Hosea 7:1-4
by
Rev. Mark Perkins, Pastor
Denver Bible Church
326 E. Colorado Ave.
Denver, Colorado 80210
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Hosea 7:1,2
"And the iniquity of Ephraim and the evil deeds of Samaria
were revealed in my healing of Israel, for they work falsehood;
the thief enters in, bandits raid outside, and they do not consider
in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness. Now their
deeds are all around them; they are before My face."
1. God attempted to heal Israel through discipline.
Hosea 6:1, "Come, let us return to the Lord. For He has
torn us, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will
bandage us."
a. God's discipline was motivated by love, as it always is.
b. God's discipline was appropriate - just the right set of circumstances so that the nation of Israel would return to Him, and share His holiness.
2. Yet the Northern kingdom completely failed to respond to God's
discipline, and this recalcitrant attitude revealed the evil
underneath.
a. Sin is never excusable, but God is patient with sin.
b. God disciplines so that His grace offer might be considered and accepted.
c. When His discipline is rejected, well, that is bad. It denotes a rejected of grace, and ultimately of Him.
3. Hosea uses parallel synonyms for the reversionism (backsliding)
of the Northern Kingdom.
a. The first is 'AON. The basic meaning of this verb is to 'bend, twist, or distort.' Through this one perceives sin as any distortion of Divine Holiness, or the character of God.
(1). Any failure of justice.
(2). Any failure of mercy.
(3). Any failure of grace orientation.
(4). Any failure of organization.
(5). Any failure of self-control.
(6). Any failure of faithfulness.
(7). Any failure of integrity.b. RA'A is the second. It is the opposite of TOBH, and it always denotes evil, or bad as an abstract principle. But this is the concept of anything that is against the will of God, or His character. This is quite synonymous with `AON.
4. Ephraim is a synonym for Israel, the Northern Kingdom. Samaria
was its capital.
5. These nations work falsehood. That is, they weave falsehood
into the fabric of their lives.
a. As businessmen, they cheat their clients.
b. As taxpayers, they cheat their government.
c. As landowners, they cheat their neighbors and move the boundary stones.
d. As spouses, they cheat on their husbands and wives.
e. As living souls, they cheat themselves by justifying all their falsehoods.
f. The fabric of falsehood is complex, and so much part of their everyday lives that it is an inseparable part of their character.
6. In Israel you are safe from crime in no place.
a. The bandits raid outside, so it seems better to stay in.
b. But the thieves get what the bandits do not, and you are no safer in than out.c. There is nowhere to run in this sort of discipline.
7. This description of rampant crime is an indictment on the
people of the Northern Kingdom.
a. The crime is a part of the discipline portfolio that God brings on them. It is the third cycle of discipline.
b. Yet, they decide to live with it rather than return to God. Living with crime is better than living under the truth.
8. In spite of the discipline, they will not admit in their hearts
that something is wrong, that the rampant crime is discipline.
The word LILEBHABHAM is the inner man, or heart. It is rather
like saying, "in your heart of hearts". These people
are in major denial. Not at any level do they admit that they
are wrong, and far from God.
9. This is another way to describe spiritual blindness, the result
of consistent rejection of the truth and simultaneous acceptance
of the Satanic counterfeits and lies.
10. In spite of their denial, God still remembers their evil.
Nothing escapes Him, even when it may escape us through denial.
11. Our denial of God does not eradicate His existence. We are
creatures, and we have nowhere near the power it would take to
destroy God by our own words or thoughts.
12. The deeds of the Israelites are all around them. They can
hardly move without running into the fruit of their sins.
a. There are thousands of illegitimate children.
b. Crime is rampant.
c. A powerful foreign enemy has successfully invaded and left them helpless to defend against further incursions.
d. There is hardly an honest businessman left in the land. Cheating is a way of life.
e. The mentally ill invade the streets, visible reminders of the personal fruit of degeneracy in the soul.
f. Every form of idolatry is available to the public, even the most heinous and criminal.
g. Homosexuality is an acceptable lifestyle, and publicly acknowledged as legitimate.
h. Government is corrupt beyond belief.
13. And yet all of this is before God's face. He perceives it
while they do not. The difference comes down to honesty in the
soul. "To thine own self be true."
a. Practice honesty with yourself - it keeps the eyes open and well.
b. Dishonesty with self leads to all kinds of problems, spiritual, physical, and mental.
c. Honesty with self leads to agreement with God, and love for Him.
d. Initial honesty with self is the acknowledgment of total depravity, and the need for a savior to bridge the gap to God.
e. Secondary honesty with self means confessing your sins when necessary.(1). Recognition of sin when it occurs.
(2). Recognizing the need for forgiveness, and the mechanics that bring it.
(3). Being humble enough to confess to God.
(4). Having the courage to face the social and criminal consequences of your acts.f. Tertiary honesty with self means continuing grace orientation after salvation through spiritual growth in the Word under a prepared pastor-teacher.
Hosea 7:3
"With their wickedness they make the king glad, and the
princes with their lies."
1. In other words, the king and the princes rejoice in the wickedness
and lies of their people. There can be many reasons for this,
but one or two stand out.
a. First, because the leaders, too, are full of wickedness and lies.
Rom 1:32, "and, although they know the ordnance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them."
b. Second, because when the people are slaves to the cosmic system, they are more easily enslaved by their government. This is especially worthwhile to those who tend toward power lust.(1). Those with power lust love to see losers in their nation, for it means that those losers will be all the more dependent on their government.
(2). So drug addicts, sex offenders, welfare recipients, the mentally ill, alcoholics, etc. etc. are a boon to those who love to rule.
(3). Those with power lust will never be tough on drugs, immorality, or crime, because those are the things that perpetuate their power. They will never support the family, but that which destroys the family.
2. So those who rule, and their sub-rulers rejoice in the degeneracy
of their people.
3. Every level of government is included in this principle.
4. Power usually means money. But money is not always the issue
for the power hungry; power is.
Hosea 7:4
"They are all adulterers like an oven heated by the baker,
who ceases to stir up the fire from the kneading of the dough
until it is leavened."
1. What a great description of adultery and fornication.
a. The oven is parallel to the sex life of the adulterer. This is evidenced by the adverb of comparison, KI.
b. The parallel comes in two parts.(1). The oven is heated by the baker. Oven is from the Hebrew MO THANNUR - literally fire pot. The oven of the time was almost always an outdoor affair. Usually in the courtyard of the home. After the fire was lit, the baker would then go back inside.
(2). The baker goes about his business, kneading the leaven into the dough. This takes a certain amount of time. But he fails to tend the fire during this time, so that when it is time to bake the dough, the fire is cold.
(3). There is more symbolism in the kneading of the bread. The kneading portrayed here is an erotic picture - use your imagination. But - and here is the rub... as long as you knead the dough, it will not rise. Instead, the dough must be left alone for that to happen. This is a picture of the frustration and uselessness of extramarital sex.
2. Doing something at the wrong time destroys the enjoyment of
the right.
3. Concentration on the illicit leads to distraction from the
legitimate.
4. Illicit sex can only be enjoyed for a moment; legitimate sex
for a lifetime.
5. Illicit sex destroys the fire of sexual drive; legitimate
sex stokes that fire.
6. With the substantive adjective KULLAM Hosea indicates that
the entire nation of Israel is in this category.
End of Lesson 22
Grace Notes
Warren Doud, Editor
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