Hosea 10:3-8

I invite you to turn with me tonight to the book of Hosea once again. And looking at chapter 10, verses 3 to 8. Josea chapter 10, verses 3 to 8. For now, they shall say, we have no king, because we fear not the Lord. What then should a king do to us? They have spoken words, swearing falsely, and making a covenant. Thus judgment springeth up as hemlock in the furrows of the field. The inhabitants of Samaria shall fear because of the calves of Beth Avan, for the people thereof shall mourn over it, and the priests thereof that rejoiced on it. it. For the glory thereof, because it is departed from it. It shall be also carried unto Assyria for a present to King Jara. Ephraim shall receive shame. Israel shall be ashamed of his own counsel. As for Samaria, her king is cut off as the foam upon the water. The high place is also a, of Avon. The sin of Israel shall be destroyed. The thorn and thistle shall come up on their altars. And they shall say to the mountains, cover us, and the hills fall on us. And God blessed to us his sacred and holy word this evening. I read about a man named Grandpa Hicks. is living by crooked means. He trapped fish illegally in a lake near his home. He rented out boats that didn’t belong to him and kept the money. He stole gasoline for his motorboat from boats at a neighboring dock. He’d steal catfish from the lines of the various fishermen. He seemed to have no conscience about such manner. matters. However one Sunday, two of his grandchildren, asked him if he’d take them fishing. With great conviction, he replied, I never fish on Sundays. I wasn’t brought up like that. Jesus said there are those who outwardly appear righteous, but inwardly were full of hypocrisy and lawlessness in Matthew 23. The people of Israel were like that. They were dedicated religious practitioners, and yet they were guilty of breaking God’s laws. Josea complains in our text that when serious trouble came their way, they placed their hope on two pillars. One was human wisdom, and the other was their false religion. And yet God says because their hearts were in the wrong place, they would see the destruction of their leaders and of their false altars. Sadly, people today are placing their hope in these two areas also. You may think that when trouble comes, your way that these two things will provide divine protection and a means of escape. But like Israel, you’re going to be greatly disappointed if you count on these things. You can’t expect to extract yourself from trouble by human wisdom alone. He talks about this in verses 3, 4, and 7, where we read these words. now shall they say we have no king because we fear not the Lord. What then should a king do to us? In verse four, they have spoken words swearing falsely and making a covenant, thus judgment springeth up as a hemlock, as hemlock in the furrows of the field. And then verse seven, as for Samaria, her king is cut off as the foam. upon the water. Israel placed their hope in human leadership, their kings. The people of Israel look to their kings for wisdom and counsel as leaders to extract them from their difficulties. The phrase they have spoken words is a figure of speech, meaning to anxiously consult. salt, as we read in Isaiah 8.10, take counsel together, and it shall come to not. Speak the word, and it shall not stand. Verse 4 conveys the idea that the leadership of Israel was busily negotiating with the powerful Assyrians and Egyptians. They were working very diligently to contrive some sort of peace treaty, with these oppressing nations. The people didn’t fear the Lord, but they placed their hopes in the negotiating power of their kings. The leadership of Israel was acting, however, in a very shrewd and two-faced manner, for we read here they were swearing falsely in making a covenant. I understand this is reflecting on the time of Hoshiyah. King Hoshia, who first made a covenant with the king of Assyria. But secretly, he sought to have a bond of friendship also with a king of Egypt, the other superpower of the other superpower of the day. So he’s talking out of both sides of his mouth. When the time was ripe, he broke his agreement with the king of Syria. The Bible says he sent messengers to sow, king of Egypt, and brought no present, no tribute money to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year. The people may have thought that their king and their political leadership were acting very shrewdly, but God thought otherwise, as verse four indicates. Those wicked ways, that failure to fear the Lord, but relying upon human wisdom, brought down upon them God’s judgment. It would be a hemlock judgment, bitter and deadly. They will look for peace, that agony and destruction would come. They were sowing iniquity in their furrows of their fields, and the crop they would reap would be bitterness in death. The people would eventually come to rest. recognize the inability of any human king to save them from their time of trouble, God would remove their kings and destroy their trust in human wisdom, as verses 3 and 7 indicate. So God promises that the kings of Israel will disappear like foam on the waves of the sea after it reaches the shore, just air bubbles. This became a reality in the days of King Hoshia, when the Assyrians invaded the land and carried away Israel captive. It’s only when God knocks this pillar of trust and human wisdom out of the way that the people realize their failure to trust in the Lord. So Israel placed their hope in human leadership. Now you must realize that confidence in human wisdom is a false hope. You can’t rely on human wisdom and leave God out of the picture. People are too apt to place their confidence in the wisdom of their so-called experts, whether they be political or whether they be political, be social. God is left out of the picture and man feels that the politicians, the psychiatrist, the family experts have all the answers. God says they are in no help. When will man learn that God is in control of all things? When will man learn that even the wisdom of a Hithrafell can be brought to nothing by the hand of God? Let’s look at its political. leadership and wisdom. You know, we live in a world where there’s much hope and confidence placed in leadership in the political realm. Perhaps some politician seems to offer the best solution to the problems you are facing. And you like his stance. Maybe you like his convictions. But political leaders are powerless to accomplish anything beneficial, without God’s help and without God’s blessing. I don’t wish to downgrade these men. God calls upon you to pray for your political leaders, but merely considering the world’s problems from the viewpoint of human wisdom is doomed to fail. Prior to World War II, Neville Chamberlain, the British Prime Minister, was a leading voice in Europe, for peace and reconciliation. He returned from a conference with Hitler, with a piece of paper on which Hitler’s signature was written, and it was a peace document. And he proclaimed loudly, peace in our time has been achieved at this Munich conference. Many Britons and other countries thought all now was going to be well. But within one year, Britain and Europe were plunged into the bloodiest war of all time. People thought that Chamberlain had wisely negotiated peace with Hitler, but all he obtained was a worthless piece of paper with Hitler’s signature on it. Today, we have so-called family experts, and they give their wisdom. Never before have parents been born. more bombarded with advice by family experts. For instance, we have people like Dr. Spock and others in the past. Now we have other experts today that have counseled parents not to spank their children for years. Human wisdom has said you might give your children future psychological difficulties by the application of disciplinary methods. In doing this, however, they were not following the injunctions found in the book of Proverbs, which is God’s wisdom, about corporal punishment, which they are abandoning. But the Bible says this is what God commands of us. It’s interesting that God reassures parents, that corporal punishment properly administered will not harm the child. And yet, by ignoring God’s truth, by not fearing God, society has turned to human wisdom and raised a generation of juvenile delinquents. Social behavior experts and wisdom, let’s think about that. Today, psychiatrists have a tremendous influence on society. They speak with great authority, and people accept their words as truth. But much that is taught by psychiatrists and psychologists is diametrically opposed to God’s truth. You know, Freudian theory and therapy is anti-God. It’s anti-Christian. And yet his principles are avidly espiles today. Psychiatrists, in the majority, cases suppress guilty feelings and attempt to get you to harden your conscience. The schools are busily engaged in value clarification, undermining the moral teachings of Scripture. Listen to Albert Ellis’ therapy session. is the attempts to change the moral values of a woman called Loretta. Your problem actually is the fact that you have a lot of what I call shoulds, aughts, and musts. The main issue, as I said before, in my estimation, is that you set up a lot of shoulds, aughts, and musts, which unfortunately you were taught when you were very young. You were taught these by your father, your mother, your church. But if you didn’t have this concept of ought, which unfortunately is nicely defeating your own ends, then you wouldn’t believe this. You wouldn’t be disturbed. After an objection by Loretta to this attack upon her moral values, Ellis tells her this, well, you’re fully entitled to your your views, but unfortunately, as long as you maintain them, you’re going to sit in this mental hospital. Now, when you change your views, you’re going to get out. Loretta, still staunchly objecting, triumphantly replies, well, as long as we have air conditioning, it might not be so bad. Instead of placing the responsibility upon the guilty party, you know, psychiatrists find a scapegoat, your father, your mother, your church, and so forth. There was a folk song by Anna Russell that sums up at best. I went to my psychiatrist to be psychoanalyzed to find out why I killed the cat and blackened my husband’s eyes. He laid me on a downy chair or couch to see what, he could find. And here is what he dredged up from my subconscious mind. When I was one, my mommy hid my dolly in a trunk, so it follows naturally that I’m always drunk. When I was two, I saw my father kiss the maid one day, and that is why I suffer now from kleptomania. At three, I had the feeling of ambivalence toward my brothers. it follows naturally, I poison all my lovers. But I am happy. Now I’ve learned the lesson this has taught that everything I do that’s wrong is someone else’s fault. These matters are, of course, anti-scriptural, and society has not been improved under this human wisdom, but it’s being judged. True wisdom appeals to God. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The Bible proclaims this to us. And without this godly fear, disaster is going to come upon us. The Bible teaches fear and honor the king in 1 Peter 217. God takes precedence. God’s wisdom takes precedence over the king’s wisdom. Jesus Christ is called the great counselor in scripture, Isaiah 9.6. He is the one that you and I should consult. Go to God in serious prayer. Make the request of the psalmist guide me by thy counsel, Psalm Psalm 73, 24. Let the fear of the fear of the Lord, Be strong in your heart. Trembal at the commandment of God, Ezra 10.13, or 10.3. Be afraid to dishonor God in your life. Be careful to study diligently God’s word for direction. For it is in this wisdom from the scripture that we are truly guided and kept from disappointment and trouble. Popular modern thinking will not sway you if you are grounded in God’s true wisdom. You can’t expect to extract yourself from trouble by human wisdom alone. Secondly, you cannot expect to find divine protection in false worship. And here, there are three other verses we want to look at. Five, six, and eight. verse 5 The inhabitants of Samaria shall fear because of the calves of Beth Avon. For the people thereof shall mourn over it, and the priests thereof that rejoiced on it. For the glory thereof, because it is departed from it. Verse 6. It shall be also carried under Assyria for a present to King Jerob. Ephraim shall receive. shame. Israel shall be ashamed of his own counsel. Verse 8. The high places of also of Avon, the sin of Israel shall be destroyed. The thorn and thistle shall come up on their altars and they shall say to the mountains, cover us, and the hills fall upon us. Israel placed their hope in false religion. calves of Beth Avon. Even though they learned that a king, when it come to human wisdom, could not help. Still, they pinned their hopes in their golden calf worship. Their religion would pull them through tough times, supposedly. Surely their faith would not let them down in a crisis. But God is going to knock. from underneath them this pillar also, upon which they placed their hopes. They didn’t fear God, but they shall fear for their idols. The calves are going to be unable to help themselves, much less the people. Beth Avon means the house of vanity. It’s a play on words here. The city of Bethel is supposed to be the house of God. But now it houses a gold. and calf center. This is a sarcastic name that’s been given to it by God. The people and the priests mourn the loss of these altars. The glory would be lost. Its magnificence, its ornaments, the great following they used to have. God promises it will be carried away into captivity to the Syria, a prize for King Jereb. It’s a symbolic name means the avenger. The very king, to whom they looked for help in the past, will prove to be God’s avenger against them. God will make the Israelites ashamed of their decision to turn away from him. God will cause the very places in which the Israelites worshipped, the golden calves here, to be grown over with this. and thorns to be desolate. And in that day, when their final hopes are dashed, they will find their religion empty in vain. And they will cry out for death, according to verse 8. So terrible will be the calamity that people would prefer death to life. The nation’s shame would be so gross and humiliating that its citizens would invite the hills and the mountains to fall on them. Now you must realize that empty religion is a false hope. Please realize that much religion today, which possesses no fear of God, is a false religion, you see. It’s empty of any spiritual life. And yet how many people place their hopes and their eternal hopes at their life? that upon an empty religion just like Israel did at all. What a day it will be when God knocks out this pillar of false hope from their lives and their false religion will be proved to be in vain. You know, there are many in the Roman Catholic Church that hope that when they die, they’re going to go to purgatory. They believe that they will endure. suffering for a while and then the priest will pray them out. If they have enough masses or said, they’ll get out. And for this reason, the Roman Catholic Churches hold masses yearly on the day of people’s deaths for the departed loved ones. There are members of the Roman Catholic Church that have actually saved up thousands of dollars during their lifetime, just so that they’re not. they can be prayed out of purgatory. My father used to work with a man that told him, I’ll only be in purgatory 24 hours, and then the priest will have prayed me out. To which my father responded, that is going to be the longest 24 hours you’re ever going to endure. What will these people do when they lift up their eyes in hell tormented in the flames? Will they still hope that in a short while they will be prayed out? one will dawn on them that their hope is a false one. Think about the health and wealth gospel. There are those who fervently preach the health and wealth gospel, thousands who have embraced this false religion. The essence of it teaches that if you follow God, you’ll have good health and you’ll have riches. And you’ll do well in this life. those who are sick and poor are those who must have displeased God. Otherwise, God would have blessed them materially and physically. Somehow, the story of Job alludes them. For here was a man that walked uprightly before God and eschewed evil, and yet look what happened to him. Some sickness, according to John 9, is for glory of God. And we must realize that. But what will happen when this false principle of their theology comes crashing down on their heads? You know, they’re going to get older. They’re going to get sick. They’re going to die. What about that? There’s no one who escapes it, as we see, and all this is going to come crashing down on their heads. Their theology. When sickness sets in, when a poor economy, Maybe unwise investments come about. And it eroded away their savings. Then what? When old age causes their body to break down and fail to function properly. They’re laid up in a sickbed. And their hopes are dashed. What about that? And then there’s always easy-believism. There are many who embrace easy-believism that’s taught today. You know, if you’ve made, a decision for Christ, it’s all it’s important. And they have fire assurance, insurance from hell, supposedly. They live as they please. The church says nothing to them. And they think all as well. They are told that they have prayed the sinner’s prayer, and they should never doubt. They have eternal life. There’s never. any need to make their calling an election sure. There’s no consideration given to whether they are truly in the faith. So their church, you know, merely is a stage for holy entertainment. And they are never confronted with their sinful lifestyle. Their religion is a golden cat. religion. It’s attractive on the outside, but in reality, there’s no spiritual substance to it. In the moment of crisis, it can’t provide any hope. It’ll leave you empty-handed in the day of trouble. If there is no fear of God in your religion, it’s an empty one. It’s never going to aid you and your hour of desperation. What a shock. It will be when Christ says, Not everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my father, which is in heaven. Matthew 7.21. Let me close with this thought here about the terror of facing the wrath of Almighty God. You know, the Roman Emperor, Tiberius Caesar, once condemned a man to death, been petitioned. The man petitioned, that he might be immediately killed instead of it being dragged out. Whereupon Tiberius replied, sir, you and I are not friends yet. You must not die. You must be kept in misery. It’s often worse than death to be kept in lingering misery. If this is the case in regard to the miseries of this world, how much more than death to be kept in lingering much worse than death is to be kept under the wrath of God for all eternity. How fearful it is to live in misery forever and never die. How fearful, after a thousand years, you might cry out, O Lord, let the mountains fall upon me. And the Lord was going to say, you and I are not friends, eternal hell. My friends will have people crying out for a death they will never find. They wish they could become extinct, but it’s not going to happen. And on and on, they’ve suffered in their misery. Well, let me close this morning, this evening. There are two hopes that are always disappointing. Human wisdom and false religion. To build your life upon them is the court disaster. God’s word is what gives us light. It gives us direction and keeps us from groping in the dark. Make sure your faith is not an empty one. Make sure that your religion is not just a formality. What kind of religion to you possess would stand up in the time of trouble? That’s what we should check and make sure of. Let me close with a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we do give you thanks with your goodness and mercy to us. We pray, Lord, we may trust in you, and not what those who are supposedly wise in this world say to us. Give us confidence in you. and give us your blessing. We ask these things in Jesus’ name with Thanksgiving. Let’s stand for the benediction. Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity.