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JESUS IS ISRAEL, GOD'S SONHosea 11:1-12INTRODUCTION I doubt there is a more exquisite pain that that caused by the betrayal of family members. There is nothing more personally devastating than when those whom we love and whom we expect to love us betray us and desert us. Human beings in every culture recognize that husbands and wives breaking their promises, parents deserting their children and children turning their backs on the love of their parents are not only painful but evil acts. It is for this reason that the OT prophets regularly use the metaphor of the adulterous wife and the disobedient son to capture the reality of our relationship to God. God is the loving, faithful husband and we are the faithless, adulterous wife. God is the nurturing, loving father and we are the rebellious, wayward son. The prophet Hosea uses these two metaphors throughout the course of his entire preaching ministry to Israel. In the eleventh chapter of the written record of his ministry he specifically uses the father/son relationship to describe God's relationship to Israel. However, this chapter in Hosea, indeed this entire book, is about far more than God's relationship to national, ethnic Israel. We know this because Matthew, who wrote one of the biographies of Jesus in the NT, quotes the first verse of this chapter in the second chapter of his biography. After Joseph is warned in a dream of Herod's murderous plot to kill the toddler Jesus he flees to Egypt with the child and his mother. Then Matthew says in v. 15, "…a nd so was fulfilled what the Lord had said through the prophet: "Out of Egypt I called my son. " By quoting this verse, Matthew gives us a clue as to the meaning of those long centuries of the sad history of God's relationship to the nation of Israel . Israel and God's relationship to Israel is in some sense a portrait or symbol of Jesus and his relationship to God his Father. The history of Israel is ultimately the history of Jesus. We do not have time this afternoon to work out all the implications of Jesus being Israel , God's son. However, we will be able to see and I trust rejoice in some of the glory of Jesus that is revealed in just the eleventh chapter of Hosea. If there is one thing that is quite clear in Hosea 11 it is God's determination to live in a loving relationship with Israel . His love for Israel , in spite of his disobedience is clearly stated. One of the primary themes in the Bible can be viewed here: it has always been God's plan to live forever in fellowship with his children. Hosea 11 tells us how God has pursued that goal and particularly how Jesus is instrumental in God's attaining that objective. One of the things that we are going to see here is how different God is from us. Jilted spouses and betrayed parents have no power to change adulterous spouses or rebellious children. However, God is able to do what we cannot do. He is able to do all that is necessary to reconcile himself to his disobedient children and to reconcile them to himself. MAI N POINT God's plan has always been to live forever in fellowship with obedient children therefore… I. He formed, saved, sustained and appealed to Israel (vv. 1-4) All the way back in Exodus 4, when God was giving Moses his commission to go to Pharaoh in order to deliver Israel from his slavery to the Egyptians he said to Moses, " The LORD said to Moses, 'When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go. 22 Then say to Pharaoh, "This is what the LORD says: Israel is my firstborn son, 23 and I told you, "Let my son go, so he may worship me."'" When did Israel become God's firstborn son? The book of Genesis recounts this story of God's calling Abram and promising to make him into a great nation through giving to Abram the son of promise, Isaac. God did not call Abram because of anything Abram did but he called him freely, by grace. Then Isaac is treated as Abraham's firstborn son even though he is actually the second born son. Then Isaac has twin boys and God treats the second born, Jacob as the firstborn over the naturally firstborn, Esau. Jacob, if you will remember, is renamed by God , Israel . What we discover as we read through the early history of the patriarchs of the nation of Israel in Genesis is that Israel is God's firstborn son by grace, by God's free choice. Then, as we come to Exodus we find out that he called his son out of Egypt by the hand of Moses, his servant and prophet. He sent his signs and wonders against Pharaoh and all his servants. Again, God did not save Israel out of Egypt because of anything that Israel did. In fact, on numerous occasions throughout the history of Israel , the prophets remind Israel that they were worshipping the idols of Egypt when God sent Moses to save them. So God saves Israel from Egypt by his sovereign grace, not because they deserve his help. Then, following God's deliverance from Egypt we watch God take care of Israel and bring them into the land of Promise . He provides them with everything they need and destroys all their enemies. This is the point of vv. 3-4. What a tender picture of God's fatherly care for Israel is here. There has never been a better father than the father of Israel . Does God do this because they are such an obedient son? Absolutely not. At the first opportunity, while Moses is on Mt. Sinai they make a golden calf and worship it. As v. 2 says, the more God spoke to them, the more they worshipped false gods. That is the sad history of Israel . God keeps speaking to Israel through the Law of Moses, through the temple and priests and sacrifices and through the prophets and yet Israel continues to worship false gods. God's persistent speaking to Israel is another mark of God's grace. How long would you keep pleading with a disobedient son to turn around? How long would you keep providing his room and board and spending money while he despises you and your values? For centuries God provides Israel with everything and even though they know better because God speaks to them daily, yet they refuse to love him and obey him. They instead rebel against him and mock him and despise him in every way. The story of Israel is the story of humanity with this one exception: Israel was the only people to whom God spoke. He called Israel alone through the Law and the Prophets, until the coming of Christ. The apostle Paul says to non-Jewish, idol worshipping Greek's in the town of Lystra , "In the past God let all nations go their own way. Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy." Later, while speaking to idol-worshipping, non-Jewish people in the intellectual capital of the ancient world, Athens, Greece, he says, "The God who made the world and everything in it is Lord of heaven and earth and he does not live in temples built by human hands and he is not served by human hands as if he needed anything because he himself gives all men, life and breath and everything else." The point is that just as God cared for Israel he has cared for every human being. None of us decided to be born. None of us keep ourselves living. Everything we have is a gift from God. We have done nothing to earn it, nor do we deserve it. God forms us and sustains every moment of our lives, just as he formed and secured Israel throughout their existence as a nation. God's plan has always been to live forever in fellowship with obedient children therefore…
II. He rejected disobedient Israel (vv. 2, 5-7 & 12) In spite of God's tender care, Israel refuses to love and submit to their Father. Finally, his patience runs out. He is determined to destroy them. He disowns his son. This is the message of the prophets in the OT. God will not put up with a rebellious son forever. In vv. 5-7 God declares his just and fair judgment upon his disobedient son. He declares that he will return them to the humility bondage from which he delivered them. Verse 5, unlike the NIV has it literally says, "They will not return to Egypt but Assyria, he will be their ruler because they refused to return to me. Their cities will be destroyed and they will go into exile where Assyria will be their master. God is, as the Scriptures say, slow to anger. He is patient with sinners. However there is an end to his patience. Our problem is that we mistake his patience for his approval. Because we are not yet experiencing what our sins deserve, we automatically assume that we will never experience what our sins deserve. What God's dealings with Israel are meant to show us is that there is an end to his patience. We should return to him now, while there is yet time before his patience runs out in our case. There is a difference between the rebellion of Israel and the rebellion of those who have never heard the gospel. They rebelled against specific and ongoing entreaty. Those without the Law and the Prophets, that is, without the Bible, are rebelling against the glory of God that is revealed in creation and against the law of God that is in their conscience. There are no human beings who are not the recipients of God's kindness and who are not rebelling against some knowledge of God. Those, like Israel, like us, who have been given God's specific word are guilty of a greater rebellion because we have been given more light but all humans are rebelling against some form of God's revelation of himself. All humans know that there is a great being who is not made out of matter and energy and to whom we owe everything and yet all humans are more impressed with creation than with the creator. Thus we all deserve to be disowned by God just as God disowned national Israel. God's plan has always been to live forever in fellowship with obedient children therefore…
III. He loves disobedient children in and through his obedient Son (vv. 8-11) Verses 8-11 reveal something of the great love of God in a way that is very powerful. As God contemplates expelling Israel from his house, his heart is overcome with compassion and love. He cannot bear to put his son whom he loves out of his house. He cannot treat his son as he treated the people of Admah and Zeboiim which were two cities that were allied with Sodom and Gomorrah and were burned up in the fire of God's wrath on that dreadful day of judgment. He is determined to not treat his son as his enemy. He is God, not man and thus he will save his people. It is because he is holy that he will save his people. Please do not pass this by. The reason that God will save his people is not due to something in his people but rather due to something in himself. He saves his people because of who he is, not because of who they are. He loves his people and is determined to bring them back into the land because of his concern for the glory of his own name. Because he is holy he must punish evil. However, because he made a promise to save the "descendants of Abraham" he must save the remnant of his people. This is depicted in vv. 10-11 as God's roaring like a lion and bringing all of his people out of the nations, trembling. It is at this point that the person reading Hosea prior to Christ would have to raise a serious question. It actually has two parts to it. First, how can a holy God welcome such evil people to live with him in his holy land? Second, these people do not want to live with God. They have made that obvious throughout their history. How will God persuade them to want to live with him? This is the problem with prodigal children. If you have a child who despises you and uses all the money you give to him to do drugs and commit crimes and persuade others to join in despising you, how can it be right for you to bring that child into your home and continue supporting his insurrection? Also, why would a child like this want to live with you, anyway? This is where Matthew's quoting of v. 1 in relation to Jesus comes in. Jesus is an obedient son. God is never angry with him. Jesus uses all the gifts his Father gives him for the glory of the Father. He loves the Father and always does his will. God has no reason to be angry with him. He is eager to have this son live with him forever. Jesus does what Israel never did and so God is able to give to Jesus what he could never justly give to Israel, the right to sit at his right hand forever. But also, we discover that while Jesus did not deserve God's anger yet God treated him just like he treated Admah and Zeboiim. He treated Jesus as if he was a disobedient son by killing him on that Roman cross. What's happening here? Jesus voluntarily took God's anger against all of God's disobedient sons upon himself. Thus, Jesus, the obedient son, dies for all the disobedient sons who trust in him. The children that God is going to bring back out of the nations are all those who are united to his beloved Son through their faith in him. The people of God, with the coming of Jesus who is God's son, Israel, are no longer identified by their race but by their relationship to Jesus. The Father is going to welcome into his home forever all those who have been forgiven of their sins by the death of his obedient Son, Jesus. In addition, through the obedience of his son, he has given his Holy Spirit to all of his disobedient sons so that we now want to obey God. The way to know that you are one of those disobedient sons over whom God's compassions are aroused is to examine whether or not you are trusting in Jesus Christ alone as your savior and whether or not you now view obedience to God the Father as your greatest ambition. Jesus is God's obedient son, Israel, who makes all God's disobedient sons, those who trust him, acceptable to God by his life and his death. God will not accept anyone other than those disobedient ones who are united to his obedient son by faith. So I urge you this day to wait no longer. Stop living in rebellion to this great God who gives you everything. Trust in the obedient son so that you, in spite of your long disobedience, will be accepted by your heavenly Father. God's plan has always been to live forever in fellowship with obedient children therefore…
© Copyright 2007 John Swanson.
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