“The Only Solution” – FBC Morning Light (7/11/2024)

Well, a good

Thursday morning to you. Today in our Bible reading we're in the minor prophet

Hosea, Hosea chapters 12 through 14. As a background to this, remember yesterday we referenced the passage in 2

Kings where Israel was taken captive by the Assyrians, and we pointed out that the reason for that captivity, the bondage, the misery, the woe, the pain, the death, and all that went with it was because of Israel's sin, and they're turning their back on the

Lord. And I pointed out, and that passage did as well, that this wasn't capricious on God's part.

It wasn't like, you know, over the course of a couple of months, you know,

Israel backslid, apostatized, and then God BAM! Whacked them one. No, this had been going on for years and years and years, decades, even more than a century, this has been going on.

And all along the way, God has been sending his prophets, exhorting the people to turn from their sin, to turn from their idolatry, and to return to the

Lord. And they, you know, when all was said and done, they refused to do it. They just kept stiffening their neck, hardening their heart, and they wouldn't listen, and so the judgment came.

Well, one of the prophets that God sent was this prophet, Hosea. And we read in chapter 14 of Hosea's prophecy, where the prophet is calling upon Israel to return, because the only solution, the only solution to backsliding and apostasy, apostasy is that hardened, turning away from God, saying,

I don't have anything more to do with you. The only solution to that backsliding or that apostasy is actually to return wholeheartedly to the

Lord. And this is what Hosea calls people, calls Israel to do. Listen to what he says.

He says, O Israel, return to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity.

Take words with you and return to the Lord. What words? Say to him, quote,

Take away all iniquity, receive us graciously, for we will offer the sacrifices of our lips.

Assyria will not save us. We will not ride on horses, nor will we say any more to the work of our hands.

You are our gods, for in you the fatherless finds mercy.

So what Hosea is exhorting Israel to do is to turn their backs on the false gods, to turn their back on worthless trust, that is, trusting in horses to save them, trusting in military might, trusting in allies to save them.

Turn your back on all of that, and turn your face toward God, the one against whom you have rebelled, and the one that you've turned from.

Return to him. Return to the Lord your God, Hosea exhorts.

And here's the thing, here's the promise. If you will return, God will be gracious, he will be merciful.

Here's what the Lord says. I will heal their backsliding, in verse 4.

I will love them freely, for my anger has turned away from him. I will be like the dew to Israel.

He shall grow like the lily, and lengthen his roots like lemon, his branches shall spread.

In other words, he will know blessing and prosperity. And they shall be revived, verse 7 says, like grain and grow like a vine.

The Lord says, if they will return to me, I will respond with blessing.

I will respond with healing their backsliding. I will respond with loving them freely.

And the anger that I rightly feel toward, or express toward,

Israel in its rebellious, backslidden, defiant, idolatrous condition right now, that anger will be turned away from me completely.

So again, what was true 3 ,000 years ago, 25, 2600 years ago, is still true today.

If you know in your heart of hearts that you have backslid, you've turned away from the

Lord, you're far from him, there is a solution, there is an answer. Return to him.

Return to him with words. You don't have to take anything else, you don't have to take any animal sacrifices, you don't have to, no, return with words, sincerely believed, heartfelt words of repentance and commitment to recommit yourself to the

Lord whom you should be serving. And he says, I will heal their backsliding.

What a tremendous promise. If you find yourself in that condition today, oh, then heed

Hosea's encouraging words and return. Our Father and our

God, I pray that when we do backslide, that it would be brief, that we would be quick to return and find you graciously healing us, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.