Hosea 6 vs 1-11

Hosea Chapter 6 Verses 1 – 3

 It’s been a tough season for Israel and for Hosea! Which is he talking

about? I’d say both. Israel has been under the judgment of God for

generations and the genesis of the judgment has been their straying

from the Lord.

 Listen, God is not some egotistical dictator that demands allegiance. It

appears that way for sure if you haven’t grasped or accepted this single

most important fact: God is God. He is perfect in all His ways.

Faithful in all His statements, actions, dealings and business.

 Hebrews 6:13, 17-18, “For when God made a promise to Abraham,

because He could swear by no one greater, He swore by Himself. Thus

God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the

immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath, that by two

immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might

have strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the

hope set before us.”

 The two immutable things spoken of are God’s inability to lie and our

strong consolation in grasping that! The Word of God clearly states,

from the mouth of God to the pens of the prophets, that God has

created all things and all things that were created, were created

through Him. Therefore, all of creation is an extension, has come forth

from God. It works the way it works because God IS. He is the

Creator, the Designer, and Declarer and He has been very clear

regarding the machinery of all life. Walk in the ways of God and

things work quite well together. Even the internal machinery of the

mechanism will be revealed and understood…

 Stray from the Lord and the terrain gets tough. Deuteronomy 5:29,33,

“Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me and

always keep all My commandments, that it might be well with them

and with their children forever! You shall walk in all the ways which

the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live and that it

may be well with you, and that you may prolong your days in the land

which you shall possess.”

 People anthropomorphize God thinking that if I am good, then He will

be happy and reward me, and if I am bad then He will be angry and

punish/judge me. That thinking reveals an incomplete understanding

of who God is. God has decreed, and His decree is not only final

but it is the very definition of truth. If we obey, or if we disobey, we

neither add nor take away anything from Him. We add or take away

from ourselves. The way He said it will be it is, always!

 So come, return to the Lord, an in that we will find healing, we will be

bound up, revived, raised up…, that we may live…, because living

surely happens in His sight!

 Flip to Hosea and Gomer. A relationship that has been broken.

Hardship and hurt. Things said that they would wish hadn’t been said

but they can’t take back. Things done that they would wish hadn’t

happened but they can’t change the past. But, there is the immutability

of the consolation that can be found in Christ!

 Go, together, not one, both must go. On their own and hand-in-hand…

return to the Lord. Repent, start over, let the past be the past. Let

God make all things new. Accept what has happened because it’s not

going to change…, nothing will make it better…, get to acceptance

and once accepted, forgive. Lay down your right to retaliate, and this

one is harder, lay down your right to hurt…

 God has purpose in the pain. He will heal you and your relationship.

He will bind you up, make you secure and steady again, and He will

reestablish your relationship with him/her. Revive, raise up and give it

new life. Hosea invites Gomer to take his hand and go with him to the

Lord for their marriage so that God can bring the rain… And with

rain, and a little bit of sunshine, in time, comes fruit!

Hosea Chapter 6 Verses 4 – 5

 You can’t stop light from filling a room… I mean, blackout curtains

are a thing, we have them and love them, but when it comes to the

word of God, there is nothing that can stand against and block God’s

faithfulness.

 In this you hear the heart of God. That He doesn’t want to see His

people under the consequence (negative, I should say) of trying to

blackout God’s word and ways! He wants to see them thrive! He

wants them to know the word of God (verse 3) in such a way as to

pursue it and find all the blessings that God has reserved for them!

Waiting right now and there for them to have at will!

 We see this plea from the heart of Jesus as well in Matthew 23:37, “O

Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those

who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children

together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were

not willing! See! Your house is left to you desolate…”

 Let this be revelational to you concerning the heart of God. If I sent

gifts to you that were rejected, love to you that was betrayed, family

members and friends to you that you killed…, I think the next thing I

would send to you would be ballistic! But the heart of God, even after

all that I have done so against Him and without any care towards Him

at all…, even after it all, God desires to bless me and to make my

house thrive… God is good!

Hosea Chapter 6 Verse 6

 A verse twice quoted by Jesus… God is pleased with mercy, His

desire is mercy, and as God cannot change, that would reveal to us that

mercy is most aligned with His character. It is His lane. His presence.

His personality, spirit, tone, style, constitution… It is who He is. He is

mercy.

 His desire is to shield and protect me against that which even I have

caused upon myself. How about embodying that as a primary

Christian characteristic!?

 Sacrifice starts there, by the way. That’s why God desires, delights in

mercy and not sacrifice… Because the secret of it all, the mathematics

of it all, is that without mercy, there will be no sacrifice… But with

mercy, sacrifice will be as natural as rain making the ground wet…

 Let me explain, briefly. Have you ever heard, “No one cares about

what you know until they know that you care?” We have someone in

our lives that is frustrating us with their beliefs, actions, attitudes,

whatever. Give them mercy. Give them white-glove treatment in terms

of forgiveness and overlooking their offense. Do not count their

offense to them but rather love them anyway… Not blindly, not

foolishly, but wisely… WHY?

 Because see if you can learn this… That’s what Jesus said. Matthew

9:12-13, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those

who are sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and

not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to

repentance.”

 See if you can learn this. We want to correct someone and rebuke them

for their sinfulness and sometimes that is called for…, especially (and

maybe only) when that someone is VERY mature in the Lord and able

to handle correction and rebuke maturely/wisely (which is very VERY

few)…, we want to just correct everyone around us…

 In correcting or rebuking, we are asking them to sacrifice. Well,

actually, we are demanding them to sacrifice. Change what they are

doing, saying, acting…, do it now, because I told you it’s wrong. It’s

what they naturally do, where they are comfortable, and I am

commanding them right there to sacrifice their convenience and

comfort…

 Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13:1-3, “Though I speak with the tongues of

men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or

a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and

understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all

faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am

nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and

though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me

nothing.”

 Then he said in verse 4, “Love suffers long and is kind.” And love is

the highest form of warfare… If I extend mercy in the moment, not

just in action, words or deeds, if I extend mercy in my heart of hearts

towards that person who cannot find the strength, power or intellect to

do what is right…, that mercy will compel them to make a change. To

sacrifice…

 Call me soft. You don’t know me. I am not soft. This path is MUCH

harder. To long suffer with someone. To be kind, to show goodness to

someone who is not very good… See if you can learn this…, I desire

mercy and not sacrifice and the knowledge of God over burnt

offerings… Romans 2:4, “It is the goodness of God that leads to

repentance…”

 But yea, you critical Christians out there that can’t find the strength to

love someone in your judgment of them…, you’re almost

guaranteeing that you will not be a part of that person’s return to the

Lord…

Hosea Chapter 6 Verses 7 – 10

 Sounds bleak. See, mercy doesn’t work! People take it for granted and

walk all over you! You’re not wrong… But you also have forgotten

verse 2… Israel will indeed be estranged from God, but not forever…

Remember, love is long suffering…

 Many believe verse 2 is a reference to the Great Tribulation… Where

for the first two years, Israel will embrace the antichrist as their

Messiah, but at the midpoint of the Great Tribulation, the Antichrist

will enter into the rebuilt temple in Jerusalem and put a stop to the

daily sacrifices of the Jews by defiling the temple. An event foretold

as the Abomination of Desolation…

 And they will flee. They will call out to God in their desperation and

He will protect their lives until the end… When they will see Jesus

and look upon Him and finally take a knee to the King of king, making

Him, finally, THEIR King of kings… As we read in Zechariah 13:6,

“And one will say to Him, ‘What are these wounds between your

arms? Then He will answer, ‘Those with which I was wounded in the

house of my friends.’”

 And in that moment, Romans 11:26-27 will come to pass in that we

read, “And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The Deliverer

will come out of Zion, and He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob;

For this is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins.””

 Oh, and also verse 11….

Hosea Chapter 6 Verse 11

 The mercy of God, the character of God, the heart of God, the word of

God, like light filling a room, will prevail. Mercy will prevail. Love

never fails… A harvest is appointed, when I return the captives of My

people… There is a remnant. A remnant in Israel, and a remnant in

you… that is captive to the flesh…

 A desire for righteousness, a yearning for holiness, a dire hunger and

thirst for communion with God… captive as a prisoner to the flesh…

So, bark at them! Get critical. Get angry. Get mad. The remnant is not

a criminal but a captive and the mercy of God, the goodness of God,

the love of God and the faithfulness of God will set the captive free!

Go and see if you can learn that…