So we begin tonight with chapter five.
In chapter five, Hosea the prophet speaks for
the Lord unto the priest and unto the
princes of Israel.
Unto the house of the king, hear ye
this, O priest, hearken, you house of Israel,
give ear, house of the king, for judgment
is toward you, because you have been a
snare on Mishpah and have spread a net
upon Tabor.
Now Tabor is a mountain that is very
prominent in the area of the Galilee.
It is easy to spot because it is
a round domed mountain.
Constantine's mother, Helena, felt that that was the
spot where Jesus was transfigured.
And so they built some churches of transfiguration
on top of Tabor.
But from scriptural evidence, inasmuch as Jesus went
into a high mountain apart, it probably wasn't
Tabor because it isn't really very high and
it's not apart, it's right in the center
of things.
He was probably transfigured on Mount Hermon.
Now Mishpah was one of the peaks at
Mount Hermon.
Tabor in the middle of the country, that
is of Samaria, and Mishpah up in the
northern end near Lebanon.
According to tradition, when the northern kingdom established
the northern empire, Jeroboam was quite concerned about
the people returning to Jerusalem to worship.
And so he instituted the calf worship in
the northern kingdom and he set up centers
of worship in Bethel and in Dan.
And his fear was that if they continued
to go back to Jerusalem for the feast,
that their hearts might be again united with
the king of Judah.
So he sought to keep them from returning.
Now they say that there were men who
would stand on Tabor and stand on Mishpah
to watch to see if anyone was returning
to Jerusalem during the feast periods in order
that they might fall upon them and destroy
them.
So they would set a snare or a
trap for those who might be going down
to Jerusalem to worship.
That's one view.
The other which I feel is probably more
legitimate because there are several objections to that.
Number one, you could get to Jerusalem without
being seen from Tabor quite easily.
If you were going through the Jordan Valley,
there's no way they would see you from
Tabor.
And actually again from the area of the
northern Galilee, you couldn't really tell too much
from Mount Mishpah.
The other is that this was a great
area for hawking, for bird snaring.
And the picture is these fellows setting their
bird snares, the fowlers who were setting their
bird snares, those that were hawking in these
areas.
And so it becomes a picture of these
who had spread their snare on Mishpah and
their net was spread upon Tabor.
The revolters, he said, are profound to make
slaughter.
When they offered their sacrifices unto the gods
in the northern kingdom, they would do it
with great flair.
Again trying to make a big deal out
of it so all of the people would
be in awe.
So that is what is meant by profound
to make slaughter.
Though the Lord said, I've been the rebuker
of them all.
I know Ephraim, the major tribe of the
northern kingdom, and Israel is not hid from
me.
For now, O Ephraim, you are committing whoredom
and Israel is defiled.
They will not frame their doings to turn
unto their God, for the spirit of whoredoms
is in the midst of them and they
have not known the Lord.
The pride of Israel doth testify to his
face.
Therefore shall Israel and Ephraim fall in their
iniquity and Judah also shall fall with them.
So because they had turned from God and
were worshiping these false gods, that was always
considered by God as whoredom.
You've gone away from the true and the
living God.
You're worshiping Baal or you're worshiping the other
idols.
And God looked upon that as spiritual adultery,
as whoredom.
And because of it, they are going to
fall.
And here's the prediction of the fall, not
only of the northern kingdom of Israel, but
also the southern kingdom of Judah.
Now they shall go with their flocks and
with their herds to seek the Lord, but
they shall not find him, for he has
withdrawn himself from them.
Though they try to return to God with
a lot of sacrifices and all, God said,
I've withdrawn from them, they won't find me.
They have dealt treacherously against the Lord, for
they have begotten strange children.
Now shall a month devour them with their
portions.
Blow the cornet in Gibeah, the trumpet in
Ramah, cry aloud at Beth-Avon after thee,
O Benjamin.
For Ephraim shall be desolate in the day
of rebuke among the tribes of Israel, have
I made known that which shall surely be.
So God declares, I've declared to you what's
going to surely come to pass.
The princes of Judah like them that remove
the boundaries, therefore I will pour out my
wrath upon them like water.
Now when the northern kingdom was going to
fall, Judah rather than mourning over the fact
that the northern kingdom had fallen, looked upon
it eagerly as an opportunity to expand its
boundaries.
Inasmuch as Assyria is attacking from the north,
and all, if Israel falls to Assyria, then
Judah was looking at it as an opportunity
to expand its borders.
And so the Lord rebukes them for this
attitude, rather than mourning and lamenting over the
fact that the northern kingdom had fallen, they
were eager for the opportunity to expand their
borders.
Therefore the Lord declares, I will also pour
out my wrath upon them like water.
Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment, because
they willingly walked after the commandment.
Therefore will I be unto Ephraim as a
moth that is eating it, and unto the
house of Judah as rottenness.
When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw
his wound, then went Ephraim to the Assyrian
and sent to King Jared.
Yet could he not heal you nor cure
you of your wound.
For I will be unto Ephraim as a
lion and a young lion to the house
of Judah.
Even I will tear and go away, I
will take away and none shall rescue him.
I will go and return to my place
till they acknowledge their offense and seek my
face, and their affliction they will seek nearly.
Now, the Lord is here speaking of how
that they turn to the arm of flesh
for help.
In the time of their calamity, rather than
really turning to God, they turn to the
Assyrians and looking for the arm of flesh
to help them.
On the way out this evening, I was
talking with my son-in-law, as we
were riding together in the car, and I
was remarking to him as we were talking
about the book of Acts and the work
of the Holy Spirit in the early church.
I was remarking how tragic it is that
the church has sought to substitute the wisdom
of man for the work of the Holy
Spirit.
For the day that we felt that we
no longer needed that dynamic work of the
Spirit to guide and to direct the affairs
of the church.
But having gone to seminary and gotten our
degrees, we feel that now we have the
capacity.
We have the understanding.
After all, don't we have a minor in
sociology?
And don't we understand human behavior?
And don't we know how to manipulate people?
And the church has trusted in the wisdom
and the abilities of man, rather than in
the work and in the power of the
Holy Spirit.
And that is why the church is so
weak today.
Looking to the arm of flesh, looking to
the abilities of the flesh to do the
work of the Spirit.
This was the sin of Ephraim.
Looking to the arm of flesh, looking to
Assyria for help.
When ultimately Assyria would be the rod that
God would use to punish Ephraim.
Now, in verse 15 the Lord said that
he was going to go and return to
his place.
They're not going to find me.
I'm just going to leave them.
Until they acknowledge their offense.
Until they actually acknowledge we are wrong.
We have turned our backs against God.
We have broken the covenant of God.
We've transgressed His law.
God said, I'm just going to return to
my place until they come to this acknowledgement.
And they begin to seek my face.
In their affliction, they will seek me early.
Talking really of the great tribulation.
The time of Jacob's trouble.
When they will be afflicted, they will then
seek the Lord.
In their affliction, they will seek me early.
Now, it is extremely unfortunate that they placed
the chapter break here.
They should have placed the chapter break maybe
at the end of verse 3.
And chapter 6 probably should have started there.
Because we have in our minds that crazy
tendency when we come to a chapter to
say, Well, that's the end of that chapter.
Now we've got a whole new thought or
something.
But it's carried right on through.
God has said, I'm going to go and
return to my place until they acknowledge their
offense.
They seek my face.
And in their affliction, they seek me early.
And they will say, come and let us
return unto the Lord.
For He hath torn and He will heal
us.
He hath smitten and He will bind us
up.
This is the prayer that they will be
offering unto God.
Or this is the declaration that they'll be
making to each other.
Come and let us return unto the Lord.
He has torn us, but He will heal
us.
He has smitten us, but He will bind
us up.
After two days will He revive us.
In the third day, He will raise us
up and we shall live in His sight.
This is a fascinating prophecy.
Because if you look at the nation Israel.
It has been almost two thousand years since
they existed as a nation.
Now we read in Peter that a thousand
years is as a day unto the Lord.
And a day is as a thousand years.
Using that formula, the two days would be
two thousand years.
That would completely coincide with the facts.
For Israel has been smitten for about two
thousand years.
And we are seeing the revival of the
nation.
In the third day, He will raise us
up.
In the third millennia.
And we see Israel being raised up.
In the third year, or the third day,
He will raise us up and we shall
live in His sight.
That is, the Messiah will be there and
they will dwell with the Messiah.
In the millennium, the thousand year reign of
Christ.
Israel, the nation, will again have a very
prominent place.
And God will fulfill all of the unfulfilled
promises of the Old Testament upon the nation.
First of all, the expansion of their borders
to that area that God had promised them.
Secondly, the King forever upon the throne of
David.
To order it and to establish it in
righteousness and in judgment.
Henceforth, even forever, the Messiah and His reign.
And this is an extremely fascinating prophecy.
Because as we look at the situation as
it exists today.
Using the thousand year day formula.
And you say, well how do you know
you can use that?
Because it fits.
Surely it is not two literal days.
And the fact that it has been 2
,000 years.
And now they are being raised up.
We look forward to the beginning of that
3,000th year.
Which will be the 7,000th year in
the history of man.
And you have again all of the other
interesting analogies of the Old Testament.
Where a servant was to serve for six
years.
But the seventh year he was to be
set free.
And so we look forward to that glorious
seventh millennia.
When Christ shall sit upon the throne of
David.
And they, Israel, shall live in His sight.
Then shall we know.
If we follow on to know the Lord.
His going forth is prepared as the morning.
He shall come unto us as the rain.
As the latter and the former rain unto
the earth.
So, this glorious promise as the latter rain.
And as the former rain.
Unto the earth.
So that the blessings of the last days.
And that's what it is making a reference
to.
Of God's restoration on Israel.
The blessings of that day.
Are going to be absolutely glorious.
Paul the Apostle in writing of this day
of restoration.
Said, if the cutting off of them.
Brought the glory and salvation unto the Gentiles.
What will the restoration be?
But the glorious really restoration of the whole
world.
The kingdom age.
The millennial reign of Christ.
Now God cries out to Ephraim.
The northern kingdom.
Oh Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee?
And then unto Judah.
Oh Judah, what shall I do unto thee?
For your goodness is as a morning cloud.
And as the early dew it goes away.
Of course, this is something that we can
relate to here in Southern California.
The morning clouds.
So often we hear on the news report.
Early morning clouds along the coast, you know.
And they burn off.
That's the thing about the early morning clouds.
It doesn't last.
They burn off.
Soon as the sun raises in the sky.
The early morning clouds burn off.
And so the goodness.
Of Ephraim and Judah.
Didn't last.
It would burn off.
Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets.
I have slain them by the words of
my mouth.
And thy judgments are as the light that
goeth forth.
For the Lord said, I desired mercy and
not sacrifice.
And the knowledge of God more than the
burnt offerings.
The people were still going on with the
form of religion.
The form of worship.
But they lacked.
The real essence.
God was looking for them to have the
attitudes of mercy.
God was desiring that they should have a
knowledge of him.
But all they had was a form of
religion.
They still had the burnt offerings.
They still had the sacrifices.
But they really didn't have a vital relationship
with God.
You remember when Jesus addressed himself to the
church of Ephesus.
In Revelation chapter 2.
He said, I have this against you.
He said, I know thy works.
Ah, working church.
And he remarks.
He makes special comment on their works.
But he said, I have this against you.
You've left your first love.
We see so many churches like that today.
They are working churches.
I mean, they've got so many committees.
And everybody, you know, is being bugged by
somebody else to do their job.
And if you don't do your job, there's
someone who's going to be giving you a
call or writing you a note or whatever.
I mean, they've got the whole thing so
smoothly organized.
And they're a working church.
They've got all the motions.
But Jesus said, you don't have the emotion.
You don't have the love.
Here it was with Ephraim, with Judah.
You've got the sacrifices.
You've got the burnt offerings.
But there's no mercy.
There's no real knowledge of God.
I would rather that you be merciful.
I'd rather that you really know me.
This would be preferable to just the formal
works.
But they, like men, have transgressed the covenant.
They have dealt treacherously against me.
Gilead is a city of those who work
iniquity.
It's polluted with blood.
And as troops of robbers, they wait for
a man.
So the company of priests murder in the
way by consent, for they commit lewdness.
So the priesthood was guilty.
And as a troop of robbers, now according
to the original Hebrew, they were actually lying
in wait for those who were fleeing to
the cities of refuge and were killing them.
I have seen a horrible thing in the
house of Israel.
There is whoredom of Ephraim, and Israel is
defiled.
Also, O Judah, he has set a harvest
for thee when I return the captivity of
my people.
The Lord continues his response to them.
When I would have healed Israel, then the
iniquity of Ephraim was discovered, and the wickedness
of Samaria.
For they commit falsehood, and the thief comes
in, and the troop of robbers spoils without.
And they consider not in their hearts that
I remember all their wickedness.
Now their own doings have beset them about.
They are before my face.
People forget that God remembers.
You don't hide anything from God.
You think you're getting by with it.
They don't consider in their hearts that I
remember.
And they make the king glad with their
wickedness, and the princes with their lies.
They are all adulterers.
As a oven that is heated by the
baker, that is, the heat of passion, like
an oven heated by the baker, who ceases
from rising after he has kneaded the dough
until it be leavened.
The bakers would usually set the fire in
the ovens at night.
And after building the fire in the oven
at night, they would go to bed.
They would knead the dough, set it aside,
and then they'd go to bed.
And they wouldn't rise until the dough had
been leavened.
And, of course, when they rose, then the
oven was all heated and ready for the
bread.
And so he uses that as a figure
of speech, actually, the heated oven to the
heated passions of these people in their adulterous
relationships.
In the day of our king, the princes
have made him sick with the bottles of
wine, that is, drinking until they were so
drunk they were vomiting all over the place.
He stretched out his hand with the scorners,
for they have made ready their heart like
an oven, while they lie in wait, that
is, lying in wait for their neighbor's wife
or whatever.
The baker sleeps all the night, and in
the morning it burns as with a flaming
fire.
They are all as hot as an oven.
They've devoured their judges, and their kings are
fallen.
There is none among them that calls unto
me.
And so God is giving his indictment against
Israel, and why his judgment must fall.
Ephraim hath mixed himself among the people.
Ephraim is a cake not turned.
Like a pancake, it's burning on the bottom,
but the top is still raw.
It's really good for nothing.
You know, you can't eat it.
You just throw it out.
Ephraim is a cake not turned.
Strangers have devoured his strength, and he doesn't
know it.
You remember Samson, when he said, I will
rise up as I did before.
And he knew not that the Spirit of
God had departed from him.
Tragic.
When people are still going on with motions,
but God is left, and they're not even
aware that God is gone, because the motions
are still there.
We're still doing the right thing.
We're still doing the religious thing.
But what's in your heart?
They knew not that their strength were gone.
The gray hairs are here, and are upon
them, yet they don't know it.
Again, not really knowing the things that have
come upon them.
The pride of Israel testifies to his face,
and they do not return to the Lord
their God, nor seek him for all of
this.
Ephraim also is like a silly dove without
heart.
They call to Egypt, they go to Assyria.
Now, doves are silly.
They make their nest in the most stupid
places.
A dove is really stupid.
Watch them in their nest building.
They don't really make a neat nest at
all, and they're not really careful where they
make their nest.
They oftentimes will make their nest even within
an easy reach.
And you can remove the eggs out of
a dove's nest, and he'll continue to sit
on the thing.
They're just silly.
I remember as a kid, we used to
go out with slingshots, and you'd just miss
the dove.
You know, the rocket just goes shooting past
him, and just barely miss him.
And he wouldn't fly, he wouldn't move.
He'd just, you know, look around.
And I used to think, you dumb thing,
I'm not going to miss you the next
shot.
But they just don't seem to have much
sense.
They surely don't show very good judgment.
And so God likens Ephraim to a silly
dove.
Flying off to Assyria, then flying down to
Egypt.
Looking again to the help of man, rather
than turning to God.
God said, when they go, I'm going to
spread my net upon them.
I will bring them down as the fowls
of heaven.
I will chastise them as their congregation hath
heard.
Woe unto them, for they have fled from
me.
Destruction unto them, because they have transgressed against
me.
And though I have redeemed them, yet they
have spoken lies against me.
They have not cried unto me with their
heart.
When they howled upon their beds, they assembled
themselves for corn and wine, and they rebel
against me.
And though I have bound and strengthened their
arms, yet do they imagine mischief against me.
They return, but not to the Most High.
They are like a deceitful bow.
Their princes shall fall by the sword for
the rage of their tongue.
This shall be their derision in the land
of Egypt.
So God's response to Ephraim and to Judah.
Set the trumpet to thy mouth.
He shall come as an eagle against the
house of the Lord, because they have transgressed
my covenant and trespassed against my law.
So God again is giving his indictment against
them.
Number one, they have trespassed his covenant.
Number two, they have transgressed his law.
God had established a covenant with the nation
Israel.
The covenant was the basis whereby God would
be their God and would bless them.
Now if you do these things, I will
be your God, and I will bless thee.
I will multiply thy crops, and I will
multiply thee upon the face of the earth.
And God tells of all of the blessings
if he is their God, and they will
only worship and serve him.
I will grant you all of these blessings,
but this is the basis for them.
This is the covenant.
And so they had a covenant relationship with
God.
But they had transgressed against the covenant.
They had broken the covenant that God had
made.
Now it is interesting that God made many
covenants in the Old Testament.
God made a covenant with Adam.
Adam broke it.
God made a covenant with Abraham and Abraham's
seed.
They broke it.
God made a covenant with Israel.
They broke it.
Now God has made a new covenant with
the church.
In Hebrews, we are told it is a
better covenant.
God has established a basis whereby he will
be your God and you can be his
people.
Again, a covenant relationship.
But if Adam broke the covenant and Abraham's
seed broke the covenant and Israel broke the
covenant, what hope is there for us?
Why do we think we are any better
than they are?
In reality, we're not.
But we have a better covenant.
God's covenant with Adam, Abraham, and through Moses
with the children of Israel was all predicated
upon their obedience.
And if you do these things, you shall
live by them.
God's covenant with us through Jesus Christ is
predicated upon his faithfulness and my just believing
in him and in his faithfulness.
Now man failed, but God can't fail.
The covenant with Israel was broken because Israel
transgressed the covenant.
God's covenant with me will never be broken
because it's based upon the faithfulness of God
to keep his word.
And God has promised that if I believe
in his son, I'll have eternal life.
Glorious covenant that God has made with me.
And I have no intention of ever doing
anything other than believing on his son.
So, I am trusting God and the faithfulness
of God.
Not my righteousness.
Not my obedience to a set of rules
or regulations.
But my love for Jesus Christ and my
faithfulness.
Or actually my faith in him, his faithfulness,
and in his work for me.
So, Israel had transgressed.
They had trespassed against God's law.
The law of the Lord is good.
Paul says the law is good.
Problem wasn't the law.
God's law was holy.
It was just.
It was good.
Nothing wrong with God's law at all.
Unfortunately, many times God's law comes into a
bad light because we often times like to
say, Oh, we're not under law like it
was a bad thing.
We're under grace.
And we have a tendency to sometimes sort
of look at the law as something that
was evil.
Something that was not good.
But no, the law was holy.
It was just and it is good.
Micah said, He hath shown thee, O man,
what is good.
And what the Lord requires of thee.
Here in verse 3, Israel's cast off that
which is good.
They cast off the covenant of God.
They cast off the law of God.
They cast off that which was good.
There's nothing wrong with the law of God.
Paul said, The problem is with us.
The law is spiritual and we are carnal.
The problem isn't with God's law.
It's good.
David said, Happy is the man who walks
not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor
stands in the way with sinners, nor sits
in the seat of the scornful, but whose
delight is in the law of the Lord.
And in this law does he meditate both
day and night.
It's good because he'll be like a tree
planted by the rivers of water, bringing forth
his fruit in his season, his leaf also
shall not wither.
Whatsoever he does will prosper.
The law is good.
God has given him the law, the basis
for a society, the basis for man living
together, the basis for you to have a
happy, fulfilling, rich life.
Nothing wrong with the law.
But they transgressed or they trespassed against the
law of God.
They cast out the law of God, trespassed
against it.
Now Israel shall cry unto me, My God,
we know thee.
God declares he doesn't know them.
For they have cast off the thing that
is good, God, their relationship with him, the
covenant.
And thus the enemy is going to pursue
them.
They have set up kings, but not by
me.
Now in the Northern Kingdom, they set up
their kings.
The people called for Jeroboam.
It wasn't by God.
God's promise was to David and to his
seed.
And then in the Northern Kingdom, it came
that there went from one dynasty to another,
as there were the murders of the assassination
of the kings.
And it really became chaotic.
They have set up kings, but not by
me.
They have made princes, and I knew it
not.
That is, it was not by my approval.
And of their silver and of their gold,
have they made them idols that they might
be cut off.
So they had begun to worship and serve
other gods.
This is God's indictment.
Thy calf, the God that they set up
in Samaria and said, this is the God
that brought you out of Egypt.
Thy calf, O Samaria, has cast thee off.
My anger is kindled against thee.
How long will it be ere they attain
to innocency?
For from Israel was it also that the
workmen made it.
Therefore it is not God, but the calf
of Samaria shall be broken in pieces.
So God pronounces the judgment upon their gods.
For they have sown the wind by their
turning away from God, by their establishing the
idol worship, by their transgressing against the covenant
and trespassing against the law.
They had sown the wind and they shall
reap the whirlwind.
Oh, what a lesson this ought to be
to our nation today.
We have been guilty now for several years
of sowing the wind.
Gradually, the courts have been ruling God out
of the public life of the nation.
The courts recently ruled in Arkansas that
scientific creationism is nothing more than religion in
disguise.
It cannot be taught in the school and
thus the children cannot be taught any alternative
to the evolutionary theory.
I think this is a very sad and
tragic judgment and I think that it will
have great repercussions for the teaching of the
evolutionary theory has already had great repercussions in
our society.
It would seem that the schools would wake
up pretty soon.
The public school system to realize that it
is bankrupt.
Their educational processes are bankrupt.
We teach the children that they are animals
and then we wail and cry because they
act like animals.
And in many of our public schools they
have to hire police protection for the teachers
to keep them from being assaulted by the
little animals in their classrooms.
It's sad.
The public education system has become a zoo.
Califano who used to be in charge of
the health education and welfare department as he
was leaving office said the worst place you
could place a teenage child is in a
public high school.
Quite an admission.
But why?
Because we've sown the wind.
We have tried to take away any real
base.
It has no stock.
That's what the Lord says.
By allowing the influence of Dewey and Watson
and Huxleys we have allowed the existential
philosophy with its humanistic base to prevail and
to prevail in our public education system.
And thus the challenge of what is good
and what is evil.
And the rejection of any universal base of
good, the rejection of any absolutes reflected in
our art, modern art, which if you can
understand it you're weirder than I am.
It doesn't have any true form.
Now there are pictures that I can understand.
That's a farm and that's a fence around
a farm and that's a cow out in
the pasture.
And I can see that and anybody can
see that.
But some of these modern forms of art
where they stand back and throw the paints
at the canvas and they put cow in
the pasture next to the barn and look
as I may I can't find the cow
in the pasture.
It's like when I was a kid and
I used to study the plaster on the
ceiling and look for the pictures in the
plaster on the ceiling or looking for the
forms in the clouds.
And you can you know your mind can
see things you know and as a child
your imagination is very vivid and I used
to see all kinds of things on the
ceiling.
You know the irregularities in the plaster there.
Of course these poor kids today with acoustical
ceilings what can you see in an acoustical
ceiling?
But you know lying in bed and you're
sick and all and you have nothing to
do but look up at the ceiling and
it used to be with this textured plaster
you could make out different things in the
ceiling.
And sometimes I'd say to my brother look
you know it looks like a horse up
there I don't see any horse.
Yeah look at that.
Yeah I don't see any horse you know.
Well I could.
I could.
You know by it's like seeing Orion chasing
the bull you know it takes a little
imagination but you can make it out.
But modern art you see what does it
do?
It testifies that there isn't an absolute it's
what you see in it that's what counts.
And every man sees what he wants.
But the effect of existentialism is that of
separating us.
It takes away a unified base.
It makes me an island.
It makes me all alone in this big
vast universe because no one else is just
quite like I am.
No one else sees the same things I
see and suddenly I feel all alone and
very lonely in a big vast universe because
existentialism has isolated me and made me an
individual and I've got to now start from
my own human base humanism and I've got
to now interpret all of the things the
world around me as best I can and
relate to them as I can without any
base of where to start.
Not having any rights or wrongs it's all
how I relate to it how I feel
about it how it affects me.
There's no stock.
There's no base.
And it leads to despair.
It leads to hopelessness.
But not only is it without stock the
bud shall yield no meal.
A life lived after the flesh will bring
a person to emptiness.
Pursuing your own fleshly ambitions will not bring
you satisfaction but only a deeper hunger that
cannot be fulfilled.
It'll yield no meal.
It's all chaff.
You go to eat it and there's no
nourishment there's nothing there.
Life becomes empty like chaff.
And if it does yield any flower, any
meal the strangers will come and swallow it
up.
For Israel is swallowed up.
Now shall they be among the Gentiles as
a vessel wherein there is no pleasure.
Cast off by God.
Dwelling among the Gentiles for two days.
But in the third day they're going to
live and be raised up.
For they are gone up to Assyria a
wild ass alone by himself.
Ephraim has hired lovers.
And yea, though they have hired among the
nations now will I gather them and they
shall sorrow a little for the burden of
the king of princes.
Because Ephraim hath made many altars to sin
the altar shall be unto him to sin.
I have written to him the great things
of my law but they were counted as
strange things.
Whenever a man begins to count the law
as strange things he's in trouble.
They sacrifice flesh for the sacrifices of my
offerings.
They eat it but the Lord does not
accept them.
Now will he remember their iniquity and visit
their sins.
They shall return to Egypt for Israel has
forgotten his maker.
What a sad and tragic indictment.
The people have forgotten their maker.
And they're building temples and Judah has multiplied
his fenced cities but I'll send a fire
upon his cities and shall devour the palaces.
Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy as other
people for you have gone a whoring from
your God.
You have loved a reward upon every corn
floor.
The floor and the winepress shall not feed
them and the new wine shall fail in
her.
They shall not dwell in the Lord's land
but Ephraim shall return to Egypt and they
shall eat unclean things in Assyria.
And so he prophesies and predicts the captivity
being carried away to Assyria, others fleeing to
Egypt.
They shall not offer the wine offerings to
the Lord, neither shall they be pleasing unto
him.
Their sacrifices shall be unto them as the
bread of mourners.
All that eat thereof shall be polluted for
their bread and for their souls shall not
come into the house of the Lord.
What will you do in the solemn day
and in the day of the feast of
the Lord?
For lo, they are gone because of destruction.
Egypt shall gather them up.
Memphis shall bury them.
They'll be buried in Memphis.
The pleasant places for their silver, that is,
their places were once so beautiful, their treasures
were kept, will be covered with nettles and
thorns will fill their houses, their tents.
The days of visitation are come.
The days of recompense.
Israel shall know it.
The prophet is a fool.
The spiritual man is mad for the multitude
of thine iniquity and the great hatred.
The watchman of Ephraim was with my God,
but the prophet is a snare of a
fowler in all of his ways and hatred
in the house of his God.
They have deeply corrupted themselves as in the
days of Gibeah.
Therefore, I will remember their iniquity and will
visit their sins.
And so God is pronouncing His judgment and
His indictments against these people.
He said, I found Israel like grapes in
the wilderness.
I saw your fathers as the first ripe
in the fig tree at her first time.
Now here, the nation of Israel is likened
unto a fig tree.
This also is true in Joel 1.7
and in Jeremiah 23, I believe it is,
or 26, 24, between them.
Your fathers were as the first ripe fig
trees at her first time.
I do believe that Jesus in Matthew 24,
here is a reference to Israel as a
fig tree, as in Joel and as in
Jeremiah.
Now you say, but if Israel is the
fig tree and it began to bud forth
in 1948 and the generation that saw it
bud forth wasn't to pass until all of
the things be fulfilled, how come they were
getting out close to the end of that
generation, 1988, 40 years, and we the church
are still here if we're going to be
gone seven years before.
A lot of suppositions in that.
Number one, the supposition is that the rebirth
of the nation in May of 48 constitutes
the beginning of that generation.
Second supposition, that the generation is exactly 40
years.
And the third supposition, of course, is that
the church will be taken away seven years
before the second coming of Jesus Christ.
But don't write it off yet.
We still have a ways to go till
May 14.
And that the Lord didn't come in the
year 1981 doesn't yet totally wipe out that
whole premise.
If he hasn't come by May 14, then
those who hold to that can go back
to their calculations and begin to work again.
I personally cannot see how this earth can
continue much longer.
There are some remarkable things that are happening
in the world today.
The Schmitt from Germany has called for a
summit conference between Brezhnev and President Reagan.
And the purpose of his calling for this
summit is that Brezhnev will know that those
people in the West aren't kidding.
They're really serious in their endeavor to stop
the Soviet Union from its further aggression.
I'm afraid that we've gotten serious a little
bit too late.
General Jones, General Keegan, General Walt, and
you can go right on down and name
a lot of generals who feel that 1982
is definitely the crisis year with Russia.
That this is the last year that Russia
will have a decided military advantage over us.
That beginning with 1983, it will be declining
as we are in our crash programs to
begin to catch up.
As we start the deployment of the MX
missile systems, as we're speeding up the development
of our cruise missiles, as we're starting the
development of the B-1 and so forth.
In 1985, 1986, hopefully we will be again
in a position of some kind of strength
against Russia.
But what Helmut Schmidt is saying to Brezhnev
is, hey, those guys are crazy.
They are serious.
And you better take them seriously.
There's little we can do right now.
There was really nothing we could do to
stop Russia's move into Afghanistan.
There was really nothing that we could do
with that hostage fiasco in Iran.
We're too close to Russia.
We had that aborted attempt to rescue, but
it was too little too late.
The United States is operating at the present
time from a base of weakness, but that's
no position to be in in this world
in which we live.
Weakness is not respected.
Russia definitely has the cards, and she can
play them anytime she wants.
And there's really nothing we can do about
it.
And I don't see how things can go
on much longer.
As I said this morning, if I didn't
really believe in the Lord and in trusting
in Him, I would be looking for some
place to just crawl into a cave and
wait until it was all over.
I'd be looking for some little atoll or
island out in the Pacific, and I'd just
get me a pile of coconuts and a
fishnet and hope to tough it out until
it all went up in a puff of
smoke.
But my trust is not in man nor
in the armament nor in the powers of
man nor in the leagues of men, but
my trust is in the Lord and in
God's Word.
And I do not see the whole thing
going up in God's Word as long as
the church is here, so I'm just committing
my ways to the Lord as far as
that goes.
But we are getting close to the end
of that generation that saw the fig tree
bud forth, and I do think that there
is a correlation between verse 10 where God
said, I saw your fathers as the first
ripe in the fig tree and the parable
of the fig tree in Matthew 24 in
that the identity of the fig tree is
indeed Israel.
God saw them as the grapes in the
wilderness.
When they first came into the wilderness, found
grapes that were there.
Oh, thirsty people, how great juicy grapes taste
to a guy who is dying of thirst.
And though God found them very refreshing, exciting,
yet they went after Belpior, one of the
most licentious of all the pagan gods as
far as the worship is concerned.
They separated themselves unto that shame and their
abominations were according as they loved.
As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away
like a bird from the birth and from
the womb and from the conception.
Though they bring up their children, yet will
I bereave them that there shall not be
a man left.
Yea, woe also unto them when I depart
from them.
Woe unto any man when God has departed
from his life.
Ephraim, as I saw Tyrus, is planted in
a pleasant place, but Ephraim shall bring forth
his children to the murderer.
Give them, O Lord, what you will give.
Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.
All their wickedness is in Gilgal, for there
I hated them for the wickedness of their
doings.
I will drive them out of my house.
I will love them no more.
All their princes are revolters.
Ephraim is smitten.
Their root is dried up.
They shall bear no fruit.
Yea, they shall bring forth, yet I will
slay even the beloved fruit of their womb.
My God will cast them away because they
did not hearken unto Him and they shall
be wonderers among the nations.
And that prophecy has been fulfilled and is
being fulfilled at the present time, for they
still remain wonderers among the nations.
The testimony of God's Word confirmed by history
and confirmed by the world around us.
Surely, we would be wise to give heed
to the Word of God.
Shall we pray?
God, help us that we might hearken unto
you.
Help us, Lord, that we would not follow
after the sin of Ephraim and of Judah
in turning away after idols, of
misplacing priority.
Help us, O Lord, that we would not
allow the cares of this world or the
deceitfulness of riches or the desire of other
things to choke out our fruitfulness.
But, O Lord, may we truly bring forth
fruit for thy praise.
In Jesus' name, Amen.