05: Minor Prophets - Hosea 10:9-14:9

[Dunkle] All right, so we are back. We're going through Hosea, and we ended up partway through chapter 10. So Hosea chapter 10, God is calling out the false gods. Their kings are leading them astray. They're worshiping these golden calves that were made, that were placed at Bethel and Dan, and they're going to be taken away.

So in verse 9, he says, “O Israel, you have sinned from the days of Gibeah. There they stood; the battle in Gibeah against the children of iniquity.” (Hosea 10:9).

This is another reference to that hideous story that's in Judges chapter 19. It's Judges chapter 19 and chapter 20, where there is a battle, and it's a battle of countrymen. Many of the tribes of Israel against the tribe of Benjamin, and remember, well I say remember, but the fellow that chopped up his wife into pieces and sent them through the nation to show this horrible sin was himself guilty of a pretty horrible sin.

So we see that in the book of Judges, it's Israel losing contact with God, everyone doing what's right in their own eyes, and it leads to just bad all around. God is saying in the time that Hosea is writing, near the end of the northern kingdom of Israel, you guys are about that bad.

It makes me a little concerned. What would God say to us today? And by us, I mean our whole nation. Would he say, you're like the days of Gibeah? And of course they'd say, yes, Gibeah, I don't know. Well, look in your Bible. Look it up. It's terrible things.

Verse 10, “When it is My desire, I will chasten them. Peoples shall be gathered against them when I bind them for their two transgressions” (Hosea 10:10).

He doesn't list what those two transgressions are. So I want to tie this to another prophecy. It's in Jeremiah. Jeremiah 2:13 is a place where God goes out of his way to say, you've committed two sins. One is you left the true God. The other one is you started worshiping false gods.

And in Jeremiah, he makes an analogy of it being like someone who has a nice spring of running water as their water source. And they forsake that and they instead use a cistern. But it's a broken cistern with muck and gook in it.

You did two things wrong. So that analogy says you had the true God with good religion, bringing blessings. You left that and instead you turn to these false gods that by way of analogy are full of gook and ick. They bring death and destruction.

So the two sins are going to bring terrible punishment. And then he makes another analogy in verse 11. “Ephraim is a trained heifer that loves to thresh grain” (Hosea 10:11).

That's something out of our normal context. By the way, a heifer is a cow. We probably know that. That loves to thresh grain. This is referring to when you have wheat or barley, you take it to a threshing floor, and to separate the kernels, you might bang on it with a stick, but often you have the cattle just walk on it.

And so it'll break up stuff and the heavy grain, the kernels, will fall to the ground. And you have a fan or whatever and use a pitchfork to pitch it up in the air, and the wind blows away what's called chaff, the stuff you don't want. And the heavy stuff that's left, you keep.

Because they didn't have combines back then. So the heifer or the ox that gets to do the treading, that's an easy job. All you're doing is walking around, and because God says you shall not muzzle the ox when it treads the grain, they get to eat while they're doing it.

So yeah, Israel is like a heifer that loves to thresh grain. Who wouldn't like that? He says, “But I harnessed her fair neck; I will make Ephraim pull a plow” (Hosea 10:11).

I'm going to take you out of that cushy, comfortable situation and put you in a hardworking, grueling situation. I'm trying to think, maybe we could say, you know, it'd be like people who love to come here and sit at ABC and sit in comfortable chairs and have nice tacos for lunch on Taco Tuesday.

But because you're sinning, I'm going to send you out and make you work in a factory where it's 100 degrees and it's just hard work. Wouldn't you rather please God and get the blessings instead of the bad stuff? I was going to say go work in fast food, but I used to work fast food. It's not all bad.

Anyways, he goes on. Ephraim is going to pull a plow. Judah will plow and break his clods. But the contrast of what he wants is in verse 12.

“Sow for yourselves righteousness.” (Hosea 10:12)

Okay, if you plant righteousness, you reap mercy. God says, whatever you sow, you shall surely reap. So he's telling you, you want good results, take good actions. Reap in mercy. Break up your fallow ground. It's time to seek the Lord. And breaking up fallow ground sometimes refers to making a clean start. Fallow is ground that hasn't been plowed. It's been left to rejuvenate. So when you break it up, it's a new start. God wants that for Israel. “It's time to seek the Lord, he says, till he comes and reigns righteousness on you.”

You'll notice agricultural metaphors come to play a lot in these prophets because it's an agricultural nation. Everybody either works the land or they're close to someone who works the land. And many of the prophets work the land themselves.

Verse 13, “You have plowed wickedness; you have reaped iniquity. You have eaten the fruit of lies” (Hosea 10:13).

Okay, that's not what God wanted. You're getting the results of what you do, Israel. If it sounds like I'm yelling at you guys, I'm not. I'm just reading God's words to Israel, because you trusted in your own way, in the multitude of your mighty men. God often says, I don't want you to trust in military power. That seems to be some of what got King David in trouble when he wanted to do a census. Find out how many soldiers I've got. And even Joab says, what are you doing that for? We don't need to do that.

So in verse 14, “Tumult shall arise among your people, and all your fortresses shall be plundered. As Shalman plundered Beth-Arbel in the day of battle” (Hosea 10:14). Okay, we're not sure exactly of the setting there. Shalman, many people think, is short for Shalmaneser, one of the Assyrian rulers. And I'll remind you again that Assyrian rulers had cool names like Shalmaneser and Tiglath-Pileser and such. So the idea, though, is he came and plundered you. You lost the battle.

Verse 15, “So it shall be done to you, O Bethel, because of your great wickedness” (Hosea 10:15).

Bethel was a place, remember, where one of the calves was set up. So there's great wickedness there. “At dawn, the king of Israel will be utterly cut off.” When the Assyrians came in, they destroyed the kingdom of Israel. A fellow by the name of Hoshea was the last king of Israel. So he's utterly cut off. No more kings in the northern kingdom of Israel.

So I'm going to pause just there, because now we're going into chapter 11. And God is looking back to a better time with Israel.

“When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son” (Hosea 11:1).

That sounds familiar, or at least it should. Now, in this case, God is referencing bringing the Israelites out of Egypt when he had Moses part the Red Sea. We'll see this quoted in the book of Matthew, 2, verses 13 through 15. And this is a case of either dual prophecy, or some use the term progressive revelation, that God brought the child Jesus out of Egypt, where he had sent them as protection when Herod wanted to kill all the babies at Bethlehem. And that's a story we know pretty well.

I'm just pointing out that Matthew is looking back to this prophecy in Hosea and seeing that God meant it for something more than delivering Israel from Egypt. And so we can trust Matthew because God inspired Matthew to write the book of Matthew.

As I was telling you all earlier, we don't want to put any names that we know in the Bible. We want to trust the Bible to interpret the Bible. And it goes on in chapter 11 to show that God consistently blessed Israel. He taught them.

Verse 2, “As they called them, so they went from them; they sacrificed to the Baals” (Hosea 11:2).

Okay, verse 3, “I taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by their arms, but they did not know that I healed them” (Hosea 11:3).

So Israelites consistently misunderstood God's blessings. People in the world today often misunderstand where the blessings come from.

God says, “I drew them with gentle cords, with bands of love, and I was to them as those who take the yoke from their neck; I stooped and fed them” (Hosea 11:4).

We see the image of a kind father, gently caring for a child and feeding him and taking care of him. But again, the feelings were not requited.

And verse 5, there might be a translation problem. I'll just note this because it says, “He shall not return to the land of Egypt; but the Assyrian shall be his king” (Hosea 11:5). Some scholars say that it might have been better if this were translated to say, “Won't he return to Egypt? And the Assyrian will be his king.”

So again, translation from ancient languages can be tricky. Either way, it doesn't change the great meaning, because Israel technically didn't go back to Egypt. But if we look to the southern kingdom, so I'm looking for my different colors. Yes, there we go.

Some of the survivors in the southern kingdom at the end of the book of Jeremiah, we see, did decide to go to Egypt. And God prophesied that it would go very badly for them. So there were some of the remnant of the conquest that went to Egypt. And again, as I said, it was not a good thing, not for deliverance.

Now, looking ahead, actually a lot of what's ahead is redemption. But I want to note in verse 11 of chapter 11, it says, “They shall come trembling like a bird from Egypt, and like a dove from the land of Assyria” (Hosea 11:11).

So God does punish, but He's always looking beyond that horizon to the eventual happy ending. You know, God has unfinished business with Israel. He is going to redeem them.

And as we're going to go into chapter 12, I'm going to skip ahead about the sword devouring cities and such, because we start to see some of God's feelings expressed here in this latter part of chapter 11.

He says, “How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel?” (Hosea 11:8).

You've got to think it's hard to do this. Not that God has difficulty executing His power, but you can see that He has feelings. It's like, well, I'm thinking of a parent that has to punish a child. Have you ever heard them say, “This hurts me more than it hurts you?” I always thought that when I was a kid. I said, I don't believe that for a second. You get that belt out. It's going to hurt me.

When I grew older, I saw it's a different kind of hurt.

It's very painful to have to punish. I'll note at the end of verse 8, it says, “How can I make you like Admah? How can I set you like Zeboim?” (Hosea 11:8).

You know, Admah and Zeboim. Well, you probably don’t. These were two smaller cities or villages that were destroyed when Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed. So Admah and Zeboim are the side effect of destroying Sodom and Gomorrah. How did God destroy Sodom and Gomorrah? With fire and brimstone from heaven. It was total destruction. So God is saying, can I do something like that to my people?

And at the end of verse 8, he says, “My heart churns within Me” (Hosea 11:8). I think I referenced this the other day, again showing how God feels. He doesn't love to punish. His heart churns within him. If you will, connect this to Ezekiel 6 verse 7.

6 verse 9, I misspoke. Ezekiel 6:9 is where God is talking about Israel cheating on him, and he says, “My heart was crushed by their adulterous heart” (Ezekiel 6:9). God says he was crushed. Here, he says his heart churns within him.

Maybe I can tell you a story that gave me some understanding of this. And I'll confess, this is a story that my older sister told me after our mother had passed away. Okay, so I was raised, like I said, with a single parent. My mom had to try to be both mom and dad, and she was strong. She was a great woman. But she knew sometimes she had to punish.

And so it turns out she shared this with my sister. And later my sister told me that mom would say, when you were kids, sometimes I'd have to spank you. And I'd send you to your rooms to cry. Because, you know, when you get spanked as a kid, you cry. And she told us that then I would go to my room, shut the door, and I would cry.

My mom, after she spanked us, she would go where we couldn't see her to cry. Because like God, her heart churned within her at having to punish. That, for some reason, it meant more to me hearing that it was my mom doing that. But I can imagine God feeling that way. God doesn't love to punish. It churns him up. It's tough.

And most of you don't have kids yet. But when you do, you'll have that feeling. You'll know how God feels when he punishes us. We've got some folks in the back row that do know what it feels like.

So remember this when you're fearful of God's punishment. We should be fearful of God's punishment. We don't want to invoke that. But God doesn't stop loving us. He never stops caring when he has to punish. He felt that way about Israel. He feels that way about each and every one of us.

And that's why in verse 9 he says, “I will not execute the fierceness of My anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim. For I am God, and not man” (Hosea 11:9).

So God is going to make things better. And he starts looking ahead to the time after punishment. In verse 10 he says, “They shall walk after the Lord. He will roar like a lion. When He roars, then His sons shall come trembling from the west” (Hosea 11:10).

By the way, without explaining a lot, I'll mention this seems to be talking about after Christ's return, after the great tribulation, in what we often call the second exodus. One reason I'll mention that is Israel in ancient times never came back from the west. They were taken away to Assyria and Babylon to the east. How can they be coming from the west? Well, they can if it's a much later time after God has punished, you know, in the future, and then is bringing them back.

What I'm saying again, God always has a very long horizon. And unlike Daniel and Revelation, where he puts everything in neat order, in these prophecies sometimes he'll move from one thing way to the future because God is always looking to the happy ending.

Now verse 11, “They shall come trembling like a bird from Egypt, like a dove from the land of Assyria; and I will let them dwell in their houses” (Hosea 11:11). Okay, good things. Good results.

“Ephraim has encircled Me with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit; but Judah still walks with God, even with the Holy One who is faithful” (Hosea 11:12).

At that particular time, Judah wasn't wholly corrupt. Most of Israel's kings were bad. That is, the northern kingdom. Judah had some good ones. This time period was probably when Hezekiah was king. And in the book of Isaiah, you see descriptions of Hezekiah looking to God for protection and worshiping him. Later on, Josiah would be the last good king of Judah.

And the point is, we had some good kings that saved Judah from terrible punishment. Okay, as we go into chapter 12, well, we continue some of this. We're talking about Ephraim's punishment.

“Ephraim feeds on the wind, and pursues the east wind” (Hosea 12:1).

Now, we could speculate on what that means, but pursuing the east wind, since we know to the east we have Assyria, to whom Israel has looked for alliances. But kind of like the bully that you give your lunch money to protect you from the other guy, and then he takes your lunch money, you know, appealing to Assyria for help leads to bad for Israel.

So, you know, they made a covenant with the Assyrians. “Oil is carried to Egypt” (Hosea 12:1). You know, it's working badly.

Verse 2, “The Lord also brings a charge against Judah.” It also brings a charge. So Judah is guilty, and they’ll be punished later. “They will punish Jacob according to his ways; according to his deeds He will recompense him” (Hosea 12:2).

And now God is going to spend some time talking about Jacob the man, in sort of reference to or contrast with the descendants of Jacob. Because in verse 3, “He took his brother by the heel in the womb” (Hosea 12:3).

That's talking about the relationship between Jacob and Esau. And if you read the account in Genesis, when they were born, you know, Esau comes out and he's hairy all over like a blanket, then Jacob, and he takes hold of him by the heel. And so they named him Jacob, which means, well, a supplanter is what it says in English. It could mean tripper-upper. Somebody who, it's like someone's walking down the aisle and you stick your leg out. You know, that's what Jacob's name means. So he took him by the heel. Okay.

“In his strength he struggled with God” (Hosea 12:3). “Yes, he struggled with the Angel and prevailed.” This is the story of Jacob wrestling all night. And you'll notice, Angel here is capitalized. We believe the one that Jacob wrestled all night with was the One, was the Word, the One who became Jesus Christ. So Jacob started off pretty poorly. He started off as the tripper-upper, but he turns to God and struggles. And his name is changed from Jacob to Israel, which means one who prevails with God. Or it could also mean prince with God. But he's somebody that's with God and turning to God.

And it says, “He wept, and sought favor from Him; He found Him in Bethel” (Hosea 12:4). Bethel was named that because that's where Jacob, you know, slept and had to had to rock by his head that he set up as a pillar. He said, this must be God's house.

He makes an early commitment to God. Sorry, I'm getting caught up in that story, but he made a commitment to God when at that time he didn't know God very well. I'll mention this about Jacob. Early on in his story, when he tricks his dad Isaac into blessing him, he keeps referring to Isaac's God. You know, Isaac said, how did you get the deer so quickly? Your God led me to it. Early in his life, Jacob referenced Isaac's God.

By the time we're referencing here, it becomes his God, and he'll become a prevailer with God. So Jacob is a story of someone who goes from bad to good, someone who's distant from God but grows close to God. And I think that's some of why God is referencing that here. You Israelites, his descendants, you're far from me. Let's develop a good relationship. Grow close to God.

Matter of fact, if you see in verse 6, after talking about all these things about Jacob, God says, “So you, by the help of your God, return; observe mercy and justice, and wait on your God continually” (Hosea 12:6).

Mercy and justice are two of the weightier matters that Jesus mentions in Matthew 23:23: “the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith”. I mentioned in another class earlier how we see themes in the Bible, recurring ideas, and this is one of them. Wait on your God. Obey your God.

Micah 6:8 says that similarly. “He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Micah 6:8).

I should add this to my notes for fundamentals. Okay.

And then he sort of turns, a cunning Canaanite, deceitful scales in his hands. Some translations say merchant instead of Canaanite, and the word often is used to portray a merchant. So it's an ethnic name that is used for something else too. And this seems to be referring to Israelites who got caught up in trying to get money. He loves to oppress.

Verse 8 says, “Ephraim said, ‘Surely I have become rich, I have found wealth for myself’” (Hosea 12:8). You know, sometimes when you get rich, you forget where riches come from, and you turn away from your God and don't pay attention.

Verse 9, “But I am the Lord your God ever since the land of Egypt; I will again make you dwell in tents, as in the days of the appointed feast” (Hosea 12:9).

It says, I'll make you dwell in tents might be referring to going into captivity. You're going to lose your permanent homes. Other people think since he's talking about the feast, is he talking about keeping the Feast of Tabernacles? The word there for tents is the same word. So we could look at this and say, what exactly is God saying? And in some ways, it's both. Israel would go into captivity and wander. But eventually, we'll come to know God and we'll keep his feast.

Verse 10, God says, “I have also spoken by the prophets, and have multiplied visions; I have given symbols through the witness of the prophets” (Hosea 12:10). God is trying to communicate.

Verse 11, “Though Gilead has idols—surely they are vanity—though they sacrifice bulls in Gilgal, indeed their altars shall be heaps in the furrows of the field” (Hosea 12:11). God never fails to proclaim his truth, but Israel often ignores it. And that's, I'm going to summarize here, you turn away from it.

Verse 12, “Jacob fled to the country of Syria; Israel served for a spouse, and for a wife he tended sheep” (Hosea 12:12). This is getting back to the true, the actual man, Jacob. You know, he did. He fled, remember, because his brother Esau wanted to kill him.

So he worked seven years for one wife and then seven more years to get the wife he thought he was working for the first time, you know that. So this is literally Jacob's story. So God is talking about how Jacob wandered and had to learn lessons. Israel, you're wandering away from me. Learn the lessons. Come back. Be like your ancestor, Jacob.

Getting into verse 13, “By a prophet the Lord brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet he was preserved” (Hosea 12:13).

Chapter 13, the first prophet, obviously, is Moses. God refers to Moses as a prophet. He led Israel out. By a prophet, he was preserved. Is it a type of Jesus Christ who would preserve Israel? Or possibly talking about in ancient Israel, sometimes God would send prophets to try to straighten them up.

Either way, Israel tends to keep resisting, pulling away. Verse 14, “Ephraim provoked Him to anger most bitterly” (Hosea 12:14).

Yeah, I brought you out of Egypt. I tried to get to know you, teach you my way. You're provoking me to anger. You know, you're sinning.

Then we go to chapter 13. “When Ephraim spoke trembling, he exalted himself in Israel; but when he offended through Baal worship, he died” (Hosea 13:1). So when Ephraim spoke, you could say people trembled. People listened. But when he offended through Baal and worship, he died.

You know, when you're seeking God and doing things the right way, you have influence. Things are going well. You turn to idol worship. It leads to death.

Verse 2, “Now they sin more and more, and have made for themselves molded images, idols of their silver, according to their skill; all of it is the work of craftsmen. They say of them, ‘Let the men who sacrifice kiss the calves’” (Hosea 13:2). And the Hebrew literally means bring to the lips, but it's an act of worship.

You know, you literally go up and kiss the idol, which God doesn't want.

Therefore, “they shall be like the morning cloud and like the early dew that passes away, like chaff blown off from the threshing floor and like smoke from a chimney” (Hosea 13:3). One metaphor after another, things that don't last.

They're here and they're gone. You know, morning cloud, think of fog, the sun blows it away. Dew, sun gets warm and the dew is gone. Chaff, smoke.

Yeah, Israel can be like that, especially what Israel's relationship to God keeps disappearing. I think I've used the word ephemeral to describe it.

But God says, “Yet I am the Lord your God ever since the land of Egypt, and you shall know no God but Me; for there is no savior besides Me” (Hosea 13:4). It's just worth pausing to say that's a powerful statement.

In the midst of Israel losing track and being sidetracked by other things, God says, I'm it. I am your God. Don't go anywhere else. No other God is God. No other God can save you.

“I knew you in the wilderness, in the land of great drought” (Hosea 13:5). When they were filled, you know, but they forgot Me. God never forgot them, just like He'll never forget us.

But when you turn away, of course, verse 7 says, “So I will be to them like a lion; like a leopard by the road” (Hosea 13:7). And so destruction comes.

You know, this is just saying because of Israel's sin, God changes from being like a caring, protecting shepherd to being like a ravaging predator. Boy, that's a dramatic change. Then the happy thing is God will turn back to being the caring parent. We never want to lose sight of that happy ending that's coming. But the punishment will come.

Okay, “O Israel, you are destroyed, but your help is from Me” (Hosea 13:9). You're destroyed, but your help is from Me. So I turned from a caring shepherd to a predator, but I'm going to be the one that helps you.

“I will be your King; where is any other?” (Hosea 13:10). God is making the point. I'm the one that's going to be there for you.

Sounds like a pop song in a sense. How many songs you said, I'll be there for you. There's a song. Oh, that's not the one I… okay, that's the words. But there's plenty others where, you know, whatever happens, I mean, God is like, I'm going to be here waiting. So because God has, what did we say at the beginning of the book? Unfailing love. You know, God might punish, but His heart churns at having to do it. Okay, so He's not always going to be in that role of the ravaging predator because He cares and He loves. So, you know, I'm going to do this. Where is any other who can save you?

Verse 11, “I gave you a king in My anger, and took him away in My wrath” (Hosea 13:11). And we could see that in Israel's history probably more than once.

But if you remember in 1 Samuel 8, 1 Samuel 8 is where they come to Samuel and say, make us a king like all the other nations. And Samuel is kind of upset, you know, and God's not happy about it. But God said, okay, you know, they can have a king, but it'll be the one that I show you, and they get Saul. And if we stick with just Saul himself, what happened to Saul?

God would take him away because he didn't obey God. God would say, I found a man after My own heart. We're going to anoint David to be king afterwards. On a longer term, He could be looking to when the Assyrians come in and Hoshea, the last king of Israel, is taken away. So we can see, God probably has more than one way of considering how He says this. But either way, I gave you a king. I'm going to take away the king. You know who's left in the end? God would say, Me. I'm still here. I'm the one.

And looking back at verse 10, “I will be your King; where is any other?” (Hosea 13:10).

Now, God establishes that I'm the true one.

Okay, verse 12, “The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; his sin is stored up” (Hosea 13:12). I could say it's reserved.

“The sorrows of a woman in childbirth shall come upon him. He is an unwise son, for he should not stay long where children are born” (Hosea 13:13).

And again, this is getting into metaphors that we might lose sight of. The sorrows of childbirth, I've never experienced and happy that I won't. But I hear it's pretty bad. I spent some time with my wife when she was in labor. And, you know, so that sorrows of childbirth is something painful. People, scholars have wondered where it says he should not stay long where children are born.

And we're not sure. Is it talking about someone that you clear people out of the room that you don't want there when you're having a baby? Or some scholars have speculated that it's talking about a difficult delivery. You know, if a child is not moving through the birth canal properly, and it gets stuck, or say it's breech, and it can't be delivered, it often in that era ended up in death. You know, they didn't have cesarean sections back then. So this could be a reference to if you don't follow through properly, it leads to death and destruction. Okay, but God is showing He has power over even that that won't be the end result.

And verse 14, “I will ransom them from the power of the grave.” Okay, sorrows of childbirth? Someone who stays too long where children are born? Maybe it's a stillbirth? “O Death, I will be your plagues! O Grave, I will be your destruction!” (Hosea 13:14).

God has power over death. I can't help but think of 1 Corinthians 15, the resurrection chapter. And actually, if I can get there quickly, I think it's stated rather poetically.

“Death is swallowed up in victory. O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?” (1 Corinthians 15:54–55).

You know, this is sort of a recurring theme. It's not a direct quote from here in Hosea, but God is saying, “grave, I'll be your destruction” (Hosea 13:14). Death is that last enemy that will be destroyed. I told you God's looking for the happy ending. Looking over the horizon, we see a hint of it here.

And so, yeah, keep that in mind when it goes back to some of the bad things. “The east wind will come. The wind of the Lord will come up from the wilderness. A spring will become dry and a fountain dried up.” (Hosea 13:15) Yeah, but I'm not forgetting that God is the one that's there that will overcome death.

Verse 16, “Samaria is held guilty. She's rebelled against her God, and they'll fall by the sword.” (Hosea 13:16) And we referenced this earlier. Infants dashed in pieces and women with child ripped open. I don't know if we referenced that exactly, but, you know, that east wind seems to be referring to the Assyrians coming from the east.

So, destruction is coming. And in a sense, God is saying, hey, you didn't want me around. I'm going to let him in. All the while, we won't forget that he's the one that is going to redeem from death. He's going to redeem from destruction.

So, when the infants fall by the sword, we understand that God is going to resurrect them in a wonderful new world. And I never want to lose sight of that because otherwise it'd be pretty depressing. So, when, you know, God lets a punishment happen, even though it turns his heart to have to do it, he's seeing the good.

In chapter 14, the last chapter of the book, I think I mentioned when I was in the introduction that we have these main parts of the book. The first three chapters have this allegory or analogy with Hosea marrying a prostitute who's unfaithful, but Hosea still loves her, being like God loving Israel.

I said then chapters 4 through 13 are largely indictment oracles, listing Israel's sins and the punishment to come. And then chapter 14 focuses more on redemption. So, although we've had hints of it before, chapter 14 brings it out much better. Much better, more better, more happily, something like that.

So, let's see. It starts with repentance. “Oh, Israel, return to the Lord your God, for you've stumbled because of your iniquity” (Hosea 14:1). Return to the Lord your God. And returning and repenting have that same image. Okay?

Because, you know, you've sinned. Repentance always involves acknowledging sin. Okay? You confess your sins not to any man. You confess your sins to God, and he will forgive.

Verse 2 says, “Take words with you and return to the Lord. Say to him, take away all iniquity. Receive us graciously, for we will offer the sacrifices of our lips” (Hosea 14:2).

There's an interesting imagery here when he says, take words with you. Because in the sacrificial system, when you're going to ask forgiveness, what would you take? You'd bring along a lamb or goat. You're taking a sacrificial animal.

Here, God talks about the sacrifices of our lips. So he's saying, take your words. We do have to acknowledge, as I said, we've got to confess to God and ask his forgiveness, and he will forgive. By the way, there's some other references to what we would call spiritual sacrifices in the Old Testament. This is one of those cases of what we call New Testament theology here in the Old Testament. Jeremiah 33:11.

Jeremiah 33:11 references the sacrifice of praise. Sacrifice of praise, as in sacrifices of our lips. And I believe Paul quotes that in Hebrews 13:15. So if you were thinking, no, I thought it's Hebrews that said that. Yes, it does.

I'll mention also in David's Psalm of repentance, Psalm 51, and Psalm 51 verse 17, he says, “the sacrifices of God are a broken heart. A broken and contrite heart you will not despise” (Psalm 51:17).

Earlier, when we talked about the sacrifices that God wasn't pleased with, you know, because, you know, it's just you might as well be eating a steak. God wants the sacrifice of praise. He wants the broken heart. In ancient Israel, he also wanted the animal sacrifice, but from the right attitude and with the right goal. And so we don't do animal sacrifice, but we do still do spiritual sacrifices. So God could be talking to us when sometimes in our life we have to take our words and return to God.

So I'd better find my right words, go out in the well—I'd better not take that analogy too far. It'll get silly. It's not a silly subject. Verse 3 goes on to acknowledge Assyria will not save us. Okay, we're looking to God only now. We're not going to ride on horses. We're not going to say to the work of our hands, you're our gods.

In Israel, they fashion gods out of wood and stone and metal. And in some passages of Isaiah, God elaborates on that. He'll say, get a load of this. They take part of a fallen tree, they cut it in half, and they make this part into an idol. And this part they cut into firewood, and they're keeping warm with it. And then they turn back to this part and say, save us, you're our God.

Here he's saying, not going to do that anymore. Not going to look at the work of our hands and ask it to save us. We're going to turn to the true God. At the end of verse 3 he says, “For in you the fatherless finds mercy.” (Hosea 14:3) That's in the true God. And when they find mercy, it makes me think of the story at the beginning. It's Ruhama.

Okay. Those who are destitute are Ruhama, not Lo-Ruhama. And God says in verse 4, “I'll heal their backsliding. I'm going to undo their turning away. I'm going to love them freely” (Hosea 14:4).

He loved them all along. That's why his heart churned when he had to punish them.

He said, “My anger has turned away. My anger has turned away from him. I'll be like the dew to Israel. He'll grow like the lily and lengthen his roots like Lebanon.”(Hosea 14:5)

Now we get into these colorful metaphors that can be lost on city folk. “His branches will spread, his beauty like an olive tree, his fragrance like the Lebanon. Those who dwell under his shadow shall return.” (Hosea 14:6-7)

Okay. So under his shadow is like basically we're close to God. Reminds me—this isn't the same thing—but do you remember when Jesus is coming to Jerusalem for the last time before he's crucified? He's going to be crucified soon. He says, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how many times I wanted to gather you as a hen gathers its chicks? You know, similar. Under his shadow and they're taken care of.

Now grow like a vine. Their scent shall be like the wine of Lebanon. Verse 8, “Ephraim says, what am I going to do with idols anymore?” I don't want anything to do with that. I have heard and obeyed him. You know, “God, I'm like a cypress tree. Your fruit is found in me.” (Hosea 14:8)

So we're starting to wrap up. “Who is wise? Let him understand these things. Who is prudent? Let him know them. The ways of the Eternal are right. The righteous walk in them, but transgressors stumble in them.” (Hosea 14:9)

I turn the page and it's Joel. That means we got to the end of Hosea.

It's worth pausing and saying this last section of verses is a description of God's great love. And, you know, the poetic imagery tends to be lost a little bit on us from this era, saying it's like the dew and the cypress tree. You know, that probably meant a lot more to ancient Israelites than it would to us.

But it still, to me, evokes an image of good, living, you know, fruitful things. I'm having trouble putting into words. I might as well just stick to this.

So, but I love the fact that God says, I'll heal the backsliding. I'll love them freely. As I said, if we think of Hosea, it's good to think of God's unfailing love. And he shows it in a lot of different ways in this book.

So, we're wrapping up. I'm not going to rehash all of Hosea. I will say the rest of most of the minor prophets are shorter, and we don't get long indictment oracles going on and on. So, well, we'll turn to the book of Joel next. Joel has a very different theme, but I shouldn't talk too much about that. We'll pick that up next class. So, thanks very much. We'll plan to end this, and next time we'll pick up with the book of Joel.