Hosea 2:8-13

Hosea chapter 2 and reading verses 8 to 13 this evening. For she did not know that I gave her corn and wine and oil and multiplied her silver and gold which they prepared for bail. Therefore will I return, take away my corn in the time thereof and my wine and the season thereof will recover my wool and my flax given to cover her nakedness. And now will I discover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and none shall be able, shall deliver her out of mine hand. I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, and her Sabbaths, and all her solemn feast. And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, whereof she has said, These are my rewards that my lovers have given me. I will make them a forest, and the beast of the field shall eat them. And I will visit upon her the deep. days of Balaam wherein she burned incense to them and she decked herself with her earrings or jewels she went after her lovers and forgot me Seth the Lord and God blessed to us his sacred and holy word of this evening most people are more likely to grumble and complain, than they are to express gratitude. I once read where the famous Bible commentator Matthew Henry was robbed on the streets by some hoodlums. And he made this amazing entry into his diary. He said, let me be thankful. First, because I was never. robbed before. Second, because although they took my wallet, they did not take my life. Third, because although they took my all, it was not much. And fourth, because it was I who was robbed, and not I who robbed. It’s amazing that he would find a reason to thank God in getting robbed, but it shows you. with the right mindset that it is very possible. He was grateful to God in the midst of the most trying circumstances, even when he suffered loss. Most people don’t thank God when they’ve been given an abundance of good things in this life. And that’s a sad situation. Josea’s marriage to Gomer is meant to portray God’s relationship to Israel. Israel like Gawmore has turned away from her husband, Jehovah, in order to pursue her lovers, in this case false gods. But even in her waywardness, God was providing for her necessities. But now God says he’s going to begin to remove her waywardness, God was providing for her necessities. But now God was providing for her necessities. these benefits. Why? Because they refuse to acknowledge God’s provisions. The misuse of God’s gifts, or as verse 13 indicates, they were unthankful. They were ungrateful to God. The terrible sin of Israel and Gomer is not unique. You may just be guilty of being ungrateful yourself. Let me begin by saying you should realize God is the giver of every good gift. The Bible says, for she did not know that I gave her corn and wine and oil and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for bail. In verse 8, all the benefits you enjoy in this life come from God. No nation was in a better position than Israel to know that God is not only the Creator, but he is the one who upholds and governs everything by His Providence. This is very clearly seen in the Psalms that they would sing every Lord’s Day. The faithful in Israel confessed these things, from one general. to another. They were fully aware what they meant. These Psalms were sung countless of times in the temple services. Now whether you know it or not, the Bible makes it very clear that every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down from the Father of Lights to us. If you are more wealthy than a free or a neighbor, this is the reason for it. God has gifted you. It’s not a reason for pride, not a reason for self-exaltation, as the Bible says, who made thee to differ from another. And what have you did you have not received? First Corinthians four seven. All the things you have, have been. been bestowed upon you. It is God who provides the corn and the wine and the oil and multiplies your wealth and so forth. When Isaac blessed Jacob, he said, God give thee of the dew of heaven and of the fatness of the earth in Genesis 27, 28. It’s God who gives us the benefits, the blessings, heavenly, things as well as earthly things. Every one of us live by the mere will of God. God taught us to pray, give us this day our daily bread, because we’re dependent upon him for everything. So gratitude and thanksgiving is what we certainly owe to God. So all the benefits of your life come from the hand of God. Now, you cannot claim your labors and abilities or wisdom produce these things. You remember the story of Ruth? She had to go out and glean in the fields in order to provide for herself and her mother-in-in-law in Naomi. The poor were allowed to follow behind the hard workers and gather what little they missed, it wasn’t usually very much. Ruth happened to be working in a field of a godly man named Boas, who was really a distant relative. She worked extremely hard all day long, enduring the blazing heat of the noonday sun. At the end of the day, she had over a bushel of grain, and she took that home to Naomi, Ruth was quite weary. Truly, she had worked very hard to gather this small pile of grain. But Naomi immediately asked her, Ruth, whose fields did you work in today? Blessed be the man that took notice of you. Now, why did she say that? Because she recognized that Ruth had gleaned far more than usual and must have been provided for in a special way. And she was right, for Boaz had told the workers, leave some handfuls behind on purpose. And so Ruth was provided for. She did the labor, but Boaz made sure that she had enough. She would have had very little to show for her effort. otherwise. Ever since the fall of man, God’s word has been in the sweat of your face. Thou shalt eat bread. And the idea here is it’s true, regardless of whether you’re a farmer, or whether you work a computer, we have to work hard to get our daily bread. We have to use our daily bread. We have to use our energy and effort. but who gives you the strength to work? If God withdrew his power, your hands would hang feebly by your side. And when you were laid up sick, you realize the truth of how much you owe God for your daily well-being. Thus, God gives you health. There’s not going to be any breadwinner in the family. You might think, well, I multiply my silver and gold. I wield and yielded. I played the stock market. I made wise investments. I admit you gained silver and gold through trading investment. But would you have been successful if God had not rewarded your efforts? But you might say, but what I possess is the result of my own personal wisdom. Too many people I think are like King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. He was a great man, a builder of cities and empires, an inventor of many things, his hanging gardens were one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. And he had built Babylon into a impregnable fortress. And he was proud of his great achievements. The fact is, he was a ruler of the known world at that time. But then a strange thing happened. He lost his mind. He went insane. He crawled around the ground. He ate grass like an ox. He roamed through the woods. His body was wet with the dew of heaven. He didn’t get to sleep in his palace. He slept out in the open fields. His personal appearance went apart. His hair grew very long. His nails. grew in the claw-like situations. Why did this happen? Because God was proving a point. Nebuchadnezzar, you only reign by my power, and all that I have, all that you have, I have, I have, I have given to you. If you’re honest about these things, you will confess that the temporal blessings you enjoy, as well as the spiritual, all come from the hand of God. So you should realize that God is the giver of every good gift that you have. Now secondly tonight, you may fail to acknowledge the source of your good gifts. Verse 8, we see here saying, for she did not know, know, she did not know that I gave her corn and wine and oil and multiplied her silver and gold and so forth. And then in verse 13, the latter part of it, she went after her lovers and forgot me, said the Lord. This is thoughtless ignorance on your part if you fail to acknowledge the source of your good gifts. Now, many people thoughtlessly go through life, enjoying all. the benefits of God and never give him a thought. They indulge all their fantasies and they devour gift after gift that God has provided for them in this life and never think they owe God anything. Some people go through life, treating everyone fairly. They’re nice and kind and maybe they’re considerate people. They’re never ungrateful except for God himself. But you realize how evil it is to forget God? Listen to the Psalmist. The wicked shall be turned into hell and all the nations that forget God. What do you need to do to do to perish in hell? Blaspheme the name of God? Commit adultery? cheat in business? No, all you’ve got to do is forget God. How many people lose sight of God because their thinking is wrong? Maybe they base everything on luck. They’re lucky. God has pushed off his throne and you pay your tribute to an imaginary something, which is really nothing at all. I like what Spurgeon said once. He said, luck, fortune, and chance are the devil’s trinity. because by them we robbed God of his doing, his provision. So this is thoughtless ignorance on your part. This is willful ignorance on your part as well. There is a pastor who had just been seated in a crowded restaurant, and he was about to begin his meal. And a man approached and ask if he could join him at a time, the table and sit with him because it was crowded. And the pastor invited him to take a seat. And then, as was his custom, the pastor bowed his head to pray. When he opened his eyes, the other man said, do you have a headache? To which the pastor said, no. Is there something wrong with your food? No. Are you sick in some manner? No, said the pastor. Well, the man said, well, there’s something wrong with you. No, why? He said, well, I was sitting here and I see your head bowed down. If you’re not sick and there’s nothing wrong with your food, what are you doing? And the pastor said, no, I’m just simply thanking God for the food. I’m about to eat. To which the man said, oh, you’re one of those, are you? Well, I want you to know, I never give thanks. I earn my money by the sweat of my brow, and I don’t have to give thanks to anyone when I eat. I just start right in. The pastor looked at him and said, you know, you’re just like my dog. That’s what he does, too. How often people are willfully ignorant of the need to thank God for the good things that they enjoy. It’s a matter of being thoughtless. and it’s deliberate. Even the owner of a dog expects a animal to fawn over him and show him some attention and affection. Maybe bring the newspaper, fetch his slippers, obey his commands. Surely man, blessed with the power of reason, owes God thanks. There are many cold-hearted, so cold-hearted, so cold-hearted, they refuse to be thankful to the Lord. So you may fail to acknowledge the true source of your good gifts. Now, your ignorance often leads to a perversion of God’s gifts. Look at verse 8, the latter part of it. The multiplied silver and gold, which they prepared for bail. And then look at verses 12. 13. And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, whereof she has said, these are the rewards of my lovers have given me, and I will make them a forest, and the beast of the field shall eat them. And I will visit upon her the days of Balaam, wherein she burned incense to them. She decked herself with her earrings and joles and joles. and she went after her lovers and forgot me, said the Lord. Osea, out of love for his wife, provides not only her daily necessities, but some extra things as gifts. He wants his wife to look attractive, and so either he had fine jewelry, or he gave her some fine jewelry and nice clothing. But Gomer was… not intent to look nice for her husband. She accepts Josea’s gifts, but she uses it to lure other men. She dresses as sharply as she can, not to please her husband, but to entice another man instead is a terrible thing. When we think about Israel, God says that he has treated her royally, given her all these benefits. indulged her, provided for her, and the Lord was a wonderful provider for her. But she forgot who gave her those gifts. She even dared to say that her fruitfulness and her wealth were what bale, the different bales, the agricultural gods, provided for her. The very gold God gave her. She formed in the ornaments of her idol, poured out the wine that God gave as a gift or an offering at Bail’s shrine. And the Bible indicates that Israel used God’s gifts to make herself more attractive to alluring to her lovers, her false gods. Now, let’s talk about how you may pervert the gifts of God’s. In Hosea 13, 6, read about the people of Israel. According to their pasture, so they were filled. They were filled, and their heart was exalted, therefore they forgot me. There is a great temptation when you’re materially blessed to swell with pride because of your abundance. Do you realize the great material blessings you receive, the more you receive, the more you owe God. God surely feels that his gifts are being misused. When you handle them to make yourself appear more important, another way you may prefer God’s gifts is to hoard up your gold and silver and make a God out of them. When you begin to look upon your wealth as your means of support and comfort, it becomes the most important. part of your life and your entire trust is in your riches and you make a God out of your material possessions and you look for them and to them and this is a perversion that dishonors the Lord God. You may also pervert God’s gifts by using them to actually oppose God. You realize that people will actually fight against God by the very gifts that God provides for them. A woman is endowed with beauty and charm like Gomer, perhaps, a rare gift of God and yet uses it to ensnare others into sin. Becomes a prostitute. Another person maybe is given great intellect and knowledge by God, and he uses it to attempt to destroy Christianity and to overturn the scriptures. Another person is given for God. political office. A duty God says is a power he has ordained to oppose evil. Let’s say he or she opposes the righteous instead. What a pity that God has so richly blessed his people in this world, but they use their very gifts to oppose him. God keep you from ever using his gifts. as your maker to sin. So your ignorance often leads to the perversion of God’s gifts. And then we see here, your perversion often moves God to withdraw his misused gifts, as we see in verse 9 through 12 here. Therefore will I return and take away my misused gifts, as we see in verses 9 through 12 here. my corn in the time thereof and my wine in the season thereof will recover my wool and my flax given to cover her nakedness. And now will I discover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of mine hand. I will also cause all her mirth to cease, and her feast days and her new moons, and her Sabbaths, and all her songs, and all her songs. and I will destroy her vines and her fig trees whereof she have said, these are my rewards that my lovers have given me. I will make them a forest, and the beast of the fields. The field shall eat them. God can easily withdraw his gifts from you. You know, the Bible says riches have wings and they fly away. Now, you’ve seen in the fall a swarm of birds. and they fly and maybe they all rest upon a big piece of ground somewhere and they’re migrating south and they’ve stopped the rest. But all you’re going to do is clapping her hands and they’re gone and they scurry away. Well, so does a person’s wealth. A little change in the money market, a little downturning commerce and all your money grows wings and flies away. Whether it be health, Whether it be strength, whether it be wisdom that you possess, it can all be gone in a flash. Little to people know how dependent they are upon the Lord God. God can easily remove every benefit that you enjoy in this life. And thus it behooves you to be careful with God’s gifts because they can be removed very quickly. Whether you eat or you drink, do all to the glory of God. Now God can take away his gifts unexpectedly from you. The text says, I will take away my corn in the time thereof. In the time of the harvest. He’ll take away the wine in the season thereof, just when it’s time for the vintage. When it seemed as if the harvest and the vintage were going to be secure and you’re going to have a good year, God suddenly sends a blight upon both and the produce is lost. God can take away things just when you’re about ready to reach out your hand and take hold of them. So God takes away his gifts unexpectedly from you. God may mercifully take away his misuse gifts. Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the great Baptist minister, once related this interesting story. He said, I was riding with a young gentleman who was leading a rather reckless life. His father was a very gracious man. And he said, I found the son was taken with horse race. and I said, that’s right. Go on as fast as you can till you’ve lost every penny you have. You will scarcely be willing to turn to God. Young fellows like you do not often come home except round by the swine trough. When you get down to that, then I trust you will cry out to God for mercy and say, I will rise. I will rise. and go to my father. He was very much astonished by my advice, Spurgeon said, but I think it was the right thing to say under the circumstances. He figured you’re going to be just like the prodigal son. And you can also just get down to the low part now and get it over with so that you’ll return. The Lord often takes away a person’s wealth and honor and health in order and health. In order to humble that person so that he or she will seek the Lord. Affliction may indeed bring a person to say, I will go and return to my first husband, for then it was better with me than now, as verse 7 indicates here in this text. Backsliders often have to be taken to the woodshed by Christ before they’ll return. And yet, Your loss may actually be your gain. For God may bring you to loss of all things that you may return to him. God may justly take away his misused gifts. Now, God sometimes withdraws his gifts without intending to show mercy. The case of Israel who is not going to give any mercy to them, as verse, as this chapter one indicates to us. The sufferings of guilty people in this life are but a foretaste of the horrible wrath they will face in the next. God may give you good gifts and then withdraw them one at a time and leave you with nothing. He gives the wicked a taste of the good life, and then he snatches it away to make them miserable, a sign of what is to come. So your perversion often moves God to withdraw his misused gifts. Now from this passage of scripture, if we don’t learn anything else, let us learn this let us be thankful to God. Let us appreciate every gift that he gives us. Even the minor things that he provides for us. I remember when I was going to seminary that I didn’t have much money. And so sometimes in the evening, when I went to work, I didn’t have a lot to eat. And some days were really difficult. And so as I was waiting to start my shift, I was sitting in the rec room there, and there were all these vending machines. And I said, boy, I sure like a bag of chips or something. And I thought, well, I’ll look underneath the machine. Maybe there’s a, somebody dropped a dime or something under there. Sure enough, I found a dime. could put it in the machine, got my bag of chips and ate it, and I thought, boy, I need to be thankful to God that he provided something for me to eat. And so let’s not forget all his benefits, as the psalmist says. Let’s remember even the little things that God provides. For I am sure that God provided that bag of chips for me, even though I wasn’t worthy of it, he thought, okay, Jack, take care of you here a little bit. I’ll give you something to eat, and I appreciate it very much. Let’s close with the word of prayer tonight. Lord God, we thank you for your goodness in providing every benefit we have in this life. Let us not be grumbling and complaining all the time, but let us be thankful. And even in the hardships of life, let us be like Matthew Henry, and find a reason to thank you. anyhow, for you are a good and gracious God to us. Bless us as your people tonight. Watch over us, and let your word rest upon us and be a help to us. We ask these things in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Let’s stand for the benediction tonight. Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus. Christ in sincerity. Amen.