>Hosea 12-14: At the Crossroads
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A Sermon by Dr. Bob Griffin, Teaching Elder at Sovereign Grace Church
I. JUDGMENT DECLARED
A. ALTOGETHER
>>1. REALITY
Hosea 11:12-12:1 Ephraim has surrounded Me with lies, Israel with deceit. Judah disobeys God, unfaithful to the Holy One. Ephraim feeds on the wind and chases the east wind all day long; they multiply lies and violence; they make a treaty with Assyria, and export olive oil to Egypt.
>>2. REPAID
Hosea 12:2-6 The Lord has an indictment against Judah; He will punish Jacob according to his ways and repay him according to his deeds. In the womb he grabbed his brother by the heel, and as a human, he argued with God. He struggled with the angel and prevailed; he wept and begged His favor. He met God at Bethel, and God spoke with us there – YHWH, God of hosts, YHWH is His name – so you must return to your God, maintain love and justice, and wait continually for your God.
(also Gen 32:24-30)
B. ANSWER
>>1. RICHES
Hosea 12:7-11 Like a merchant who uses dishonest scales, he loves to defraud. Ephraim boasts, “I am rich; I’ve become wealthy; no one can prove me guilty or sinful in anything I do.”
I have been the Lord your God since the land of Egypt; I will again make you live in tents like the time of appointed festivals. I spoke to the prophets; it was I who gave them many visions and how to speak in parables. If there is wickedness in Gilead, the people are unprofitable. If they sacrifice bulls in Gilgal, their altars are no more than piles of stone discarded after plowing a field.
>>2. RECALL
Hosea 12:12-14 Jacob fled to the land of Aram; there Israel worked to gain a wife by tending sheep. God used a prophet to bring Israel up from Egypt, and by that prophet tended them. But Ephraim has provoked the Lord bitterly; so his Lord will allow his guilt to remain, repaying him for his disgraceful deeds.
II. JUDGMENT DESCRIBED
A. ARROGANCE
>>1. REMOVED
Hosea 13:1-3 When Ephraim spoke, men trembled; he was elevated in Israel, but he became guilty of Baal-worship and died. Now they sin even more, making silver idols for themselves, skillfully-crafted by artisans. It is said of them, “Those who worship the calves even offer human sacrifice.” Therefore they will be like morning mist or like dew that quickly disappears, like chaff that swirls from the threshing floor or like smoke from a window.
>>2. REND
Hosea 13:4-8 But I have been the Lord your God since the land of Egypt; you acknowledge no God but Me, no Savior besides Me. It was I who tended you in the desert heat, but after they had grazed and became satisfied, with proud hearts they forgot Me.
So I will be like a lion to them; I will lurk beside the road like a leopard. I will attack them like a bear robbed of her cubs; I will tear them open, and I will devour them like a lion, like a wild animal would rip them apart.
(also Habakkuk 1:8)
B. AFTERMATH
>>1. REJECTION
Hosea 13:9-11 You are destroyed, Israel, for you are opposed to Me, against your helper. Where is your king, to save you? Where are your leaders of whom you said, “Give me a king and princes”? I gave you a king in My anger, and I removed him in My anger.
>>2. RETRIBUTION
Hosea 13:12-16 The guilt of Ephraim is stored up; his sin is recorded in detail. Labor pains come to deliver him, but he doesn’t understand, so at time for delivery he doesn’t leave the womb.
Shall I deliver them from the power of hell? Shall I redeem them from Death? O Death, where are your plagues? O Hell, where is your sting?
I have no compassion even though he may thrive among his brothers, the east wind from the Lord will blow in from the wilderness, and his wells will dry up; his spring shall be parched; it will strip away his wealth everything of value. Samaria shall bear her guilt, because she has rebelled against her God; they shall fall by the sword; their little ones dashed in pieces, and their pregnant women ripped open.
(also Rom 6:23)
III. JUDGMENT DELAYED
A. AVERTED
>>1. REPENTANCE
Hosea 14:1-3 Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for your sins have caused your downfall. Return to the Lord with these words, saying “Forgive our sins and receive us graciously; we will offer the fruit of our lips. Assyria can’t save us; we won’t call for cavalry. We’ll no longer call objects made by our hands ‘god’. In you we orphans find mercy.”
>>2. RESPONSE
Hosea 14:4-7 “I will heal their apostasy; I will love them freely, for My anger has turned from them. I will be like the dew to Israel; he will bloom like a lily. He will send down root like cedars of Lebanon; his shoots shall spread out. His splendor will be like the olive tree, and his fragrance like cedars of Lebanon. Israel will return and live under My shadow; they will flourish like grain; they will blossom like the vine; their fame like the wine of Lebanon.
B. AUTHORITY
>>1. RENEWAL
Hosea 14:8 Ephraim will ask, ‘What more should I have to do with idols?’ It is I Who answers and cares for you. I am like an evergreen tree; your fruitfulness comes from Me.
>>2. RIGHTEOUS
Hosea 14:9 Is anyone wise? Let him understand these things. Does anyone have discernment? Let him grasp them. For the paths of the Lord are right, and the righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble.”
(also Is 65:24; Rom 12:1)