Hosea 7:1-16

Israel is facing the end of its time of prosperity and is finally beginning to see that they are not as powerful as they thought they were.  Threats of war and the lack of resources begin to weigh heavily on the people as they begin to feel the weight of God’s wrath coming down on them.  In times of desperation people respond in a wide variety of ways.  Unfortunately Israel did not respond correctly.  Instead of recognizing God’s judgment and repenting of their sins they continued in their rebellion and thought they could set themselves free through their own work and wit.

LOOKING TO HIDE IN ALL THE WRONG SPACES:  God is willing to forgive Israel.  He stands ready to restore her and heal her of all the consequences of her rebellion.  However, the people are not willing to turn from their sin and continue to rebel against God.  They think that they can somehow hide from the Lord and escape from His wrath.  But God sees all that they do and remembers every deed.  What makes things worse is that they rejoice in their sin and their leaders are taking them down a path of destruction.  The leaders and the people have become proficient in their sin and they grow hotter and hotter under the wrath of God.  The conditions have become unbearable and yet they will not recognize the Lord and will not return to Him.  They are proud and think they can hide from the Lord but they are sorely mistaken.  No evil deed will be forgotten by God, nor can it been hidden from His sight.  People today continue to live as if their sins were hidden from God but He sees and remembers all our sin.  Out only hope is to repent and to trust Christ to cover our sin with His blood.


LOOKING FOR HELP IN ALL THE WRONG PLACES: When things were starting to get desperate for the nations they finally realized they were not going to be able to prevail against the attacks of their enemies.  However, instead of turning to God for strength they try to get help from the nations of Egypt and Assyria.  They think that somehow these nations who do not fear the Lord will be able to help them and keep them safe.  They would rather trust in nations they can see and their own ability to make alliances instead of trusting in God and turning to Him.  They understand that in order to seek help from God they would need to turn from their sin.  They love their sin so much that they would rather suffer in sin than find relief in repentance.  God will bring them down like a bird in a net and they will not be able to escape His wrath no matter how many nations they try to ask for help.  God would love to redeem them but they refuse to seek Him and prefer to inflict pain on themselves as opposed to turn from their sin to trust the Lord.  Sin can be completely blinding and leads us to a place where we simply do not see what should be so plain to us as a way of escape.  We must place our faith in Christ and hope only in the Lord.

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