648. Hosea - Chapter 9 (#1) - They Shall not Dwell in the Lord's Land - September 25, 2024

[00:00:06] Welcome to Wisdom Today. My name is Bill Kelley and I'll be your host. In this podcast we will be exploring the book of Proverbs.

[00:00:15] Hope and in prayer. Father God, I thank you for anyone listening to this podcast today. Lord, I pray that you would open everyone's ears to hear and heart to receive everything you have in store for them today.

[00:00:35] I ask this in Jesus name, Amen. This is Proverbs 25, beginning in verse 1.

[00:00:43] These also are Proverbs of Solomon, which the man of Hezekiah, King of Judah, copied. It is the glory of God to conceal a matter.

[00:00:54] But the glory of kings is to search out a matter. As the heavens for height and the earth for depth, so the heart of kings is unsertial.

[00:01:06] Take away the draws from silver and it will go to the silver smith for jewelry. Take away the wicked from before the king, and his throne will be established in righteousness.

[00:01:20] Do not exalt yourself in the presence of the king and do not stand in the place of the great. For it is better that He say to you, come up here, then that you should be put lower in the presence of the prince whom your eyes have saved.

[00:01:40] Do not go hastily to court for what will you do in the end when your neighbor has put you to shame, debate your case with your neighbor and do not disclose the secret to another.

[00:01:56] Lest He who hears it expose your shame and your reputation be ruined. A word, fiddly spoken, is like apples of gold in settings of silver, like an earring of gold and an ornament of fine gold is a wise reviewer to an obedient ear.

[00:02:19] Like the cold of snow in time of harvest is a faithful messenger to those who sent him for he refreshes the soul of his masters, whoever falsely boasts of giving is like clouds and wind without rain.

[00:02:38] By long forbearance the ruler is persuaded and a gentle tongue breaks a bone. Have you found honey, eat only as much as you need, lest you be filled with it and vomit.

[00:02:53] Seldum set foot in your neighbor's house, lest he become weary of you and hate you. A man who bears false witness against his neighbor is like a club, a sword and a sharp arrow.

[00:03:10] Confidence in an unfatil man in time of trouble is like a bad tooth and a foot out of joint, like one who takes away a garment in cold weather and like vinegar on soda is one who sings songs to a heavy heart.

[00:03:30] If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink. For so you will keep coals of fire on his head and the Lord will reward you.

[00:03:46] The North Wind brings forth rain and a backbiting tongue and angry countenance. It is better than dwell in a corner of a house top then in a house shared with a contentious woman.

[00:04:02] As cold water to a weary soul, so is good news from a far country. A righteous man who falters before the wicked is like a murky spring and a polluted well.

[00:04:17] It is not good to eat much honey, so to seek one's own glory is not glory. Whoever has no rule over his own spirit is like a city broken down without walls.

[00:04:32] Friends today I'd like to take a closer look at verse 8 and proper 25 verse 8 tells us this, do not go hastily to court for what will you do in the end when your neighbor has put you to shame.

[00:04:51] Friends we will revisit that verse prior to closing today but what I'd like to do is to continue our study in the book of the minor prophet Jose.

[00:05:04] What I'd like to do is to review what we did on Monday's podcast. Now if you did not have a chance to listen to Monday's podcast which was episode number 646, I invite you to do that.

[00:05:20] Either now prior to listening to today's lesson or even after today's lesson if you wish to do that.

[00:05:29] But what I'd like to do is we finished chapter 8 on Monday and I'd like to quickly review the three points that we went over.

[00:05:38] Number one they sow the wind and reap the world wind. And if you recall on Monday I went over Galatians 677 and this is such a powerful verse and a lot of times we tend to forget this verse.

[00:05:54] It says, do not be deceived. God is not mock for whatever a man's so that he will also reap and friends our actions have consequences if we do something that can hurt and individual eventually someone will hurt us in return.

[00:06:17] Now it may not be the person that you just got done hurting. It may be someone else but we are going to reap what we sow and I made a real point of emphasis on Monday's podcast pertaining to that number two they have become for him allures of sinning.

[00:06:39] And wow that is such a powerful verse. You know it reminds me of you know, bail worship you know you're actually bowing down to him and gosh this must have really discussed to God.

[00:06:54] Number three I will send fire upon his cities and basically what that reminds me of is that God is going to burn up anything in your life that does not have eternal value.

[00:07:08] He only wants us to do things that are going to further advance his kingdom and so many things we do in our life do not have eternal value.

[00:07:22] A lot of things we do I think are based out of selfishness and we just do what we want to do and indulge in our desires and our wants.

[00:07:32] And we should try as much as we can to focus on other people's needs and trying to help them whenever possible.

[00:08:02] Thrashing floor so friends my first point in today's lesson is Israel has played the harlot against God.

[00:08:13] Let's go to verse two the thrashing floor and the wine press shall not feed them and the new wine shall fail in her.

[00:08:24] Now friends I am reading out of the Nelson study Bible and what I'd like to do is to read the commentary for verses one and two because of their association with the harvest.

[00:08:39] Thrashing floors were the site of agricultural festivals in which Israel offered up sacrifices to bail.

[00:08:51] The Lord would take away the joy of the harvest by destroying the crops and leaving the thrashing floors and wine vats empty.

[00:09:04] Now friends I am so thankful to have commentary in my Bible and I have made reference to this before that it is so important to have a Bible that has commentary associated with it because if I did not read that commentary.

[00:09:25] I wouldn't have understood these two verses when it talks about the thrashing floor and the wine press shall not feed them.

[00:09:34] Wow, well, well, why not? Well, why not is because God was angry at the Israelites and he basically destroyed the crops. That is very important to know.

[00:09:46] Let's go to verse three they shall not well in the Lord's land but Ephraim shall return to Egypt and shall eat unclean things in a Syria.

[00:09:59] So friends my second point of today's lesson is they shall not dwell in the Lord's land. Let's look at the commentary for verse three.

[00:10:12] Israel had forgotten that their land belonged to the Lord. He alone decided who would or who would not live in it. Now this is a reference to the book of Leviticus.

[00:10:30] So what I'd like to do is to go back to the book of Leviticus and we are in chapter 25 and I want to read verse 23.

[00:10:40] It said the land shall not be sold permanently for the land is mine. For you are strangers and sahjerners with me.

[00:10:54] And friends, the Israelites had forgotten that. Is that even though they dwelled in the land the land literally did not belong to them.

[00:11:06] It actually belonged to God. Let's go to verse four. They shall not offer wine offerings to the Lord.

[00:11:15] Nor shall their sacrifices be pleasing to him. It shall be like bread of mourners to them all who eat it shall be defiled. For their bread shall be for their own life.

[00:11:31] It shall not come into the house of the Lord. What will you do in the appointed day and in the day of the feast of the Lord?

[00:11:43] Now let's look at the commentary for verses four and five because they had touched a dead body.

[00:11:52] Morners were ceremonially unclean and contaminated everything that came in contact with them. Living in a foreign land is real would be ceremonially defiled and unable to worship the Lord with sacrifices and offerings.

[00:12:15] Let's go to verse six. For indeed they are gone because of destruction. Egypt shall gather them up, Memphis shall bury them, needles shall possess their valuables of silver, thorns shall be in their tent.

[00:12:35] Friends my third and final point today is they are gone because of destruction. Now what I'd like to do is go over the commentary for verse six.

[00:12:48] When they mention the town, Memphis, it says this Egyptian city known for its great cemeteries, tombs and pyramids symbolized the unclean land of exile, making reference to a Syria to which God's people would be taken captive.

[00:13:14] When it says medals and thorns, the land of Israel would be abandoned, leaving the people's possessions and homes to be overrun by weeds and briars.

[00:13:31] Now friends, I'm going to be honest with you. I'm a little bit confused by exactly what is going on here because I mentioned earlier in this study of the book of Josea is that Israel was stuck in between two countries.

[00:13:49] Now, Israel, which actually was the northern kingdom, was pretty close to the country of Syria. A Syria was northeast of Israel.

[00:14:03] Now, conversely, the southern kingdom of Israel referred to as Judah. That was a little bit closer to Egypt.

[00:14:14] Okay, but it seems to me like some people went to Egypt and you have to remember back in the book of Exodus that the Israelites had been in Egypt for over 400 years and working as slaves.

[00:14:32] But here this commentary says that the God's people would be taken captive in a Syria. But why would they mention the town of Memphis, which is in Egypt if some of the Israelites did not go there?

[00:14:55] So all I can surmise and you know, I'm not 100% sure this is accurate. But what I'm thinking is that some of the people, especially the southern kingdom, the Jews from Judah may have been taken captive into Egypt

[00:15:15] and maybe the people of the northern kingdom or Israel were taken captive in the land of Syria.

[00:15:26] But in France, let's cut to the chase here. It really doesn't matter whether the Israelites were taken captive into a Syria and that's northeast or taken captive in Egypt, that's southwest.

[00:15:43] The bottom line is they were taken captive and this passage of scripture, these first six verses of chapter nine, tell us that the Israelites no longer were in the land of Israel.

[00:16:01] And it made reference that Nettles and Thorns, in other words they were taken away hastily. They did not get to take their things with them.

[00:16:13] And basically everything that they had left was left there. Okay, they're good. It's their possessions and basically their tents, they just basically just left because it says, Forns and Nettles are going to be inside their tents.

[00:16:32] So I think all of their possessions are there. So if you're looking just at chapter nine, the first six verses, you're asking yourself, well, how long were the Israelites taken away for?

[00:16:45] But this indicates that it obviously would have been at least four several years, because Nettles and Thorns are literally going to come into their tents and begin to grow.

[00:17:01] So friends, the bottom line is real. It's not a good place. The Israelites, they had abandoned God and God is basically taking it out of them. I want you to remember our verse, it says, God is a jealous God.

[00:17:17] And God saw that the Israelites were not following the commandments that he had given them. He also knew that they had fallen into the tentation and were worshiping the God-bale.

[00:17:33] So God is not happy. And at this time, we really don't see a way out for the country of Israel. So let's go back to our verse of the day before we close today. We are in proper 25 and my verse of the day today.

[00:17:51] I selected verse 8, do not go hastily to court for what will you do in the end when your neighbor has put you to shame. So friends, I'm going to try to tie this together with our lesson today, because we do not like to be taken to court.

[00:18:12] But basically it's like the Israelites have been taken to court. To God's court and God is looking down upon his people Israel. And he's basically saying, you know, I'm just going to let these people take you away captive. You don't want to follow me. You don't want to follow my commands.

[00:18:39] All right, I'm going to wash my hands of you. I'm just going to go ahead, go to Egypt, go to Assyria.

[00:18:48] I'm going to cleanse my hands of you. I'm going to wait for you to call upon my name and see if I will have mercy on you in the days to come.

[00:19:02] I think he's challenging them. And right now, he is in charge. He is in control. The Israelites are not making good decisions and because of that they were taken away captive.

[00:19:16] So friends, my call to action today. A little bit, it's a good question. Are you doing all that God has asked you could do? Are you following God's command that he has given you?

[00:19:33] Now friends, we are all here to serve God. That is our purpose here on earth to get to know him and to try to please him.

[00:19:43] But God has a plan for each one of us. It tells us that in Jeremiah 29 11 he has a plan for us and he wants us to prosper.

[00:19:53] But he has an assignment and a destiny for each and every one of us. Do you know, are you aware of what God wants you to do for him?

[00:20:05] And if the answer to that is no, I'd ask God and say Father God, what is it that you would like for me to do for you that I'm not presently doing.

[00:20:16] Friends, I will never end the podcast without giving anyone an opportunity to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

[00:20:24] If there is anyone listening today and you've never taken that step, I invite you to repeat a simple prayer after me today.

[00:20:32] Jesus, I confess that I am a sinner and indeed of a Savior.

[00:20:38] I ask that you come into my heart, I ask that you lead me and guide me from this point forward in my life.

[00:20:45] I make you my Lord and Savior.

[00:20:49] Now, may the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make us face shine upon you and be gracious to you.

[00:20:57] The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace.

[00:21:02] Friends, please join me in tomorrow as we further explore wisdom today.