Gradually, Then Suddenly | Sunday, August 18, 2024

When Ephraim spoke, trembling, he exalted himself in Israel; but when he offended through Baal worship, he died. Now they sin more and more, and have made for themselves molded images... Therefore they shall be like the morning cloud and like the early dew that passes away, like chaff blown off from a threshing floor and like smoke from a chimney. (Hosea 13:1–3)

Israel's avoidable disaster shows us how sin ruins a people gradually, then suddenly—and points us to our only hope.

Praying for Our Kids Going Back to School

The lyrics we sang remind us that the battle belongs to the Lord—and though He is ultimately victorious, we are still involved in that battle. God has given us armor: the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the belt of truth, feet shod with the gospel of peace, the shield of faith with which to quench the fiery darts of the wicked one. Then Paul names offensive weapons: the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, and praying always with all prayer and supplication for the saints.

In 2 Corinthians 10, Paul says we do not walk by sight but by faith, and the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for tearing down strongholds and casting down every vain thing that exalts itself against God. This past week many kids went back to school. Within the public school system there are many vain things exalting themselves against the Lord and trying to sway the hearts and minds of children. There are also many godly teachers and staff serving as silent witnesses in the trenches.

So let us lift our kids, grandkids, nieces, and nephews to the Lord. Father, as kids go back to school, guard their hearts and minds in You. I think of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in Babylon—instructed in Babylon's ways, yet You used them as bright witnesses. Help our kids to thrive in Babylon. Protect them physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Thank You for the believing teachers and administrators on the front lines; strengthen them with the full armor and use these children as lights shining in the darkness. In Jesus' name, amen.

The Past Unrolled for Understanding

We continue our study in Hosea, chapter 13—we are nearly done, with one more chapter next week. The historian and philosopher Will Durant wrote a book called The Lessons of History, and one statement he repeats is this: "The present is the past rolled up for action, and the past is the present unrolled for understanding."

By "the present is the past rolled up for action," he means each of us individually—and all of us as a culture—are the amalgamation of civilizational, biological, philosophical, and cultural history. We do not face our circumstances as blank slates; we are formed and fashioned by a certain history. And by "the past is the present unrolled for understanding," he means we should look back to learn how people before us faced their own circumstances. As another philosopher put it, those who do not know the past are doomed to repeat it.

This is why we study the Old Testament—books like Hosea, and soon Judges and the life of Samson. Many Christians say, "I'm a New Testament Christian; I don't need that Old Testament stuff—those names are too hard to pronounce." I understand the sentiment, but it's shortsighted. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10 that all these things were written for our instruction and admonition, and gives the application: "Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall." It's better to learn from the mistakes of others than to suffer those mistakes ourselves. Non-Christians, too, will say, "Why look to a Bronze Age text to understand now?" That is equally shortsighted.

Israel's Slow-Moving Disaster

Hosea is some 2,800 years old. He ministered to the northern kingdom of Israel during a time of cultural, political, and civilizational chaos. In the eighth century BC the Assyrian Empire was expanding and conquering, and Israel was in its path. They tried to mitigate disaster by paying off the Assyrians with gold and silver, and they played both sides by paying Egypt to the south to protect them. Nation rose against nation, kingdom against kingdom—exactly what Jesus said would mark human history.

They also faced economic disaster. Dependent on agriculture, they suffered droughts and famines. And politically, there were multiple assassinations of kings during Hosea's lifetime. Men behind the scenes whispered, "King so-and-so doesn't know what's going on; if I had the power, everything would be okay." So Pekah killed the king and took the throne and did no better, and then another conspirator did the same. All this political intrigue made the headlines—but the Bible pulls back the veil to show what is happening behind the scenes in the spiritual realm.

The reason Israel suffered all this was that they had rejected God's ways. For centuries they had broken the first commandment—worshiping other gods like Asherah, Baal, and Molech, even offering infant children as human sacrifices. They took God's name in vain, bowed to idols, ignored the Sabbath, and committed adultery, murder, theft, lying, and covetousness. Jeremiah says they played the harlot with idols on every high mountain and under every green tree. Galatians 6:8 is clear: "If you sow to the flesh, you will of the flesh reap corruption."

The Final Call

For hundreds of years God had been patient, sending prophets like Hosea to call the people back. The promise was clear long before they entered the land. In Deuteronomy, God said through Moses: walk in My ways and you will be blessed in every aspect of life; reject My ways and you will receive curses—what I call anti-blessings. The final consequence would be exile. Deuteronomy 28:63 says, "Just as the Lord rejoiced over you to do good... so the Lord will rejoice over you to destroy you and bring you to nothing, and you shall be plucked off the land."

This means Israel was facing a completely avoidable disaster—a slow-moving disaster that an ounce of wisdom could have prevented. They had been given hundreds of years to repent, and prophet after prophet had called them to return. Hosea's message is the final word to the northern ten tribes, and chapters 13 and 14 are God's very last call.

"When Ephraim spoke, trembling, he exalted himself in Israel"—Ephraim was the largest, most influential tribe, often standing for the whole northern kingdom. Once, when Israel spoke, other nations trembled. They were strong and mighty. "But when he offended through Baal worship, he died." Their idolatry was their undoing. A simple application: when we give ourselves to the passing pleasures of sin, it inevitably leads to destruction.

The Arrogance of Success

Because of their idolatry, though they had once been mighty, Hosea says they shall be like the morning cloud, the early dew, the chaff blown from the threshing floor, and the smoke from a chimney. Their strength and success had led them toward disaster. Point one: the arrogance of success produces the perfect conditions for ruin. Or as Solomon said in Proverbs 16:18, "Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall."

This is the same warning Paul gives: all these things happened as examples for us—"take heed when you think you stand lest you fall." You don't need to raise your hand, but ask yourself how often you've experienced this. "I'm so strong, I can handle this"—and some of you still have a bad back to prove it. Israel became boastful and arrogant, failing to recognize that their success was directly tied to God's blessing, goodness, and grace.

Gradually, Then Suddenly

They had begun sinning centuries earlier, but now we read they "sin more and more." This reveals the compounding, expanding effect of sin. That's why Scripture pictures sin as leaven or yeast that causes dough to rise—"a little leaven leavens the whole lump." You may say, "It's just a small dishonesty, a tiny immorality, no one sees it." But sin expands until it becomes the dominant thing in your life, as it had for Israel.

Hosea gives four similes—morning cloud, early dew, chaff, smoke—and what they share is that they come and pass quickly. Driving in this morning through San Pasqual Valley, clouds hugged the hills at six o'clock, but by nine they'll be gone. Point two: the ruin of sin comes slowly at first and then all at once. In Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises, one character asks another how he went bankrupt. The answer: "Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly." It's like a dam with just a little water seeping through—then all at once it collapses and the torrent rushes to disaster.

"Yet I Am the Lord Your God"

What hope remains? Verse 4: "Yet I am the Lord your God ever since the land of Egypt, and you shall know no God but Me; for there is no Savior besides Me." God calls them to remember. Seven hundred years earlier He had rescued them from Egypt, led them through the wilderness, given them water from rocks, and brought them into a land flowing with milk and honey. "When they had pasture, they were filled; they were filled and their heart was exalted; therefore they forgot Me."

How easily we point the finger at Israel—"you wicked wretches, why wouldn't you trust your God?"—and yet we are guilty of the same. In the wilderness, in the dry and weary land, we cry out, "God, help me, save me!" And then when everything is fine, we say, "I've got this," and we forget God. We seek Him only in difficulty and abandon Him in abundance.

Therefore, verse 7, God gives more vivid similes: "I will be to them like a lion; like a leopard by the road I will lurk; I will meet them like a bear deprived of her cubs... I will tear open their rib cage." The idols Israel served were nothing. As Psalm 115 says, the idols of men have mouths but cannot speak, eyes but cannot see, ears but cannot hear. God had redeemed, led, fed, and blessed them—and they rejected Him for useless idols.

Judgment Is Certain

Point three: God's retribution for unrighteousness will be absolute and unsparing—like a beast laying upon a carcass. This righteous judgment is certain. And the application to us? No, we are not Israel or Ephraim or living in the promised land—yet we too have reaped God's blessings abundantly. As we reject God and trust other things, the inevitable consequence is judgment.

We soothe ourselves and others, "Don't worry, everything will be okay; He's been so patient, it won't come." But Romans 1 says the wrath of God will be revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of those who suppress the truth. In 2 Timothy 4, the Lord Jesus Christ will judge the living and the dead at His appearing. So the real question is: what hope do we have against the relentless wrath of God?

Hosea 13:9: "O Israel, you are destroyed, but your help is from Me. I will be your King. Where is any other that he may save you in all your cities?" If they would turn from their idols and trust Him, He would help and save them. But they kept looking to judges and earthly kings. Verse 11: "I gave you a king in My anger, and took him away in My wrath." They said, in effect, "We don't want God to rule over us; give us an earthly king." So God let them have what they thought they wanted—and that very thing led them deeper into sin and wrath.

Hope Is Not in Earthly Rulers

If only Israel had turned to God in repentance and faith, they would have found the help they needed. Instead, they looked to earthly kings—convinced that if they just had the right ruler, everything would be better. Pekah came and didn't save them; Hoshea came and didn't save them. A simple application: watch out when you think your hope and salvation lie in an earthly leader or ruler.

This is especially applicable in August of 2024. Be careful if you think, "If we just took Congress, or the Supreme Court, or the White House, everything would be okay." I'm old enough to have heard this for twenty-five years, and things haven't gotten much better. For the next three months, signs will fill every intersection and ads will dominate every newscast, all promising, "Choose me, and everything will be fixed." One satirist of the last century said, "Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard."

Point four: sometimes God gives us what we think we want, even when He knows it is not best—and He does this as a judgment. Ephraim had so much sin it was stored up—like warehouses of sin built up to the ceiling. And as Paul says in Romans 2, do you show contempt for the riches of God's kindness, forbearance, and patience, not realizing His kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? Because of your unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath against the day of God's wrath, when His righteous judgment will be revealed. They had storehouses of sin; God had storehouses of wrath waiting in recompense.

Our Only Ultimate Hope

What hope, then, is there? Only this. Hosea 13:14: "I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. O Death, I will be your plagues! O Grave, I will be your destruction!" Point five: our only ultimate hope is the resurrecting power of God. Hosea, under inspiration, alludes to the resurrection—and we know this because Paul quotes this very verse in 1 Corinthians 15:54–57: "Death is swallowed up in victory. O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

Our only victory over sin and death is the resurrecting power of God. The culture will tell us our hope is a gold standard, or overturning Roe v. Wade (which by God's grace was done), or more justices, or both houses of Congress. But at the root of every problem—in culture, society, and the world—is sin. The only ultimate victory over sin and death is the resurrecting power of God. He is our only hope.

I emphasize this because I want you to know it—and because it is God's call on your life to make it known. You work, study, and live next to people I will never meet, and God has placed you in their lives. We all imagine, "If I just had a million dollars, that would fix everything"—and the number keeps climbing: ten million, a hundred million, and surely then I'd tithe. But our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.

Sin Condemns a People

Unfortunately, Israel would not turn. Verse 15: though Ephraim was fruitful among his brothers, "an east wind shall come." Living in San Diego, we understand this—the Santa Ana brings hot, dry desert air that destroys fruitfulness. East of Israel lay the vast Arabian Desert, and the east wind of the Lord would dry up his spring and plunder his treasury. Samaria, the capital, is held guilty because she rebelled against her Lord.

Then comes a horrible image: "Their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child ripped open." The enemy would come and show no mercy—total and complete destruction. Why? Because righteousness exalts a nation, but sin condemns any people. For centuries God made clear both the outcome of sin and its remedy: only the resurrecting power of God. If Israel had returned in repentance and faith, they would have found ready mercy.

That is the application for us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. As Romans 10 says, if we confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in our heart that God raised Him from the dead, we shall be saved and not be put to shame. This is the message we need to know and make known. When you walk out those doors—after your donut, after time with friends, when you get in your car—you are heading to your mission field, full of hopeless people whose only hope is the resurrecting power of God.

Know It, and Make It Known

This wasn't in my notes, but it's for some of you. There's someone in your life who, every time you talk, only tells you how everything is falling apart—their life, the government, the world. You see them coming and want to go the other way, but they always corner you. God is saying, "I've been trying to tell you—tell them you have the answer. It's Jesus Christ." You'll keep hearing the same complaint until you say, "I know exactly what you need."

The real question is whether you actually have peace in that answer. I'm glad we finish Hosea next week, because I'm tired of giving such heavy messages—but God keeps having a word for us. So let's commit to know this hope and to share it.

Closing Prayer

Father God, I thank You for Your word, and I pray that You would plant these truths in our hearts. Help us this week, when we're given the opportunity to talk with someone sharing their disillusionment, discomfort, or distress, to open our mouths and give us Your words to share the hope, peace, and joy we have in You—even in the midst of cultural chaos. Help us find our joy and hope in You and not in the things of this world, and cause that joy and peace in believing to shine brightly in our lives. We praise You, Jesus. In Your mighty name we pray, amen.