T
|
HE word of the LORD that came unto Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel. 2 The beginning of the word of the LORD by Hosea. And the LORD said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the LORD. 3 So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim; which conceived, and bare him a son. 4 And the LORD said unto him, Call his name Jezreel; for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel. 5 And it shall come to pass at that day, that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel. 6 And she conceived again, and bare a daughter. And God said unto him, Call her name Loruhamah: for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel; but I will utterly take them away. 7 But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah, and will save them by the LORD their God, and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen. 8 Now when she had weaned Loruhamah, she conceived, and bare a son. 9 Then said God, Call his name Loammi: for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God. 10 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. 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 1:1-11)
One great error plaguing most modern denominational churches is that of dispensationalism – the belief that the plan of God is constantly changing in His dealings with mankind. His works are as steady as a Rock and unchanging as the North Star. “For I am the LORD, I change not;” (Malachi 3:6a)He changes not in character nor in His dealings with mankind. His only Begotten Son, being of the same nature and substance with the Father, likewise changes not. “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.” (Hebrews 13:8)I merely point this out to deepen the understanding that the manner of God’s dealing with Israel and Judah can also be expected in His dealings with a modern apostate Church. I am sorry to say that many who read this study may be members of that apostate Church. It has become nearly impossible to find churches in our day that are steadfast in their love and loyalty to God’s Holy Word.
Many are deceived in our day to believe that God will not allow His people to pass through the tribulation of persecution and devastation. Many are taught that God will ‘rapture’ His people before that hard time of evil shall arise. How provincial and prideful we are to believe that other Christian brothers and sisters of stronger faith in foreign lands are not already undergoing the tribulation of rape, pillage and beheadings; and yet they refuse to deny their Lord. How many ‘pulpit dandies’ of our day would remain so faithful in the face of such persecution? Such false teaching as dispensationalism undermines the faith of those who are deceived when tribulation does arise.
Gomer, the prostitute wife whom God commanded Hosea to take for a wife, is a symbol of perversion – both physically and spiritually. Bible scholars of greater understanding than I claimed that Gomer was likely a temple prostitute to the Baal, a matter I will take up in our next study. It seems so in latter writings.
Gomer is very much like Israel. She has followed after other gods which is idolatry. But idolatry and adultery are of the same nature with a Holy God. Idolatry is Israel (the Old Testament Church) and Israel (the New Testament Church) turning to other gods. Spiritual adultery is synonymous to spiritual idolatry in the eyes of God. It is going after other gods in abandonment of the true God in Heaven just as a wife abandons her legitimate husband and goes whoring after other men. It is tantamount to claiming God and Allah are the same.
God declared that He would have no mercy on old Israel (the Ten northern tribes) and sent them into captivity and oblivion (to our sight and understanding). Yet, God says He will later declare Israel to be His own in the same place He rejected them. God promises that they will be as the sand of the sea. How can this be? The Israel to whom God spoke was not that middle eastern Israel of today for that nation would be more properly called Judah for geographical composition. Israel proper did go into captivity and has been dispersed among the nations of the world, and have lost any national identity with Israel of old. But it has never been the physical blood coursing through the veins of a people that identify them as the Children of Israel – it has, from the beginning, been the spiritual faith they have demonstrated in believing in that promise made to Abraham of a Redeemer. How do we measure Israel as so plentiful as the sands of the sea? “Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham. And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.” (Galatians 3:6-9)All nations are a considerable multitude even considering those of faith who have belonged to all nations from antiquity past to the present.
Gomer was perverse spiritually and physically just as the modern Church in America has become. The modern Church has abandoned God’s Word and claimed Allah to be identical to the Holy Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. They have endorsed every perversion of marriage and moral living. They have cheapened the Holy Bible to reflect a lowering view of the Lord Jesus Christ as divine, as well as the Holy Spirit of God which they have simply labelled, ‘spirit.’ Wicked men and false prophets have not been able to challenge the Word of God in open battle, so they resort to the subterfuge of ‘changing’ the Bible to mean what they consider to be socially and politically acceptable for their income and living, i.e., the use of non-gender terms in a day of perverse acts.
Such perversions as the ESV, NIV, and a host of other so-called translations have sought to gradually turn the believer’s faith into belief in another God, another Holy Spirit, and another only Begotten Son of God. They have placed their souls in the jeopardy of counsel given in Revelations: “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.” (Revelation 22:17-19) The new versions of course are not God’s Word for they are copyrighted. If I wish to quote extensively from them, I must obtain the permission of the copyright holder – so not God’s Word. It is also notable Verse 17 above is careful to point out that the Word of God and its benefits are FREELY given. REALLY!
The children of Gomer were also cut off from the Kingdom. Why is that? I believe the churches that are being spawned today by false churches are also false themselves. If we trace the bloodline and the money, we will likely find that to be the case.
This first chapter of Hosea closes with stimulating promise: “10 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. 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)Judah and those who belong to the faith of Abraham shall come into complete accord only in the Lord Jesus Christ. There will be none who call themselves Messianic Jews, or Christian plus anything. We shall all be united in Christ as One for which He prayed at last at Gethsemane.
A
|
NDnow I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.” (John 17:11-23)
The problem with the modern Church is no different from the Old Testament Church – they have brought the world into the Church rather than taking the Gospel into the world.
