“God’s Frustration”

Series: “God Speaks”

Text: Hosea 6:4-11

Introduction: (What?)

Like a parent, God sometimes got frustrated with Israel. He has the same frustration with believers today who do not stay true to their calling. In this passage He explains what He has done thus far and how Israel has responded. He then ends with a warning unless they repent. We must pay close attention to what God did regarding Israel, because we are no better than they. Our Heavenly Father will apply discipline when needed because He loves us so much and we must remember what the writer of Hebrews said; Heb 12:8 “But if you are without discipline—which all receive—then you are illegitimate children and not sons.”

Examination: (Why?)

1. This hurts me more that it hurts you. (vv4-5)

You probably heard your parents use this phrase and you may have uttered it to your own children. Most likely when your parents said it your silent response was, “Yeah, right!” However when you became a parent you understood that discipline which is necessary to get your child on the right path is never pleasant to the parent. This is God’s experience expressed in Hosea 6:4-5 “What am I going to do with you, Ephraim? What am I going to do with you, Judah? Your love is like the morning mist and like the early dew that vanishes. This is why I have used the prophets to cut them down; I have killed them with the words from my mouth. My judgment strikes like lightning.”

God grew frustrated with the waning love of Ephraim (Israel) and Judah. He likened their love to dew that vanishes when the sun rises. When Hosea was writing, the Jews already had the Pentateuch and knew the “shema” which they quoted morning and evening. Dt 6:4-5 ““Listen, Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” Understand that love here is not an emotion, because emotions cannot be commanded, but rather it is a choice. In John 14:23 Jesus said that the demonstration of love for Him and His Father is obedience to their commands. “Jesus answered, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.”

Where disobedience, or lack of love, abounds, discipline is necessary to get the sinner back in line. When I was growing up, if discipline was needed I much preferred a spanking from my Dad to a “talking to” from my Mom. Her words hurt far more and the hurt lingered longer than the sting of a spanking. God’s harsh words, spoken through His prophets brought swift discipline which hurt the people of Israel and Judah. Jer 5:14 “Therefore, this is what the Lord God of Armies says: Because you have spoken this word, I am going to make my words become fire in your mouth. These people are the wood, and the fire will consume them.”

It was the words of Nathan the prophet that broke through the wall that David had erected around his sin, and brought him to repentance. I’m sure, given their long relationship, that delivering this message was not pleasant for Nathan. Many prophets suffered because of the message they had to bring from God. God’s frustration because of Israel and Judah’s lack of love led to something that wasn’t pleasant for Him or them.

2. How to get right with God(v 6)

Hos 6:6 “For I desire faithful love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”

There are people who think that money solves everything. They feel that if they give to the church then they are alright with God. Verse 6 spells out what God desires from us. The first is “faithful love”. As I mentioned earlier, in John 14:23-24 Jesus clearly articulated what love for Him and the Father looks like. “Jesus answered, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. The one who doesn’t love me will not keep my words. The word that you hear is not mine but is from the Father who sent me.” You can sing “Oh How I Love Jesus” from now until the cows come home, but if you are not obeying His commands, you do not love Him, period! Jesus told a parable once about two brothers that helps us see how this works out in real life. Matt 21:28-32 ““What do you think? A man had two sons. He went to the first and said, ‘My son, go work in the vineyard today.’ “He answered, ‘I don’t want to,’ but later he changed his mind and went. Then the man went to the other and said the same thing. ‘I will, sir,’ he answered, but he didn’t go. Which of the two did his father’s will?” They (the chief priests and the elders) said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, tax collectors and prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you didn’t believe him. Tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him; but you, when you saw it, didn’t even change your minds then and believe him.”

The application so far as we are concerned is this. When a person surrenders to Christ, inherent in that surrender is absolute obedience to Christ’s commands. What happens in many cases is that, having made the decision to follow Christ, we choose to do it at our own convenience. The validation of the public surrender is obedience. Others resist Christ’s invitation at first, but later decide to follow His commands. It is the obedient one who really loves Jesus, not the one who says the right things but doesn’t follow through.

The knowledge of God involves surrender to who He is and what He requires. In the NT Jesus is the full disclosure of God. In John 14:8-9 ““Lord,” said Philip, “show us the Father, and that’s enough for us.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been among you all this time and you do not know me, Philip? The one who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?” Jesus made abundantly clear that to know (experience) Him is to know (experience) God. Paul wrote in Col 2:9 “For the entire fullness of God’s nature dwells bodily in Christ,” When we come to know Jesus through our surrender to Him, we then have “the knowledge of God”. Knowing God comes by the experience of obeying Him. A study by Henry Blackaby was entitled, “Experiencing God; Knowing and Doing the Will of God” which captures the fullness of the knowledge of God. Getting right with God involves expressing our love for Him through our obedience to His commands.

3. You reap what your sow (vv7-11a)

Hos 6:7-11 “But they, like Adam, have violated the covenant; there they have betrayed me. Gilead is a city of evildoers, tracked with bloody footprints. Like raiders who wait in ambush for someone, a band of priests murders on the road to Shechem. They commit atrocities. I have seen something horrible in the house of Israel: Ephraim’s promiscuity is there; Israel is defiled. A harvest is also appointed for you, Judah.

Just as Adam had failed to keep God’s one command that He gave in the Garden (not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil), the Israelites had broken the Mosaic covenant. This was a covenant where the people of Israel pledged to keep the Law which God delivered to them through Moses on Mt. Sinai. Their response at the time was “We will do all that the LORD has spoken” (Exodus 19:8)

The Israelites in Hosea’s time had violated their covenant with God and betrayed Him. Gilead, a region on the eastern side of the Jordan River had been controlled by Israel. It was here that Jeremiah had wept over the disobedience of God’s people and the subsequent harsh discipline of God had caused him to lament, “Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? So why has the healing of my dear people not come about?” (Jer 8:22) Gilead was known for its medicinal balm, taken from the resin of the balsam tree that was often applied to wounds. At this time nether healing nor healer could be found to assuage the suffering of Israel, thus the “bloody footprints”. Shechem had been the first capital of the northern kingdom of Israel. Shechem had once been a Levitical city of refuge, where someone who had killed someone could go and be safe until a judgment could be made regarding the circumstances of their act. Later the Shechemites had revolted against the son of Gideon, Abimelek, who in turn slaughtered 1,000 inhabitants of the city. All of this Hosea used to describe the current situation of Israel and Judah who were becoming rife with wickedness and of whom God had declared, “A harvest is also appointed for you, Judah.” That harvest would be the crop produced by their wickedness. As Paul noted in Gal 6:7 “Don’t be deceived: God is not mocked. For whatever a person sows he will also reap,”

Application: (How will I respond to this message?)

America as a country and Americans in general have turned their backs on God and ignored His commands. Only repentance and obedience to His commands can deliver this country and her inhabitants from the wrath of God against sin.

Perhaps at one time you have made a commitment to Christ, but you have not lived up to that commitment. If that is true in your life, your one and only way to peace with God is to confess and repent of your sin of disobedience.