Hosea 11:2-7

Tonight I invite you to turn with me to Jose chapter 11 once again. I’m going to read the first seven verses. We looked at some of these verses in a positive light, but they’re mixed in with some negative things. So we’ll be looking at two, five, and seven tonight in particular, but I’ll read the first seven verses with you. When Israel was a child, then I loved him and called my son out of Egypt. As they called them, so they went from them. They sacrificed unto Dalem and burned incense to graven images. I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms. They knew not that I healed them. I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love. And I was to them. is they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and have laid meat unto them. He shall not return into the land of Egypt, but the Assyrian shall be his king, because they refuse to return. And the sword shall abide on his cities and shall consume his branches, and they will consume his branches, and they will, devire them because of their own counsels. And my people are bent to backsliding from me. Though they called them to the most high, none at all would exalt him. May God bless to us, his sacred and holy word of this evening. there was a celebration in New Orleans now. There’s often celebrations in New Orleans, but this was a special one, the celebration of the municipal pools in New Orleans. The city’s lifeguard and support personnel were commemorating the first summer in memory where they didn’t have one drowning in the pools of the city. 200 people showed up for the party. had a good time. A hundred of them were certified lifeguards. They had a great time. The party broke up and the four lifeguards cleared the pool at the end of the party. But then the mood changed because they found a fully dressed man in the deep end of the pole. Jerome Moody, age 31, had drowned in the midst of the celebration and nobody noticed. Tragedy can occur when you’re not paying attention. And this is even more magnified when you’re not paying attention spiritually. Now, God has been explaining to true Israel, his parental love in verse 1 and 3 and 4, as we looked at last week, and how he was watching over the nation since their infancy. But in fact, the matter is Israel after the flesh wasn’t paying attention. Remember I told you last week there are two types of Israel. There is Israel after the flesh and there’s true or spiritual Israel. And we sometimes have to evaluate that and the prophets see specifically which one the Lord is addressing. In this passage, he’s addressing two different Israel’s. And we have to keep that in mind. So they were too busy celebrating the good fortune and the good times that they were enjoying. And the text should make you consider if you’re paying attention to God or not. That’s what this passage really speaks about. You may be guilty of failing to pay attention to God. You may fail to notice God’s good gifts. Verses one to four. Even a sin like telling to pay proper attention is sufficient for the reason for the Lord to condemn the Israelites and send them into exile. That little phrase in verse 3, but they knew not that I healed him is very significant. Think about that a moment. God had healed them. but they weren’t paying attention. Inattentiveness is an evil which normally isn’t regarded so seriously. You know, you think about adultery, you think about murder, things of this nature. But the Israelites’ failure to take notice of God’s good gifts is enough of a reason for him to severely. them. God took care of his children, leading them, holding them in his arms, so to speak. When they fell and they hurt themselves, he banished them up. He healed them. Now what response would you expect when you were a good God like this? Surely they ought to be thankful. Surely they ought to show their love. for the Lord and praise his name. That Isra forgot. They knew not that I healed them. They didn’t even notice, he says. They eagerly laid their greedy hands on God’s good gift, which the Lord showered upon them. And that was the end of it. They didn’t even say thank you, as we see here. let alone repay God’s love. Let me ask you, are you like Israel in this regard? Psalm 103, 1 to 3 says this. Bless the Lord of my soul, and all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord of my soul. And forget not all his benefits who forgiveth all thy iniquities, who healeth all thy diseases. We’re not to forget. Do you have a car, a house, family, possessions, comforts in this life? Do you thank God for them? Are you thankful for that wife or husband, which came as a good gift to you from God? To help you in this life? Do you praise God for that? How about those? close calls you have on the highway where it could have been very serious that you had a serious accident. And the Lord spared you. What about the job, which you have, which supplies the needs for your family or for yourself? Maybe you got a recent race. Maybe you got some unexpected income. You thank God for that. God has kept you from the wasting disease. We had COVID-19 and it’s serious. serious attack upon people and a lot of people were dying. The Lord spared you. What about the violent man? We live in a day and age where people are more violent than they have been in the past, it seems to me. Pushing people on the tracks where they could get run over by the subway. Just walking up to people and just cold-cocking them. hitting with pipes in the back of the head. There’s a lot of nastiness going on. And what about the daily health of your family? There’s often, you know, God daily daily provides for us, keeps us from the worst kind of sickness. And what about the forgiving of your iniquities that he mentions last there in the sarcasm? 1.03, verse 3. Isn’t that the greatest gift that he has provided? This your greatest healing? You take it for granted. Is it no big deal to you that he forgives your sins so readily, so freely? You know, we often pray to God and ask for forgiveness. We should appreciate the fact that he does forgive us. Or how often are we guilty of the same sins? and need to find forgiveness repeatedly. So you may fail to notice God’s goodness. You may fail to heed God’s word, as we see in verses 2 and 3. We talked about this last week. God says in verse 3, I taught you as they, my servants, called them, the Israelites. So the Israelites, went from my servants. The prophets and those set by God called under repentance. Moses and the other prophets down through history called these people to act and live as the people of God. But the Israelites rebelled. The more pressing and passionate the prophets were, the more resolute they were to remain and their sins. God called them and taught them. There are other voices, and they listened to those other voices. Peeling voices, whispering in their ear, and she was led away, Israel, to the altars of Bail. They abandoned the Lord and his commandments to follow gods of their own choosing. What other nation was taught this way by the Lord? What other nation was given such precious word of God that they received? Here’s what we read in Psalm 147, 19 and 20. He showed his word under Jacob, his statutes, and his judgments, under Israel. He hath not dealt so with any nation. He hath not dealt so with any nation. As for his judgments, they have not known them. Praise ye the Lord. You’re privileged, he says, to have the word of God. Now, are you like Israel? The famous 18th century philosopher and skeptic David Hume was chided by his friends for going regularly to church. Each week, he would go on Sundays to hear the Orthodox Scottish Minister John Brown preach. Defending himself, Youan said this. Well, I don’t believe all that he says, but he does. And once a week, I like to hear a man who believes what he says. What a privilege to sit in a church where God’s word is faithfully preached, where God is teaching you. through his servant. What a sad thing it is. To waste that time. To sit there, hear the sermon, really not pay attention or heed it. Even though it’s for your best interest. Many certainly do go Sunday after Sunday like David Eum. No doubt maybe they weighed the sermon in the balances and found it wanting in some way. At times you might even enjoy the sermon. But when you hear that you must deny yourself, that you must repent of your sins, you turn it off. You don’t listen. You don’t heed it. You find the narrow way is too difficult to travel. The one that God says we must follow. You want something more exciting, maybe satisfying to the flesh. And so you look elsewhere, find a different church that doesn’t make so many demands on you. Where the preaching doesn’t disturb your conscience. Where you are accepted without any hesitation or evaluation. Where the worthless or the worship service is filled with entertainment. And the preacher only speaks about 15 minutes. It’s a convenient Christianity. I once had a woman that came to church on a regular basis. And she was always writing and I assumed that she was taking notes on the sermon. I later found out she was writing letters to her friends. during the service. So she was there, but she wasted the opportunity to really heed and hear the word of God. There are a lot of people like that, I think. You may fail to honor God’s person, as verse 7 indicates. God counts himself to be exalted. When he is known and acknowledged as the Most High God, that’s when he is praised and honored. He’s the supreme first being. When you fear him as God, when you are humbled before him, when you have a sense of the immense distance between you as a human being and the holy God of the world, that is when he is honored. It’s highly exalted. When his will has made the rule of your life, when you seek to glorify him as your chief goal in life, that’s when he is exalted. Yet when God’s prophets and ministers called the Israelites to return, they were to return to the most high God, they refused and would not. And though Jehovah was the only true and living God. All these other gods were false. They were lies, deceptions. Deceptions. Deed, as the scripture, indicates, a demonic. And yet, we find the Israelites were duped and didn’t worship the true and living God. Scientists have known for a long time. The tension was building along the sand on Fault in California, saying Andreas fault in California. In October 17, 1989, a little after 5 p.m., the earth had a nervous breakdown, and it was a 7.1 earthquake on the Richter scale. What an awesome power in 60 seconds. The earth inflicted property damage in the San Francisco area, amounting to nearly $10 billion. Short earthquake? Lots of loss. Bridges and buildings and other man-made bullwarks were like fragile toys in the hands of some monster. And so all this got crushed. Why did it come? How did it happen? Well, came from God. No doubt, in many times, when God sends such judgments, it is a punishment for sin. God made the earth, he sustains it. He is the director of such things as earthquakes. Job 2611 says, The pillars of the heavens tremble, unastarnished, at God’s reproof. God sends the trembling and the reproof of this world. Yet the world wishes to deny existence of God. You left out of the picture entirely. Do you exalt God? Do you humbly worship before him? How can it be that God would not be honored in your life? Have you forgotten the pit from which you were dug, the quarry from which you were ewn? How is it that God’s worship is not your delight? How is it that the songs of Zion weary you? How is it that there are no daily devotions in your life? No seeking after God in prayer. No desire to commune with the Most High God. How could that be? Have you forgotten God? Have you been so caught up in your own little world that you pay no attention to the most high. This is what God is saying of Israel. You may be guilty of failing to pay attention to God. God’s good things, gifts, God’s Word, God’s person. Secondly, failing to pay attention. to God is a sin for which you will be punished. Versus 5 to 7. God notices your persistence in backsliding. Notice what he says here in verse 7. And my people are bent to backslide from me. Though they called them to the most high, none at all would exalt him. Every word here seems to make the whole sentence worse. First, we have the word backslide. There is no steadfast adherence to God here. And they seem to be more they seem to move toward God, but then they quickly slide back again. They backslide from me, from God himself. from God the chief good, the fountain of life, their ruler, they’re benefactor, they are bent, he said, backsliding. Boy, there is a willingness, a readiness, an inclination, an inclination to backslide. There is a propensity in their nature to do that which is evil in the sight of God. They pursue every temptation with the light. And their hearts are fully set in them to do evil. And the sad thing God says here is that they claim to be my people. They claim to be following me. They’re not following me. The very people that should love and honor and serve me are backslift. There’s a great danger of not merely vacillating between God and Mammon, holiness and sin, but a steady leaning, a serious bent toward the ladder. In the original story about Sherlock Holmes called a study in Scarlet. It’s the first time Dr. Watson meets Sherlock Holmes and he meets him in London. And there’s an interesting phrase found in the opening of that book with reference to how Dr. Watson came to London. Here’s what he said. I naturally gravitated to London that great cesspool into which all the lungers and idlers of the empire are irresistibly trained. And I, as I was looking at this passage of scripture, this bent, that sounds like, that sounds like man, doesn’t it? There’s this cesspool and we’re just drawn to it. Irresistibly drawn to it. Gravitating toward it. That captures the bent here of the backsliding. there is this irresistible urge to follow every horse but the one that God lays out for us to follow now who are those who fit this category? Well, those who neglect private and family prayer, those who habitually neglect the reading of the word of God, those who walk closely to God and take a delight in the Bible and meditate upon it day and night, they’re the ones that are following the Lord. But it’s a sad sign when the Word of God has only read out of a conviction of duty and there’s a reluctance to even do what is spiritually good for your soul. Do you esteem lightly the house of God? It’s praises. its instruction, its fellowship, its ordinances. You claim to be one of God’s people? And yet, are you bent on backsliding? And all of this, you show yourself to be a hypocrite. Isn’t that what he’s telling them? So God notices your persistence in backsliding. God will severely punish you. Verses 5 and 6. The people of Israel had a vain hope of finding a place of refuge in Egypt. They want to go to Egypt. If things go bad with the war against the Syria, they’re thinking, well, we’ll take flight, we’ll go to Egypt, and will be perfectly safe down there with that major power. But what does God say here? They cherish the hope here that they could flee there for refuge, but God says, don’t look to Egypt for a refuge in asylum. He’s not going to allow you to go there. I’m going to send you off to Assyria. Your enemy. And the reason for this is that Israel would not return. Not return to the Lord. They would not repent. They would not seek God’s face afresh. And therefore the sword, he says, is going to come upon them. The sword of war. And their enemies, the ones they fear the most, are going to prevail against them. Their cities will be devastated. Their branches here, which I take as the country, villages, will be destroyed. This will not be something temporary. The destruction. will abide. It’ll be many, many years. They will suffer this devastation. David thought that fleeing the sword of his enemies for three months was too much when he had numbered the people. But remember when he sinned with Bathsheba, God said the sword would never depart from your house. That was far worse. So how much worse it is to have the sword never put up constantly be pulled out against you. And they will be pursued for their evil course or counsel. And this is the result. So when things go sire in your life, need or ask yourself, have I not refused to obey God and to do as he commanded and return to him? Have I failed in this regard? Not to return is evil, but to refuse to return is most wicked. Jeremiah 322 says, return. You backsliding children and I will heal your backsliding. God promises that he will heal them if they will return to him. God is able to bring the most terrible hardships into your life and he has plenty of ways to break your stubborn will as a rebellious child. He is able to send the sword, to consume and to devire all that you possess. to bring upon you bondage, both physically in a sense of sickness and financially in a sense of debt. and if you’re still unrepairantion, God is able to take your life. There is a sin under death. 1 John 5 tells us. Hebrews 10.31 says it’s a fearful thing. Fall into the hands of the living God. And how true that is, according to this passage of scripture. The only to pay attention to God is a sin for which you can be severely funny. Now you may think that not paying attention to God isn’t all that serious. Maybe you think, well, it’s just a minor offense. But if you bask in God’s good gifts, without being aware that those gifts come from Him and that you owe him praise and thanks for them, you’re guilty. When you hear Israel simply did not know who healed her, You see here a lack of love. You see here a lack of faith. Is it simply impossible for someone rooted in Christ and in true faith not to see God’s hands at work everywhere in his or her life? Yes, I think it is. If you really know the Lord, you’re going to see God’s hand. You’re not going to ignore it. Is it impossible? For you not realize that you should be thankful to God and devote your life to him as he commands? Failing to pay attention to God’s mercies is a sin. A sin punishable by death. All that you have is due to you forgetting and ignoring God when these bad things occur. in your life. God says, pay attention. He’s trying to get your attention through these means. He’s showing you you better pay attention. But if we don’t listen, then we’ll have to face the severity of God’s judgment. May God help us as we study this passage and we think about it not to be like Israel of God. let’s close with the word of prayer. Father, we pray that you would help us not to be stubborn, not to be rebellious, but to pay attention, to be thankful, to give you praise for all the good things you have given us and not to forget all your benefits and all the healing of our diseases. Remember us, Lord, as your people. As your elect people, I pray that we would be like those mentioned last week in this study, who are following the Lord, not like the ones mentioned this week. They’ll only feign a following of the Lord, but their hearts are far from you. They ask these things in Christ’s precious name with Thanksgiving. Amen. Let’s stand for the benediction tonight. Grace be with all them to love our Lord Jesus Christ. In sincerity. Amen.