REAPING EMPTINESS

HOSEA 8

INTRODUCTION:

In verse 7 of Chapter 8, the Bible mentions that Israel has sown to the wind and would reap the whirlwind. It also says that the stalk has no bud on it.

There is a principle in Scripture that says there is a correspondence between what a person does today and what will come their way later. We may better know this principle this way: whatever you sow that is what you are going to reap.

“Deed is the seed which is multipled in the harvest.”

Galatians 6:7-10 “Do not be decived; God is not mocked. For whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption , but he who sows to the Spirit wil of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not grow weary in well doing for in due season we shall reap if we do not faint (do not lose heart).

Many live today as though what they do will never have any consequences. They live as though there are no consequences to their actions.

When Nathan the prophet called David out and David repented, Nathan told him that he was forgiven but that the sword will not depart from your house

There is a reference in verse 7 we must note. “The stalk has no bud; it shall never produce meal; If it should produce, strangers will swallow it up.

They will plant and sow seeds but what they reap will be emptiness. The idea in the language is that they will sow, not one see, but multiple seeds and will reap multiple emptiness. EMPTINESSESS

They think they will have peace, prosperity, and victory yet their expectations come to nothing.

They sow to the wind which is the picture of vanity or nothingness and they reap the whirlwind which is the image of destruction and annihilations.

Solomon spent his life saying “Vanity of vanities; all is vanity. And Solomon had everything this world says you need for happiness and contenment and he spent his life “chasing the wind.”

Now the underlying problem is seen in Verse 14 “For Israel has forgotten his Maker…”

Does that mean that they had forgotten that there is a God or that God exists? NO Had they forgotten that He was the one true God? No

Israel not only knew that God existed but they believed they were worshipping HIm.

No one forgets God in the absolute, intellectual sense.

It is our inescapable knowledge of God coupled with our unreasonable and sinful rejection of that knowledge that makes us guilty before God.

Romans 1:18-22 “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in righteousness, because what may be known of god is maniferst in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify HIm as God nor were thankful but became futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened.”

God warned Israel not to forget HIm.

Deuteronomy 4:22-24 “Take heed to yourselves, lest you forget the covenant of the Lord your God which He made with you, and make for yourselves a carved image in the form fo anything which the Lord your God has forbiddne you. For the Lord your God is a consuming fire,k a jealous God.”

Deuteronomy 6:10-13 “ So it shall be, when the Lord your God brings you into the land of which He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Issac, and Jacob, to give you large and beautiful cities which you did not build, houses full of all good things which you did not fill, hewn-out wells which you did not dig, vinayards and olive trees which you did not plant: when you have eaten and are full then beware, lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage.”

Deuternomony 8:6-17 “Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God, kto walk in His ways and to fear Him. 7 For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, that flow out of valleys and hills; 8 a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; 9 a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing; a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper. 10 When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land which He has given you. 11 “Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today, 12 lest—when you have eaten and are 5full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them; 13 and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; 14 when your heart 7is lifted up, and you pforget the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage; 15 who led you through that great and terrible wilderness, rin which were fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty land where there was no water; who brought water for you out of the flinty rock; 16 who fed you in the wilderness with tmanna, which your fathers did not know, that He might humble you and that He might test you, uto do you good in the end—17 then you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.”

Here is the problem: a genuine worship of God and a complete obedience to God has been neglected. And there are results to their forgetting God.

RESULTS OF FORGETTING GOD

BROKE GOD’S COVENANT (8:1-3)

God made a covenant with Abraham. This is an agreement sealed with blood between God and Abraham: this is personal.

Our relationship with Jesus is a personal relationship.

They rebelled against God’s law. The Law of God is the objective standard.

To break God’s covenant is to break God’s law and to break God’s law is to offend God personally.

Your sin and rebellion is an offense to God Himself.

“Against thee and thee only have I sinned” David said.

The breaking of God’s covenant and the rebelling of God’s law must be kept together..

If we seperate the two, we can easily delude ourselves into thinking that our relationship with God can stay in tact while we live in sin. The passage before us marries the two.

It teaches us that you cannot call God God outside of obedience to HIm. Jesus said “Why do you call me Lord Lord and do not do the things I say?”

CHOICE OF KINGS (8:4)

God had given the nation Godly leadership in the past: Moses, Joshua, Caleb, Samuel.

But the nation decided on its on leadership apart from God’s direction and they got what they wanted.

I think about churches that decide on their own direcdtion concerning calling a pastor. And I think about churches that will not follow the godly leadership of the pastor that God sends them.

IDOL WORSHIP (8:4-6)

They made calves for worship: sound familiar.

Now if you see this as an outright rejection of Jehovah God, you have missed the point. This is a far more subtle sin.

In Aaron’s day they worshipped the golden calf and said “this is the God that brought us up out of the land of Egypt.

You do not have to verbally say you are worshipping idols to be worshipping idols.

Whatever you give you time and energy, your allegiance and money. We best be careful in the church that we don’t worship the good music and forget the God that we are singing about.

FALSE ALTARS (8:11-13)

God had appointed one altar upon which sacrifice was to be made. Yet the nation built many altars.

Paul said in Romans 12 that the altor upon which place ourselves is the altar of living sacrifice.

When people do not give themselves wholly to the Lord then their attention will be turned to others things.

So, for us many times our altars become buildings, budgets, by laws. And there are those who would not walk across the street to share the glorious gospel with a lost man that will lay down his lfe for a set of by laws.

BIGNESS (8:14)

Israel built temples (palaces). This is a word that can be translated bigness or spacious.

The passion of the nation became to build bigger and better. For them, bigness equalled blessing.

Do you remember the parable Jesus told about the rich fool. You know what is problem was: He associated that which is to be spiritual with that which is physical.

“Having is Being.”

Many churches today associate bigness with the blessing of God.

CONCLUSION: