Who Is The True Bride? (Hosea 1:1-11)

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.120 --> 00:00:03.919 This is the word of God. Has AIAH, Chapter One, I'll read 2 00:00:04.160 --> 00:00:11.349 for us, versus one through eleven, the word of the Lord that came 3 00:00:11.509 --> 00:00:15.669 to Josiah, the son of Beery, in the days of Uzaiah, Jotham 4 00:00:15.990 --> 00:00:20.870 a has and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam, 5 00:00:20.989 --> 00:00:25.339 the son of Joash, King of Israel, when the Lord first spoke 6 00:00:25.460 --> 00:00:29.940 through Josiah, the Lord said to Josiah, go take to yourself a wife 7 00:00:30.059 --> 00:00:35.259 of hoardom and have children of hordom, for the land commits great hordem by 8 00:00:35.380 --> 00:00:40.490 forsaking the Lord. So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Debliahm, 9 00:00:40.570 --> 00:00:44.929 and she conceived and bore him a son, and the Lord said to 10 00:00:45.009 --> 00:00:49.850 him call his name Jezreel, for in just a little while I will punish 11 00:00:49.969 --> 00:00:53.960 the house of Jaho for the blood of Jezreel and I will put an end 12 00:00:54.039 --> 00:00:57.920 to the Kingdom of the House of Israel, and on that day I will 13 00:00:58.039 --> 00:01:03.479 break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel. She conceived again and 14 00:01:03.799 --> 00:01:07.909 bore a daughter, and the Lord said to him call her name no mercy, 15 00:01:08.510 --> 00:01:11.590 for I will no more have mercy on the House of Israel, to 16 00:01:11.709 --> 00:01:17.109 forgive them at all, but I will have mercy on the House of Judah 17 00:01:17.150 --> 00:01:19.980 and I will save them by the Lord, their God. I will not 18 00:01:21.099 --> 00:01:25.620 save them by Bou or by sword, or by war, or by horses 19 00:01:25.819 --> 00:01:30.500 or by horsemen. When she had weaned no mercy, she conceived and bore 20 00:01:30.579 --> 00:01:34.290 a son, and the Lord said, call his name, not my people, 21 00:01:34.969 --> 00:01:40.489 for you are not my people and I am not your God. Yet 22 00:01:40.930 --> 00:01:44.849 the number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, 23 00:01:45.290 --> 00:01:48.959 which cannot be measured or numbered. And in the place where it was 24 00:01:49.040 --> 00:01:52.400 said to them, you are not my people, it shall be said to 25 00:01:52.480 --> 00:01:57.040 them, children of the Living God and the children of Judah and the children 26 00:01:57.079 --> 00:02:00.670 of Israel shall be gathered together and they shall appoint for themselves one head, 27 00:02:00.709 --> 00:02:06.109 and they shall go up from the land, for great shall be the day 28 00:02:06.670 --> 00:02:10.310 of Jezreel. The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of 29 00:02:10.389 --> 00:02:17.580 our God stands forever. You may be seated. Every one of us is 30 00:02:19.580 --> 00:02:24.139 part of a family. Every one of us has a father or a mother. 31 00:02:24.340 --> 00:02:29.460 Some of you are living at home. Your part of that family who 32 00:02:29.580 --> 00:02:34.729 live under a particular roof, you share meals together, your father and mother 33 00:02:34.969 --> 00:02:39.449 provide for you. Some of you have been adopted into a family, and 34 00:02:39.490 --> 00:02:46.759 yet you're still a part of a family. And we know from the scriptures 35 00:02:46.919 --> 00:02:53.960 that God very often deals with families. The family is in important to God. 36 00:02:54.039 --> 00:02:59.229 And as we think about the Bible more broadly, not just in the 37 00:02:59.270 --> 00:03:01.789 Old Testament, where we are today, in the book of Joseah, but 38 00:03:02.229 --> 00:03:08.270 the Bible more broadly, it's a story of families. It's a story of 39 00:03:08.349 --> 00:03:13.379 the family of God, but it's a story of more than that. It's 40 00:03:13.379 --> 00:03:17.020 a story of a nation. To isn't a story of groups of families that 41 00:03:17.139 --> 00:03:23.379 God has brought together to make into a nation, the nation of Israel? 42 00:03:24.099 --> 00:03:31.689 And as that Old Testament people of Israel lived in the presence of God, 43 00:03:32.770 --> 00:03:39.050 they pointed to another family. They pointed to the Church of Jesus Christ, 44 00:03:40.129 --> 00:03:45.240 because the Church of Jesus Christ, as it's described for us in the New 45 00:03:45.319 --> 00:03:51.879 Testament, is to be a family as well. Father's and mother's children, 46 00:03:52.120 --> 00:03:58.949 young men young women in the faith were a family that God has brought together. 47 00:04:00.469 --> 00:04:04.629 And so this morning, as we come to Joseiah, we have fundamentally 48 00:04:04.669 --> 00:04:11.620 a story of a family. There's a father, there's a mother, there's 49 00:04:11.740 --> 00:04:16.779 children, both boys and girls, that are described here for us, but 50 00:04:16.860 --> 00:04:23.220 it's God presents to us this morning this family. He wants to teach US 51 00:04:23.259 --> 00:04:27.889 lessons. And I think one of the things that should strike us as we 52 00:04:28.129 --> 00:04:31.129 hear about this family, about the growth of the family, the marriage that 53 00:04:31.329 --> 00:04:35.569 brings the man and the woman together, the children, that God blesses them, 54 00:04:36.810 --> 00:04:44.680 that it's a story about wrath and about mercy and that God is always 55 00:04:44.879 --> 00:04:51.079 moving from wrath to mercy for his people. He's moving from wrath to mercy 56 00:04:51.240 --> 00:04:56.029 for his people in Jesus Christ, and so that's what I want you to 57 00:04:56.149 --> 00:04:59.949 see this morning. As we look at these people, as we look at 58 00:04:59.949 --> 00:05:03.870 Hoseiah, the Prophet of God, as we look at his wife, Gomer, 59 00:05:03.949 --> 00:05:10.300 who is not a faithful wife, but rather an unfaithful wife, and 60 00:05:10.420 --> 00:05:15.740 as we consider these children, who have very unique names, we see, 61 00:05:15.819 --> 00:05:20.180 on the one hand, the wrath and the anger of God on Sin, 62 00:05:21.449 --> 00:05:29.209 but we see also how he displays his mercy to his people. And so 63 00:05:29.290 --> 00:05:34.689 let's look first at the first two verses and we see here a particular contrast. 64 00:05:35.600 --> 00:05:39.720 In verse one, you have all kinds of names don't you? You 65 00:05:39.879 --> 00:05:43.759 have the name of the Prophet Hoseah, but it talks about the days in 66 00:05:43.920 --> 00:05:50.149 which he lived. We live in the days of Obama, of trump, 67 00:05:50.310 --> 00:05:55.790 of other world leaders that we might consider, but for the people of Israel 68 00:05:55.949 --> 00:05:59.629 and for Josea, he lived in the days of these kings, and they're 69 00:05:59.629 --> 00:06:03.230 named here Huzaiah, Jotham, may has has a Kia. They were the 70 00:06:03.300 --> 00:06:10.100 kings and the southern Kingdom of Judah, and where Joseiah was ministering, Jereboam, 71 00:06:10.220 --> 00:06:15.779 the son of Joe Ash, was king, and it's a reminder to 72 00:06:15.100 --> 00:06:20.769 us that these were not all faithful kings, many of them, in fact, 73 00:06:20.810 --> 00:06:28.410 we're very wicked kings. Has a Kaia, yes, he turned to 74 00:06:28.490 --> 00:06:30.970 the Lord, but think about Hez a Kiah and his son, who would 75 00:06:31.050 --> 00:06:35.639 come after him, Manassa, maybe one of the most wicked kings in all 76 00:06:35.800 --> 00:06:42.920 of the history of Israel. He filled the streets of Jerusalem with innocent blood. 77 00:06:43.240 --> 00:06:47.589 He sacrificed his children, burned them in the fire, thinking that these 78 00:06:47.790 --> 00:06:55.389 idols, these gods, would do for him what he wanted. Sin And 79 00:06:55.509 --> 00:06:59.829 certainly we can see why God's wrath was beginning to be poured out on this 80 00:07:00.069 --> 00:07:05.180 people the northern kingdom. JEROBOAM, the son of Joe Ash, is King 81 00:07:05.339 --> 00:07:12.300 and this is Jereboam, the second and he's named after Jeroboam the first, 82 00:07:12.420 --> 00:07:15.490 of course, who was the very first king of the northern tribes. You 83 00:07:15.569 --> 00:07:19.730 remember, in the time of David, and then his son Solomon, finally 84 00:07:19.889 --> 00:07:25.529 in the time of sons Solomon Son ray of Balm, the kingdom is divided 85 00:07:26.569 --> 00:07:31.399 and God gave that kingdom to Jereboam. He had those ten northern tribes. 86 00:07:31.439 --> 00:07:38.600 He gathers them to himself and one of the first things that he does as 87 00:07:38.800 --> 00:07:45.189 king, instead of leading them on the Right Path in worship and faithfulness to 88 00:07:45.310 --> 00:07:48.910 God, he sets up those golden calves in dance so that people wouldn't be 89 00:07:48.990 --> 00:07:55.829 tempted to go to the temple in Jerusalem, but rather would bow themselves prostrate 90 00:07:55.949 --> 00:08:03.699 themselves before these idols. And we see that again and again. Unfaithful Kings, 91 00:08:03.899 --> 00:08:11.180 idolatrous kings, and certainly God is angry. God His wrathful towards those 92 00:08:11.259 --> 00:08:16.610 kings because they have not led his people back to him in faithful as they 93 00:08:16.649 --> 00:08:22.970 have not shepherded his people the wrath of God. And yet even here in 94 00:08:24.009 --> 00:08:26.480 verse one we see God's mercy because we read that the Lord, or the 95 00:08:26.560 --> 00:08:31.199 word of the Lord, came to Joseah, the son of beery, in 96 00:08:31.319 --> 00:08:37.000 those days. Even though the Kingdom of Israel is on its dawn, own 97 00:08:37.039 --> 00:08:41.149 words spiral into sin that's going to lead to its complete destruction, it's complete 98 00:08:41.269 --> 00:08:50.789 scattering, God is revealing his word through his prophets. He is merciful to 99 00:08:50.950 --> 00:08:56.740 his people and telling them, reminding them again and again. Yes, if 100 00:08:56.820 --> 00:09:00.620 you sin, you will be destroyed. But I am a God who shows 101 00:09:00.659 --> 00:09:05.820 grace and mercy to his people who confess their sins, who repent of their 102 00:09:05.899 --> 00:09:09.490 sins, and I'm going to remind you of that through the prophets that I 103 00:09:09.529 --> 00:09:16.889 send, the prophets that I send like Joseah, so already wrath, but 104 00:09:16.129 --> 00:09:22.169 mercy. And so the word of God comes to this Prophet, Joseah, 105 00:09:22.970 --> 00:09:26.759 living at a very challenging time and the history of Israel, where the people 106 00:09:26.799 --> 00:09:31.840 don't want to serve God, where their kings are drawing them away, and 107 00:09:31.919 --> 00:09:35.799 yet God speaks to Jose and the Lord says to Jose go and take to 108 00:09:35.919 --> 00:09:41.750 yourself a wife of hoardom and have children of hoaredom. He's saying go and 109 00:09:41.909 --> 00:09:48.230 take a wife and even as you go to take her to yourself, as 110 00:09:48.309 --> 00:09:52.830 you bring her into your house, as you make covenant vows with her, 111 00:09:52.940 --> 00:09:58.220 you know, you know that she is going to be unfaithful, that she 112 00:09:58.379 --> 00:10:03.500 is going to give herself to other men, as the text disc bribes it 113 00:10:03.620 --> 00:10:05.220 to us, using that word three times, she is going to be a 114 00:10:05.419 --> 00:10:13.370 wife of whoredom. It's a terrible thing, it's a horrible word. Someone 115 00:10:13.409 --> 00:10:20.289 who would sell themselves to another person, not for their pleasure, but for 116 00:10:20.409 --> 00:10:24.679 that other person's pleasure, being unfaithful to all the vows that they have made. 117 00:10:24.840 --> 00:10:28.879 That's how she's described. She is a wife of Hoardem. They're going 118 00:10:28.960 --> 00:10:37.269 to have children of HORDEM, like mother, like daughter, like father like 119 00:10:37.590 --> 00:10:45.149 son, leading into those same kinds of sin. And yet it's more than 120 00:10:45.230 --> 00:10:52.299 about just this woman and her family. It's about more than just this relationship 121 00:10:52.419 --> 00:10:58.179 and the unfaithfulness that we find there, because God writes to us and reminds 122 00:10:58.220 --> 00:11:03.490 us here that the land commits great hordem by forsaking the Lord. It's a 123 00:11:03.649 --> 00:11:09.690 picture God is painting, a very stark picture for the people of Israel of 124 00:11:09.129 --> 00:11:16.690 their own sin. It's easy to point fingers at other people and to say, 125 00:11:16.769 --> 00:11:22.080 look at that marriage relationship, look at how she has been unfaithful to 126 00:11:22.200 --> 00:11:26.799 him, look at how they're destroying each other and their family. But God 127 00:11:28.039 --> 00:11:31.990 is saying, no, it's not just about Gomer and Josiah, this is 128 00:11:33.029 --> 00:11:37.309 about you, the people of Israel. The land commits great hordem by forsaking 129 00:11:37.789 --> 00:11:43.350 the Lord. And we know from much of the rest of Josiah that one 130 00:11:43.429 --> 00:11:48.299 of Israel's primary sins was the sin of idolatry. We read later on in 131 00:11:48.580 --> 00:11:52.940 Chapter Four, verse twelve. My people, God says, inquire of a 132 00:11:54.019 --> 00:11:58.539 piece of wood, and they're walking. Staff gives them oracles, for a 133 00:11:58.700 --> 00:12:03.490 spirit of hordem has led them astray and they have left their God to play 134 00:12:03.850 --> 00:12:11.289 the whore. Instead of being faithful to their God, they have played the 135 00:12:11.330 --> 00:12:16.240 whore and gone after all the other gods of the nation's, every other God 136 00:12:16.360 --> 00:12:20.399 you can think of, except the one true and living God. And so 137 00:12:20.600 --> 00:12:28.159 God is full of anger against them. And so we might wonder than who 138 00:12:28.360 --> 00:12:33.350 is this true bride? It doesn't seem to be Gomer and as we think 139 00:12:33.470 --> 00:12:39.070 of that picture being of Israel as a whole, are they the faithful bride 140 00:12:39.190 --> 00:12:43.700 no, they're not. In Haiti, people love weddings and as you go 141 00:12:43.899 --> 00:12:48.460 to a wedding, it's always a big production. Everybody gets dressed up and 142 00:12:50.059 --> 00:12:52.419 many of the things would be familiar to you. It often takes place in 143 00:12:52.460 --> 00:12:56.980 a church and here in the Front would be the groom and his attendance, 144 00:12:58.100 --> 00:13:01.370 the pastor at the front, and as the service begins, you look towards 145 00:13:01.409 --> 00:13:05.570 the back and they are standing, all the ladies, including the bride. 146 00:13:07.690 --> 00:13:11.850 But all of those ladies, the bride and her bridesmaids, what would strike 147 00:13:11.879 --> 00:13:16.879 you is that they're all dressed in wedding dresses. They're all in white wedding 148 00:13:16.919 --> 00:13:20.200 dresses, maybe a little bit different from each other, but you might say 149 00:13:20.240 --> 00:13:26.080 to yourself which one is the bride? which is the woman that's going to 150 00:13:26.159 --> 00:13:31.350 be married to this man standing up front? Who is the true bride? 151 00:13:33.549 --> 00:13:39.549 Hopefully the groom knows, but you might question and say, is she the 152 00:13:39.669 --> 00:13:45.860 one who's going to be faithful to him? Who is the true bride? 153 00:13:46.340 --> 00:13:52.100 But God says taker as your wife. So he went and took a Gomer, 154 00:13:52.220 --> 00:13:58.490 the daughter of Debliam, as his wife. Hooseiah is faithful, not 155 00:14:00.850 --> 00:14:05.250 Gomer, not the bride, but it's the bridegroom. That's faithfulness should remind 156 00:14:05.370 --> 00:14:09.320 us of God's faithfulness to us. Because as we think about that image in 157 00:14:09.399 --> 00:14:13.879 the scriptures, that image of a marriage of a bride and a bridegroom and 158 00:14:15.000 --> 00:14:18.759 carries, doesn't it all the way into the New Testament and there who is 159 00:14:18.840 --> 00:14:26.429 described for us as the bridegroom? It's Jesus. It's Jesus the bride. 160 00:14:26.509 --> 00:14:31.870 That's us, the church, and sometimes, I think as we read the 161 00:14:31.950 --> 00:14:37.350 scriptures, we sometimes kind of put ourselves in the story and we think about 162 00:14:37.350 --> 00:14:41.379 our own lives and very often we might think, well, yeah, I'm 163 00:14:41.620 --> 00:14:48.059 I'm kind of like Josea. I've been relatively faithful to God. Maybe you've 164 00:14:48.100 --> 00:14:52.090 said that to yourself before. But what God wants you to see is that 165 00:14:52.330 --> 00:15:00.610 know your Hoseah, you're the one who has not been faithful to God, 166 00:15:00.690 --> 00:15:07.480 the one who needs rescuing by the bridegroom, who is fundamentally, ultimately Jesus 167 00:15:07.679 --> 00:15:13.679 Christ himself. He's the one, he's the only one who can speak to 168 00:15:13.720 --> 00:15:18.840 US words of truth, who can rescue us from our idolatry and bring us 169 00:15:18.840 --> 00:15:24.470 into the kingdom and show US mercy. We a people who by birth are 170 00:15:24.549 --> 00:15:28.909 under the wrath of God. But we go on, because then we see, 171 00:15:28.909 --> 00:15:33.830 secondly, not just the contrast here between Hosea and Gomer, but we 172 00:15:33.909 --> 00:15:37.340 see the result of that marriage, don't we, in these three children that 173 00:15:37.379 --> 00:15:43.659 are described before us? Now you know from the rest of the scriptures that 174 00:15:43.500 --> 00:15:48.980 children are a blessing to the Lord, and God was in that way bless 175 00:15:48.700 --> 00:15:54.529 this union of this man and this woman. In giving them children, God 176 00:15:54.769 --> 00:16:00.889 is blessing them. But the irony here in the text is that even though 177 00:16:00.929 --> 00:16:07.600 these children come into the world as a blessing from God, their very names 178 00:16:07.000 --> 00:16:14.200 are a reminder of God's wrath and anger towards sin. Look at verse four, 179 00:16:14.399 --> 00:16:18.269 the first son whom God gives to Josiah and Gomer. Call his name 180 00:16:18.309 --> 00:16:22.429 Jesreel. He says, for in just a little while I will punish the 181 00:16:22.509 --> 00:16:26.629 house of Jay who for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an 182 00:16:26.629 --> 00:16:30.710 end to the Kingdom of the House of Israel. Jezreel means to scatter, 183 00:16:32.830 --> 00:16:36.980 and that's exactly what God is predicting he's going to do, and that's what 184 00:16:37.220 --> 00:16:40.940 he does. In seven hundred and twenty two BC, the Assyrians come from 185 00:16:40.980 --> 00:16:45.700 the north, they defeat the army of Israel and those ten northern tribes are 186 00:16:45.700 --> 00:16:52.370 scattered to the four winds, never to come back together. They are scattered 187 00:16:53.210 --> 00:16:59.169 no more to be a nation. And so that's what God is saying to 188 00:16:59.289 --> 00:17:03.400 them. This son, his very name, is to remind them of the 189 00:17:03.680 --> 00:17:11.119 wrath of God, specifically the sin of Jaho for the blood of Jezreel. 190 00:17:11.119 --> 00:17:17.349 Jay who was a king, a general and Ahab's army who was used by 191 00:17:17.470 --> 00:17:22.990 God to destroy the House of Ahab, to kill the wicked Queen Jezebel, 192 00:17:22.549 --> 00:17:27.829 to remove their idolatry from the people of Israel, from those northern tribes. 193 00:17:30.059 --> 00:17:34.460 and to some extent he's faithful. He carries out the vengeance of God on 194 00:17:34.619 --> 00:17:40.220 that unfaithful King and his family, wiping them out. And yet he doesn't 195 00:17:40.259 --> 00:17:45.970 remove all of the high places, he doesn't do everything that God wanted and 196 00:17:45.130 --> 00:17:51.170 desired for him to do. And so God is punishing Jay who, but 197 00:17:51.329 --> 00:17:56.089 not just Jay who, all the people of Israel. And you see, 198 00:17:56.130 --> 00:18:00.119 Jezreel. That place in some sense should have been a reminder to Israel of 199 00:18:00.200 --> 00:18:07.519 some of their great victories. They're in the Valley of Jezreel was where Gideon 200 00:18:07.119 --> 00:18:14.869 had defeated the armies of Midian, three hundred men God used to defeat an 201 00:18:14.869 --> 00:18:18.150 enemy that it was said. They were like the sand on the seashore, 202 00:18:18.349 --> 00:18:23.789 like aunt's coming out of that aunt pile. But God defeated them. There 203 00:18:23.829 --> 00:18:30.500 were great victories there, and yet there were some defeats as well. Israel's 204 00:18:30.579 --> 00:18:34.980 first king, King Saul, is killed there on the slopes of Mount Gilboa, 205 00:18:36.220 --> 00:18:41.650 in the Valley of Jezreel. But God's wrath, it's a reminder of 206 00:18:41.890 --> 00:18:48.569 their sin every time they see this boy, every time they speak his name. 207 00:18:51.650 --> 00:18:53.250 And so God says, on that day I will break the bow of 208 00:18:53.369 --> 00:18:59.160 Israel in the Valley of Jezreel. You will cannot, you will not be 209 00:18:59.279 --> 00:19:06.279 able to lean on your army, on what you have. But he goes 210 00:19:06.319 --> 00:19:10.710 on, and in one sense it gets worse, doesn't it? She conceived 211 00:19:10.789 --> 00:19:12.710 again and bore a daughter, and the Lord said to him call her name. 212 00:19:14.230 --> 00:19:18.829 No mercy, low Ruhama, for I will no more have mercy on 213 00:19:18.910 --> 00:19:23.819 the House of Israel to forgive them at all. And here we see the 214 00:19:25.380 --> 00:19:29.819 how the names of the children are connected with the parents, aren't they? 215 00:19:30.500 --> 00:19:33.940 One of the things that striking in Haiti with the names of children is that 216 00:19:33.099 --> 00:19:37.460 often there are kind of combination of the father and mother's names. When we 217 00:19:37.539 --> 00:19:41.930 go and do vacation Bible school there's lots of kids and it's fun to get 218 00:19:41.970 --> 00:19:45.849 to know them. A kind of lean down and ask them their name and 219 00:19:45.130 --> 00:19:48.569 I usually have to ask them to repeat it a couple times. But very 220 00:19:48.730 --> 00:19:53.400 often there's a young boy. His father's name is Peter and his name is 221 00:19:53.759 --> 00:20:00.680 Peterson or one of the interpreters we use. His name is meek and son 222 00:20:00.920 --> 00:20:04.799 as father, is Meekin we have neighbors across the street from us where we 223 00:20:06.079 --> 00:20:10.869 live in Haiti and the father's name is we'd me and the mother's name is 224 00:20:11.069 --> 00:20:15.829 eveleen and all of their children have different combinations of those names. One is 225 00:20:15.910 --> 00:20:19.029 Joe We'd me, very similar to his father. One of their little daughters 226 00:20:19.150 --> 00:20:25.660 is we'd me Veleen. They've blended those names together. And isn't it true 227 00:20:25.859 --> 00:20:33.019 often that our children do as we do? They represent us in many ways, 228 00:20:33.099 --> 00:20:37.369 both in the good ways and, sadly, in our sins as well. 229 00:20:37.529 --> 00:20:42.369 That's what's happening here. No mercy. I will no more have mercy 230 00:20:42.450 --> 00:20:48.329 on the House of Israel to forgive them at all. What a horrible position 231 00:20:49.000 --> 00:20:55.359 to be in. God Says No mercy. And yet there is a note 232 00:20:55.400 --> 00:20:57.839 of hope here, isn't there? There? In verse seven, as he 233 00:20:57.960 --> 00:21:03.680 speaks his judgment and wrath against Israel, he says, I will have mercy 234 00:21:03.799 --> 00:21:07.150 on the House of Judah and I will save them by the Lord, their 235 00:21:07.230 --> 00:21:11.789 God, the House of Judah. All the way back in the time of 236 00:21:11.869 --> 00:21:18.470 Jacob, God had prophesied through him that the scepter will not depart from the 237 00:21:18.579 --> 00:21:22.660 House of Judah, that a ruler will come out of him. And again 238 00:21:22.700 --> 00:21:30.940 a reminder of the salvation that is there for people if they will believe by 239 00:21:30.140 --> 00:21:34.809 faith, pointing us to Jesus, ultimately, who comes as the lion of 240 00:21:34.890 --> 00:21:41.049 the tribe of Judah, the only one who can defeat their enemies, because 241 00:21:41.049 --> 00:21:48.160 God says your bow, your sword, your horses, your horsemen will not 242 00:21:48.359 --> 00:21:52.680 be able to save you, but your king, who comes from Judah, 243 00:21:52.799 --> 00:21:57.599 he will save you. He is the one who can show you mercy. 244 00:22:00.200 --> 00:22:04.069 And then Verse Eight, the Third Child, the second daughter, when she 245 00:22:04.150 --> 00:22:08.029 had ween no mercy, she conceived and bore a son and the Lord said 246 00:22:08.109 --> 00:22:11.190 call his name, not my people for you are not my people and I 247 00:22:11.309 --> 00:22:17.859 am not your God. Think of the number of times in a day that 248 00:22:17.980 --> 00:22:22.339 you use the names of your children, especially if they're still living at home 249 00:22:22.779 --> 00:22:26.019 with you. Think of my own son, Ethan. Ethan, it's time 250 00:22:26.059 --> 00:22:30.009 to get up, Ethan, come to the table for breakfast, Ethan. 251 00:22:30.569 --> 00:22:33.849 It's time to start school, Ethan. What do you want to do this 252 00:22:33.049 --> 00:22:37.170 afternoon? Ethan? I love you, Ethan. It's time for bed. 253 00:22:37.210 --> 00:22:41.089 Again and again we use those names, and that's what God is doing for 254 00:22:41.329 --> 00:22:45.079 Israel here, not just for Josea and Gomer, but any that they come 255 00:22:45.160 --> 00:22:49.480 in contact with. They would hear these names again and again. You are 256 00:22:49.799 --> 00:22:59.509 not my people. Got US saying it's time for a divorce. Do you 257 00:22:59.549 --> 00:23:03.069 remember, all the way back in the book of Exodus, where God had 258 00:23:03.309 --> 00:23:08.309 come and was speaking to Moses about the deliverance that he was bringing for his 259 00:23:08.509 --> 00:23:14.420 people, and he says they're in exodus, chapter six, six and seven. 260 00:23:14.460 --> 00:23:17.259 Say, therefore, to the people of Israel, I am the Lord 261 00:23:17.339 --> 00:23:19.259 and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians and I 262 00:23:19.299 --> 00:23:23.700 will deliver you from slavery to them and I will redeem you with an outstretched 263 00:23:23.740 --> 00:23:27.609 arm and with great acts of judgment, I will take you to be my 264 00:23:27.849 --> 00:23:32.289 people and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am 265 00:23:32.410 --> 00:23:34.250 the Lord, your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens 266 00:23:34.690 --> 00:23:40.809 of the Egyptians. God brought them into his family. He said you're my 267 00:23:40.970 --> 00:23:45.440 people. But now in Joseah there's a great reversal, isn't there? It's 268 00:23:45.480 --> 00:23:51.359 a reversal of those great promises of exodus, of hope. Now God's wrath. 269 00:23:51.440 --> 00:23:55.359 He's saying, I'm giving you a certificate of divorce, sending you away 270 00:23:55.829 --> 00:24:03.990 away from me. You are not my people. They are children of Wrath, 271 00:24:03.509 --> 00:24:08.269 aren't they? Maybe those words are familiar to you of Paul and the 272 00:24:08.349 --> 00:24:14.140 New Testament and Ephesians chapter two, where he says that we are by nature 273 00:24:14.180 --> 00:24:21.460 children of Wrath, like Jesun, like no mercy, like not my people. 274 00:24:22.140 --> 00:24:26.289 And so we need a save of year, we need a savior, 275 00:24:26.369 --> 00:24:32.609 the Lord Jesus Christ, and that's where even Josiah is pointing, because we 276 00:24:32.730 --> 00:24:37.569 need to be brought back into God's family, we need to be married to 277 00:24:37.609 --> 00:24:41.319 him again, and that comes only through Jesus. And so we come then, 278 00:24:41.400 --> 00:24:44.960 in verse ten, to the Great Notes of hope in this chapter. 279 00:24:45.440 --> 00:24:49.039 You see, there's lots of Wrath, lots of sin, God's judgment on 280 00:24:49.200 --> 00:24:56.109 sin and it's very clear. But God is always ready to show mercy to 281 00:24:56.190 --> 00:24:59.230 those who would repent. And so he says in verse ten. Yet the 282 00:24:59.309 --> 00:25:02.390 number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, 283 00:25:02.950 --> 00:25:07.059 which cannot be measured or numbered. To see the hope, first you have 284 00:25:07.180 --> 00:25:12.140 to go back. You have to go way back in history to Abraham, 285 00:25:12.220 --> 00:25:19.539 and you remember the covenant that God made with Abraham. He says, I 286 00:25:19.579 --> 00:25:23.089 will bless you and make you a blessing, I will make you into a 287 00:25:23.170 --> 00:25:29.369 great nation. And that time when God took Abraham out of his tent at 288 00:25:29.410 --> 00:25:33.410 night and Sayd Abraham, look at the night sky, and as many as 289 00:25:33.890 --> 00:25:37.880 the stars in the sky, so shall your offspring be as many as the 290 00:25:37.079 --> 00:25:42.799 sand, the grains of sand on the seashore. Those are the descendants I'm 291 00:25:42.839 --> 00:25:48.880 going to give you. And how is God going to do that? Well, 292 00:25:48.920 --> 00:25:56.390 the other thinging that Genesis reminds us of is that Abraham believed God and 293 00:25:56.589 --> 00:26:03.829 it was credited to him as righteousness. It was by faith, because Abraham 294 00:26:03.950 --> 00:26:07.980 didn't even have a son. He was a hundred years old, almost his 295 00:26:08.180 --> 00:26:12.380 wife old as well, beyond child bearing years. There was no hope for 296 00:26:12.539 --> 00:26:18.890 them. And yet by faith, Abraham believed. And so it was for 297 00:26:18.009 --> 00:26:22.049 the people of Israel in the time of Josiah. By faith they had to 298 00:26:22.170 --> 00:26:26.490 believe that God was going to send the child of the promise who would deliver 299 00:26:26.730 --> 00:26:33.200 them, even when it seemed like there was no hope. And it's the 300 00:26:33.279 --> 00:26:37.720 same hope for you and I in Jesus Christ. It's through faith in Christ 301 00:26:38.519 --> 00:26:45.480 that we believe and are shown that mercy. Yet the number of the children 302 00:26:45.519 --> 00:26:48.470 of Israel will be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured 303 00:26:48.509 --> 00:26:52.670 or numbered. They were going to be destroyed and scattered. Even Judah is 304 00:26:52.750 --> 00:26:57.910 going to be taken away and only a small remnant would eventually return after the 305 00:26:59.069 --> 00:27:04.059 exile. And so they still looked. They had to keep on looking for 306 00:27:04.180 --> 00:27:11.859 the promise. But God describes the greatness of His mercy by showing it to 307 00:27:11.900 --> 00:27:15.849 them again and again here in these verses. Not just that they would increase 308 00:27:15.930 --> 00:27:19.049 and be a great people, but he says, in the place where it 309 00:27:19.170 --> 00:27:22.970 was said to them, you are not my people, it shall be said 310 00:27:22.009 --> 00:27:26.769 to them children of the Living God. He was going to bring them back, 311 00:27:27.289 --> 00:27:33.960 just as we are adopted by faith into the family of God, justified 312 00:27:33.119 --> 00:27:37.799 and adopted. So he says, I'm going to bring you back. You 313 00:27:37.839 --> 00:27:42.640 can be called now the children of the Living God. We see that promise 314 00:27:42.759 --> 00:27:48.430 as Paul describes it in Romans Chapter Nine, and he uses these very words 315 00:27:48.549 --> 00:27:56.349 of Hoseiah to describe both the vessels of wrath but also the vessels of mercy. 316 00:27:56.430 --> 00:28:00.500 He says in Romans Chapter Nine, beginning in verse twenty two. What 317 00:28:00.579 --> 00:28:03.740 if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known as power, 318 00:28:03.779 --> 00:28:08.259 has endured with much patience, vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order 319 00:28:08.460 --> 00:28:12.809 to make known the riches of his glory, for vessels of mercy which he 320 00:28:12.890 --> 00:28:18.289 has prepared beforehand, for glory even us, whom he is called, not 321 00:28:18.490 --> 00:28:22.329 from the Jews only, but also from the gentiles, as indeed he says 322 00:28:22.369 --> 00:28:25.930 in Josiah, those who were not my people, I will call my people, 323 00:28:26.410 --> 00:28:29.920 and her who is not beloved, I will call beloved, and in 324 00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:33.039 the very place where it was said to them, you are not my people, 325 00:28:33.720 --> 00:28:37.480 there they will be called sons of the Living God. And you see 326 00:28:37.519 --> 00:28:44.509 it is by faith in Christ that God brings us into his kingdom's vessels of 327 00:28:44.829 --> 00:28:49.390 mercy, the mercy of God, shown his great mercy, and so he 328 00:28:49.470 --> 00:28:52.829 says, I'll take you back. The children of Judah and the children of 329 00:28:52.950 --> 00:29:00.019 Israel shall be gathered together and they shall appoint for themselves one head, one 330 00:29:00.180 --> 00:29:07.299 head. It's a image again of that marriage of the husband as the head 331 00:29:07.819 --> 00:29:11.369 of the wife, and that should remind us once again that even here in 332 00:29:11.450 --> 00:29:17.690 the Old Testament, Hooseiah, we see Jesus Right, the one head, 333 00:29:17.769 --> 00:29:22.529 not just the king, not just David, the descendant of David, the 334 00:29:22.609 --> 00:29:29.680 Lord, Jesus Christ, but as Paul speaks in Ephesians chapter five. He 335 00:29:29.839 --> 00:29:33.680 speaks there about marriage, the marriage of a husband and a wife, and 336 00:29:33.759 --> 00:29:37.519 he says in Verse Twenty Three, for the husband is the head of the 337 00:29:37.630 --> 00:29:41.869 wife, even as Christ, as the head of the church, his body 338 00:29:42.029 --> 00:29:49.190 and is himself it's savior. You see that marriage of Josiah and Gomer, 339 00:29:51.630 --> 00:29:56.660 your marriage as husbands and wives. Yes, there is a sense of authority 340 00:29:56.779 --> 00:30:02.700 and submissiveness there, but it points to something even greater and more wonderful, 341 00:30:02.779 --> 00:30:07.650 that it is Jesus Christ who is the head of the church. WHO SAVES 342 00:30:07.690 --> 00:30:11.849 HIS CHURCH? How does he do it? He does it by dying, 343 00:30:11.210 --> 00:30:18.930 he does it by giving himself, by sacrificing himself. And so Jesus is 344 00:30:18.250 --> 00:30:25.480 the head of the Church and he says the people of God will give themselves 345 00:30:26.359 --> 00:30:30.519 to that one head, the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, there's wrath, 346 00:30:32.559 --> 00:30:37.789 the anger of God at Sin, justly so, against Gomer, against the 347 00:30:37.910 --> 00:30:41.869 people of Israel, against you and I as sinners. But His mercy, 348 00:30:42.509 --> 00:30:47.950 his mercies are new every morning. That's what the hymn says. And then 349 00:30:47.950 --> 00:30:51.779 Joseah finishes with this statement. For they shall go up from the land, 350 00:30:52.380 --> 00:30:56.460 for great shall be the day of Jezreel. One of the great things about 351 00:30:56.740 --> 00:31:00.819 that name, Jezreel, is that it kind of points both directions. Yes, 352 00:31:00.900 --> 00:31:07.009 it can mean scatter in terms of destroying, like dust scattered on the 353 00:31:07.089 --> 00:31:14.369 winds, but it can also mean scatter in terms of sewing. Haiti is 354 00:31:14.410 --> 00:31:18.680 a land of rocks and one of the things you see in the springtime is 355 00:31:18.720 --> 00:31:22.599 that the men go out into the fields and you'll see groups of men working 356 00:31:22.720 --> 00:31:26.759 together with their hose and they're howing the fields, are getting the rocks out 357 00:31:27.400 --> 00:31:32.240 because, as you look at a piece of soil, you'll see more rocks 358 00:31:32.519 --> 00:31:36.910 than soil. They go and they'll make the pile of rocks, but there's 359 00:31:36.910 --> 00:31:40.869 still lots of rocks there. And then they go and they scatter that see, 360 00:31:40.990 --> 00:31:45.789 they put it in place, hoping that there's going to be a harvest, 361 00:31:45.910 --> 00:31:51.380 hoping that those plants will come up even in the midst of those rocks. 362 00:31:52.900 --> 00:31:59.019 And isn't that what God does? Jesus reminds us in the New Testament 363 00:31:59.099 --> 00:32:02.490 that, whatever it might look to us out there in terms of people being 364 00:32:02.809 --> 00:32:07.809 receptive to the Gospel but being willing to believe that, he says the fields 365 00:32:07.849 --> 00:32:15.720 are white for harvest, he has scattered his seeds. He's also prepared the 366 00:32:15.880 --> 00:32:22.119 soil that even if the soil looks rocky and rough to us, God can 367 00:32:22.279 --> 00:32:25.119 bring good out of that. They shall go up from the land, for 368 00:32:25.359 --> 00:32:31.190 great shall be the day of Jezreel. And so we go. We go 369 00:32:31.430 --> 00:32:36.309 as missionaries to a place like Haiti, but you go out every day to 370 00:32:36.390 --> 00:32:42.069 your school and workplace and neighborhood. You bring people here to church with you 371 00:32:42.190 --> 00:32:47.500 that they might hear these words that, yes, God pours out his wrath 372 00:32:47.740 --> 00:32:53.380 on sinners and eternal punishment, but he calls us, in mercy, to 373 00:32:53.539 --> 00:33:00.210 believe in Jesus, and that's the God that we serve. Let's pray