WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:05.000 In Hosea, let us not neglect to savor these words. 00:00:05.000 --> 00:00:08.500 I will betroth you to me forever. 00:00:08.500 --> 00:00:15.500 I will betroth you to me in righteousness and justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. 00:00:15.500 --> 00:00:21.000 I will betroth you to me in faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord. 00:00:21.000 --> 00:00:29.500 As we read through the judgments that Hosea promises, we can't lose sight of the heart of God in this prophet's message. 00:00:29.500 --> 00:00:34.000 That I will win you, my people, back to myself. 00:00:34.000 --> 00:00:54.000 So there's a sense in which chapter 10 before us is nothing new, but at the same time there's an opportunity for us to look closely at the sin of Israel and consider how their sin and ours provokes the living God while also cherishing His patience toward us, His steadfast loyalty to His people. 00:00:54.000 --> 00:01:02.500 As we work through the text this morning, we're going to do it sort of as we go instead of trying to read the whole thing and digest the whole thing in one go. 00:01:02.500 --> 00:01:20.500 Hosea warned Israel that their idolatry and their prideful obstinance was going to be met with the wrath of God who had been patient with them, but was prepared to administer long overdue judgment against their sin if they did not immediately turn to Him in heartfelt repentance. 00:01:20.500 --> 00:01:23.500 I'm emphasizing these two sins in particular. 00:01:23.500 --> 00:01:33.500 Idolatry and what I'm calling prideful obstinance, because I believe that they best capture the sense of Israel's rebellion as it's spelled out by the prophet here. 00:01:33.500 --> 00:01:42.500 And I want to take the message of Hosea as best I can with the help of the Spirit and let it speak directly to you and to me this morning. 00:01:42.500 --> 00:01:48.500 So hear me when I say this and when I try to condense the message of Hosea 10 into this. 00:01:48.500 --> 00:02:00.500 That God is patient with us, but He will pour out His wrath against our idolatry and our prideful obstinance if we refuse to repent and seek Him. 00:02:00.500 --> 00:02:05.500 So read with me starting in chapter 10 and verse 1. 00:02:05.500 --> 00:02:10.500 It says Israel is a luxuriant vine that yields its fruit. 00:02:10.500 --> 00:02:17.500 The more his fruit increased, the more altars he built and his country improved and he improved his pillars. 00:02:17.500 --> 00:02:22.500 Their heart is false and now they must bear their guilt. 00:02:22.500 --> 00:02:26.500 The Lord will break down their altars and destroy their pillars. 00:02:26.500 --> 00:02:32.000 For now they will say we have no king, we do not fear the Lord and a king, what could he do for us? 00:02:32.000 --> 00:02:36.000 They utter mere words with empty oaths, they make covenants. 00:02:36.000 --> 00:02:42.000 So judgment springs up like poisonous weeds in the furrows of the field. 00:02:42.000 --> 00:02:50.000 In these verses Hosea speaks to what Israel portrays themselves to be outwardly and who they really are inwardly. 00:02:50.000 --> 00:02:57.500 We are familiar with these kinds of dichotomies where something appears to be something outwardly, but inwardly it is something different altogether. 00:02:57.500 --> 00:03:06.500 Hosea speaks directly to this, from the outside all the trappings of Israel are trending in a positive direction, they give a pleasant appearance. 00:03:06.500 --> 00:03:12.500 So the statement Israel is a luxuriant vine makes sense to talk about the northern kingdom. 00:03:12.500 --> 00:03:15.500 But inwardly there is something different happening. 00:03:15.500 --> 00:03:26.000 And another way to think of this or look at it is to say there is one sense in which Israel and their neighbors see them, there is another sense in which God sees Israel for who they really are. 00:03:26.000 --> 00:03:38.000 You have to understand that during Hosea's ministry, at least the majority of it that is recorded in the scriptures here, Israel was experiencing a time of real prosperity and success. 00:03:38.000 --> 00:03:49.500 There was political success, there was military expansion, there was geographical success in the sense that they were reclaiming some of the borders that had been previously lost. 00:03:49.500 --> 00:03:55.500 Probably during the time that Hosea is speaking here, Jeroboam II is the king in Israel. 00:03:55.500 --> 00:04:04.000 And under Jeroboam II, Israel went back and reclaimed all of the land that had been lost during the previous decades. 00:04:04.000 --> 00:04:14.500 So you are thinking, if you want to have concrete reference points, the kingdom splits in two, and then you are thinking well down the line from that after Israel has already been divided. 00:04:14.500 --> 00:04:21.000 And during the succession of kings, they are losing territory every time a new king is inaugurated. 00:04:21.000 --> 00:04:23.500 And this is happening both in the southern and the northern kingdom. 00:04:23.500 --> 00:04:37.500 So Israel is shrinking, so their influence is shrinking, their economic ability is shrinking, opportunities are becoming fewer, and Jeroboam II becomes king in Israel and he brings about a reversal of that. 00:04:37.500 --> 00:04:41.000 So they reclaim the lands that had been lost under previous kings. 00:04:41.000 --> 00:04:45.500 And as you regain more land, you gain population, you gain economic opportunity. 00:04:45.500 --> 00:04:51.500 Obviously to gain these lands from their enemies, they had to experience military success. 00:04:51.500 --> 00:04:54.500 And military success meant security. 00:04:54.500 --> 00:05:01.500 It meant they were safe, even though they were a small nation tucked in amongst huge regional powers at that time. 00:05:01.500 --> 00:05:07.500 And so at the surface of this, Israel is experiencing a rebirth of their power. 00:05:07.500 --> 00:05:11.500 In 2 Kings 14, it describes Jeroboam's reign. 00:05:11.500 --> 00:05:19.500 And it says, he restored the border of Israel from Lebo-Haimath as far as the Seab of Arabah, according to the word of the Lord, the God of Israel. 00:05:19.500 --> 00:05:23.500 Here's an interesting little nugget if you came for one this morning. 00:05:23.500 --> 00:05:29.500 Which he spoke by his servant Jonah, the son of Amati, the prophet from Gath-Hefir. 00:05:29.500 --> 00:05:32.500 Whoa, we didn't know we were going to read about Jonah this morning. 00:05:32.500 --> 00:05:39.500 But Jonah had said that God would raise up Jeroboam and he would reclaim the lands, the territories that had been lost. 00:05:39.500 --> 00:05:47.500 It even says this, that the Lord saved the Israelites by the hand of Jeroboam. 00:05:47.500 --> 00:05:57.500 It says of Jeroboam, he is the instrument of God's prosperity and Israel's success during this time. 00:05:57.500 --> 00:06:01.500 You hear all that and you probably think, well what else does it say about Jeroboam? 00:06:01.500 --> 00:06:05.500 It says, he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. 00:06:05.500 --> 00:06:09.500 And he did not depart from all the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebuch. 00:06:09.500 --> 00:06:14.500 So that is Jeroboam the first, which he had made Israel to sin. 00:06:14.500 --> 00:06:18.500 Now you remember what Jeroboam the first had done, right? 00:06:18.500 --> 00:06:20.500 The first king of the northern tribe. 00:06:20.500 --> 00:06:22.500 The kingdom splits. 00:06:22.500 --> 00:06:31.500 Jeroboam is afraid that because Solomon's temple is the center of worship that all the people in the north are going to travel to the southern kingdom. 00:06:31.500 --> 00:06:33.500 They're going to offer sacrifices in the temple. 00:06:33.500 --> 00:06:38.500 They're going to worship there and they're going to look around and go, wait a minute, we don't want to be Yankees. 00:06:38.500 --> 00:06:40.500 We want to come down here to the south. 00:06:40.500 --> 00:06:53.500 And if they do that, the kingdom is going to crumble in the north and they're going to lose everything that they had assumed they would gain by departing from Israel and trying to distance themselves from Jeroboam and his oppressive leadership. 00:06:53.500 --> 00:07:01.500 And so he goes to Dan and Bethel and erects these golden calves there. 00:07:01.500 --> 00:07:04.500 And what did he say of the calves that he built? 00:07:04.500 --> 00:07:06.500 Hey, these are beautiful calves. 00:07:06.500 --> 00:07:10.500 No, he said, these are the gods that took you out of Egypt. 00:07:10.500 --> 00:07:15.500 That's what he said of the calves that he built and put one at Dan and put it at Bethel. 00:07:15.500 --> 00:07:19.500 And he said, you've heard the stories of how your forefathers came out of Egypt. 00:07:19.500 --> 00:07:22.500 Here are the gods that did that. 00:07:22.500 --> 00:07:31.500 And this would have been familiar, in a sense, to people who still had the backdrop of Egyptian worship. 00:07:31.500 --> 00:07:34.500 It would have been familiar to people that lived amongst the Canaanites. 00:07:34.500 --> 00:07:43.500 And even though all of their pantheons were different and they treated different deities in different ways, the bull was the symbol of deity incarnate. 00:07:43.500 --> 00:07:46.500 And here's the king of Israel. 00:07:46.500 --> 00:07:51.500 Ten of the twelve tribes reside under his reign. 00:07:51.500 --> 00:07:56.500 And he points to these golden calves and says, these are the gods. 00:07:56.500 --> 00:07:59.500 These don't represent the gods. 00:07:59.500 --> 00:08:00.500 Remind you of the gods. 00:08:00.500 --> 00:08:05.500 These are the gods that brought you out of Israel. 00:08:05.500 --> 00:08:12.500 And so Israel's trajectory from there, understandably, just begins to spiral. 00:08:12.500 --> 00:08:24.500 Because now you have this dangerous combination of outward prosperity, but inwardly, there's a syncretistic idolatrous covenant-breaking worship that is taking place. 00:08:24.500 --> 00:08:33.500 And like you and I often do, we look at how things are going and say if things are going well, then the things that I'm doing must be contributing to that in a positive way. 00:08:33.500 --> 00:08:42.500 And even though I know this doesn't speak to the day-to-day life of individual Israelites, there's this overarching sense that Israel is prospering. 00:08:42.500 --> 00:08:47.500 And it doesn't matter that they're worshipping these golden calves at Bethel and at Dan. 00:08:47.500 --> 00:08:51.500 It doesn't matter that their worship has been integrated with the Canaanite worship. 00:08:51.500 --> 00:09:06.500 You could imagine a religious professor or a religious studies professor looking at this and going, you know, this is evidence that Israel's religion is just a construct in their mind of how they should worship deity, but it doesn't really matter. 00:09:06.500 --> 00:09:16.500 They're prosperous no matter what they do, even if they build golden calves for themselves and say, these are the gods that have brought us up out of Egypt. 00:09:16.500 --> 00:09:28.500 And if it doesn't sound overly offensive, you understand this is the most important theological event in the Old Testament from the perspective of the authors of the Old Testament who wrote later. 00:09:28.500 --> 00:09:37.500 The deliverance from Egypt is the supreme picture of God's power and authority and his steadfast love for his people. 00:09:37.500 --> 00:09:57.500 And it's unthinkable to me, and apparently is unthinkable to Hosea and certainly is unthinkable before God that Jeroboam would build up these high places, these places of Canaanite worship, which they had conquered and put a calf on it and say, here are the gods that brought you out of Israel. 00:09:57.500 --> 00:10:04.500 I'm going to jump off of that hobby horse for a minute, as much as I want to keep preaching against it, because there's a lot of text, but I want to impress on you. 00:10:04.500 --> 00:10:07.500 This was no small thing that Jeroboam had done. 00:10:07.500 --> 00:10:22.500 And so the summary of Jeroboam II's reign, decades of being king in Israel, is reduced in 2 Kings 14 to just a few verses that say, he perpetuated the sins of his father. 00:10:22.500 --> 00:10:28.500 Eventually, not by the way, his biological father, but his forefather. 00:10:28.500 --> 00:10:38.500 So Hosea warned Israel that because their outward prosperity had turned their hearts from the Lord to idolatry, the Lord would tear down the idols. 00:10:38.500 --> 00:10:45.500 And he makes this shocking statement in verse 2, that he would make them bear their guilt. 00:10:45.500 --> 00:10:54.500 Eventually, Israel would realize that they have a ruler, but they have no legitimate king like Yahweh would have been their king. 00:10:54.500 --> 00:10:58.500 And their idols would be powerless to save them in the day of judgment. 00:10:58.500 --> 00:11:04.500 Now, sometimes there's a place to come in here and start calling out idols. 00:11:04.500 --> 00:11:12.500 That's a fun thing to do when you're preaching, is to come up and call out idols, especially if you can avoid your own and just call out the idols of other people. 00:11:12.500 --> 00:11:22.500 And say, your idol over here is football, your idol over here is business, your idol over here is networking and building relationships, your idol is loving this thing and loving that thing and doing this and that. 00:11:22.500 --> 00:11:28.500 But I don't feel like I have to come up here and do that because you already know what your idols are. 00:11:28.500 --> 00:11:32.500 You don't need me to tell you what they are. 00:11:32.500 --> 00:11:36.500 You know, I've prayed, I was praying last night, I was praying this morning. 00:11:36.500 --> 00:11:41.500 God, there's one idol there that you can strike down. 00:11:41.500 --> 00:11:51.500 And maybe it's one of my idols, maybe it's something in me that I came, that I brought this morning that I don't know what it is, but there's some idol that you can strike down in us. 00:11:51.500 --> 00:12:03.500 These idols are things that we love, and this is important to build on later in this passage, they are things that we love with the burning passion with which we should be pursuing a knowledge of God. 00:12:03.500 --> 00:12:13.500 So our ambitions may be our idol, or whatever it is that our affections for comfort and pleasure are set upon these things become our idols. 00:12:13.500 --> 00:12:21.500 When our love for God has to compete with anything else, those things are our idols, and we know what they are. 00:12:21.500 --> 00:12:30.500 So you hear the warning of the prophet this morning that God is patient, but he will pour out his wrath against idols. 00:12:30.500 --> 00:12:35.500 Idolaters must, again, in the words of verse 2, bear their guilt. 00:12:35.500 --> 00:12:40.500 If you go on to verse 5, it moves into a little bit of a new section. 00:12:40.500 --> 00:13:03.500 It says, Now this is looking almost from a futuristic perspective, it's looking back from the perspective of the exile into the calamity that has fallen on Israel. 00:13:03.500 --> 00:13:36.500 The prophet here paints really a very pitiful, very pitiful picture of Israel's response to God's judgment. 00:13:36.500 --> 00:13:55.500 They are seen trembling when their calf or their calves are carried off in the war chest of the Assyrian king, trembling with fear, but also trembling with the look of someone who has just seen their wife carried off by a warlord to a foreign country and they are powerless to stop them or intervene. 00:13:55.500 --> 00:14:04.500 And you would think that their response when the Assyrians plundered their cities and carried them off into captivity would be for them to weep and remorse over their sin. 00:14:04.500 --> 00:14:25.500 So when they think about their destruction, you think their response would be to say, Lord, we have sinned against you and they put on sackcloth and ashes and rend their garments and do all of the things that they do in national repentance and they are brokenhearted because they know how God has been patient and tender with them and yet they've forfeited all of that in pursuit of these idols. 00:14:25.500 --> 00:14:30.500 But instead, they are weeping over the idols themselves. 00:14:30.500 --> 00:14:35.500 To which they ascribed honor and glory, which they loved. 00:14:35.500 --> 00:14:42.500 They are weeping because Israel would have a king no more even though they recognized their king was ineffective and powerless. 00:14:42.500 --> 00:14:47.500 They were weeping because the priests would be priests no more. 00:14:47.500 --> 00:14:54.500 And notice that the prophet refers to Bethel, the house of God, as Beth-Avon, a house of wickedness. 00:14:54.500 --> 00:14:59.500 He won't even speak of Israel in her idolatry, in her adultery. 00:14:59.500 --> 00:15:03.500 As being the place where the true God is worshiped. 00:15:03.500 --> 00:15:10.500 And the altars there at Beth-Avon, the sin singular, this is the sin of Israel. 00:15:10.500 --> 00:15:18.500 You don't want to be before the Lord with one thing that he can say, that is the sin of such and such people or the sin of this person. 00:15:18.500 --> 00:15:24.500 This sin, this treachery will be no more. 00:15:24.500 --> 00:15:27.500 Its altars will be covered, it says, in vines and weeds. 00:15:27.500 --> 00:15:30.500 The high places will be destroyed. 00:15:30.500 --> 00:15:36.500 Hosea warned Israel that their idolatry would result in their disgrace as the Lord poured out his wrath against them. 00:15:36.500 --> 00:15:39.500 There's even eschatological language here. 00:15:39.500 --> 00:15:45.500 And of course, Jesus later uses this to describe the persecution that would follow his death and resurrection. 00:15:45.500 --> 00:15:48.500 And yeah, you can go to Luke 23 and you can read about it there. 00:15:48.500 --> 00:15:59.500 Where Jesus is using this kind of language, this imagery of the hills covering us and the mountains falling upon us, to describe the persecution that was going to come in the days that immediately followed his resurrection. 00:15:59.500 --> 00:16:06.500 And I'm sorry because there's one or two or three post-millennialists I'm going to offend this morning, but he's even looking to the end of time. 00:16:06.500 --> 00:16:11.500 He's even looking beyond the persecution that would happen to the people walking with him. 00:16:11.500 --> 00:16:26.500 And he's saying the trajectory from his death and resurrection to the end of time is going to culminate in a time where God's people say, I wish that the hills would cover us and the mountains would fall upon us, that it would be preferable to die than to live and suffer. 00:16:26.500 --> 00:16:31.500 I shudder, I still shudder when I think about the Jewish women that are walking with Jesus. 00:16:31.500 --> 00:16:37.500 And you remember they had to take the cross off of him and put it on Simon and they're making their way to Calvary. 00:16:37.500 --> 00:16:43.500 And he turns around and he says to them, of course, a time's coming when they're going to call out for the mountains and the hills. 00:16:43.500 --> 00:16:52.500 But he asked the women this, if they do this while the wood is green, what are they going to do to it when it's dry? 00:16:52.500 --> 00:16:58.500 That puts a little chill in you. 00:16:58.500 --> 00:17:19.500 You go, wow, God's wrath is going to be poured out against Israel with that kind of ferocity, with that kind of intensity that the people will flee and say, cover us up with the hills and mountains because death is preferable to a life of idolatry. 00:17:19.500 --> 00:17:26.500 The Israelites should rejoice, of course, at the destruction of their idols, but that's not how idolatry works. 00:17:26.500 --> 00:17:34.500 Instead, they weep because these things which they passionately love are being stripped away from them. 00:17:34.500 --> 00:17:39.500 This is the cost of our unconfessed, unrepentative idolatry. 00:17:39.500 --> 00:17:41.500 God is patient with us. 00:17:41.500 --> 00:17:43.500 And I feel like I can't say that enough. 00:17:43.500 --> 00:17:47.500 Maybe it's to try to balance out all of the judgment that's put forward in the book of Hosea. 00:17:47.500 --> 00:17:49.500 But God is patient. 00:17:49.500 --> 00:17:50.500 He is kind. 00:17:50.500 --> 00:17:52.500 He is a gracious and compassionate God. 00:17:52.500 --> 00:17:58.500 His love abounds to thousands and His mercy to ten thousands. 00:17:58.500 --> 00:18:04.500 He is long suffering with His people who are sinners. 00:18:04.500 --> 00:18:09.500 But He will put us to shame for our idolatry. 00:18:09.500 --> 00:18:12.500 That's how God pours out His wrath against us. 00:18:12.500 --> 00:18:16.500 As He brings us out into disgrace. 00:18:16.500 --> 00:18:19.500 Look at verse 9. 00:18:19.500 --> 00:18:22.500 From the days of Gebaiah, you have sinned, O Israel. 00:18:22.500 --> 00:18:24.500 And there they have continued. 00:18:24.500 --> 00:18:28.500 Shall not the war against the unjust overtake them in Gebaiah? 00:18:28.500 --> 00:18:35.500 When I please, I will discipline them, and nations will be gathered against them when they are bound up for their double iniquity. 00:18:35.500 --> 00:18:42.500 Ephraim was a trained calf that loved to thresh, and I spared her fair neck, but I will put Ephraim to the yoke. 00:18:42.500 --> 00:18:47.500 Judah must plow, and Jacob must harrow for himself. 00:18:47.500 --> 00:19:01.500 There was a time, even though it feels, and it literally is, hundreds of years prior to this, when Israel was living comfortably in the safety and peace of the covenant that they had made with God. 00:19:01.500 --> 00:19:11.500 And this particular language here may not sound all that affectionate to us, but it's really tender the way that the Lord describes His affection for His people. 00:19:11.500 --> 00:19:17.500 Even when He says something like, Ephraim was a trained calf that loved to thresh, and I spared her fair neck. 00:19:17.500 --> 00:19:25.500 So I invite you, I even challenge you, to write that on a card, send it to your wife with a bouquet of flowers. 00:19:25.500 --> 00:19:33.500 I also strongly encourage you to make sure your affairs are in order before you send that to her on your anniversary. 00:19:33.500 --> 00:19:38.500 This language is tender. It's tender. 00:19:38.500 --> 00:19:44.500 God loves Israel, even to this moment, even up to this moment of this prophecy. 00:19:44.500 --> 00:19:56.500 God loves her, and He looks at her, and He can remember, and they should be able to remember, walking in the safety of their covenant with God. 00:19:56.500 --> 00:20:02.500 But thus far in the past, in those days, by the time of Hosea, are long gone. 00:20:02.500 --> 00:20:12.500 He looks back all the way to the time of Judges and invokes, arguably, the most reprehensible, grotesque story in the Old Testament. 00:20:12.500 --> 00:20:28.500 And if you go back and you can read, like you can go home and read Judges 19, 20, 21, where this story is told, I give it to you in the shortest of bullet points and oversimplification, but a Levite man goes, he gets a runaway concubine, takes her out of her father's house. 00:20:28.500 --> 00:20:31.500 He's traveling through the town of Gebaiah, has to stay there for the night. 00:20:31.500 --> 00:20:39.500 An older man invites him into the house so he doesn't stay in the city square, which he didn't understand at first, but soon came to understand why that was. 00:20:39.500 --> 00:20:49.500 And pretty soon, the man is sitting in a house surrounded by men who are insisting that the Levite man be sent out so that they can have homosexual relations with him. 00:20:49.500 --> 00:20:55.500 And the man refuses, but says, I'll offer you my daughter instead, and the man's concubine. 00:20:55.500 --> 00:21:00.500 And eventually, they settle for just the Levite man, sends his concubine out there. 00:21:00.500 --> 00:21:04.500 They sexually abuse her to death in the night. 00:21:04.500 --> 00:21:24.500 And in the morning, the man wakes up and sees what's happened, travels back home, dissects her into 12 pieces, and sends her remains out with a message to all the other tribes of Israel to say, this little village in Gebaiah, a city of Benjamin, has perpetuated this evil and they have to pay for it. 00:21:24.500 --> 00:21:26.500 And the other tribes agree. 00:21:26.500 --> 00:21:29.500 And so they amass an army, they go out to Benjamin. 00:21:29.500 --> 00:21:32.500 Benjamin says, we will not send the perpetrators out to you. 00:21:32.500 --> 00:21:34.500 And so this sparks a war. 00:21:34.500 --> 00:21:37.500 They plunder after a series of events and interventions. 00:21:37.500 --> 00:21:46.500 They plunder the Benjaminites and don't totally wipe them out, but they have to provide wives for them in the aftermath. 00:21:46.500 --> 00:21:52.500 And it's a civil war even within the context of Israel's tribes. 00:21:52.500 --> 00:21:57.500 It's just a really massive story. 00:21:57.500 --> 00:22:01.500 And I think that the prophet invokes it for two reasons. 00:22:01.500 --> 00:22:19.500 Number one, he's going back, he's going way back past Jeroboam, past the United Monarchy, back to the earliest days of Israel being constituted as something of a nation and saying from that time all the way up to now, you have been a wicked people. 00:22:19.500 --> 00:22:24.500 But I think the second reason is really the primary reason. 00:22:24.500 --> 00:22:28.500 And that is because the Israelites are familiar with this story. 00:22:28.500 --> 00:22:31.500 It's one of the worst in Israel's history. 00:22:31.500 --> 00:22:36.500 And they're used to hearing that story and thinking of themselves as the heroes within it. 00:22:36.500 --> 00:22:47.500 The evil Benjaminites did this thing and our tribes went to them and demanded that they hand over the perpetrators. 00:22:47.500 --> 00:22:54.500 And when they wouldn't hand over the perpetrators, we took them by force and we administered justice. 00:22:54.500 --> 00:22:59.500 But in this story, they are the Benjaminites. 00:22:59.500 --> 00:23:07.500 They are the people of Gebaiah who have perpetuated wickedness after wickedness and their evil is no less than the evil of the people of Gebaiah. 00:23:07.500 --> 00:23:10.500 This is like the moment when Nathan tells David, you are the man. 00:23:10.500 --> 00:23:12.500 God is saying you are the Benjaminites. 00:23:12.500 --> 00:23:21.500 He's going to send the Assyrians to plunder and conquer them because all the way from that time to the present, real justice has not been administered in the land. 00:23:21.500 --> 00:23:27.500 They still have not really satisfied the injustice that happened to Gebaiah. 00:23:27.500 --> 00:23:32.500 But you know, for every story of Gebaiah that's written down, what's not written down? 00:23:32.500 --> 00:23:35.500 What happened that wasn't being told? 00:23:35.500 --> 00:23:36.500 What was happening behind? 00:23:36.500 --> 00:23:42.500 You see somebody on the news and they are finally arrested because they've committed some great fraud or some great abuse. 00:23:42.500 --> 00:23:47.500 Do you think they were caught for the one and only that they perpetuated? 00:23:47.500 --> 00:23:53.500 No, behind the scenes is where all of the filth really lies. 00:23:53.500 --> 00:24:05.500 And now in that story of Gebaiah, the prophet Hosea is pushing it back to them and saying you are the ones who have committed this wickedness against the Lord. 00:24:05.500 --> 00:24:11.500 Hosea warned them that God had been long suffering but that their judgment was overdue. 00:24:11.500 --> 00:24:15.500 And I hesitate to use the word overdue. 00:24:15.500 --> 00:24:22.500 You've got scholars like Ryan Bush here this morning and he might think of that and go, overdue, you know, everything happens in God's providential timing. 00:24:22.500 --> 00:24:26.500 Everything is right on and that's true. 00:24:26.500 --> 00:24:32.500 But from the perspective of Israel wasn't it time to settle accounts? 00:24:32.500 --> 00:24:43.500 From the perspective of a scorned husband bearing with his unfaithful wife, wasn't it time that justice would be done? 00:24:43.500 --> 00:24:51.500 Their judgment, of course, was not just on account of their idolatry and their general wickedness but because of their prideful obstinance. 00:24:51.500 --> 00:24:55.500 Y'all knew I was going to come back to that term and I am going to explain it a little bit. 00:24:55.500 --> 00:24:58.500 Jump down with me to verse 13. 00:24:58.500 --> 00:25:06.500 You have plowed iniquity, you have reaped injustice, you've eaten the fruit of lies because you have trusted in your own way and in the multitude of your warriors. 00:25:06.500 --> 00:25:17.500 Therefore the tumult of war shall rise among your people and all your fortresses will be destroyed and shallman, or as shallman destroyed Beth Arbel in the day of battle, mothers were dashed in pieces with their children. 00:25:17.500 --> 00:25:26.500 Thus shall it be done to you, O Bethhel, because of your great evil at dawn, the king of Israel will be utterly cut off. 00:25:26.500 --> 00:25:34.500 The agricultural metaphor here is satisfying because it's easy to understand and it's easy to explain. 00:25:34.500 --> 00:25:51.500 When you go out and you plow up the ground and you take in your hand the little seeds of unrighteousness and you cast them out there and the rain falls on it and the sun touches the blades of grass as they come out of the ground, that injustice is going to grow and what are you going to reap? 00:25:51.500 --> 00:25:53.500 You're going to reap what you've sown, right? 00:25:53.500 --> 00:25:55.500 That's what Hosea is telling them. 00:25:55.500 --> 00:25:59.500 What lay at the heart of Israel's wickedness and their idolatry was this. 00:25:59.500 --> 00:26:05.500 In verse 13, that you have trusted in your own way and in the multitude of your warriors. 00:26:05.500 --> 00:26:18.500 So at the heart of Israel's evil was this prideful obstinate that they could do things on their own terms, they could do them in their own power, their own way and that they did not need the Lord to lead them. 00:26:18.500 --> 00:26:25.500 And the Lord was threatening to strike directly at this sense, this prideful sense of self-sufficiency. 00:26:25.500 --> 00:26:28.500 They took pride in their warriors so war would come. 00:26:28.500 --> 00:26:34.500 They took pride in their fortifications so the Assyrians would destroy their fortifications. 00:26:34.500 --> 00:26:50.500 The prophet references some event that to you and I has been lost to history but apparently would have elicited a visceral response in the people when he says, Sha'alman destroyed Beth Arbel in the day of battle and the mothers were dashed to pieces with their children. 00:26:50.500 --> 00:26:52.500 And thus shall it be done to you. 00:26:52.500 --> 00:26:56.500 Reading the Bible sometimes desensitizes you to such. 00:26:56.500 --> 00:27:00.500 Unthinkable, really unthinkable, savants. 00:27:00.500 --> 00:27:06.500 The mothers and their children were dashed to pieces. 00:27:06.500 --> 00:27:10.500 And so too will you be. 00:27:10.500 --> 00:27:21.500 I keep using this term prideful obstinates and I'm going to try myself a little bit but frankly because I can't think of a better way to describe what's happening in this situation. 00:27:21.500 --> 00:27:32.500 So Mary on defines obstinates as stubbornly adhering to an opinion, a purpose or a course of action in spite of reason, arguments or persuasion. 00:27:32.500 --> 00:27:47.500 My definition of prideful obstinates is stubbornly adhering to a course in spite of reason because our judgment is so clouded and our hearts are so darkened with sin that we can't think to turn from our own way to pursue the Lord. 00:27:47.500 --> 00:27:48.500 And that's Israel. 00:27:48.500 --> 00:28:02.500 That's really the history of Israel in a six minute lesson is prideful obstinates, this determination that they're going to live so mired in sin that they can't think their way out of it. 00:28:02.500 --> 00:28:08.500 They can't imagine what it would be like to step out of it and pursue the Lord again. 00:28:08.500 --> 00:28:11.500 God is patient with us. 00:28:11.500 --> 00:28:15.500 But you need to know that he will tear down our prideful obstinates. 00:28:15.500 --> 00:28:22.500 That if we insist on living in sin in our own way he will meet out his judgment against us. 00:28:22.500 --> 00:28:25.500 Well, this is pretty bleak and I knew it would be by this point. 00:28:25.500 --> 00:28:28.500 And so I hope Jeff is going to preach on something really upbeat this morning. 00:28:28.500 --> 00:28:32.500 If not, I'm going to go to him and say, Jeff, we need a good just hallelujah. 00:28:32.500 --> 00:28:37.500 The Lord is going to return and take us home kind of message this morning. 00:28:37.500 --> 00:28:52.500 If God is patient, but he will punish our idolatry, if he's patient, but he will put us to shame for our idolatry, if he is patient, but he will tear down our prideful obstinates, how exactly are we supposed to conclude this message? 00:28:52.500 --> 00:29:04.500 Well, I'm going to take you back to verse 12, which even though it's in the middle of the passage, really serves as its logical fulcrum and serves as its conclusion. 00:29:04.500 --> 00:29:18.500 In verse 12 it says, So for yourselves righteousness, reap steadfast love, break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord that he may come and reign righteousness upon you. 00:29:18.500 --> 00:29:21.500 This verse reads so much like verse 13. 00:29:21.500 --> 00:29:23.500 The same principles apply. 00:29:23.500 --> 00:29:28.500 The same metaphors are in play here in terms of what Israel was being commanded to do. 00:29:28.500 --> 00:29:42.500 And unbelievably, in spite of all that they had done to offend the Lord and to break their covenant with them, Hosea assured the people that God was steadfastly loyal to them and that he would relent from his anger if they would turn to him. 00:29:42.500 --> 00:30:03.500 They had been sowing seeds of iniquity and reaping lies, but if they would go back to those same fields, if they would take the plow out, and if they would furrow the ground underneath, and if they would put out seeds of justice, if they would redo what they had done, that God would hear them and they would reap his steadfast love. 00:30:03.500 --> 00:30:08.500 In the face of imminent judgment, Hosea was inviting the people to change course. 00:30:08.500 --> 00:30:10.500 And of course, this wasn't an easy thing. 00:30:10.500 --> 00:30:11.500 It wasn't a quick thing. 00:30:11.500 --> 00:30:14.500 They had to uproot centuries of idolatry here. 00:30:14.500 --> 00:30:17.500 They would have to depose their king in order to do this. 00:30:17.500 --> 00:30:19.500 They would have to get rid of all of their priests. 00:30:19.500 --> 00:30:24.500 They would have to tear down all of their places of worship. 00:30:24.500 --> 00:30:29.500 So it wasn't a small undertaking to return to the worship of Yahweh, but they could do it. 00:30:29.500 --> 00:30:31.500 They could heed his words. 00:30:31.500 --> 00:30:36.500 They could return to worshiping Yahweh as was governed by the Torah. 00:30:36.500 --> 00:30:47.500 They needed to cover themselves in ashes, rend their clothes, repent, but in spite of all their rebellion and idolatry and prideful obstinance, if they would do it, God would lavish his love upon them. 00:30:47.500 --> 00:30:49.500 There are many parents here this morning. 00:30:49.500 --> 00:30:50.500 I'm a parent. 00:30:50.500 --> 00:30:52.500 Sometimes I will. 00:30:52.500 --> 00:30:55.500 And we have one child that is, she is so tender hearted. 00:30:55.500 --> 00:30:58.500 It's just if it falls on the floor, it breaks in a million pieces. 00:30:58.500 --> 00:31:05.500 And if she's about to walk into danger, and I just say to her, stop. She thinks I'm getting on to her, right? 00:31:05.500 --> 00:31:10.500 And you can see it in her eye and she just melts into just a puddle there. 00:31:10.500 --> 00:31:14.500 And she doesn't even want to pick her eyes up and look at me because she thinks I'm mad at her. 00:31:14.500 --> 00:31:15.500 And so I'll have to get down on her. 00:31:15.500 --> 00:31:17.500 I'll have to look at her and say, I'm not getting onto you. 00:31:17.500 --> 00:31:24.500 I just don't want you to walk off the porch or stick your hand in that outlet or whatever crazy thing she's about to do. 00:31:24.500 --> 00:31:29.500 It's all I'll look at her and I'll say, I'm not about to get onto you. 00:31:29.500 --> 00:31:37.500 And that's when the tears start flowing because all the emotion that was pin up and how it just comes out. 00:31:37.500 --> 00:31:47.500 And God is looking at Israel and saying, in spite of all of this, all of it, if you would repent, I would have you back in a moment. 00:31:47.500 --> 00:31:51.500 I would lavish my love upon you. 00:31:51.500 --> 00:32:01.500 There may be this morning, these unconfessed, unrepentative idolatries, this prideful obstinance that you have brought with you. 00:32:01.500 --> 00:32:04.500 And you might have brought those things with you this morning and you didn't even know it. 00:32:04.500 --> 00:32:07.500 You didn't even know they made the trip. 00:32:07.500 --> 00:32:13.500 With this very message of Hosea, that judgment is at the door, yet God is eager to forgive, has a name here. 00:32:13.500 --> 00:32:16.500 We call it the gospel of Jesus Christ. 00:32:16.500 --> 00:32:25.500 The promise of God to those who turn from their idolatry and repent of their prideful obstinance is that He will reign righteousness upon them. 00:32:25.500 --> 00:32:32.500 He will cover us not in our own righteousness, but in the righteousness of His perfect Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:32:32.500 --> 00:32:37.500 Wrath is still poured out, by the way, but it's not poured out on us. 00:32:37.500 --> 00:32:40.500 It is poured out on Jesus in our place. 00:32:40.500 --> 00:32:52.500 What a mystery this is that God would cover us in the righteousness of His Son who bore God's wrath against us in our place. 00:32:52.500 --> 00:32:58.500 Such a thing leaves you almost speechless, but as you all know, preachers are never speechless. 00:32:58.500 --> 00:33:00.500 There's always more to say. 00:33:00.500 --> 00:33:05.500 In spite of our sin, God is patient with us and has invited us to turn to Him. 00:33:05.500 --> 00:33:10.500 And the Scriptures say of the Lord Jesus, that whoever believes in Him will not be put to shame. 00:33:10.500 --> 00:33:14.500 Ryan, would you come and lead us in prayer? 00:33:14.500 --> 00:33:29.500 Amen.