epcblog

Devotional thoughts (Monday through Thursday mornings) from the pastor of Exeter Presbyterian Church in Exeter, NH // Sunday Worship 10:30am // 73 Winter Street

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Hosea 8

The sound of the trumpet always indicated some news of importance to the community as a whole. In many instances it was a warning concerning an adversary who was drawing near for battle. Here the coming of enemy forces that the Lord will use to bring His judgment upon Israel is announced. The Assyrian empire will be a vulture going after her prey. Israel is called here the house of the Lord because the Lord is to dwell with His people. But what will God do when His people continue to transgress His commandments? They have violated His covenant, and they must face the curse that the Lord had announced against the nation should they rebel against His Law.

Though in their distress they might sound that they were very religious and faithful to the Lord, God knows the thoughts and intentions of every human heart. They may call out to Him using the words, “My God.” They may assert that they know Him in some way that is beyond the normal way that all men know God. They claim to know Him as those who have a special connection with Him. Yet this connection does not extend to recognizing Him as Master in anything other than a ceremonial. The Lord will not be mocked. The enemies of Israel will pursue them, and they will face much trouble.

The northern kingdom, especially in her final years, moved quickly from king to king. The split between north and south, though ordained by the Lord for His purposes, originally left the south in the hands of Reheboam, the son of Solomon, and the north under the rule of Jereboam. This Jereboam set up unauthorized objects for worship in the north in the form of calves, as an effort to keep the people from worshiping before the Lord in Jerusalem. The real king over God’s people was to be descended from Judah. Yet at the end of the northern kingdom the Israelites moved from king to king through assassination and intrigue. These rulers did not have the blessing of God, and they did not follow the Lord. Throughout the history from Jereboam through the destruction of the nation by Assyria, the kings of the north seemed to lead the people in the direction of idolatry and disaster, even though there were periods of merciful blessing from God over all those years.

This Jereboam made two calves of gold for his people to worship, claiming that these calves represented or were the gods who brought them up out of the land of Egypt. In God’s indictment against the northern tribes through Hosea, He takes aim at this idol worship. He indicates that he is angry at the calf, for it stands for this nation of idolaters. The calf is nothing more than an object made by men, but by the choice of king and people alike it stands for their rebellion against the true Redeemer. This kind of idolatry is a provocation against the Lord, who is slow to anger. Eventually those who keep on planting vanity will yield a crop of spiritual nothingness that will take over their land. Nothingness is a nasty weed that can ruin any good crop and lead to desolation.

Of course the real problem for Israel will not be weeds or crop failure but people. If Israel would not be fruitful in her love and service of the Lord, what purpose would she have in the days of Hosea and beyond? She was a vessel for the Lord’s pleasure, but she rejected her Maker and had lost all sense of her true purpose. She wandered from one nation to another trying to find out who she was. Soon her allies would exact tribute from her that would bring suffering, but her real challenge would come from the Lord. As time continued over the centuries, the ways and laws of the Lord seemed more and more like a strange thing to the nation. She had returned to the Egypt of spiritual bondage, and the Lord would soon devour her with fire from Assyria, a fire that would destroy her strongest defenses.

There is a day of judgment that is coming, not only for one nation, but for the whole world. The Assyrian victory over the northern kingdom was not something that people could have missed. Once it happened everyone was fully aware of it. It will be that way again when the Lord returns, only much more so, since the sign of His return will fill the heavens. Just as Hosea announced beforehand what would soon happen in His day, there is no excuse for our surprise at the idea that the current age that we are enjoying and enduring will one day come to an end. The same Jesus who went to the cross for our sins has told us that this will happen. Yet we doubt. He called out to God in His distress with the words, “My God.” Yet He was the utterly faithful “Israel” before God, and His pleas were heard, a fact that was confirmed in His resurrection for us. He is the Substitute of all His guilty “Israel” who turn to Him as our only hope.

The next age is an age of resurrection, either to blessedness or to destruction. The coming again of the Messiah that will be heralded through that cosmic sounding of the final trumpet will hail not only great salvation for the elect, but a final judgment upon all mankind. There is only one way to stand in that day. We need to be found in Christ. We need to be chosen by Him. We need to call upon His Name. There is one God who has you in the palm of His hands. He planned your existence and then accomplished your conception and birth. He knows the number of your days, and when you close your eyes on your last day here, He is able to awaken you in His presence in a place where there is no doubt at all about Him and His good plan. He is able to wrap you in His arms, and to take you with all your bruises and weakness. On that day when you lay down your burdens from this life, you will know that you are at peace, safe and whole. You do not have to wait for that day to have this kind of assurance. You can grow in that faith now. This is what your life is all about. To know that now by faith is one way that He carries us through the challenge of living in a world where we feel his displeasure with our obvious willful disobedience.

posted by Pastor Magee @ 6:00 AM

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