A FAITHFUL GOD

[Last Sunday morning, I preached a message called, “A Faithless Nation and a Faithful God.”  Some of our members were on vacation and missed it; others of my readers could not be there.  In yesterday’s post, I presented the first half of that sermon, “A Faithless Nation” and today I share the remainder. ~Pastor Dennis]

“What am I going to do with you, Ephraim?  What am I going to do with you, Judah?
Your loyalty is like the morning mist and like the early dew that vanishes.” (Hosea 6:4 HCSB)

You can hear the broken heart of God as He speaks of His dismay.  He has bestowed His love on a people who quickly turned from Him and unto idols.  He likens them to the morning mist, that seems to hang so thick on a muggy summer morning, and quickly vanishes under the heat of the sun.  Israel vowed faithfulness to God, but they had been a faithless nation.

Hosea came to understand something of God’s heartache, because he not only expressed this message, he experienced it. His wife had committed adultery and he had found her destitute, a slave being auctioned off.  But, God commanded his prophet to purchase her—to redeem her and bring her back home.  Gomer was faithless, but Hosea would be faithful to his vows.

All of this served to illustrate God’s faithfulness to faithless Israel.  There are vital truths for America today—this God blessed land that has spurned God’s love.  Surely, we break His heart as he sees our wicked ways.

THE SINNING OF AN UNFAITHFUL NATION (4:1-19)

“Hear the word of the Lord, people of Israel, for the Lord has a case against the inhabitants of the land: There is no truth, no faithful love, and no knowledge of God in the land!  Cursing, lying, murder, stealing, and adultery are rampant; one act of bloodshed follows another.” (Hosea 4:1-2 HCSB)

Imagine a private detective hired to follow a wife suspected of adultery.  He gathers evidence, and now the case is taken before a judge in a divorce court.  The evidence is clear and compelling.  That is the language used in these verses.  The unfaithfulness of Israel to her God was indisputable.  They treated God like Gomer did her husband, Hosea.

When we read the list of sins, it sounds like we are reading from today’s newspaper.  Although written thousands of years ago, it is a story we see unfolding on television in this century.  The sins that proliferated in ancient Israel are likewise an epidemic in our times.

God sees.  God knows.  But, we don’t seem to care.  He is heart broken and we are hard hearted.  We thumb our nose at God.  We shake our fist in His face.  We are biting the hand that feeds us!

The sinning of an unfaithful nation leads to THE SUFFERING OF AN UNFAITHFUL NATION (5:1-13:16)

“Woe to them, for they fled from Me; destruction to them, for they rebelled against Me!  Though I want to redeem [them], they speak lies against Me.” (Hosea 7:13 HCSB)

God was going to break them.  If Israel wanted to go their own way, they would be permitted to do so, but would find that to be the road to ruin.  Just as Gomer’s debauchery brought her to destitution, so Israel’s unfaithfulness to God resulted in the nation’s conquest and captivity. 

Yet, even in this, God was demonstrating His faithfulness.  He was using the problems and pain to draw them back to Himself.  God was going to break them, once and for all of their idolatry.

Perhaps God is getting ready to do that to America today.  The signs that we are already a nation under judgment are increasingly observed.  We are reaping what we have sown.  As with Israel, “Indeed, they sow the wind and reap the whirlwind.
There is no standing grain; what sprouts fails to yield flour. Even if they did, foreigners would swallow it up.”  (Hosea 8:7)

America has sown the wind and is reaping the whirlwind.  Our nation’s capital and surrounding areas are still trying to get the lights back on.  Millions have been without electricity for days as a strong wind suddenly swept across the region, bringing down trees and power lines with it.  We snort at the thought of God’s judgment in our arrogance.  All He has to do is blow His nose and devastation results. 

What of the grain?  By the end of summer, will we be in America like ancient Israel with no grain?  All I know is that at this time, the breadbasket of America is baking under a scorching summer sun.  The temperatures have risen and the rains have not fallen.  What will happen if this continues?  Have you considered the consequences of a prolonged drought?  If there is no grain, there will be no flour, and if there is no flour, there will be no bread, and we are in trouble.  All it takes is for God to turn off heaven’s spigot.  That’s how vulnerable we are.

Recently we have had floods in the east in Florida and fires in the west in Colorado.  Perhaps the floods have been sent to wash away our filth and the fires have been sent to purify our conduct.  We have not humbled ourselves, so maybe God is humbling us.  Even so, that is a mark of God’s faithfulness.  He is working to bring us to our knees and that is a good place to be in, for it is there that we can meet God. 

That will lead to THE SAVING OF AN UNFAITHFUL NATION (14:1-9) and that will be the focus of tomorrow’s study.