WWUTT 2274 Return to Yahweh Your God (Hosea 14:1-9)

We come to the conclusion of our study in the book of Hosea and God makes a final appeal to Israel. Return, O Israel, to Yahweh your God. It's the spirit calling you to return when we understand the text.

This is when we understand the text, teaching through a New Testament book on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and a Q &A on Friday. With our Old Testament study today, here's Pastor Gabe.

Hosea’s Final Appeal to Return to Yahweh

Thank you, Becky. In our study of the book of Hosea, we have just chapter 14 to finish up today. As we complete our study in this book, we'll look back on some things that we've considered as we've been through this study in Hosea and do an exposition of our chapter.

So let me begin by reading it, Hosea 14, verses one through nine. Hear the word of the Lord. Return, O Israel, to Yahweh your God, for you have stumbled in your iniquity. Take words with you and return to Yahweh.

Say to him, forgive all iniquity and take what is good that we may pay in full the fruit of our lips. Assyria will not save us. We will not ride on horses, nor will we say again, our God, to the work of our hands.

For in you, the orphan finds compassion. I will heal their turning away from me. I will love them freely for my anger has turned away from them. I will be like the dew to Israel. He will flourish like the lily and he will take root like the cedars of Lebanon.

His shoots will go forth and his splendor will be like the olive tree and his fragrance like the cedars of Lebanon. Those who live in his shadow will again raise grain and they will flourish like the vine.

His name of remembrance will be like the wine of Lebanon. Oh, Ephraim, what more have I to do with idols? It is I who answer and look after you. I am like a luxuriant cypress. From me comes your fruit.

Whoever is wise, so let him discern these things. Whoever is discerning, let him know them. For the ways of Yahweh are right and the righteous will walk in them, but transgressors will stumble in them.

Now, if you'll remember back to chapter three, that first section that we had of Hosea chapters one through three were the setup for the rest of the book. You had a woman named Gomer who was a harlot.

Well, she behaved as a harlot. She was a wife of whoredom was the way that God described her. And she went and jumped into the beds of other men, sleeping with them, even having children with them. Hosea the prophet had taken her as a wife and had threatened to cut her off because of her unfaithfulness, but she returned to Hosea and he took her back.

And this was supposed to be a picture of the way that God was dealing with Israel. They had been unfaithful, though God had been faithful to them all this time, always fulfilling that which he had promised.

And Israel, though they had seen the miracles, though they had received the promised land, they turned to whore after the gods of the pagans around them and behaved as those pagans. And so God was going to cut them off from his promise that he had made with the descendants of Abraham.

There were stipulations in the law, in the contract that God made with Israel in the book of Deuteronomy. If they were going to be faithful to obey God's statutes, then God would fill them with blessing.

But if they were going to disobey God, if they went after the false gods of the people around them, then God would cut them off. So there were conditions there and Israel disobeyed God. So he was going to cut them off.

But the Lord promised, though they would go through punishment, indeed, because of their wicked behavior, God would fulfill the promise that he said he would fulfill through the offspring of Abraham, and he would do this through the tribe of Judah.

We have this final appeal at the end of the letter for Israel to repent. And it was back in chapter three that we read the following. For the sons of Israel will remain for many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, and without ephod or household idols.

Afterward, this is Hosea 3 .5, the sons of Israel will return and seek Yahweh their God and David their king. And they will come in dread to Yahweh and to his goodness in the last days. And that's what we see here in chapter 14.

It is the Lord saying these things to Israel. Seek after me, just as it was said. Afterward, the sons of Israel will return and seek Yahweh their God. How do we start chapter 14? Return, O Israel, to Yahweh your God.

And so this is that final appeal as we wrap up this letter, the proclamation of Hosea, the word of the Lord to this people who had dealt so wickedly and God had promised to bring judgment against them.

Yet at the very conclusion, we still have this call to them to turn from their sin back to God who had always been loving to them. Return, O Israel, to Yahweh your God, for you have stumbled in your iniquity.

So you are going to know God in one of two ways here, essentially is what is being said. And we've seen this throughout the letter, but you're going to know God in one of two ways. Either you will know him according to his judgment and wrath that he will pour out upon you.

And you will know his holiness and how you had betrayed God, committed treason against him, gone your own way, sin, transgressed the law. What you deserve is judgment. So you will know God in this way.

Either you will know him as judge or you will know him as forgiver. He will forgive your sins. You will know his mercy. You will know his love. And so, as it said here in Hosea 14, return to me for you've stumbled in your iniquity.

Know God as forgiver. Don't let this continue. Don't let this continue on without repentance, unchecked, falling back into the same pattern of sin over and over and over again, because then the way you will know God is judge.

Turn to him now that you may know him as forgiver. Turn from your sin to Christ. And whatever sin it is that you may struggle with, that you may do battle with, don't ever give into it. Don't ever stop that struggle.

It is Christ who gives you the strength to resist the temptation. As was said to the Corinthians, God would never allow you to be tempted beyond your means to resist. You do have the ability to resist this temptation and the Holy Spirit giving power within you to turn from sin to the Lord Christ.

You've stumbled and you have stumbled in your iniquity. What you need is a savior. Turn to Yahweh that you may be forgiven and not have to know him as judge. Verse two, take words with you and return to Yahweh.

Now that could mean a couple of different things. Take words with you means basically have an intervention with yourself. Turn from this stupidity. Sin makes you stupid. Stop it, turn from that, back to God.

Or the other thing it could mean is you've got words, bring them to the Lord. Don't just pretend like none of this ever happened. We can memory hole it. We can sweep it under the rug. We can act as though these things have never transpired.

Now you must take words to the Lord and confess. First John 1 .9, if we ask forgiveness for our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I remember a couple I was talking to a number of years ago and they had, there was adultery between them.

That was the sin they were working through but deciding that they wanted to reconcile. And at one point I said to them, they had teenage kids. At one point I said to them, there's gonna come a time where you will have to come clean to your children.

I'm not saying it has to be right now but you do need to tell them, you need to be honest with them about what you did and even asking their forgiveness. Though you didn't sin in this way against them, your sin has brought a reproach upon your family and your children are feeling it.

So you need to ask their forgiveness. You were unfaithful to your family as well as to each other, you need to ask their forgiveness. And I told them this, if you don't, I'm telling you right now, they already know that there was something going on between you guys.

They already know this. They might even already know exactly what it is though it's never come up in conversation. If you don't tell them, then they will grow up believing that you can just not say anything about your sin and it will all just go away.

Maybe if we just pretend like it never happened, then forgiveness will come with time. You know, the old adage that people will say, time heals all wounds. And that may end up being the mentality that your children will take from this situation unless you come to them and confess and ask even for their forgiveness.

As far as I know, that actually never happened within that particular family. But we must confess our sins. We can't just memory hole it. We can't just act like it never happened. And this is even being said to Israel, take words with you and return to Yahweh.

Say to him, verse two, forgive all iniquity and take what is good that we may pay in full the fruit of our lips. We are confessing our sins. We are saying I did evil God, please forgive me. Return for you have stumbled in your iniquity.

Ask, forgive all iniquity and take what is good that we may pay in full the fruit of our lips. Verse three, this goes on with this confession. The Lord is telling them, here's how you can confess. If it's really in the nature of your heart to recognize your sin and want to return to God, let me help you out here.

This is what you say. If this is the attitude of your heart, may it be the fruit of your lips. Verse three, Assyria will not save us. Acknowledge that. Assyria can't save us. You've tried to turn to these nations.

Remember we read this before, Assyria and Egypt. You've tried to turn to them to see if they won't be the ones to pull you out of your situation. You needed to turn to God. This whole situation is coming upon you because you had sinned.

Return to the Lord to be forgiven. I remember seeing a person on Facebook. This was a person that we had to confront in sin who was in our church. And on their Facebook page, it was a woman. So on her Facebook page, she put a meme that said, if what doesn't kill you makes you stronger than by now, I should be able to bench press a Buick.

And I had to confront her again later because of course she wasn't repentant over her sin. And I brought that up. I brought up that meme. I said, I saw the meme that you posted on Facebook. What doesn't kill me makes me stronger than I should be able to bench press a Buick.

Do you think that this confrontation is someone else oppressing you, that you did not bring this upon yourself? Because if you want forgiveness for this sin, God has promised he will give it to you, but you must confess it.

If you still have this attitude of thinking that other people are doing this to me, I haven't done anything wrong. They're just kind of imposing their morality on me. If that's gonna be your attitude, you're not gonna be forgiven your sin.

So you have to acknowledge God saying to Israel here, you have to acknowledge Assyria won't save us. We will not ride on horses, nor will we say again, our God to the work of our hands. The idols that they were making and calling those idols, their gods and falling down before them, thinking those gods would save them, would do something for them, would bless them.

So instead they recognize bottom of verse three, for in you, the orphan finds compassion. Now remember again, that Gomer had children with men who were not her husband. As we had read about that at the very beginning of Hosea, there was a son that she brought forth to her husband, but then she had other children.

And it seemed according to the verbiage that was used there, those children were not Hosea's. They were from the men that Gomer was committing adultery with. And so here what we have in verse 14, in you, the orphan finds compassion.

I have to wonder if the reference to that is a reference to an illegitimate child. A child that Gomer had, that the husband, the men that she had, that had sired this child with her. If that man didn't want to have anything to do with that child, because she was just prostituting herself out.

They didn't want a relationship. They didn't want children. She has children by those men. And that child is essentially fatherless. And so described here as an orphan, in you, the orphan finds compassion.

Even though this child is the result of a sinful union, yet God will show compassion on the child who has no family. As we continue on in verse four, I will heal their turning away from me. I will love them freely.

For my anger has turned away from them. If they would turn to Yahweh, God would love them. He would lavish his love upon them. I will be like the dew to Israel, he says. I will flourish, or Israel will flourish like the lily.

And he will take root like the cedars of Lebanon. That's a strong tree. You've heard many, many times throughout the Old Testament about the cedars of Lebanon. This was the prized wood. It was the wood that was cut down and delivered to Israel for Solomon to build the house of God.

This was the kind of wood that everybody wanted their structures to be made of, the cedars of Lebanon. So strong tree, deep roots. He will take root like the cedars of Lebanon. He will be sturdy and steadfast once again.

Remember what we have written in Psalm 1, that the blessed man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked nor stand in the way of sinners nor sit in the seat of scoffers, if his delight is in the law of Yahweh and he meditates on God's law day and night, then, Psalm 1 3, he will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season and its leaf does not wither.

And in whatever he does, he prospers. That's what we have here. He will take root like the cedars of Lebanon. His shoots will go forth. He will begin to bloom, blossom, be bountiful, fruitful. His splendor will be like the olive tree and his fragrance like the cedars of Lebanon.

Anybody ever enjoyed just some good cedar wood or you've got furniture in your home made of cedar, you know that fragrance that it puts off. Fragrance, the way that it's referenced in the Old Testament, especially when you get into prophetic books, but fragrance is connected with a person's character.

So to say that he will have the fragrance like the cedars of Lebanon, this is to say that Israel's character will be good once again. It's not just that he's turned from sin, but now he's developed a reputation for being godly and pursuing righteousness.

His shoots go forth, his splendor like the olive tree, everything there is indicative of fruitfulness. His fragrance like the cedars of Lebanon. Verse seven, those who live in his shadow. So you're talking about living beneath the protection, the shadow of a tree, will again raise grain and they will flourish like the vine.

His name of remembrance will be like the wine of Lebanon. You have Lebanon that's mentioned three times there, a very fruitful and bountiful land. But if Israel would turn to God, then they would be just as bountiful as a land that they may have coveted in the season in which judgment was coming upon them because of their wickedness.

They covet the things of Lebanon. God says, I will make you like Lebanon. If you turn from your wickedness back to me, you'll flourish like the vine, like the wine of Lebanon, wine being symbolic of the abundant provision of God in the Old Testament.

Verse eight, O Ephraim, what more have I to do with idols? It is I who look after you. Those false gods have never looked after you. They don't care one lick about you. We have read here about God's love for his people.

I will love them freely. The idols don't look after you, I have. I brought you out of slavery. I delivered you to this land. I will make you bountiful once again. I am like a luxuriant cypress. From me comes your fruit.

God's saying, I will provide for you. Finally, verse nine, whoever is wise, so let him discern these things. Whoever is discerning, let him know them. Let him be intimate with these words, knowing the kindness of God that he would pour out on his people if they would come back to him.

For the ways of Yahweh are right, verse nine. And again, if the people of Israel are gonna be intimate with the ways of Yahweh, they will fellowship with God and know his word deeply and truly, then they will walk in those ways.

They'll know that the ways of Yahweh are right and the righteous will walk in them. But transgressors, we end on a negative note here because this whole letter has been a warning to Israel. And so this is the way it will conclude with this last line.

But transgressors will stumble in them. The righteous will walk in God's ways, transgressors will stumble in God's ways. And so we come back again to the way we started. You will know God in one of two ways.

Either you will know him as judge or you will know him as forgiver and friend and father and faithful. You will know the Lord in these ways when you know his word and you keep it. The way that we have come to know God, our access to God is through Jesus Christ, who died on a cross for our sins and rose again from the dead so that whoever believes in him, the wrath of God is satisfied and we are no longer the objects of his wrath, but the objects of his love and affection.

We are sons and daughters of God. Turn from your sin back to the Lord and he has love to lavish upon you. Heavenly father, we thank you for this study that we have considered as we've gone through the book of Hosea.

And may it be something that strikes fear in our hearts. We would understand the seriousness of sin. And even upon those who have at some time in their lives said that they know you and love you and that they're Christians and that they're followers of Jesus, even upon these, if they persist in sinfulness and wickedness, rebelling against God, going after their flesh, going after the world, you will pour your judgment out on them because they will demonstrate that they were actually children of Satan the entire time and never became children of God.

So may that understanding make us tremble and fear that we would turn from sin to Christ and live. Restore us, restore to us the joy of your salvation and help us to live godly and upright lives before you in this world, in the present age.

It is in Jesus' name that we pray, amen.

This has been When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabriel Hughes. For all of our podcasts, episodes, videos, books, and more, visit our website at www .utt .com. If you'd like to submit a question to this broadcast or just send us a comment, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com and let your friends know about our ministry.

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