653. Hosea - Chapter 9 (#4) - My God Will Cast them Away - October 2, 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.

[00:00:21] In prayer, Father God I thank you for anyone listening to this podcast today. Lord I pray that you give everyone ears to hear and a heart to receive everything you have in store for them today. I ask this in Jesus name. Amen.

[00:00:36] This is Proverbs 2 beginning in verse 1. The Value of Wisdom

[00:00:43] My son, if you receive my words and treasure my commands within you so that you incline your ear to wisdom and apply your heart to understanding,

[00:00:55] yes, if you cry out for discernment and lift up your voice for understanding,

[00:01:01] if you seek her as silver and search for her as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God.

[00:01:13] For the Lord gives wisdom. From his mouth come knowledge and understanding. He stores up sound wisdom for the upright.

[00:01:24] He is a shield to those who walk uprightly. He guards the paths of justice and preserves the way of his saints.

[00:01:33] Then you will understand righteousness and justice, equity and every good path.

[00:01:40] When wisdom enters your heart and knowledge is pleasant to your soul, discretion will preserve you. Understanding will keep you.

[00:01:51] To deliver you from the way of evil. From the man who speaks perverse things. From those who leave the paths of uprightness to walk in the ways of darkness.

[00:02:04] Who rejoice in doing evil. Who rejoice in doing evil. And delight in the perversity of the wicked.

[00:02:11] Whose ways are crooked and who are devious in their paths. To deliver you from the immoral woman.

[00:02:20] From the seductress who flatters with her words. Who forsakes the companion of her youth. And forgets the covenant of her God.

[00:02:30] For her house leads down to death. And her paths to the dead. None who go to her return. Nor do they regain the paths of life.

[00:02:43] So you may walk in the way of goodness. And keep to the paths of righteousness.

[00:02:49] For the upright will dwell in the land. And the blameless will remain in it. But the wicked will be cut off from the earth. And the unfaithful will be uprooted from it.

[00:03:04] Friends, today I'd like to take a closer look at verse 6. And Proverb 2 verse 6 says this.

[00:03:11] For the Lord gives wisdom. From his mouth come knowledge and understanding.

[00:03:18] Friends, we will take a closer look at that verse prior to closing today.

[00:03:23] But what I'd like to do is review the three points I went over on Monday's podcast.

[00:03:29] And that, of course, was episode number 651.

[00:03:36] And the three points were, I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness.

[00:03:42] And we talked about this a bit on Monday.

[00:03:46] As the fact that if you go into the wilderness, it's almost like desert region.

[00:03:51] You are not expecting to find grapes.

[00:03:55] And there must have been a point in time where the Israelites actually did listen to what God told them to do.

[00:04:03] But it did not last long.

[00:04:06] And if you go to the second point on Monday, it said no birth, no pregnancy, and no conception.

[00:04:14] And we talked about how the people of Israel had succumbed to Baal worship.

[00:04:20] And they actually were worshiping the fertility God.

[00:04:27] And basically, it amounted to God actually making some of the Israelites miscarry and not be able to get pregnant.

[00:04:38] The third point was Ephraim will bring out his children to the murderer.

[00:04:44] Now here, Ephraim, they're talking basically about the entire region of Israel.

[00:04:51] So let's continue our lesson.

[00:04:54] We are in the book of the minor prophet Hosea.

[00:04:57] We are still in chapter 9.

[00:05:00] We are going to complete chapter 9 today, going over verses 14 through 17.

[00:05:07] Let's begin with verse 14.

[00:05:10] Give them, O Lord, what will you give?

[00:05:15] Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.

[00:05:21] So, friends, that's my first point today.

[00:05:24] Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.

[00:05:31] Now, of course, if you have dry breasts, that means that you do not have milk in the breast to be able to feed a weaning child.

[00:05:43] So, God is pretty serious here.

[00:05:46] And this is, you know, just a continuation of what has been going on the last several chapters.

[00:05:54] Now, I am reading out of the Nelson Study Bible, and I'd like to go over the commentary for verse number 14.

[00:06:02] It says,

[00:06:03] Miscarrying womb.

[00:06:05] Some women of Israel would be barren.

[00:06:09] And here we're referring back to verse 11, which we went over on Monday.

[00:06:14] Others would bear children, only to lose them to the invader's sword.

[00:06:21] And here we're talking about Assyria as well as Egypt.

[00:06:27] And we said earlier in this study that Israel had tried to basically become friends with both Assyria as well as Egypt,

[00:06:39] and it basically backfired on them.

[00:06:42] So, instead of basically gaining friendship with either Assyria or with Egypt or both,

[00:06:49] they actually became enemies with them.

[00:06:53] And let's continue on with verse 15.

[00:06:56] All their wickedness is in Gilgal.

[00:07:01] For there I hated them because of the evil of their deeds.

[00:07:06] I will drive them from my house.

[00:07:09] I will love them no more.

[00:07:13] All their princes are rebellious.

[00:07:17] So, my second point today is all their wickedness is in Gilgal.

[00:07:24] So, what I'm going to do first, I am going to read the commentary for verse 15.

[00:07:31] Gilgal had become a center of idolatry.

[00:07:36] The word hated.

[00:07:39] The word hated.

[00:07:39] Marriage and divorce provide the background for the language used here.

[00:07:45] The Lord would reject or hate his unfaithful wife.

[00:07:53] Drive her from his house, meaning from the land of Israel,

[00:07:59] and remove his protective care or love from her.

[00:08:04] There may also be an allusion here to Genesis chapter 3 and 4,

[00:08:11] which tell how God drove away Adam from the garden of Eden,

[00:08:17] and then Cain after Cain had killed his brother Abel.

[00:08:22] So, what I'd like to do is go back to where Gilgal is first mentioned in the Bible.

[00:08:31] And if we go to Joshua chapter 5, I'd like to begin in verse 1.

[00:08:37] So it was when all the kings of the Amorites, who were on the west side of the Jordan,

[00:08:45] and all of the kings of the Canaanites, who were by the sea,

[00:08:49] heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of the Jordan from before the children of Israel,

[00:08:57] until we had crossed over, that their heart melted,

[00:09:02] and there was no spirit in them any longer, because of the children of Israel.

[00:09:10] At that time, the Lord said to Joshua,

[00:09:13] Make flint knives for yourself,

[00:09:17] and circumcise the sons of Israel again the second time.

[00:09:22] So Joshua made flint knives for himself,

[00:09:27] and circumcised the sons of Israel at the hill of the foreskins.

[00:09:34] And this is the reason why Joshua circumcised them.

[00:09:39] All the people who came out of Egypt, who were males,

[00:09:44] all the men of war,

[00:09:46] had died in the wilderness on the way,

[00:09:49] after they had come out of Egypt.

[00:09:51] For all of the people who came out had been circumcised,

[00:09:56] but all the people born in the wilderness,

[00:10:00] on the way as they came out of Egypt,

[00:10:03] had not been circumcised.

[00:10:06] For the children of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness,

[00:10:11] till all the people who were men of war,

[00:10:14] who came out of Egypt,

[00:10:16] were consumed,

[00:10:18] were consumed,

[00:10:18] because they did not obey the voice of the Lord,

[00:10:22] to whom the Lord swore that he would not show them

[00:10:27] the land which the Lord had sworn to their fathers,

[00:10:30] that he would give us,

[00:10:32] a land flowing with milk and honey.

[00:10:35] And I know most of you know this story,

[00:10:38] but for any people that do not know this story,

[00:10:44] God had provided a way for Moses to free the people of Israelite

[00:10:52] from Egyptian bondage,

[00:10:53] where they had been for over four hundred years.

[00:10:56] And God provided a way,

[00:10:58] and it was a mighty miracle,

[00:11:00] and God parted the Red Sea.

[00:11:03] And when he parted the Red Sea,

[00:11:07] the water was up about thirty, forty, fifty feet tall on each side,

[00:11:11] and the Israelites were able to cross the Red Sea on dry ground.

[00:11:16] And immediately upon going to the other side,

[00:11:21] the Egyptian army began to go into the Red Sea,

[00:11:26] and God caused their chariots to all of a sudden stop working well.

[00:11:32] And the wheels began having issues,

[00:11:35] and some of those wheels even began to fall off.

[00:11:39] But at that time,

[00:11:41] God protected the Israelites,

[00:11:43] and actually made the Red Sea go back to its normal state,

[00:11:48] and every single soldier of the Egyptian army died.

[00:11:54] Then Joshua circumcised their sons,

[00:11:57] whom he raised up in their place,

[00:12:00] for they were uncircumcised,

[00:12:03] because they had not been circumcised on the way.

[00:12:07] So it was when they had finished circumcising all the people,

[00:12:11] that they stayed in their places in the camp,

[00:12:15] till they were healed.

[00:12:17] Then the Lord said to Joshua,

[00:12:19] This day I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.

[00:12:25] Therefore the name of the place is called Gilgal to this day.

[00:12:32] And that is where the name Gilgal came from.

[00:12:36] So basically all of the men of that generation

[00:12:42] that were freed and able to escape from the land of Egypt,

[00:12:48] they heard a bad report,

[00:12:51] and because of that God said,

[00:12:53] You are not going to enter into the promised land.

[00:12:58] And he basically made all of those men

[00:13:01] wander around in a desert for 40 years.

[00:13:05] And basically what they did was went around,

[00:13:08] and around, and around, and around in a circle.

[00:13:12] And I'm not sure exactly how far it is,

[00:13:15] but I heard a few times that it's only about 15 or 20 miles

[00:13:19] from where they were at the Red Sea

[00:13:22] until where they were going.

[00:13:25] But God would not allow them to go.

[00:13:30] And every single one of the males of that generation

[00:13:35] died in the wilderness.

[00:13:38] Now during that time,

[00:13:40] the men and the women, of course, had babies,

[00:13:43] but none of that next generation were circumcised.

[00:13:48] And that is what has taken place right there

[00:13:52] in that particular passage of Scripture.

[00:13:56] So let's go on to verse 16.

[00:13:59] Ephraim is stricken.

[00:14:01] Their root is dried up.

[00:14:04] They shall bear no fruit.

[00:14:07] Yes, were they to bear children,

[00:14:09] I would kill the darlings of their womb.

[00:14:13] Now that sounds to me like God is really upset.

[00:14:16] I know Hosea is the author here,

[00:14:19] but obviously God is inspiring him

[00:14:23] through the Holy Spirit

[00:14:24] to warn the people of Israel.

[00:14:28] He said, be careful.

[00:14:29] If you want to have kids,

[00:14:31] more than likely they're going to die.

[00:14:34] My God will cast them away

[00:14:36] because they did not obey him,

[00:14:40] and they shall be wanderers among the nations.

[00:14:43] Now before we go back to our verse of the day,

[00:14:46] let's look at that commentary for verse 17.

[00:14:50] Wanderers may allude to the fate of Cain,

[00:14:55] who, like Israel, was guilty of murder.

[00:14:59] Now I've mentioned this a number of times,

[00:15:02] but Cain is the first recorded murder in the Bible.

[00:15:08] Cain, of course, was a son of Adam,

[00:15:12] and he killed Abel and another son of Adam and Eve.

[00:15:18] And because of that,

[00:15:19] God basically made him roam in the wilderness,

[00:15:24] basically for the rest of his life.

[00:15:26] And he was kind of like the father of the nomads.

[00:15:30] So first of all,

[00:15:33] Adam was expelled from the Garden of Eden

[00:15:36] after he and Eve originally sinned,

[00:15:38] but then Cain was expelled as well.

[00:15:42] Before we close today,

[00:15:44] I'd like to go back to our verse of the day.

[00:15:47] And we are in Proverb 2

[00:15:49] as we're beginning a new month.

[00:15:51] And let's look at verse 6.

[00:15:54] For the Lord gives wisdom,

[00:15:57] from his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.

[00:16:01] And friends,

[00:16:03] this verse basically just talks about

[00:16:06] the importance of reading Scripture.

[00:16:09] Let me just read it one more time.

[00:16:10] For the Lord gives wisdom,

[00:16:13] from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.

[00:16:18] Now friends,

[00:16:19] I want wisdom,

[00:16:20] and this is a progression.

[00:16:23] The next part of the verse says,

[00:16:25] from his mouth come knowledge.

[00:16:27] So first you have knowledge,

[00:16:29] and understanding.

[00:16:31] So once you get knowledge,

[00:16:33] then as you begin to apply that knowledge,

[00:16:37] then understanding will begin to seep into your heart,

[00:16:42] and then from understanding,

[00:16:45] and using and implementing understanding,

[00:16:48] then wisdom will come.

[00:16:50] What I'm going to do with my call of action today

[00:16:53] is a little bit different.

[00:16:55] I listened to a previous podcast of mine,

[00:16:59] which was not quite two years old,

[00:17:03] but it was an earlier one,

[00:17:05] probably at least over a year ago.

[00:17:08] And I reminded myself of,

[00:17:12] you know,

[00:17:13] what are we really here to do?

[00:17:15] And we are here to basically share

[00:17:18] the good news of God.

[00:17:19] And that's what I am hoping

[00:17:22] that all of you are doing on a regular basis.

[00:17:26] But some people will not want to hear

[00:17:29] the word of God.

[00:17:31] They really don't want to hear it.

[00:17:32] So how can we reach people

[00:17:35] if they do not allow us

[00:17:38] to share the gospel with them?

[00:17:40] And that is simply through acts of kindness.

[00:17:44] So what I'm going to ask that you do

[00:17:47] over the course of the remainder of this week,

[00:17:50] so this is Wednesday, Thursday, Friday,

[00:17:54] Saturday, and Sunday,

[00:17:55] is to look to compliment

[00:17:58] at least one person every single day.

[00:18:02] In other words,

[00:18:03] go out of your way

[00:18:05] to be kind and helpful to someone.

[00:18:08] Give them a compliment,

[00:18:10] or else if you see they have a need,

[00:18:13] help them.

[00:18:15] If you see they might need

[00:18:17] some money or something,

[00:18:19] give them a little helping hand

[00:18:21] financially as well.

[00:18:23] Friends, I will never end a podcast

[00:18:26] without giving everyone

[00:18:27] an opportunity to receive Jesus

[00:18:30] as their Lord and Savior.

[00:18:32] If there is anyone listening today

[00:18:34] and you've never taken that step,

[00:18:35] I invite you to repeat

[00:18:37] a simple prayer after me today.

[00:18:40] Father God, thank you

[00:18:41] for sending your son Jesus to earth.

[00:18:44] Jesus, thank you for coming to earth

[00:18:47] and being willing

[00:18:48] to take each and everyone

[00:18:51] listening today's place

[00:18:53] on that cross.

[00:18:56] We deserve to die,

[00:18:58] and yet you died in our place.

[00:19:01] By dying on that cross,

[00:19:03] each of us have been made right

[00:19:06] in God's eyes.

[00:19:08] Thank you, Jesus,

[00:19:10] for forgiving me of my sins.

[00:19:12] And yet,

[00:19:13] I still need your help.

[00:19:15] Jesus, I ask you to come

[00:19:16] into my heart.

[00:19:17] I ask that you lead me

[00:19:19] and guide me

[00:19:20] from this point forward

[00:19:21] in my life.

[00:19:22] I make you

[00:19:23] my Lord and Savior.

[00:19:25] Friends,

[00:19:26] if you said that prayer,

[00:19:28] I invite you to go

[00:19:29] to my webpage,

[00:19:33] wisdomtodaybk.com.

[00:19:34] If you said that prayer,

[00:19:37] I would like for you

[00:19:38] to find the contact tab.

[00:19:41] I'd like for you

[00:19:42] to click on that tab,

[00:19:43] enter in your name,

[00:19:44] let me know you said

[00:19:45] that prayer,

[00:19:46] and I want to get back

[00:19:48] with you.

[00:19:49] Now,

[00:19:49] may the Lord bless you

[00:19:51] and keep you.

[00:19:52] The Lord make His face

[00:19:53] shine upon you

[00:19:55] and be gracious to you.

[00:19:56] The Lord lift up

[00:19:58] His countenance upon you

[00:20:00] and give you peace.

[00:20:02] Friends,

[00:20:03] please join me again tomorrow

[00:20:04] as we further explore

[00:20:06] wisdom today.