The Downward Slide Of God’s People: By Loren Larson

The Downward Slide Of God’s People: By Loren Larson

Posted on September 15, 2010 by Pastor Len and Friends

Hosea 1:2 – “The beginning of the Word of the LORD by Hosea. And the LORD said to Hosea, Go, take unto you a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land has committed great whoredom, departing from the LORD.”

Great Similarities

As the Fall Semester of 2001 at WEBC&S began, I found myself teaching on the Book of Hosea. As I studied this great Minor Prophet, the equivalents of the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the United States of America seemed to come to life before me. As the horrific events of 9/11 (September 11, 2001) took place, the parallels seemed to be even more clear. I will always believe that God uses events such as 9/11 to get His People back on the right road. However, even though there was a slight turn to God during this time, the Nation of America has continued to turn its back on God. It is evidenced by droughts, famines, the insane acts of men dominated by sin, a dominant theme of homosexuality, pedophilia, and the latest financial woes. All of these, and more, are signs to a nation that they are traveling in a wrong direction. Hosea ministered to the Northern Kingdom in the last years of its existence. God grew weary of the rebellion, the sin, but most of all the Covenant violations. God’s People, at the end, couldn’t tell the difference between the One True God, Jehovah, and the Phoenician fertility god, Baal. I dare say, the Nation and God’s People in America are in pretty much the same shape as the Northern Kingdom of Israel was right before its collapse and defeat.

The Story Of Hosea’s Children

Hosea was told to take a wife that would be unfaithful to him. This he did, in obedience to God’s Word. The children and the names given to them that would come forth from this union depicted the attitude and the actions that God enacted against His People as they continued to commit Spiritual Adultery against Him. The purpose of this little article is to awaken the reader to the truth that God will not abide sin forever. His Love and Compassion, so immense in its Scope and its Mercy, does have its limits. God goes much farther with the wicked than man realizes, but there is a cutoff. This is a place where God’s Holiness removes Him from an adulterous rebellious people or nation.

Jezreel

The name of Hosea’s first child was Jezreel. It literally means “to scatter” or “to sow.” In this name God was warning Israel that He had just about had enough of their idolatry. He was about to scatter to the four winds the Nation that He Himself had called out of Egypt and formed. Their embracing of Jeroboam’s “golden calves” started an advance with “other gods” that never ceased until God did scatter them through the agency of the Assyrians. Are we, as a Nation, any better today? Are you, as a person, trusting exclusively in the Finished Work of Christ or have you embraced the religious “golden calves” of today’s American Church? God will “scatter” the life, the people, and the nation that remains idolatrous before Him.

Lo-Ruhamah

The second child, a girl, was named Lo-Ruhamah. The name literally means “no more pity,” “no more mercy.” God protects all of His People from much of the consequences that sin can create. He deals with most behind the curtain of Forgiveness and Restoration, a place where not even those close to us realize our failures or defeats. They are hidden, for the most part, from the eyes of others! However, if Deliverance is not obtained from the power of sin in the way that God offers it, the consequences of sin will take its toll. God allows this, all the while desiring that the individual adulterous people. If the pain of being scattered and brought under the power of sin is not enough to turn a person, a people, or a nation, God will ultimately turn away from those who have turned away from Him.

The Answer

I would not leave the reader in despair. There is an answer for the individual, for the Church, and for our Nation. Let us individually and as a whole turn from the idols of religion, the foolishness and emptiness of a world in which we have made ourselves god, and turn in Repentance with all of our hearts to the Lord. Let us look exclusively, entirely, and singularly to the Finished Work of Christ for forgiveness and strength. Let us cry out to God for one more great outpouring of His Spirit upon our lives. “If My People, who are called by My Name will humble themselves, and pray. . . .” His Promise remains True!