Hosea 10 This is Cross Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Isaiah.
about Cross Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. Now here's Pastor Rick in the book of Isaiah chapter 32 with today's edition of Cross Reference Radio. Hosea 10 Who are these people?
I just told you about them. They don't care about the little people. They're going to do what keeps them in power. Verse 7 Also the schemes of the schemer are evil.
He devises wicked plans to destroy the poor with lying words even when the needy speaks justice. So today it's the middle class that's the problem to the power forces. Get rid of the middle class.
Just have an upper and a lower and they'll be very happy with that. You know you can look at the corn laws in England 200 years ago or so. How the people couldn't get corn because they wouldn't let them import it.
Because the people have just the craziness for money. Never mind the suffering that was taking place and the good men that fought those diabolical laws. Isaiah is saying that in his day there were people with their schemes, their opportunistic plans.
The current conditions he's back to now. He's talking about, he's saying in the millennial age we're not going to have this stuff. This kind of stuff will stop. Corrupt people will not get away with their corruption. They'll be intercepted early on and their wickedness dealt with.
Crime will not be worth it in the millennial age. Now human nature is such of course if it is allowed to get away with wrong it just gets stronger. It's like the Borg.
It just gobbles up more and gets stronger. So look at the guy on the Asian airline last week I think it was. He opens the door in flight. They were coming down. They were making the approach to landing so that he could pull this off.
No pun intended. And he opens the door and he says well I was uncomfortable. You see in life he didn't get the beating he needed at the right time. And it just kept getting dumber and dumber. Well wicked people get more wicked and more wicked because someone didn't check them. And Isaiah said you know I'm fed up with this kind of stuff too. And if you don't hold them accountable you're going to have evil and thus the world. Well in the millennial age we're going to rule with a rod of iron. It's not going to happen. When someone's at the workplace and they decide they're going to steal something and you better not tell. Well those days will be gone.
You will tell and they will be dealt with. Anyway verse 8. But a generous man devises generous things and by generosity he shall stand.
And so here's the contrast. Isaiah always the pastors trying to always keep everything in perspective is not an easy thing to do because there's so many moving parts to life. But here he just you know reminds his congregation that there are righteous people and they are not the same in the same category. Verse 9. Rise up you women who are at ease. Hear my voice you complacent daughters give ear to my speech. So he does not bypass the socialites of Judah.
He pulls them out too. Because their carelessness and their complacency spiritually speaking was a problem. It took a lot to support them as they went about their parties and dressy talked about this in earlier chapters I don't know I think it was chapter 5 or maybe 3 or the mincing as they walk and jingling around and just these very we have them today of course. They're everywhere on social media but they had a lot of power because these were women who were married to men who were in power and there certainly is an influence there. They were behind the scenes and the men they loved having those who would cheer them on in their iniquity that evil influence. No woman should think that she is insignificant maybe to the wicked but she has a role just like every like just like the men is what you do with it. Of course today femininity is looked down upon the women want to be one of the guys and the drugs are helping them do that. And so we we have some very large problems now we have the rot the social rot where you have women using profanity like old time sailors.
And it's just it's not it's not good for society well I'll come back to some of some of this anyway. He's rebuking the wives and the corrupt princes at the same time Amos who is dealing in the north he was the north is gone at the time Isaiah is writing these things more than likely. Amos had earlier written hear this word you cows of Bashan.
That's politically correct today. Imagine going on The View and saying listen to me you cows of The View who are on the mountain of Samaria. He's calling them animals like animals you're not even you know there's nothing nice about you who oppress the poor. There it is who crushed the needy who say to your husbands bring wine let us drink. You see it is connection is a connection there between the rotten male princes and or politicians of the day of Isaiah and the women behind them. Of course I'm sure there was an exception here and there.
There always is in a good sense in this way but they were the minority. And this is why God was rebuking the government so sternly in earlier chapters for going off to Egypt because that's where their heart was well their heart was not with God. And so here are these these women are at the top of the food chain and the men their wives benefited from the evil that they doled out.
It's like being the wife of a mob boss. Amos 6 again woe to you who are at ease in Zion. Now Amos is a prophet to the north but he turns his attention to the southern kingdom when he mentioned Zion. And so he's saying and trust in Mount Samaria notable persons in the chief nation to whom the house of Israel comes. And so he's saying you know you government people are just rotten male and females alike. And that's these are the complacent women that he is addressing. He's going to tease telling them your complacency and your self-confidence is going to go away as a Syria gets closer and closer. And you put false hope in these false prophets the ones that have told the prophets to stop preaching.
We don't want to hear this don't rebuke us tell us nice things. They were more concerned with the ease of life than the loss of Israel's spirituality. And so Peter when he comes along of course Peter's just a pastor moving around preaching wherever he goes. And he's coming into Gentile society where the culture was drastically different from his beloved Jewish society and in many ways. And so he says and even the Jewish women he had to be in check. Do not let your adornment be merely outward arranging the hair wearing gold and putting on fine apparel.
That's all he has to say to get the women to say let me think about this a little bit. That I do not have the right to just do whatever I want because I can afford to. I need to think about you know how is this going to impact my surrounding. It changes from place to place. You know you go you go to I don't know about now but years ago Calvary Chapel in Lahana on Maui. They met just a few feet from the beach and people would be in church and after church they were going to surf. So they would be in church in swimming suits or you know pretty much. Well that was not inappropriate but you couldn't do that in Manhattan.
You could show up you know like on a t-shirt you know it's like what are you doing. Get out of here. Anyway why is the serpents harmless as doves as doves. One of the prolific causes of Judah's disaster was the degradation of womanhood which always weakens men. Because the men have allowed it and you can't point the finger at the both guilty is where I'm going. Women have an ability to restrain evil in men through righteousness. Well two examples Abigail she restrained righteous David from going on you know this bloodletting adventure. And then there was Esther. So yeah don't tell me that to God women are second class because they're not.
They're just equal in value but different in assignment. Not a hundred percent certainly sometimes the wife drives the husband drives. Verse 10 that's the same you got to even qualify all this nowadays. Verse 10 in a year and some days you will be troubled your complacent women for the vintage will fail the gathering will not come. Tremble you women who are at ease be troubled you complacent one strip yourselves make yourselves bare.
Gird sackcloth on your waist snap out of it. Interstate trucking is going to stop. There's going to be an interruption in the supply chain. Life's going to get very nasty pretty soon when these armies showing up. He's not only talking to the to the elite of Jerusalem. He's talking to the elite of Judah the nation the kingdom is his preachings in print would be circulated. Verse 12 people shall mourn upon their breasts for the pleasant fields for the fruitful vine. Verse 13 on the land of my people will come up thorns and briars yes on all the happy homes in the joyous city. And so he's saying when these Assyrians come they're going to strip the land of it of whatever food it has to offer whatever materials they need. You won't the farmers will not be able to go out and till the land and remove the briars because the Assyrian armies can just take over invade the land. And it did happen like that even though they they did not get to Jerusalem. And so the first evidence of the judgment that would come would be the harvest. When the army show up they would they would begin to strip down the supply chain.
You go to the market looking for those nice grapes and pomegranates and there'd be nothing there. The Assyrians would be eating them and before long you wouldn't be prancing around as a socialite because of how you treated God. So anyway verse 14 because the palaces will be forsaken the bustling city will be deserted. The forts and the towers will become lairs forever a joy of wild donkeys a pasture of flocks. And he's talking again about Judah not Jerusalem because Jerusalem survives. But the many of the others did not. Second Kings 18 and in the 14th year of king Hezekiah Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them.
I think it was like 48 of them of the bigger cities not to mention all the little villages. I mean you got troops this many troops coming in. They're going to get the eat and they're going to take from the people in the land. Some of you know your Civil War history you know what Sherman did in his march to the sea. He just looted the land to support his army.
Companies assigned to go out and get food and the southerners would be hiding their food and their valuables and they knew how to find it after a while they figured it out. What a terrible terrible way to live for both sides. Anyway he says forever here. Well that Hebrew word really does not have the same force as our word forever. Our word forever means without end. But this Hebrew word is better understood as long term.
And here's this we got to know this about the Bible this nice thing. Jeremiah uses the identical word when he says stand in the ways and see and ask for the old paths. It's the same Hebrew word for old.
He uses it as old. Well the translators and that's accurate. And so it means that the long time paths it will become just this place for wild donkeys for a very long time. That's the idea. So I think the translators just got that one wrong.
It's a hard job they have no question. So I like little things like that. And there are a lot of them in the Bible and it takes a lot of time to find just one or two of them.
You say how many am I missing? And it doesn't change the strength of the meanings the overall meaning. It does zero in a little bit more closely to what is actually going on. If someone were to come up and say well those cities weren't forever shot. I mean some of them are rebuilt. You say well yeah well Isaiah never said they would be forever.
The translators did. Verse 15 until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field. And the fruitful field is counted as a forest. Then verse 16 justice will dwell in the wilderness and righteousness remain in the fruitful field. Verse 17 the work of righteousness will be peace the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever.
And you know when children go to sleep that's righteous and the effect is quietness. And my mom you know she told me once they had company come over she said would you like to go to a party? I was real small.
Yeah I'd love to go. Whose party is it? It's Lily White's party and I got upstairs and it was Lily White Sheets. She's putting me to bed. I turned around to the people that were gathering the adults and I said so long suckers. Because I thought I was going upstairs to a party and it was the sheets. So anyway mom with a sense of humor.
I'm sure I rocked myself to sleep with I don't like my mommy but because I would do that. Anyhow coming back to this my people will dwell in a peaceful habitation in secure dwellings and in quiet resting places. So the restoration the change is coming justice will stand. The prophets spoke about the outpouring of the Spirit Joel, Zechariah, Ezekiel, Isaiah. This was something that they loved the righteous Jews hearing about the coming indwelling of the Holy Spirit on their nation.
Isaiah had a lot of reason to mope. He had a lot of reason to be a righteous man. You know Solomon says this in the Song of Songs in chapter 2 verse 2.
Like a lily among thorns is my beloved. That's what the Lord says to the church. Whose fault is it that a church is not what it should be? Revelation chapter 2 and 3 tell us it's the church's fault. The church that is aberrant or apostate cannot blame anybody else but themselves.
They cannot say well the news media made me do it the universities the seminaries. You know the it's righteousness is about the people. And Isaiah living in the times that he lived in. He saw the majority of wickedness amongst people who claim to be the people of God. And he never let it drag him. We have no evidence of it dragging him down.
Could you imagine who'd want to hear from him? He goes up to the pulpit moping all. Let's turn to Genesis chapter 1.
We're doomed as doomed can be. In the 17th verse he says the work of righteousness will be peace. Well peace is a fruit of righteousness. Because the turbulence comes from unrighteousness.
Imagine if you didn't have to have locks and keys and weapons and things like that. Verse 19. Though hell comes down from the forest and the city is brought low in humiliation. You know when I when I'm prepping for this many times in these harder chapters of Isaiah.
It's going to change again later. It becomes it is a forced march. It is one foot and step in front of the other and don't faint.
Don't pass out. Just make it to the finish line. It's going to come up to the pulpit and it's like the lights turn on. It all comes to life. It all comes together. And it is probably that way with you if you get to tell your children Bible stories. You know you open up maybe you're not in the mood and you open up and you want to tell them the story of you know Sodom and Gomorrah. Kidding.
Really not your first choice. But it comes to life. And that is the Spirit of God indwelling in us that does that. And that's okay because the flesh is the one that has to be beat down. And it is beat down by being addressed or ignored. You sometimes you have to let it just die from neglect or resist it from neglect or resist it from action. You have to resist it but you're not going to kill it. So when James says resist the devil and he shall flee. What a perfect choice in our English language. Because that's the best we can do to the devil is resist him. We cannot execute him.
One of the many complaints we have about this life. Verse 20. Blessed are you who sow beside all waters, who send out freely the feet of the oxen and the donkey.
So there's going to be just this freedom. Hosea chapter 10. Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap in mercy, break up your follow ground for it is time to seek Yahweh. Till he comes and rains righteousness on you. Now Hosea is a little bit older than Isaiah in the northern kingdom gone.
But that's what we tell our flesh. Sow righteousness, reap mercy, break up the ground that needs to get the seed. When Jesus said some of the seed fell by the wayside, that's the ground that was not follow.
It has to be broken up if that seed is going to get in there. Isaiah 33 now. Now we come back to the Assyrian aggression. Verse 1. Woe to you who plunder though you have not been plundered and you who deal treacherously though they have not dealt treacherously with you. When you cease plundering, you will be plundered. When you make an end of dealing treacherously, they will deal treacherously with you.
Yeah, because their power is going to be zapped. The Babylonians will do that to them. This is the sixth woe given by Isaiah beginning in chapter 28. The first one was to the drunkards, the arrogant drunkards of Ephraim.
Big difference between someone struggling with an addiction versus the arrogant one struggling with an addiction. Then the second woe was to Jerusalem, to Ariel. You were supposed to be the lion, the place where sacrifice to God took place.
But you became something else. Then the woe to those who were making plans without Yahweh for deliverance, God's people. It was okay for Godless people to do it, the idolaters, but those who claimed Yahweh doing it, that's unacceptable. The fourth woe came to Judah's politicians and now we have Sennacherib is going to be judged at this point. And we've got a little bit to say about him because he was treacherous in unbelief. Righteous King Hezekiah tried to buy his way out of the Assyrian army coming.
There were two invasions by the Assyrians about 15 years apart, not exact but they're about. And the first time Isaiah just stripped the temple, just paid, just leave us alone, here's the money. And they made a covenant with Hezekiah. Well, Hezekiah broke the covenant, the agreement, and he invaded Judah anyway in time. He was a thief and a traitor and a tyrant and God is promising to deal with him, to judge him for that.
He destroyed others and so he would be destroyed. God is not mocked. The sinner will reap what they have sown in unrighteousness, they will reap in judgment. The righteous are forgiven.
It's really a fair deal when you think about it, not to God to us, it's not a fair deal, it's a great deal. Anyway, the destroyers will be destroyed for his treachery. King Hezekiah, a good king, made a foolish call and God was so merciful to him and he appreciated that mercy.
He did not, it was not wasted on him. When we get to Isaiah 37, that parenthesis in Isaiah, we read, now it came to pass as he, Sennacherib, the Assyrian king, was worshiping in the house of Nishrach, his god, that his sons struck him down with the sword and they escaped into the land of Ararat and his other son became king. So that's how it's going to go for him. Well, Isaiah is calling it before it happens. He's saying the Assyrian king will be dealt with. I mean, that's fantastic.
Who can do that? Well, someone that's filled with the Spirit of God. Thanks for tuning in to Cross Reference Radio today. Cross Reference Radio is a ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel, mechanicsville in Virginia. If you'd like to learn more about this ministry, we invite you to visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com.
You'll find a number of teachings from Pastor Rick available there. We also encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. When you subscribe, you'll be notified of new editions of Cross Reference Radio. Just search for Cross Reference Radio on your favorite podcast app. You can also follow the links at crossreferenceradio.com. We're glad we were able to spend time with you today. Tune in next time to continue learning from the book of Isaiah with Pastor Rick right here on Cross Reference Radio.
