833 - Les Feldick Bible Study - Lesson 2 Part 1 Book 70 - Adulterous Israel to be Restored - Part 1

https://lesfeldickbiblestudy.com Through the Bible with Les Feldick LESSON 2 * PART 1 * BOOK 70 ADULTEROUS ISRAEL TO BE RESTORED – PART 1 Hosea 2:14 – 4:14 Okay, it is good to see everybody in this afternoon. I’ll have to share with our television audience that we’ve got folks here -- I hope I can remember them all -- from Minnesota, Mississippi, Iowa, Oklahoma, of course, and Michigan. Now, did I hit everybody? Hopefully. Anyway, we’re glad to have folks stop in when they’re -- and there’s Texas --but you haven’t been here that long. Anyway, for all of you out in television, we’re glad that you’ve invited us into your home or wherever you are. Again, we always have to thank every one of you for your prayer support and for all that goes with it. Again, we love your letters. Sometimes they’re a little too short. Sometimes they’re a little too long, but we love them anyway. Okay, we’re going to pick right up where we left off in our last program, which was over a month ago, I guess. We’re in Hosea. We’re going to be looking at chapter 2 verse 14. Now again, for just a little bit of recap, you want to remember that these are the minor prophets. They’re not called minor because they’re of lesser importance, but simply because they’re shorter in content. They’re not nearly as long as Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel. A lot of it is repetition, so bear with me. A lot of the things that we brought out in the Book of Isaiah are popping up again in all these minor prophets, because you see, the whole scope of the Old Testament, from Genesis chapter 12 on, is the Lord preparing the Nation of Israel for the coming of their Messiah, Redeemer, King, and a Kingdom. In the time that elapsed, of course, Israel is going to go so deep into unbelief that they will actually become an idolatrous nation. That’s what we’re dealing with primarily in these minor prophets - their idolatry. As we pointed out in the first chapter of Hosea, if you just read it casually, you’d think that God is actually talking in terms of the prostitution and the houses of ill repute. But when He tells Hosea to go and marry a harlot, He’s not talking about physical sexuality as we’re thinking of it. It’s all in the realm of the Spirit. So, it’s this constant reference that all of this idolatry and all of this chasing after idols are like a man chasing after the women of the street. Always keep in mind that we’re talking about Israel and idolatry. That was God’s number one controversy with the people of Israel. It is unbelievable that here you have the covenant people brought out of Egypt miraculously through the Red Sea, brought down to Sinai, given the Law and the Temple and the Priesthood, and then miraculously brought into the Promised Land, and then within a few hundred years they are just as steeped in idolatry as the other nations around them. Of course, that’s why to the casual reader God seemed so harsh way up there in Moses’ time -- when God says to Israel to have nothing to do with those people. Don’t intermarry with them. Then later on when He told them to cleanse the land, He even said to kill all the men, women, and children. Well, it wasn’t because God was so heartless. God knew that if He didn’t take idolatrous people away from contact with His people, it never goes the good way. It always goes the bad way. This is what I tell young people when they start dating – “Don’t ever start dating someone, boy or girl, with the idea that you’re going to win them to the Lord and you’re going to make them better.” Usually it doesn’t work. It goes the other way. The same thing with Israel after all of their warnings, here we find them now, at the time of Hosea, which is only about 300 years after King David. We’re talking about 700 BC and David was 1000 BC, Moses – 1500 BC. But in that relatively short period of time, the Nation of Israel has gone totally into idolatry, with just a scattered, few true believers; and they were hated by the majority. I mean just like today, you folks are finding out. You take the truth of these things into a liberal church Sunday school and they just about ride you out on a rail. That’s the way it’s always been. Okay, let’s jump in here now, Hosea chapter 2 verse 14. Hosea 2:14 “Therefore, behold, (This is God speaking to the Nation through the prophet. God said,) I will allure her, (In other words, just like a suitor.) I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her.” Now, I think this is a reflection on their wilderness experience after they came out of Egypt, and how God providentially watched over them and cared for them and supplied their every need. He’s going to try and do it again to bring them back to Himself. All right, now verse 15 is a promise of blessing, not of discipline, but blessing. #LesFeldick #BibleStudy #Bible