SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/15/2015
11:21 PM
My Worship Time Focus: Priests,
rulers, and People
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Hosea 5:1-7
Message of the
verses: “1 Hear this, O priests! Give heed, O house of Israel!
Listen, O house of the
king! For the
judgment applies to you, For you have been a snare at Mizpah And a net
spread out on Tabor. 2 The revolters have gone deep in depravity, But I will
chastise all of them. 3 I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from Me; For
now, O Ephraim, you have played the harlot, Israel has defiled itself. 4 Their
deeds will not allow them To return to their God. For a spirit of harlotry is
within them, And they do not know the LORD. 5 Moreover, the pride of Israel
testifies against him, And Israel and Ephraim stumble in their iniquity; Judah
also has stumbled with them. 6 They will go with their flocks and herds To seek
the LORD, but they will not find Him; He has withdrawn from them. 7 They have dealt
treacherously against the LORD, For they have borne illegitimate children. Now
the new moon will devour them with their land.”
A reminder of what Warren Wiersbe wrote in his ending
commentary on this first main section that we are now looking at “The Judge
read the charges to the accused as they stood before Him.” We will look at the accused priests, rulers,
and people of Israel in this section today.
The Lord looks at those He is accusing and informs them
of charges against the leaders, and that charge is trapping innocent people and
exploiting them. Now we looked at this
when we studied Jeremiah and also Ezekiel, but those two books were speaking to
the Southern Kingdom of Judah, for they did the same things as the Northern
Kingdom of Israel were doing.
There was no justice found in the land of Israel and that
is what the Lord is also charging them with.
They did not have the power to repent of their wrong doings, which is
similar to what we see in our study of Revelation for even after many judgments
were upon them and they knew they were from the Lord they would not repent and
neither will these people from the Northern Kingdom repent either. Dr. Wiersbe writes that the reason that they
did not repent was because their sins were paralyzing them.
Their cause of sinning was that they did not know the
Lord as seen in verse four: “4 Their
deeds will not allow them To return to their God. For a spirit of harlotry is
within them, And they do not know the LORD.”
Chapter 6 and verse 3 says “"So let us know, let us press on to
know the LORD. His going forth is as certain as the dawn; And He will come to
us like the rain, Like the spring rain watering the earth."” Another reason for not repenting is that they
were arrogant and this led them to stumble and fall “Moreover, the pride of
Israel testifies against him, And Israel and Ephraim stumble in their iniquity;
Judah also has stumbled with them (Hosea 5:5).”
Proverbs 16:18 says “Pride goes before destruction, And a haughty spirit
before stumbling.”
Verse seven speaks of illegitimate children and Dr.
Wiersbe writes the following in an endnote on this subject: “This may mean literal illegitimate children
because of sexual promiscuity or children who were not a part of the covenant
because of the sins of their parents during the pagan fertility rites. The sins of the fathers bring tragic
consequences in the lives of the children.”
All in all we see a great mess in the Northern Kingdom at
this time of their existence.
6/15/2015 11:41 PM
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