This is the Truth Network. This is the Truth Network. Welcome to the broadcast ministry of Finding Purpose with Russ Andrews, where we seek to glorify God by making Him known and guiding others towards their true purpose in life. No one is here by chance. God put us here for a reason.
And the most important thing we can do is discover His plan for us and commit ourselves to it. Keep listening as we learn from the Bible how to live wisely in God's world, which is the first step towards finding your purpose.
Well take your paths over to the public. Hosea chapter 2. And the title of this, The Journey from Judgment to Restoration. Last week we began our study in Isaiah chapter 1. We looked at verse 1, but we learned that the word of the Lord came to Isaiah.
during the reign of Jeroboam. Jeremy II, son of Jehoash, king of Israel. And the year was around 790 BC. And this was about 180 years after the reign of King Solomon.
So we've got back up to Solomon for a second.
Solomon, who was the son of King David, was the last king of the United Kingdom of Israel. And it was during his reign that Israel preached his singing in terms of territory and wealth and power. God bless them so much. Seven, his life was marked by many marriages, 700 exact, to foreign wives. It was going exactly against God's word.
And so it is deaf. God And God waited till Solomon died in honor of King David. And step God punished Israel by dividing the name the kingdom includes. You got Israel to the north and Judah to the south.
Now, why did God punish Israel?
So it's a girl. Mm-hmm. Because Solomon's disobedience. Led Israel to turn away from God and worship other gods. And here's what happened.
In 1 Kings chapter 9. The Lord appears to Solomon, and he says to him, As for you. Think about your life, okay? If you walk before me in integrity, because this applies to you and me, if you walk with me in integrity, of heart and of mind is stated with other than that. And through all I can learn to observe my decrease and laws.
I will establish your loyal throne over Israel forever. God will establish your life, man. If you do this. All God required of Solomon was faith. All he had to do was trust God, and his obedience would serve as evidence of his faith.
It is thrown with and established forever. But we need to understand that God's word comes with a warning. In 1 Kings chapter 9, verse 5, the Lord warned Solomon, but if you or your sons turn away from me, and do not observe the commands and decrees I have given you, and go off to serve other gods and worship, then I will cut off Israel from the land I've given them. and will reject this temple I've consecrated for my name. Israel will then become a byword and object of ridicule among all peoples.
Solomon will totally disobey God. But what about all the other kings that followed in his footsteps? What was the response of Jeroboam, the first king of the divided kingdom, and to all the kings that followed him, all the way down to King Jeroboam II, really all the way down to Husha? They all disobey the word of God. And they all led the Israelites in rebellion by worshiping other gods and following the evil practices of all the nations that surrounded them: the Ammonites, the Moabites.
The eatablates. And the mosquito bites, that's an old joke. And the Sidonians, who were up in Sidon, which is north of Israel. Do you know who was from Sidon? Jezebel Demerit they have.
She was the wicked witch of the West. Do y'all know anybody with the name of Jezebel? See, all these nations have their own special God that they worship. In 2 Kings 17. Provides a summary of what they did.
The Israelites secretly did things against the Lord their God that were not right. They did wicked things that provoked the Lord to anger. They worshiped idols that the Lord had said, You shall not do this. The Lord warned Israel and Judah through all his prophets. But they would not listen.
You think we're having a problem today? They made for themselves two idols cast in the shape of the calves, and bowed down to all the starry hosts. They even sacrificed their own sons and daughters in the fire in their worship of Baal and Bohan.
So the Lord was not just angry, he was very angry with them. Um and he removed them from his presence. The reason that God sent Hosea really were three reasons. First, Jose was born to warn them a kind of gentleman. There was none.
Second. Hosea wanted to stir their hearts to repentance. That's really what God wanted expressed through Hosea, and He wanted to offer them hope of future restoration.
So, what I want to look at first is how God was actually forced to judge the Israelites. He was put in a position where He had no choice but to judge them. Look at Hosea 2 verses 2 to 13 and listen. We're reading poetry here. And if you're like me and you grew up in a town like Bethel, we didn't care a lot about poetry.
The main thing I want you to notice is how Israel's unfaithfulness broke God's heart and aroused his anger. In these verses, Hosea describes his wife's behavior as she rejected, and this is in real life, this happened to Hosea. She rejected his love, deserted him, and took up with another lover. Hosea represents God. Who's described in these verses as a wounded and angry husband?
And Gobra is the wayward wife, and she represents who? This is So Hosea begins by speaking to his children who were the descendants of Jacob. The Israelites. And he says to them, rebuke your mother, rebuke her, for she's not my wife. And I'm not a robot.
Let her remove the adulterous look from her face and the unfaithfulest from between her breasts. Otherwise, I will strip her as Israel. I will strip Israel native. and make her as bare as on the day she was born. I will make her like a desert.
Turn her into parched land, and slay her with thirst. Why should my love to her children? Because they are the children of adultery. Their mom has been unfaithful and has conceived them in disgrace. She said, I will go after my lovers.
who give me my food and my water, my wool and my linen, my olive oil and my drink. Therefore, Again, this is Hosea speaking, I won't block her path.
Well, it's God. I will block her path with thorn bushes. I will wall her in so that she cannot find her way. She will chase after her lovers but not catch them. She will look for them but not find them.
And then she will say, I won't go back to my husband as at first, but then... I was better off than now.
So Hosea speaks of Israel as an unfaithful wife. who has committed adultery by, again, Israel, by rejecting God and worshiping other lovers. And these other lovers were the false gods like Baal and Molech. Do we do the same thing? When we turn away from God and worship the things of this world, Punch.
God at some point has no choice but to get our attention. Israel was going to face the consequences of her sin, which had been exposed to God Himself. See, God says every angel should do that. Everything that you watch. Everything that comes out of your mouth, everything that you think in your mind, we can't hide anything from him.
You know that right? Hebrews 4.13 says, Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything that's been uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give an account. Because one day we will stand before God. God was going to have to strip Israel down and make her like a desert.
In other words, Israel was going to eventually realize that her sin They left her empty and thirsty. for the God she had desired. This is the way God works. In His pursuit of us, He often has to let us come to the end of ourselves.
so that we can see how great we leave they are. We have to get to the point where we realize that nothing in this world will ever satisfy our real inner thirst for God. God has made us for Himself, and man's heart is restless until it rests in Him. I'd love to see God. X is empty.
We have to get to the same place many times as the prodigal son. Remember him in 1515? He asked for his inheritance from his father, and then he took off with his wealth to a far country where he squandered it all away while living. You ever done that before? Until he came to the end of his senses when he had nothing, when he was just eating the food at the pigs have, and he remembered his father's love.
And he remembered the walk of his home. And he said, I'm going to set off and go back to my father. Because I'll be like one that hired help. What is it? The father did when he saw him.
A distance, which told you he was looking every day to see if his son was coming back. When he saw him on the horizon and he recognized him, he ran. And he grabbed hold of him and he lifted him up and he bare him up. And his son was trying to confess to him, and he said, Don't worry about that. And he took him back home and he put a coat of many colours on him and he had the servants took a pig.
And they celebrate it. See, that's what God wants for you and me. And that's what he wanted for Israel. And that still remains to Israel today. Is there back in their land?
This is a picture of repentance. And this is what God, his judgment is designed to bring us to a place of repentance. But look at verse 8. She, that is, Israel, has not acknowledged, this is what God is saying, has not acknowledged that I was the one who gave her the grain, the new wine, and the oil. who lavished on her the silver and the gold.
which they used for paying. They were taking the blessings from God. In offering to Baal and Molech, as if Baal and Molech were providing them with fertile crops. All the rest. In other words, the Israelites did not thank God and they did not worship Him for all of His blessings.
Remember. This is the God who set them free from bondage in Egypt and then led them through the Red Sea on dry ground. And then he gave them manna and water from heaven. water from rocks and manner from heaven, but forty years in the desert. And then he defeated their enemies in Canaan and gave them the promised land.
He gave Israel great power and wealth under both King David and then King Solomon. And even in the midst of their sin during all those kings you're reading about. He sent prophets like Elijah and Elisha to warn them. But they would not listen. They rejected God.
In fact, they got to the point where they did not even acknowledge His name.
Now before we point fingers at the Israelites, How about us? Do we thank God daily for his blessings? When you sit down with a group of men around a business table, You want to bow your head and thank God before them. Do we acknowledge it? God, to our family members who are lost.
Are we going to acknowledge the name of Jesus to our friends? When is the last time? Let me ask you. And listen, I got looking very But when is the last time we actually went up to a friend? and told them that we have Place our trust in Jesus Christ.
And he's what we have hope. in his following world. When's the last time you did that? In Matthew 10, 32 and 33, Jesus says, who have acknowledged legal fallen men. I will also acknowledge him before my Father in heaven one day.
Don't you want to step into heaven one day, the Lord says. He's one of mine. He acknowledged me. But whoever disappoints me before then I will dishonor him before my Father in heaven. When we or our nation continue in sin without acknowledging God and without genuine repentance.
God has no choice but to do what? Judgment seed. And with this said, we need to understand the purpose of this judgment, God, is always to lead us towards repentance. 1 Peter 3, 9 says, The Lord is patient with you. Is he been patient with you?
His patience with me is ridiculous. The Sunnies put up with me. And I became a Christian when I was 10. If you saw some of the things I've done and Excuse me, Rush, what the heck are you doing up here? But the Lord is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to what?
Repentance. This is why John the Baptist and Jesus began their ministry preaching a message of repentance. When is the last time you heard that on Sunday morning at church? You need to repent, people. I mean, have you ever heard that?
Lives. That's what Jesus started out with. That's what John Magdalene started out with. By the time of Hosea, Israel was in desperate need of discipline and punishment. And what she needed was a way of God.
That's what God was going to give her. Look at verse 9. Therefore, I will take away my grain when it ripens, and my new wine when it is ready. I will take back my wool and my linen, and to cover her naked body.
So now I will expose her lewdness before the eyes of her lovers. No one would take her out of my hands. I will stop all her celebrations, her yearly festivals, her new moons, her Sabbath days, all her appointed festivals. Look at verse 3. I will punish her for the days she burned incense to the bales.
She decked herself with rings and jewelry and went after her lovers. But Maybe. She forgot. They crashed the war. Even Israel's sole legion displeased God.
Why? because it was not true worship. They weren't worshiping the one true God. They were worshiping idols made of wood and clay that did not even exist. I'm gonna go take thank you.
But aren't we the same way? Even in Jesus' day, the religious Jews failed to worship The one true God. who just happened to be standing right in front of them. They did not recognize the time of his appearing. In Isaiah 29, 13, the Lord says, These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.
Their worship of me is made up only of roofs. Told them, man. If there was enough averse for the church in America, that is it. What do you think God would say about our worship? of him today in church all across America.
Here's the question. Are we really worshiping on Sunday mornings in spirit and in truth? Always. You see, worship in spirit. You gotta be born again.
The minister has to be born again. You think they're all born again in the pulpit? Do you know how God brought the celebrations? In Israel, the yearly festivals and the seven days to an end in Israel, you ain't brought them to an end. In 722 BC, the Assyrian army marched in and destroyed Israel and caught the Israelites back to Assyria and all the four high hills, all the high places, all where all the altars were.
They were all of a sudden, all of Israel, empty. and deathly quiet. Have you noticed how many churches have become empty in America, particularly during COVID? During the list, I did a paper on this, my dissertation in seminary.
Now look at all the mainline denominations which will go nameless. Do you figure out which ones they are? Since the 1950s, the mainline denominations in America have lost easily. More than 50% of their members. And thousands, I'm talking about tens of thousands of churches are closing their doors.
In America it does. All of a sudden they were deathly silent. And I would say that is a good thing. Seriously. I've told people, I love you, say when we watch cartoons that go to some of these churches, because you're just wasting your time.
You see, the main problem in Israel was they forgot God.
Now, we're not doing the same thing here in America. See, the problem with our nation is not just that we don't acknowledge God, but we no longer fear God. That's the problem. Romans 3:18 says, There is no fear of God before their eyes. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, he said that though the mills of God grind slowly, yet the crowd exceedingly small.
Though with patience he stands waiting, Yet with exactness groans he ail. Think about the Morse woman. In 722 BC, the mills of God's justice finally reached Israel. History reveals that God used the Assyrians to punish the Israelites. As I said, they attacked and destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel, and those ten tribes were cut off to Assyria.
Well, over the course of time, their identity was just absorbed into the culture. You heard from them no more. They kind of appeared later in the Samaritans. In 586 BC, a similar judgment came upon the southern kingdom of Judah. This time, God used the Babylonians.
as a tool of punishment, under King Nebuchadnezzar. The Babylonian army destroyed Judah and carried those Israelites back to Babylon where they were enslaved for how many years?
So here's the question I want to talk about. the balance of him like was God finished with Israel at that time no Is he finished with you and me? Is he finished with America? The underlying subtle theme that runs through the book of Isaiah is the relentless love of God. It's unbelievable if you think about it.
God never stopped loving Israel in spite of their unfaithfulness. And he has not stopped loving America in spite of our unfaithfulness. Thank goodness.
So here's the second thing I want to talk about. Even in judgment, God's desire was to bring Israel to a place of repentance.
So look at verses 14 through 23. Therefore, I am now going to allure her. Guys, here's where we start to see the mercy of her eye. I want to allure her. I will lead her into the wilderness and speak.
tenderly to her words of comfort. There I will hear for black her fingers, and will make the valley of Acor a door of hope. There she will respond as in the days of her youth, as in the days she came up out of Egypt. In that day, declares the Lord, in that day. You will call me.
My husband. You will no longer call me my master. I will remove the names of the veils from her lips. No longer will their names be invoked. In that day, I will make a covenant for them.
I will betroth you to me forever. I betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion. I will trade you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the Lord. I will plat her for myself in the land. I will show my love to the one I call not my loved one.
I will say to those called not my people, you are my people. And they will say, You are my people. But God. From about 650 APC Until the birth of Christ. God was pretty much solid.
Oh jeez. They began to hear the voice of God once again when Jesus appeared on the scene, who was their long-awaited Messiah. Sadly. As you all know, the vast majority of the Jews reject against.
However, in histophoria, some believed Joseph of Erwith Leila. What's one? And Nicodemus and other Pharisees actually believed, and other Jews believed. And they became part of the early church. They were the natural branches.
They were grafted back into the olive tree, as Paul explains in Romans 11. If you have that study, in 70 AD. Mm. God chose the Israelites again. Because they had rejected him in their unbelief.
Roman soldiers led by General Titus marched into Jerusalem to squash a Jewish rebellion. That's in your notes this week. And they massacred thousands of Jews. I mean, they crucified like 10,000. lined up the streets getting out of Jerusalem on crosses.
They destroyed Jerusalem. They tore down the temple so that not one stone was left standing upon another. Just as Jesus had prophesied in Matthew chapter 24. I was suddenly there for almost 1900 years. The choose were without a hole lamp.
They were without a cane or prince. But then on May 14th, 1948, a miracle occurred. From Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, proclaimed the establishment of the nation of Israel at a ceremony in Tel Aviv. It was 4 o'clock in the afternoon because he wanted to do it before Sunday. It fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah 66:8, which says, Can a country be born in a day?
What's the answer? Yes, one was. Named Israel. Immediately. Israel was attacked by five Arab nations: Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Egypt.
With only about 10,000 rifles and a tank or two that they stole from the British. and some artillery. They destroyed five armies. You'll arm to the teeth. How do they do that?
The same way they defeated the Canaanites, God did it. All you have to do is read about the wars that are taking place in Israel and you can see the hand of God. From nineteen forty-eight. Yeah. Until now.
Millions of Jews have returned to their homeland. Why? It may not be because of the covenant of promises. That's a big debate about whether the church, I don't want to get into all that. I'll tell you why they're there.
because of the sovereignty and providential will of God. That's what they're there. Yeah. For the past 76 years, they have turned a desert into lush green pastures full of herds of sheep and goats. Beautiful olive trees and vineyards.
Just as Hosea prophesied in what we just read, I will lead her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her. There I will give her back her vineyards, and I will make the valley of Achor a door of hope.
So what's going to happen now that you pick up and look at the news? Let's see what's happening. What does God have in store for Israel? I believe I was there when that's the answer. Look at chapter 3.
The Lord said to me, Go show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites. They turn to other gods and want the sacred raisin cakes.
So I bought her fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a Lactic, whatever that is, of balling. Then I told her. If you were to live with me many days, you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will be with you. Here's where it gets interesting. For the Israelites lived many days without king or prince, without a sacrifice of sacred stones, without or household gods.
Afterward, verse 5, the Israelites will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the Lord and to his blessings. in the last studies. We did a last day's beginning. When Jesus rose again from the dead and ascended to the Father.
Exactly right. When Jesus ascended into heaven, that began the last days. We've been the last days for the last 2,000 years. I guess you didn't know that. God is not finished with Israel.
His love endures forever. And his love will bring Idr to replace her repentance. reconciliation. Long ago, Jeremiah prophesied a coming new covenant. In Jeremiah chapter 31 verses 31 through 34 he prophesies, the time is coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.
This is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after that time, declares the Lord. I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. Because they will all know me. from the least of them to the greatest.
declares the Lord. for I will forgive their wickedness. and will remember your sins. No more. Thank you to Sam.
That's the same thing he can do for you and me. By the way, that new covenant was inaugurated. when Jesus shed his blood on the cross, was buried, and three days later rose from the dead. And at Pentecost. This new covenant was consummated with the coming of the Holy Spirit to live in the hearts of men.
Just as Hosea had to go back and buy his wife from who lover, so God had to buy us back. He did not buy us back, by the way, with gold or silver, but with what? The precious blood of Christ. Christ, a Lamb without blemish or defect. The only hopefully in the world Today It's the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Not what no one. Not Jewish in town. Can become a god. Except for your son. John 14, 6, Jesus says, I am the way and the truth and the life.
No one comes to their father. Except through me. You have a nice honey leave that part out. I said that the most important part of John 14, 1 through 6. To take a dish roll.
The vast majority of Jews are still blind to the gospel.
However, as you didn't know this, The gospel is slowly making headway. among Jews around the world and even in Israel.
So metrics like Chosen people ministries and there are other Jewish ministries where Jews themselves who've accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior, they become Vesonic Jews and they go back to Israel where they spread the gospel. My next door neighbor, Yebethel, who grew up beside me, Her mother was my Sunday school teacher. She moved to Israel Here's a guy, Phil Coleman, in his room. And she married a Jewish man. And they've got a messianic church in Haifa right now that's active.
Joel Rosenberg, who's a messenger Jew who now lives in Jerusalem, he estimates that there are one million Jewish believers in the world today. One million. They only got 19 or 20 million Jews in the world, didn't you know that? That's a pretty good percentage. I wonder what the percentage of Gentiles is.
When somebody comes to me and says, Rush, how come the Jews don't believe in this? They say, kind of what they do: derogatory, tongue? I looked at him and said, well, how come the gentleman stole the leg? We have the same problem they do. Many theologians believe in a revival that's coming in the near future, which is what I believe.
In this room. and many Israelites. will control into the Lord. And to his blessings in these last days. And the Lord will say to them, You are my people.
And they will cry out, The Lord Jesus is our God. I pray for night and night on this every morning. That he will come into the world. I pray also the same thing for Trump. I'm not sure exactly what Trump is.
And getting close to that section she's not there yet. You know the two of them met today in the White House? Yes. And I saw a video of him in the overall office with our new cabinet with Trump and that guy. And I thought, it's all about your politics.
That is a great picture. Our country used to stand when Israel I also saw this this morning, which I'm not going to share the details of, but this lady on Exodus I followed, she's from Israel. She's in her 30s, but she is in her 30s. She has two children, and her husband is in the IDF, and she shares with her brother-in-law that when he comes home and he has to say goodbye and go back to the battlefront. But she told about the video.
I don't know if y'all know this, but when Hamas Attacked Israel, Elijah the seven. They brought with them the gun process and they videoed as they tortured. The Jeeves. And apparently, one of our ambassadors to Israel, one of our officials, was in. Jerusalem last week and he met with Net Yahoo and they watched The video is an hour long.
It's never made on the news because it's so horrific. If the world witnessed it. It'd be a lot more sympathetic to Israel. Germanic. And that's what It's what I'm doing.
Demonic forces that want to wipe them off the planet. That's true. That's why I'm sticking with it. You've been listening to Finding Purpose with Russ Andrews. This broadcast is made possible because of the prayers and financial gifts of listeners like you.
If you want to learn more about our ministry or support us as we reach others with God-centered Bible teaching, please visit us at findingpurpose.net. You're listening to the Truth Network and TruthNetwork.com.
