Twenty-First
Sunday after Trinity
The
Collect.
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G
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RANT, we beseech thee, merciful Lord, to thy faith- ful people pardon
and peace, that they may be cleansed from all their sins, and serve thee with a
quiet mind; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
11 Then
shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together,
and appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land: for
great shall be the day of Jezreel. (Hosea 1:10-11)
My heart is rent for poor Hosea when I read the account of all that God had
commanded him to do and to suffer. But, then, I consider that all of the
commandments of God are a joy to him who receives them. Hosea obeyed God
without question when God directed him to take for a wife a whore. There is a
deep significance to the purpose of God in such a command, and Hosea well
understood and gladly complied. As a matter of fact, Hosea would have yet
complied even if he had not understood the purpose of the Lord in the command.
We all are to be as a good and obedient soldier facing the enemy on the field
of battle. Whatever command is given by our Line Commander, we obey immediately
and without reservation. It is impossible for the common soldier to know the
tactical plan and purpose of the field Commander, so he must trust to that
better judgment and understanding just as we must trust to that perfect will
and knowledge of God in all things. Hosea is the perfect example for us.
Please imagine, if you will, the plight of the prophet Hosea. He was a
God-fearing Hebrew Prophet. Yet, God has ordered him to take a whore for a
wife. When she proves unfaithful and returns to her former lovers, God tells
Hosea to take her back at a great expense to Hosea, and he does! What does this
tell us of God’s dealings with His people and the role Christ played in coming
among us?
Hosea was a prophet of Israel though he also addressed the affairs of Judah.
These were, unlike the common perception, two separate peoples. Israel was
those ten tribes that had broken off and formed the Northern Kingdom – later
taken into captivity and dispersed in unknown parts. They are the scattered
flocks of God which are hidden, as a remnant, among all the world. Judah and
Benjamin were of the Sephardic Jew who claimed lineal descent from Judah. There
are few Jews in Israel today who are of Sephardic descent. Most are of the
Ashkenazi race from central Europe and who, it is doubtful, have a single drop
of Judah’s blood in their veins. At length, the blood type is of no account,
for Christ came to save all of Israel – those who are the Children of Promise
who are of the ‘spiritual descent’ and not the bloodline of Israel. (see Romans
9:8, Gala 4:27-31) It is a known fact that many lineal Jews are now coming to
Christ – not as Messianic Jews bearing Judaic superstitions in their hearts,
but simply ‘Christians’ as are all who are the Children of the Promised Seed
(Christ).
11.Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel
be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up
out of the land There is neither Jew nor Gentile, for all are ONE
in Christ Jesus. (see Romans 10:12 & Gala 3:28) Hosea is a type of Christ
in that he suffered as did Christ by having an unfaithful spouse. It is amazing
how the prophets of the Lord were called upon to bear such heavy crosses, but
they did so because they belonged to Christ by faith. The One Head to which
Hosea pointed was none other than Christ! The sceptre shall not depart
from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto
him shall the gathering of the people be. (Gen 49:10) Shiloh is
an epithet for the Messiah. He is the ‘sent One’. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God,
and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. (John 17:3)
For he
is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle
wall of partition between us; Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even
the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of
twain one new man, so making peace (Eph 2:14-15)
Christ is a pure and true Bridegroom. But His bride, the church (in both the
Wilderness and the Christian era) has committed adultery. Israel was in a
fallen and immoral state when Christ came. He bought her with the cost of His
own bloody sacrifice, yet, she remained unfaithful. As Hosea prophesies the
falling of Israel from her lofty place, so Christ pronounces the judgment on
Jerusalem. He tells the Jewish leaders Therefore
say I unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a
nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. (Matt 21:43) This
seems and irreversible circumstance, but it is apparent only and not fixed.
Just as God, through Hosea declared to the off-spring of Israel, Now when
she (Gomer, the prostitute wife of Hosea) had weaned Loruhamah,
she conceived, and bare a son. Then said God, Call his name Loammi: for ye
are not my people, and I will not be your God. (Hosea 1:8-9) This is a
time-limited pronouncement against Israel. See what God later says through
Hosea: Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of
the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that
in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall
be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God. (Hosea 1:10) It
is at the time of the uniting of the people of God of the Old Testament with
those who have been gathered from every tribe and people from all over the
world (scattered believers) in Christ that has reference here.
Christ came to mother Israel and was rejected. She played the whore. She wanted
nothing to do with her offspring (descent from Abraham as the Promised Seed).
Even as Christ pleaded with her to gather to Him, she was aloof and resentful. O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets,
and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy
children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye
would not! Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.
(Matt 23:37-38) We see a
description of the coming persecution of Israel and the Elect Church in
Revelations 12. The mother of the New Testament is the Old.
Time will not allow for a fuller study on Hosea in a mere devotion, but I
encourage every Reader to study this book to the enlightenment of your souls.
There are some particularly disconcerting points raised in Hosea (depending, of
course, on your perspective of being in – or out – of a state of grace). Hosea
has his most horrific warning to the apostate people of God: For they
have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: it hath no stalk: the
bud shall yield no meal: if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up. (Hosea
8:7) One cannot help but observe the devastating effects of those great
whirlwinds that have battered the coastal cities of America over the past few
years. Such storms, coming in quick succession, render us helpless and hopeless
in contending with them. They cripple our economy and reduce us to hunger in
many places. The remarkable references to the Whirlwind in bringing God’s
judgment are too numerous to discount (a single reference would be sufficient).
Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand,
and no man regarded; But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none
of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear
cometh; When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh
as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. (Prov
1:24-27) Have we set at naught the counsel of God once heeded by our
Fathers? Is it likely that God will apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah for harshly
judging them while ignoring the sins of a nation that has been so richly
blessed by His bountiful grace?
I have
seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing: they commit adultery,
and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none doth
return from his wickedness: they are all of them unto me as Sodom, and the
inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah. Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts
concerning the prophets; Behold, I will feed them with wormwood, and make them
drink the water of gall: for from the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone
forth into all the land. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Hearken not unto the
words of the prophets that prophesy unto you: they make you vain: they speak a
vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the Lord. They say still
unto them that despise me, The Lord hath said, Ye shall have peace; and they
say unto every one that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, No evil
shall come upon you. For who hath stood in the counsel of the Lord, and hath
perceived and heard his word? who hath marked his word, and heard it? Behold,
a whirlwind of the Lord is gone forth in fury, even a grievous
whirlwind: it shall fall grievously upon the head of the wicked. The anger of
the Lord shall not return, until he have executed, and till he have performed
the thoughts of his heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it perfectly. (Jer
23:13-20)
I am
not drawing any conclusions, but I will ask you to consider these things.
