a broken record, because we get the same thing with the ministry of the prophets to the southern two tribes. None of the prophets who prophesy either to the north or the south are going to be what we would call successful.

[19:57] They probably would consider themselves and their ministry a failure, because they are going to preach this message, Hosea in the north, other prophets in the south, they are going to preach this message that you have consistently disobeyed the Lord, and you've gone after foreign gods, and you've engaged in idolatry, and God is going to bring severe punishment and judgment upon you unless you repent and change your ways.

[20:27] That's the message both of them were delivering. Time and again, and the message is going to be delivered over decades, and each time it is going to be repudiated, and God will send another prophet, and the prophets they will persecute, they will mistreat, they will malign them, they will abuse them, and for all practical purposes, from a human standpoint, they look like they're a failure, because none of the nations heeded the message, and yet, as we pointed out last Sunday, in giving the warning, God is holding them more accountable, because they have been told repeatedly, they have been given information, and what the prophet is doing is increasing their guilt, increasing their culpability, because the more you are warned about something as to don't do that, and then you do it, the more culpable and guilty you become, because you were told time and again, in advance, what the penalty would be if you did that.

[21:32] You did it anyway. So that's going to be involved in the prophetic message as well, and it is just striking the way this comes back. I've often wondered, in God telling these prophets they are to deliver this message, but people aren't going to listen, and as I was saying, you might well say, well then what's the point?

[21:51] Why bother? If they're not going to listen, it isn't going to be successful, and it's because of what I just said. It is going to increase their culpability, because unto whom much is given, by way of information or resources, from him, much shall be required.

[22:10] Now, notice, if you will, the complete reversal, starting in verse seven. But I will have compassion on the house of Judah.

[22:21] Now, this is different. In verse five, it's going to break the bow of Israel. But in verse seven, I will have compassion on the house of Judah.

[22:32] These are two different groups. remember that. Otherwise, it just doesn't make much sense. But you've got to bear in mind, these are two. And what's going to happen is this. In the year 931, 931 years before the birth of Christ, that's when the split in the kingdom took place.

[22:49] And by the way, as you read first and second kings, both of those are kings with an S, and they both deal with kings of the north and kings of the south.

[23:02] And it gets kind of confusing, but you've just got to keep in mind who's Judah and who's Israel. And in 931, the kingdom is divided.

[23:15] And the kingdom of Israel, the ten tribes, is going to maintain its illegitimate statehood until 722 B.C.

[23:31] So we're talking a little over 200 years. Those ten tribes in the north are going to remain intact. They are going to have one king after another, but there will not be one good king among them.

[23:50] Not a one. Out of all of the list of kings that will sit on the throne of Israel in different capitals, one of which will be Samaria and another one, the other slipped my mind.

[24:01] But there will not be one godly king that will sit on the throne. These are evil people. And, well, just let me drop one name for you. Does the name Ahab mean anything to you?

[24:13] If it doesn't, his wife does. Jezebel. That's the kind of people who were in control of the northern kingdom. And it was one rotten ruler after another.

[24:25] A lot of palace intrigue, a lot of assassination, a lot of deposing, a lot of the murder of the kings to take the place of somebody else, etc. That's what went on for over 200 years.

[24:36] And God is going to bring that to a close. The Assyrians, who are nothing but pagans, idolaters. I mean, they have no knowledge of the true God or respect for him at all.

[24:51] They are the Assyrians up to the north. They are going to invade the northern kingdom and carry the people away into captivity.

[25:04] And the only people they are going to leave there will be people who will farm the land and raise produce to send off to Assyria.

[25:15] They are going to be a funnel, if you will, of goods and services to Assyria, where the most of their brethren have been carried into captivity.

[25:27] And the people who remain there are going to have a contingent of Assyrian army there dwelling with them to keep things in check and in control.

[25:39] And over time, and it probably won't take much time, there is going to be assimilation between the Jews of the northern kingdom who were left behind and the Assyrian soldiers who were occupational troops living there and controlling those Jews that had been left behind.

[25:58] And they begin intermarrying and producing children. And their children will become, the Bible's, Samaritans.

[26:09] This is where the Samaritans are going to come from. And if you read in the New Testament, the Jews and the Samaritans have no dealings. There's bad blood between them. And the reason is because these Samaritans will be half-breed Jews.

[26:25] They will be the result of the Assyrians and of the Jews in the north. So, in verse 7, God is saying, in verse 6, he's saying, I will no longer have compassion on the house of Israel.

[26:42] In other words, the string is going to run out on Israel. I'm going to bring the curtain, down on Israel. However, and this is the but, but I will have compassion on the house of Judah.

[26:54] That's those two tribes in the south. And they are going to survive and, of course, outlive the kingdom of the north that's going to be carried away.

[27:05] And by the way, those tribes that are carried away into Assyria will almost forever after be referred to as the ten lost tribes, if you've ever heard that expression, only in reality, they were not lost at all.

[27:19] And they're still not lost. They were assimilated. And in effect, that's a misnomer to call them the lost ten tribes. They were not lost. But they are going to be judged.

[27:31] And God says in verse six, the string is run out on Israel, I will no longer have compassion on them that I should ever forgive them. But, contrasting, I will have compassion on the house of Judah and deliver them by the Lord their God and will not deliver them by bow, sword, battle, horses, or horsemen.

[27:59] These are the typical ways that a country defends itself. Whether it is an aggressor or a defender, does it through these military implements.

[28:09] And God is saying, I will deliver them, but not through the usual means of the military encounter. And then verse eight, when she had weaned Loruamah, this is Gomer, of course, she conceived and gave birth to a son.

[28:26] And the Lord said, name him Lo-am-i. For you are not my people, and I am not your God. Yet, the number of the sons of Israel will be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered, and it will come about that the place where it is said to them, you are not my people.

[28:55] In other words, I disowned you. It will be said to them, you are the sons of the living God. Now, that's as dramatic a switch as you can get. And the sons of Judah and the sons of Israel, two kingdoms, will be gathered together.

[29:14] There's going to be a reunification of those two nations, just like there was a reunification here in America, between the north and the south.

[29:25] Once the civil war was over, it was maybe a testy reunification, one that wasn't always appreciated, but it still, it took place. And that's what's going to be happening here.

[29:37] And they will appoint for themselves one leader, and they will go up from the land, for great will be the day of Jezreel. All right, now, after a little bit of background, and having gone through that first chapter with just a cursory reading, we want to open it up to you for any questions or comments you may have as regards the requirement that God placed upon Hosea to go and marry a prostitute.

[30:06] Some translations render that a woman of whoredoms, some render it prostitute, depends on what kind of a translation you have, and some use the term infidelity, and so on.

[30:18] So what do you think about this? Are we to take this literally, or is this figurative? Can you conceive of God asking one of his prophets to engage in an affair like this?

[30:34] Wouldn't that be kind of over the top? So what do you think, Joe? No more over the top than asking somebody to kill their son. Hmm.

[30:45] Well, okay. Interesting thought. No more over the top than you're thinking of Abraham being asked of God to offer Isaac as a sacrifice.

[30:56] All right. That's an excellent kind of parallel, by the way, comparison-wise. Yeah. Any other thoughts? Marsha?

[31:07] My help say that it's uncertain whether she was a harlot when he married her, whether she became an adulteress and a harlot after he married her. Does that make a difference? Okay. Well, now that's something interesting to throw into the hopper.

[31:20] Was she a prostitute at the time he married her or did she become such later? Interesting thought. I have a Scofield that said that God did not command Hosea to take an immoral wife but permitted him to carry out his desire to marry Gomer, warning him that she would be unfaithful.

[31:42] Okay. So there, whoever wrote that is assuming that Hosea didn't know that she was going to turn out to be a prostitute and he had a thing for her and married her and this is what she turned out to be.

[31:59] Okay. That's an interesting thought. Joe. Okay. Verse 2 makes that rather clear, doesn't it?

[32:11] Now, here's what we're confronted with and this is an age-old problem that has beset the Christian church from time immemorial and that is to what extent do we literalize these passages as opposed to spiritualizing them.

[32:27] And there is a great controversy there. This becomes a matter of what the scholars refer to as hermeneutics. Hermeneutics is the art and science of interpreting the Bible.

[32:39] And the word hermeneutics is taken from the name of the Greek god, Hermes, H-E-R-M-E-S. Hermes was the Greek messenger god.

[32:54] Of course, he was just a fictitious god, but he was a god that the Greeks recognized. And Hermes, being the messenger god, he was supposed to deliver messages from the gods, so you can see the idea of hermeneutics being associated with the idea of taking the word of God and delivering it the people.

[33:17] The Romans had a counterpart in their deity for the messenger god. His name was called Mercury. And we named an automobile after Mercury.

[33:29] And the word Mercury is designed to convey the idea of speediness, of quickness. And if you've ever sent flowers by mail, you know the logo of the people who send flowers by mail is an image of the Roman god Mercury.

[33:48] And he's wearing a helmet, and the helmet has wings on it. And that is a take-off, and of course the idea is we will speedily deliver your flowers to the place of destination, etc.

[33:59] So, the New Testament being written in Greek, the scholars assigned the name hermeneutics to it, which is the art and science of delivering the message of God, even as Hermes was thought to have done.

[34:15] So, we've got an interpretive problem here. Now, here's the thing. I think everybody knows what the Bible says. You can read it.

[34:28] It says what it says. And there's no conflict over what the Bible says. The conflict is over what the Bible means. What does it mean by what it says?

[34:40] And that's the difference. That's where the skill of interpretation comes in. Loretta? Could it be the fact of the tribes that God was going to bless and the ones that he was not going to bless coming from the harlotin, coming through that line?

[35:06] I'm not getting through, am I? No, you're not getting through. Your hermeneutics is not working. Try again. Try again.

[35:17] Okay. The two tribes that God said he was not going to bless, in other words, or not going to protect, is that the tribes that came through the line of the harlatan, or and the ten tribes that he was going to bless?

[35:51] Well, I'm sorry, but I'm just not following you. I don't know what it is that you're saying. Tell her what she's saying, Mary.

[36:02] I have no idea what she's saying. I was taking a different approach on this, where it says, go take yourself a wife of harlot, because Hosea already knew she was a harlot, so God's just more or less saying, not commanding, but saying, you just go right ahead and do what you want to do.

[36:20] I mean, that would kind of be the way it would be in our language. Go ahead, do what you want to do, marry her, have those kids, and then you would be departing from the Lord. That's kind of how I look at it.

[36:32] Okay, okay, I appreciate that. And that were that God didn't bless. Okay. Marie?

[36:42] I look at it more as a command, unless the King James isn't reporting it right. It sounds to me like it's a command that you go do this, and the fact that all these names are given makes me think it's literal.

[36:56] all. Okay. Joe? I want you to show them an example. You're going to be doing just exactly like the people are to God right now.

[37:08] This is an example of what they're doing to me. Okay. I want you to, this is going to be a great example for them to show what you people are doing to me, God. Okay, I don't know what translation you have, but here in the New American Standard, what Joe has just said, can very well be appended to the word in verse two, in the New American Standard at least, the word for, F-O-R.

[37:40] Go take to yourself a wife of harlotry and have children of harlotry for, or because the land commits flagrant harlotry forsaking the Lord.

[37:58] Do you see what's wrapped up in that word for? And as Joe has suggested, God is requiring this to be done by Hosea because it is going to create a flesh and blood living object lesson on a physical side of what is taking place between Israel, the nation, and God on a spiritual plane.

[38:29] The way a nation commits adultery is not the way an individual commits adultery. An individual commits adultery by making themselves available sexually to someone who is not their mate.

[38:50] But a nation commits adultery through idolatry by embracing the God of another nation or another entity that is not the true God at all.

[39:05] So it's a spiritual adultery and it is played out in idolatry. From the time the children of Israel came into the land of Israel from Egypt, remember, under, well, Moses didn't make it in, but Joshua led the people in.

[39:24] And from that time, even before, even before they came in the land, God told them through Moses. Now listen, when you get into the land of Israel, you are not to intermarry with the Canaanites.

[39:40] Because if you do, they will steal your hearts and lead you away from me into the worship of their gods and their idolatry.

[39:52] And we've already gone through, somewhat in the past, the dynamics involved in idolatry and why a nation would possibly stoop to worshiping some stupid idol.

[40:05] That the scriptures say they have eyes and see not and have ears and they hear not, neither can they speak, and yet these people worship them. And does anybody remember the two basic reasons for idolatry, why people would engage in idol worship?

[40:19] It goes all the way back to Genesis. Anybody remember the two reasons? Yeah. It's either preventive or a desire to acquire.

[40:34] desire. And it is nothing but the figment of men's imaginations that creates these false idols, these false gods.

[40:47] They have no objective reality or existence at all. They just come out of the minds of men and they are fueled by demonic activity, demonic thinking.

[40:57] I've made much of the point for the past several Sundays that in our fallenness in Adam we think with a fallen intellect, we think with a fallen logic, and the only counter to that is the truth of the word of God because men come up with all kinds of errors, and the only thing that can straighten out our thinking is what God says in his word.

[41:25] And in people's imaginations they concoct these ideas that Paul describes as really being the doctrine of demons.

[41:37] And they feed this to people. You know a verse that I've often quoted in 2 Corinthians 4, if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, whose minds, whose minds, thinking process, logic, whose minds, have been blinded by the God of this world.

[42:00] That's Satan, the God of this world, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, which is the image of God, should shine unto them. So, man already has one strike against him, just by his fallen intellect, and reaching wrong conclusions about things.

[42:17] And this is why people come up with ideas like, if you want to go to heaven, and if you want to be accepted by God, you have to be good, and you have to do nice things, and so on and so on. This is all human thinking, and it's all wrong.

[42:29] It's all wrong. But it seems very logical to people. So, when people embrace these ideas, they come up with all kinds of things, and one of them is that there are non-visible gods that can be represented by an idol, idol, and if you pray to that idol, and worship that idol, he will look out for you, and protect you from anything bad happening to you.

[43:00] And if you worship him, and make sacrifices to him, then he will bless you, and of course it's all pagan nonsense, but it's very much believed. Joe? If I have lots of money, and I have things and things, boy, I'll be happy, and I'll be wonderful before me if I have things and money.

[43:16] That's all I need. One more example of flawed thinking. And you'd be surprised. How many people today follow that train?

[43:28] How many people today believe that happiness is in acquisition? And this is part and parcel of the idolatry. You take, for instance, the Greek goddess Diana.

[43:42] You pray to Diana so that you will be successful in love, in finding a mate, and in marrying, and Diana will supply your answer.

[43:56] And we get this stuff, this pagan stuff is still with us today. The name of the Roman god, who was the god of love, is that cute little guy in the greeting card called Cupid.

[44:10] Cupid. And what does he have? He has an arrow, a bow and arrow, and he shoots this arrow into the heart of the one you want to win in love, and they just melt before you.

[44:24] Well, you make offerings to this god, and you pray to this god, and you will be able to acquire what they are willing to give you, because you honor them.

[44:34] And of course, it's all stuff and nonsense, but people believe this. And if you don't think so, look at India. You know, India, I've never been able to understand this, but I've read it repeatedly.

[44:50] India and Hinduism has 300,000 gods. I want to know, who counted them?

[45:02] Named them? This is incredible. And they believe this river Ganges to be a sacred river. It's one of the most foul, polluted rivers in the world.

[45:15] And these people go there and bathe themselves with the idea that they are going to cleanse themselves from their sins in the holy Ganges river. That is an extreme example of flawed, faulty thinking.

[45:32] And listen, these are not stupid people. they are not stupid people. They are intelligent. They may not be sophisticated technologically like some of us are, but of late you can't even say that about India because when you call for support help for your computer, you may be talking to somebody in India who's going to give you advice and you can pick up the accent.

[45:56] But, you know, all of this stuff, there's nothing new, really. This has been going on for a long, long time. Other comments or questions? Mike? What do you suppose the observant Jews believes about this illustration here today?

[46:13] And if they don't get it still, then it's just one more fail. Yeah. Interesting, interesting question.

[46:24] What do Jews today believe about what Hosea says? Well, I can't profess to speak for the Jews, but based on what I have read and studied, most of which was written by Jews, the average Jew today does not really begin to understand his Bible.

[46:50] As far as the Jew is concerned, the Bible is the Old Testament exclusively. They, of course, reject the New Testament.

[47:01] But the vast majority of them have very little acquaintance or understanding of their own Bible in Hebrew. They just, and those who do read it for the most part, unless you're talking about the Orthodox or the Hasidim, the guys with the black robes and the hat and the curls, most of them do not take the Bible seriously at all.

[47:25] They believe the whole thing is an allegory pretty much. Yes? Well, even those scholars, so to speak, do they, do you think that they get the gist of what Isaiah said?

[47:37] I think most of them that study it do so primarily from just an academic point of view, a literary point of view, not to be taken seriously, not to be believed, certainly not to adjust your life by it.

[47:53] That's where most of them are today. There are exceptions, of course, but most of them are woefully ignorant of their own scriptures. I don't know how many of you received the publication Israel, My Glory, which is probably one of the finest things in print now.

[48:14] For years and years, they have had a full-page article by Zvi Kalischer. Zvi's name is spelled Z-V-I and it's pronounced Zvi.

[48:28] He writes an article in that and he was a fascinating, fascinating story. He was a young man, I think he was born in Siberia, made his way across Europe during World War II and lost his family in the Holocaust and eventually came to faith in Christ.

[48:46] He was involved as a Jewish young man in the war for independence when the nations reneged on the Balfour Agreement and when the British mandate was withdrawn from Israel in 1947, war broke out and they were attacked simultaneously by a half dozen different Arab nations and Zvi Kalischer was in the Israeli military then and it was nothing but a ragtag bunch.

[49:16] They had no uniforms, they had no weapons, they had nothing. There's no reason in the world why they should have won that war but they did and he writes articles in there and virtually every time he talks about an encounter with Jewish people because he remains there in Israel and by the way he's well along in years now.

[49:35] If he's not in his 90s he's close to it and in very poor health and he probably won't be with us much longer but he's been writing these articles and he's told of several encounters that he has had with his own Jewish countrymen there in Israel and some of which are even rabbis and invariably when he presents truth to them about the gospel he limits his usage to the Old Testament because he knows that's the only thing they would respect and when he tells them about some of the truths in the Old Testament they say things like where did you get that?

[50:17] Where did you hear that? Because all they read when they read anything at all has to do with what the rabbis say and the different ones who have passed on and the readings that they have left behind the targums etc.

[50:30] And he says well it's right in your own Bible and he always has one with them and he shows it to them and very often they are just absolutely amazed that that is there in the Hebrew Bible written in Hebrew they didn't even know it was there never read it because they don't they don't they just the vast majority of the nation of Israel today is secular is secularized and a lot of people don't understand that they think that the principal religion of Israel is Judaism no it isn't the principal religion of Israel today is secularism and it is not at all unusual when you are introduced to a Jewish person in Israel before the conversation goes on for five minutes they will volunteer I'm not a religious Jew which means I'm Jewish by birth I'm Jewish by ancestry I'm Jewish by tradition but I am not into

[51:33] Judaism I do not worship as a Jew they are secularized and that's probably 90% of the population there today so it's and you know the time is coming when that's all going to be turned around because the thing that is going to be dramatic here has always been in place has always been in place always will be in place and that is the basis the basis for Israel once again being restored to favor with God is going to be conditioned upon the same thing that relationships with God have always been conditioned upon and that is the repentance of the sinner and Israel is going to come to the place where they will nationally nationally be a repentant people and Zechariah which we'll eventually maybe get to Zechariah 12 and verse 10 is a very powerful verse it's speaking about the end time and this is the tribulation period or the end of the tribulation period and

[52:44] Zechariah says and they and in the context it's talking about Israel it says and they shall look upon him whom they pierced that's the cross the nails the spear in the side they will look upon him whom they pierced and they will mourn for him that's repentance you know that's what 3,000 Jews did on the day of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2 men and brethren when Peter delivered that message what shall we do Peter had just told them in no uncertain terms Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah God sent him and you killed him you crucified him and these people were struck like a thunderbolt and they turned to each other and said he's right he's right what do you need to do when you are convinced you have been wrong you need to repent you need to change your mind why should you change your mind because the new evidence you have been given compels you to change your mind to line up with it and we are all struck by the fact that there were 3,000 who did that on the day of

[54:28] Pentecost but be reminded the vast majority of them did not I would not be surprised I have no way of verifying this I would not be surprised if there were 50,000 people there all Jews from all over the world Jews speaking different languages but they had the Hebrew faith in common and when Peter preached that message 3,000 responded positively and we Christians are so often taken by that we think that well as an evangelist he just cleaned up everybody got saved no they didn't no they didn't it just says 3,000 words doesn't say anything about how many were there or how many did not the they shall mourn for him

[55:44] Zechariah says as one mourns for an only son this is going to be a dramatic reversal and the Jew as a nation is going to embrace Yeshua Hamashiach as their Messiah and this is when the 144,000 who have already repented and have the seal of God in their forehead Revelation 7 and 14 and they will be proclaiming this gospel and they are going to be enormously successful it's going to be something John and then Mike could that be when Christ comes back the second time not the rapture when he comes to save Israel or Israel will be annihilated that's right I think that's exactly right Israel is going to be right on the brink of annihilation and they will be in a repentant posture and Christ will return and fight for his people this is revelation 19 and it's stunning

[56:44] Mike and Joe until that repentance takes place that we're speaking of here there's really no chance that the Jews are going to understand what the message of Hosea is until that repentance takes place even the observant Jew has no chance of understanding what Hosea is saying here yeah well I think that's probably true I would not be surprised I don't have any way of knowing this but I think that during this time of real tribulation when the Jew is really in the squeeze this is going to be a time Christ himself described it as a time such as the world has never seen and will never see again it's going to be bad

[57:49] I mean really bad two things that seem contradictory are going to be taking place in such incredible numbers that we just won't be able to process it and one is there's going to be an enormous number of people who are going to come to faith during the tribulation period this is after the rapture this is this is during the real heyday of the Gentiles and the Antichrist and and there's going to be an enormous number of people come to faith and many of them will be Jews and these Jews are already going to be targeted by the Antichrist and we've talked about this here and there's literature out there in Iraq and there's going to be more coming about the increasing anti-Semitism that is taking place and the Jew is going to be under a squeeze like nothing they've experienced since the Holocaust it will be open season on the

[58:50] Jews worldwide and they are going to be intensely persecuted and at the same time there will be enormous numbers of people come to faith in Christ both Jew and Gentile and the number of people that's going to be put to death will be stunning as well and this is the same time as the necessity of having the mark of the beast in order to survive because you'll not be able to buy anything or sell anything without that mark and that's all part and parcel of the same plan and program and it's coming might be closer than we think time is just about gone but is there a question that really needs to be asked or comment needs to be made we'll entertain it well I don't know that we've actually done justice to the first chapter but we will continue it and once we get past chapter once we get past chapter three it will move a lot more rapidly and we'll be more into prophetic things that are coming any final comments before we conclude well let's pray did you have some oh

[60:04] John was mentioning and you did too Romans 11 25 and 26 isn't that until the time of the Gentiles come in that's the rapture yes you were wondering and so all Israel shall be saved those two verses I think yeah they really go together Romans 11 25 and 26 for I would not brethren that you should be ignorant of this mystery that is this secret lest you should be wise in your own conceits that blindness in part is happened to Israel and I have some Jewish friends who said I'm sure glad that word is there because it isn't blindness in full it is blindness in part and that means that Jewish people are being saved they are coming to faith in Christ not great numbers perhaps but more now than ever in history for the last 2000 years blindness in part has happened to Israel until until the fullness of the

[61:05]  Gentiles become in and so when this takes place all Israel shall be saved as it is written there shall come out of Zion the deliverer guess who that is and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob wow well let's pray shall we father we are mindful of what we do not know and we know that it is the majority of these things that we have considered but we are grateful for what we do know and what we can understand and what you have been pleased to reveal and the best way we can express our gratitude is by we desire to do we look forward to meeting again and until that time may your blessing be with each one as we depart in Christ's name Amen