SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 6/18/2015
10:11 PM
My Worship Time Focus: The Sentence
is Pronounced
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Hosea 5:8-15
Message of the
verses: “8 Blow the horn in Gibeah,
The trumpet in Ramah. Sound an alarm at Beth-aven: "Behind you,
Benjamin!" 9 Ephraim will become a desolation in the day of rebuke; Among
the tribes of Israel I declare what is sure. 10 The princes of Judah have
become like those who move a boundary; On them I will pour out My wrath like
water. 11 Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment, Because he was determined to follow man’s command.
12 Therefore I am
like a moth to Ephraim And like rottenness to the house of Judah. 13 When
Ephraim saw his sickness, And Judah his wound, Then Ephraim went to Assyria And
sent to King Jareb. But he is unable to heal you, Or to cure you of your wound.
14 For I will be like a lion to Ephraim And like a young lion to the house of
Judah. I, even I, will tear to pieces and go away, I will carry away, and there will be none to deliver.
15 I will go away and return to My place Until they acknowledge their guilt and
seek My face; In their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.”
You see a lot of I,’s Me’s, and My’s in this section of Scripture
showing that the Lord is about to bring judgment, for He is the Judge and will
pronounce the sentence and carry it out on the nation of Israel.
We have been speaking about a trial and of course the
Judge is the Lord and so the verdict comes in as Guilty as charged to the
Northern Kingdom of Israel. Dr. Wiersbe
writes “Ephraim will be laid waste on the day of reckoning’ (5:9 NIV), and then
he writes the following endnote on that subject: “Even Judah will be included in this discipline
(Hosea 5:10). The Assyrians devastated
Judah but were unable to capture Jerusalem, for God delivered King Hezekiah and
his people in a miraculous way. See
Isaiah 36-37. The sin of Judah, according
to Hosea, was that of seizing territory that wasn’t rightfully theirs, like
people who moved the boundary markers in order to increase their holding (Deut.
19:14; Isa. 5:8; Micah 2:2).”
Verse 12 says “Therefore I am like a moth to Ephraim And like rottenness to the
house of Judah.” Just like a moth destroys
things Israel was destroyed from the inside out in a slow way and now God’s
longsuffering has run out. Verse 14 says
that the Assyrians would come in a sudden attack like a lion. Dr. Wiersbe writes that “both were
unavoidable and both brought ruin.”
From our studies of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel we have
seen that both kingdoms of Israel were weak and sick nations because of their
constant worship of idols, which meant that they did not turn to the Lord for
help, but both nations looked elsewhere for their help, and both nations
fell. On that subject Dr. Wiersbe writes
this endnote: “The phrase ‘King Jareb’
in Hosea 5:13 (KJV, NASB) is translated ‘the great king’ in the NIV. The Hebrew word means ‘to contend, to strive.’ This could be a nickname for the king of
Assyria, such as ‘King Contention.’
Israel and Judah turned to the King of Assyria for help and all he did
was pick a fight!.”
Dr. Wiersbe concludes with this following statement which
can surely be applied to our nation at this time in its history: “They needed prayer and true repentance, but
instead, they trusted politics and useless treaties. All the Lord could do was withdraw and wait
for them to seek His face in truth and humility.” I pray for a revival for our country most every
day, that God would raise up a spiritual giant to bring the church in our
country back to Himself, and if God does not answer this prayer, and many like
it from others our nation will go the way of most every nation that has been on
planet earth.
6/18/2015 10:39 PM
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