Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20080113.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Hosea: God's BALANCE Of Judging And Blessing His People
Part VII: God's Persistence To Discipline In View Of Israel's False Repentance
(Hosea 5:15-7:2)
  1. Introduction
    1. God would much rather bless than discipline His people; this is seen from His work to make them fear Him with awesome displays at Mount Sinai that they might not sin and thus be blessed, Exodus 20:18-20.
    2. However, we must not think God's love for us comprises a mild view of our sin, for if we mouth a shallow repentance of our sin, the Lord is so intolerant of it that He will persist to discipline us as follows:
  2. God's Persistence To Discipline In View Of Israel's False Repentance, Hosea 5:15-7:2.
    1. After warning Israel and Judah of impending judgment for their sin in Hosea 5:1-14, we recall from our last lesson that God pictured Himself as a fierce lion who would return to His lair until His people repented in the trials of their judgment, and sought God's favor in returning to Him, Hosea 5:15.
    2. This repentance is voiced in Hosea 6:1-3, and though various commentators view it as Israel's latter day, true repentance, it is a false repentance in view of what Hosea 6:4 asserts (as follows):
      1. The repentance voiced in Hosea 6:1-3 fits the context introduced in Hosea 5:15 where God waited for Israel and Judah to repent when the trials of His judgment had come upon them.
      2. However, at Hosea 6:4, God complained that the loyal love of Israel (represented in its key tribe, Ephraem) and Judah for God was anything but loyal, and thereby unacceptable to Him:
        1. The "goodness" (KJV) of Israel and Judah ("love" NIV, ESV) is from the word, hesed, that means "loyal love", "lovingkindness", Theol. Wbk. of O. T., v. I, p. 307; Bib. Know. Com., O.T. , p. 1393.
        2. Thus, as God in Hosea 6:4 critiqued the loyal love of His people for Him to be as a fleeting morning fog or dew, He implied their Hosea 6:1-3 repentance was just as fleeting, and so not loyal , but vain.
      3. The artificiality of this repentance becomes evident in an examination of Hosea 6:1-3 as follows:
        1. Initially, the people called themselves to return to the Lord from their idols, acknowledging God's gracious capacity to heal what He had torn in judgment, and to bind up what He had injured, 6:1.
        2. However, they asserted His judgment was short-lived, for in a short time He would restore their blessings when they repented, 6:2-3. This shows they felt God was not very opposed to their sin!
      4. Thus, God's critique of His people's loyal love as being NOT very loyal is a critique on the shallow repentance of Hosea 6:1-3 that implies the people held God was not very set against His people's sin in view of the rapidity with which He was thought to want to bless them after His short-lived discipline!
    3. Hence, God clarified His opposition to His people's false repentance of Hosea 6:1-3 in Hosea 6:5-7:2:
      1. God noted His judgments had been severe (Hosea 6:5) as His people failed to see He desired LOYAL love (hesed again, Ibid., p. 1394), not external sacrifices to try to appease what His people considered were temporary outbursts of His anger, and a knowledge of God's heart that deeply hated sin versus their idea that God did not hate it very much, and could be readily appeased with burnt offerings, 6:6!
      2. To explain, God revealed they had transgressed the covenant like treacherous men (6:7) as priests in the levitical city of refuge at Ramoth-Gilead, spiritual leaders who were to guard the innocent, had convicted many innocent folk to be executed, 6:8-9; Ibid.; Zon. Pic. Enc. of the Bible, v. One, p. 869.
      3. Having stated Israel's sin was horrible in Hosea 6:10, God turned to the Southern Kingdom of Judah in Hosea 5:11a to announce a set time of "harvest" in unalterable judgment was coming to it as well!
      4. Then, just when God might want to restore and heal Israel from His initial levels of judgment, the sin of the nation became evident (Hos. 6:11b-7:1), and Israel did not consider that God remembered all of her wickedness, that it surrounded her as a nation, and was conspicuously before His face, Hosea 7:2!
Lesson: Israel and Judah vastly underestimated God's INTOLERANCE of their SIN, so they offered a SHALLOW, FALSE REPENTANCE in a MANIPULATIVE effort to cool God's presumed short-lived anger at them! That only caused God to ENHANCE His FUTURE PUNISHMENT of His people!

Application: Though our God is loving and forgiving, He is TOTALLY INTOLERANT of our SIN, so, WHEN we REPENT, it MUST be a GENUINE repentance where we FULLY TURN AWAY from SIN!