(344) December 10: Hosea
1-4 & Jude 1
Ask God to open
your mind, heart and will to understand, delight in and obey what you read.
To discover:
As you read consider how
Israel’s unfaithfulness to God was expressed.
To ponder:
God’s word came to Hosea from around 760-790BC during the
time of the kings recorded in 2 Kings 15-20 (1v1). This was a time in which
Assyria were the great threat, but also a time when Israel were in danger of a
false confidence of being in favour with God because of some military
successes.
When first beginning to speak to
him, God told Hosea to symbolise the people’s spiritual unfaithfulness by
marrying an adulterous wife. This may mean someone known to have had sex before
marriage, as this would have been considered adulterous. Alternatively, it may
refer to the kind of women Gomer would be. Whatever the case, it means that
Hosea’s children would therefore be somehow tainted by that as “children of
unfaithfulness.” So when Gomer bore him a son, he was told to call him Jezreel
as a prophetic announcement that God was soon going to punish the northern
kings descended from Jehu for his massacre there (2 Kgs 9), and put an end to
their kingdom (the exile by Assyria). The sense is that this exile would be the
“child” of Israel’s spiritual unfaithfulness (1v2-5). Likewise with Gomer’s
next child – Lo-Ruhamah (meaning “not loved”), who symbolised that God would no
longer show love and so forgiveness to the northern kingdom, but would love
Judah (the south), saving them without military might (1v6-7, as 2 Kgs
19v35-37). Next was Lo-Ammi (“not my people”) signifying that the Israelites
(the north) were no longer considered God’s people as they had been since the
covenant of Sinai (1v8-9). This is serious indeed, implying they are totally
abandoned. However, God immediately adds that, as was promised to Abraham (Gen
22v17), they will be as numerous as the sand on the seashore, eventually called
“sons of the living God” and be united with Judah under one leader. The note
they will come up out of the land may refer to them returning to Jerusalem from
the exile. And so the “day of Jezreel” is one of hope, in which the punishment
on the northern kingdom (1v4) is reversed. And so Hosea is told to address his
fellow Israelites as brothers and sisters: “my people” and “my loved one,”
reversing the sense of the other two names too (2v1). This all points to how
the descendents of the scattered northern kingdom would eventually join those
from the south in putting their faith in Jesus as their King, as began at
Pentecost. And so, God’s promise to Abraham is fulfilled and they regain the
privileges of being God’s covenant people, as God’s adopted children with an
eternal inheritance. The encouragement for us, is that we share in this. So the
status we lost in Adam’s sin is regained and more too.
From 2v2,
Hosea could be telling his children to rebuke their mother as a prophetic
picture of Israel. But the language implies Hosea is being told to rebuke
Israel as his mother, by telling her she is no longer God’s wife, and that she
must remove her adulterous look and unfaithful acts. Otherwise God will strip
her naked – which is to make her like a desert, presumably knowing the
spiritual and physical barrenness she knew before inheriting her land (2v2-3). God
therefore says he will not show his love to her children (the people), because
they’ve come in her disgrace. Her unfaithfulness is said to be with many lovers
and in order to gain from them – ie. she sought false gods thinking they could
provide what only God could. But God will wall her in with thorns so she can no
longer chase her lovers - perhaps a reference to coming hardships. Without
catching or finding them, she will then say she will return to God for she was
better off with him than now (as did the prodigal son). But God states she
hasn’t acknowledged that he was the one who gave her good things, that she used
in worshipping Baal. So he will remove them, expose her lewdness before her
false gods, cease her religious celebrations, ruin her vines and fig-trees
which she saw as pay from her gods, and punish her for forgetting him and
worshipping the Baals (2v2-13). The lesson is to turn to no-one but God for
provision and care, nor presume that received comes ultimately from any god but
him.
Yet again,
hope immediately follows, as God promises to restore this, in a sort of second
Exodus (from Egypt into the desert, 2v14-15). Then she will call him husband,
and he will remove the name of the Baals from her. Indeed, with echoes of Eden,
God promises to make a covenant agreement with the creatures, no doubt to
ensure they don’t attack them or ruin their crops (2v16-18, compare v12). He
will ensure they enjoy safety from enemies too. And this marriage will stem
from his righteousness and justice (ie. commitment to do right by his
promises), love, compassion and faithfulness. She will acknowledge him as her
God and he will love her as his people – and he will ensure she enjoys the
covenant blessings of prosperity in the land (2v19-23).
It’s an intimate picture of
forgiving reconciliation, in which the unfaithful wife is given everything as
if she had proved faithful. This is grace, reminding us that no matter how far
we have turned from the Lord, he is willing to receive us back. To illustrate
this, God tells Hosea to love his wife again, even though she has committed
adultery in a way that has caused her to be enslaved. He therefore buys her –
meaning that he is redeeming her. And he tells her she must live with him and
not be intimate with anyone. The sense is that she isn’t to be intimate with
Hosea either as a picture of Israel being without true religion or idolatry for
a time, until they return and seek the LORD their God and David their king in
the last days (3v1-5). This is an accurate prediction of the dissolution of the
northern kingdom in the exile, and then their descendents seeking God in Christ
Chapter 4
records God’s charge against the people. There is no faithfulness, love or even
acknowledgement of God, but only the breaking of the commandments, so the land
mourns and its people waste away – a reference to the covenant curses (Deut
28-30, contrasting 2v18-23). The meaning of verse 4 is uncertain, but the sense
in context is that the priests and prophets stumble because they lack
knowledge, causing the people to be destroyed because of their ignorance that
results from this. Its an indictment on ministers who fail to believe and teach
the scriptures today. For this reason, God rejects the priests, punishing them
as well as the people. Their sin is to ignore the law, disgrace their glorious
position, and feed on the people’s spiritual prostitution without ever having
enough (4v1-10). This idolatry and the immorality that accompanied it is then
outlined, and Judah are warned not to go to two key sites of idolatry become
guilty by doing the same. The stubbornness of Israel in sticking to her idols
is then noted, as God declares it means they cannot be pastured in a meadow,
but will be swept away by a whirlwind for their shameful sacrifices (4v11-19). Like
Judah we should heed this warning.
Praying
it home:
Praise God for his
immense grace in being prepared to reconcile us to himself. Pray for preachers
in the church who would preach scripture rather than teach blindly.
Thinking
further:
To read the NIV Study Bible introduction to Hosea, click
here.
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(345) December 11: Hosea
5-8 & Revelation 1
Ask God to open
your mind, heart and will to understand, delight in and obey what you read.
To discover:
As you read consider what
provokes God about the people.
To ponder:
God’s word continues against priests, everyday Israelites
and the line of its kings (5v1). God affirms he sees what they’ve done, judges
them guilty and will discipline them. They are corrupt and unfaithful rebels,
who have engaged in slaughter – whether of violence or child sacrifice. This may
be why they are said to be a “snare.” They are so enslaved by their sin that
they literally cannot return to God, perhaps because they are addicted to what
they do. We’re told this is arrogance, no doubt in presuming they don’t need or
know better than God. And we read that Judah stumbles in sin with them. The
consequence is that when they go to make sacrifices to God, he will find he has
withdrawn and so is unwilling to forgive or bless. And so they give birth to
illegitimate children, in the sense that the children are not born into a
covenant relationship with the LORD. So the festivals will devour them and
their fields in bringing judgement not blessing because of their hypocrisy
(5v1-7). This is shocking when one considers Israel’s privileges were to belong
to God from generation to generation. Those who ponder turning from Christ
should realise the impact it has on their children’s relationship with God.
As to the
punishment: key cities in Israel are told to ready themselves for battle on
their day of reckoning. But wrath is said to be coming like a flood on Judah
too, and so Benjamin is told to lead on into battle against the foe God is
bringing too. God describes himself like a moth or rot, so eating away at the
northern and southern kingdoms (5v1-7). It seems the battle may be against a
number of foes (including Assyria), causing Ephraim and Judah to seek the
protection of Assyria. But God is clear that even this “great king” won’t be
able to help, because God is against them like a lion, tearing them to pieces.
Perhaps compacting the future he speaks of carrying them off like a lion (the
exile of the north by Assyria and the south by Babylon), and then returning to
his place, ie. distancing himself from them until they seek him in repentance
(5v8-15).
This
repentance is the wonderfully vocalized as returning to God for healing and
reviving after being torn to pieces by him. As so often, the third day is the
day of salvation, here, on which the people will be restored to his presence.
One cannot but think of Christ experiencing judgement on behalf of his people
and then being restored to his father by resurrection on the third day. The
people urge one-another to acknowledge God, confident he will come like the sun
or rain that revives the earth (6v1-3).
God next
expresses his despair over Ephraim and Judah’s sin. He asks what he can do, as
their love is so fleeting causing him to cut them to pieces in judgement. He
desired mercy and acknowledgement of him and so his will, but they simply went
through the motions of sacrifice. 6v7 may imply God made a covenant with Adam
in Eden, when he required obedience and promised life. Like Adam, the people
have proved unfaithful and quick to turn away in their violence and spiritual
prostitution conducted even by priests (6v4-10).
6v11 states
a harvest for Judah has been appointed and so is certain. This implies they
will be restored after judgement in a way that brings fruit – looking to Christ
coming to them. As for the north, God declares that whenever he would restore
them, more sins are revealed – deceit, theft, robbery. They forget God always
remembers their sin. And the king and princes are delighted with the people’s
sin, as they themselves burn with their adulterous desires. Moreover, the sense
is that when the princes are inflamed with wine at the very festival intended
to celebrate the king, they mock and plot to overthrow him. So kings fall, yet
none call out to God (7v1-7, see 2 Kgs 15).
7v8-12
portray Ephraim as compromised in mixing with the nations, uncooked in terms of
what God desires from him, weakened by the tribute required of him, arrogantly
thinking he is in his prime and not recognizing he is ageing, and so not
turning to God. Like a dove he flies to Egypt and then Assyria for help only to
be caught in God’s net. Again, through Hosea God declares they will be
destroyed for their rebellion, whilst stating how he longs to redeem them. But
they just carry on speaking lies against him (perhaps that he is not angry),
crying at their fate but not crying out to him, seeking his blessing on their
harvest whilst in reality turning from him. There may be hints here to crying
out to God but in a pagan way. Whatever the case, it’s a reminder that only the
sinner is to blame for his judgement. God longs to redeem, but they just refuse
to repent, often whilst still engaging in things like prayer. God continues,
stating how he trained and strengthened them – presumably by teaching them to
obey and enabling them to take the land. The point is this proves he can help.
Yet they plot evil, not turning to him. Like a faulty bow they will not be able
to resist their attackers, and so their leaders will fall and the people have
to flee to Egypt (where God first redeemed them from), meaning their ridicule
in having failed to keep all God had given (7v13-16). Likewise, those who turn
from Christ return to the state they were at before coming to him, and often a
worse one (Heb 10v26-31).
Chapter 8
provides another warning. This refers to the threatening nation as an eagle
over the temple, ready to attack. The reason is that Israel have broken the
covenant. They say they acknowledge God but break his law, choosing kings
without his consent, and making and worshipping idols that will be destroyed
because they are not God. They sow what is insubstantial (wind, ie. alliances
that mean nothing), but reap it back but with destruction (whirlwind, ie. their
allies actually attacking them). So 8v7 implies Israel has nothing good to
offer her allies, but is being swallowed up by them anyway. She is like a wild
donkey wandering aimlessly, selling herself in her alliances to these nations
as lovers. So God says, he will gather Israel up for judgement under the mighty
Assyrian king (8v1-10). He then continues his charge against her. The altars
she built for sin offerings have become those for sinning. The idea of multiple
altars itself was a Canaanite pagan practice, and the people carried out
idolatry at them. But the context implies the key issues was that the people’s
breach of the law made even right sacrifices hypocritical. God will therefore
punish them by returning them to Egypt and consume the fortresses built in both
north and south (8v11-14). Here we see
Israel’s spiritual unfaithfulness isn’t just about worshipping idols, but being
unfaithful to her covenant commitment to love, obey and trust God in general.
So when we treat or rely on others as we should only God, we do the same. And
if we do this as we go about the things of worship, they are worse than
meaningless, being hypocritical and so sinful.
Praying
it home:
Praise God for his
reluctance to punish. Pray that you would not be hypocritical in your worship.
Thinking
further:
None today.
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(345) December 12: Hosea
9-11 & Revelation 2
Ask God to open
your mind, heart and will to understand, delight in and obey what you read.
To discover:
As you read consider how
God’s love is expressed.
To ponder:
Israel are told not to rejoice like other nations – whose
joy might have been in their harvests. Her unfaithfulness has actually been
evident at the floor where the harvest is threshed and religious celebrations
often took place. So God declares her crops will fail and the people will lose
the land, either fleeing to Egypt or being exiled in Assyria. On that day they
will have no wine to pour out to God, their sacrificial feasts will be like a
funeral meal, and they will be unclean – perhaps because of the death that will
surround them. Moreover, because they will be in exile, their food offerings
will not come to God’s temple (or its equivalent used in the northern kingdom).
So God asks what the people will then do for their feasts and festivals. It all
signifies their alienation from God (9v1-5).
In what
follows it is stressed that those fleeing to Egypt will die there, their
treasures will be replaced by troubles, and all because of the greatness of
their hostility to God. This is seen not only in considering prophets, God’s
watchmen, fools, but in being hostile to them - and in the temple too. We might
consider those in the church who mock and oppose those who teach the scriptures
(9v5-9).
God then describes the contrast
between the early fruit of Israel’s fathers (perhaps the Patriarchs, or those
who obeyed in the desert) and the idolatry when they then offered themselves to
Baal (Num 25v1-5). He declares her glory (the greatness of her numbers) will
fly away, so childbirth will effectively cease, and children raised will die. It
seems Hosea then cries out a prayer to this effect (9v14). The point is that
Israel’s increase was a sign of God’s blessing. Because of their sin they will
therefore experience the equivalent curse - withering, being fruitless, and
wandering amongst the nations (9v15-17).
This idea is now developed.
Israel had spread, bearing fruit in numbers, but as that increased, so did the
people’s idolatry, as they deceived themselves as to what was right worship. So
God will destroy the means of their idolatry until they feel utterly desperate.
They will recognize that they will have lost their king for not revering the
LORD, but see that even if they had one it would now make no difference
(10v1-3). Of course we know the only king that would, is the one who could give
his life for their sin. What follows is an outline of the people’s dishonesty,
followed by an affirmation that the people’s means of idolatry will be carried
off and destroyed so that they mourn it. They will then be disgraced,
presumably because their idols will be shown to be impotent. Samaria (the
northern capital) and its king will also float away like a twig – helpless in
the currents of God’s purposes, and the people will call on mountains to cover
them because of their terror at what is happening (10v4-8). This all pictures
the futility of modern idolatry, and how all that is relied on will be
destroyed at the judgement.
Israel’s sin is now said to be
“since” Gibeah (Jud 20) where the tribe of Benjamin was almost destroyed. The
point is that then sin led to war and similar destruction. So God will use the
nations to fully punish the people for their double sin – perhaps that of the
north and south (10v9-10). Yet at this point the sense changes. Ephraim
(Israel) is described in her youth as a heifer that loved to thresh – ie. bring
about the harvest. And so God is going to ensure Judah and Jacob (Israel)
plough in order to sow righteousness and reap love, seeking the LORD and his
transforming rain. The sense of putting a yoke on Ephraim may imply using the
burden of the coming punishment to discipline the people to bring this
righteousness into existence. It is often through hardship that we learn
godliness. But we are reminded this cannot come, but for seeking it from the
Lord. For now, however, we are told the people planted wickedness and reaped
evil and deception. And because Israel relied on her warriors and not God, as
was the case at a previous battle (10v14) her fortresses will be devastated and
her king destroyed (10v11-15).
Again, in 11v1, God looks back to
Israel’s beginnings, when he called him out of Egypt as his son – ie. the one
he loved and would give an inheritance to. Yet the more he called, the more
Israel strayed into idolatry. Matthew pictures Jesus’ return to Israel from
Egypt as patterned on this (Matt 2v15). The difference is that Jesus then
resisted the temptations that followed, so achieving the righteousness Israel
always lacked. Through Hosea God continues in describing how he taught Ephraim
to walk according to his commands and healed them from the judgements they
should have faced for their sin (Ex 15v26) – but they didn’t realise it was
him. In love and kindness he also led them and fed them, freeing them from
their slavery – no doubt references to his leading them in the pillar of cloud
and fire, and providing manna and quail. Yet after all that, because of their
refusal to repent, they will return to Egypt and be ruled by Assyria, because
God will not act now even if they call to him (11v2-7). We should not forget
the kindnesses of God to us – recognizing we are dependent on him for godly
living, healing from sin, guidance and provision too.
At this point God’s love for his
people famously governs his response to their sin. He cries out “how can I give
you up” and treat them like two cities that were destroyed with Sodom and
Gomorrah (Gen 10v19, 14v2-8). He therefore says his heart is changed and
compassion aroused. Whereas a mere man would not turn back his wrath, God
declares that he is God “the Holy One” – and so set apart from man, and by
implication, therefore, supremely more compassionate. So he will not carry
fully devastate Ephraim. Instead rather than roaring like a lion about to
devour, after their exile he will roar to call his children trembling from
Egypt and Assyria (the west) to resettle in the land. As in other prophets, we
therefore see God’s incredible and unsurpassable love expressed in refusing to
forsake his people no matter how terrible and worthy of irreversible
destruction their sin is. Certainly, Jesus is clear that not all are saved. But
the fact that a great multitude are is testimony to just how much more loving,
compassionate and gracious God is, compared to even the best of human beings.
Praying
it home:
Praise God for his
great love expressed in chapter 11. Pray that you would keep mindful daily of
God’s kindness to you.
Thinking
further:
None today.
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(346) December 13: Hosea
12-14 & Revelation 3
Ask God to open
your mind, heart and will to understand, delight in and obey what you read.
Read Hosea 12-14 &
Revelation 3
To discover:
As you read consider what
God promises Israel/Ephraim.
To ponder:
Israel
is again condemned for “his” deceit and unruliness against God. The deceit
seems to be self-deceit in pursuing alliances with Egypt (west) and Assyria
(east) that are like pursuing wind, as they will actually not benefit them. The
unruliness is historic, patterned on Jacob (renamed Israel) who grasped his
brother’s heel and struggled with God at Bethel. So where Jacob there hung onto
God and begged for his favour, Israel should turn to God, maintaining love and
justice, and waiting for him to act in favour in response (12v1-6). Further
deceit is then outlined as merchants use dishonest scales, leading Ephraim (ie.
Israel) to boast in his wealth and deceive himself by assuming he is free from
sin (12v7-8). This reminds us of our tendency to self-deceit, assuming we are
without sin, not subject to judgement, or able to find what we need elsewhere
than with God.
Again, God declares Israel will be
returned to what the nation was when just out of Egypt – living in tents as was
celebrated at the feast of tabernacles. Perhaps as a sign they are without
excuse God then tells how he spoke to them through prophets in various ways,
and then condemns the wickedness and idolatry of Gilead and Gilgal. The sense
of 12v12-14 is unclear. The point may be that just as Israel came into
existence because Jacob cared for sheep for 14 years in a foreign land to get
his wife, so Israel were brought from Egypt only when God sent a prophet
(Moses) to care for them like sheep. The care for sheep, then, is a picture of
God’s care for his people. Yet in response, they have gone astray from Moses
commands, provoking God to anger so that he will leave the guilt of their
bloodshed on them. The point for us is to see God’s commands as a reflection of
his care, and so keep them.
13v1-3 now looks to the past of the
actual tribe of Ephraim, rather than the northern kingdom in general which it
came to represent. He was once the greatest in Israel (see Gen 49), but turned
to Baal and died – implying that the tribe became insignificant. They made idols
and it was said even sacrificed humans, so God declared they would disappear
like smoke – just as happened when conquered by Assyria. Here God reminds the
people he is their God who redeemed them from Egypt and commanded they have no
God except him. He cared for and fed them in the desert. Yet because they
forgot him, rather than care, he will now devour them like a wild animal
(13v4-8). He therefore declares Israel is destroyed asking where are his
rulers, that they may save him. Just as God gave them Saul in anger at them
wanting a king for the wrong reason, so in wrath he also took him away – just
as he would Hoshea (2 Kgs 17). The point is that Israel’s kings can’t save the
nation as they are part of the problem. Indeed, God’s very supply of their original
king was an act of judgement because the people wanted to be like the nations
just as they did in following their gods.
In response to all this, God
declares that Ephraim is held to account for his sins, experiencing labour
pains without actually being born to life. In context 13v14 is therefore more
likely negative than positive. Its sense would be of asking if God would redeem
Ephraim from death, only for God to call its plagues and destructive power
against him. So God continues, stating that he will not have compassion on
Ephraim, but an east wind (Assyria) will blow so he dries up as he is
plundered, and the people of Samaria fall to the sword in the most terrible way
describable (13v9-16). We should remember the harshness of this judgement is
because of the great advantages Ephraim turned from and the depth of sin the
people were prepared to engage in (as 13v1-2).
In the light of this devastation God
calls Israel to return to him. They are to call on him to graciously forgive
them, promise to offer him praise, and acknowledge their trust in their
alliance with Assyria, their military might, and their idols was pointless and
futile, and that instead they should have trusted God who shows compassion to
the weak and needy. It’s a picture of sincere repentance in which we not only
seek mercy but confess our sin in detail. In response, as with us, God promises
to heal Israel from his waywardness. He promises to love them freely because
his anger has turned away, and be like dew, causing Israel to grow and blossom
like a beautiful, fragrant and majestic tree in which men will find shade. He
adds that Israel’s (Ephraim’s) fame will spread and he will have nothing more
to do with idols as God will care for him. Indeed, it will be as if God is a
fir tree (stressing the constancy of his life) upon which the people will bear
fruit – the equivalent of Jesus stating his people bear fruit by remaining in
him as the vine (Jn 15). The point is that it is in and through the LORD that
the people will change (14v1-9).
This end to Hosea is somewhat
confusing as God seems to be saying Ephraim will be utterly destroyed, yet
promising life for Israel, to which Ephraim refers. The harmony is found in the
fact that the northern kingdom as a kingdom was utterly destroyed. However,
some of its people settled in Judea displaying a desire to be faithful to the
LORD. And those from their descendents who came to faith in Christ, together
with those who were exiled throughout the world, would also receive the life
that is found in him.
Hosea’s final words hint at the need
to ponder these things. He asserts that those who are wise and discerning will
understand what he says. The righteous will walk accordingly, displaying the
repentance God calls them to. But the rebellious will stumble over what he
says, no doubt by denying its truth and charging God with wrongdoing (14v9).
These are much needed words for us as we weigh the same call to repentance in
the light of coming judgement.
Praying
it home:
Praise God for the
life that is found in him. Pray that you would be always ready to confess your
sin and seek forgiveness.
Thinking
further:
None today.
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