UNFAITFULNESS LOSES BLESSINGS
Hosea 1:1-11
In general, we don\’t think of ourselves as being the bride of Christ. Jesus is
the bridegroom and His Church is the bride. All believers have been brought
with a price; the blood of Jesus. We are His forever. Anytime we sin, go
against His commands or ignore His commands we are being unfaithful.
Unfaithfulness has consequences.
THE WORD IS THE AUTHORITY
V:1 The word of the Lord that came to Hosea son of Beeri during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and during the reign of Jeroboam son of Jehoash king of Israel:
- The Lord uses faithful people as messengers to bring a word to His people.
- God identified His prophet by his father.
- He fixed the time of His message by the reining kings of that time.
- Our history books can confirm the time and the names of the kings.
- The only word worth repeating is a word from the Lord.
- In studying God\’s Word, we will find the truths for successful living.
- In studying God\’s Word, we will find reproofs for our sins.
- In studying God\’s Word, we find examples of how God deals with sin.
- In studying God\’s Word, we will find the tools for successful living.
ISRAEL\’S UNFAITHFULNESS
V:2. \” When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, \”Go, take to yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness, because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the Lord.\”
- Following God\’s Word is not always easy.
- Sometimes following God\’s Word will appear to go against our traditions and His
teaching.
- It takes faith in the Word of God to do what He says do.
- God directed Hosea to marry an adulterous woman or a woman brought up in a
society where adultery was common practice.
- This went against the doctrine of marrying a virtuous woman.
- Be not unequally yoked with unbelievers. 2 Cor 2:14
- God\’s command to Hosea, had nothing to do with him but everything to do with
the unfaithfulness of the people of Israel.
- God\’s ways are not our ways and His thoughts are not our thoughts.
- Hosea\’s marriage was an example to Israel of their adulterous state.
- Israel had rejected God in favor of idol worship.
- God made a covenant with Abraham which was based on Israel faithfulness to
Him.
- Israel failed, not God.
END TO THE KINGDOM
V:3-4. \” So he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.
4 Then the Lord said to Hosea, \”Call him Jezreel, because I will soon punish the house of Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel.\”
- Without hesitation Hosea allowed his life to be used as an example for Israel.
- Obedience to God\’s commands is best even when we don\’t understand them.
- The name Gomer means, corruption or rotten figs.
- God commanded Hosea to marry a women who He knew would be unfaithful
to him.
- Jesus the bridegroom is married to the Church in our unfaithful state.
- While we were yet sinners, Christ died on the cross.
- Gomer gave Hosea a son.
- God commanded Hosea to name the son Jezreel.
- The name Jezreel was used as a prophecy that the unfaithful of Israel would no
longer be called Israelites but Jezreelites,
- Jezreel means scattered.
- Instead of being God\’s people settled in the promise land, they would be scattered
outside the promise land.
- Obedience to God\’s commands provides comfort, protection, security and provisions.
- Disobedience leads to a separation from God and a lost of blessings.
V:5 In that day I will break Israel\’s bow in the Valley of Jezreel.\”
- This is a prophecy of God\’s wrath on the nation of Israel.
- Because of Israel\’s disobedience, God allowed the Babylonians to destroy
Israel, burn down the city and take the people captive for seventy years.
- There is always a consequence for disobedience.
- B. God knows beforehand that we will be disobedient.
- He punishes us in our disobedience to draw us back to Him and to
strengthen our faith.
- By ourselves, we are unable to keep His commands.
- His wrath is designed to break us down so that He can reshape us in the image
of His Son.
NO LONGER SHOW LOVE
V:6 .\”Gomer conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. Then the Lord said to Hosea, \”Call her Lo-Ruhamah, for I will no longer show love to the house of Israel, that I should at all forgive them. \”
- The worst thing that can happen to you is for God to withdraw His love.
- When God takes His hand of protection from you, Satan is allowed to destroy you.
- It is by the love of God that we continue to exist.
- It is by God\’s hand of protection that our enemies cannot do to us what they planned.
- God will tolerate our disobedience for a while.
- God is longsuffering.
- He tolerated Israel\’s disobedience for 700 years.
- God gives us time to repent and get right with Him.
- There comes a time when God allows us to suffer the consequences of our sins.
GOD\’S LOVE IN THE MIST OF DISOBEDIENCE
V:7. \” Yet I will show love to the house of Judah; and I will save them — not by bow, sword or battle, or by horses and horsemen, but by the Lord their God.\”
- In 701 BC, God delivered the southern kingdom from the hands of the Assyrians.
- God killed 185000 Assyrian soldiers
- The Lord sent an angel into the camp of the Assyrian army to kill them.
2 Kings 19:32-36
- Tough times sends us to our knees in prayer.
- Hezekiah prayed to the Lord when the city was threaten by the Assyrian
Army.
- Prayer works. You and God is the majority.
- One angel of God is more powerful than 185000 armed men.
- The battle is not yours, it is the Lord.
- It is out of the tribe of Judah that Joseph and Mary were descendants.
- Jesus took on human flesh in the body of Mary a virgin,
- God\’s promises are not changed by the sins of any group of people.
YOU ARE NOT MY PEOPLE
V:8-9. \” After she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, Gomer had another son.
9 Then the Lord said, \”Call him Lo-Ammi, for you are not my people, and I am not your God.\”
- The third child of Hosea was called Lo-Ammi.
- Those who reject the Lord are not His people.
- Jesus said, If you love me, keep my commandments. John 14:15
- Jesus also said My mother, brothers and sister are those who obey my commands.
Mark 3:33
- The nation of Israel continued their disobedient behavior after entering
the Promise Land (1490 BC)
- God promised a redeemer in the Garden of Eden after the sin of Adam.
- The promise of a redeemer was fulfilled with birth of Jesus.
- God has a history of keeping His promises and being tolerant with us.
- It is by the Grace of God that we were drawn to Christ.
- It is by the Grace of God that we were given a measure of faith to accept Jesus
as our personal Savior.
- The world cannot receive Christ and are left in a state of damnation.
SONS AND DAUGHTERS OF THE LIVING GOD
V:10 \”Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted. In the place where it was said to them, \’You are not my people,\’ they will be called \’sons of the living God.\”
- When Jesus established His Church with His death and resurrection, both Jews
and Gentiles became the new Israel.
- The members of the body of Christ can not be numbered.
- Everyday the Church adds new members as God\’s elect are drawn to Him.
- In Jesus Christ we are new creations in Christ Jesus.
- We have been adopted in to the body by our faith in Jesus.
- We are sons and daughters of the living God.
JESUS THE HEAD OF THE CHURCH
V:11. \” The people of Judah and the people of Israel will be reunited, and they will appoint one leader and will come up out of the land, for great will be the day of Jezreel.
- This prophecy will have it\’s ultimate fulfillment in the Millennium Kingdom.
- Christ is the Head of the Church.
- The Nation of Israel has rejected Christ as their head.
- They believe in God but not the Holy Trinity.
- They follow the Old Testament Laws but not the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
- After Christ returns for His Church, He will establish the Millennium Kingdom
in which He will be ruler on earth for a thousand years and all Israel will be saved.
1 Thes 4:16-18, Rev 20:4, Rom 11:26
- God will take the remnant that come out of the tribulation and grow up a new
nation of Israelites who will worship His Son. Mic 2:12, Jer 23:3
- At the Name of Jesus every knee shall bow. Phil 2:10.
FOLLOW CHRIST AND NOT THE WORLD
Rev. M. Mitchell
Asst Pastor of Greater Macedonia Baptist Church
5510 West Sam Houston Parkway
Houston, Texas
