Welcome to Wisdom Today with Bill Kelley. On today's podcast we will be going over Proverb 11. I will then key in on verse 2 - When pride comes, then comes shame; But with the humble is wisdom. On today's podcast we will begin to recap the Book of the minor prophet Hosea. By the end of today's lesson there are three things I ask that you consider:
1. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
2. "Go again, love a woman who is loved by a lover."
3. So I bought her for myself for fifteen shekels of silver.
Scripture verses referenced in today's lesson:
Hosea, Chapter 3, verses 1 & 2; Chapter 4:6
Call to Action - What would you do if God called you to be with a person that you knew would be unfaithful to you; What would you do if they moved out, into the house of another man (or woman) and God asked you to go get them back?
[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 reveal to everyone listening how much you truly love each and every one of them.
[00:00:34] In addition, I pray that everyone listening would have favor with both God and man. I ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.
[00:00:44] This is Proverb 11, beginning in verse 1.
[00:00:49] Dishonest scales are an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is His delight.
[00:00:56] When pride comes, then comes shame, but with the humble is wisdom.
[00:01:03] The integrity of the upright will guide them, but the perversity of the unfaithful will destroy them.
[00:01:11] Riches do not profit in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivers from death.
[00:01:18] The righteousness of the blameless will direct His way aright, but the wicked will fall by His own wickedness.
[00:01:28] The righteousness of the upright will deliver them, but the unfaithful will be caught by their lust.
[00:01:36] When a wicked man dies, his expectation will perish, and the hope of the unjust perishes.
[00:01:44] The righteous is delivered from trouble, and it comes to the wicked instead.
[00:01:52] The hypocrite with his mouth destroys his neighbor, but through knowledge the righteous will be delivered.
[00:01:59] When it goes well with the righteous, the city rejoices.
[00:02:04] And when the wicked perish, there is jubilation.
[00:02:09] By the blessing of the upright, the city is exalted, but it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked.
[00:02:17] He who is devoid of wisdom despises his neighbor, but a man of understanding holds his peace.
[00:02:26] A tale-bearer reveals secrets, but he who is of a faithful spirit conceals a matter.
[00:02:34] Where there is no counsel, the people fall, but in the multitude of counselors there is safety.
[00:02:42] He who is surety for a stranger will suffer, but one who hates being surety is secure.
[00:02:50] A gracious woman retains honor, but ruthless men retain riches.
[00:02:58] The merciful man does good for his own soul, but he who is cruel troubles his own flesh.
[00:03:07] The wicked man does deceptive work, but he who sows righteousness will have a sure reward.
[00:03:16] As righteousness leads to life, so he who pursues evil pursues it to his own death.
[00:03:25] Those who are of a perverse heart are an abomination to the Lord, but the blameless in their ways are his delight.
[00:03:35] Though they join forces, the wicked will not go unpunished, but the posterity of the righteous will be delivered.
[00:03:44] As a ring of gold in a swine's snout, so is a lovely woman who lacks discretion.
[00:03:53] The desire of the righteous is only good, but the expectation of the wicked is wrath.
[00:04:01] There is one who scatters, yet increases more, and there is one who withholds more than is right, but it leads to poverty.
[00:04:12] The generous soul will be made rich, and he who waters will also be watered himself.
[00:04:20] The people will curse him who withholds grain, but blessing will be on the head of him who sells it.
[00:04:29] He who earnestly seeks good finds favor, but trouble will come to him who seeks evil.
[00:04:37] He who trusts in his riches will fall, but the righteous will flourish like foliage.
[00:04:45] He who troubles his own house will inherit the wind, and the fool will be servant to the wise of heart.
[00:04:54] The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life, and he who wins souls is wise.
[00:05:02] If the righteous will be recompensed on the earth, how much more the ungodly and the sinner.
[00:05:10] Friends, today I'd like to take a closer look at verse 2.
[00:05:15] And Proverb 11, verse 2 says this,
[00:05:20] When pride comes, then comes shame, but with the humble is wisdom.
[00:05:27] Now friends, we will come back and revisit that verse prior to closing today.
[00:05:33] But what I'd like to do is begin the week by recapping the book of Hosea.
[00:05:40] Now I look back to see exactly when I first began that study,
[00:05:46] and the overview which I gave on the book of Hosea was way back in episode 621,
[00:05:55] which aired on August 19th.
[00:05:58] Today's lesson is episode 681.
[00:06:02] So we have spent almost 10 weeks on this lesson.
[00:06:07] So what I'd like to do is to recap what I feel are three of the most famous verses from the book of Hosea.
[00:06:17] And I'd like to begin with what I consider to be the most well-known verse of the book of Hosea.
[00:06:26] Now, many people are not into memorizing scripture verses,
[00:06:32] but chapter 4, verse 6 is one that many people are very familiar with.
[00:06:40] They just don't realize that it's actually in the book of Hosea.
[00:06:45] So let's begin chapter 4, verse 6.
[00:06:50] My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.
[00:06:55] Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for me.
[00:07:03] Because you have forgotten the law of your God.
[00:07:08] I also will forget your children.
[00:07:12] And friends, I am reading out of the Nelson Study Bible.
[00:07:17] What I'd like to do is go over the commentary where it talks about a lack of knowledge.
[00:07:25] And for those of you who did not listen to this lesson during this study,
[00:07:32] listen carefully to what this commentary says.
[00:07:35] It says the priests had failed to teach God's law to the people.
[00:07:42] As a result, the priests would be the special object of God's judgment.
[00:07:49] And what God did is actually terminate the priestly line.
[00:07:57] He was that upset with the priests.
[00:08:01] Now, let's go to our second verse.
[00:08:05] And that is found in chapter 3, verse 1.
[00:08:10] Now, this passage of scripture is entitled,
[00:08:13] Israel will return to God.
[00:08:17] And obviously, that is a prophetic message.
[00:08:22] Unfortunately, it took 12 chapters for that to happen.
[00:08:28] And the Israelites went through a great deal of turmoil.
[00:08:33] But let's read chapter 3, verse 1.
[00:08:36] Then the Lord said to me,
[00:08:39] Go again.
[00:08:41] Love a woman who is loved by a lover,
[00:08:45] and is committing adultery,
[00:08:48] just like the love of the Lord for the children of Israel,
[00:08:53] who look to other gods and love the raisin cakes of the pagans.
[00:08:59] Now, friends, I will remind those who have not been listening to this study
[00:09:05] of the ultimate message of the book of Hosea.
[00:09:10] And the primary message is that God had told this minor prophet Hosea
[00:09:16] to marry a prostitute.
[00:09:19] And I've gone over this many times.
[00:09:22] I'm not going to take the time to do it now.
[00:09:25] But I want you to realize and ask yourself how difficult that must have been for the prophet Hosea.
[00:09:33] How difficult would it be to marry someone that you know is going to be unfaithful to you?
[00:09:42] Now, when we get to chapter 3, he's already married his wife.
[00:09:47] He's already married a woman named Gomer.
[00:09:51] And Gomer has proven to be cheating on him.
[00:09:57] And she has literally left the house of Hosea
[00:10:01] and is now living in the house of another man.
[00:10:08] Now, the third point I want to bring up today is in the very next verse,
[00:10:14] chapter 3, verse 2.
[00:10:15] And it says,
[00:10:17] So I bought her for myself for 15 shekels of silver and one and a half homers of barley.
[00:10:28] Now, friends, what this means is that God had intervened.
[00:10:34] God had actually gone to the prophet Hosea and said,
[00:10:40] Hosea, I want you to go back and buy your wife Gomer from this man.
[00:10:51] Now, at the time when I was doing this study,
[00:10:55] I mentioned and asked the question, how difficult would that be?
[00:11:02] That would be more difficult than the original call to go and marry a prostitute.
[00:11:10] Now, she's literally moved out of the house.
[00:11:12] She's proven to be unfaithful.
[00:11:16] And now God is saying, go buy her back.
[00:11:21] Listen to the commentary for verses 1 and 2.
[00:11:26] To illustrate his intention to redeem Israel,
[00:11:31] the Lord instructed Hosea to reclaim Gomer, his unfaithful wife.
[00:11:40] Now, when it says, I bought her,
[00:11:44] Gomer had become the property of another man.
[00:11:49] Hosea's purchase of Gomer symbolized God's great devotion.
[00:11:55] Which moves him to seek reconciliation,
[00:12:00] even if it means subjecting himself to humiliation.
[00:12:07] Now, friends, I believe these two verses demonstrate the love of God.
[00:12:14] Now, it's kind of a strange way of showing it.
[00:12:18] But what God is doing is telling Hosea,
[00:12:25] Israel is eventually going to return to me.
[00:12:29] So basically, the entire book of Hosea basically is symbolism.
[00:12:35] They have been unfaithful to God, just as Gomer has been unfaithful to Hosea.
[00:12:43] But God is basically demonstrating to Hosea,
[00:12:48] just like your wife has been unfaithful to you,
[00:12:52] my country Israel has been unfaithful to me.
[00:12:56] And if you do what I am telling you,
[00:13:00] you will be restored to your wife Gomer,
[00:13:05] and eventually my country Israel will be restored to me.
[00:13:12] I think this entire book is a great message.
[00:13:17] And what it means is that we need to be faithful,
[00:13:22] first of all, to God.
[00:13:24] But we also need to be faithful to the spouse that God has placed into our hands.
[00:13:33] Now, before we close today,
[00:13:35] I would like to go back to our proverb of the day.
[00:13:39] And friends, today is the 11th of November.
[00:13:44] And the verse which I selected as my verse of the day is verse 2.
[00:13:49] And it says,
[00:13:51] When pride comes, then comes shame.
[00:13:56] But with the humble is wisdom.
[00:13:59] Now, friends, let's look at the commentary for that verse.
[00:14:03] It says,
[00:14:05] Many proverbs contrast the arrogant with the humble as this one does.
[00:14:13] The Hebrew word for pride comes from a root that means to boil up.
[00:14:22] It refers to a raging arrogance or insolence.
[00:14:28] The image pictures the presumptuous or arrogant behavior of the godless person.
[00:14:37] Such behavior always leads to shame.
[00:14:42] And friends, the comment that I would like to make after listening to that commentary
[00:14:49] is the fact that many people in our country today,
[00:14:54] not only in the United States of America, but in every country of the world.
[00:15:00] There are many people who live their entire lives as though God doesn't even exist.
[00:15:07] Some people are atheists.
[00:15:09] And they claim that they are atheists.
[00:15:13] And they'll actually state they do not believe in God.
[00:15:17] Now, other people are a little bit curious.
[00:15:20] They feel that God is just one of the ways that you can get to heaven.
[00:15:27] Of course, the Bible tells us in John chapter 14, verse 6,
[00:15:32] that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.
[00:15:38] He is the only way to heaven.
[00:15:41] But many people say, well, that's such a narrow point of view.
[00:15:45] Friends, that is the Bible.
[00:15:49] That is what the Bible says.
[00:15:52] And if the Bible says it, I am sticking with it.
[00:15:55] And I'm hoping everyone listening to this particular podcast will come to that conclusion as well.
[00:16:05] So, friends, my call to action today, what I'd like to do is as we are recapping the book of Hosea,
[00:16:12] I'm going to ask what I asked earlier while we were originally going through this study is,
[00:16:19] how would you react if God asked you to be with someone who you knew in advance would be unfaithful?
[00:16:32] And then I also want you to think about what would you do if she was unfaithful and she moved out,
[00:16:41] and then God said, go and get her back.
[00:16:45] Now, in this particular case, he literally had to buy her back.
[00:16:49] Now, I don't think that would be the case today,
[00:16:52] but I think you could definitely have a confrontation if you knocked on that door where she's living and the guy answers the door.
[00:17:01] I don't know if he would let her come with you.
[00:17:04] I'm thinking that that may be a problem.
[00:17:08] So, anyway, I will never end a podcast without giving anyone an opportunity to receive Jesus as their Lord and Savior.
[00:17:19] And if there's anyone listening today and you've never taken that step,
[00:17:23] today could be your day of salvation.
[00:17:28] So, if there is anyone listening today and you've never taken that step,
[00:17:33] I invite you to repeat this simple prayer today.
[00:17:36] Jesus, thank you for being willing to die on a cross.
[00:17:42] For everyone listening to this podcast today,
[00:17:46] I recognize that I am a sinner and in need of a Savior.
[00:17:51] I ask that you come into my heart.
[00:17:53] I ask that you lead me and guide me from this point forward in my life.
[00:17:59] I make you my Lord and Savior.
[00:18:02] Friends, that's all you have to do.
[00:18:05] It is that simple.
[00:18:07] Now, may the Lord bless you and keep you.
[00:18:11] The Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you.
[00:18:15] The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace.
[00:18:21] Friends, tomorrow is Testimony Day.
[00:18:25] Please join me and a special guest as we further explore Wisdom Today.
[00:18:32] It is not 서�forment from this point,
[00:18:32] but it is true to the Lord bless you and be ecstabular.
[00:18:32] My God bless you and the Lord bless you.