Hosea Chapter 11
Commentary by Ron Beckham
Verse 1. "When Israel was a youth I loved him, and out of
Egypt I called My son."
God created Israel as a nation (He took
one man and made a nation out of him) and He did it out of love. He
loved Abraham and Isaac and Jacob (whose name was changed to Israel) and
He has loved every person of that nation. He took them from the slavery
of Egypt and gave them freedom in a new place. Though they have had a
really bad time of it, He truly loves them, for we have seen His
judgments are CORRECTIVE in nature – to bring all who will, to faith in
Him.
And so it is with you. He created you and
did it out of love. He sent His Son, that you might be healed in YOUR
life ("by His stripes we are healed" – Isaiah 53:5). And just like
Israel was rescued from the slavery of Egypt, so we in Christ are
rescued from the slavery of sin. In Christ, we are called His sons,
"heirs according to the promise" (Galatians 3:29). And we continually
see that Christ is blended beautifully through the Old Testament, for
"out of Egypt I called My Son" is shown to be about Him, in Matthew
2:15.
Verse 2. "The more they called them, the more they went from
them; they kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning incense to idols."
The more God’s prophets called to Israel,
the more they were resisted by the people. And, of course, it wasn’t
really the men they were resisting, it was actually God Himself.
Incredibly, they preferred religious activities ("Baals" and other
idols) to the God who created the nation and gave them EVERYTHING. He
even created religious activities for them, because 1) their religion is
a parable of so much more, and 2) He knows that humans are incurably
religious.
I’m fascinated with many areas of
Scripture, and one of them is the parable of the seeds planted in
various types of ground (people), as presented in Matthew 13:4-23. The
curious thing is that, of the four types of people who receive the
things of God, only one type actually trusts in Him. It seems like
comparatively few actually abandon themselves to God in Christ. We
should TRUST in Him now, for a time is coming when we will have to
choose between our way and His.
Verse 3. "Yet it is I who taught Ephraim to walk, I took them
in My arms; but they did not know that I healed them."
Why is it that you have been able to
walk? Is it because your parents were so skilled in teaching people how
to use legs? Why is it that you were healed when you were sick? Is it
because the doctors did such a great job? They (doctors) are often God’s
agents, though inadvertently, many times, and it is wonderful the world
has those that can heal. But it was God who trained them, and directed
them to the solution for your need.
God gave you the brain you have, and He
has taken you into His arms of love, by equipping you for life. He gave
you the work you do, and the income that comes from it. Even your
limitations are His blessings, drawing you to faith in Him. Do you not
know? Do you not care? He loves; He cares for you. He takes you in His
arms and heals you constantly, even in those times you did not know
something was wrong. Most of all, He has given you Jesus Christ, Who
died for you. Trust Him – and live.
Verse 4. "I led them with cords of a man, with bonds of love,
and I became to them as one who lifts the yoke from their jaws; and I
bent down and fed them."
As the old expression goes, we "can go
the easy way or the hard way." God’s intention for us is that we will be
drawn to Him with the "cords of a man" (other translations, "with gentle
cords"), with "bonds of love." He longs to win you with love, rather
than rope you to the ground like a wayward steer. Sin is a state of
being in which we actually are yoked or imprisoned (in a very real,
spiritual sense) and kept from the very purpose for which we were
created.
Most do not understand just how BOUND
humanity is, though some begin to find out, when the cords of alcoholism
(or some other "ism") wraps steel tendrils around those who increasingly
long to be delivered. Jesus, through His cross, has reached out to your
need and set you free. He has taken the yoke from the jaws of humanity,
and bent down to give us the "bread of life" (Himself – John 6:35) that
we might never hunger or thirst again. And yet, though the prison doors
are opened, many never leave their cells or eat of that bread.
Verse 5. "They will not return to the land of Egypt; but the
Assyrian will be their king because they refused to return to Me."
In the captivity that was to come, a few
actually did end up in Egypt, but this Scripture is utterly true, for
the Assyrians marched in and CONQUERED this people. Thousands were
killed, and the land was essentially left desolate, as countless more
thousands were taken into captivity as slaves to the Assyrian Empire.
Hooks were placed in their noses and chains were upon them, as they were
dragged from the land.
Why did this happen? Why did God’s people
end up in slavery once more? – Because they refused to trust in the God
who made them. God would have forgiven them and stayed His judgment upon
them. That’s His way, because His love and His mercy are so great that
He even sent His Son to die for them (and for you and me). We were
created for a relationship of LOVE with God. How do we find joy? – TRUST
in Him and you will find out, for He wants you to experience JOY in the
Lord.
Verse 6. "The sword will whirl against their cities, and will
demolish their gate bars and consume them because of their counsels."
Another rendering of this verse is "and
the sword shall sweep round in its cities and destroy its bolts and
devour, and they shall eat (the fruit) of their evil counsel." Any way
you read it, their sin would destroy them, just as it happens to the
"modern" people of our day and age. The "sword" looms over the heads of
every person on earth, and it’s inescapable – we need a Savior, a
Redeemer, and of course, we have Him in Jesus Christ.
The counsel given by those in this world
is simply terrible, and is misleading at best. Israel’s real problem was
that God had continually been counseling them about how to find safety,
since before their beginning as a nation (through the Law and the
prophets); and they kept rejecting His advice. Incredibly people today
are just like them, because most would rather listen to one another,
than to listen to Him. The counsel of this world leads to destruction.
Verse 7. "So My people are bent on turning from Me. Though
they call them to the One on high, none at all exalts Him."
God is doing several things in this
Chapter. He is stating His case against them, as in this verse. He is
not only presenting evidence for the Prosecution (they were lawbreakers
and He would reveal them for what they were), but He is also finding
them "Guilty as charged" and pronouncing sentence. They were sentenced
to exile through the agency of the Assryrian Empire. His finding against
them was for the sin of adultery: Though He loved them as a husband
loves the wife of his heart, yet they did not love Him in return. They
turned from Him, ignored the prophets, and went to other "lovers".
Most people offer no praise (exhalation)
to God at all, and that is a mistake. Certainly, when you love someone,
you delight in them. You tell them of your love, you are drawn to be
with them, you tell others about them, and you want to listen to their
every word. The response of Israel can be summed up as "unbelief" (they
had no regard for His love for them), and they simply did not love Him
in return. They had no love at all for the One who would do ANYTHING out
of love for them (and DID everything – in the sending of His Son).
Verse 8. "How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I
surrender you, O Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat
you like Zeboiim? My heart is turned over within Me, all My compassions
are kindled."
In so many places in Scripture, we see
clearly that God hates judgment and longs that His people might be
rescued from sin. The slavery of Israel in Egypt is a picture of the
slavery that has existed in many forms since the fall of mankind. Just
as the children of Israel were born to slavery in Egypt, so every child
is born into the slavery of sin in this world. He would rescue them and
He would save us; and we ARE rescued in Christ Jesus.
Admah and Zeboiim were cities of the
plain near Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 10:19). It was not only Sodom and
Gomorrah that were destroyed but also "He overthrew those cities, all
the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities" (Genesis 19:24-25). Admah
and Zeboiim were not heard of again. Sodom and Gomorrah (like Ephraim in
Israel), were leaders in the sin of that place, but all who participated
with them were destroyed as well. There are little sinners and big
sinners, but all are heading for destruction, unless we turn to the
Christ of God.
Verse 9. "I will not execute My fierce anger; I will not
destroy Ephraim again. For I am God and not man, the Holy One in your
midst, and I will not come in wrath."
As Joseph Excell has said, "the promise
of this verse is in harmony with the spirit of compassion expressed in
the preceding verse." God loves His people. Even though they would seem
to be irrevocably destroyed as a people, yet He would see to it they are
NOT destroyed, and they would live as a people, protected by the Holy
God who made them. Today, in relation to the people Israel, we really
don’t know who are of the tribes of Ephraim, or Asher, or most of the
rest, but God knows, and He has singled them out for His love.
I meet so many men (and women) who seem
to live lives in which they are "destroyed" by something or other. The
paralyzed would seem to have nothing, and yet, as some of them have told
me, "it was this chair" that brought me to Christ. It was in this
hospital bed "that I learned patience, to wait on the Lord." The "wrath"
of God has brought many to Christ, who would not turn to Him in any
other way. And then He touches us with His mercy, for He is indeed "God
and not man."
Verse 10. "They will walk after the Lord, He will roar like a
lion; indeed He will roar and His sons will come trembling from the
west."
Some have taught that Israel’s current
return to the land, is not the return mentioned here, where it says "His
sons will come trembling from the west." And yet, those that returned
from Babylon and Assyria, came back from the EAST, and not the west at
all. The people who are in the land right now, are those that were
driven by the terrible "roar of the lion" that was the Second World War.
Some indeed came from the east, but the bulk of them, initially, came
from the western nations of Europe. Out of something terrible has come
something wonderful, because many of His people have come home.
We have seen in the preceding verses,
that God has much against those who sin. Certainly God’s Holy Name is
impugned (maligned) when those called by His Name fall into sin, but
even that is not the chief reason He calls us to account. He loves us,
and intends to rescue us from the pit into which we have fallen, and
then trembling, we are gently and tenderly called home in Christ, to the
God who loves you and me.
Verse 11. "They will come trembling like birds from Egypt and
like doves from the land of Assyria; and I will settle them in their
houses, declares the Lord."
Verses 11 and 12 are a wonderful contrast
in relation to what is being revealed by all of the verses in this Book.
God is intimately and deeply involved in the RESCUE of His people (Verse
11), and it is necessary that we be CONVICTED of our sin (verse 12) and
see our need to be rescued. Like little silly doves, the people of this
world continually are involved in the peck – peck – pecking of grain,
following the trail of bread crumbs into the trap that the enemy has set
for us.
It’s time for us, little doves, it’s time
for us to fly home to the One who created us, the One who loves us, to
the Christ who died for you and for me. I will always remember the night
I received Jesus as my Savior. I did not fully know what was happening,
I simply trembled and called out His Name, as I was brought HOME to Him,
rescued from the land of sin and death. Our true "house", our true home,
is in Him, who died for you and for me. He brought Israel home and He
will do the same for you.
Verse 12. "Ephraim surrounds Me with lies and the house of
Israel with deceit; Judah is also unruly against God, even against the
Holy One who is faithful."
"If we say that we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us" (1st John
1:8). We are sinners, every one. Some don’t believe in sin at all, and
that is a mistake; actually a form of denial. Much like the alcoholic
first must understand that he or she has a problem before they can be
helped, so the sinner must comprehend the "lies" and "deceit" that
governs all of this "earth". This place is a world of spiritual
"alcoholics" who must recognize the need, and then be rescued by the
cross of Christ
"If we confess our sins, He is faithful
and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all
unrighteousness" (1st John 1:9). "Lies" and "deceit" are not exclusive
to Israel and Judah, and it is ridiculous to imply we are somehow
"exempt" – "if we say we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and the
truth is not in us" (1st John 1:10). It was time for Israel
and Judah to own up to their sin and turn to God. We have the same
opportunity. They did not turn and were destroyed. I can personally tell
you that He IS "faithful and just to forgive you" (1st John
1:9) and He longs to set you free, through the death of Jesus Christ. He
is SUFFICIENT for the needs of Israel, for Judah; and for you and me.
Ron Beckham, Pastor
Friday Study Ministries (The First Church on the Internet)
www.fridaystudy.org
Ron@fridaystudy.org
