LESSON ONE * PART I

LO-AMMI - NOT MY PEOPLE

Hosea 1:1–2:18

Okay, it’s good to see everybody in this afternoon.  We’ve got folks all the way from California to Timbuktu here today.  I won’t have time to point everybody out, but we’re just so thankful that you’ve all found your way in this afternoon.  We always appreciate the fact that you fill up the studio for us.

For those of you out in television, we just like to invite you to sit down with your Bible and a notepad and study with us, compare Scripture with Scripture. We’re finding according to our mail that that’s what a lot of folks are doing and learning to enjoy their Bible!  Don’t go by what Les Feldick says.  Go by what the Book says. 

Get a good study Bible if you don’t already have one that will give you some helps and footnotes or references and so forth. If you learn how to study, you can spend a whole evening, and it just goes like a snap of the finger.  We’re finding that at lot of, especially older men, I’ve said this before that we’re so thrilled that so much of our audience is the older men that never had an interest before.  They are just being thrilled with what they have missed for so long.

Well, we’re going to respond to some of the requests of our audience. Over and over the question was asked, “Why did you skip the Minor Prophets?”  Well, at the time we were going through the Old Testament hitting the highlights, so far as dispensationalism was concerned.  I was kind of in a hurry, I guess, to get into the New Testament.  So, I just skipped over the twelve Minor Prophets.  So, we’re going to start a look at them.  Now don’t get all worried that I’ll be in the Old Testament for months on end.  We’re not going to overdo it, hopefully.  But they’re not “minor” because they’re unimportant.  They’re minor only because of their length.  They’re only a chapter or two.  Hosea, I think, is something like 12.  But all twelve of these little Minor Prophets are loaded with prophetic utterances.

Now, it’s kind of interesting to note as introduction how they are arranged.  They are not necessarily in chronological order.  Jonah was written the furthest back, and it’s about the third or fourth up in the list, I guess.  But Jonah was written first of these twelve Minor Prophets, about 800 BC.

Now, I know everybody isn’t as hung up on history as I am, but I still maintain if you’re really going to enjoy this Book, you have to get a historical perspective on the whole thing.  That’s why I’m going to be having the timeline on the board in a little bit. That will hopefully help you see it a little easier.  But anyway, of these twelve Minor Prophets, nine of them were written before Israel was taken captive into Syria and Babylon.  That means that three of them were left to be written after the Jews returned from their captivity.  Fortunately, they put them in the right chronological order.  Those little three books are: Haggai and Zechariah and Malachi.  Now, they are all written after they’ve come back from Babylon, and they end at 400 BC. 

If you know anything about the Old Testament chronology between Malachi and Matthew, or the appearance of the angel to announce the birth of Christ, how long is it?  Four hundred years.  We call them the four hundred years of silence, because not a prophet appeared in Israel.  There was not a single miraculous sign from God.

Now, I’m always making the point that the supernatural was almost ordinary in the life of Israel.  Starting with the appearance of God to the man Abram and coming on up through the birth and everything of the twelve sons, God was constantly intervening. Then, of course, the most glorious and miraculous event of all the Old Testament was the opening of the Red Sea, and then the appearance of the “cloud” and the “pillar of fire.” 

Now, when you stop and think about that, how would you like to have been living at a time when you could stand on the banks of this Red Sea, which in all practical purposes is an ocean, and see it suddenly open up, and it’s dry ground?!  They were human!  They were just as normal as we are.  Now, wouldn’t you think that that would make such an impact on those people that they would never forget it?  But they did. 

Now, you see, the Apostle Paul’s a little different.  He never got over his early life.  All the way through his ministry, it plagued him how he had persecuted those early Jewish believers.  He never got over it.  I think that’s one reason God chose him to be the Apostle to the Gentiles, because he had so much horrible past to live down that he never slowed down.  For twenty-five years the man under abject, adverse circumstances kept plodding on. 

But Israel?  They could have the supernatural and the miraculous take place and seemingly in forty-eight hours they could forget all about it.  That’s what is so hard to comprehend in these Old Testament events.   We’ll be looking at it more in detail when I get my timeline back up here.

Now, for sake of a little further introduction, we’ve got the four Major Prophets that we’ve already pretty much covered. First there are Isaiah and Jeremiah.  Now, those were two of the Major Prophets that preached in Israel.  They were both pretty much in Judah before Nebuchadnezzar came in and took the Jews captive.  Then we have the other two Major Prophets which are Daniel and Ezekiel.  They were written during the captivity while they were out there under Babylonian and Persian rule. So, their two little books are not so much admonition and warning like the rest of prophecy, but they were more or less laying out the prophetical timeline, not only for Israel but for the rest of the world.

That’s why when I teach prophecy I go right back to the Book of Daniel. Daniel is a fundamental foundational book of prophecy concerning not only Israel but the whole Gentile world.

All right, now when we get into Hosea, who, like I said earlier, is not the chronological first of the Minor Prophets, but I guess it’s because he’s the longest.  Another point I guess I should make is that in the Old Testament scrolls that the Rabbis’ used, these twelve Minor Prophets were considered one book.  It was one book with twelve parts.  One commentary I read said it was almost like it was a symbolism that Israel is one nation but it’s made up of what?  Twelve tribes.  So, maybe there is a connection here.   All right, let’s get into the Book of Hosea. We’re going to drop in at verse 1 where it says:

Hosea 1:1a

“The word of the LORD that came unto Hosea,…” Now, you’ve got to stop right away, don’t you?  I feel sorry for these poor guys out in the truck.  They’ve got to go back and forth with me.  I hope you realize that.  And sometimes I get a little put out that they stay too long on the Scriptures or too long on me, but we’re all human, and we’ve got to expect those things.  But anyway, when it says that “The word of the LORD that came unto Hosea,” what does that make this?  Well, it’s the Word of God!  A human instrument wrote it, but never forget that it’s God’s Word.   Okay, now let’s read and stay with it. 

Hosea 1:1

“The word of the LORD that came unto Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, King of Israel.”  All right, now what does that tell you?  That all you have to do is go back through history and find out at what time these kings reigned, and you’ll know when Hosea lived.  Well, that was about 775 years before Christ.  About 75 years before Isaiah appeared.

Now again, I’ve got my timeline?  Yes!  Just like a magician.  Presto.  Here it is!  (The chalkboard was flipped over to the timeline while Les was reading and the Scripture was on the screen.) All right, Abraham, 2000 BC.  Five hundred years later, approximately, we have Moses bringing the Children of Israel out of Egypt. They gathered around Mount Sinai, and they received the Law.  All right, then in a matter of about 500 years, these are all in round numbers remember, we have the appearance of the kings of Israel.  Saul. But the one we want to remember the most is David, about 1,000 years before Christ.  And then Solomon--

Now, what was unique about Solomon?  I mean, it’s so unique that I just can’t make up my mind about the guy.  What was it?  Oh, he started out as a servant of God, didn’t he?  He was a servant of God.  How did he end up?  Steeped in the idolatry of his 900 women.  Now, I cannot reconcile all that so far as his eternity is concerned.  I’m not even going to try.  But, I mean, it’s hard to swallow that such a godly man over a period of less than 40 years could go so far down the tube, as we say.  But he did.

All right, when Solomon died, what has already happened to the whole Nation of Israel, Judah and the Ten Tribes, which we call Israel?  What has already happened?  They’ve already gone into idolatry.  As the leadership goes, so goes the rank and file.  All right, so now what we find is that when Solomon dies and the next pair of kings comes in, one in Judah and one up in Samaria, they are already doing evil. They’re being wicked because of their embracing idolatry.

All right, the prophets write from this point in time, about 900 BC, all the way up until we get to those 400 years of silence.  So, they’re going to write from about 900 and then Jonah at 800 and then come some of the Minor Prophets and Isaiah and Jeremiah. They’re going to write up until the time of the captivities, which really culminated when Nebuchadnezzar came and destroyed the Temple and took the Nation of Israel, for the most part, into exile in 606 BC.  Now, we’ve got 600 for round number’s sake.

Then from 600 BC until about 454 BC, we’ve got the children of Israel out there in what’s present day Iraq and Iran and what have you.  They come back, and then, like I’ve already explained, we have the three prophets that write concerning the future, the coming of their Messiah.  Then, we’ve got the 400 years of silence and then the ministry of Christ, the crucifixion, and His ascension.  Then, as I pointed out when we were teaching the little Jewish epistles remember, all of the Old Testament, the Four Gospels, the early Acts, jump over Paul’s epistles, they’re all looking forward to what?  The Second Coming.  Not a word about the Church.  Not a word about a Rapture.   That’s why people can’t understand the Rapture.  It’s not in any part of Scripture except Paul’s epistles.  You cannot find even a hint of it. 

You’ve got to stretch the imagination to even find anything that pertains to the Body of Christ.  All right, so Sharon, when she was putting it up, she said, “Les, I’ve got to get the Rapture in here someplace!”  I said, “Well, okay, put it in here then, so far as we are concerned, shortly before the final seven years kick in.”  We don’t know how much time will elapse between the Rapture and the appearance of the anti-Christ.  I just know that it’s got to be before. Because, as I’ve been explaining to people lately, listen, how in the world can the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Head of the Body to whom we are connected, how can He join us in the horrors of that final seven years?  Well, He can’t, and He won’t.

So, in order to finish what He’s prophesied concerning Israel, what’s He going to have to do?  He’s got to get us out of the way. That’s why I adamantly stand on my pre-Tribulation Rapture, because you can’t see the Body of Christ in those final seven years, because that’s prophecy.  That’s God dealing with Israel and not with us. 

So, don’t ever back down when people scoff at the fact and say, “You mean you think you’re going to all of a sudden be snatched out of here?”  Absolutely!!  When they doubt that that’s possible, I always remind them, what did the Lord Himself say?  “With God nothing is impossible!”   As I shared with someone on the phone the other day, look up at the stars on a clear night.  If God can control those billions upon billions upon billions upon billions of stars individually, then I have no problem that He’s going to get every one of us off the planet when the time comes.  With Him nothing is impossible!  So always remember that.

All right, other than that, had Paul not come on the scene, had prophecy kept going, then Israel, of course, would have been ready for the final seven years, the Second Coming, and Christ returning and setting up His Kingdom.  But, we’re dealing back here now in these Minor Prophets with this period of time between the death of Solomon and the end of the Old Testament or 400 BC.  All right, now remember, Hosea is writing about 775 years before Christ.  He’s about 75 years ahead of Isaiah. So, the book is going to be filled with warning!  Warning! 

Now, if you remember when we taught Isaiah - how long ago was that already?  A year or two.  My, time goes so fast.  As I taught Isaiah I made the point that there were three distinct times in Israel’s future that would involve a horrible chastisement from God but then the blessing.  Then time would go and there would come another horrible chastisement. Then we jumped all the way up to the Tribulation - the chastisement, the wrath, and the vengeance of God - but it would be followed with the Second Coming and the glory of the Kingdom.

We’ll see that that was all the prophecy back there in Isaiah and Jeremiah, as well as these nine Minor Prophets that were written to Israel before the captivities begin.  They’re all dealing with the chastisement that’s coming followed by the blessing.  Another chastisement followed by the blessing.  A third chastisement followed then by the eternal Kingdom. 

Okay, Hosea is written in a lot of symbolism. I’m going to right off the bat set your minds straight.  Even though a lot of this language almost comes from the immoral side of the coin, remember, we’re not talking about human sexuality.  When he speaks of whoredom, when he speaks of this gross immorality, it’s not physical sexuality he’s talking about. It’s their going in to strange gods.  That’s the adultery that we’re dealing with here in the Old Testament. How that Israel forsook the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and went “whole hog” as we farmers put it, for all the gods of paganism.  It’s just incomprehensible.  And this was God’s controversy. 

Now, before I go any further, let’s go back and see what Israel had engrained in them long before these days came upon them.  Go back with me to Exodus chapter 20 and those of you that know your Bible, what do we have in Exodus 20?  The Ten Commandments.  Now, you know I’m so Pauline and I’m always stressing we’re not under Law, we’re under Grace, that I suppose some people think I don’t even know what the Ten Commandments are!  Well, yes I do!  Oh, yes I do.  And what’s the first one?  Well, this is the first one that they had to trample underfoot to go into idolatry.  What is it?  Exodus 20 verse 2:

Exodus 20:2-3

“I am the LORD thy God, who hath brought thee out of the land of Egypt, and out of the house of bondage.  3. Thou shalt have no other gods before me.”  Now, is that complicated language?  No.  That’s so plain a five-year-old can understand it.  Thou shalt have no other gods.  Period.  All right, then He enlarges on it in verse 4.

Exodus 20:4-5

“Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven (or manmade) image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, (Now, here is where I feel that a lot of Israel’s problems came down the pike generations later.) visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto (that are going to come from) the third and fourth generation of them that hate me;” Now, we always like, naturally, to lift God up as a God of love and mercy and grace, but He’s also what?  He’s a God of wrath. 

He’s a God of judgment.  Israel experienced it over and over, and they just seemingly couldn’t learn.  All right, now then, jump up with me a minute to Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 4. This is literally the cry of Israel.  Now, I know as soon as you see it you’re going to recognize it.  This was literally the benchmark of Judaism.  Got it? 

Deuteronomy 6:4

“Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God is one LORD:” Now, I’ve got to stop a minute.  Do you see why the Jewish people have a hang-up with our teaching of the Triune God?  They just can’t quite equate that with this Scripture.  They say, “If God is one God, how do you New Testament believers say there are three?”

Well, we’ve got to come right back and say, well, granted, but the Three are One. That’s the whole concept of the Trinity, that yes, they’re three persons, but they operate as one. So, I can still agree with this verse.  Absolutely!  All right, so look at it again. “Hear, O Israel: the LORD our God is one LORD:” Now, look at the commandment. 

Deuteronomy 6:5

“And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.”  Now come back with me to Hosea.  This is what I’m trying to get you and my listening audience to do, to think like these Jews were thinking.  I’m going to consider all ten tribes…all twelve tribes of Israel as Jews.  I know some people would like to say, well, no, that was just the Southern Kingdom.  No.  Scripture, when you really get down to it, considers everybody of the Twelve Tribes of Jacob as Jews. 

Now Israel, of course, in the Old Testament prophecies is the Ten Tribes to the North and Judah is the Two Tribes to the South. You put the Twelve together and they become Israelites.  They become the House of Israel.  They become Jews.  So, never let that throw you a curve.

All right, now come back to this concept that Israel had it drummed into them that there was only one God.  It was the God who’d performed the miracle of the Red Sea.  But as I was putting all this together in my own mind, I happened to think, and I want you to think with me, how long was it from the crossing of the Red Sea with that fabulous power of God exercised right in front of their eyes until they were asking Aaron for an idol?  How long?  A matter of days.  Weeks at the most!  Here they’re already forgetting everything that the God of Abraham had accomplished for them. They’re telling Aaron, build us a god.  And then the most amazing thing was Aaron’s response.

My land, you would have thought that Aaron would have just hit the proverbial ceiling and said, “People, what’s the matter with you?  How can you even think such a thing?”  But, does he?  No.  He says, bring me your gold. Then it almost becomes a comedy after that stupid idol is made and Moses comes and approaches him with it. What was Aaron’s response?  Well, I threw the gold into the fire and out came this calf.

Isn’t it absurd?  But, you see, that’s the human race. We’re no different today.  My, when I look at the world’s reaction to our Middle East phenomenon right now. How they sympathize with the murderers rather than Israel.  Have you noticed that?  Absurd to the extreme.  I was just sharing with the studio audience before we began.  I just read in one of my news magazines the other day that one of the higher government officials in one of the Scandinavian countries; it was either Norway or Sweden.  I don’t remember which one it was.  But this is how ridiculous people are getting.  He said, “Well, we’re just trying to be nice to the Muslim people so that when they finally take over someday, they’ll be nice to us.”  What a ridiculous, absurd view.  But see, the human race has always been ignorant of the things of God.  All right, Israel was no different.  God left them with their free will, of course.  All right, come back to our text in the minute or two we have left.  Here in chapter 1 again verse 1.

Hosea 1:1

“The word of the LORD that came unto Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.”  So, we’ve got the whole Twelve Tribes involved.  The Ten under one King, the Two under another one. 

Hosea 1:2a

“The beginning of the word of the LORD by Hosea.  And the LORD said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms…”  I know most people immediately think that God told him to go to some house of prostitution and find one of the girls and marry her.  No, that’s not what it’s talking about.  What He’s really telling Hosea, who is living in Judah is – Go up to the Ten Tribes of Israel, because whoredom was their spiritual state already.  They were steeped in idolatry!  Hosea probably couldn’t have found a believing Jewish girl up in Israel.  They were all steeped in idolatry.  So, that’s the admonition.  Not to go to a house of ill repute, but go up to Israel and find a woman or a girl that you can take to wife.

All right, so let’s set that to rest that all through the Book of Hosea the adultery that we’re talking about is spiritual adultery.  Never forget that.  And how God hates it!  Can you blame Him?  Here He is - the One God of Creation.  He’s the God of miracles.  He’s the God of power.  He’s the God of love, the God of mercy, and the God who provides, coming back especially now to the Nation of Israel.  Then they run to pagan idols of wood and gold and silver and stone that have nothing of what the true God has!  It’s just unbelievable.

LESSON ONE * PART II

LO-AMMI - NOT MY PEOPLE

Hosea 1:1–2:18

Okay, it’s good to have you back.  I guess you all got served your coffee and everything. For those of you joining us on television, again, we thank you for being with us.  We thank you for your kind letters.  My, mail time just seems to be getting better every day. We just praise and thank the Lord for it.

We thank you for your financial help.  In fact, as we noted in our newsletter, you’ve all been so good that we were able to take on a few more stations. We’re not going to hoard the money.  When it’s available, we’re going to use it for God’s glory.  You know, I always appreciate the fact that when people come by to visit us, they suddenly realize we don’t live any different than our neighbors up and down the road.  Don’t expect a mansion when you come to visit Les and Iris Feldick, because we’re not into that.  We’re just as common and ordinary in our lifestyle as anybody else.  We appreciate everything that you do for us, so that we in turn can serve the Lord in what He has given us to do.

All right, we’re in the Minor Prophets. We’re starting with Hosea. For a little recap, in case we’ve got somebody that missed our last program, Hosea writes in the same vein as Isaiah and Jeremiah.  It’s all a warning to the Nation of Israel to either come out of their idolatry and their unbelief or God’s wrath is going to fall.  As we were just discussing at break time, that’s the way God has dealt with Israel over and over.  Then after the chastisement comes the blessing.

I guess it was Dick that said, “Well, now I can’t quite figure that out.”  I said, “Well, what do you do with a kid that’s disobedient?   You whip his little rear end and hope that it’ll straighten him out.”   Well, that was the way it was with Israel.  She had to have a good whipping once in a while.  It would have its results, and then it wouldn’t be long and down they’d go. 

In fact, in the Book of Judges that’s just what it is.  It’s a roller coaster.  They’ll go up to a time of tremendous blessing and they’re obedient.  Then down they go and in would come the hard times. The enemies would overrun them, and they’d cry out.  In would come a righteous judge, and up they’d come.  That’s Israel’s history.  Well, Hosea is living at a time, as we pointed out, only about 200 years after King Solomon. The Northern Ten Tribes have already gone as far into idolatry as a nation of people could go.  Consequently then, with Hosea living in Judah, which is still close to the Temple, so they’re not as prone to idolatry as the Northern Kingdom. Hosea is instructed to go up to idolatrous Israel and take a wife.  That’s what I pointed out then in our last half hour - he did not go to a house of ill repute like a lot of people think the language implies.  No, he went up to idolatrous Israel to take a wife, because God is going to show, symbolically, the future of Israel.   All right, so back in Hosea chapter 1 we’ll repeat verse 2.

Hosea 1:2

“The beginning of the word of the LORD by Hosea.  And the LORD said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms (the idolatrous Northern Kingdom) and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the LORD.”  Now, lest you think that I am barking out of left field, let’s go up to the New Testament a minute. 

I wasn’t going to do this, but I think maybe we should.  Go up to Colossians; all the way up to Paul’s little letter to the Colossians chapter 3 verse 5. Remember from our last program we were stressing that the very first of the Ten Commandments was “Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not bow down to them.”  

So, idolatry and unbelief, I guess, are the two biggest controversies that God has with the human race.  Not just with Israel but with everyone. All right, now look what Paul writes to the Gentiles at Colossi.  In Colossians chapter 3 verse 5 and I’m making the point why God hates idolatry.  Paul, of course, is writing to you and me as believers, and he says:

Colossians 3:5

“Mortify (or put to death) therefore your members which are upon the earth; (That is, the members of this physical body – the appetites of it – put it to death.  And what are they?) fornication, (That, of course, is sexual immorality.) uncleanness, inordinate (or unnatural) affection, evil concupiscence, (In other words, just constantly thinking and talking on the wrong side of the coin.  And here it comes--) and covetousness, which is (What?)  idolatry.”   Have you ever thought of it that way?

Have you ever thought of it that coveting is idolatry?  Why?  When you covet, what do you show?  What you want.  When you covet something, you want it.  Well, why do you want it?  Because it’s almost a god to you!  So, it just snowballs.  All right, let’s back up a little ways to Ephesians chapter 5 verse 5. 

Ephesians 5:5

“For this ye know, that no whoremonger, (or an immoral person) nor unclean person, nor (What?) covetous man, (See the categories, how they all stick together?) who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.”  Have you ever caught that before?  So, why do suppose the Apostle said that the sin that really got him to consider his sinfulness was which one?  Which one did he mention?  Coveting!  It’s the worst of all.

I’ve made mention of it down through the years.  You stop and think. Can you break any other of the nine commandments without coveting first?  You can’t do it.  Coveting is the root cause.  That’s why God hates it so.  It’s the thing that leads to idolatry.  Okay, read this verse again. “…nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.”  They’re not going to be there.  Now, we’ve made the point before, Paul doesn’t speak of people going to the Lake of Fire. He just uses the other approach that they’re not going to be in Glory.  Well, if they’re not in Glory, then the Lake of Fire is their destination. 

All right, let’s come back to Hosea, if I’ve established that God hated idolatry! Now, I guess I’d never really thought of it before until I was making preparation for this the last several months, I guess, off and on.  When Israel was in Egypt, when the whole Nation of Israel had finally found their way down to Egypt because of Joseph and the food that was available, what were they surrounded with already in Egypt?  Idolatry! 

I know when I taught Exodus and we came to the plagues, I made the point that every plague that God brought on Egypt was one of Egypt’s gods.  That’s what made it such an object lesson for the Egyptians.  In other words, when He turned the Nile River into blood, what was the Nile River in the religious life of Egypt?  It was a god.  They worshipped it!  The flies?  They worshipped them!  The frogs?  They worshipped them!    Practically anything that lived and moved the Egyptians had already made into a god.  Well, that’s what Israel had been surrounded with. 

So you see, when they got down around Mt. Sinai, as we mentioned in the last program, and Moses was up in the mountain, they didn’t know what had happened to him.  They’d forgotten all about the miracle of the Red Sea.  So, they come to Aaron, who was the secondary leader, and say what?  Make us a god like we had in Egypt.  Oh, it…it’s insidious! 

Just because we’re living in a culture that has nothing to do with gods of silver and gold and stone and so forth, doesn’t mean that there’s nothing that can be an idol.  Everything around us can become an idol. That’s our whole materialistic situation today.  It really boils down to an idolatry that takes all the thoughts of God away from their mind.  And my, we’re seeing it all around us, aren’t we?  Okay, back to Hosea.  So, he goes up to Israel, verse 3.

Hosea 1:3-4

“So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim; who conceived, and bare him a son. 4.  And the LORD said unto him, Call his name Jezreel; for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the House of Jehu, and will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel.”

Now, you’ve got to know your Old Testament.   Who ruled and reigned in Jezreel?  Ahab and…Jezebel!  Jezebel – the most wicked woman that ever lived!  She had such control over the Jewish people of Israel that they had gone just as deep into it as she had gone.  So, what’s the warning?  You’re going to be punished just as severely as she was.  Now, I’m not going to repeat on television what the end of Jezebel was.  Well, it wasn’t pretty.  If you don’t know what it was, go look it up when you get home tonight. You probably won’t sleep.  But anyway, God is warning them:  As Ahab and Jehu and Jezebel – that’s what’s coming for you if you do not turn around.

Hosea 1:5

“And it shall come to pass (God says) at that day, that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.”  Now today we call it the Valley of Esdraelon or even the Valley of Megiddo.  It’s that beautiful valley about, oh, just a few miles north and west of Galilee.  It stretches all the way over to Mount Carmel, which is just a little ways from the city of Haifa, which is in the news lately. 

But it’s a beautiful valley!  My, we stand on the high cliffs of Nazareth and look out over the Valley of Megiddo, and it is just unbelievable the beauty of that valley, especially now that it’s been brought back into production.  Okay.  So, that was the whole symbolic purpose of the birth of this first son.  That he will be a picture of the horrors of Ahab and Jezebel who inhabited Jezreel.  Okay, now verse 6.

Hosea 1:6

“And she conceived again, (She’s going to have a second child.) and bare a daughter. And God said unto him, (That is unto Hosea.) Call her name Lo-ruhamah: (The name means - I’ll not have pity.) for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel; but I will utterly take them away.”  Now, before we get judgmental against our merciful God, turn back with me to II Kings chapter 17.  Now, this Scripture makes it explicitly clear why God has to take such stringent disciplinary action against the Ten Tribes of Israel.  II Kings 17 and, oh, my goodness, I’d like to read it all.  But I’m always afraid if I read too much Scripture somebody might grumble and lose attention and so forth.  I’m just going to hit some of the highlights.  Let’s drop down to verse 7. 

II Kings 17:7-9a

“For so it was that the children of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, (the same God) who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods, 8. And walked in the statutes of the heathen, (That would be the Canaanites after they went in under Joshua.) whom the LORD cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made. 9. And the children of Israel did secretly those things that were not right against the LORD their God, and they built them high places in all their cities,…”

Now, I’ve got to stop, because I’m afraid a lot of times people don’t stop and think.  Why do you suppose idolaters always built their places of worship on the highest elevation possible?  Have you ever thought about that?  To get closer to God – wherever He’s at!   So they’d always go to a high place to worship their dead idols.  Yet they were recognizing that there was someone higher.  All right, come back again to the text. 

II Kings 17:9b-10

“…and they built them high places in all their cities, from the tower of the watchmen to the fenced city. 10. And they set them up images and groves in every high hill, and under every green tree:” Does that tell you something?  The land was covered with idols and places of worship of those idols. 

What a travesty!  God’s chosen people!  And the Temple is still down there in Jerusalem!  Many of them probably went down and worshipped at the Temple.  Now, what does that do?  That makes it even worse!  Now they’re mixing idolatry with the worship of the true God.  That’s worse than a faithful husband, after years of a loving marriage, going and having an affair.  It’s devastating.  This is what broke the heart of God. 

I think it wouldn’t have been nearly as bad had they lost the Temple, forgot the priesthood, and then with no alternative going into idolatry.  That would have been one thing.  But they mixed them.  Now, I’m just having a thought.  What am I thinking?  What are we doing today?  What are denominations and churches doing today?  Same thing!

You know, I’ve always used the illustration, and I’m going to use it over and over.  I used it not too long ago in the very vestibule of a home where I was going to spend the evening.  I just had the right opening, and I shared this with them.  I want every one of my listeners to have it on the tip of your tongue, because this makes it so plain.  There is no room for argument.  You’ve heard me do it, but I’m going to do it again. 

In the last verse of Genesis chapter 1, God looked at creation and what did He see?  A perfect creation.  Not a flaw.  There was not one speck in all of creation that He could look at and say, “Wait a minute, I’d better…I’d better change that a little bit.”  No.  It was perfect.  So, what does He do in chapter 2 verses 1 and 2?  Sat down!  He rested.  Well, why not?  There wasn’t anything else to do.  Everything was perfect.

All right, now we jump all the way up to Hebrews chapter 1.  I’ll let you look at it.  Oh, I wish people could just get through their spiritual thinking that this is where it’s at.  Hebrews chapter 1 - might as well look at verse 2, because then verse 3 will be completely explained. 

Hebrews 1:2a

“(The God of verse 1) Hath in these last days…”  Now, I always have to stop and remind people. Remember that Christ’s first advent was the beginning of the last days according to the Old Testament prophecies.  All right, so the God of the Old Testament prophecies--

Hebrews 1:2-3a

“Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he, (God, the Triune God) hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he (the Son) made the worlds; 3. Who (God the Son) being the brightness of his glory, (He was God!  He was the Creator with all the power of the Godhead.  All right, so He was--) and the express image of his person, (that is of the Godhead) and upholding all things by the word of his power,…”

Now, do we establish who Jesus Christ was?  I hope it does!  The God of Creation.  The God of Glory.  All right, now then, when this great God of Creation, with all the power of the Godhead--

Hebrews 1:3b

“…when he had by himself purged our sins,…” Now, stop a minute.  Where was that accomplished?  At the cross!  That’s why when people jump on me as being too Pauline, how can you be too Pauline when all you know is the preaching of the cross?   I’ll never back down.  They can scorn all they want.  I will never back down.  It’s the preaching of the cross that Paul is constantly emphasizing.  All right, here it is again. 

Hebrews 1:3c

“…when he had by himself (the work of the cross) purged our sins (What did He do?)  sat down…”  Why?  For the same reason he sat down in Genesis chapter 2.  The work of the cross was so perfect.  It was so flawless that there was nothing that could be corrected.  There was nothing that could be added to it.  It was complete.  It was all sufficient.  So, He could sit down and rest.  It’s finished. 

And immediately, as soon as it was revealed I feel primarily through the Apostle Paul, what’s the first thing mankind starts doing?  Mixing other stuff with it!  Mixing it, mixing it!  Most of my people across the country now realize the word is - blenderize.  They put it all in the blender, and they turn it up on high, and they parcel it out. Then they wonder why we get sick to our stomach.  Now, is that a finished work?  No.  It’s adulterated. 

It’s been adulterated by--whatever.  I don’t have to name them.  All I do is create enemies if I do that.  So, I’ll let you do it.  But, oh, Beloved, it was so complete.  Now what God asks us to do with that finished work of the cross is believe it!  Believe it!   Believe in your heart that Jesus died for your sins, was buried, and rose again!

Then repentance will follow.  Absolutely!  My, we hear it every day, where ungodly men – and I’m just thrilled that we get so many letters from the men.  Ungodly men say that when they believed this their whole life was changed.  Well, a changed life is a what?  It’s a u-turn.  And what’s the u-turn?  Repentance.  But, can you make a u-turn in the flesh?  No way.  You cannot repent in the flesh.  It takes the power of the Holy Spirit to make that u-turn.  But, oh, once you make that u-turn, everything changes.  Everything is different.   All right, so here we have it that twice God did something so perfect that nothing dared be added to it.

All right, now I guess I just about forgot why I came back here. But I came back to--go ahead and turn to Galatians chapter 1.  Remember, I’m dealing with the fact that Israel was mixing idolatry with the worship of the true God of Abraham.  They hadn’t forgotten the Temple.  They hadn’t forgotten the work of the priests, but rather than traipse down to Jerusalem, they thought it was better to embrace an idol. 

All right, now today we’re dealing with the same thing. That’s why I’m here in Galatians chapter 1 verse 6.  I don’t see how anybody--and I know I’ve got a lot of pastors and preachers listening to me.  I’m addressing them just as well as anybody else.  Beloved, look at what the Book says, not what Les Feldick says.  What does the Scripture say?  As I said here not too many programs back, so far as I’m concerned, Paul’s epistles could just as well be written in red, because every word he writes came from where?  The ascended Lord Jesus Christ.  Never forget that.  This isn’t Paul speaking his own mind.  This is Paul speaking the very words of Christ.

Galatians 1:6-7a

“I marvel (I’m amazed) that ye are so soon removed from him who called you into the grace of Christ (Out of their paganism, they’d turned their back on all that.  They had made some headway in this life of forgiveness and grace.  But then what?   They succumbed) unto another gospel: 7. Which is not another;…” These false teachers didn’t come in with something totally different.   They just said, well, that’s okay.  You rest on what you believe, but you’ve got to be circumcised. You have to keep the law. You have to eat right. You have to do this right.   That’s what you have to do.  And they fell for it.  All right, now read on. 

Galatians 1:7

“Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.” What’s the other word for pervert?  Adulterate! Where are you, Angelo?  We were just talking about it yesterday.  Adulterate means you bring in things that don’t belong.  All right, and so he says:

Galatians 1:8

“But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed.”  Why?  Because they’re adulterating that perfect work of the cross!  And God won’t have it. 

Oh, they can have glowing experiences.  They can probably even have glowing testimonies.  But if they have mixed something with that finished work of the cross, I think they’re wasting their breath.  I think God’s going to be a lot more particular than most people think.  And it’s scary.  Because if He has done a job so perfectly and has made it known and we walk it underfoot, then what?

LESSON ONE * PART III

LO-AMMI - NOT MY PEOPLE

Hosea 1:1–2:18

Okay, it is good to see all ready to go again.  We are on program number three this afternoon in book 70.  So, we’ve been here a long time.  My, we just can’t believe we’ve been doing this for sixteen years in October.  Unbelievable!  How we appreciate all you folks across the country out there in TV-land.  Again, we want to thank you for your kind letters about how the Word is impacting.

Okay, we’ve got a lot of ground to cover, so we’ll dispense with any other comments and get right back into Hosea.  Hosea, for those of you here in the studio audience, we’re in chapter 1.  Let’s jump back in at verse 7. 

Hosea 1:7a

“But I will have mercy…” Now you see, whenever God expresses His wrath and His vengeance and His judgment, He also shows the other side, which is His mercy.  Here we have it again.  That even though He’s going to have to bring chastisement upon the Nation and He will utterly take them away, yet He says:

Hosea 1:7

“But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah, (that’s the Southern two tribes, remember, where Hosea is ministering.) and will save them by the LORD their God, and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen.”  But rather by His own intrinsic Sovereign power.

Now, let’s be reminded that the Southern Kingdom lasted about a hundred years longer than the Northern Kingdom.  Israel, the Ten Tribes, will be overrun by the Syrians about a hundred years before Judah goes under the hand of the Babylonians.  Now I don’t think, if I’m remembering correctly, I did not really finish our verses back there in II Kings.  I’m going to bring you back here again, if I may, so that you see why God’s patience ran out with the Ten Tribes that we are now calling Israel. 

For some reason or another I digressed.  I guess that’s when I jumped up to the New Testament, wasn’t it?  All right, come back with me to II Kings.  I want you to see why God’s hand of chastisement came upon these Ten Tribes of the North.  All right, we were in verse 7 of II Kings 17.

II Kings 17:7-8

“For so it was that the children of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and had feared other gods, 8. And walked in the statutes (or the religious rituals and systems) of the heathen, whom the LORD cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made.”

Now, I made comment in the last program that as the leadership goes, so goes the Nation.  It’s the same way today.  If you have a corrupt leadership, the nation is going to go right down with it.  All right, now verse 9.  Here we get to the crux of the problem. 

II Kings 17:9a

“And the children of Israel did secretly those things that were not right…”  We covered that in the last lesson - verse 10.

II Kings 17:10-12a

“And they set them up images and groves in every high hill, and under every green tree: 11. And there they burnt incense in all the high places, as did the heathen whom the LORD carried away before them; and wrought wicked things to provoke the LORD to anger: 12. For they served idols,…” I think that’s where I jumped up to the New Testament.    All right, now let’s jump in to verse 13.

II Kings 17:13a

“Yet the LORD testified against Israel, and against Judah, by all the prophets,…”  Now, I had a thought as I was studying this.  Where’s the priesthood?  Well, they’re not much better than the rank and file.  So, who does God have to use to preach to Israel, common ordinary men, the Prophets.  Have you ever thought of that before - that none of the Prophets were priests?  I never had.  They were totally separate from the priesthood.

Now, the priests were religious.  They carried out all the Temple worship, but in heart and mind they were just as idolatrous as the people.  But here we have that little remnant of Prophets that God raises up to warn the people that if they do not change, if they don’t repent of their idolatry, this is what’s coming.  All right, go back into verse 13.

II Kings 17:13

“Yet the LORD testified against Israel, and against Judah, by all the prophets, and by all the seers, saying, Turn ye (Now that’s repentance.) from your evil ways, and keep my commandments and my statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants (not the priests) the prophets.”  Amazing, isn’t it?

II Kings 17:14-15a

“Notwithstanding they would not hear, but hardened their necks, like to the neck of their fathers, that did not believe in the LORD their God. 15. And they rejected his statutes, and his covenant that he made with their fathers, and his testimonies…” Now verse 16, I’m doing this for sake of time now.

II Kings 17:16

“And they left all the commandments of the LORD their God, and made them molten images, (In other words, they melted down the metals.) even two calves, and made a grove, and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served Baal.”

Do you see what they are doing?  It wasn’t even the idols that they made out of whatever it was, but they worshipped the moon, they worshipped the sun, they worshipped the mountain, and they’d worship a tree.  Anything to fulfill their idolatrous desires!  It’s just beyond me, and I imagine it is for most of you.  But this was Israel!  Now, we’re not talking about the Babylonians!  We’re not talking about the Syrians.  We’re talking about Israel, the chosen people.  Isn’t it unbelievable? 

And yet, you know, as I told somebody at break time or before we started this afternoon, in my own mind’s eye, even though I have no scriptural basis to do so, who do I have to compare with Israel?  The United States of America - because we have been so blessed spiritually.  The whole purpose of our founding fathers to come over here was to get away from the heavy hand, not of politics, but the heavy hand of what?  Religion!   On that basis our forefathers established this nation on the Word of God. Whether they were all born again believers or not is to me moot.  They rested on the Word of God. 

I always like to rehearse what I read years ago.  When they were trying to pound out our Constitution, being representative of everybody in the country, some of the big states like Pennsylvania and Virginia were kind of heavy handed over the smaller states like Rhode Island and maybe some of the New England states.  So, what was the fear of the small states?  Well, they wouldn’t have a voice in government.  That was one of the most crucial things that our founding fathers had to hammer out. 

But as this writer put it, and I have to depend on what people say, that when they got at loggerheads, the big states like Virginia and Pennsylvania would not just overrun the small states, they would dismiss.  They would go to prayer rooms and those men were not ashamed to get down on their knees and pray and ask for wisdom.  They’d come back to the convention hall and they would pick up where they left off.  That was how our Constitution was finally hammered out. 

Now, what are we seeing today?  They don’t even want the name of God on our currency.  They don’t want it even spoken in the Pledge of Allegiance.  They’re making so much noise that government people are starting to listen to them.  And it’s frightening that we’re going down the same road.  We’ve been so blessed, and we’re turning our back on it.  So, as we go through all these teachings in the next several programs in these Minor Prophets, do like I do.  Just make the parallel, even though scripturally I can’t say that, but just on the basis of common sense and what we know of our own national history, my, aren’t we in the same kind of a situation?

All right, back to II Kings - why did God finally permit the Syrians to come in and overrun them and take them out?  All right, verse 17, now this was getting pretty low.  We covered this when we studied Isaiah.

II Kings 17:17a

“And they caused their sons and their daughters (their little infants) to pass through the fire,…”  In other words, they offered them to the “fire god, Moloch.”  You remember I pointed out when we were in Isaiah that they named the valley The Valley of Drums, because they were beating the drums to drown out the cries of their little ones.  Horrible!  Horrible!  Now, these weren’t pagans.  These were Israelites. 

II Kings 17:17-18

“And they caused their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire, and used divination (satanic power) and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger. 18. Therefore, the LORD was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight: there was none left but the tribe of Judah only.” And of course Benjamin was with them.  So, the Ten Tribes to the North, now, are who we’re dealing with.  But, Judah also is heading down that same road.  They’re going to go out, like I said earlier, 75 or 100 years later. 

II Kings 17:19-20

“Also Judah kept not the commandments of the LORD their God, (Even Judah with the Temple in their midst) but walked in the statutes of Israel which they made.  20. And the LORD rejected all the seed of Israel, and afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of spoilers, (That is invaders.) until he had cast them out of his sight.”   Isn’t that sad?  No longer God’s People.  No longer His chosen.  He cast them out.  Now, verse 21:

II Kings 17:21-22

“For he rent (or He tore) Israel from the house of David; and they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king: and Jeroboam drove (or led) Israel from following the LORD, and made them sin a great sin. 22. For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; (There again, like I said, as the leadership goes so goes the masses.) they departed not from them;” God took it with mercy and compassion and pleading and they would not and finally the day came.

II Kings 17:22b-23

…and they departed not from them (their sins), 23. Until the LORD removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said by all his servants the prophets.  So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day.”  Now remember, Israel here is the Ten Northern Kingdoms – the Ten Tribes of the North.  So, “Israel was carried away out of their own land to Assyria.” 

So, Sennacherib was, if I’m not mistaken, the king that came in and took the Ten Tribes.  Now, I always have to make a point.  You know that there’s been teaching over the years as false as a $3.00 bill saying that the Ten Tribes that were supposedly lost became the people of Western Europe and Scandinavia.  Well, number one, the Ten Tribes were never lost.  By the time that Ezra and Nehemiah come back from the captivities, all the Tribes are represented.

So, what happened?  Well, I haven’t got time on the program like I’d like to, but if you will do this on your own.  You go back and research the civil wars between Judah and Israel.  They had civil war just like you are seeing in Iraq today.  The Southern Kingdom actually set up an array of military against the Ten.  Well, numbers alone will tell you, what’s it going to be?  How many troops can two tribes provide compared to ten?  Well, the number of the first civil war was something like 300,000 from Judah, but the Ten Tribes of Israel had 1,300,000.  Naturally, they just wiped them out.

Well, when you go about ten years later, if I remember correctly, they have another civil war and the numbers are about even.  They both have about the same.  Then you go thirty years later and they have another civil war.  Now, Judah has one million some hundred thousand and Israel’s army was like a little flock of kid goats.  Well, what in the world had happened?  Well, they’d been migrating.  Common sense will tell you that.  The Temple was down in Judah.  They’d probably had more prosperity down there.  So, the people of the Ten Tribes to the North were migrating down into Judah, so that by the time Sennacherib comes in and takes Israel captive, hey, it was probably only ten percent of the whole.  So, don’t ever buy into that teaching that the Ten Tribes to the North were lost.  No, they were never lost.  They were assimilated.

Now, I’ve got a verse of Scripture to show that, all the way up in the New Testament.  Let’s jump up to Acts a minute.  Keep your hand in Hosea. We’ll come right back. But just to prove my point that the Ten Tribes of the Northern Kingdom were never lost, come all the way up to Acts chapter 2.  We have Peter on the day of Pentecost.  Acts chapter 2 verse 36, just to make my point that the Ten Tribes were never lost.  If I had time, I could show you that even in Ezra and Nehemiah it’s referenced that all Israel came back from the captivity.  All the tribes were represented.   But look what Peter says, verse 36.

Acts 2:36a

“Therefore let ALL the house of Israel know assuredly,…” Well, who’s the whole house of Israel?  Well, all the Tribes.  Not just Judah and Benjamin, not just the Ten Tribes of the north, the whole house of Israel is all of them.  Now, I’ve got some more verses we’re going to look at here in just a minute, but I’m running ahead of myself.  Come back to Hosea verse 8.    We’re still dealing with Hosea and the wife that he took out of idolatry from the North. 

Hosea 1:8-9

“Now when she had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she conceived, and bare a son. (Now remember, she had a son and then a daughter, and now she has another son.) 9. Then said God, Call his name Lo-ammi: (which meant not my people) for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God.”  Now, you see all the symbolism here? 

The first child was the result of Hosea, a prophet in Judah, taking a wife out of idolatrous Israel. The first child came and it was an indication of the blessings that would one day come upon the Nation of Israel.  Then she has the daughter, and it was named Lo-ruhamah, which meant there was no pity.  In other words, God’s wrath would come because of their unbelief and their idolatry.  Now we come down to their third child, and his name indicates that they are not God’s people.  They have refused to repent of their idolatry, and He turns His back upon them. 

But always remember, what was the promise made way back to King David through the prophet Nathan?  That even though Israel would sin…let’s go back and look at it.  I’ve got to do things from Scripture.  I can’t help it.  II Samuel chapter 7 verse 14 - now listen, the Word of God never lies.  It may seem like God has forgotten what He said, but He hasn’t.  It’s still a valid promise.  All right, you all got it?  God says:

II Samuel 7:14

“I will be his father, and he shall be my son. (Speaking now of the Nation of Israel in a little different form of grammar.) If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him (I will discipline him) with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men:”  What does that refer to?  Invading armies.

I will chasten them with invading armies.  They’ll overrun you.  They’ll take away your crops.  They’ll put you into subjection.  They’ll tax you to death.  Now, I want people to know that’s what the Koran teaches, too, you know.  That if the Muslims take over a country, anybody that doesn’t succumb to the Muslim, or doesn’t convert, if they’re not put to death, they can choose a state, which they call the dhimmi (the d-h-i-m-m-i).  What’s a dhimmi in Muslim government?  It is a man with no rights who can be taxed to death.  They can come into his home and take everything he’s got.  He’s got no defense, because he’s a dhimmi.  And that’s what people want?  I don’t.  But that’s what the Koran teaches.  It’s either convert or you become a dhimmi.

Well, now Israel was under that same thing until they started going back to their homeland.  That’s why I’m aware of all this.  I’m reading the book again that I recommended in my last newsletter, From Time Immemorial by Joan Peters.  Now, it’s not an easy read.  But I’ll tell you what.  It’ll open your eyes as to what caused the Jews to return to their homeland.

All right, so here we are.  God says, “I will chasten him with invading armies, and with the stripes of the children of men.”  In other words, the subjection to enemy government and rule.  What’s the first word of the next verse?  “But.”  The flipside!  This is God. He’s a God of vengeance, but He’s a God of love and mercy. 

II Samuel 7:15

“But my mercy shall not depart away from him, (Even though God says, you’re not my people.  Even though God says, you’re out of sight.  Yet, in the heart of God, His mercy is still waiting to be exercised.  So, He says, I will not turn my mercy from you…) as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee.”

All right, now then, if you’ll come back to Hosea.  I only have a few minutes left.  Now verse 10, here’s the promise coming back on the other side of the coin. Even though he will not be their God in verse 9, verse 10 says:

 Hosea 1:10a

“Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass,…”  Now, when I taught the Book of Isaiah, you remember what I emphasized?  What does that mean?  It’s going to happen.  Israel is not going to disappear.  Oh, we’ve got this guy over in Tehran who thinks they will.  He thinks he’s going to drive every Jew into the sea.  Obliterate them with “nukes” or whatever.  No, he’s not.  Israel isn’t going to cease being a nation.  Oh, God’s going to chastise them again, but they’re not going to cease being a nation.  We’ll look at that maybe in our next program.  Okay, so reading on now in verse 10.

Hosea 1:10b

“…and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God.” Well, what is that?  That’s a complete reversal.  Do you see that?  God will never abandon the Children of Israel.  Oh, even now most of them are over there in unbelief.  And they’re going through hard times.  They’re going to go through a lot more.  But, God hasn’t abandoned them.  He hasn’t given up on them. 

Hosea 1:11

“Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together, (Now, you see it?  The two Kingdoms, all twelve Tribes now.) and appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land: for great shall be the day of Jezreel. (or the day of their blessings)”

Now, I think I’ve got time enough.  Let’s go back to Deuteronomy chapter 30. This is an explanation of where we are in the news today.  This is the answer for the world’s dilemma.  What about these Israelites, or Israeli’s, as they are called today?  What about them?  Where did they come from?  Well, not like these covenant replacement people tell us.  They’re not from some tribes in the Russian Steppes.  They’re not the Czars.  They’re not from some place east of the Caucasians. But rather, there are Jews that are in Israel today.   They are just as Jewish as these people in the Scripture.  Here’s my point, Deuteronomy 30 verse 1.  We’ve used it before.

Deuteronomy 30:1

“And it shall come to pass, (Again, it’s going to happen.) when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, (See the ups and downs of Israel’s history?)  which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind (Where?) among all the nations, (Every last nation on earth will have Jews within its borders.) whither the LORD thy God hath driven thee,” And, you know, by 1970 that was a total reality.  There was not a nation on the face of this planet that did not have a Jewish community.  Not a one!  So, this was fulfilled.  They have now been scattered into every nation under heaven.  But look at the promise in verse 2:

Deuteronomy 30:2

“And shalt (What?) return unto the LORD thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul;” Now, I just told somebody on the phone, several times in the last week or two, in light of everything that’s going on in the Middle East and how people hate the Jew and how they think that they’re usurpers and they have no business being there. 

Listen, this prophecy was written 3,500 years ago.  And it’s being fulfilled right before our eyes.  But the world can’t see that.  But this is what God said thirty five hundred years ago - you’re going to be scattered unto every nation under heaven, and then you’re going to come home.  And there they are.  They can’t tell me they don’t belong there, because God said they would.   He says they will return, and then the day would come when they would serve God with all their heart and with all their soul.

LESSON ONE * PART IV

LO-AMMI - NOT MY PEOPLE

Hosea 1:1–2:18

Now again, we’re going to go right back into where we left off. We were in Hosea in chapter 1 the last verse.  Jerry’s got chapter 2 verse 1 up on the board, but I want to go back to chapter 1 verse 11 for just a little bit, because I didn’t quite finish my next reference that I wanted to use at the end of the last program.

Hosea 1:11

“Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land: for great shall be the day of Jezreel.”  Or the day of their joy and restoration, as, of course, the Valley of Megiddo can be a beautiful, beautiful setting. 

All right, now the key word here that I want to follow up on is, they shall come up and be gathered together and they will be one head, or one nation.  All right, come back with me a few pages in your Old Testament to Ezekiel 36 and 37.  Let’s look at chapter 36 first, and then we’ll slip right into chapter 37.  Again, remember that this is all written about 575 BC. We’re seeing the fulfilling of it right before our eyes.  Ezekiel 36 and drop down to verse 24.  God says:

Ezekiel 36:24

“For I will take you from among the heathen, (That is like we mentioned in the other program, every nation on the planet has had communities of Jews.) and gather you out of all the countries, and will bring you into your own land.”

Now, what I can’t comprehend is how even the most biblically illiterate can forget the fact that Jesus was born in Bethlehem.  And goodness sakes, where was Bethlehem?  In present day Israel.  All the Old Testament events that take place, where in the world were they?  In Africa?  In Europe?  In the Orient?  No.  It all took place in what’s present day Israel.  How can people be so ignorant of that?  I can’t comprehend it. 

The last 3,000 years Israel has been associated especially with that little neck of land between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River.  And then they have the slightest idea they have no business being there?  If anybody has been there from time immemorial, it’s the Jew.   All right and here it is.  Even though God took them out and scattered them into every nation under heaven, the same God is going to bring them back.  And He has!  Miraculously! 

I have to share with people over and over.  Do you realize what a miracle it is that the Jews have even survived as a defined people?  My, with just a one tenth of one percent of the world’s population, you’d think they would have been assimilated and simply disappeared.  But they didn’t!  Here they are.  They still practice the old Jewish customs of Passover and Purim, as we looked at in the Book of Esther, and Hanukkah.  Well land, that isn’t a phenomenon of the last ten or fifteen years.  It goes back centuries. 

All right, skip over another page to Ezekiel 37 and remember why I came back here. The verse in Hosea said that God will bring them up out of the land and make them under one head.  No longer a split nation, they’re going to be one.  All right, Ezekiel 37 and let’s drop in at verse 11. 

This is after the “dry bones.” You all know that one.  How the dry bones begin to shake and rattle, and they finally come together, and flesh comes upon them.  Well, it’s a picture of the Jew coming out of their captivities, or out of their dispersion rather, from every nation under heaven.   All right, now verse 11, and you’d be surprised how few church people understand this.  They think it’s anything but what it really is. 

Ezekiel 37:11

“Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones (in this symbolism) are the whole house of Israel: (Not just ten tribes, not just two, but all twelve) behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts.”  Because they’ve been out of their homeland for so long.  They’ve been without their capital city Jerusalem.  And that’s another point.  For hundreds of years what has been the cry of the Jew?  Next year – what?  Jerusalem!  Next year, Jerusalem! 

You remember back in the Six-Day War when the Israeli soldiers finally captured the Temple Mount. I’ve got a picture at home someplace where those young Israeli troops were crying like babies because they were at the Wailing Wall.  Something that I imagine their parents and grandparents had told them about, and there they were at the Wailing Wall.  Victorious!  But, oh, look at verse 12.

Ezekiel 37:12

“Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the LORD God; Behold, O my people, (Now remember in Hosea – God said, you are not My people.  But now they’ve come full circle and again God can say--) I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel.”  Now, the best illustration of that is when the Soviet Union fell apart. What were the Jews able to do?  Go back to their homeland.  By the thousands!  Yes, by the millions.  I think back in 1990, 91, and 92, almost two million Jews came from Russia down into Israel.  How did it happen?  God opened the door!  So, he says:

Ezekiel 37:12b

“…I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, (That is, your dwelling places among the Gentiles.) and bring you into the land of Israel.”  It’s a God-thing, Beloved!  It wasn’t their own initiative.  God did it.  Verse 13:

Ezekiel 37:13

“And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves.”   Now, come down to verse 16.

Ezekiel 37:16

“Moreover, (God tells Ezekiel to write.) thou son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, (That is representative) and for the children of Israel, his companions: then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, (which would stand) and for all the house of Israel his companions:”  That is the Ten Tribes in the Northern Kingdom. 

So, now here we have one stick representing the Southern Kingdom, Judah and Benjamin.  The other stick is going to represent the Ten Tribes to the North.  Now look what He tells them. 

Ezekiel 37:17

“And join them one to another into one stick; (Put them end to end.  That’s all He’s telling them.  This is symbolism.  This is an illustration.  Put these two sticks end to end.) and they shall become one in thine hand.”  By a miracle of God.  Now verse 18:

Ezekiel 37:18-19

“And when the children of thy people shall speak unto thee, saying, Wilt thou not show us what thou meanest by these? 19. Say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, Which is in the hand of Ephraim, (Again a reference to the Northern Kingdom) and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand.”

In other words, fulfilling Hosea’s prophecy that the two Kingdoms would one day come up and be one and under one king, which, of course, will be a reference to the Messiah.  All right, now come down to verse 21, because repetition is the mother of learning.  And I don’t mind repeating. 

Ezekiel 37:21a

“And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen,…”  Now, watch that!  Who will?  God will!  Did He?  You’d better believe it!  Because nations where there used to be large communities of Jews haven’t got a one.  Not a one.  Why?  Because, through the heavy hand of God dealing with Israel’s tormentors, the Jews found their way to Israel.  God did it!

You know, Iris and I are always reminded of the first time we went to Israel.  Now, this is a long time ago.  Israel was just coming up out of the ashes of the Six-Day War.  Burned out tanks and trucks were everywhere.  We were coming out of the dining room in one of the hotels in Jerusalem.  A nice, well-dressed businessman type approached us.  He said, “You’re Americans, aren’t you?” “Yeah.” He said, “What do you think of our little country?”  I said, “Well, it’s just fabulous what God has done!”  He says, “God didn’t have a thing to do with it.”   I said, “What?”  He said, “God didn’t have a thing to do with it.”  He said, “We did it.”  Well, I wasn’t going to argue there in a hotel lobby, but I sure would have liked to.  No.  They didn’t do it.  God did it.  Of course, He uses human instruments.  We know that. 

But, oh, the miracle of Scripture, here way back 600 BC God prompts Ezekiel to write that God will bring them out of every nation under heaven back to their homeland.  And it’s been done, Beloved.  That’s the proof of Scripture.  That’s why we don’t have to back down.  There isn’t another book on earth, you’ve heard me say it on this program, over and over – there is not another single book on earth that can make those kinds of statements, but this one does, and it proves itself.    All right, one verse further, and then we’ll go back to Hosea, verse 21 again.

Ezekiel 37:21b-23a

“…Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land: (The Arabs’ land?  No.  It’s not what the Book says.) and bring them into their own land: 22.   And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all: 23.  Neither shall they defile themselves anymore with their idols,…”  But God says:

Ezekiel 37:23c

“…so shall they be my people, and I will be their God.” Now, let’s flip back to Hosea a minute and make a little headway.  We’ll get into chapter 2 now verse 1.  Now we’re going to see a little bit of the other side of the coin, if I get far enough.  I may not make it.  I don’t know.  But anyway, we’re still going to see God dealing with their idolatry. Remember, that’s the whole symbolic picture of his marrying this woman who is referred to as a prostitute, but it was simply that she had been partaking of the adulterous worship of idols.  Hosea brings her back down to Judah.

Hosea 2:1-2a

“Say ye unto your brethren, (That is to the Nation as a whole.) Ammi; (Which in the Hebrew meant my people.) and to your sisters, Ruhamah. (You’ve had pity.) 2. Plead with your mother, (that is the Nation) plead: for she is not my wife,…”  Now remember, Jehovah is speaking. 

Hosea 2:2b-3

“…neither am I her husband: let her therefore put away her whoredoms (Her idolatry) out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts; 3. Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst.”  What’s the picture of what God’s going to do with the Nation?  They’re going to be made destitute.  They’re going to be an embarrassment.  All right, verse 4:

Hosea 2:4a

“And I will not have mercy upon her children; for they be the children of whoredoms.”  Or again idolatry.  They continue to turn their back on the goodness of Jehovah and worship these stupid idols.  A verse comes to mind.  We’ve used it a long time ago.  I haven’t used it now for quite a while.  Go back a few pages to Jeremiah chapter 44.  I mean, this just says it all. 

This says it all.  You know, like I said in the last program, I can’t help but draw a parallel between America today and Israel in these times of unbelief.  We’ve been so blessed.  Yet as a nation we are turning away from God more everyday.  Maybe not into abject idolatry of wood and stone, but it’s a rejection of the things of God, that’s all.  I don’t have to enumerate what they are.  Look what our major denominations are doing with the Word of God.  Unbelievable!

I had one lady write from Carolina, yesterday. She said, “Les, I’ve had it!”  I’ve been telling her for years to get out of it.  She said, “I’ve had it.”  I’m not going to say what denomination.  She said, “I’m out.  I’m out.  I’ve given up on them.”  Well, praise the Lord a few are getting the idea.  But see, here was the setting in Israel.  Jeremiah 44 and drop down to verse 15.  You’ll recognize it.  We’ve used it before.  I’ll probably use it again. 

Jeremiah 44:15a

“Then all the men who knew that their wives had burned incense unto other gods,…”  What kind of men?  A bunch of wimps!  That right?  A bunch of wimps.  They knew better.  But they just said, well, okay Honey, go ahead and worship your idol.  Your idol has been pretty good to us, I guess.   I can’t read it any other way.  They permitted it.  And by their permitting it, they encouraged it. 

Jeremiah 44:15b-16

“…and all the women that stood by, a great multitude, even all the people that dwelt in the land of Egypt, in Pathros, (In other words, you’ve got all these foreigners already involved.) answered Jeremiah, saying, 16. As for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the LORD, (or Jehovah) we will not hearken (or listen) unto thee.”  Now, do you get their attitude?  Can’t you just see them?  These women with scorn in their eyes say - We’re going to listen to you?  Are you kidding? 

Jeremiah 44:17a

“But we will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth, to burn incense unto the queen of heaven,…”  Now, who’s the queen of heaven?  Don’t tell me an angel.  The queen of heaven was the female goddess of whatever culture they may have been - Astarte, Venus, and Diana of the Ephesians.  Those were all female goddesses that were referred to as the queen of heaven. 

Jeremiah 44:17b

“…and to pour out drink-offerings unto her, as we have done, we, and our fathers, our kings, and our princes, in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem: (Now, look at the next ridiculous statement. It’s no different today.) for then (While we were pouring out drink offerings to the queen of heaven, remember.) we had plenty of victuals, (or food) and were well, and saw no evil.” 

Jeremiah 44:18-19

“But since we left off to burn incense to the queen of heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings unto her, we have wanted all things, and have consumed by the sword and by the famine. (We’re destitute.  We’re in trouble.) 19. And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven, and poured out drink-offerings unto her, did we make her cakes to worship her, and pour out drink-offerings unto her, without our men?”

Jeremiah 44:20-22a

“Then Jeremiah said unto all the people, to the men, and to the women, and to all the people that had given him that answer, saying,  21.The incense that ye burned in the cities of Judah, and in the streets of Jerusalem, ye, and your fathers, your kings, and your princes, and the people of the land, did not the LORD remember them, and came it not into his mind (did not the LORD bring it to mind)? 22. So that the LORD could no longer bear, because of the evil of your doings,…”  Ah, it’s pitiful.  It’s pitiful, but the human race has always been such, I guess.

Back to Hosea chapter 2, let’s make a little headway today, anyway.  Let’s hit verse 4 again and then into 5.  God is speaking now through the prophet.

Hosea 2:4-5

“And I will not have mercy upon her children; (That is of idolatrous Israel.) for they be the children of whoredoms.  (Now again, that’s not physical sexuality, it is idolatry.) 5. For their mother hath played the harlot: she that conceived them hath done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink.”  Now, in the light of Jeremiah 44 I hope you are seeing it.  Who were Israel’s lovers?  The idols!  You see that?  Catch the symbolism.  It’s their idols; their queen of heaven that they think is providing all their needs.  Verse 6:

Hosea 2:6-7

“Therefore, (God comes back) behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths. 7.  And she shall follow after her lovers, (She will keep on worshiping her gods of heaven, queens of heaven, and the idols and so forth.) but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them: then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; (Who was Israel’s first husband?  Jehovah.  Jehovah, the God of Abraham, see?) for then it was better with me than now.” 

Hosea 2:8

For (Jehovah says) she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for (Whom?) Baal.”  The false god.  My, isn’t it a wonder that God put up with them as much as He did? 

Hosea 2:9-10a

“Therefore I will return, and take away my corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the season thereof, and will recover my wool and my flax given to cover her nakedness.” In other words, all of the commodities that were necessary for communal life, God says, I’ll just take it away.)  10. And now will I discover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers,…”  Now again, where are they practicing these things?  Before the idols.  They’re bowing down before them.

When we were up in Northern Israel, they had just discovered the ancient worshipping place of Dan.  You remember Dan was the first tribe of Israel that went into idolatry.  When we were there several years ago, the Israeli antiquities had just discovered and uncovered the ancient worship place of the tribe of Dan.  And that’s all it was, just a pagan place of worship.  It’s so hard to comprehend that these Jewish people who had been brought about miraculously, and as we said earlier this afternoon, through the Red Sea, brought down to Sinai, brought into the Promised Land, with all the evidence of the God of Abraham around them constantly, yet they could go into such stark unbelief.  I can’t comprehend it.  I don’t think you can either.

All right, now I think I’m going to have a couple of minutes left.  So, we come down to the place where God’s wrath is going to come to the full.

Hosea 2:11-12

“I will also cause all her mirth (or her happiness) to cease, her feast days, (See, they’re still Temple worshipping.) her new moons, and her sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts. (They were still religious.  Isn’t that incomprehensible?) 12. And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, whereof she hath said, These are my rewards that my lovers (or my idols) have given me: and I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them.”  Now, God says.

Hosea 2:13-14

“And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, (In other words, the worship of Baal) wherein she burned incense to them (her idols), and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers (her idols), and forgot me, saith the LORD.  14. Therefore, behold, I will allure her, (In other words, I will woo her, God says, I will entice her.) and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her.”  And now, here comes the heart of God’s mercy.

Hosea 2:15-18a

“And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor (Which is a reference to the valley, of course, that first was judgment upon Akin. But on the other hand, it’s going to be a beautiful valley of production in the Kingdom.) for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt. 16. And it shall be at that day, saith the LORD, that thou shalt call me Ishi; (That is, my husband - her spiritual.) and shalt call me no more Baali. 17. For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name.  18. And in that day I will make a covenant for them…”

LESSON TWO * PART I

ADULTEROUS ISRAEL TO BE RESTORED

Hosea 2:14 – 4:14

Okay, it is good to see everybody in this afternoon. I’ll have to share with our television audience that we’ve got folks here -- I hope I can remember them all -- from Minnesota, Mississippi, Iowa, Oklahoma, of course, and Michigan. Now, did I hit everybody?  Hopefully.  Anyway, we’re glad to have folks stop in when they’re -- and there’s Texas --but you haven’t been here that long. 

Anyway, for all of you out in television, we’re glad that you’ve invited us into your home or wherever you are. Again, we always have to thank every one of you for your prayer support and for all that goes with it.  Again, we love your letters.  Sometimes they’re a little too short.  Sometimes they’re a little too long, but we love them anyway.

Okay, we’re going to pick right up where we left off in our last program, which was over a month ago, I guess.  We’re in Hosea.  We’re going to be looking at chapter 2 verse 14.  Now again, for just a little bit of recap, you want to remember that these are the minor prophets. They’re not called minor because they’re of lesser importance, but simply because they’re shorter in content. 

They’re not nearly as long as Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel.   A lot of it is repetition, so bear with me.  A lot of the things that we brought out in the Book of Isaiah are popping up again in all these minor prophets, because you see, the whole scope of the Old Testament, from Genesis chapter 12 on, is the Lord preparing the Nation of Israel for the coming of their Messiah, Redeemer, King, and a Kingdom.  In the time that elapsed, of course, Israel is going to go so deep into unbelief that they will actually become an idolatrous nation. That’s what we’re dealing with primarily in these minor prophets - their idolatry.

As we pointed out in the first chapter of Hosea, if you just read it casually, you’d think that God is actually talking in terms of the prostitution and the houses of ill repute. But when He tells Hosea to go and marry a harlot, He’s not talking about physical sexuality as we’re thinking of it.  It’s all in the realm of the Spirit.  So, it’s this constant reference that all of this idolatry and all of this chasing after idols are like a man chasing after the women of the street.  Always keep in mind that we’re talking about Israel and idolatry.  That was God’s number one controversy with the people of Israel.  It is unbelievable that here you have the covenant people brought out of Egypt miraculously through the Red Sea, brought down to Sinai, given the Law and the Temple and the Priesthood, and then miraculously brought into the Promised Land, and then within a few hundred years they are just as steeped in idolatry as the other nations around them.

Of course, that’s why to the casual reader God seemed so harsh way up there in Moses’ time -- when God says to Israel to have nothing to do with those people. Don’t intermarry with them.  Then later on when He told them to cleanse the land, He even said to kill all the men, women, and children.  Well, it wasn’t because God was so heartless. God knew that if He didn’t take idolatrous people away from contact with His people, it never goes the good way.  It always goes the bad way.

This is what I tell young people when they start dating – “Don’t ever start dating someone, boy or girl, with the idea that you’re going to win them to the Lord and you’re going to make them better.”  Usually it doesn’t work.  It goes the other way.  The same thing with Israel after all of their warnings, here we find them now, at the time of Hosea, which is only about 300 years after King David.  We’re talking about 700 BC and David was 1000 BC, Moses – 1500 BC.  But in that relatively short period of time, the Nation of Israel has gone totally into idolatry, with just a scattered, few true believers; and they were hated by the majority.

I mean just like today, you folks are finding out.  You take the truth of these things into a liberal church Sunday school and they just about ride you out on a rail.  That’s the way it’s always been.  Okay, let’s jump in here now, Hosea chapter 2 verse 14. 

Hosea 2:14

“Therefore, behold, (This is God speaking to the Nation through the prophet.  God said,) I will allure her, (In other words, just like a suitor.) I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her.”  Now, I think this is a reflection on their wilderness experience after they came out of Egypt, and how God providentially watched over them and cared for them and supplied their every need.  He’s going to try and do it again to bring them back to Himself.   All right, now verse 15 is a promise of blessing, not of discipline, but blessing. 

Hosea 2:15a

“And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope:…”  Now that’s a play on words. Because the first time you heard about Achor -- who knows what it was associated with?  Achan -- it was the first city after Jericho, after they came into the Promised Land.  They were told to go up and destroy the city of Ai, which evidently was a materially well-to-do city. God told them to destroy all the material goods.  He warned them – don’t even take a nickel’s worth of anything.

But you see, Achan, a good Jew, thought he could get away with it.  You remember what he did.  He took some of the spoil, buried it, and thought that at some future day he could come back and capitalize on it.  But, you see, God wouldn’t let it go. The whole nation was chastised for that one sinful event.  So, Achor was a place of curse, not blessing.  But now, when it comes to the time of God’s blessing, He uses the valley of Achor as a place of hope.  All right, now reading on in verse 15:

 Hosea 2:15b

“…and she shall sing there, (Now then, we’re talking about the Nation of Israel.) as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.”  You see where the correlation is?  He’s comparing their present time now, which is, let’s see, my goodness, we’re talking about 800-900 years after the fact, that God is still using the coming out of Egypt and going through the wilderness as an illustration of His protective blessing.

Hosea 2:16

“And it shall be at that day, saith the LORD, (I’ve got to emphasize this is God speaking through the prophet.) that thou shalt call me Ishi;…” Which translated means “my husband.”  In other words, God would be a husband to Israel as His wife.  There again, here’s where you come to that constant correlation in Scripture.  In the marriage relationship as a husband is to wife, so God is to His people.  Now, in this case, of course, it’s the ancient Nation of Israel.

But, jump with me all the way up to Ephesians. We have that same analogy between Christ and you and me as members of the Body of Christ in Ephesians chapter 5.  I do this just to show that all of Scripture has that same kind of a thread from beginning to end.  Israel was to be like a wife with God as her husband.  All right, now look how Paul puts it for us as believers today.  Ephesians chapter 5 and we’ll jump in at verse 21.  You see, the analogy is the same whether it’s for us in the Body or what was for Israel in a national relationship under the Old Testament economy.

Ephesians 5:21

“Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.”  I always have to repeat, Paul always talks or writes to one class of people.  Who is it?  The believer.  Never the unbeliever.  All right, so to the believers there at Ephesus, or to you and I today as believers, the instruction is to “submit yourselves one to another in the fear (or the reverence) of God.”  Now, here comes the relationship. 

Ephesians 5:22

“Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, (But how?) as unto the Lord.” Here comes the spiritual connection even to a physical relationship -- verse 23.

Ephesians 5:23a

“For the husband is the head of the wife, (But again what’s the connection?) even as Christ is the head of the church:…(or the Body)”  That’s the comparison -- that a husband should have the love and concern and protection for his wife that Christ has for the Church.  And it’s such a practical lesson.   All right, read it again.  

Ephesians 5:23a

“For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church:…”  My, what a beautiful illustration.  A husband should have so much love for his wife (now just watch my wife smile!) that he’d be willing to do what for her?  Die for her! 

That’s where Abraham failed.  Way back in the very beginning of the Nation, Abraham failed miserably.  Because, you see, when he came into enemy territory, he must have had a very beautiful wife; and he was scared to death that they would kill him in order to have his wife.  So, what does he do?  He says to tell them that you’re my sister.  Well, in reality, she was a half-sister.  But see, he didn’t have that concept that he was willing to die for his wife.  But see, that’s where we’re to be, simply because Christ loved the church and did what?  He died for us!  That’s our whole plan of redemption.  Okay, read on. 

Ephesians 5:23b-24

“…even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the savior of the body. (He is the reason that we’re members with him as husband and wife) 24.  Therefore as the church (or the Body of Christ) is subject unto Christ, (He’s always above us.  We are always submissive to Him.) so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.”

But see, here’s where we have to be careful.  If you’re going to keep the analogy intact, in which way will the husband put his wife in subjection?  Well, the same way Christ has us in subjection.  And is it ever for our disadvantage?  Never!  To be in subjection to Christ is always for our own good.  It’s the only place to be.  Well, that’s the way a wife should feel about her husband -- that she couldn’t find herself under any better circumstances because of her respect and love for the one who is over her.  Not as a doormat.  Not as a “go-for,” but in a relationship that is as Christ loved the church.  Now, verse 25:

Ephesians 5:25

“Husbands, love your wives, even (again) as Christ also loved the church, and (Did what?) gave himself for it;”  All right, now that is the constant analogy of Scripture.  All right, let’s go back to Hosea. This is exactly the relationship that God is yearning to restore again with the covenant people, the Nation of Israel.   All right, back to verse 16 of Hosea 2. 

Hosea 2:16

“And is shall be at that day, saith the LORD, that thou shalt call me Ishi; (or husband) and shalt call me no more Baali.”  Or in other words, just another god.  Now then verse 17.   If Israel would respond and turn away from chasing after all the idols of the Gentiles around them, then He says:

Hosea 2:17

“For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name.”   In other words, He would remove even the memory of all these pagan gods and goddesses. 

Hosea 2:18

“And in that day (when Israel responds) will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, (Now, we’re getting right down where the rubber meets the road!  Even the wild beasts are going to be influenced by God’s relationship with His beloved Israel.) and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground: and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely.”

All right, let’s go back real quickly to Isaiah chapter 11 and get a glimpse of what the Lord is talking about -- this glorious Kingdom Age when Christ would rule and reign over His covenant people as well as the rest of the world. These are some of the reactions or results of it.  You’ve all seen these verses before.  Isaiah chapter 11 and we’ll start at verse 5.  This is what’s coming.  We can’t imagine it today. But, Beloved, it’s coming! I’m always making that statement – if prophecy says it, it’s going to happen!  Now, it may be a few years, but we’re getting close.  My, when you see the world tonight, today, in all of its perplexity and all of its unsolvable problems--

You know, I was reading an editorial in our Daily Oklahoman the other day, and it was so good I read it to Iris, the whole editorial.  It was by a well known -- I think it was a Washington Post writer -- Charles Krauthammer.  I think most of you have probably seen him on talk shows and so forth.  Well, he was laying out the two alternatives that the world is facing.

Of course, the one that is Number One and has to face it first is our own President.  Well, the one alternative was to go in and stop Iran in her tracks; and that, of course, would bring about a horrendous war of some kind.  It would be a complete disruption of all the oil supply.  It would probably send the whole world into a horrible economic crash.  But that’s what would have to happen if you’re going to stop Iran.

The other alternative is to do nothing and let them go ahead and build their nuclear force, and then they in turn will either blackmail the world or start blowing us to smithereens.  Those are the two alternatives.  And he says, “Our President has got twelve months to make up his mind.”  How’d you like to be in his shoes?  Either one is disaster.  Well, that’s the world we’re living in.  That’s what Jesus meant when He said it will be filled with perplexity.  Now, you know what perplexity is.  Just as I’ve explained – how are you going to make a choice between two horrible alternatives?  It’s perplexing.

But, you see, everything is getting the world ready for the glorious kingdom that’s coming. Everything on this planet is going to be destroyed. We know that.  But out of it is going to come what the Lord is telling Israel even back in Hosea, but we get a better picture of it now in Isaiah. 

Isaiah 11:5-6a

“And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, (That is of the ruling king, which will be Christ Himself.) and faithfulness the girdle of his reins.  6. The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb,…”  Remember what Hosea said?  The wild animals and everything that’s wild, the fowl, the birds of prey. 

Isaiah 11:6b

“…and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; (or the baby goat) and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; (all in perfect harmony, now) and a little child shall lead them.” In other words, even children can play amongst these that are, today, carnivorous wild animals -- Verse 7.

Isaiah 11:7

“And the cow and the bear shall feed; (In other words, they’ll graze in the same area.)  their young ones shall lie down together: (Whether it’s a baby sheep, a lamb, or whether it’s a kid of the goats, or it’s the cub of the lions, they’ll all be interacting peacefully.)  and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.” In other words, it won’t be a meat eater.  It will be vegetarian.  It’ll eat things that grow naturally.  And then verse 8:

Isaiah 11:8-9

“A nursing child shall play on the hole of an asp, (a poisonous snake in the Middle East.) and the weaned child (a little toddler) shall put his hand on the cockatrice’ den. 9.  They shall not hurt nor destroy in all of my holy mountain: (Why?) for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.”

This isn’t some pie in the sky.  This is coming on the planet.  That’s the analogy.  It’s going to be perfect harmony throughout all the planet’s existence, whether it’s humanity or the birds and the fowl and so forth.  All right, the other point is that the bow will be broken.  Come back to Hosea, back to chapter 2, where the bow and the sword will be totally removed. You all know those verses, where they will turn their swords into plowshares.  It is going to be a total economy of peace and prosperity and tremendous production beyond what you and I can ever imagine.  All right, now verse 19.

Hosea 2:19

“And I will betroth (Or, like we would say, bring into a place of engagement.) thee unto me forever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness and in mercies.”  Oh, now that brings up another verse.  Go back to II Samuel, because this was all in prophecy all the way back.  How God would deal with His covenant people Israel.  Here God is now dealing with King David, but He’s speaking through the prophet Nathan. 

Look what He tells Nathan concerning, not just David, but the whole Nation of Israel.  II Samuel 7:14 & 15 -- now, He’s talking about the Nation,

II Samuel 7:14

“I will be his father, (Now, in this case, it’s a father and son relationship.  In Hosea we’re talking about husband and wife.) and he shall be my son.  If (God knew it was coming.) he commit iniquity, (Which at the time of Hosea was primarily what?  The idolatry.  And the idolatry led to every other sin and wickedness you could think of.  All right, so here it is.) If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, (Invading armies.  And they’re coming.) and with the stripes of the children of men:”

In another place in Isaiah it says, “and you’ll be hearing strange languages.”  Well, what did that imply?  Occupying troops of the enemy.  That was Israel’s constant warning.  All right, now look at verse 15, what’s the first word?  “But…”  The flipside!  Even though God will permit nations to come in and invade them and down trod them, steal their grain and enslave their children--

II Samuel 7:15-16

“But my mercy shall not depart away from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before thee. (Now, we’re coming back to the relationship of David and Saul, but the big picture is God and Israel!) 16. And thine house (the house of David) and thy kingdom (that’s still coming) shall be established forever before thee: thy throne shall be established for ever.”

All right, now when we talk about mercy up there in verse 15-- I can’t help it, I always have to come back-- I hope it is Deuteronomy chapter 33.  I’ve got 32, hopefully it’s 33.  No, it isn’t. But anyway, He says, I’m going to give mercy to whom I will give mercy.  Exodus 33:19, I thought it was Deuteronomy, but it’s the wrong book. 

Exodus 33:19

“And he said, I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before thee; and will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will shew mercy on whom I will shew mercy.”  That’s what He told Moses – I will be merciful to whom I will be merciful.  Well, what does that imply?  His Sovereignty!  His Sovereignty and we sometimes think how can God do that?  Because He’s Sovereign. 

Now, I mentioned the Holocaust in one of my classes the other night.  We know the Holocaust was probably one of the worst times in all of Israel’s history.  Why did God let it happen?  Well, He had to.  It had to happen.  Here’s the point.  Had Israel not gone into that horror of the Holocaust, do you think the Nation of Israel would be where it is today?  It would have never happened. It took the horrors and the pressures of the Holocaust to get the Jew to go back to their homeland.  And they had to go back to their homeland. Because we’re going to see later this afternoon that was all part of God’s program – that He would scatter them and He would bring them back.  All right, back for just a couple of minutes to Hosea chapter 2 and verse 20, again.

Hosea 2:20-22

“I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: (They’re no longer going to run after idols and pagan gods.) and thou shalt know the LORD.  21. And it shall come to pass in that day, (When Israel is back into complete fellowship with her Jehovah God.) I will hear, saith the LORD, I will hear the heavens, and they (the heavens) shall hear the earth; 22.  And the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel.”

Well, what does that mean?  When Israel comes into the place of blessing, everything they plant will grow and produce like you and I cannot imagine!  You know, Amos, I think I’ve got time.  Let’s go quickly over to Amos.  Just go ahead a little ways to Amos, I think it’s the last chapter.  This agrees completely with the time when Israel finally comes into this Kingdom Age and Jehovah is ruling and reigning from Jerusalem.  Amos chapter 9, drop all the way down to verse 13, and tie this in with what we just read; that the earth will respond to being sowed, and it’s going to produce. 

Amos 9:13-15a

“Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that the plowman (The one who’s tilling and preparing the soil.) shall overtake the reaper, (The guy who’s harvesting the previous crop. It’s going to be such continuous production.) and the treader of grapes will over take him that soweth the seed; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt. 14.  And I will bring again the captivity of my people of Israel, and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.  (And again, the same analogy) 15. And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up…”

LESSON TWO * PART II

ADULTEROUS ISRAEL TO BE RESTORED

Hosea 2:14 – 4:14

This is our 16^th anniversary of tapings.  We started in October of 1990, so it’s been sixteen full years of tremendous blessings.  Who would have ever dreamed?  I just shared with my brother on the way up this morning; we can remember almost the place on the Muskogee Turnpike when Iris and I said, well, surely this won’t last more than six months.  That’s what we really thought it would be, about six months and it would die a natural death, and then our television experience would be over.  But here it is – sixteen years and the Lord just keeps on blessing.

Again, for all of you out in television, we want to welcome you to a simple Bible study.  We try to keep it simple and yet hit some of the things that you normally don’t see and hear in Sunday school.  Now, back to our study in Hosea; we’ll start in verse 1.

Hosea 3:1a

“Then said the LORD unto me,…” Now remember, when the word LORD is capitalized like this, it’s really Jehovah.  I read a good article again the other day by a gentleman that I respect highly. He had all the reasons why the word LORD is Jehovah and Jehovah is Jesus Christ.  He’s God the Son.   All right, back to the text.

Hosea 3:1a

“Then said the LORD unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend,…”  Now you remember back in chapter 1, He said to go and get a woman.  So, what we have here are two different attitudes.  Instead of just simply claiming a girl for his wife, now he’s going to go back and win the wife that had left him to go back to her lovers.  All right, so He says:

Hosea 3:1b

“…Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the LORD toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love flagons of wine.”  Now, I want you to go back to Jeremiah 44. You’ll see what I’m talking about.  I might come back here again even later, before we get through Hosea.  But Jeremiah 44 and let’s use verse 19, because I’m going to use some of the other verses later on.  Now, this again is the response of idolatrous Israel. 

Jeremiah 44:19a

“And when we burned incense to the queen of heaven, (Now, that’s the female goddess, usually Astarte.) and poured out drink-offerings unto her, did we make her (What?) cakes…” Now, the better translation for flagons of wine would have been grape cakes.  In other words, they actually took a grape-flavored cake and offered it on their altars to this female goddess.  So, here’s where we get the comparison of Scripture, “did we make her cakes to worship her, and pour out drink-offerings unto her,…”

All right, back to Hosea once again, chapter 3. These Israelites – now you’ve go