Discipline - A Loving Hedge
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
When talking to parents or children and asking what their favorite part of the relationship is, I am often surprised and astounded because no one has ever once told me that their favorite part of growing up was receiving discipline or their favorite part of raising children was disciplining them. Thats because disciplining is probably the least fun and the thing no one looks forward to. However discipline is necessary - to not discipline is to hate your child and to not receive discipline hates himself and is stupid.
24 The one who will not use the rod hates his son, but the one who loves him disciplines him diligently.
32 Anyone who ignores discipline despises himself, but whoever listens to correction acquires good sense.
1 Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but one who hates correction is stupid.
5 A fool despises his father’s discipline, but a person who accepts correction is sensible.
Discipline is never fun for either one - remember the saying this is going to hurt you alot more than it hurts me - a loving parent does not like punishing their child but they know it is for their good. A parent who disciplines is one who shows love for their child. The same is true when God disciplines us as our loving Father in heaven. It is not God showing that He has cast you out, actually it is a reminder that you are His
5 And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons: My son, do not take the Lord’s discipline lightly or lose heart when you are reproved by him, 6 for the Lord disciplines the one he loves and punishes every son he receives.
7 Endure suffering as discipline: God is dealing with you as sons. For what son is there that a father does not discipline? 8 But if you are without discipline—which all receive—then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
Discipline however is a protector and a loving guard for one’s life - this is why the Father disciplines us it is a loving hedge.
10 Discipline is harsh for the one who leaves the path; the one who hates correction will die.
11 No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
Chapter 2 of Hosea is all about the Lord’s discipline of His unfaithful wife - Israel as seen through Gomer. The discipline of the Lord provides a loving hedge around His unfaithful wife. The Lord uses discipline to remind how horrible sin is and also to provide a way of restoration and redemption. Join with me as we jump into Hosea chapter 2 starting at verse 2 and see how the Lord disciplines so that when we experience the discipline of the Lord instead of recoiling at it we can find comfort and peace within it knowing it is an expression of His love and care and comes with His desire to restore relationship.
2 Rebuke your mother; rebuke her. For she is not my wife and I am not her husband. Let her remove the promiscuous look from her face and her adultery from between her breasts. 3 Otherwise, I will strip her naked and expose her as she was on the day of her birth. I will make her like a desert and like a parched land, and I will let her die of thirst.
4 I will have no compassion on her children because they are the children of promiscuity. 5 Yes, their mother is promiscuous; she conceived them and acted shamefully. For she thought, “I will follow my lovers, the men who give me my food and water, my wool and flax, my oil and drink.”
6 Therefore, this is what I will do: I will block her way with thorns; I will enclose her with a wall, so that she cannot find her paths. 7 She will pursue her lovers but not catch them; she will look for them but not find them. Then she will think, “I will go back to my former husband, for then it was better for me than now.”
8 She does not recognize that it is I who gave her the grain, the new wine, and the fresh oil. I lavished silver and gold on her, which they used for Baal. 9 Therefore, I will take back my grain in its time and my new wine in its season; I will take away my wool and linen, which were to cover her nakedness.
10 Now I will expose her shame in the sight of her lovers, and no one will rescue her from my power. 11 I will put an end to all her celebrations: her feasts, New Moons, and Sabbaths— all her festivals.
12 I will devastate her vines and fig trees. She thinks that these are her wages that her lovers have given her. I will turn them into a thicket, and the wild animals will eat them. 13 And I will punish her for the days of the Baals, to which she burned incense. She put on her rings and her jewelry and followed her lovers, but she forgot me. This is the Lord’s declaration.
Acknowledging Sin
Acknowledging Sin
Hosea 2:2 (CSB)
2 Rebuke your mother; rebuke her. For she is not my wife and I am not her husband.
This section opens up with the Lord calling for the children of Hosea and Gomer to rebuke their mother and it repeats the command for the rebuke. Quit recap here - Hosea represents God (imperfectly of course) and Gomer represents unfaithful Israel (God’s Wife) - their marriage together represents the relationship or marriage between God and Israel (rife with Israel’s adultery). Jezreel (God Sows), Lo-ruhamah (Not Loved) and Lo-ammi (Not My People) represent the children of God and Israel - faithful Israel perhaps? God says to the children to come and rebuke their mother. This si rebuke is not a strong correction as we have known the word rebuke to mean previously.
rebuke - reyshudbet - strive, quarrel, attack or complain - make or contest a law suit. The sense of the word is to contend legally, maintaining asserting defending and arguing for a side in a legal proceeding. It could be a formal legal accusation or charge
Call her out and bring charges to her attention that what she is doing is not right and not legal and failing to uphold her covenantal promises.
God speaks and says “she is not my wife and I am not her husband”. Some would come to these words and go wow God backed out from the marriage - but the truth is God has no desire to end the relationship and every desire to heal it, but He will never make a place for sin and He will not tolerate unfaithfulness and adultery. The charges are to remind Israel that God is serious about sin. Because of the sin of unfaithfulness and idolatry - similar to the unfaithfulness of adultery God is saying the relationship is broken.
In Israel’s unfaithfulness she was saying she is not God’s wife, and was treating God as though He were not her husband. The sin she is enjoying has broken the covenant relationship. You cannot live as though you are not married and say that you are married simply because you have entered the covenant. It is the fulfillment of the covenant that makes it true.
God at this point could exercise legal prerogative and have His wife legally put to death.
10 “If a man commits adultery with a married woman—if he commits adultery with his neighbor’s wife—both the adulterer and the adulteress must be put to death.
22 “If a man is discovered having sexual relations with another man’s wife, both the man who had sex with the woman and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel.
You might say this is harsh - but sin is SERIOUS! Instead the Lord chooses to exercise a different prerogative.
Appeal for Repentance
Appeal for Repentance
Hosea 2:2 (CSB)
2 Let her remove the promiscuous look from her face and her adultery from between her breasts.
3 Otherwise, I will strip her naked and expose her as she was on the day of her birth. I will make her like a desert and like a parched land, and I will let her die of thirst. 4 I will have no compassion on her children because they are the children of promiscuity.
The Lord instead of exercising the legal right to put His wife to death instead decides to issue an appeal for repentance. Calling on the nation to abandon its adulterous activities. Repentance is not just feeling sorry for getting caught or getting in trouble for the choices and actions we have made. Repentance involves a change of the heart, attitude and behavior towards the sin we previously participated in - we completely turn from it. It is not enough to cut down the sin but that we cut it out completely.
The Lord says as much He says let her remove the promiscuous look from her face and her adultery from between her breasts. The harlots and prostitutes in those days would adorn the face in such a way as to display that they were harlots and prostitutes. It is also believed that the reference to removing the adultery from between the breasts was a reference to certain jewelry worn that also alluded to their harlotry.
More significantly Face and Breast can also relate entirely - personality, intent and the breast relating to the body with emphasis on what it is used for. I also see the plea for removing this sin - not only outwardly in appearance but also from the heart itself. God is saying repent and remove the sin from you - especially your heart.
23 Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life.
Otherwise the Lord promises that there will be severe consequences each with the “I will” preceeding it.
I will strip her naked and expose her as on the day of her birth. Since the garden of Eden when Adam and Eve sinned nakedness has been associated with shame. The Lord is promising that He will shame Israel if she does not repent.
I will make her like a desert and like a land parched.
I will let her die of thirst
I will have no compassion on her children because they are children of promiscuity
This may seem a harsh threat, and that God intends to end the marriage and disown the children. Context assures this is not the case and we have similar prophets speaking out against Israel as an adulteress and only to be restored to favor.
35 “ ‘Therefore, you prostitute, hear the word of the Lord! 36 This is what the Lord God says: Because your lust was poured out and your nakedness exposed by your acts of prostitution with your lovers, and because of all your detestable idols and the blood of your children that you gave to them,
59 “ ‘For this is what the Lord God says: I will deal with you according to what you have done, since you have despised the oath by breaking the covenant. 60 But I will remember the covenant I made with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish a permanent covenant with you.
61 Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you receive your older and younger sisters. I will give them to you as daughters, but not because of your covenant. 62 I will establish my covenant with you, and you will know that I am the Lord, 63 so that when I make atonement for all you have done, you will remember and be ashamed, and never open your mouth again because of your disgrace. This is the declaration of the Lord God.’ ”
The harsh language used is again to emphasize the severity of the offense committed - it is no light thing to sin against God and to be unfaithful and idolatress. The Lord however desires to discipline with the goal being redemption.
Redemptive Discipline
Redemptive Discipline
Remember there is no discipline that is enjoyable but it must be endured in order for it to have in its time the fruit produced from it. We find a pattern in the rest of the passages we are going to cover here. SIN, DISCIPLINE, REDEMPTIVE GOAL - the Lord does not punish just to punish but always seeking to accomplish an aim or goal - particularly restoration and redemption.
Hedged In
Hedged In
5 Yes, their mother is promiscuous; she conceived them and acted shamefully. For she thought, “I will follow my lovers, the men who give me my food and water, my wool and flax, my oil and drink.” 6 Therefore, this is what I will do: I will block her way with thorns; I will enclose her with a wall, so that she cannot find her paths.
7 She will pursue her lovers but not catch them; she will look for them but not find them. Then she will think, “I will go back to my former husband, for then it was better for me than now.”
SIN: Their mother is promiscuous. She wanted to follow her lovers, for she saw them as providing for her and giving her the things she needs. She chased her lovers because she thought they were providing for her needs and desires.
DISCIPLINE: Therefore, this is what I will do says the Lord. I will block her way with thorns; I will enclose her with a wall so that she cannot find her paths.
God decides that He will block her way effectively hedging her in or fencing her in with thorns. The promise is that God will put a hedge of thorns on the sides of her path and it would be painful whenever Israel would veer off the correct path. Israel would be blocked into staying on the right path.
God also says I will enclose her with a wall so that she cannot find her paths. Her paths being her conduct or way her course of conduct. She will pursue her lovers but can no longer catch them and though she might look for them she will not find them.
God will put a hedge and a wall to deprive us of our idols . We may feel like we are closed in but God is effectively disciplining us with love to keep us from going the wrong way and looking to bring us back to our senses to remember Him and return to Him. Some hedged protect from without as we see in Job 3. This hedge is a protection from within, where we so searching and seeking for what we think we want or need apart from the Lord.
REDEMPTIVE GOAL: I will return to my former husband - for then it was better for me than now. Understanding that the Lord has always given us everything we have need of. The Lord carefully watches our lives and when we are submitted to Him only what He allows comes into our lives.
This discipline is not only a warning but a comfort. Many of us have friends and family doing what Gomer did after feeling tired of what God gives. Tired of walking with God they decide they want to pursue the things of the world -”for a while”. They may find a hedge between them and what they were pursuing after. If you know people wandering pray for a hedge or wall and watch as God uses it to disrupt their desire to pursue carnality.
When God hedges us in and allows the temptation of sin to pass we then see how good it is to follow instead the Lord. In life the grass always can seem greener even with the perfect spouse, family, kids, job, etc. Our idols that we are tempted to follow always appear to satisfy until God exposes them, we realize we are empty and the pursuit of these others things is in vain - we return to pursue God and find Him right there ready to bring us back.
Removal of Blessing
Removal of Blessing
8 She does not recognize that it is I who gave her the grain, the new wine, and the fresh oil. I lavished silver and gold on her, which they used for Baal. 9 Therefore, I will take back my grain in its time and my new wine in its season; I will take away my wool and linen, which were to cover her nakedness.
10 Now I will expose her shame in the sight of her lovers, and no one will rescue her from my power. 11 I will put an end to all her celebrations: her feasts, New Moons, and Sabbaths— all her festivals.
12 I will devastate her vines and fig trees. She thinks that these are her wages that her lovers have given her. I will turn them into a thicket, and the wild animals will eat them. 13 And I will punish her for the days of the Baals, to which she burned incense. She put on her rings and her jewelry and followed her lovers, but she forgot me. This is the Lord’s declaration.
SIN: Right now she does not recognize, realize, acknowledge or remember that it is God - her husband who provides and they instead use what God provides to worship and adorn Baal and continue in their adultery and unfaithfulness. verse 12 She thinks these are wages that her lovers have given her.
She adorned herself and followed her lovers but forgot me - her husband - the Lord her God
DISCIPLINE: Therefore I will take back my grain and new wine, wool and linen. I will expose her shame and no one will rescue her from my power. I will put an end to all her celebrations - feasts, moons, sabbaths - all her festivals. I will devastate her vines and fig trees. I will turn them into a thicket and the wild animals will eat them.
Israel’s guilt is what decides the discipline. She failed to acknowledge that it was the Lord who has provided for her that the Lord was the source of blessings in her life. In this unacknowledgment of God’s blessing she instead used what was given her by God to worship Baal.
Even though she pursued other gods and committed spiritual adultery the Lord still provided for her. God’s provision for His people in the midst of their unfaithfulness is not a sign of His pleasure with them but a fulfillment of His perfect faithfulness to them. Never mistake God’s provision as His blessing for your life, action, choices. etc. He has spoken to us in His word so we know what pleases Him.
Israel by looking to Baal broke the first of the Ten Commandments
3 Do not have other gods besides me.
7 Do not have other gods besides me.
Moses taught that God was the one who provided grain wine and oil
13 He will love you, bless you, and multiply you. He will bless your offspring, and the produce of your land—your grain, new wine, and fresh oil—the young of your herds, and the newborn of your flocks, in the land he swore to your ancestors that he would give you.
14 I will provide rain for your land in the proper time, the autumn and spring rains, and you will harvest your grain, new wine, and fresh oil.
The purpose of the feast of first fruits is symbolic of this in their recitation they perform in the presence of the priest.
Deuteronomy 26:10 (CSB)
10 “I have now brought the first of the land’s produce that you, Lord, have given me.”
The Lord promises to remove the blessings and here is why, it is not to make Israel suffer and it is not for any other reason we could justify it, but it is to show Israel that the gods they are chasing and committing adultery with cannot deliver them from the Lord - for the Lord is living and the idols are made with their own hands and have no hearing ears, no seeing eyes and cannot speak.
4 Their idols are silver and gold, made by human hands. 5 They have mouths but cannot speak, eyes, but cannot see. 6 They have ears but cannot hear, noses, but cannot smell. 7 They have hands but cannot feel, feet, but cannot walk. They cannot make a sound with their throats. 8 Those who make them are just like them, as are all who trust in them.
God declares that He will end their celebrations and feasts as they are not being done in Jerusalem as commanded but in Dan and Bethel. They corrupted these also by incorporating Baal into them as well.
Israel made much preparation to follow her lovers - her false idols, but she forgot the Lord God. Idolatry is anything that replaces God or takes our devotion away from Christ. God promises to deprive Israel of His blessing and perhaps in her deprivation she will remember the Lord and turn back.
Forgotten - this isnt mental lapse but a refusal to acknowledge God’s goodness and authority
During the time of Jeroboam II Israel enjoyed great prosperity but in her prosperity Israel was unfaithful to the Lord and pursuit idols and ungodly pleasures. Much like anytime of prosperity - it has been said before few pass the test of prosperity.
Maybe you have felt deprived or wonder why you may not have abundance - it could be God’s hedge around you to prevent you from delving into idolatry because of prosperity.
Conclusion
Conclusion
Unfaithfulness to the Lord is a serious sin. The one who is 90% faithful is still 100% unfaithful. Israel was tempted to forsake God for idolatry, today the church is tempted to pursue the world - which hates God and wants nothing to do with Him.
We must be careful to not fall in love with the world - by being friendly with the world, being marked by the world or conformed to the world.
15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
4 You adulterous people! Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the friend of the world becomes the enemy of God.
Ungratefulness is an attitude that can lead us away from the Lord and to become unfaithful. It is remarkable to think that God knows this and that is why over and over again God has put reminders in His word for His people to be thankful.
4 Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and bless his name.
15 And let the peace of Christ, to which you were also called in one body, rule your hearts. And be thankful.
The first step to turning away from the Lord is to stop acknowledging His blessings in your life. God will not allow us to enjoy His gifts while at the same time ignoring Him - this is the spirit of idolatry.
Unholiness - people can outwardly worship and serve and obey God but their heart is what matters. Imagine observing things of the Lord and worshiping and praising and celebrating as the Lord requires but in your heart its not to God but to idols. Worshiping God while our hearts are far from Him.
7 Hypocrites! Isaiah prophesied correctly about you when he said: 8 This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. 9 They worship me in vain, teaching as doctrines human commands.”
God is holy and will not permit His people to enjoy sin and removal of blessing is one way He loving disciplines His people and exposes their hypocrisy in unholiness. God calls us to be holy as He is holy.
Basically our problem is we put our self and our desires first - any good marriage counselor will tell you that is not what builds great marriages. Symptoms of this
We dont recognize God as being the source of life - we pursue things we think will satisfy us
We dont acknowledge our sin and instead are proud - we experience a dryness because our pursuits arent working
We expect God to bless us and when He doesnt do what we expect we blame Him
We need to repent and return to God - for we have strayed and become unfaithful. He has lovingly disciplined us and hedged us in that we might come back acknowledging and remembering Him as well as His goodness. His is ready to forgive but He will not tolerate sin and unfaithfulness.
We need Jesus for He provides everywhere we fall short and covers over our iniquity and sin. He provides forgiveness and restores our relationship presenting us to the Father pure and undefiled because His blood washes our sin.