Hosea 1,2 & 3

Sir Brian and Pastor Scott starts us on the Minor Profits with Hosea. Such an awesome story of how our God can use anyone and everyone. Plus is reckless love He has for us.

Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:00

Welcome back to Faith in the Streets. We're going to start a new series. We got a couple new people to uh join us. Uh it seems to be spreading pretty wildfire through the congregation wanting to be a part of this, and it's a fantastic opportunity for all of us. I just uh I'm really enjoying all of it. I will admit that I am new to the producing part of it, so give me some grace as I'm figuring it out. Uh the last episode got dropped a little later, uh, but I'll get there. Uh so I'll go ahead and introduce everybody. I'm Tommy as always, and then we have. So, Brian, I'm here. Yeah. Scott. I'm Nathan. Uh you've heard Nathan before. He's been with us a couple times with Jonah, and uh we've decided that we're gonna go ahead and go with some more of the minor prophets. Uh I think we're gonna start with the book of Hosea today. Um it's a very interesting book to get started on. How's everybody's week been so far? Oh, it'd be good, man.

SPEAKER_00 1:01

Great. Nothing going on, everything exciting. Happy with the change of weather. Well, I guess it's changing back now, but absolutely.

SPEAKER_05 1:08

Absolutely. Ohio seasons. That's right. It it snowed one morning and then it was 60 degrees the following that same afternoon.

SPEAKER_02 1:14

So it's gonna snow this morning or tomorrow morning.

SPEAKER_05 1:17

Tomorrow morning, yeah. So all right. Um Sir Brian, you want to get us started with Hosea, the minor prophet?

SPEAKER_04 1:24

Well, actually, actually, uh, Scott, you were gonna lead on this. Uh so you do you have a little bit of insight on Hosea?

SPEAKER_02 1:33

Um so I think this is probably the coolest part of the Bible is the minor prophets. Not that Jesus isn't cool, obviously that's the coolest part, but I think this um ties in a lot of the ways Jesus acts with what we read from the Old Testament and tying it both together. And I think it's a very neglected part. I mean, a lot of the minor prophets, you go to Obadiah, it's like a one-pager, you usually get stuck to another page, didn't even know it existed. So there's a lot of wealth in these books, and they're called minor prophets, not because they don't matter, but because canonically book length plays into that. The major prophets are very long, uh, the minor prophets are not. So uh it's just sorted out in the canon as the length of the book. Uh these are the people God sends to tell people to stop being knuckleheads. And um sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. Um, but also why I love this part of the Bible is that it's interlapping with all of the Old Testament stuff that we read about, and these people are actually living and prophesying during the moments in like 1 Kings or in the book of Isaiah, he has contemporaries. So I think this also shows us what do you do in situations where you don't know what to do, and the prophets come and tell you that. And I think that's extremely important, and that's why I'm into it anyway.

SPEAKER_05 2:52

But I I like that you said that because we uh started the book of Proverbs as well, and that's a very, for me, a very insightful instruction on how to you know live life and how to be the man that God called you to be and how to be with other people at the same time, you know. Um we did the first four chapters of it, and uh we will get back to it. So but that's just something like it it's so uh instrumental how wisdom is for us, and we need to make sure that we have that wisdom when we go out into the world.

SPEAKER_04 3:30

So I I believe Hosiah. The word of Yahweh came to Hosea the Son of Be in the days of Hosiah, Joseph and Hezekiah and in the days of Jericho, the Son of July. When Yahweh was holding Hosea, Yahweh said for yourself a white children of horror dream. And I will visit the bloodshed of Jezreel upon the house of Jezreel. And I will call the kingdom of the house of Israel to see. And it will be in that day that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel. What did you guys think of that?

SPEAKER_02 5:10

So this passage, this book starts out really intense because I mean the first thing God says is go marry a hooker, a prostitute, right? Um and then not only that, but your children's names are going to be an object lesson, right? Like so uh he says that he goes and finds Gomer, who is this prostitute, and the object lesson here is they're turning away from God. So he marries her, gets pregnant, and God says, name the child Jezreel from up to punish you, uh, and King Jehu's dynasty to avenge the murders committed at Jezreel. Um, and so I think that's really interesting to look at that God starts us off with this much, but the the question is what happened in Jezreel? We have to understand that, right? Like, because that makes no sense to us. Um so here's really where that comes in. Jezreel is um, sorry, I'm looking at my notes here. Um it's a valley that was a pretty terrible battles had taken place there. Um, and that's the very place where um Jehu had massacred um Ahab's family. So um God's promise to put an end to Israel as an independent kingdom, or as in verse 5, I have the NLT, it says, I will break Israel's military power in the Jezreel Valley. Um and so you know, God is in here telling them, Hey, um, you're gonna do what I I need you to do, but this place is really important because there was a crime committed here, and so breaking its power comes true 25 years later when the Assyrians finally conquer um the northern kingdom and carry its people into captivity. So Hosea is like the first um captivity prophet, and he's the Assyrian, not the second exile, which is Babylon. So this is Syria, the Assyrian Empire, and they were really brutal, and Amos really gets into that more as he overlaps. But so there's a crime committed, but if you remember about King Ahab, he was a pretty bad guy, too. So it's interesting the the crime that goes on here. So this says Elijah had predicted the family of King Ahab of Israel would be destroyed because of their persistent wickedness in 1 Kings 21, verses 20 through 22. But Jehu, who would fulfill the prophecy, would go on to go too far in carrying out God's commands, 2 Kings 10, 1 through 11. Therefore, Jehu's dynasty would also be punished in the Jezreel Valley, which is the very place that he massacred Ahab's family. Ahab was a bad guy.

SPEAKER_01 7:54

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_02 7:55

So uh it that's wild to me that you look at this, and and a lot of people say there's no grace in the Old Testament. I mean, the worst king in the Old Testament, God is like, I'm going to avenge Jehu for murdering him, right? Even though he tried to kill Elijah and all that stuff.

SPEAKER_05 8:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:09

But it's wild. What do you guys think about that?

SPEAKER_05 8:12

Um, so I was stuck here on um I will break Israel's bow or bow. Bo, bow. Bo.

SPEAKER_04 8:22

Uh well, I uh what I have here in my study Bible is uh the the bow is a common euphemism. Sorry, the bow uh was a common euphemism denoting the military strength. So uh so then he would break their military strength.

SPEAKER_05 8:38

Yeah, and that's what I was thinking about was I will break Israel's military.

SPEAKER_04 8:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 8:44

Were they supposed to have a military at this time?

SPEAKER_02 8:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 8:46

That's what I thought. Like they were never really supposed to have a military.

SPEAKER_02 8:50

Yeah, and so that's why like the psalmist writes, some trust in chariots, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God, right?

SPEAKER_01 8:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:57

Um the way God says this, at least in Scott's understanding, which is probably imperfect, is they have begun to trust in their military more than they trusted God. So uh they had to have the right amount of charioteers, the right foreign treaties and alliances. And what you're gonna see is a theme where the prophets actually point out that Israel is dragging itself back to Egypt quite literally, and it's a global political thing, um, a geopolitical situation that's going on at the time. And so um, but again, we're in the northern kingdom, where uh this is going on, then there's a southern kingdom, and so this is after David and Solomon and all that. Jeroboam has the second was king of the northern kingdom. Um it was a time of prosperity and peace, but then God sends Hosea because they started trusting in everything but God. And so you're gonna see this thing come up where God's God's saying, What are you trusting in? What are you pledging your allegiance to, essentially? Um, and he will constantly allude to the fact that I will break your military power because you're not supposed to have one. Remember in the the law of Moses, they couldn't have a standing army, they could never levy taxes for a military, and all of that was because God was the one who went before them. Now, if you study the Old Testament and watch how this works, they tend to run ahead of God, and then what happens to those battles? It always falls apart. They lose. They lose, yeah. Right? But the time, like when they follow God, you end up like a Gideon scenario where they smash some clay pots and the destroying angel comes out and does it for him.

SPEAKER_01 10:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:27

So it's almost like God's saying, I will fight for you, but you're not trusting me. You're trusting in all your technology. You know, oh, you've got chariots. That'd be like us saying, Oh, we've got the new stealth fighter jets, you know, or the nuclear bomb or whatever. And God is saying, You're trusting in everything but me, and I'm going to break it. And so that's where Hosea comes on the scene. This is nothing new.

SPEAKER_05 10:48

No, no. But I also want to say that if we're talking about Ahab, right? That was Ahab and Jezebel. Wasn't most of his influence from Jezebel?

SPEAKER_02 10:58

Yeah, they were both very evil.

SPEAKER_05 11:00

Okay, so now play into the fact that he tells him to go find Gomer. Is she not the same kind of person as Jezebel was, or at least of the same spirit, maybe?

SPEAKER_02 11:12

I mean I mean it's all because it seemed like Jezebel Gomer is like promiscuous because it's her job. Jezebel was evil. Yeah. Right?

SPEAKER_05 11:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:21

Like, so uh she was the real reason. She was like the first lady, but like the one wearing the pants, I guess, if you want to look at it that way. Yeah, that's kind of what I was saying. And she's the one who's like killed Elijah. Kill Elisha.

SPEAKER_05 11:33

She was the voice behind the king, basically.

SPEAKER_02 11:36

Yes. And so she was the one that kind of made the decisions, and Ahab was like, yeah, whatever. Um make the wife happy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 11:45

Did you have something that you I you saw you reading something else earlier?

SPEAKER_00 11:48

Well, I'm just trying to figure out who's who's who, just get a refresher on all of this. I uh saw of the uh references like the ones that Scott was making, and I'm going back through and to Kings and trying to figure it out.

SPEAKER_05 12:01

There's a lot that's happened here. Yeah. Um what are we thinking what years are we looking at as far as this goes?

SPEAKER_02 12:09

This takes place in 753 BC. So uh Hosea becomes prophet after King Zechariah of Israel is killed. Um and then the next year, right after this in 752, the replacement, King Shalom of Israel is killed. So two political things. Uh and then less than ten years later, you have the invasion of Tiglath Palezo the Third, um, which will become a temple-defiling scenario from the Assyrians.

SPEAKER_01 12:41

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 12:41

So this is in that time of it's oh crap. There's a battle called the Battle of Karkamesh that goes on. I can't remember exactly what time this comes, but um, Hosea becomes a prophet in 753 BC, and then from then on out it's nothing but trouble. And then you have Isaiah come Micah comes on the scene in 742, Isaiah 740, uh, the northern kingdom falls in 722, and Hosea's ministry ends in 715. He sees a lot of things. But his book does not allude to them because he's focused on this Gomer scenario while God is is also doing, but he has contemporaries like Micah and Isaiah, and you read about them and Jeremiah. They're all contemporaries, they were all going around at the same time in different parts of the God's people.

SPEAKER_05 13:31

Yeah. And I think that's something I want to point out too is uh I've got a timeline that shows the overlap of how people would have been around, and we've talked about it before in in our studies, is like uh like uh I think it was Enoch was around when was it Adam and Noah, same thing, you know, like Adam would still have been alive when these other guys were alive, and I don't think we think about that too often. Yeah, we're so when you think about it that way, um there are people that are still alive that have started from a very early beginning that can pass on their wisdom and their knowledge to the next generation. And it goes so far up that like it's just nuts to think that, you know, uh Methuselah's walking around and Adam's still there. Like so Methuselah could have gone and said, Hey Adam, what's going on, buddy? You know, and they could have had a conversation and he could have been this is how this was. I mean, think about Adam recounting his experience in the garden with these people.

unknown 14:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 14:34

Recounting his experience, naming all the animals, you know, and just all the things that happened with him, and then again, so forth. You know, it's like there is overlap in that that I don't think we think about.

SPEAKER_02 14:47

Yeah, and and it's true of the prophets at any given time there's three to six running around. I never thought about that. That are prophesying in two different kingdoms, and then you have Jonah that gets into a foreign kingdom, which falls 150 years later, and the prophet Micah. Yeah. So, I mean, like these people are running around, and even in Isaiah, I believe, I could be wrong because I don't have my Bible to that part in front of me. Isaiah talks about his friendship with Jeremiah. Um, you know, they know each other. Um there are other prophets mentioned um throughout the prophet Haggai is mentioned in like one of the kings or chronicles. Um, you know, so they're in there, and we often forget because of the canonical order of the Bible is not chronological. It we forget these people were not like isolated, God wasn't sending like one prophet at a time, you know. Sometimes there were two, three, five, six in the same areas overlapping. Yes, and they were all like, you guys, stop being idiots. Like, that's the core message, and God's gonna do some crazy stuff with these kids' names that's a mind-blowing. Yes. But so he tells this guy that's a prophet, and what do you learn about the prophets is they get their messages in different ways. Some people literally speak to God, some people will say right out front, I had a vision. Isaiah was a priest, he was a royal prophet, right? Whereas Micah is a farmer, um, you know, from nowhere.

SPEAKER_01 16:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 16:08

And so I mean, look, it I mean, would David be considered a prophet? Yeah, the book of Acts says he was, but not in the traditional sense of these guys. Yeah, he was a shepherd, and yeah. He almost wasn't even brought before Samuel. Yeah. Yeah, because they're like, that guy? Yeah. But but yeah, he was the least of those. And the prophets are often you're gonna see them be verbally abused and and incarcerated, and they get told, la la la, you know, don't tell us what we don't want to hear. Um, and they're like, Well, I'm gonna tell you even harder. You know, because it's gonna happen.

SPEAKER_00 16:41

In the New Testament, we have the harmony of the gospels. It would be interesting to read something similar uh for the Old Testament. I'm sure someone makes something that actually puts them all together like chronologically, because you really do. You think about the when you're reading through the Bible, you read through it sequentially, so you think that it all happened sequentially, but it did not. It was like recurrent.

SPEAKER_05 17:00

Yeah, and that's what I think is interesting to me, that I never thought about like a tree, how it branches out. Well, that's kind of what history and everything. It's not just a straight line, you know, it's like all these other things going on at the same time as what's going on scripturally, you know, but I think somehow or another we forget or we've lost that history, or we've not been able to see them side by side because we are very linear, we are very, you know, tunnel vision anyway, as it is. But to think about people walking around that have been around for so long and and and known all these things and talked all these things, and you gotta remember, like when Cain went off and started that part of the world, and then when Noah came around, it was you know, they started a whole new section or whatever. So you just gotta remember that there's so much going on other than just a straight line here.

SPEAKER_02 17:54

Yeah, and and they're all there, but they're all the what what these prophets do is focus in on the actual character of God, not like the big words like we use like omnipotent and holy and stuff. Yeah, they're gonna say that, but how does God care about people? How does God care about children or the oppressed or war or poverty or immigrants? And yes, these are still relevant issues today. Um, but a lot of people leave these parts out because they've just never read the Bible, this part of the Bible.

SPEAKER_01 18:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:23

Um but this is probably the most like metal part of the Bible there is next to, you know, outside of excluding the New Testament and the victory of Christ. Right. This is the most incredible part because God literally goes to every possible length over a period of about 200 years to get people to pay attention to him. And they don't.

SPEAKER_01 18:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:42

And that's never changes, right? Like the more things change, the more they stay the same.

unknown 18:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 18:47

Or as Solomon would say, there's nothing new under the sun, right? Um So the thing about these guys is they're here to call out that Israel has taken its like chosen status as God's people and turned it into a socioeconomical enterprise. Um, you know, they're they're obsessed with politics, they're obsessed with treaties, they're obsessed with having the best military, they're obsessed with having wealth. There's actually a part I was reading the other day, and I for I think it was in um I don't, it's one of the shorter minor prophets, but God calls all the women in their fat cows. Um He says the fat cow women of Israel. It's gonna win you let it. Because they had become so complacent and like privileged. And so what I want to do maybe for your podcast audience here is to change the way you read these because the way the normal, and this is I'm speaking as an American because I've lived here my whole life. Um and right now, America's the top of the food chain as far as superpowers go. So it's easy to read the Bible as if we're the good guys. Okay, I want you to want us to challenge us to not be the people in here that are the oppressed as we so often think of ourselves, but that sometimes we are the on the side of the wrong, and that's what the prophets are really pointing out. Um and that's hard to do because nobody likes to hear that. Because not all of us are like that, but that the prophets are doing that. So uh a way you read this scripture in is to read it as God speaking truth to the powers of the world at that time. And they're gonna laugh in these guys' faces, they're gonna cut them in half, they're gonna try and throw them into the lion's dens, they're gonna shoot them. If they had guns, they would have, you know, archery set them on fire, you know, all of it. But none of these men turn away from it because God has spoken into their hearts. So it's weird that this this section of starts out because God tells a prophet, which is like a holy man, to go marry a defiled woman. Right? Like you just didn't do that. But God says, hey, you have special permission to go marry Gomer.

SPEAKER_05 20:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 20:53

And so they do. Yeah. But it's also an example. Like he's gonna say this is like a visual artboard before the internet or whatever. You know, um, so but ultimately he tells you why. This is in verse two, the last part of it, 2B, I guess, it says this will illustrate how Israel has acted like a prostitute by turning against Yahweh and worshiping other gods.

SPEAKER_05 21:21

Yeah, and I think that's one of the things that I clued into it too later on was, you know, how many times does he tell us to not keep those things? Like, I'm afraid that you're gonna use these outside influences to walk away from me. And that's what happens a lot of times, they do. You know, so when he's saying he he's just comparing it to so that we understand like what it's like for him. Like this is a real world situation. This is something that we can identify with. Right. Like what effect it would have on us if we were in the situation. So That gives you the g to me it it it says that God understands our emotions. He understands the hurt that we feel as humans because he feels it too. And this is probably one of the most devastating things I think that uh people go through in this world. My opinion anyway. So let's uh continue reading probably six.

SPEAKER_04 22:29

Then she conceived again and gave birth to her daughter, and Yahweh said to him, Name her Lo Ruhama, for I will no longer have compassion on the house of Israel, that I would ever forgive them. But I will have compassion on the house of Judah, and save them by Yahweh their God, and I will not save them by bow, sword, battle, horses, or horsemen. And she weaned Lohama, and she conceived and gave birth to a son. And Yahweh said, Name him Lo Ami. For you are not my people, and I am not your God.

SPEAKER_02 23:30

Stop there for a second. The names are important here. So the first one was Jezreel, to signify the atrocity that happened in the Jezreel Valley. Even though it was King Ahab, the God shows us it doesn't matter, bad or good. Don't do that. Now the daughter the daughter is Lo Ruhaman. Now imagine God coming on the scene and saying, name your kid this, and then tell my people I don't love him anymore.

SPEAKER_05 23:52

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 23:53

Because that's exactly her name. You know, name your daughter, not loved. For I will no longer show love for the people of Israel. But notice he makes a distinction right now to the southern kingdom. He says, I'll show love to the people of Judah. I will free them from their enemies. And he shows them how he's going to do it, which is not the way this current kingdom is currently doing it. He's not going to do it by military force, but by my power as the Lord their God. And then Gomer weans Lo Aruhama, and she becomes pregnant with a second son. And the people are like, I'm sure I I just imagine they're like, surely this one's going to be named something better, but it's not my people. So not only not loved, but you're not my people. For Israel is not my people, and I am not their God.

SPEAKER_05 24:39

Yeah, that's mic drop right there.

SPEAKER_02 24:41

Like, imagine, hey, you're naming your kid that. What's your name, not my people? Yeah. Or not loved.

SPEAKER_01 24:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 24:48

Um, or Jezreel, but like the message, the people heard this, you understand why they get mad at these guys. Because that's not filtered. Like, that's straight up like brutality, fire coming from the mouth of God.

SPEAKER_05 25:02

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's the idea of that is just it's almost heartbreaking to be honest with you. Like, what what was Hosea's feeling about like not loved? I mean, he knows better. It's kind of like when we talk about Jonah. You're just gonna forgive him and I know it.

SPEAKER_02 25:21

See, we don't get a look at Jose's emotions here because it seems that he is very much uh in love with Gomer because he keeps going back, even though God, you know, there's a whole thing going on there. But like you never hear him call her anything or you know, take anything out on his kids. He's very much on point. Yeah. And so I would assume he God told him he could pick any woman he wants.

SPEAKER_01 25:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:42

So uh as long as she was a prostitute. So he has feelings for this woman, and then there's kids, and then he's like, wow, I really gotta name my kid that.

SPEAKER_05 25:50

You know, as a side note, thinking about it, do we know what the name Gomer means?

SPEAKER_02 25:54

Oh, it doesn't say there, does it? He married Gomer. I know it's on Andy Griffith.

SPEAKER_05 26:00

Well, that was the last name, wasn't it? Was that his first name? No, Pyle was his last name. Pyle Gomer. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:08

No, uh I just auto-corrected Google. Sorry, chat, because Gomer turned to Gomart. Um Bible, what was her I can't remember the exact name.

SPEAKER_05 26:19

Um I never thought about it. I never looked at it until we started reading the kids' names.

SPEAKER_00 26:26

Okay. Uh take this with a grain of salt. This is the AI uh summary, but it says uh the name Gomart is of Hebrew origin derived from a verb that I Gamar. Yeah, there we go. Meaning to complete, to bring to an end, or perfection.

SPEAKER_02 26:45

So that's why that God chooses a woman of the night who happens to be named to complete or mature perfection. Wow. God is the ultimate rapper.

SPEAKER_05 27:03

I almost didn't really like that name now, you know. It's almost like he named her seven. Yeah. Right. You know, that is awesome. I'm glad we asked that question now.

SPEAKER_02 27:12

Yeah, and I always always forgot what her name meant, and I'm glad Nate looked that up. Yeah. So that's in crazy juxtaposition to the name she's giving her children, though she herself is in extreme juxtaposition in her life, in her the way she lives, to what her name means.

SPEAKER_05 27:29

Yeah. That wow, that's just I got no words for that, really, to be honest with you. That was just why the Bible is awesome and it's not for Siss.

SPEAKER_02 27:36

Yeah. It's incredible.

SPEAKER_04 27:40

Yeah, that's awesome. All right, I'll be able to do that. Let's finish this chapter, yeah. Yet the number of the sons of Israel will be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. And it will be that in this place where it is said to them, You are not my people. It will be said to them, You are the sons of the living God. And the sons of Judah and the sons of Israel will be gathered together, and they will set for themselves one head, and they will go up from the land, for great will be the day of Jezreel.

SPEAKER_05 28:34

Break this down for us, because I I I've got my thoughts. I want to hear your thoughts, Scott.

SPEAKER_02 28:39

I think this is so cool, because this is exactly how the Bible is written. It's God doing and then undoing things. Like the people undo what God does, and God redoes it perfectly. So now you have these three kids, and in verse 10, yet the time will come where so this is the idea that comes into play that's going to be very prevalent in the minor prophets called the remnant. And there's an idea called the remnant theology, meaning there will be these leftover faithful people that God will pull his Messiah from, right? Like, so he says, he reverses this that he goes back to the Abrahamic blessing in Genesis, right? Like when he says, look at the stars of the sky, if you can count them, you can't, and your people will be as numerous as the seashore. This says that again, and the people are probably like, but we're all getting murdered over here, right? So then at that place where they were told, You are not my people, it will be said, You are children of the living God. So there's hope here, right? And then the people of Judah and Israel will unite together, they will choose one leader for themselves, and they will return from exile together. What a day that will be, the day of Jezreel, when God will again applant his people in the land. Now this is like a cyclical structure, like A, B, C, C, B, A. Right? Uh I think if I remember right, it's been like 20 years that's called a chiasmus in biblical uh literature, when it's like a circular point and counterpoint kind of that God does. Um it's amazing to me how God says this really harsh thing and then immediately undoes it.

SPEAKER_01 30:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 30:17

Because he wants them to say, There is a judgment, there's something coming, and not all of you are going to make it. It's almost like Lord Farquhat in. That's a worst kind of belief. That's not God, though. Um, but I mean, you know, you just see this like God is announcing this, and people hearing Hosea would be like, oh no. Or then you'd have the ones who be like, oh no, well anyway, back to sinning. But you know, some people will be like, how's that gonna get any better? God's gonna not love us, God's gonna call us nonsense. Then he reverses it and says, You will be, and I will love you, and you will come back.

SPEAKER_05 30:49

Yeah. And I love the fact that it again, you if you if you do study the Old Testament, people miss out on how many times God says you have a chance to come back. There's always a chance to come back. It's like everybody focuses on the the part where the wrath well, the wrath, but where they mess up, basically. They don't say that, well, we messed up, that's why we got punished. Right. There are consequences for your actions, plain and simple. Yeah. Um but this also reminds me of, and you guys will have to refresh my memory about it, uh, when the ground opened up and 3,000 some people just got swallowed up because they were messing up, basically. Quarter's rebellion defense. Yeah, I think it was quarter's rebellion. Yeah. And that that kind of reminds me of this part where it says in the place where where it was said to them, You are not my people, they will be called sons of the living God. So the people that were not my people were the ones that were swallowed. That's kind of how it was.

SPEAKER_02 31:50

But it also points to the Gentile piece that they're still not going to connect yet.

SPEAKER_05 31:54

Correct. Correct.

SPEAKER_02 31:55

Because these people should not be God's people, but God's calling them his people.

SPEAKER_05 31:58

Yeah. Right? And I think that's where you get they will be called sons of the living God. Yep. And we're all sons of the living God. All of us.

SPEAKER_02 32:07

And if you look at the prologue in John chapter one, when he talks about people being born, it ties right back into this specific thing. This just hit me where he says, and those who believed in his name, God gave them the right to become children of God, not by the will of man, nor the desire of a father, but by the will of God. So they will be called, and John will later say in his letters, they will be called the children of God. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:32

You know, and and that is what we are. And that that theme is not foreign in the Old Testament. It's just we forget that the Hebrew people are more concerned with events and not writing chronologically and getting the facts out, rather than sitting down with the prophets that kind of are like a deep dive into the books that we typically do read.

SPEAKER_01 32:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 32:50

You know, this is more like looking at the everyday person's view and God's versus the holistic story, right? We're zooming in instead of being up at 30,000 feet. We're down at like a hundred feet now.

SPEAKER_05 33:02

And one of the things that I had pointed out uh in a lesson was um there's always uh reward for righteous and good behavior, but it's usually not as long of a chapter or a book as the bad stuff. But that's because the bad stuff is I mean, it doesn't outweigh the good stuff. It's more memorable. It's more memorable. So it's kind of like, and I think that's the one thing that we need to focus more on is well, yes, this bad stuff happens, but why did it happen?

SPEAKER_02 33:38

And you gotta remember too, God, like sometimes when like the people get swallowed or like the avenging angel goes out and killed 75,000 people in one of the old testament books, God has given them like centuries to repent. Like one chapter it'll say, like, I'm gonna do this, and then we'll read the next chapter he's done it, but there's 400 years in between there. Yes, yes. Like, so it's not like God is like just sitting up there just waiting to zap everybody. He's like, I'm gonna send a bunch of people, which we're reading, yeah, to tell you, and if you don't listen to them, then it's gonna come to pass.

SPEAKER_01 34:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 34:09

And it does. I mean, but think of like even Jonah, how clueless he was that 150 years later Michael would come along, and the very people he preached to that repented completely said nope. Excuse me.

SPEAKER_05 34:22

The thing that we got to kick out of Jonah was even the cows repented. Yeah!

SPEAKER_04 34:29

Because I'm gonna read this next one, I think. Uh we've got we got two poems, it looks like, and then we go back into it again.

SPEAKER_02 34:38

Question for you, though. And yours, mine says that there's an extra verse in the chapter. Of chapter one. But it calls it two one with an aster uh asterisk. It says, in that day you will call your brother Ami. Is that the first of yours?

SPEAKER_04 34:55

This one says, say to your brothers Ami. Okay. And to your sisters, Ruhama.

SPEAKER_02 35:00

So in the NLT it stops chapter one, but notes it's typically traditionally chapter two, verse one.

SPEAKER_04 35:06

Gotcha.

SPEAKER_02 35:07

So it probably isn't connected in the flow with the poems that are about to follow. Right, right. So But I think that's cool too. In that day you will call your brothers a me. But you can go ahead and read that.

SPEAKER_04 35:20

But as I as I said, uh I forgot, sorry. Uh say to your brothers Ami and to your sisters Ruhama. Contend with your mother, contend, for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband, and let her remove her harlotry from her face, and her adultery from between her breasts. Lest I strip her naked and set her forth as on the day when she was born, and make her like a wilderness, and make her like dry land, and put her to death with thirst also. I will have no compassion on her children, because they are children of harlotry. For the mother who was played a harlot, she who convinced them has acted shamefully. For she said, I will go after my lovers, who give me bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink. Therefore, behold, I will hedge up her way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her, so that she cannot find her path. So she will pursue her lovers, but she will not overtake them, and she will seek them, but will not find them. And then she will say, I will go and I will return to my first husband, for it was better for me then than now. Now she does not know that I was I who gave her the grain, the new wine, and the oil, and multiply the silver and gold for her, which they use for their. Therefore, I will take back my grain at harvest time and my new wine in its season, I will also deliver my wool and my flax from them, given to cover her nakedness. So now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of my lovers, and no one will deliver her out of my hand. I will also cease all her joy, her feasts, her new moons, her Sabbath, and all her appointed times. And I will make her desolate her vines and fig trees, of which she said, These are my wages, which my lovers have given me, and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field will devour them. So I will visit the days of the Baals upon her, when she used to offer offerings and spoke to them, and adorn herself with her earrings and jewelry, and go after her lovers, so that she forgot me, declares Yahweh.

SPEAKER_02 38:57

So I love this part because we get the overarching thing in chapter one, and now starts the court case. God's saying it's gonna seem hopeless, there's hope. Now let's dig into this. And so now we're bringing charges against the unfaithful wife. And so this is a process that would have been very much a thing, but then there's two levels here, right? They would have realized they're not talking that God is no longer talking about Gomer. No, he's talking about them. John has a way of doing this, like there's the spiritual level, and like Nicodemus is like right above here at the physical spiritual level, and Jesus is like up here, right? Like um, and it's almost over. That's that's the thing. This reading draws you into accusing yourself.

SPEAKER_04 39:39

How does it translate to sound? Because they can't see your figures.

SPEAKER_02 39:42

That's true. I'm using my hands a lot, making faces. I can't help it.

SPEAKER_05 39:46

I wasn't gonna say it.

SPEAKER_02 39:48

I was thinking it while I was doing it.

SPEAKER_05 39:49

Our readers, our listeners can't see your fingers doing that.

SPEAKER_02 39:52

Yeah, I'm sorry. Um so anyway, it's God talking to them. And so he brings her on trial, finds her guilty. Um and so what's the crime here? What do you think?

SPEAKER_05 40:04

Oh, and we were talking in the Proverbs about seek her, which is wisdom. Wisdom, good enough. Okay. So in this instance, again, like you said, it's not specifically talking about Gomer, because up until this point, we know the path that Israel has taken. How many times they have won off into other gods and brought in Baal, the Baals, you know. And uh Jonah was for uh what was the fish god Dagon? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 40:37

Um, you know, and and how many times does it mention Baal and Ashra Poles and all these other things that are going on?

SPEAKER_05 40:44

And they have they pop up all the time. Yeah, and I think some of the times that we miss out on in the older in the earlier books is God tells them destroy all the things. And I think people maybe think that's mean, but it's because of this right here. They will c always come back to get you. Yeah, and there's the incident where what's her name was sitting on the idol of the house. You know, so it's like we have to let go of all those things that are keeping us from his obedience. And we were talking about it last night in the car. Lay it all down at the cross. Stop trying to pick it back up again. And so many times we do that in our lives, we think that God's grace isn't enough. Like, well, let me just take this back. That you don't need to worry about that. I'll I'll I'll handle that. No, no, no, no, no, no. Lay it all down. His grace is big enough. I mean, if when he spoke, it created the universe, whatever it is that your trouble is, I'm sure he can handle it. And it's just a matter of turning back to him and relying on him. And and I think that's a lot about what this is speaking about. She's relying on her lovers for doing all these things, which is adulterous towards uh Hosea, absolutely, but the bigger picture is how adulterous of humans that we are. That Israel has been to God. Israel has been to God, yeah. So it's again, I love the dynamic of how he does these things. You know, we've got our father God, we become dads and mothers, and we be have children, and we get into that process of starting to understand. We don't want to punish our kids when they mess up. I know we don't. And again, we've talked about it in one of our other uh episodes. Like when your dad says to you, This hurts me more than it hurts you. As a kid, you're thinking, bullcrap. But as a parent, you're like, as a parent, it's like, oh, dad was right. This sucks. This is what God does with us, you know. He sees us like, oh, oh Israel. You know, I think in the New Testament he does that about about Jerusalem. Oh Jerusalem, oh Jerusalem.

SPEAKER_02 43:04

Oh, I've long to gather you like a hen gathers your chicks.

SPEAKER_05 43:07

Yeah, you yeah, yeah, it it's just you see this play out so many times, and it's hard to argue and deny that that love, that unconditional love, and that how we're supposed to be able to associate with that and understand it to his level. We never will. Don't get me wrong, we never will, but we do get a glimpse of it.

SPEAKER_02 43:33

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 43:34

We get a glimpse of it. And then of course the world kicks in and screams at us, and we get lost in everything else, and you know, the world takes over sometimes. But when it comes down to it, it it's it's all just that journey that God has been going through with us.

SPEAKER_02 43:52

And what I think, like you know how it says um multiple times in the Bible, God is a jealous God, right? And people think that's funny, but the Hebrew is elk. And it it's like a a lover who is so in love with his bride that there is no one else he wants, and that he will pursue her in the consistent evidence that she doesn't care most of the time. And you see this here, right? But um you see our our reaction, or Israel's reaction sometimes, and what's going on here is like the same things that go on today is like religious syncretism. You're serving two gods at the same time, but God's saying that doesn't work. But I want you to notice something. Look down at um verse, let me find it, um, in verse 7 it says, When she runs after her lover, she won't be able to catch them. So it's almost like Romans chapter 1. He's gonna give them over, and he talks about how he's gonna make their way very difficult, give them over to their own sin, right? But then it says this crazy little bit in here that says, I might as well return to my first husband. That's forbidden. In Levitical law, you were not allowed to go back to the person who divorced you.

SPEAKER_04 45:01

Yes, well, no, and that's very true. And if we're talking about Israel, right, and we're talking about her chasing other gods, and then she wants to go back to God, it's that same scenario. How does he allow it?

SPEAKER_02 45:16

Right. And and and it's it shows up in Gomer and Israel, Gomer slash Israel's here, like uh I was better off with him than now. Uh and and he after he's gone through the first part of chapter two till verse from verses one through seven, talks about where what she did and how she got all her stuff and how at home she wants, but God even says she doesn't realize it in verse eight. It was I who gave her everything she has. What are you thinking, Nate? I just listening. And then I just think it's really cool that God is like, I gave her all of that. And then I even gave her more, and then I gave her money, and she gave it to Baal. Right. Like she's like you see God beginning this jealous lover, like, I feel so bad for my beloved because she's so blind she can't see the damage she's done.

SPEAKER_04 46:12

Yeah. And and Baal was worshipped as a harvest. Harvest and food. Yes. So that that so that you're like, I'm still on board with God, but well, we have to go pray to this harvest guy. Right.

SPEAKER_05 46:24

No, no, it's it's well that goes into like where we see how uh what is the Romans and the Greeks and they have all these different gods that they pray to, like the harvest and fertility and rain and all that other stuff. Um so yeah, it it's like here's all this stuff and she gives it away to somebody else. One of the things that made me think about it, I've heard this many times now, you know, it it's the woman will call the man jealous. He'll say that, oh, you're just being jealous, you're just being jealous. And the real reason is he's protecting what's his. God is protecting what is his, which is his people, all of his people. So I think that's where things get kind of messed up is it's not so much that God is jealous, a jealous God, he's trying to protect what is his. You know, yes, we say jealous, and you said the actual El Kadam. Yeah, that word. Um but that's just because we don't know another a better way of saying pretending.

SPEAKER_02 47:38

Well we've turned jealousy into pettiness.

SPEAKER_05 47:40

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 47:41

You know, like, oh, you you were and yeah, like you shouldn't be texting people on the side if you're married, you know, romantical things at the time. So let's throw it out of the way so maybe listeners are not like, oh jealousy, but jealousy is usually I'm mad because I'm not as cool as correct you want me to be, or you're not doing the thing. Yeah, you know, it's always pettiness most of the time.

SPEAKER_05 48:01

Yeah, petty. And that's not what God is doing here.

SPEAKER_02 48:04

No, this is a pursuit of a lover who will not let go.

SPEAKER_04 48:07

Yes, no, but yeah, and not just his own interests, but yours. Oh, agree. Because you are fruitlessly worshipping these metal and wooden idols when you could be relying on him and getting uh graced with so many uh blessed with so many things.

SPEAKER_05 48:31

It's not it's like it says in ecclesiastics. Right. Chasing the wind. Exactly. It's like chasing the wind. You're never going to catch it. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 48:38

Even the things that you do get are ultimately from him anyway. I mean, it says right here, like she is she does not acknowledge uh verse eight. She has not acknowledged that I was the one who gave her the grain, the new new wine and oil.

SPEAKER_05 48:50

She's so lost. Yeah. On the whole, I mean, we're still like that today.

SPEAKER_02 48:54

Right. But I mean, just hearing this in like from this is God's perspective. He's setting up the charges of this trial in verses one through eight. Right, and then the verdict. But like you just hear, like, all throughout the prophet, you're gonna hear this ache from God, like a broken heart, because he's not gonna give up, but he's also like, these people like, come on. Right? But but but he but he never gives up. God is, you know, always pursuing, always running after. And I think that's fascinating because so often we get caught in our own circumstances and in our feelings. And God lays it out clearly. He's like, here's the reason everything is so difficult for you. You're using a middleman, you're skipping the real deal. Yeah, and that's what occultism is, and that's what witchcraft is, is it's trying to use a middleman to get instantaneous gratification, which, if you read this, is very much what Gomer represents, right? Sex, prostitution, all of those things, and all the basic needs of humanity, and God's like, you're so blind that you think that someone else is providing the very things that your husband is providing you. But how it it helps you not be so judgmental, I think, because you realize, wow, I'm kind of Gomer in a lot of ways in my own life. You know?

SPEAKER_05 50:08

And then when you say it that way, think about the fact that we are the bride. Yeah. He is the bridegroom, we are the bride. You know, another kind of tying into all that there, too. So let's call him a 14 branch.

SPEAKER_04 50:23

Therefore, behold, I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness and speak to her heart. That I will give her her vineyards from there and the valley of Akur as a door of hope, and she will sing there, as in the days of her youth, as in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt. And it will be in the day declares Yahweh, that you will call me, and will no longer call me the Bayali. So I will remove the name of the Bayals from her mouth, so that they will be remembered by their names no more. And in that day I will be called I will be cut a covenant for them, with the beasts in the field, and the birds in the sky, and the creeping things on the ground, and I will break the bow with a sword and war from the land, and I will make them lie down in security, and I will betrothe you to me forever. Indeed, I will betrothe you to me in righteousness and in justice, in loving kindness and in compassion, and I will betroth you to me and faithfulness, and you will know Yahweh. And it will be in that day that I will answer, declares Yahweh. I will answer the heavens, and they will answer the earth, and the earth will answer the grain, the new wine, and the oil, and they will answer Jezreel, and I will sow her for myself in a land. I will also have compassion on her, who had not obtained compassion, and I will say to those who were not my people, you are my people. And they will say, You are my God.

SPEAKER_00 53:00

This almost sounds like an invitation to the Gentiles here.

SPEAKER_05 53:04

Yeah, I wasn't gonna bring it up yet, but yeah, you're right. I mean, that's how is that not right there? I will say to those not called my people, you are my people.

SPEAKER_02 53:13

But also he's he's it's the remnant of Israel, too, that that comes in. Yes. Because they're being told at the beginning of this book, you're not gonna be my people anymore.

SPEAKER_01 53:21

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 53:21

But God's like, those who will come back will be my people. And I think it's important, like verse 13, to connect between 14 and the rest of the chapter. It says she forgot all about me in verse 14. But then God, as this El Kanah, jealous lover, this pursuer, goes through all the ways he says, I will lead her back once again and woo her in the desert. Like I will pursue her, I will start dating her again, I will be romantic, I'll give her vineyards, I'll transform the valley of trouble into a gateway of hope. Um, and so instead, where what did you say? You will call me Ishii? Which means my husband instead of my master, which is the Baal. Yes, the name. So God is saying in that day, Israel will call me husband instead of master, because it will have return. And then the rest of it is this setting up, this stripping away, I'll remove all the weapons, all the war, all the swords and the bows, so you will live unafraid. He'll cut a covenant with the wildlife, saying that you know they'll not do that. And remember cutting a covenant from Genesis 15, I believe, when he does that with Abraham. Yeah. And God takes both parts of that covenant. Whereas Abraham should have walked through, God double walks through saying, This covenant shall never fail. So now there are people, then we bring in the Gentiles, I will raise up myself, I will show love, and those called not love will call loved. Those who are called not my people, I now say, You are my people, and they will reply, You are our God. So this is like a marriage language almost in a sense.

SPEAKER_05 54:52

Yeah, and and I was gonna say the part where it's talking about I know in 19 it says, I will betroth you to me forever, I will betroth you in righteousness and justice and love and compassion. Do we not see Jesus in this? Oh my gosh, you see Jesus. Like this is to me is This is the kinsman redeemer. Yeah, exactly. That was what uh Boaz did. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, it's like Jesus, this is talking about Jesus will come, and that's again, like I said, we are the bridegroom, he is the bride, and I will betroth you in faithfulness and you will acknowledge the Lord. Yeah, I just I I hadn't really thought about that when I when I read this a hundred times that I've read it. You know? I have read it a lot.

SPEAKER_02 55:36

Verses 21 through 23 are absolute slam dunk, but beautiful, like in that day, in verse 20, I will answer, says, I will answer the sky.

SPEAKER_01 55:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 55:46

As it pleads for clouds, and the sky will answer the earth with rain. Then the earth will answer the thirsty cries of the grain, the grape mines of the altar, and they will turn to answer Jezreel, God plants. Which is what Jezreel means in Hebrew. So I think this is so cool. It's like there's this there's this punishment, but God is saying there's there's hope at the end of it. Like, endure the discipline.

SPEAKER_05 56:10

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 56:11

Change your ways.

SPEAKER_05 56:12

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 56:12

Not all of you are gonna make it, but if you can do it, because it's gonna be cool if you do. It's gonna be.

SPEAKER_05 56:19

We say rad in the podcast.

SPEAKER_02 56:21

Rad. Rad, yes. Tubular manus.

SPEAKER_05 56:25

It's the opposite of vain. It's the opposite of vain as well.

SPEAKER_02 56:30

And also what's interesting too is chapter three into four, Hosea's story concludes, and then we have four words just God's about to turn up the furnace of what's coming out of Hosea's mouth. But this story is what a wild way. Like, if I was writing a story as an author, and I write a lot, I would put this at the end. Uh because this is like the beautiful ending.

SPEAKER_01 56:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 56:48

You know, the happily ever after. But God's like, okay, let's tell you everything that's gonna happen, and then we're gonna lay it out piece by piece.

SPEAKER_05 56:55

Well, then it goes back into what I said earlier. It's like we get the one or two verses or whatever of the good stuff if this happens, and then the and it's always that first. We always get the good first, and then we get the bad because he knows the bad. He knows the bad's gonna come.

SPEAKER_02 57:10

If then, yes, yeah. If you do this, then I will do this. If you don't do this, then I will do this. Yeah. And I think this is so cool. Like, just it's that song that played you, everybody got on it about the reckless love of God.

SPEAKER_01 57:22

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 57:22

Um, you know, everybody got like, God's not reckless. Well, and in this way, with his love, he he is not reckless in the way we are, but he's saying, like, the the bridge of that song, there's no shadow, you won't light up, mountain, you won't climb up coming after me. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 57:36

No, no, no, and that's that's agreed. There's no breaks. Right. He's pursuing.

SPEAKER_02 57:41

But he But he's not like wantonly aggressively disobeying himself, like reckless as we would think it. We would see it that way. Yeah, yeah. But like this to us, this is crazy because you're like, yo, this marriage is done. And God's like, no, it isn't. This is my forever.

SPEAKER_01 57:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 57:57

You know, and I think there are just so many facets to this this stuff. It's just beautiful. It's awesome that it's only the first two chapters, too.

SPEAKER_04 58:05

Um the third one's a really short one. I if I want to go and do it quick, this finishes Gomer, yeah. Yeah, this finishes Gomer.

SPEAKER_01 58:12

Golly, Andy.

SPEAKER_04 58:16

Then Yahweh said to me, Go again. Love a woman who is loved by her companion, and is an adulteress, even as Yahweh loves the sons of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love raisin cakes. So I bargained with her for myself for fifteen shekels of silver, and Homer, and a half of barley, and then I said to her, You shall stay with me for many days, and you shall not play the harlot, nor shall you have a man. So I will also return many days without king or prince, without sacrifice, or sacred pillar, without ephod and household idols, afterwards the sons of Israel will return and seek Yahweh, their God, and David, their king, and they will come in dread to Yahweh and his goodness in the last days.

SPEAKER_05 59:31

Just to kind of talk about the raisin sacred cake, the ra the sacred raisin cakes. I looked them up and I forgot.

SPEAKER_02 59:47

But apparently they made people nuts for one another. Yeah, apparently. They were the original Viagra.

SPEAKER_05 59:52

Yeah, yeah, that's crazy to think of that, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 59:57

And when they start bringing them into the gathering, we'll have to let people aware, so no doubt.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:02

Raising canes here. We don't need to raise a canes. Or if we mumble, people, the kids will be like, Did he say God likes raising canes? No. No, no, he didn't. I mean, he might. But look at this, like verse 4 in there, though. This shows that Israel will go a long time without a king or a prince, without sacrifices, sacred pillars, priests, and idols. So God is like, I'm gonna strip everything back down to me. Like, and that happens, you know, a couple times here, but then ultimately in AD 70, when the temple is completely removed from earth forever and the priesthood demolished because Christ is reigning, right?

SPEAKER_05 1:00:39

Like so, is this without sacrifice, still without effort? Um is this referencing the 400 years of silence? No?

unknown 1:00:53

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:53

I mean, you could probably put it in there, yeah. But it's a is it a direct no? Because there's multiple times. So the thing about prophecy you have to remember, especially in these guys, is there's an immediate context and there's a future context. Okay. Uh so when Isaiah, for example, says the virgin will give birth, there was actually, you know, a a lady, and she wasn't like a virgin like Mary was, yeah, but it it came to pass for that particular king. So the the law of Moses would be fulfilled that the prophet, you had to be able to tell if they're a prophet or not by what came to pass. So it had to come true in their lifetime, right? Or else the penalty was death. So there's there's like a future, or there's a current and then a future like layer to both of these things. And now we're in the future part, but we're looking back on the past to inform our future. If that makes sense. And then stepping forward, God's going to break down the case against Israel and He goes back on this theme that breaks your heart, where he's like, My people became you know well fed, and then they forgot me. You know, or they became fed, and when they became fed, they became satisfied. When they became satisfied, they became comfortable. When they became comfortable, they forgot me.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:00

Yeah. Well, there's also the case, and it talked about coming back into Egypt there a little bit ago. Um, you know, they leave Egypt and they start saying we should go back because we should go back because at least we had fish or meat.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:14

Like they saw God walk through the Red Sea and they're like, you know what? Egypt must be better.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:18

Yeah, that's just it's just crazy to think.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:22

But how how often do we do that, though? Like, God provides for us in one way, and then like the same whale come along a month or two later, like, man, I'm not gonna make this bill again. I'm gonna start down God. But God always comes through.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:33

Yeah, and and we see that a lot, but we also see where people fight it.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:38

They fight it so much. It's like, dude, God just gave you this wonderful thing, but for some reason you're either not accepting it or you don't think it is what you want it to be.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:51

Or it's not what you want it to be.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:53

Yeah, the blessings you're getting a blessing, and it's not perfect in your eyes, but it's perfect for what you need at this time. It gives you the chance to go through the process of healing. Again, you have to heal from these things before you can like it didn't take you it didn't take you a day to become a a mess, basically.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:17

You know, it it took so a while. But let's let's not let's not use that wholly as an example because like the ventures like well, you know, it took me 30 years to get this way, I'll take another 30 years to get it off.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:31

No, no, let's let's let's not people who wait till the 11th hour usually die at 10 30.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:37

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, definitely for that. But we've said it here. You know, it took me almost 50 years to find where I needed to be. It took you close to 40 years to find where you needed to be. Uh, but it it as part of life and living that life and going through the process. You're gonna have upsets, you're gonna have setbacks, but you just keep moving forward. Uh-huh. You know, you keep trusting and relying on God. And if the blessing isn't your forte of a blessing, it's still a blessing, and be grateful for it.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:10

But so many times we're like, I don't want that.

SPEAKER_05 1:04:12

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_02 1:04:13

And then you look in chapter 2, verses uh, you know, one through um 14, I believe, or 13, and God's saying, here's how life is when you reject what I've given you. Like, it's not like he says, uh, I will fence her in with thorn bushes in verse six. I'll block. Like, God sets up red caution flags that we continually run past. I'm doing the hand thing again.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:37

No, no, no, no, no, gentlemen, gentlemen, I think this has been a fantastic discussion on uh us just breaking into Hosea, but in the protection of time. Would you mind praying us out, brother? Sure. Please.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:58

Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day. We thank you for another chance to get together and to start diving into the minor prophets looking at Hosea today. We we hope that um you will um bless us with the wisdom to see the story through Gomer's eyes. That we will see us as the as the one that needs to turn back, that we um need to we need to stop putting our faith in the world and uh putting all of our fa our faith in these worldly things, realize that all of our blessings that seem to be coming from the world are really coming from you all along. We pray that you'll turn us away and that um will turn us into um into your light. We ask that you forgive us for our sins, and in Jesus' name, Amen.