Hosea 14
Sin brings us down verse 1
O Israel – return unto the LORD your God
for you have fallen by your iniquity
Repentance brings us up verse 2
Take with you words – and turn to the LORD
say to HIM
Take away all iniquity – and receive us graciously
SO will we render the calves of our lips
Final realization of WHO truly is our help verse 3
Asshur shall not save us we will not ride upon horses
neither will we say any more to the work of our hands
You are our gods
for in YOU the fatherless find mercy
Response of the LORD: Healing verse 4
I will heal their backsliding – I will love them freely
for MY anger is turned away from him
Response of the LORD: Fruitfulness verse 5- 6
I will be as the dew to Israel – he shall grow as the lily
and cast forth his roots as Lebanon
his branches shall spread
his beauty shall be as the olive tree
and his smell as Lebanon
Response of the LORD: Revival verse 7
They that dwell under his shadow shall return
they shall revive as the corn – and grow as the vine
the scent thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon
Response of the LORD: Answered prayers verse 8
Ephraim shall say
What have I to do any more with idols?
I have heard him – and observed him
I am like a green fir tree
From ME is thy fruit found
Choice is made plain verse 9
Who is wise
and he shall understand these things?
Prudent – and he shall know them?
for the ways of the LORD are right
and the just shall walk in them
BUT the transgressors shall fall therein
COMMENTARY:
DAILY SPIRITUAL BREAKFAST: Young Believers
: 1 O Israel, return to the Lord your God, for you have fallen by your iniquity. (7725 “return” [shuwb] means turn, restore, come back, change one’s mind, or to follow after.)
DEVOTION: As a believer we sometimes have to put our name in some of the Scriptures to help us apply it to our life personally. I have used this method with Psalm 23. I tell people to put their name in the passage. An example is: The LORD is your name, Shepherd, I shall not want. …so on through the Psalm. Once we make it personal we can understand that the Word of God is speaking to us not just someone out there.
In this verse we can do the same thing. We can read it: “Return, your name, to the LORD your God, for your sins have brought your name down.
Why can I say that? It is because I have done it many times in my life. There are time periods in every believers life when we have to apply verses to our situation. When I have sinned I have to look at both passages mentioned above and repeat the verses with my name.
HE wants us all to return to a proper relationship to HIM after we have sinned. HE wants us to realize that HE is still our Shepherd throughout our life here in this earth once the commitment is made.
Do you need to repeat the verse above with your name it because you are doing things that the LORD regards as sin? IF so do it and then repeat Psalm 23 with your name as well. HE never gives up on HIS children.
CHALLENGE: HE wants us to walk close to HIM because HE knows how easy it is for us to move away from HIM. HE never moves, we do!!!
DAILY SPIRITUAL LUNCH: Transitional Believers
: 4 I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him. (4878 ‘backsliding” [m@shuwbah] means turning away, turning back, apostasy, or defection.)
DEVOTION: The children of Israel were going away from the LORD. They were not walking in the ways of the LORD. They were not obeying the commands of the LORD. The LORD was calling them to return here at the end of this revelation to Hosea. HE wanted to have a loving relationship with them. HE wanted to heal them. HE wanted to turn HIS anger in another direction.
HE called on all those who were wise and prudent to understand what was happening in their world. HE wanted them to realize that HIS ways were the right ways. HE told them that those who were just would walk in HIS ways. However, HE warned that the transgressors shall fall.
The question that is often asked concerning those who are followers of Christ and then go away from Christ, can or are they saved? If someone claims to be a follower of Christ and defects into sin, are they lost again? Does God forgive those who turn away from HIM?
Here is an example of the longsuffering of the LORD. HE will chasten HIS children but HE will not desert them. God can heal those who turn away from HIM.
There are those who were never followers of the LORD who go their merry way and there is no chastening in their lives. These individuals were never saved. The Bible tells us that those who are the children of God WILL BE chastened by God to bring them back.
The New Testament tells us that if we don’t examine our lives – HE will. If we continue to sin, HE will send weakness then sickness then pre-mature death to those who chose to not listen to HIS chastening.
There were many in the Old Testament who died because they would not return to the LORD. There are examples of this in the New Testament as well. There is a sin unto death for those who are followers of Christ. Until an individual commits this sin, they are still in the position to return to the fellowship of the saints.
Our responsibility is the same as Hosea – tell the truth from the Word of God and let them make a choice. When we tell them the truth it has to be with LOVE. The LORD did this with the children of Israel.
Are we telling those who are our friends that have strayed from the LORD that they need to return to the LORD? We should be. God can still heal those who are defecting from HIM!!!
CHALLENGE: Let the LORD discern who HIS children are and who are not. Our responsibility is to help those HE puts in our path.
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: 8 Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols? I have heard him, and observed him: I am like a green fir tree. From me is your fruit found. (6529 “fruit” [pariy] means offspring, children, progeny, descendants, the edible produce of trees and plants, or results.)
DEVOTION: Big brother is watching us more and more each day. We find that if we
are out an about that there are cameras taking our picture around twenty- three times each day.
If we own a cell phone those who want to find us can find us without any trouble because of the chip in our cell phone. Our government can have a file on each one of us. It is updated all the time.
On television we see people who try to get “off the grid” but that doesn’t happen very often. There are many ways they can trace anyone. There is no privacy in our world.
God informed the children of Israel that HE was hearing and observing them regularly. HE hears our comments. HE hears our prayers. HE sees everything we are doing, even in the dark. There is no hiding from the LORD. Some people in the Old Testament and the New Testament thought they could hid from the LORD but HE states that HE is omnipresent or present everywhere. NO hiding.
However, this verse also states that HE is the one who gives us fruit in our life. HE is the one who provides all of our needs according to HIS riches in glory. HE is the one who hears our prayers and answers them regularly. The answer might not be what we think we need or want but HE answers according to HIS wisdom which is far greater than our wisdom.
Our responsibility is to say and do things that are pleasing in HIS sight. IF we do our part HE will keep HIS promise to us to do HIS part.
CHALLENGE: All we have to remember is to say “Thank You.”
DAILY SPIRITUAL SUPPER: Mature Believers
: 9 Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? Prudent, and he shall know them? for the ways of the LORD are right, and the just shall walk in them: but the transgressors shall fall therein. (995 “ prudent” [biyn] means discerner, intelligent one, , insight, have understanding, skillful or be perceptive.
DEVOTION: The concluding verse of this book of the prophet Hosea is trying to help everyone to be able to discern the correct way to live.
The world is divided between those who have heavenly wisdom and those who have earthly wisdom. Some can have both but not all. The majority are not wise. Those who are wise in the LORD will understand the message of this book. It is not just for the children of Israel but for all those who want to know the LORD and how HE works in our world.
We have to be people who can discern between false teaching and true teaching. We have to be able to know what a false view of God is and what a true view of God is. Once we have a true view of God or a Biblical worldview, we can understand what our actions should be in any given situation.
Those who are believers are called just. The just shall live by faith. The just will do what is right. This takes dependence on the LORD and work in our daily life. It is not easy living the Christian life. We can only do it through the strength the LORD gives us each day. We know that we fail but we have new mercy given to us each morning. This should cause us to praise the LORD each day.
Those who want nothing to do with a daily commitment to the LORD will fall into the category of “transgressors” and will fail to discern the proper way to serve the LORD. These individuals will spend eternity in the lake of fire with the devil and his angels. There is going to be weeping in the lake of fire because all will know that they made a willful decision to not follow the LORD Jesus Christ when they had a chance.
CHALLENGE: Learn to be a discerner of truth. Realize that you will never completely be able to do this until you are in heaven. Never feel that you have arrived at perfection in this area of your life. We are students for life!!
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DISCIPLINES OF THE FAITH:
BODY
Chastity (Purity in living)
Fasting (Time alone with LORD without eating or drinking)
Sacrifice (Giving up something we want to serve the LORD)
Submission (Willing to listen to others and LORD)
Solitude (Going to a quiet place without anyone)
SOUL
Fellowship (Gathering together around the Word of God)
Frugality (wise use of resources)
Journalizing (Writing down what you have learned from the LORD)
Study and Meditation (Thinking through your study in the Word)
Secrecy (Doing your good deeds without others knowing but God)
SPIRIT
Celebration (Gathering around a special occasion to worship LORD)
Confession (Tell the LORD we are sorry for our sins on a daily basis)
Prayer (Conversation with God on a personal level)
God hears our prayers verse 8
Silence (Letting the LORD deal with some problems and needs)
Worship (Time to praise the LORD alone or in a group)
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DOCTRINES OF THE FAITH:
Scripture (66 inerrant books of the Bible)
God the Father (First person of the Godhead)
LORD – Jehovah (Covenant keeping, Personal) verse 1, 2, 9
LORD your God verse 1
Anger of the LORD verse 4
Ways of the LORD verse 9
God the Son (Second person of the Godhead –God/man, Messiah)
God the Holy Spirit (Third person of the Godhead – our comforter)
Trinity (Three persons of the Godhead who are co-equal = ONE God)
God – Elohim (Creator, Sovereign, Plural name) verse 1
Angels (Created before the foundation of the world – Good and Evil)
Man (Created on the sixth twenty-four hour period of creation)
Asshur verse 3
Lebanon verse 5- 7
Sin (Missing the mark set by God on man and angels)
Fallen verse 1
Iniquity verse 1, 2
False gods verse 3
Backsliding verse 4
Idols verse 8
Transgressors verse 9
Salvation (Provided by Christ’s death on the cross for our sins)
Turn to the LORD verse 2
Grace verse 2
Render lips verse 2
Save verse 3
Mercy verse 3
Heal verse 4
Love verse 4
Return verse 7
Revive verse 7
Grow verse 7
Heard verse 8
Observed verse 8
Fruit verse 8
Wise verse 9
Prudent verse 9
Ways of the LORD are right verse 9
Just verse 9
Israel (Old Testament people of God)
Israel verse 1, 5
Ephraim verse 8
Church (New Testament people of God)
Last Things (Future Events
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QUOTES regarding passage
The basic meaning of the verb is movement back to the point of departure (unless there is evidence to the contrary). In the first occurrence of this verb God told Adam that he and Eve would “eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return” (Gen. 3:19). (Vine, W. E., Unger, M. F., & White, W., Jr. (1996). Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words (Vol. 1, p. 203). Nashville, TN: T. Nelson.)
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At this point, condemnation of Israel is finished and encouragement to repent and receive grace begins. Alluding to themes and terms that have been used throughout the book, first the prophet (vv. 1–3) and then Yahweh himself (vv. 4–8) exhort the nation to return to God. Healing and restoration will come, but they will come only when Israel repents. (Garrett, D. A. (1997). Hosea, Joel (Vol. 19A, pp. 268–269). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.)
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The verse not only invites Israel to return to her God, it also reminds her of her sins. God’s forgiveness is to be accompanied by awareness of sin.
2 The people are not to return to the Lord without bringing something; they are to come to him with words that he puts, as it were, in their mouths. When they ask for forgiveness, the Lord will graciously receive them. Here the Hebrew weqaḥ-ṭôḇ literally means “and take good.” This is best understood as asking God to receive what “good” they can bring. This “good” is described as offering as sacrifices “the fruit of our lips.” In the Hebrew this is “that we offer our lips as bullocks”—i.e., “that instead of bullocks we offer as our sacrifice our lips that utter prayer and praise to God” (Wood, L. J. (1986). Hosea. In F. E. Gaebelein (Ed.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Daniel and the Minor Prophets (Vol. 7, p. 223). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.)
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14:1–3. Hosea’s prophecy ends on a positive note with an exhortation to repentance (Return … to the Lord). Though this final appeal would surely be rejected by His arrogant and stubborn nation (cf. 10:12–15), it would instill hope in the hearts of a righteous remnant and provide the repentant generation of the future with a model to follow in returning to the Lord (cf. 3:5; 5:15b–6:3). True repentance would involve an acknowledgment of sin (Say to Him, Forgive all our sins) and a desire to praise the Lord (that we may offer the fruit of our lips), Israel’s only Savior, God, and Helper (contrast 5:13; 7:11; 8:4–5, 9; 13:2). No longer will Israel trust in Assyria or other nations, or will she call her hand-made idols our gods. (Chisholm, R. B., Jr. (1985). Hosea. In J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 1, p. 1406). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.)
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Though His people may turn away from Him, God will not abandon them, even though He disciplines them, for He is true to His covenant and His promises. “If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself” (2 Tim. 2:13, nkjv).
God pleads with His people to return to Him and forsake the sins that were causing their downfall (Hosea 14:1). He had already told them to plow up their hard hearts and seek the Lord (10:12) and to turn to God for mercy (12:6), but now He talks to them like little children and tells them just what to do. The Lord gives them promises to encourage them to repent. (Wiersbe, W. W. (1996). Be amazed (p. 45). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books.)
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14:1, 2 Israel was invited to return, bringing words of repentance accompanied with obedience, repaying God’s gracious acceptance of them with “fruit of our lips.” (MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (2006). The MacArthur study Bible: New American Standard Bible. (Ho 14:1). Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers.)
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“O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity!” (ver. 1). How bitterly had they proven that “the way of transgressors is hard!” “Righteousness,” we are elsewhere told, “exalteth a nation; but sin is a reproach to any people.” Had they followed in the paths of uprightness which their faithful, covenant-keeping God had marked out for them, theirs had been a very different history. But they refused to hearken, and turned away the shoulder. The result was failure and disaster from first to last. They had indeed fallen very low. Yet He, who had been so grievously sinned against, could lovingly entreat them still to return unto Him, who was their God from the land of Egypt.
Let us learn from their unhappy course both to avoid their sins and to know the exceeding grace of our God. The Church, as a testimony for an absent Lord, has failed as fully as Israel. But however dark the day, wherever a true heart turns back to God, judging itself for participation in the common sin of those so highly privileged, He who has been so grievously dishonored will still gladly receive such an one; yea, He waits but for open doors to come in and sup in communion, though the hour be late.
If the soul say, “But I have erred so seriously, I know not how to approach so holy a God after having dishonored Him to such an extent;” then He Himself will put a prayer into the lips of the returning one: thus assuring each seeking soul of His willingness to hear. “Take with you words, and turn to the Lord: say unto Him, Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously: so will we render the calves of our lips. Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses: neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods: for in Thee the fatherless findeth mercy” (vers. 2, 3).
This prayer, indited by God Himself, will repay the most careful consideration. Let us take up its clauses one by one, weighing each in the presence of the Lord. “Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously,” cries the repentant soul. Having long been defiled, till the conscience was almost calloused, the light of God has now shown things up as they really are. This produces an abhorrence of the waywardness so long tolerated as though it were a thing indifferent. Unconcern is succeeded by deep exercise. “Take away all iniquity!” is the soul’s longing. Sin becomes hateful the moment one gets into the presence of God. Then the need of grace is felt, and so the cry comes, “Receive us graciously.” What a mercy that it is to “the God of all grace” we are directed to come! (Ironside, H. A. (1909). Notes on the Minor Prophets. (pp. 103–105). Neptune, NJ: Loizeaux Brothers.)
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Ver. 1. O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God, &c.] From whom they had revolted and backslidden; whose worship and service they had forsaken, and whose word and ordinances they had slighted and neglected, and had served idols, and had given into idolatry, superstition, and will-worship; and are here exhorted to turn again to the Lord by repentance and reformation, to abandon their idols, and every false way, and cleave to the Lord with full purpose of heart; and the rather, since he was their God; not only their Creator, Preserver, and kind Benefactor, but their God, by his special choice of them above all people; by his covenant with them; by his redemption of them; and by their profession of him; and who was still their God, and ready to receive them, upon their return to him: and a thorough return is here meant, a returning even unto, or quite up to the Lord thy God; it is not a going to him half-way, but a going quite up to his seat; falling down before him, acknowledging sin and backslidings, and laying hold upon him by faith as their God, Redeemer, and Saviour: hence, from the way of speaking here used, the Jewsx have a saying, as Kimchi observes, “great is repentance, for it brings a man to the throne of glory;” the imperative may be here used for the future, as some take it; and then it is a prediction of the conversion of Israel, thou shalt return, O Israel; and which was in part fulfilled in the first times of the Gospel, which met with many of the Israelites dispersed among the Gentiles, and was the means of their conversion; and will have a greater accomplishment when all Israel shall be converted and saved: for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity. or though thou art fallen; into sin, and by it into ruin, temporal and spiritual; from a state of great prosperity and happiness, both in things civil and religious, into great adversity, and calamities of every sort; yet return, repent, consider from whence thou art fallen, and by what; or thou shalt return, be recovered and restored, notwithstanding thy fall, and the low estate in which thou art. The Targum is, “return to the fear of the Lord.” (Gill, J. (1810). An Exposition of the Old Testament (Vol. 6, p. 451). London: Mathews and Leigh.)
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FROM MY READING:
Nehemiah 9
Upon hearing the Law, the people publicly confess their transgressions.
INSIGHT
Paul says in the New Testament that it was not until he heard the Law that he was conscious of sin. How true! It is not until you know the truth that the truth can set you free (John 8:32). The returning Jews experience this truth in a dramatic way. Upon hearing the Law, Israel repents of her sins and rededicates herself to serving the Lord. This repentance clears her conscience, results in rich worship, and makes her eligible for the blessings of the Lord. It sets her free! Repentance will do the same for you. (Quiet Walk)
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ENTERING THE KINGDOM
And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.
Revelation 21:6
We must realize that Christ brings us into His kingdom by dying for us, by bearing our sins in His own body, by being made the Lamb of God for us; that He bears our punishment, and that He is our only way of deliverance and salvation. You believe it and you say:
Just as I am, without one plea
but that Thy blood was shed for me,
and that Thou bid’st me come to Thee,
O Lamb of God, I come.
Charlotte Elliott
In other words, it means that you…cast yourself entirely into His hands….And if you do these things, the kingdom of God is within you. You have entered the kingdom, and the kingdom has entered you; you see that He is everything to you, and you are nothing. You see that Christ is “the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.” “He is the lily of the valley: the bright and morning star. He is the fairest of ten thousand to my soul.”
Thou, O Christ, art all I want;
More than all in Thee I find.
Charles Wesley
You just give yourself to Him and acknowledge Him as the Son of God and your personal Savior….Your one desire is to know Him, to be near Him, and to follow Him in order that you may be in glory with Him in the final regeneration when He comes at the end of time.
A Thought to Ponder: Your one desire is to know Him. (From The Kingdom of God, pp. 66-67, by Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones)
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The World, the Flesh, and the Devil
“This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish.” (James 3:15)
True wisdom is “from above” and is “pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy” (v. 17). False wisdom, on the other hand, may come from the world outside us (“earthly”), the flesh within us (“sensual”), or the powers of darkness tempting us (“devilish”). All such wisdom leads to “envying and strife . . . confusion and every evil work” (v. 16). Believers, therefore, should be able to recognize the influences of the world, the flesh, and the devil.
The good news is that each divine Person of the triune Godhead is on our side. The Father is opposed to the world, the Spirit to the flesh, and the Son to the devil, and they are well able to give victory.
“If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. . . . And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof” (1 John 2:15, 17). Thus, to overcome the love of the world, we must cultivate the love of the Father in our hearts and lives.
Similarly, to overcome the desires of the flesh, we should follow the leadings and convictions of the Holy Spirit, “for the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other” (Galatians 5:17). Therefore, “walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh” (v. 16).
The devil and his evil hosts use their own dark powers to tempt and destroy the people of God, but “for this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8). Christ assured Satan’s defeat when He paid for our redemption on the cross. “And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it” (Colossians 2:15).
(HMM, The Institute for Creation Research)
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Our English word minister comes directly form the Latin and means “a subordinate, a servant, an attendant or assistant.” :(p. 28)
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One of God’s giants was John Wesley. During a single week in July 1757, Wesley preached ten times in eight different towns, traveling by horseback. He wrote in his journal, “I do indeed live by preaching.” He had the right idea, the biblical idea, for true servants of God are nourished by serving. “My food” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work (John 4: 34). (p. 29)
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One of the tragedies fo evangelism is the way professed believers are abandoned instead of assimilated into the church family and nurtured in the Word. (p. 31)
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Of course, there comes a time when believers must be weaned away from their spiritual instructors and taught to feed themselves (Ps.131; I Cor. 3: 1-3; Heb. 5:12-14), but we never outgrow the need for parental love. (p. 32)
(10 Power Principles for Christian Service by Warren W. &David W. Wiersbe)
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