Hosea 9&10
Notes
Transcript
Find the “BIG IDEA” >> a. What is the author talking about? b. What is he saying about what he is talking about?
a. Talking about the coming judgement of Israel, their sowing unrighteousness and reaping destruction… Hosea 10: 13-15
b. “Turn or burn” is not such an unbiblical concept… >> God is hard on our Evil… We must seek Him in order to be saved from Him…
Find the FCF >>
1. What does the text say?
Talking about the coming judgement of Israel, their sowing unrighteousness and reaping destruction…
2. What spiritual concern(s) did the text address (in its context)?
The immense wickedness of the people of Israel, even hundreds of years past the time of the Judges, history repeats itself…
3. What spiritual concerns do listeners share in common with those to (or about) whom the text was written?
Hosea 10:3-4 … We have bought the lie that we are autonomous and independent beings…
[Kids Time!]
[Introduction]
You Reap What You Sow: Part 2
Hosea 9-10
[Introduce Text]
>> Today will be the second of our brief, two part section of the book of Hosea that I’ve named, You Reap What You Sow. Last week, we talked about bakers, birdies, and burros… But primarily, Hosea communicates this point to the people of Israel and Judah:
Being bad has BAD consequences
>> And how relatable is that to the human experience! But one thought I had shortly after our time together last Sunday was sparked in thinking about the recent murder of Charlie Kirk.
>> Now, I’m sure his murder doesn’t require much introduction for anyone with access to the news, the internet, or any one else with those things… But briefly, here’s my summary:
Charlie Kirk was a 31 year old man, husband for 4 and a half years to his wife, Erika, and father of two children; their daughter celebrated with her dad her 3rd birthday a few weeks before his death and their son turned one a few weeks before my son, Jett, turned one this year.
Charlie was outspoken for many social, political, and emotionally charged issues which he addressed most popularly with young adults on college campuses across the country. Most notably, though, was Charlie’s passion and devotion to speaking truth in love from a foundation of faith in Jesus.
>> Now, I bring up Charlie for these two reasons…
>> The first is, his death is tragic. No matter your political leaning or opinion about the man… What we can say objectively is that a young father, a Christian man… was killed. And no matter what anyone says, his death reminds me that death itself is an enemy. A quote I’ve held to is, “let no one call friend what God calls an enemy” and death remains an enemy of all image bearers of God… and it is tragic.
>> The second reason is that the Bible makes this thematic claim in Hosea, that “Being bad has BAD consequences”… and yet a man was shot and killed last week, an arguably “good” man. So, a question we will be considering today, along with our regular flow of studying the Word, is:
Does Being good have BAD consequences?
>> We’ll unpack that briefly today. Open your bibles to Hosea chapter 9. Before we start, lets begin our time of worship in God’s True Word with prayer...
[Prayer]
[Main Point]
>> Our Main Point of Hosea 9-10 today is that
A good God is severe on our Evil…
We must seek Him in order to be saved from Him…
>> Being Bad has Bad consequences because a good God is hard on our Evil!… and rather than escaping God’s wrath and judgement by drawing away from Him… The Word reminds us that our only hope is to seek Him to be saved from Him. We’ll see this Main Point drawn out as God unfolds Israel’s punishment, starting with verse 1,
[Explanation]
Hosea 9–10 (ESV)
9 Rejoice not, O Israel!
Exult not like the peoples;
for you have played the whore, forsaking your God.
You have loved a prostitute’s wages
on all threshing floors.
2 Threshing floor and wine vat shall not feed them,
and the new wine shall fail them.
3 They shall not remain in the land of the Lord,
but Ephraim shall return to Egypt,
and they shall eat unclean food in Assyria.
4 They shall not pour drink offerings of wine to the Lord,
and their sacrifices shall not please him.
It shall be like mourners’ bread to them;
all who eat of it shall be defiled;
for their bread shall be for their hunger only;
it shall not come to the house of the Lord.
5 What will you do on the day of the appointed festival,
and on the day of the feast of the Lord?
6 For behold, they are going away from destruction;
but Egypt shall gather them;
Memphis shall bury them.
Nettles shall possess their precious things of silver;
thorns shall be in their tents.
>> “Nettles” = Thorns, by the way...
>> The Lord is severe against evil. He does not provide for it. They sow unfaithfulness, forsaking the Lord, pressing in to their evil neighbors, they will reap what they've sown: where they have wailed and gashed themselves for provision for themselves, like the prophets of Baal from our reading of 2 Kings last week, they will hear no answer. Where they have abandoned the Lord and pursued their "lovers", their false gods and allegiance to the pagan Assyrian neighbors, they will become closer with them than they could have ever dreamed... in exile and oppression from them.
>> When we sow evil and separation from God, a good God is severe against our evil in that we will reap what we sow: Evil and separation from God.
7 The days of punishment have come;
the days of recompense have come;
Israel shall know it.
The prophet is a fool;
the man of the spirit is mad,
because of your great iniquity
and great hatred.
8 The prophet is the watchman of Ephraim with my God;
yet a fowler’s snare is on all his ways,
and hatred in the house of his God.
>> These verses show us Israel's treatment and heart posture toward the prophets. Remember, the prophets served as the spokesman of God, delivering messages to God's people to warn, exhort, and ultimately save them... And the people of Israel treated them as fools. "The days of punishment have come"... and the watchmen of the gates, the one who saw the danger from afar and called down to this city his warnings... is ignored.
>> How bad is it though? What is the condition of the people, that they should deserve such a severe punishment from God? Is God being severe against evil?
9 They have deeply corrupted themselves
as in the days of Gibeah:
he will remember their iniquity;
he will punish their sins.
10 Like grapes in the wilderness,
I found Israel.
Like the first fruit on the fig tree
in its first season,
I saw your fathers.
But they came to Baal-peor
and consecrated themselves to the thing of shame,
and became detestable like the thing they loved.
>> Verse 9 mentions Gibeah... Verse 10 mentions Baal-peor... A brief summary of these dark moments in Israel's history show us two aspects: Israel's wicked hearts and Israel's wicked devotions. In John MacArthur's commentary on Hosea, he states:
>> "Israel's sin is likened to the gross evil of the men of Gibeah, a reference to their heinous rape of the concubine (Judg. 19:22), an infamous and unforgettable crime (cf. Judg. 19:30)."
>> “Prior to entering the Promised Land, Israel fell into the idolatrous worship of Baal at Baal Peor (Num. 25.3-18). God killed 24,000 because of their immorality and false worship (Num. 25.9).”
>> Hosea's charge against God's people is that they "became detestable like the thing they loved". What do you love? What draws your eye? What do you spend the majority of your time on? What do you behold as precious to you, you defend it when it’s threatened, you look to it for comfort… I promise you, the thing you behold is the thing you will become... so, what do you behold?
11 Ephraim’s glory shall fly away like a bird—
no birth, no pregnancy, no conception!
12 Even if they bring up children,
I will bereave them till none is left.
Woe to them
when I depart from them!
>> Their “glory” is their birth, pregnancy, and conception!
13 Ephraim, as I have seen, was like a young palm planted in a meadow;
but Ephraim must lead his children out to slaughter.
14 Give them, O Lord—
what will you give?
Give them a miscarrying womb
and dry breasts.
15 Every evil of theirs is in Gilgal;
there I began to hate them.
Because of the wickedness of their deeds
I will drive them out of my house.
I will love them no more;
all their princes are rebels.
>> Gilgal —> see Hosea 12:11; was a southern kingdom city full of idolatry…
16 Ephraim is stricken;
their root is dried up;
they shall bear no fruit.
Even though they give birth,
I will put their beloved children to death.
>> “Ephraim” is a name that means “Fruitful”...
>> When we sow separation from God, when we wish that God would just “leave us alone!”… This is an evil thing! The prophet Isaiah says,
Isaiah 59:1–2 “Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear; but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.”
>> It is their iniquities that have caused this separation. And what blessing, or benediction, do churches throughout history make to the people?
Numbers 6:24–26 “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.”
>> Their separation, their iniquity, their evil against God would separate them from fruitfulness, blessing and glory in child rearing… and their punishment will make them wish that they couldn’t bear children at all, as we saw in verse 14!
>> We end these severe punishments with verse 17,
17 My God will reject them
because they have not listened to him;
they shall be wanderers among the nations.
>> Notice Hosea say, “my God will reject them…” there is no ownership there for God and His people.
>> God is severe against evil in that He rejects foolishness… to not listen to God, to pursue idols and evil vein things, is to pursue rejection from God and to reap being lost among the other lost people… “the nations”.
>> We begin chapter 10 with imagery of fruitfulness.. but not good fruitfulness that you’d wish for…
———————————————————————-
Chapter 10
10 Israel is a luxuriant vine
that yields its fruit.
The more his fruit increased,
the more altars he built;
as his country improved,
he improved his pillars.
2 Their heart is false;
now they must bear their guilt.
The Lord will break down their altars
and destroy their pillars.
3 For now they will say:
“We have no king,
for we do not fear the Lord;
and a king—what could he do for us?”
4 They utter mere words;
with empty oaths they make covenants;
so judgment springs up like poisonous weeds
in the furrows of the field.
>> I have wild vines growing in my garden and in the back of my property. When I was first growing plants, I saw them and was like, “Sweet! I guess I do have a green thumb!”. But what I quickly learned was that these weeds were not only very fruitful in their production of more weeds… but super hard to get rid of!
>> God admits their fruitfulness… fruitfulness to produce more alters and more pillars for false worship. Their successes have led them to be anarchists around their leadership. MacArthur notes, “the Last Five kings of Israel were usurpers” (one who seizes power or an office by force or without right). God sees these weeds and has his own Round Up to deliver.
>> Continuing in verse 5, we see their bent hearts toward idolatry,
5 The inhabitants of Samaria tremble
for the calf of Beth-aven.
>> tremble = “Will have anxiety over”
Its people mourn for it, and so do its idolatrous priests—
those who rejoiced over it and over its glory—
for it has departed from them.
6 The thing itself shall be carried to Assyria
as tribute to the great king.
Ephraim shall be put to shame,
and Israel shall be ashamed of his idol.
7 Samaria’s king shall perish
like a twig on the face of the waters.
8 The high places of Aven, the sin of Israel,
shall be destroyed.
Thorn and thistle shall grow up
on their altars,
and they shall say to the mountains, “Cover us,”
and to the hills, “Fall on us.”
9 From the days of Gibeah, you have sinned, O Israel;
there they have continued.
Shall not the war against the unjust overtake them in Gibeah?
>> See Hosea 9:9, Gibeah from Judges…
>> “the war against the unjust...”
10 When I please, I will discipline them,
and nations shall be gathered against them
when they are bound up for their double iniquity.
>> The image of “hiding in the hills” at the coming of God’s wrath/day of judgement. Why do they run? Their evil is exposed, they can’t withstand the righteousness of He who come to judge the living and the dead…
>> Reminds me of Revelation 16, when the people of the earth mourn the destruction of evil…
11 Ephraim was a trained calf
that loved to thresh,
and I spared her fair neck;
but I will put Ephraim to the yoke;
Judah must plow;
Jacob must harrow for himself.
12 Sow for yourselves righteousness;
reap steadfast love;
break up your fallow ground,
for it is the time to seek the Lord,
that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.
>> This is the turning point, the exhortation (v. 12)… and the final warning of this section of Hosea (v. 13-15).
13 You have plowed iniquity;
you have reaped injustice;
you have eaten the fruit of lies.
Because you have trusted in your own way
and in the multitude of your warriors,
>> Therefore…
14 therefore the tumult of war shall arise among your people,
and all your fortresses shall be destroyed,
as Shalman destroyed Beth-arbel on the day of battle;
mothers were dashed in pieces with their children.
15 Thus it shall be done to you, O Bethel,
because of your great evil.
At dawn the king of Israel
shall be utterly cut off.
[Application]
[Conclusion]
>> On September 6th, days before his assassination, Charlie Kirk posted this one sentence on X:
Jesus defeated death so you can live.
Charlie is quoted, in responding to the question:
>> Abide is Bible Believing church.
John 16:33 “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.””
