A (9:14)

Is out now and available everywhere.

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Books are sold. Literally. Today I walked into a Barnes and.

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Noble and I signed a bunch of.

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Copies at a physical location. So you can grab this book at.

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A physical Barnes and Noble or you.

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Can go to a Books a Million.

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Or Amazon or anywhere books are sold.

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And grab a copy.

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If you enjoy reading the Bible from.

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An ancient perspective, if you understand that the beauty of scripture is actually knowing.

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It in context, then you'll love this book. And if there's any chaos in your.

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Personal life, I think that reading the.

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Bible from an ancient perspective can actually help to crush the chaos in your life.

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I think this book is going to be a New York Times bestseller. I really do. I think we wrote a good one.

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I think you should get a copy today.

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All right, back to the episode here. We're going to see another theme that's going to get carried along and I, you know, I'm beating a dead horse, but it's, it's there over and over and over again. Verse 11 is Gilead wicked. Its people are worthless. So remember, this is all the way back to first second Kings. They worshiped worthless idols and them them that they themselves became worthless. So I will always fall or rise to the value of what I worshiped. Okay, let's get into chapter 13. Chapter 13 is really about Jezebel, okay? He became guilty of Baal worship and died. And so this is really Ahab and Jezebel. And so let's give context, okay? Ever since the time of Omri when his son Ahab married Jezebel, BAAL worship has been a constant destructive element within Israel. Jezebel is a Phoenician princess who was also a priestess of baal. And so as princess and then later as queen, she led the people of BAAL worship. She led the people into BAAL worship. Also when her daughter Athaliah married into David's dynasty in Judah, BAAL worship infected the south as well. Okay, so then you're going to get a list of ways that they worshiped baal. Okay, and some of these are from Kings and some of this is from hosea directly. So first kings, chapter 19, verse 18, they bow before baal. Okay, first kings, chapter 18, verse 28. They have ecstatic rituals and self mutilation. Hosea, chapter 13, verse 2. They created in war small images of baal as jewelry. First Hosea, chapter thirteen, verse two again, they kissed idols of baal. That's also on first kings, chapter 19, verse eighteen, second kings, chapter seven, verse 22. They wore special garments in association with baal worship. First kings eighteen and second kings, they, they offered burnt sacrifices and burnt offerings to Baal. And then Hosea, chapter 13, verse 2, and Micah, chapter 6, verse 7 talks about human sacrifices that were made to Baal. And so all through chapter 13, God is just going to deal with his people for how they worship baal. We're going to get a bunch of metaphors for judgment. Let's get. So this is now our nerdy nuggets and let's talk about some of these metaphors, okay? Chapter 13, we're going to get metaphors for Israel, okay? How God is going to send judgment and Israel is going to disappear and those metaphors are going to be vapor, dew, chaff, smoke. Which again, this is why I love the prophets, is because metaphorical language just, I don't know, it's jarring. It's like calling someone vapor. It means like man. I get an instant visual, vapor's here and then it's no more. Then there's a, there's a metaphor for how Yahweh's going to attack them. Okay? Yahweh would attack them like a lion, a leopard, a bear. And then again, this is the power of the prophetic books that in the medium of poetry is that like a mutilated fetus that's developing in its mother's womb. Like this is the metaphor for just what's going to happen. I think at the end of 13. There's also just like pretty specific predictions about Assyria. Verse 16 of chapter 13. Obviously Hosea is prophesying about this before the events happen. But as history will tell, I mean, Hosea was right. The stuff that he's prophesying, 100% happens. Now, maybe I should have said this as context a couple days ago, but, but Hosea prophesied over a 25 year period and there's a. One of his scribes is going to put his prophecies together and probably is going to be the person who writes this book, and we're going to get a little line from that author at the very, very end. So, okay, chapter 13, verse 16 says, the people of Samaria must bear their guilt because they have rebelled against their God. They will fall by the sword. Their little ones will be dashed to the ground. Oh man, instant visual, okay? Their babies will be dashed to the ground, their pregnant women ripped open. Okay, this is just graphic, graphic, graphic content. But this is in line with exactly what the Assyrians did, okay? If there were pregnant women, the Assyrians just would rip them open, okay? And they would take infants, newborns, little children, just dash them against the ground and kill them. And God is saying, yeah, like I'm, I'm gonna let this happen to you because you've rebelled against me, you've been unfaithful. And then chapter 14 finally ends, like on a high note. Chapter 14 starts with this. Return Israel to the Lord your God. Your sins have been your downfall. Take words with you and return to the Lord. Say to him, okay, take words with you when you return to the Lord. Like, hey, take some flowers with you. Take words with you, okay? And here are the words that you need to say. Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously that we may offer the fruit of our lips. Assyria cannot save us. We will not mount war horses. We will never say again our gods to what our own hands have made for in you the fatherless find compassion. I will heal their waywardness. So this is now God talking again. Saying, if they say that, oh man, if they say these words, I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them. I will be like the dew to Israel. He will blossom like a lily. I want you to see that I will heal their waywardness. Imagine, remember I said Hosea is one of the first prophets that we get that's saying there's something wrong with humans. Like there's something in us that makes us stubborn, that makes us stiff necked, that makes us, that makes us fickle, that makes us unloyed or disloyal or unfaithful. There's something in us that does that. And Hosea is one of the first prophets that's saying God's gonna heal that. He's angry, he's rebuking you, but he's gonna heal that thing that's on the inside of you. And obviously, we who are living in the New Testament know that that healing has come by being exposed to the gospel and by being filled with the precious spirit of God, by the Holy Spirit. So. So there's a. There's a word of restoration, okay? People will dwell again in his shade. They will flourish like the grain. They will blossom like the vine. Israel's fame will be like the wine of Lebanon. Ephraim. What more have I to do with idols? I will answer him and care for him. I am like a flourishing juniper. Your fruitfulness comes from me. So then verse nine, the very last verse of the book is probably. It's. It's penned by the compiler, okay? Not by Hosea himself, who is wise. Let them realize these things. Who is discerning. Let them understand the ways of the Lord are right. The righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them. So 25 years of just prophesying, and we know Jeremiah's scribes name, this guy named Baruch. Jeremiah is the one giving these oracles, speaking out, speaking out what God has revealed to him. But Baruch is actually the person who writes everything down. So Hosea most likely also had a scribe. And that last line is in addition, okay? And you can see in an English translation, it's marked by quotations. So everything that Hosea said would be in quotations, and those end in verse eight. And then you get verse nine, which is just a nice kind of, hey, like, who is wise? Let them realize these things, okay? Let them. Let them hear, like, what does sayeth the Lord who is discerning? Okay? So prophecy requires wisdom and discernment. I could do a whole teaching series on that alone. That prophecy requires wisdom and discernment, man. That's a timeless truth right there, okay? Prophecy requires wisdom and discernment. The ways of the Lord are right. So if you think that God's not justified in this thing called the exile, you got another thing coming. God's ways are right. The ways of the Lord are right. Okay? One of the themes from chapter 13 and into 14 is, only the husband can save you. Okay? So remember, in the book of Hosea, Yahweh is. Is depicted or is described as a husband, the covenant husband. And the massive theme is that only your husband can save you. And so Hosea, chapter 13, verse 10. What's the theme? Your kings will not save you. Hosea, chapter 13, verse 10 has a secondary theme. Your rulers cannot save you. Hosea, chapter 14, verse 3 has three statements, back to back to back. Assyria cannot save you. Your armies cannot save you. Your pagan gods cannot save you. So if you just combine chapter 13, verse 10, in chapter 14, verse 3, you got your kings cannot save you. Your rulers cannot save you. Assyria cannot save you. Your armies cannot save you. Your pagan gods cannot save you. Only your husband can save you. Only God can save you, okay? And God wants to save you. God would love nothing more than to save you. As we get into chapter 14, which we all. We already got into, but now we went back to 13, now we're coming back to 14, there's gonna be a massive call for repentance, a promise of restoration, and then a promise of healing. And so we get three things. A call for repentance, a promise of restoration, and then obviously, a promise of healing. And the book ends on this incredibly positive note. Chapter 14 doesn't end with doom and gloom. There's a lot of hard things that are said telling the people, hey, your baby's gonna get dashed against the rocks, and all your pregnant women are gonna get, like, you know, spread open. Like, that's just hard. Like, ripped open. That is just hard to say, hard to hear. But God ends, okay? He ends with a but. If you return to me, I'll take you, but you. But here's what you should say when you return to me, and I want to heal you. I'm not just here to criticize or to critique, but I want to heal. I want to bring genuine healing into the existence of the human experience, into the heart of the human. So I know I gave tons of timeless truths as we were talking, but I'll give an official one, and it's this. There is always hope. There's always hope. Repentance, even for those as far gone as Israel in its final days, is real repentance, which leads to restoration, to healing, to new life. Just as Hosea welcomed Gomer back to his home, the doors of God's house are always open for us to return, no matter how far we have strayed, because he alone can save us. Okay? There's always, always, always a glimmer of hope for restoration. You can always repent. Always, always. As long as there's breath in your lungs, you can always repent. As long as you've got a pulse, you can repent. And if you repent, God is faithful. He'll accept you back. And so even for Israel, this point in their history they can still call on the name of the Lord. Now, they're still going to experience some very real earthly consequences. And obviously one of those consequences is Assyria is going to come judge them. But that does not mean that they're rejected by God. And so the prophets are different. I like. I like the prophet. So tomorrow we've got day one, 90. Okay, 190, and we're gonna get into our first prophet of the southern kingdom. His name is Micah. And it's gonna be good. I can't wait. We. We've done 190 days. That is. Oh, no. 189 days. So tomorrow's day 190, and I'm so excited about it. And hey, if you're on a streak, don't break your streak. If you're not on the street, let's get it together. Let's, let's. Let's get a streak going. I love y' all so much. I'm so proud of you. Till tomorrow. Peace. Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible Department podcast.

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