Hosea 2:3-4

Josea chapter 2 verses 1 to 4, say unto your brethren, amy, and your sister’s Ruhama. Plead with your mother, plead, for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband. Let her therefore put away her hoardings out of her sight and her adulteries from between her breasts. 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. I will not have mercy upon her children, for they be the children of Hortems. And now also as a corollary passage, I invite you to turn with me the book of Ezekiel, the book of Ezekiel. Ezekiel chapter 16 and beginning with verse 3. And say, thus say it the Lord God unto Jerusalem. Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan. Thy father was an Amarite and their mother. A Hittite. And as for thy nativity, in the day that thou was born, thy navel was not cut, neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee. Thou hast not salted at all, or swallowed at all. None I pitied thee to do any. any of these things under thee, to have compassion upon thee. But thou was cast out in the open field to the loathing of thy person in the day that thou was born. When I passed by thee and saw thee polluted in thy own blood, I said unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood, live, yea, I said unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood, live, yea, I said unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood, live. And I cause thee to multiply as the bud of the field, and thou hast increased and waxing great, and are come to excellent ornaments. Thy breast are fashioned, thine hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked and bare. Now when I passed by thee and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love, and I spread my skirt my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness. Yea, I swear unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, said the Lord, God, and thou becameest mine. Then washed I thee with water, yea, I thoroughly washed away thy blood. from thee. I anointed thee with oil. I clothed thee also with broidered work, and shod thee with badger skin. I girded thee about with fine linen, and I covered thee with silk. I decked thee also with ornaments. I put bracelets upon thy hands and a chain on thy neck, and I put a jolt on thy forehead, and I put a jewel on thy forehead, an earring. in thy ears and a beautiful crown upon thy head. Thou wast, thus thou decked with gold and silver, and thy raiment was a fine linen and silk, embroidered work. Thou didst eat fine flower and honey and oil. Thou wast exceedingly beautiful, and thou didst prosper into a kingdom. and thy renown went forth among the heathen for thy beauty, for it was perfect through my comeliness, which I have put upon thee, set the Lord God. And the Lord blessed of us his reading, the reading of His sacred and holy word this evening. It is amusing sometimes to pick up a photo album of the family and look back through it, see the pictures that are in it and you see yourself growing up. You start out as this tiny infant with a wrinkled face and bald head, squinting at the bright lights as someone tries to snap your picture. Soon you’re crawling around on getting in all sorts of poses for some humorous pictures. Perhaps you’ve got a bowl on your head or jelly smeared all over your face and in your hair. Maybe you’re eating out of the dog dish. and there’s always the bathtub photo that seems every family has. I remember when my daughters were growing up, they liked spaghetti. And when we had spaghetti, they had spaghetti in there all over their face, in their hair, on their hands, on the floor. It was just everywhere. But if you keep flipping through the album, you see yourself working your way, you know, through school, you know, the grade school, and then the high school. and then to college and there’s graduation. The tasseled days are there. And then comes your wedding day. There’s a beautiful ceremony, the white gown, the tuxedo, the cake, the flowers, the garter, and bouquet toss, and so forth. And before you know it, now you’re taking pictures of your kids and putting them into it. and album. Israel is handed a photo album, so to speak, here by God. He says, I want you to look at this. I want to see, I want you to see where you came from and what I did for you. And that’s what he’s doing in this text of Scripture. But she might recall the days of her youth. She didn’t have a very happy childhood, as Ezekiel tells us. But she had a glorious wedding to Jehovah, which changed her life completely. But like Josea’s wife Gomer, who played the harlot, Israel played the harlot with other gods. And this provoked the Lord God to anger. I said in Chapter 2, we can look at it from two two different perspectives. On the one level, it certainly, I think, has reference to Josea and his wife. But on the higher level, and probably the main point that God is making here is, this is how you are Israel, with me. So we see here tonight God’s threat to return Israel back to what she was before. Think about that. Because that’s what he was. he’s talking about here in this passage. God puts the photo album in her hands, says, you want to go back to this? Because that’s where you’re going to go if you don’t repent, if you don’t change your ways. And I think that’s the point here. Now, in Ezekiel chapter 16, verses 3 to 6, he talks about the day she was born. Ezekiel 16, I think, provides a commentary on the condition of, Israel when she was born here. This is God’s photo album, so to speak. God shows the Israelites a picture of their parents. Your father was an Amarite, Abraham, and your mother was a Hittite. Sarah. What is God’s point here? I think God’s point is this. From the very first, you had the spirit and the disposition of a Canaanite. The Amir. and Hittites were very vile and wicked, a brood of vipers, if you would. Children of the devil, given over to the false gods and various superstitions. And God is emphasizing the fact here that there was no reason for him to reach out and show Israel mercy, except for his pure grace. There’s no reason why they became a great nation, except for his mercy to them. The fact that God called Abraham, brought it into salvation as a matter of pure grace, that he made him as the stars of heaven, his offspring, and the sand of the seashore, again, was really God showing great mercy to the nation. Even when God came to deliver Israel out of Egypt, it was obvious the Israelites were rebrand. religious, proud, and very wicked people. God now points to a picture of Israel’s a baby. Now this is not a normal baby photograph, so to speak, for God tells us here that she was a baby cast into the open field and left to die, abandoned, crying her little lungs out, starving to death, exposed to the elements. We think about the birth of Israel as a nation. I think we have to refer to that period where they were delivered from Egyptian bondage. And what happened when they were in Egypt? Wasn’t it true that Faviril had the children, especially the male children, cast out, cast into the now, left exposed? that crocodiles ate them or something. They didn’t care. That was a terrible situation to be in. They were a nation in that situation doomed to destruction. It was Pharaoh’s idea to reduce them to nothing. If all the males were gone, they’re not going to be any reproduction, and therefore, you know, that’ll be it for them. Pharaoh demanded that they get rid of it. of all the male children. And remember how God intervened with the midwives, and then later, in a very miraculous way, with Pharaoh’s own daughter, which he finds Moses hidden out there in the bulrushes, this little basket that was made to float on the Nile River. The picture of Israel as a baby here shows a lack of care. The biblical cord was not. caught so the navel would form. She was not salted. They used salt sort of as an antiseptic to rub on the body. Sometimes it’s mixed with water to take any disease or bacteria or something off of it. No one cared enough to wash the infant of the afterbirth and pollution that comes with the birth of the child. She’s covered with blood and pollution out there in the field. She’s naked. No one cared enough to wrap her in a blanket to warm her. God is saying, you were despised and rejected as a people. That’s the way you were. Then God indicates in verse 6, a picture showing how he spared Israel from uttered ruin. He basked. by her, he saw her on the brink of ruin, abandoned, crying, covered with blood, and God said, live. I decided that you would live. I caused Pharaoh’s daughter to adopt Moses for her own son, and he was your deliverer. And I later sent Pharaoh, uh, Moses, to Pharaoh to demand that he set you free. I plagued Egypt so that he would. And when you were escaping open the Red Sea for you, you crossed over on dry land, and when the Egyptians tried to do so with their chariots and army, I drowned them. I had pity upon you. I gave life to you in a situation where you were sure to die. So we see the day Israel was born. We also see the ornaments that God gave the nation. In verses 7 to 14 here in Ezekiel 16. God caused Israel to multiply, to tour, to develop into a full womanhood, as he tells us here in verse 7. I cause thee to multiply as the bud of the field and thou hast increased and waxing great. Thou art come to excellent ornaments. Thy breast are fashioned. Mine hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked and bare. Now God shows Israel some photos that she grew up under his care and how she flourished. and how he nourished her and took care of her. And God certainly kept his promise to Abraham to make a great nation out of her. And God says as a child, you grew into an adult. Your breasts were fashioned. They took the shape and the form of a beautiful young woman. And without getting vulgar, the hair growth, I think, has to deal with the time of the time of puberty. She reached the meritable age where she could now be someone who could marry. And so we find God caused her to multiply and mature and develop into full womanhood. And then in verses 8 and 9, we have this God promises here and he enters into a covenant relationship with Israel. Now when I pass by thee and looked upon thee, behold thy time was the time of love. I spread my skirt over thee and covered thy nakedness. Yea, I swear unto thee and entered into a covenant with thee, said the Lord God, and thou became this mine. And I washed, and then washed I thee with water. Yea, I thoroughly washed away thy blood from thee. And I anointed thee with a will. Now we come to the marriage photo. God says, I looked upon you. You were of age to be married. And he reaches out to her. He makes the advance toward her. And he reaches out. The Lord passed by her. It’s not as if she was some beauty queen. As verse 9 would indicate to us, she had to get cleaned up a whole lot. But God fixes his eye upon her. And with special affection, he cherishes her as a person he would betroth of his wife. He spread his skirt over her. And this reminds us, of course, of the book of Ruth. When Ruth laid down at Boaz’s feet. feet. And the idea is to take her under his protection and care. So he enters into a marriage covenant where she became the Lord’s. It was customary for brides when they were marrying kings to pass through a period of purification. Remember Esther had like a 12-month period of purification before she could go in and see the king. Well, here the Lord cleans her up. so to speak, purifies her, gives her beauty treatment, so to speak. She was naturally unfit for the marriage. But he makes her fit. And here we have a picture of the covenant of grace the Lord enters into with his people, how he protects and watches over and provides for them graciously. washes them, cleans them up. It’s interesting in Ephesians 5, the Lord washes the church, cleanses it, sanctifies it. So it’s without blemation or without spawn. So God entered to a covenant relationship with Israel, the marriage. And then God bestowed many gifts upon Israel in verses 10 to 14. Now we have pictures of the marriage years, how he furnished her with the best of gifts. It’s richly embroidered clothing and silk and fine linen and beautiful jewelry and earrings and shoes of badger skins and ornaments of silver and gold and a beautiful crown. They put on her head like a queen. All these things stand out here. And as a consequence of her honorable position, She’s furnished. the best of provisions, flour, honey, and oil. So she prospered greatly. She had everything she needed because God took care of her. So much so that her fame and beauty were such that the heathen were envious of her. As it tells us in this passage of scripture as well. You can remember the days of David, especially in Solomon’s Day, how great Israel became. thirdly now, and now we go back to Josea, God threatens to return Israel to the misery of youth. Now he’s seen what the youth was like. We looked through the photographs. He says, this is where you’re going back to if you don’t repent. So here in Josea, chapter 2, verses 3 and 4, he says, 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. And I will not have mercy upon her children, for they be the children of hoarders. Now, it was customary among the Jews when you were married, that whatever dowry a woman a woman brought her husband would be written down. and recorded and if he would afterwards divorce her, that dowry would be returned to her. However, if she, if he could prove that she had committed some vile sin, he would be sent away naked. And the idea is you’re committed vile sin. You’re going to be sent away naked. So God threatens Israel. She persisted in her idolatry. She persisted in her impotence. She persisted in her impenance. She persisted in her unbelief. She’s going to strip everything up. She’s going to be sent away without anything. Naked, totally destitute. New Testament, we find a similar idea in the in the book of Romans, or excuse me, in the book of John 11, what were the Jews worried about? That the Romans would come and take away their place in their nation. One, somebody has to die for the nation. That’s going to have to be Christ. They were worried about that. And God points here to the sad baby picture of Israel and says, this is what you’re going to return to. Think that over. She will be made a wilderness, he says, in a dry land. The promised land was a place of milk and honey. God’s rich blessings rested upon it. It had the early rain and the latter rain and good crops and so forth normally. But God now threatens to dry it all up and make it a wilderness. The hedge of God’s protection is going to be taken away from the nation. She would be laid open. for all the wild beasts. Here we’re talking about the heathen nations around her to come in and devire her. Remember in the book of Daniel, chapter in chapter 7, you have all those beasts that come out of the sea. That’s this special heathen nations that we’re talking about. They’re beasts. No good thing would grow among her. The plague of God would run. upon us Jeremiah 17, 5, and 6 says this. Curse it be the man whose heart departeth from the Lord, for he shall be like the heath, the heath, the bush or shrub, in the desert, and shall not see good come, but shall inhabit the parts, places in the wilderness in a salt land and not inhabited. That’s what’s coming. That’s what’s coming for you. It’s interesting. book of revelation that Israel is portrayed as being in the wilderness. Did you ever notice that? It comes back to these kind of passages of scripture here in the Old Testament. A dry land. You know, the godly man, we’re told in Psalm 1, is like a tree planted by the rivers of water. Got plenty of water. But an ungodly person gets the parched land. that’s what we seem to have here. God promises the slayer with thirst. Now, dying of thirst is a horrible way to die. And one could understand this being a terrible situation. If you’re out there in the wilderness, a dry land and there’s nothing to drink. I read a story about King Darias of the Persians. who fled from his enemies at one point. He reached an area where a point in which he was dying of thirst in his escape. He was a man that was used to the most delightful drinks imaginable, exotic fruit drinks, all sorts of mixed drinks. And now he was dying of thirst. And he came, he said, across a dirty puddle of water, what made matters worse that was the day. carcass of some animal lying in it. But in his desperation, he drank the water. He said it was the sweetest water I ever drank. God seems here to be referring to thirst. May perhaps we should see it in a spiritual light. A thirst, not for literal water, but a thirst of hearing the word of God, the water, the water of the water. of the word that the Bible speaks about. Behold the days come, sayeth the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not of famine of bread nor thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. They shall wander from sea to sea and eat from north to east. They shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord and shall not find it. Cut them off. No life-giving. message from God. The ministers of God would disappear from their midst. And then he says her children would be rejected. Here in verse 4. Though the judgment in punishing the sins of the fathers upon the children, we spoke of previously, private citizens are sort of like the sons and the daughters of the nation, whereas the kings and princes and so forth are like the parents. if you would, or the adults and the family, the mothers and the fathers. So when God threatens no mercy to the children here, he’s threatening not only the state of Israel, but also the individual Israelites in particular are going to have to undergo these things. They’re going to be rejected. Now, again, I remind you, God always has a remnant according to his election of grace, that he’s going to save. But a lot of those in the Northern Kingdom are going to perish and be rejected because he says that they were brought up in Hortem. You’re the sons and daughters of Hortem. When you look at their parents, the kings and the princes and so forth, what did they lead them to do with to worship false gods? Set up false gods like the golden calves, that they had set up and so forth. And so they engaged in false worship and indoctrinated the people in that false worship. And so they are without excuse and they rejected God’s prophets as well. So here’s the picture. He says this is where you’re going to go back. This is what I’m going to leave you in this state. Now, what can we gain from this ourselves. Let me say this. God may strip you of material gifts, physical gifts, that he gives you in this life. Now, I certainly believe in the perseverance of the saints that once God saves a person, they don’t lose their salvation. But there are common gifts that God grants and many professors who are without genuine faith may be given various gifts of God and yet perish. God takes them away. I’m talking about the ornaments that God gives individuals, not salvation itself. There’s an interesting passage in Ezekiel chapter 46 verses 16 and 17. Where God tells us if a king gives gifts to his servants those gifts have to be returned during the year of Jubilee. So they’re not permanently given to the servants. But if he gives gifts to his sons, they are permanent. They become their inheritance. Can I put it this way? When God gives gifts to those who say they are his servants, they can be taken back. When God gives gifts to his true children who are the sons of the king, they are permanent and will stay with us. And so there are many who are outwardly belong to the visible church and we find that God may take away what they appear to possess. Remember in the book of Luke chapter 8, in verse 18. He talks about God taking away what they seemingly have and giving it to someone else. God’s true children never lose spiritual graces. They’re the sons of the king. We might lose sometimes common gifts, but not spiritual grace. Now, you remember King Nebuchadnezzar. You remember how he had one of the wonders of the world in his city of Babylon. And he had power, he had majesty, he had greatness, but he forgot where it came from. And in his pride, in his arrogance, God struck him. He took away his mental capability so they thought like a beast, like some wild animal. and the next thing we know, he’s out there eating grass and acting like a wild animal. He loses all the honor and the majesty and the position that he had. He had said, this is great Babylon that I have built. And God said, oh no, you did. I was the one that gave you this. And I can take it away from me. And he does. And it’s interesting. that the kingdom departed from him. And so instead of being in the palace, he’s in the pasture, which is crazy. But there he is. And God warned him in a dream that if he doesn’t, you know, repent, if he doesn’t change his ways, that God’s going to judge him. And Daniel interprets the dream for him. But there he is, like some crazy creature. out there eating grass like an ox. He’s due covered. It’s a picture of humility. And you know what? He stayed in that condition until he lifted his head heavenward. God gave him back his capability to think again as a man. And he blessed the most high and praised and praised and honor him who lives forever. Until he recognized God as the giver of all these things, says, okay, I’ll take them away from you. My friends, everything we have, our possessions, our position, our potential comes from God. He is the source of your strength, the giver of your talents, the one who controls your circumstances. And when you continue in sin, you may be deprived of God’s protective hand. He may allow your enemies to take advantage of you. He may humble you you in various ways. He may make you indeed like the prodigal son so that you are brought to your senses and you return to him. For a time, you may enjoy sin for ways, but in the end, you’re going to find yourself destitute and empty and longing to return to your heavenly father. That’s the way God works in people’s lives. God may strip you of your gifts. Notice here, it is a grievous judgment to be cast down from a privileged position to what you were long ago. After being spared in her days of infancy and eventually brought into a special relationship with God, they be returned to her miserable, original state, is a grievous judgment. Now, the difference here, of course, is we have to understand that there was a time when Israel had many more people who were truly converted in her midst. Then the split of the kingdom and the apostasy took place and so forth. And now the nation is such that there’s hardly anyone in it. It’s converted. You know, one of the things that aggravated Job to no end was the loss he experienced after be so richly blessed by God. Look at all that God gave him, and then God took it all the way. In chapter 29 and 30, he talks about that. Listen to Jeremiah’s lament concerning Israel in Lamentations, Chapter 4. The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed to be earth and pictures the works of men’s hands? Now you’re just, a clay pot. What happened to you? They that did feed the delicately are desolate in the streets. They were brought up in scarlet. Now they embraced Dunhills. That’s how bad it is. I read a story about a man in ancient times who was a bond slave and he was on a galley ship where he had the man the oars down underneath. They had all these slaves down there pulling on the wars to move the ship. He had a whip at his back. Eventually he was ransomed by some of his friends, brought to England, and he flourished. He became a great merchant. He lived in wealth and style and luxury. But you know what? Eventually he lost it all and he ended up back as a slave on the galley ship again. What a grievous thing to get out of poverty and slavery and then be prosperous and end up going back to it again. But let me put this in a spiritual light. There are many who are just like Israel in this regard. The glorious light of the gospel of Christ comes, shines in their lives and they’re outwardly they clean up their life. And they’re privileged to hear the truth. They’re privileged to sit in a sound church and hear their gospel preached. But eventually, because they continue in their sinful ways, they’re like the pig that was once washed but returns back to the mire. Too many professing Christians are like the demon-possessed man, who ever after the evil spirit leaves him, he cleans up his life, he garnishes it and sweeps it and so forth. And for a time, it appears that there is real life evident, but alas, there isn’t. He’s overwhelmed by more evil spirits, and he’s in a worse condition at the end than he was in the beginning. There are many who profess to know Jesus Christ, but there are only wash towels. They’re going to turn to the mire to what they once were. And that’s a terrible thing, to go back to the old sinful habits that once dominated you. When it seemed like you were, as Peter says, had been freed from that, but you really weren’t because you were never changed in heart. It was a grievous judgment to be cast down from a privileged position. to what you were long ago. The final thing I would say is this. You should meditate upon the deliverance that God has given you. Sometimes it’s going to get the picture book out. It’s good to look back and see what we once were. How much God has done for us. How much He has pulled us away from the sinful, wretched, ruined condition we were once in. Look under the rock from whence you are ewned to the pit whence ye are digged. Isaiah 51-1. Take a good look. See what you were. See what I’ve done for you. When God first brought you to himself, you were humble, you were meek. You were dependent upon him. You prized every mercy. He sent your way. The danger is that as you prosper, as you prosper materially and even spiritually, you may grow lax and indifferent. You may lose your first love. You may forget how precious grace and mercy is to you from God. And then you drift away from your Lord the savior. I’m not saying totally drift away. But it’s good for you to remember, to look back, see your development. In grace. King Agathocles was a potter’s son before he became a king. And when he became a king, he would always be served in earthen vessels. Now, as a king, he could have had gold and silver. silver cups. But he always wanted to remember where he came from. I’m a potter’s son. And that’s why he did that. God here tells us remember where you were and what I did for you. And how I took you in. I made a covenant with you. And you became mine. I married you. You’re my people. And I’m your God. Let us be thankful. for that. And remember that tonight. Well, let’s close with a word of