Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20080302.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Hosea: God's BALANCE Of Judging And Blessing His People
Part XIV: God's Use Of Strong Discipline To Correct His Stubbornly Sinful People
(Hosea 11:1-11)
  1. Introduction
    1. God much prefers to bless rather than to punish His people, a truth evident in Hosea 11:8 et al.
    2. However, those wayward folk the Lord loves, He disciplines (Hebrews 12:6), and the more stubborn are His people in their waywardness , the more SEVERE is His discipline to lead them to repent!
    3. This truth is evident in God's revelation regarding stubbornly wayward Israel in Hosea 11:1-11 as follows:
  2. God's Use Of Strong Discipline To Correct His Stubbornly Sinful People, Hosea 11:1-11.
    1. The Lord recalled how lovingly and gently He had once been able to relate to Israel when He first led the nation out of Egyptian bondage, and when Israel was like a little child to Him, Hosea 11:1, 3a, 4:
      1. When Israel was like a child to God, He loved him, and called him out of Egypt, Hosea 11:1. [This verse was later also fulfilled in God's calling His Son, Jesus, out of Egypt in Matthew 2:15.]
      2. God reported He had been like an earthly father to Ephraem, that He had taken him by his arms as a toddler to support him as he struggled to keep his balance and learn to walk, Hosea 11:3a.
      3. Indeed, God was like a master who gently leads his beast with its halter and rope, and even removes its yoke so that it might eat with ease the food He provides, Hos. 11:4; Bible Know. Com., O. T. , p. 1402.
    2. However, this gentle, nurturing divine activity to bless Israel was spurned by Israel: the more God sought gently to reach out to the nation, the more the nation turned away from Him after false gods, Hosea 11:2.
    3. Israel's relentless waywardness arose out of a failure to realize that it was God Who had healed the nation of the pain and suffering of His repeat judgments throughout Israel's history, Hosea 11:3b; Ibid.
    4. Indeed, Israel was stubbornly bent on turning away from the Lord, for even if the people called on Him, they were so hypocritical and uncommitted to the Lord, He would no longer hear them, Hosea 11:7:
      1. Hosea 11:7 is very difficult to translate from the Hebrew text (Ibid.), but the best translation may be: "My people persists in its apostasy from Me, and even if they call to Him (God) on high, He shall not lift them up," cf. A. R. Hulst, Old Testament Translation Problems, 1960, p. 235.
      2. Thus, in accord with Hosea 11: 2, Israel is seen in verse 7 as being stubbornly rebellious against God!
    5. Consequently, His judgment would fall with severity as described in Hosea 11:5-6 (as follows):
      1. The NIV at Hosea 11:5 raises a rhetorical question, asking if God will not have Israel return to Egypt and Assyria where Assyria's king will be Israel's king as judgment for refusing to return to the Lord.
      2. The sword would thus rage against Israel's cities and their rebellious "braggarts" who had made plans independently of trusting the Lord for security, Hosea 11:6; Ibid., Bible Know. Com., O. T. ("bars of their gates" (ESV, NIV) or "branches" (KJV) is better rendered "braggarts".
    6. In the midst of considering such strong expressions of His wrath against His beloved people, the Lord is described in Hosea 11:8 as expressing how greatly His heart was in turmoil because of the ferocity of His judgment against His own dear people! He wondered how He could make Israel like the cities of Admah and Zeboiim, towns in the Dead Sea area that had been destroyed in God's wrathful destruction of nearby Sodom and Gomorrah back in Abraham's time, Hosea 11:8b with Deuteronomy 29:23!
    7. Accordingly, God concluded He would not annihilate Israel as He had Admah and Zeboiim: He was God, not man, so He would restrain His wrath's expression so as not to annihilate His own people, Hosea 11:9.
    8. After judgment, God's people would follow Him in great contrast to their current stubborn preoccupation with false gods (contrast Hosea 11:10a with 11:2): because of this severe but non-annihilating judgment, God would one day roar like a fearsome lion for His people to heed Him, and, out of deep reverence, they would come trembling from the west, quickly like birds from Egypt, and timidly like doves from Assyria so that He could restore them to their homes back in the land of Israel, Hosea 11:10-11; Ibid., p. 1403!
Lesson: Due to His great love for Israel, since she had obstinately refused His repeat gentle urgings to heed Him, God would intensify His discipline of her until she would very reverently, quickly heed Him!

Application: May we NOT STUBBORNLY RESIST the Lord, but HEED Him as He directs us so that He might NOT have to take GREAT, PAINFUL measures to cause us to follow Him!