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686. Bible Study: Hosea 10 (Warning: Seek the Lord) · Faith by annm2705

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Chapter 10 of Hosea, Dear God, please be with us and give us
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wisdom and insight from the Holy Spirit as we read through these
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words and apply them to our lives in Jesus name, Amen.
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Israel was a spreading vine. He brought forth fruit for
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himself. As his fruit increased, he built
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more altars. As his land prospered, He
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adorned his sacred stones. So this is talking about Israel
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expanding, being the spreading vine and having a lot of fruit,
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and the fruit was increasing and altars were being built and the
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land was prospering and he was adorning the sacred stones.
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And that's kind of interesting where that is going.
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Verse 2, it says their heart is deceitful and now they must bear
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their guilt. So something that we do see is
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that Israel was not turned towards God, yet they were
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prosperous. And this, as we will see, brings
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about a sense of pride where God is forgotten and it becomes look
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what I've done as opposed to look at what God's done through
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me. And humility has gone by the
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wayside. It's non existent when somebody
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starts thinking I did this, I did that and becomes self
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confident in a way that's prideful, in a way that doesn't
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acknowledge God, that doesn't humble ourselves.
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And pride is one of those things that God hates.
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So it says their heart is deceitful, and now they must
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bear their guilt. The Lord will demolish their
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altars and destroy their sacred stones.
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Then they will say we have no king because we did not Revere
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the Lord. So he's prophesying that they
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will realize that they don't have a king because they didn't
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Revere the Lord, They didn't respect the Lord, They were far
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from the Lord. And we have to remember that God
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appoints kings. God appoints leaders.
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We can say, oh, well, there's bad leaders.
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God appoint those. He allowed that to happen.
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The thing is, God gives all of us free will.
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So he will let our free will proceed whatever we decide, He
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lets it proceed. But ultimately, he uses it for
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his ultimate purpose, His ultimate plan.
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His ultimate plan is to bring people into His Kingdom.
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Now, some will reject God and not make it there, but others
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will make it there. And so God can use evil to bring
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about good. And so that's why the
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understanding of free will is so important that when we see evil,
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it's because of free will. And verse 2 says the heart is
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deceitful. And this is, there's there's
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another place in Scripture where it says that also.
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It's in Jeremiah chapter 17, verse 9 about the heart being
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deceitful. And so we have to think that,
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you know, we can deceive ourselves by thinking that we're
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good. And if the heart is deceitful,
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the heart lies to us. So again, if we think like we're
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going to do things based on our feelings, we can deceive
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ourselves. So we can't really trust our
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feelings all the way. We have to have a connection
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with God and to have intuition that comes from God.
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That I believe is often the Holy Spirit when it aligns with God's
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words, with what God says is good and what God says is evil.
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We sometimes when we feel guilt, that's something we wouldn't put
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on ourselves, feeling guilt. And if we feel guilt about not
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being close to God or about sinning, we can know that that's
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probably the prompting from the Holy Spirit to turn to God to
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turn away from. And that.
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So whenever we think about something that we know is a good
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thing and we know we should do it, but we don't do it and then
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we kind of feel bad about it, I think that's God kind of nudging
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us to change that in your life. Stop doing that, you know, turn
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to me. Get gain the power from the Holy
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Spirit to overcome those things. Let the Holy Spirit, what the
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church calls the word, sanctify. Let the Holy Spirit change us as
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we go along in life to be more like what God intended us for us
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to be. And God intended us.
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He says be holy because I am holy.
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So he wants us to be holy and we have to get rid of sin in order
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to be holy. So little by little the Holy
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Spirit will begin to change us, to make us where we desire to be
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more holy. And that doesn't come naturally
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because like this says, the heart is deceitful.
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We are natural born sinners. So that's something that only
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the Holy Spirit does within us. OK, then they will say we have
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no kings. So we were talking about the
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kings being in place and even in the times of Israel, in fact,
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those who were rebellious to God and didn't have the anointed
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king that God chose, they were the 10 tribes, actually 10
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tribes of Israel gathered together and they set up their
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own place separate from Jerusalem.
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God already had a worship place established in Jerusalem, but
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then they chose another area. They went to Samaria and that's
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where the Samaritans come from, which is interesting because we
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hear about the Samaritans in the New Testament a lot.
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And that's where really it was the area of the 10 tribes of
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Israel. That's where they inhabited.
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That's where they set up their their capital, their place of
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worship and so forth. So, but even if we had a king,
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what could he do for us? They make so then talking about
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the kings, they make many promises, take false oaths and
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make agreements. Therefore lawsuits spring up.
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It's kind of interesting just showing how fallible all
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leadership is. Like, we really shouldn't
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criticize the individual leaders.
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I guess that's a hard thing to say, but I mean, we shouldn't
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really be in judgement of them because we all do things that
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are less desirable that God doesn't really want us to do.
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So whenever we are placing judgement on somebody else, on
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what their actions do, we can probably, if we look closely, we
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can probably find just as many things wrong with us that we are
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not living the way God wants us to live.
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And so because of all this, bad things do happen.
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So we see leaders today who make many promises, who, you know,
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take false oaths. They say they're going to do
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something and they don't. They make agreements and then
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lawsuits spring up because they don't adhere to them.
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So that that's just happens in history, throughout history.
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And that's what the Bible's telling us.
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You know, that's what kings do. That's what's happened.
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Like like poisonous weeds in a plowed field.
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The people who live in Samaria fear for the calf idol of Beth
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Avon. That's showing their idolatry.
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The calf idol. Actually, the study Bible says
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that what was the calf idol? A huge calf idol had been
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erected by Jeroboam, the first at Bethel or Beth Avon.
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It was an idol resembling the golden calf the Israelites had
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worshipped at Mount Sinai from Exodus.
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Isn't that interesting? You would think that after they
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knew the history. This is when God gave Moses the
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10 commandments and then when he came down with the 10
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commandments, he found that just in the period of time Moses was
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on the mountain for like 40 days, they had already set up,
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they had melted gold like jewelry and formed this golden
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calf and began worshipping it in the short time, the 40 days, you
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know, little over a month that Moses had been gone and this is
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what they were doing. So it didn't didn't go well.
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Then they should have known that if they would have read the OR
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maybe not read at that time. Maybe it was just, I don't know
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if it was written down or if it was just given orally, but you
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know, if they would have had that history, which they did
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have the history, then why would they do this?
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Again, it doesn't really make sense.
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But history repeats itself and often history repeats itself
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because probably the national, the natural inclination to sin
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that we have. So if we don't read about it and
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realize we need to redirect what we're doing because look at this
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in history, this is what happened after they did that.
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And we could look at that today too, and alley it to our own
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world. O its people will mourn over it,
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talking about the calf idol, and so will will its idolatrous
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priest, those who had rejoiced over its splendor.
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Because it is taken from them into exile.
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It will be carried to Assyria, a tribute for the great king.
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Ephraim will be disgraced. Israel will be ashamed of its
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foreign alliances. Samaria's king will be
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destroyed. Now Hosea is talking about this
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at the very last reigning king. I mean, he's, he's warning
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Israel, the king of Israel. Remember, there's 2 kings that
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are set up that cover, that cover the area.
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That's really the Israelites, but it's the 10 tribes and
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that's called Israel. And then the 2 tribes, Judah and
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Benjamin, are called Judah, so Samaria's king now that's the
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capital of Israel. The 10 tribes will be destroyed,
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swept away like a twig on the surface of the waters.
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The high places of wickedness will be destroyed.
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It is the sin of Israel. Thorns and thistles will grow up
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and cover their altars. Then they will say to the
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mountains cover us and to the hills fall on us.
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When I read that it made me think about Revelation 616 when
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Jesus returns and they say to the they go into the caves and
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the mountains and they say cover us, you know, fall on us to keep
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us from the wrath of God that's coming.
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And this is also mentioned in Luke chapter 23 verse 30.
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So again, history repeats itself and it's either repeating, I
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don't know if if this actually ever happened or it's a
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reference to the end times when they say to the mountains cover
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us into the hills fall on us because that's what Revelation
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is talking about. When Jesus actually returns.
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I don't know if this happened before Jesus returned returns or
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if it's, you know, a prophecy that far out into the future,
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even though this was written so long ago like in the seven
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hundreds BC OK, going back to Scripture, since the days of
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Gibeah you have sinned Israel and there you have remained.
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Will not war again overtake the evildoers in Gibeah.
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So what happened in the days of Gibeah, a travelling Levite,
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spending the night in Gibeah? He had yielded to a gang of
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sexual perverts who raped, beat and murdered his concubine.
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And that's found in Judges chapter 19, verses 20 through
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30. Hosea declared that the entire
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nation had sunk to the same depths of depravity.
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He also implied that their punishment would be certain and
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just and it did happen because the the Last King of Israel, I
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think it fell like in 722 BC. So if he, you know, he was maybe
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5 years before somewhere around there.
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Just approximate. I'm just giving round numbers.
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But you know five years prior to that happening.
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Hosea is giving this morning when I it's so it's talking
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about since the days of Gibeah you have sinned Israel and there
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you have remained will not war again overtake the evildoers and
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Gibeah when I please I will punish them.
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Nations will be gathered against them.
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Now again, this is what happens in the end times, that nations
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gather around them and that's when God, when Jesus returns and
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wrath is poured out. So when I please, I will punish
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them. Nations will be gathered against
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them to put them in bonds for their double sin.
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And the study Bible says what was Israel's double sin?
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Israel sinned doubly in that the people turned from God and
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turned to the idol worship. So they went away from God,
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which was one sin. Then they went to a false God,
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which was another sin. Ephraim is a trained heifer that
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loves to thresh. So I will put a yoke on her fair
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neck. I will drive Ephraim.
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Judah must plow and Jacob must break up the ground.
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Sow righteousness for yourselves.
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Reap the fruit of unfailing love.
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So then it starts talking about righteousness and how that
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brings unfailing love. And that's something we can
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definitely learn from if we prepare ourselves, if we, you
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know, yield to the Holy Spirit's prompting to be righteous
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because that's what God wants. When we get that, that, I don't
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know that intuition, if you want to call it that, from the Holy
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Spirit that guides us maybe in a way we weren't planning on
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doing, but we know that it's the right thing to do.
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And when we yield to that and we do what we know is right versus
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what we want to do, then that's yielding to the Holy Spirit.
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And it says here to reap the fruit of unfailing love like us
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obeying God shows him that we love him.
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He always loves us. He loves us.
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He doesn't love the sin, but He loves us.
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It's just that we don't always show that back to Him.
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And the way we show it is by obeying His commandments.
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So then it says, so righteousness for yourselves.
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Reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed
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ground. For it is time to seek the Lord
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until He comes. Now I thought that was really
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interesting. That's verse 12.
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For it is time to seek the Lord until He comes.
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When does God come? Well, there's, you know, either
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this was in the seven, the early 700 BC.
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So Jesus was eventually going to come the first time his birth,
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but then there's also the second coming.
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So I don't know, it could mean one, it could mean both of those
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times, but to seek the Lord until he comes.
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So just to remain close to God, that's, that's something that
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we, it applies to us as well prior to the second coming of
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Jesus, that we are prepared that we stay close to God and that we
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seek him. So for it is time to seek the
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Lord until he comes and showers his righteousness on you.
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But you have planted wickedness, you have reaped evil, you have
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eaten the fruit of deception, just like Adam and Eve, like
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they ate the fruit and it was deception.
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It was, you know, Satan telling them that, hey, if you do this,
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you'll be just like God. He just doesn't want you to do
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that. He doesn't want you to become
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like him. And so they bought it.
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They bought the deception and quote ate the fruit.
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And that's what it's, you know, this is what evil does.
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Evil tries to get us to believe things that are not true and to
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fall to separate us from God when we do the things that evil
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deceives us with. Because you have depended on
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your own strength and on your many warriors, the roar of
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battle will rise against your people so that all your
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fortresses will be devastated. Now that's interesting because
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because you depended on your own strength, that's pride.
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God hates pride. And, you know, if they would
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turn to God, remember, even when they were outnumbered, they
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would win wars because they had turned to God.
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But here they're depending on their own strength.
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And that's when the roar of battle will rise against the
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people. You know, they'll be defeated.
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That's why he was telling Israel, you're going to be
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defeated by the Assyrians. They're going to take you over.
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And did they believe? Did they heed to it?
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They didn't listen to the words of Hosea because it happened
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because Hosea was saying turn to God, but nobody did.
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He was warning them. And it says throughout Scripture
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how God used these prophets to warn people, and he does that
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with us too. We have lots of little warnings
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along in our life and there are times where we just don't listen
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to God. We don't want to, so we don't
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listen to them. But then things get worse.
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It says God disciplines his children, so if we're going down
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the wrong path, he's going to do something, allow something in
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our life, you know, let things happen so that we hopefully turn
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to him. Sometimes when bad things
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happen, people turn away from God, but other times people turn
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to God as a place of refuge. And that really is the
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indication of someone's heart. You're either going to turn to
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God because you love him and you want to be protected and you
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turn to him like a father, or you turn away from him because
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you're rejecting him and you don't believe in his power that
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he can make it all better. And that's just kind of an
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interesting way to think of it, that we turn to God.
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It's like a like our dad, like he's our father.
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So the roar of the battle will rise against your people so that
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all your fortresses will be devastated, as Shellman
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devastated Beth Arable on the day of battle when mothers were
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dashed to the ground with their children.
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So it will happen to you, Bethel, because your wickedness
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is great. When the when that day dawns,
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the king of Israel will be completely destroyed.
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Well, that is Hoshaya. Was the king of Israel and Hosea
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was the prophet. It's kind of interesting that
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there were their names are kind of similar, just an H added and
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that's the the king. That was the King's name.
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So I will read the questions and answers and then we'll probably
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just wrap up this chapter. When did Israel stop having
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kings? The phrase we have no king
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anticipated the Assyrian conquest of the northern
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Kingdom, which brought Israel's monarchy to an end.
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The southern Kingdom of Judah survived for another 136 years
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because of the reforms of a few good kings.
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That's really interesting. Like a few good kings can bring
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about repentance, can bring about a turning towards God in a
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way I don't, I really feel like we're seeing that right now.
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It seemed it feels like there is a turning towards God and it's
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probably like what gets put in front of you.
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But I'm just seeing like all over the world that seems like
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people are turning to God. They're turning to Jesus.
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They're having dreams with Jesus in it, with Jesus in the dreams.
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And it's, it does seem like there is an awakening that's
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happening right now and has been for a few years now.
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And so hopefully with people turning towards God, there will
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be a reprieve and bad things happening.
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But we know not everyone does turn towards God.
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And, and I don't really know what the percentages are, but we
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do see people turning towards God, which is awesome.
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Let's see, what did this farming metaphor mean?
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This was an invitation for Israel to return to fidelity
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with God and covenant. It was also a denunciation of
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the people's behave, a denunciation of the people's
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behavior as God's chosen people. Ephraim, a trained heifer, was
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given the privileges of threshing.
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But as we so often see in the Old Testament, this blessing led
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to forgetting the law and subsequent disobedience.
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In order to reap a blessing once more, the nation would have to
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sow obedience to the law. They would have to break up
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their unplowed ground. Who was Shalman and where was
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Beth Arbell? Shalman may have may be an
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abbreviated form of Shalman Nasser the 5th, the king of
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Assyria, who laid siege to Samaria in 725 BC and died just
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before its capture in 722 BC. Notice that was three years, and
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there's a lot of threes in the Bible.
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The identity of Beth Arble is unknown, though the atrocity
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against its citizens was clearly known to Hosea's audience.
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Hosea's point was that Bethel, the calf idol center that
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represented all that was wicked in Israel, would experience the
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same fate as Beth Arble. And that's the end of Chapter
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10.