Hosea #4 Ch. 6 a Cake Not Turned — Chuck Missler

Hosea 5:15 and the Transition into Chapter 6

Well, we're in a study of the book of Hosea, and as we get into the chapter 6 and on, it's getting increasingly prophetic. We had these very, very interesting personal examples being drawn earlier. We closed last time with the last verse of chapter 5.

And by many forms of reckoning, it would seem that the last verse of chapter 5 really may well belong to chapter 6, if you will. Remember that these chapters and verses are man's divisions, typically 13th, 14th century type of annotations.

And so, on the one hand, they're helpful, but we should always guard against assuming that the chapter breaks are at the right place. There's a number of classical places where clearly they're off. Isaiah 53 really starts a couple of verses earlier.

And this is one of those places that I think, knowing what we think we know now, that we probably include verse 15 of chapter 5 as the beginning of chapter 6, or at least it's always helpful to try to ignore the chapter breaks as you try to gain the sense.

Clearly there's a total shift of emphasis between verses 14 and 15 of chapter 5. And I want to review chapter 5, verse 15 from last time as our springboard to jump into chapter 6. Hosea chapter 5, verse 15, God says a strange thing through Hosea.

This is one of the most remarkable verses in the Bible. And it startles me to discover how few of the commentators pick up on the implications of this verse. God says in verse 15, I will go and return to my place till they acknowledge their offense and seek my face, and in their affliction they will seek me earnestly, or early as the way it's in the King James.

I will go and return to my that's a strange thing for God to say. I will go and return to my place. In order to return to his place he must have left it. Here is a declaration in effect of the two comings.

He came once, he's going to go and return until what? They acknowledge their offense. What offense would that be, Israel? The rejection of their Messiah. I will go and return to my place until they acknowledge their offense and seek my face.

In other words, turn back to him. In their affliction they will seek me earnestly, or early as it shows up in the King James. Now, I can't resist putting this against a background. This verse should go against a background of the purpose, the tragedy, and the triumph of all history.

Jesus' Lament over Jerusalem and God's Purpose in History

That's a mouthful, isn't it? What is the purpose, and the tragedy, and yet the ultimate triumph of all of history? It happens to be summarized in a couple of verses at the end of Matthew 23. Hold your place here.

We will go to Matthew 23. 23 is quite a chapter, it's hard to figure out where to pick up the context, but we're going to just jump into verse 37. Jesus speaking says, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often I would have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings, and ye would not.

You see, that's the purpose of all history, for God to gather His home. And the tragedy of all history is that they would not. And as a result, verse 38, Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. Is it left desolate forever?

No. No. Because there is a triumph forthcoming. Verse 39 alludes to it. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord. So here we have a very, very interesting summary of God's program.

The whole purpose of history from God's point of view. As you look at Hosea, chapter 5, verse 15, God says, I will go and return to my place till they acknowledge their offense and seek my face, and in their affliction they will seek me early.

And chapter 6 will then pick up on that. But I also want you to just put this in another context. Remember Acts 15, the Council of Jerusalem? This is where they all gathered to deal with this emerging issue of the Gentiles coming into the kingdom.

And remember the Jews, understandably, felt that the way they became a Christian, now we're talking about believing Jews now, we're talking about Messianic Jews. The way they became a Christian was to become a Jew and then accept Christ.

And there's this big controversy that was looming. Paul and Barnabas go to Jerusalem and Peter and Paul, they all testify there. And then James, the brother of Christ, wrote the Epistle of James, speaks up.

Everybody that focuses on Acts 15 picks up, of course, on the main issue was, gee, does a Gentile, when he becomes a Christian, come under the law of Moses? And the answer, of course, was no, he did not.

And incidentally, there's two issues there. The other issue is implied. Because if... Does that mean Israel is over? You see, if a Gentile doesn't have to become a Jew, what's all this for? What's Israel all about?

All our heritage, all our culture? And James picks it up in verse 13 of Acts 15. Afterward, the elder piece, James answered, saying, Men and brethren, hearken unto me. Simeon hath declared how God first did visit the nations to take out of them a people for His name.

And to this agree the words of the prophets as is written, After this I will return. After what? After He gathers a people for His name out of the Gentiles. There's an interval here. This interval is a gap that shows up 24 times in the Bible.

This is the interval between the 69th and the 70th week of Daniel. This is the interval that's in that comma in Isaiah 61, verses 1 and 2, when Jesus opens His ministry in Isaiah 60. He quotes in the synagogue of Nazareth.

He takes Isaiah and reads from Isaiah. You find this recorded in Luke 4. And He reads from Isaiah 61, verses 1 and 2. But when you compare Isaiah 61, verses 1 and 2, and the part that Jesus... He read up to a comma, and then closed the book and says, This day is the Scripture fulfilled in your ears.

He stopped not at the end of the sentence, at a comma. What was left that He didn't read? And the day of vengeance of our God. That's yet coming. But there's a comma, an interval, a period. And what happens in this interval?

The church. The gathering of people to the Gentiles. But then He quotes what James is doing here in Acts 15, is quoting from Amos. After this I will return, God says, build again the tabernacle of David which is fallen down.

I'll build again its ruins, and will set it up, that the residue of men might seek after the Lord, and all the nations, upon whom my name is called, saith the Lord, that doeth all these things. And known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the age.

Study of Acts 15 is usually focusing on this whole issue, does a Gentile have to become a Jew? There's more to it than there. There's this whole issue. Okay, if that's the case, if a Gentile doesn't have to become a Jew, what's to become of Israel?

Is it over? All this heritage? The whole... No, it's not over. And that's what He... That's what He deals with here. It's often missed by people studying Acts 15. I'll leave you to dig in that on your own.

But the point is, what we're dealing with here is a whole different perspective now. We're getting a much, much broader issue than just the predicament that Hosea is facing with the Northern Kingdom. Let's move on to Hosea chapter 6, and let's read the next three verses.

Hosea 6:1–3 and the Restoration of Israel

God says to Hosea, Come, let us return unto the Lord, for he hath torn, and he will heal us. He hath smitten, and he will bind us up. And after two days he will revive us, and on the third day he will raise us up, that we might...

That we... And we shall live in his sight. Then shall we know it, if we follow on to know the Lord. His going forth is prepared as the morning, and he shall come up unto us as the rain, and as the latter and former rain unto the earth.

These three verses have a number of different views by the experts, and I'll try to give you each of the perspectives here. Chapter 6, verse 1. Come let us return unto the Lord. Some people view this as the prayer that the nation Israel will utter when they seek his face, and it's, in other words, a follow on to verse 15.

See, Israel does apparently come to the realization that her sufferings have been disciplinary in nature. Verse 2. After two days will he revive us, in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.

What seems to be echoing here is the resurrection of Israel in the sense that it shows up in Ezekiel 37. You remember the vision of the dry bones, that Israel will be regathered, and the vision there in Ezekiel is that he sees a valley of bones, these bones come together, flesh comes upon them, and so forth, and where he revives Israel again.

And then verse 3. Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord, his going forth is prepared as the morning, and he shall come unto us as the rain, the latter and former rain. The certainty of the Lord's coming is as assured as the divine decree that the dawn must follow the night.

That the boker will follow the erav, if you will, in the Hebrew. And the coming will also be like the latter rain, that's the spring rain. Remember their year starts in the fall, so the latter rain is in the spring.

It's always occasion for rejoicing, there's a whole bunch of verses, I won't take you through all that here. Deuteronomy, Job, Proverbs, Joel makes reference of the former and latter rains. Now there's several different views the commentators have of these verses.

Some of them believe that this repentance that's here described is a superficial repentance, because there's no specific mention, degenerate contrition of sin in their view. I don't happen to hold that view for this verse, but in any case, if one does accept that view of the verse, it certainly also is, it continues to be parallel today.

Certainly, the shallow lack of repentance form of turning to the Lord is a characteristic of evangelical Christianity today. We hear a lot about receiving the Lord Jesus Christ and being saved, we don't hear a lot about repentance.

We don't hear a lot about real contrition for sin. And Voltaire, the brilliant French atheist, and I won't fracture my French, but he just says, he says, translated, forgiveness, that's God's job. It's sort of a cynical rebuttal that, well, you know, and we often hear that echoed.

I was intrigued to discover it was actually started with Voltaire, as if forgiveness is sort of free and not to worry about it, that's God's job. No, there's a real need for contrition and repentance for sin, and that's obviously crucial.

There's another view that comes closer to it, I think, and that these verses here are the cry of a repentant nation that is finally seeking the Lord in time of affliction. And some of the great experts, Colin Dillich and others of the Hebrew, support that.

The one that impresses me the most and that I'm most indebted to for the insights in this passage and its related passages is Arnold Fuchtenbaum, Dr. Fuchtenbaum's good friend, brilliant Jewish, you know, let's say he ain't Jew, but his work is outstanding.

He has a book called The Footprints of the Messiah that's a summary of Old Testament prophecy that's more thorough than anyone I've seen, because he really gets into all the minor prophets and the rest, as it really takes a Jewish heart and a Jewish background to do.

But he also is famous for his Ph .D. thesis, which is available in a hardback book. If you go to any collection of books called systematic theology, there's a number of major ones out, if you look at all of them, the table of contents are pretty much the same.

They all talk about Christology, study of Christ, pneumatology, study of the Holy Spirit, angeology. They have all these categories of theology that all these books address. What's fascinating is every one of them overlooks a topic, a theological topic that constitutes five-sixths of the Bible, and you won't find it as a topic, as a focus of study in any of the systematic theology books.

And Arnold noticed this and did his Ph .D. thesis on it. The missing element is Israelogy. The study of Israel as an element in God's plan. It's strangely not a central focus, obviously all these things talk about it, but that's the focus of his work and it's excellent.

Israel's Covenants, Land, and Future Regathering

But he has a very unusual view that I'm drawn to for this whole passage, Hosea 5 .15 on. And this gets back, to put this in perspective a little bit, we need to step back and remind ourselves of God's plan for Israel in order to put this into focus.

I think all of us in this room, I hope, if you've had any sophistication in biblical studies, are familiar with the various covenants, and you're familiar, of course, with the Palestinian covenant that God, there's this strange piece of real estate that at this day is being contested by the world.

That's Israel's right to the land. And God gave that to Abraham in chapter 12 and confirmed it in Genesis 12 and in Genesis 15. In fact, confirmed it all the way to the Euphrates. Someone wants to talk about the West Bank, say, which river did you have in mind?

But the point is, Zechariah also talks about how the entire world is going to go to war with Jerusalem and that's getting all positioned. The whole world. That's ridiculous. Why? What for? What for? A city that has no natural resources, no river, no harbors, no reason to be relevant in the world except for religious reasons.

And to whom? You know, a minority of Jews. The Muslims had it for a thousand years and ignored it until they realized it was important to the Jews. Then it became very important to Islam, of course. And then the Christians, we'd like to visit there, but not to die for.

And yet the whole world, Zechariah talks about how the whole world's going to go to war with Jerusalem. This whole issue of the right to the land. The tragic sellout of Rabin in Paris. The Bible is not our title due to the land.

Oh, really? That was in their speeches. Again and again and again. And if the Bible doesn't give a right to the land, then what are they doing there? Their only right to the land is a God-given right as documented in the Torah, in the books of Moses.

So this whole contest going on right now. The Oslo Accords, the interference of the United States in their elections and pushing them into a position of dependency on a world police force and all this stuff going on.

But the point is, it's interesting, the first deportation of the Southern Kingdom, of course, occurred when Babylon. The Northern Kingdom gets wiped out by the Assyrians. That's their judgment that Hosea is dealing with.

A century later, the Southern Kingdom has also been under decline and under the preaching of Jeremiah. They don't listen. And ultimately the Babylonians take them into captivity for 70 years. And they come back after that deportation.

That was the first deportation. The second deportation occurs when Jerusalem fell in 70 A .D. Jesus comes to the Messiah, presents himself as king, weeps over Jerusalem, predicts their destruction 38 years later.

What's fascinating about that 38 years later? From the triumphal entry until the fall of Jerusalem. Same number of years that they wandered in the wilderness. Now, the second regathering from the deportation is, of course, the one that Ezekiel is talking about, Ezekiel 37.

Their regathering, we've been watching since, you know, with the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948, is the second regathering. In Isaiah 11 .11, he says, when I regathered them the second time.

That's all she wrote. And so that's what's been going on now. I think most of us realize that this is all heading, we're still in the church period. The church has not been removed yet. So we're in this strange interval.

And again, I'm going to speak in the idioms of the 70-week prophecy of Daniel. I won't try to go through it all. We'll use all our time for that. But I do want to highlight the last verse of Daniel 9.

Daniel 9 and the Seventy-Week Prophecy

It's crucial. The last four verses of Daniel 9, the most important prophetic passage, if you're interested in end-time prophecies, and Jesus so pointed to it. When four disciples came to him for a confidential briefing on his second coming, he pointed them to Daniel 9.

And Daniel 9 .24 gives you the scope of the whole thing, which is seventy-sevens of years that he turned upon Israel. And sixty-nine of them are dealt in verse 25, in which he basically gives them a mathematical prophecy, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Mashiach Nagid, the Messiah, the King, would be a precise number of days.

And those days were fulfilled to the exact day when Jesus presented himself as a king, deliberately fulfilling Zechariah 9 .9, riding a donkey into Jerusalem. And, of course, there is a seventieth week yet designated, but there is an interval, but not contiguous.

There's an interval between the last, the sixty-nine weeks, and the very last, the seventieth week. That interval is described in verse 26. The seventieth week will be dealt with in verse 27. Verse 26 is after the three score and two weeks.

So seven plus sixty-two, that's the sixty-nine. Shall the Messiah be cut out, executed, but not for himself, and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary. The prince that shall come, one of the thirty-three titles of the Antichrist in the Old Testament.

He shall come and destroy the city and the sanctuary, which indeed he did in 70 A .D. And the end of it shall be with a flood, an outpouring, a diaspora. And the end of the war and desolations are determined.

Verse 27 then deals with this remaining week. And he, who is the he, the prince that shall come, the Antichrist, he shall confirm the covenant. He doesn't sign a treaty. It's amazing how many people make their little charts and stuff.

They all have a lot of prophecy buffs saying, well, he's going to sign a treaty for seven years. He may. He may. But that's not what it says. The word confirms. Kabar. It means to enforce. It forms the covenant.

Maybe it's a treaty. I don't think it's the Oslo Accord. A lot of people think it is. I don't, for a lot of reasons. But the point is, he enforces the covenant. What covenant might he be enforcing? He might be enforcing the Palestinian covenant.

Why does Isaiah call it the covenant with hell? Because they're looking to him, not God, for the enforcement of that covenant. That's a conjecture on my part. But I share it with you for those possibilities.

It's interesting that this is the guy that's featured in Revelation chapter 6, the white horseman. Who comes with a bow, conquering and to conquer. Everybody assumes that bow is like a bow and arrow. And it may be.

But the word in the Greek is taxon. And it's the same word that's used in the Septuagint version of the Old Testament. When speaking in Genesis chapter 9. Where the word taxon means a token of a covenant.

In that case it's the rainbow that God makes a covenant with Noah. But the word taxon means it's a token of a covenant. So it's possible that part of what's characterizing him is he's stepping into the God's shoes to enforce the Palestinian covenant.

Apparently. For a seven year period. Except the middle of that seven year period he turns on. It says in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease. They apparently have started.

And for the over spreading of abominations he shall make it desolate even until the consummation. And that determined shall be poured out upon the desolate. This is the so called 70th week of Daniel. Goes by many, many names.

The seven year period. And the Holy Spirit has used more ways to try to indicate this is literal. Specific. The seven years divided into two halves. Three and a half years. Three and a half years. Each half is called 42 months.

Each half is called 1260 days. He's done everything but do it in hours and minutes and seconds. Now the last half of that seven year period has an additional label. It's called the great tribulation. The tribulation is not seven years.

It's the last three and a half years. We often use the term tribulation in a connotative sense to refer to this whole 70th week of Daniel. But if we're going to be precise Jesus himself in Matthew 24 verse 15 nails down the term great tribulation as a time from this abomination of desolation in the middle of the week to the end.

But I don't want to get into all of that here. The point is we're dealing here with the day of wrath. The day of judgment. And it's interesting to discover that this period called the tribulation has 21 different labels that I've found so far in the Old Testament and 10 in the New.

The time of Jacob's trouble is the most descriptive one in Jeremiah 30 verse 27. We think of the great tribulation in the worldwide terms and it probably is. But the focus of it is Israel, Jacob. It's called the 70th week of Daniel in effect.

It's called Jehovah's strange work, his strange act in Isaiah 28. The day of Israel's calamity in Deuteronomy 32 and Obadiah several verses. The tribulation, the indignation, the overflowing scourge, the day of vengeance, the day of recommence.

It goes on and on. Day of wrath, day of distress, day of wasteness. Zephaniah has a whole bunch of different labels and on it goes. In the New Testament there's about 10 different labels. The day of the Lord, the wrath of God, the hour of trial.

The great day of the wrath of the Lamb of God. Wow. I always felt it would make a neat bumper sticker. Beware the Lamb. I'm believing like what on earth is that? I'm glad you asked. You brought it up.

Israel, the Tribulation, and the Antichrist's Domain

Now, so what we're facing, it's very tragic. You know, you always see this little sign, never again. It's a claim by Israel, never again will they let the Holocaust happen. I got tragic news for them.

Hitler during the Holocaust in Europe killed one third of the Jews. Zechariah 13 verse 8 indicates that this guy, the coming one, is going to kill two thirds of the Jews. It's a time of trouble, Jesus said, that is unparalleled, unequal.

So there is a time of trouble coming. And that's part of what's facing here. Now, when we're in Daniel here, there is a verse in Daniel chapter 11 verse 41 that many people overlook. All these people talk about, you know, the Oslo Accords and the so-called peace process, which of course is not a peace process, it's a sellout, but that's a whole other issue.

But in Daniel chapter 11, the first 35 verses are historical, and 36 on, especially 40 on, is clearly prophetic, and 36 to 40 sort of overlap in a sense, and that's a whole other exegetical issue. But clearly from 40 on is prophetic, yet future, end times.

But in verse 41, it's speaking of the anti-crisis, we would use the term. I don't like that term, but everybody uses it, so I won't fight it. But there are, as I say, 33 different labels you can use just from the Old Testament alone.

But here he's talking, it says, He shall enter into the glorious land, that's an idiom for Israel, and many countries shall be overthrown. No surprise, we know that from Revelation 13 and everywhere else.

But I want you to notice what it says in verse 41,. But these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon. The Antichrist is not going to be a global ruler. We're all aware there's a tide, apparently, in leadership thinking, and not just in the U .S., but also in Europe, that, you know, towards a one world government.

There's a very clear trend. Many Christians anticipate that from the reading of the Scripture. But I think that while there may arise a dominant power, probably Euro-centered, it's clear there isn't a one world government because Armageddon is a four power conflict.

Kings of the East, whatever, and so on. But what's interesting here, there's a specific piece of turf that escapes his domain. These shall escape out of his hand, Edom, Moab, and the chief children of Ammon.

Now that's using, of course, the ancient tribal names. What part of the world, how do we know today, what region that was biblically called Edom and Moab and Ammon? Answer, Jordan. Jordan consists of those three countries, what was at one time three different countries.

That's Jordan. And what this says is that for some reason the Antichrist is not going to control Jordan at this time. It doesn't say why. It doesn't explain why. There's a conjecture afoot that that gives Israel, the remnant, the believing remnant, a place to flee to.

That's the scary thing about a one world government. If there had been a one world government during the 30s, where would the Jews have fled to? Some were able to leave Germany, you see, and so forth.

The independent nation state is still a very critical factor in individual freedom. But in this case, it would seem that that's one of the reasons, especially since there's lots of scripture that indicates specifically that's what the believers in Judea are going to be called to flee to.

At this point, as we set this background, let's return to Matthew 24. We looked at the end of chapter 23. I won't get into all the details of chapter 24, except to say that four disciples come to Jesus for a confidential briefing on a second coming.

Peter, James, John, and Andrew. And he gives them a briefing about his second coming. He opens and closes it by warning them, don't be deceived. It's going to be characterized by deceit. But then he gives them a whole bunch of non-signs.

This, that, and the other thing is going to happen, but the end is not yet. The famines and pestilences and earthquakes, everybody uses those in the prophecy videos. But Jesus said the end is not yet.

Those are not signs. Yes, earthquakes may be increasing. Yes, this, that, and the other may happen. But those are not signs. He says so in verse 6. But the end is not yet, for nations shall rise against men.

All these other things are going to happen. Fine. What is the key to the whole chapter? Verse 15, When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, whosoever readeth let him understand.

That's a great verse for a thousand reasons. When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation. That's a very specific thing. Where do you find it? In Daniel chapter 9. Spoken of by Daniel the prophet.

If you need authentication that Daniel really wrote the book of Daniel, you've got it right here by none other than Jesus Christ himself. If you believe in Jesus Christ, you've got no problem with the authority of Daniel.

If you don't believe in Jesus Christ, you've got bigger problems with the authority of Daniel. But we'll move on. When you see this thing, stand in the holy place. Now there's a problem right away. The holy place is behind the veil which is inside the Holy of Holies, which is inside the temple.

You had to be a priest, not even a Levite, a priest to go in the temple. How can those that are in Judea, as you'll see, this is all addressed to those in Judea, how can they see what's going on? Very simple.

It won't be amateur radio slow scan either. It'll be CNN or whatever. By the way, there's also a parenthetical remark here by the Lord. Whosoever readeth, let him understand. This is not for pastors or prophecy teachers or specialists or experts.

This is for you and me. Whosoever readeth, let him understand. He expects you to do the homework to understand what is the abomination of desolation, what is Daniel 9 really all about. If you're serious about Jesus Christ, you want to understand all this stuff.

Verse 16, Then let them who are in Judea, not in Idaho or Orange County or Washington, D .C. or whatever. No, no. Those who are in Judea, flee into the mountains. Really, where are the mountains? East.

Where? Across the Jordan. Where? In Jordan. Let him who is on the housetop not come down to take anything out of his house. The housetop was sort of like a patio, because they're built on the hillsides.

That's where you spent the cool in the evening. Don't go down to the house to grab a coat. Get out of there. Split. Now. Verse 18, Neither let him who is in the field return back to take his clothes. You run for it when this happens.

And woe unto them who are with children, those are nursed children in those days. Pray that your flight be not in winter. It snows there sometimes. We were there once and there was a couple of feet of snow.

We have great pictures of the rabbis throwing snowballs in front of the wailing wall. Doesn't happen very often, but it does. Neither on the Sabbath day, which proves that this passage is not addressed to the church or Gentiles.

This passage is addressed to Jews. You and I don't sweat about Sabbath day journeys. An observant Jew does. Pray that your flight be not on the Sabbath day. That creates problems. Can't get a cab. Elevators don't work.

Seriously. You ever been in Israel on Shabbat? And hope you don't get a Shabbat elevator? Stops on every floor? Automatically? Anyway. Then he goes on and talks about the tribulation and all this stuff and goes on.

The Refuge in Edom and the Second Coming

Now the point is, and I'm not going to go through all the details. We have a briefing packet. It really goes into all of this in great detail. Two tape set called The Next Holocaust and The Refuge in Edom, which describes not only the reality of this holocaust that's coming, but it talks about the whole second coming implications.

Where does Jesus return to? Well, he returns to the Mount of Olives. Not first. His feet on that day shall stand on the Mount of Olives. Zechariah 14, 12. But that's when he's victory. Where does he come back first?

Isaiah 63 tells you. In Edom. And when he comes from Edom, his clothes are bloodstained because he's been fighting on behalf of the remnant in Edom. Read Isaiah 63. It's brutal stuff. If you want to read in this area, Isaiah 24 through 27, first verse, are what's sometimes called the Little Apocalypse.

It's a summary of... By the way, the Book of Revelation, I believe, from chapter 6 through full end of 18, is an expansion of the seventh week of Daniel. The 404 verses of Revelation contain over 800 allusions from the Old Testament.