The Wages of Sin is Death
Notes
Transcript
Scripture Reading
Scripture Reading
1 When Ephraim spoke, men trembled;
he was exalted in Israel.
But he became guilty of Baal worship and died.
2 Now they sin more and more;
they make idols for themselves from their silver,
cleverly fashioned images,
all of them the work of craftsmen.
It is said of these people,
“They offer human sacrifice
and kiss the calf-idols.”
3 Therefore they will be like the morning mist,
like the early dew that disappears,
like chaff swirling from a threshing floor,
like smoke escaping through a window.
4 “But I am the Lord your God,
who brought you out of Egypt.
You shall acknowledge no God but me,
no Savior except me.
5 I cared for you in the desert,
in the land of burning heat.
6 When I fed them, they were satisfied;
when they were satisfied, they became proud;
then they forgot me.
7 So I will come upon them like a lion,
like a leopard I will lurk by the path.
8 Like a bear robbed of her cubs,
I will attack them and rip them open.
Like a lion I will devour them;
a wild animal will tear them apart.
9 “You are destroyed, O Israel,
because you are against me, against your helper.
10 Where is your king, that he may save you?
Where are your rulers in all your towns,
of whom you said,
‘Give me a king and princes’?
11 So in my anger I gave you a king,
and in my wrath I took him away.
12 The guilt of Ephraim is stored up,
his sins are kept on record.
13 Pains as of a woman in childbirth come to him,
but he is a child without wisdom;
when the time arrives,
he does not come to the opening of the womb.
14 “I will ransom them from the power of the grave;
I will redeem them from death.
Where, O death, are your plagues?
Where, O grave, is your destruction?
“I will have no compassion,
15 even though he thrives among his brothers.
An east wind from the Lord will come,
blowing in from the desert;
his spring will fail
and his well dry up.
His storehouse will be plundered
of all its treasures.
16 The people of Samaria must bear their guilt,
because they have rebelled against their God.
They will fall by the sword;
their little ones will be dashed to the ground,
their pregnant women ripped open.”
Introduction
Introduction
As we head towards the close of this prophetic word of God through Hosea, Israel was betrothed to God.
But the sad reality was that they descended into Apostasy… The picture, as you will recall, was that of Hosea being married to a prostitute, and after the marriage, she went off in search of other lovers.
And that’s been the consistent picture given of Israel.
That they as a nation have abadoned the God to whom they were in covenant relationship, and were instead running after other gods.
The passage that we have before us this evening is the climactic point of the judgment of God being carried out upon Israel.
It is striking in that it captures Israel situation with some pretty graphic images!!
But the startling images should serve only to impress our hearts and minds the seriousness of sin. They should impress upon us how serious God views sin, and a truning away from him.
Further to this, the question that we would do well to ask ourselves is, “Do we believe God’s word?”
Recall that these very people had God’s revelation to them. And yet they turned away. They did not believe within their hearts what God said to them. They did not listen to the prophets. They disobeyed God.
In the New Testament, Peter speaks of scoffers that will go their own way. They will ask where the second coming / the judgment of God is? They mock, saying that he will not come. And so even today, we must keep on, by the grace of God, turning our hearts towards the truth of the Word of God.
The question is, do you believe God’s word?
As we turn our attention to this passage, note firstly with me...
1. Israel’s Turning Away (vv.1-3)
1. Israel’s Turning Away (vv.1-3)
Notice with me what God says to Israel in verse 1 of this text.
1 When Ephraim spoke, men trembled;
he was exalted in Israel.
But he became guilty of Baal worship and died.
In a sense, this is an introductory summary to what is to come.
God speaks here of the greatness of Ephraim. Probably the initial reference is to Ephraim, one of the sons of Joseph, who had received the blessing from Jacob.
Recall that Ephraim was the younger of the brothers, and the blessing from Jacob should have falled to Manasseh, but Jacob crossed his hands has he blessed the sons of Joseph, and the blessing fell to Ephraim.
By the providential working of God, he had been greatly blessed.
And so it was with Israel. This is really who is being referenced here - the nation Israel.
But Hosea is using significant people from the history of Israel in order to demonstrate truths concerning the nation.
And so while there a picture of Ephraim the person, the picture really is of Israel as a nation.
Hosea goes on to say that Ephraim became filled with pride.
From the record of the history of Israel, you will find that Jereboam Son of Nebat… descended from Ephraim.
It was this man Jereboam that led the nation Israel into idol worship.
I was reading this account from 1 Kings during the course of this week in my quiet times, and it struck me just how foolish this was. God had promised Jereboam that he would become king of the Northern tribes. It was a promise from God.
And yet, once he became king, and the 10 northern tribes of Israel followed him, rather than following Rehoboam, he became afraid that the people would turn back to Reheboam if they went to worship at the festivals in Jerusalem. And so he set up Golden Calves at Bethel and Dan.
This was simply a picture of the sins of Israel.
They became guilty of Baal worship, and died.
Verses 2 go on to show how they continued in this and perpetuated this idol worship...
2 Now they sin more and more;
they make idols for themselves from their silver,
cleverly fashioned images,
all of them the work of craftsmen.
It is said of these people,
“They offer human sacrifice
and kiss the calf-idols.”
This is an extremely sad account of the descent of the people into worse sins. They become more and more invovled in sinful conduct. As they engage in one sin, it leads to hardening. This leads to further sin, and so the process goes.
The extent of this reached a point where “they offer human sacrifice and kiss the calf-idosl.”
How far Israel had fallen away from God.
This shows the depths of the depravity to which they had descended. Sacrificing children. Kissing idols.
This leads us to consider the punishment for their idolatry, and we see this in verse 3...
3 Therefore they will be like the morning mist,
like the early dew that disappears,
like chaff swirling from a threshing floor,
like smoke escaping through a window.
4 images… all say similar things.
They will be those that are here today and gone tomorrow.
They will not stay.
Speaks also to their own weakness. That which just disappears.
They may have believed that they were strong, invincible… but they were weak.
As a consequence, we notice secondly from our text...
2.God’s Turning Away (vv.4-8)
2.God’s Turning Away (vv.4-8)
Remember - God is faithful… repeatedly showed mercy…
Similar will take place in last chapter. God will extend mercy...
But at this time, God demonstrates with great clarity the dissatisfaction that he has...
Covenant obligation of sole loyalty to Yahweh
4 “But I am the Lord your God,
who brought you out of Egypt.
You shall acknowledge no God but me,
no Savior except me.
God is reminding that everything had been done in order to demonstrate his own kindness and grace and mercy.
God was the shepherd that was caring for them.
He had delivered them, and upon Him being their Saviour, he established the law by which they were to live.
5 I cared for you in the desert,
in the land of burning heat.
6 When I fed them, they were satisfied;
when they were satisfied, they became proud;
then they forgot me.
The people forgot God, and they forgot who God was to them.
Thus, in a striking way, the one that was once the shepherd for them, turns against them.
Listen to the words that God then uses to describe himself...
7 So I will come upon them like a lion,
like a leopard I will lurk by the path.
8 Like a bear robbed of her cubs,
I will attack them and rip them open.
Like a lion I will devour them;
a wild animal will tear them apart.
Discuss...
Pictures of wild animals.
Speaks of the seriousness..
But remember… punishment is all deserved.
The severity of the punishment is clearly displayed.
10 But the Lord is the true God;
he is the living God, the eternal King.
When he is angry, the earth trembles;
the nations cannot endure his wrath.
There is nothing tame about the wrath of God.
When the wrath of God finally comes in the final judgment, we must see that this wrath will be such that it causes the wicked to tremble and seek to hide in fear. But there will be nowhere to run from God’s judgment.
It is God’s punishment that will be directed at Israel… which leads us to consider...
3. Israel Destroyed (vv.9-16)
3. Israel Destroyed (vv.9-16)
The judgment begins in verse 9...
9 “You are destroyed, O Israel,
because you are against me, against your helper.
We know the expression, “to shoot yourself in the foot.”
We know the expression, “don’t bite the hand that feeds you.”
This is precisely what Israel had done.
They had turned against and rebelled against the very God that had been their helper.
In one sense, this is the picture of humanity.
All mankind has turned against their maker.
The light came into the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.
But Israel had the privilege of God’s revelation to them, and his working on their behalf. They ought not to have turned away from Him.
And yet they had. They had turned themselves actively against their helper.
God continues...
10 Where is your king, that he may save you?
Where are your rulers in all your towns,
of whom you said,
‘Give me a king and princes’?
11 So in my anger I gave you a king,
and in my wrath I took him away.
Again, a picture is given to ISrael here. They had asked God for a king. They saw the nations around them…
Longed for a king.
6 But when they said, “Give us a king to lead us,” this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord. 7 And the Lord told him: “Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. 8 As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you. 9 Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do.”
In their hearts - essentially turned away from God.
Verse 12 goes on to say...
12 The guilt of Ephraim is stored up,
his sins are kept on record.
13 Pains as of a woman in childbirth come to him,
but he is a child without wisdom;
when the time arrives,
he does not come to the opening of the womb.
Birth is retarded...
Life of both mother and child are greatly endangered...
The Minor Prophets B. Israel’s Retribution (13:11–13)
In the figure here the mother and child both represent Ephraim. The nation is “unwise” because even under the chastening judgment he still delayed his conversion and would not let himself be born again (13:13b).
Punishment via Sheol...
14 “I will ransom them from the power of the grave;
I will redeem them from death.
Where, O death, are your plagues?
Where, O grave, is your destruction?
“I will have no compassion,
Different interpretations here… won’t delve into every possibility.
Are these questions? Statements?
probably… given the flow of the entire verse, this is saying that God is certainly going to bring this destruction on them.
15 even though he thrives among his brothers.
An east wind from the Lord will come,
blowing in from the desert;
his spring will fail
and his well dry up.
His storehouse will be plundered
of all its treasures.
16 The people of Samaria must bear their guilt,
because they have rebelled against their God.
They will fall by the sword;
their little ones will be dashed to the ground,
their pregnant women ripped open.”
These images speak about Assyria, coming in and taking away all the treasures.
2 Kings 17…Turn there. read from v.5-8...
So would come about the destruction that God had promised.
Application / Conclusion
Application / Conclusion
What do we learn as a church from this sad destruction of a very special people?
We need to see the serious consequences of sin.
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Sin always brings death!!!
It is impossible for that not to be the case.
When Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden - eat of any fruit, but not of the fruit of the tree in the middle of the garden. If you eat of that, you will surely die.
12 Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned—
Now death was not immediate, but certainly death would come ultimately. Physical death is the fruit of sin. Spiritual death is the ultimate fruit.
BUT - there is life in Christ.
The gift of God is eternal life in Christ.
This must be seen against the backdrop of the extent of sin in the world.
For the believer, death is not the final say. The great hope of the Christian is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Extent of the hope in Christ.
Paul quotes this very text when he writes to the Corinthians… speaking about the resurrection, and the hope that we have.
54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
55 “Where, O death, is your victory?
Where, O death, is your sting?”
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
58 Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.
in other words, whatever judgment was being proncounced on Israel, that judgment has no power against the one that is in Christ, because Christ has perfectly satisfied the just wrath of God.
Isn’t this astounding?
The question is, do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? Do you trust in Him?
If your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off. Sin is dangerous. Jereboam -...
