674. Hosea - Chapter 13 (#2) - I gave you a King in my Anger, And took Him away in my Wrath - October 31, 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] Let's open 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 through this podcast. I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.

[00:00:39] This is Proverb 31, beginning in verse 1.

[00:00:44] The words of King Lemuel, the utterance which his mother taught him.

[00:00:49] What, my son? And what, son of my womb? And what, son of my vows?

[00:00:57] Do not give your strength to women, nor your ways to that which destroys kings.

[00:01:03] It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine, nor for princes intoxicating drink, lest they drink and forget the law, and pervert the justice of all the afflicted.

[00:01:21] Give strong drink to him who is perishing, and wine to those who are bitter of heart.

[00:01:29] Let him drink and forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more.

[00:01:36] Open your mouth for the speechless in the cause of all who are appointed to die.

[00:01:43] Open your mouth, judge righteously, and plead the cause of the poor and needy.

[00:01:50] Who can find a virtuous wife? For her worth is far above rubies.

[00:01:57] The heart of her husband safely trusts her, so he will have no lack of gain.

[00:02:04] She does him good and not evil all the days of her life.

[00:02:09] She seeks wool and flax, and willingly works with her hands.

[00:02:15] She is like the merchant ships. She brings her food from afar.

[00:02:20] She also rises while it is yet night, and provides food for her household, and a portion for her maidservants.

[00:02:30] She considers a field and buys it. From her profits she plants a vineyard.

[00:02:36] She girds herself with strength and strengthens her arms.

[00:02:41] She perceives that her merchandise is good, and her lamp does not go out by night.

[00:02:48] She stretches out her hands to the distaff, and her hand holds the spindle.

[00:02:55] She extends her hand to the poor. Yes, she reaches out her hands to the needy.

[00:03:03] She is not afraid of snow for her household, for all her household is clothed with scarlet.

[00:03:11] She makes tapestry for herself. Her clothing is fine linen and purple.

[00:03:18] Her husband is known in the gates when he sits among the elders of the land.

[00:03:24] She makes linen garments and sells them, and supplies sashes for the merchants.

[00:03:31] Strength and honor are her clothing. She shall rejoice in time to come.

[00:03:37] She opens her mouth with wisdom, and on her tongue is the law of kindness.

[00:03:44] She watches over the ways of her household, and does not eat the bread of idleness.

[00:03:50] Her children rise up and call her blessed. Her husband also, and he praises her.

[00:03:58] Many daughters have done well, but you excel them all.

[00:04:04] Charm is deceitful, and beauty is passing, but a woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised.

[00:04:12] Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her own works praise her in the gates.

[00:04:21] Friends, today I'd like to take a closer look at verses 13, 14, and 15.

[00:04:30] In Proverbs 31, verses 13, 14, and 15 tell us this.

[00:04:35] She seeks wool and flax, and willingly works with her hands.

[00:04:42] She is like the merchant ships. She brings her food from afar.

[00:04:47] She also rises while it is yet night, and provides food for her household, and a portion for her maid servants.

[00:04:58] Friends, we will come back and revisit those verses prior to closing today,

[00:05:03] but what I'd like to do on today's podcast is continue in a study that I've been on for the minor prophet Hosea.

[00:05:13] And I have been on this study for close to three months now, and if you are tuning in for the first time

[00:05:20] and have not listened to any of the previous podcasts, I'm just going to basically review what has happened.

[00:05:27] Hosea was a minor prophet many years ago, probably about 700 BC,

[00:05:34] and during that time, the Israelites were not doing well.

[00:05:40] And God actually asked Hosea to marry a prostitute.

[00:05:46] And, you know, I went over this a great deal, and I'm not going to go over it again,

[00:05:50] but that must have been very, very hard to do.

[00:05:53] And at one point, his wife had literally left the home and had gone and lived with another man

[00:06:02] to the extent that she actually became his property.

[00:06:06] And so Hosea actually had to buy her back.

[00:06:11] And I want you to think about that.

[00:06:13] That is something not many of us would do if your spouse was unfaithful to you.

[00:06:19] But what I'd like to do before we begin today's lesson is to go over what we went over yesterday.

[00:06:25] And we went over three key points yesterday, and I'll just quickly review those.

[00:06:30] Number one, let the men who sacrifice kiss the calves.

[00:06:35] And here we're talking about the fact that the Israelites had actually,

[00:06:41] some of them had actually sacrificed their children on the altar as they did Baal worship.

[00:06:50] Number two, they shall be like the morning cloud and like the early dew that passes away.

[00:06:57] And here we were talking about the tribe of Ephraim, which was very influential back at this time in the northern kingdom of Israel.

[00:07:07] And a lot of the other tribes were swayed by what they did.

[00:07:12] And God was upset with Ephraim because they had basically, you know, convinced the other tribes that Baal worship was okay.

[00:07:23] And, you know, let's get away from our God.

[00:07:26] And number three is I am the Lord your God.

[00:07:29] And I kind of want to expound on that today.

[00:07:31] We're going to pick up there.

[00:07:33] But God is reminding them, hey, think about what I've done for you in the past.

[00:07:40] I've always taken care of you.

[00:07:42] And here I am and you have turned away from me.

[00:07:46] So we're going to pick up today in verse six of chapter 13.

[00:07:51] So let's get going.

[00:08:04] So friends, my first point today is when they had pasture, they were filled.

[00:08:09] And friends, what this reminds me of is a lot of times when things are going well, we're happy.

[00:08:17] But sometimes we get a little bit too confident and too cocky.

[00:08:25] And when we get that way, sometimes we lose our purpose in life.

[00:08:32] And we ask ourselves, why are we actually here on earth?

[00:08:37] What am I called to do?

[00:08:39] And the Israelites had gotten to that point and they strayed away from God.

[00:08:46] They got too comfortable and they did not want to get out of their comfort zone.

[00:08:51] They sat there and said, well, you know, we've tried God.

[00:08:54] Let's try something else.

[00:08:57] And my gosh, you do not want to be in that position.

[00:09:00] And I've talked about this a little bit during this study is that if we're going to really be Christians,

[00:09:07] if we're going to go about that and convince ourselves we are Christians,

[00:09:11] if we're going to try to live our lifestyle, we have to live our lives with purpose.

[00:09:19] We can't allow ourselves to get lackadaisical in some of the things that we do.

[00:09:27] Let's go on to verse seven.

[00:09:53] Now, friends, if you listen to those two verses,

[00:09:58] this is God speaking.

[00:10:02] God is not happy.

[00:10:05] Think about a bear deprived of her cubs.

[00:10:09] She's not going to be happy.

[00:10:11] And this is where God is at.

[00:10:13] God is not happy with the Israelites at this time.

[00:10:17] Let's go on to verse nine.

[00:10:19] Oh, Israel, you are destroyed.

[00:10:23] But your help is from me.

[00:10:28] So that's my second point.

[00:10:30] Oh, Israel, you are destroyed.

[00:10:33] But your help is from me.

[00:10:37] And what God is saying here is that God is the judge and he's going to judge his people based on how they are living their lives.

[00:10:50] Now, friends, I am reading out of the Nelson study Bible.

[00:10:54] And what I'd like to do is go over the commentary for the four verses that we've just gone over, verses six through nine.

[00:11:01] And it says, God provided for Israel's needs and richly blessed the people like a shepherd leading his flock to lush pasture lands.

[00:11:13] In return, Israel forgot the Lord.

[00:11:18] I want you to think about that.

[00:11:20] God has done everything.

[00:11:21] He's always promised.

[00:11:23] He's provided for them.

[00:11:24] He's taken care of them.

[00:11:25] And the Israelites basically like slapped him in the face and say so much for what you're doing.

[00:11:31] We're going to do our own thing.

[00:11:33] The Lord's relationship with Israel would change dramatically from caring shepherd to ravaging predator.

[00:11:42] And that's where Israel is right now.

[00:11:45] God is not happy with them.

[00:11:48] Ironically and tragically, Israel's rebellion had turned its helper, meaning God, into a destroyer.

[00:11:59] And so God is now ready to judge his people.

[00:12:05] Let's go to verses 10 and 11.

[00:12:07] I will be your king.

[00:12:10] Where is any other?

[00:12:12] That he may save you in all your cities and your judges to whom you said, give me a king and princes.

[00:12:23] And God is going way back to the book of first Samuel, where they first asked for a king.

[00:12:33] God never desired for Israel to have a king.

[00:12:38] He wanted to be their king.

[00:12:40] That's what he says here in verse 10.

[00:12:42] I will be your king.

[00:12:45] But the people wanted their own king because the nations around them all had kings.

[00:12:53] And let's see what happened to that in verse 11.

[00:12:57] I gave you a king in my anger and took him away in my wrath.

[00:13:05] And of course here, they're talking about King Saul.

[00:13:09] Let's go and look at the commentary.

[00:13:12] These verses recall how Israel demanded from Samuel a king.

[00:13:19] Like those of the nations around them, though offended by the people's request,

[00:13:25] which implied their rejection of divine authority, the Lord granted their wish.

[00:13:32] Israel's king could not protect the people from divine judgment.

[00:13:36] In fact, he himself would be swept away.

[00:13:41] And friends, if you're not familiar with this story, I'm going to assign you this for homework tonight,

[00:13:48] if you're willing to take a little bit of time to invest in learning about this story.

[00:13:56] This first Samuel chapter eight, they talk about how Saul was selected.

[00:14:01] Saul was the most handsome man at that time.

[00:14:06] And he was like a head taller than any of the people.

[00:14:11] He was a huge man and he was a great physical specimen.

[00:14:15] And they go, wow, this is it.

[00:14:17] This is who God has chosen.

[00:14:19] But he did not do what God asked him to do.

[00:14:25] And because of that, he grew out of favor with God.

[00:14:29] And eventually Samuel said, hey, we're going to choose another king.

[00:14:35] And God told Samuel to choose another king.

[00:14:38] And of course, you all know the story.

[00:14:40] The shepherd boy, David, was chosen as the next king.

[00:14:45] Now he had to wait a number of years before he became king.

[00:14:49] But he eventually became king.

[00:14:53] Friends, we have to learn to do what God has asked us to do.

[00:14:59] And a lot of times we may have to get out of our comfort zone.

[00:15:03] But before we close today's lesson, what I'd like to do is go back to our proverb of the day.

[00:15:10] And this is one of the months that has 31 days.

[00:15:13] So Proverb 31 is, it's special to me.

[00:15:19] Because this is the portion of scripture where we talk about the virtuous wife.

[00:15:24] And whenever we talk about the virtuous wife, I have to go into my wife.

[00:15:30] Because my wife reminds me of this woman in Proverb 31.

[00:15:37] She is that special to me.

[00:15:40] Let's look at verses 13 through 15.

[00:15:43] She seeks wool and flax and willingly works with her hands.

[00:15:49] She is like the merchant ships.

[00:15:51] She brings her food from afar.

[00:15:54] She also rises while it is yet night and provides food for her household and a portion for her maidservants.

[00:16:03] Now, friends, my wife and I graduated from Karis Bible College last year in May.

[00:16:09] And it's been almost a year and a half since we've been back in Florida.

[00:16:13] But her primary ministry is helping her daughter out and her four grandkids.

[00:16:19] You know, she is just adamant to do all she can to help her daughter.

[00:16:26] Because her daughter has a full-time job.

[00:16:28] And raising four kids in today's times and society is not easy.

[00:16:33] And she always is tired and she's stressed out a lot.

[00:16:37] So, my wife takes it upon herself to do all she can to relieve some of that tension and pressure from her.

[00:16:48] So, recently, we've had the grandkids over for 12 days while she and her husband went on a vacation in Ireland.

[00:16:58] And that was great.

[00:16:59] Even now, we've had the kids the last couple nights over.

[00:17:03] And when they are over, she has to be like the mother.

[00:17:08] She gets them up early.

[00:17:09] And when they talk about still dark, that's what she's doing.

[00:17:13] It's still dark when she gets up.

[00:17:15] She gets the kids up.

[00:17:16] She feeds them breakfast.

[00:17:18] She makes sure they get dressed.

[00:17:19] She brings them off to school.

[00:17:21] And it's like she's being a mother again, even though now we're in the role of grandparents.

[00:17:27] But that is who she is.

[00:17:30] She is special.

[00:17:31] She's dear to me.

[00:17:32] And in my eyes, she's one of a kind.

[00:17:35] Definitely the second best decision I've ever made in my life after receiving Jesus as my Lord and Savior.

[00:17:43] So, friends, my call to action, I'm going to just remind you of what I asked you to do yesterday.

[00:17:49] And that is to pay a compliment to every person that you see the rest of the week.

[00:17:58] Every person that you come in contact with, find something suitable to say that can bring them encouragement, that can bring them hope.

[00:18:09] Maybe just say, wow, I love the smile that you have on your face.

[00:18:13] You must be having a good day.

[00:18:15] And friends, if we learn to do things like that and make comments like that to people, it becomes infectious.

[00:18:24] Because remember, what you sow, that shall you also reap.

[00:18:30] If you sow kindness, goodness, and love, it'll come right back at you.

[00:18:37] So knock yourselves out.

[00:18:39] Pay people compliments right and left.

[00:18:41] Have a good time.

[00:18:43] Enjoy life.

[00:18:44] Now, may the Lord bless you and keep you.

[00:18:48] The Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you.

[00:18:52] The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

[00:18:57] Friends, tomorrow we will be continuing our study on the Ten Commandments.

[00:19:02] I'll be going over commandment number six.

[00:19:05] Please join me as we further explore wisdom today.