Idolatry (Hosea 2:2-5a)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/3/2015 8:32 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                          Focus:  Idolatry

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Hosea 2:2-5a

            Message of the verses:  “2 “Contend with your mother, contend, For she is not my wife, and I am not her husband; And let her put away her harlotry from her face And her adultery from between her breasts, 3 Or I will strip her naked And expose her as on the day when she was born. I will also make her like a wilderness, Make her like desert land And slay her with thirst. 4 “Also, I will have no compassion on her children, Because they are children of harlotry. 5 “For their mother has played the harlot;”

            We begin looking at the second main point from Warren Wiersbe’s outline on Hosea.  He combines five Minor Prophets into one book in which he entitles it “Be Amazed.”  The second main point from his first chapter he entitles “Gomer:  Is Holy” and it will cover 2:2-13.  We look at the first sub-point from this main point in our SD on Hosea for today.

            Dr. Wiersbe writes at the beginning “Hosea is preeminently the prophet of love, but unlike some teachers today, he doesn’t minimize the holiness of God.  We’re told that ‘God is love’ (1John 4:8, 16), but we’re also reminded that ‘God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all’ (1:5).  God’s love is a holy love, not a sentimental feeling that condones sin and pampers sinners.”

            In this second main point we will see that the prophet “focuses on three particular sins: idolatry (spiritual adultery), ingratitude, and hypocrisy.”

            6/3/2015 8:44 AM   6/3/2015 9:20 PM

            In verse two God is speaking to the children and telling them to rebuke their mother for her unfaithfulness, and this certainly pictures what Israel had been doing in their relationship with the Lord.  Israel was guilt in their worship of idols which is spiritual idolatry against the Lord.  The god that they worshiped the most was Baal, which is the god of rain and so when the rain did not come they would worship this god.  The irony of all of this is that the rain was not coming because they were worshiping Baal for God told them in His covenant with them if they worshiped false gods that He would hold back the rain from them.  The pagan worship also involved sensual fertility rites and this involved both male and female prostitutes.  This of course is something else that was forbidden by the Lord.

            Dr. Wiersbe writes “Since the people were acting like prostitutes, God would treat them like prostitutes and sham them publicly.  He would no longer claim the nation as His wife because she had broken the solemn marriage covenant and consorted with idols.  According to Hebrew law, adultery was a capital crime, punishable by death, but God announced that He would discipline Israel and not destroy her.”  He then adds this endnote:  “Hebrew law stated that a divorced woman cold not return to her former husband and marry him again (Deut. 24:1-4).  God gave unfaithful Israel a ‘divorce’ in that He no longer shared His intimacy and His mercies with her (Isa. 50:1; Jer. 3:1-5).  One day He will take her back and restore the broken relationship and heal their land (Isa. 54:4-8; 62:4).”

            The church can do something similar to what Israel did by turning to the ungodly world system which is headed up by Satan and this is something that God also hates:  “15  Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. 17 The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever (1 John 2:14-15).”  James 4:4 says “You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”  Romans 12:2 tells us not to be conformed to the world “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

            6/3/2015 9:36 PM