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Monday - July 25

Wayward Israel

Hosea 2:1-12

Hos. 2:1—Say ye unto your brethren, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah.

Here we see that the names of the two children of chapter 1 are again mentioned, but the first two letters of each name have been dropped:

Lo-ruhamah has become Ruhamah, and Lo-Ammi has become Ammi. Now the fact that these are the brother and sister of Jezreel, bears out the truth that the one whom the Lord commands to speak to them, is Jezreel, the first-born of the three. He is to deliver the message to his brethren, Ammi and Ruhamah.

Now, what is it all about? —It is not too difficult to see. The one to whom God speaks, Jezreel, represents a prophet. His brother and sister, Ammi and Ruhamah, can only represent the church membership, both male and female. In actuality Jezreel must deliver God's message to them. And here is the message:

Verse 2—Plead with your mother, plead: for she is not My wife, neither am I her husband: let her therefore put away her whoredom out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts.

The fact that God Himself calls the prophet Hosea's visionary wife His own wife, reveals that she represents the church, that Hosea represents God, and that while Jezreel represents the mouthpiece of God, Ammi and Ruhamah represent the church membership. In childhood (Hosea 1), they represent the Old Testament church, the Hebrews, but in their youth, having their names altered, (Hosea 2), they represent the New Testament church, the Christians.

Now that the laity, at the command of God are through a prophet to plead with the church, therefore, the reformation here called forth is sponsored by Inspiration and carried out by the laity. It is the long expected revival and reformation to the Laodiceans, and hence a layman's movement called forth by the revived Spirit of Prophecy.

From this prophecy, you see, the Denomination is by God Himself charged with "whoredom," with having illicit connections with the world. This lewdness she must give up if she is to obtain favor with God.

These are not man's words, you understand, but God's. And should we not be grateful that He is doing everything He can to save us? The church must repent, says the Lord:

Verse 3—Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst.

The Denomination often boasts of gain in mem¬bership (children), but God charges that those whom she brings in are illegitimate children! And how could it be otherwise if the church herself is corrupted with the world? What else could her converts be? What would free them from the worldly influences, if she (the ministry), is herself tainted with the practices of the world? Indeed her converts cannot be lawful children.

Verse 5—For their mother hath played the harlot: she that conceived them hath done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink.

The church has gone after the world because she mistakenly thinks that her support comes from worldlings, from her "lovers."

Verse 6—Therefore, behold, I will hedge up thy way with thorns, and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths.

Here we see that the church proposes, but that God disposes; her plans do not work out as expected—she loses her way as does a ship without chart or compass drifting at sea.

Verse 7—And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall seek them, but shall not find them: then shall she say, I will go and return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now.

Again we see that trials and adverse circumstances are for our good, for thus is the church brought to her right senses.

Verses 8-12—For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal. Therefore will I return, and take away My corn in the time thereof, and My wine in the season thereof, and will recover My wool and My flax given to cover her nakedness. And now will I discover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of Mine hand. I will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, and her Sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts. And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees, whereof she hath said, These are my rewards that my lovers have given me: and I will make then a forest, and the beasts of the field shall eat them.

From these verses we see that it was just such a departure from God that caused the church in her early Christian era to lose her path and all her possessions, including her feast days, her new moons, her Sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts.

This is exactly what happened when the "Dark Ages" of religion began. The Pagans in whose clutches the church fell were no more to blame for the church's going into darkness than were the Chaldeans of destroying Judah and her temple. The real blame falls on the church herself. And this should be a lasting lesson to each of us, that we should never again have illicit connection with the world, should never depart from the Lord.

Now, let us read what other experiences the church was to go through:

Verses 13,14—And I will visit upon her the days of Baalim, wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgat Me, saith the Lord. Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her.

Notice that the Lord visits the church not when she is in good spiritual standing with Him, but when she is in her greatest idolatry. Indeed, He could not visit her at a more opportune time, because only when she is in greatest darkness can she possibly discern light. And her condition, you know, can never improve unless He should call on her. Thus it was in John the Baptist's day, also when the Protestant reformation came, and thus it is today. God knows how to save. Saving is His chief concern.

"God requires certain things of His people; if they say, I will not give up my heart to do this thing, the Lord lets them go on in their supposed wise judgment without heavenly wisdom, until this scripture [lsa. 28:13] is fulfilled. You are not to say, I will follow the Lord's guidance up to a certain point that is in harmony with my judgment, and then hold fast to your own ideas, refusing to be molded after the Lord's similitude. Let the question be asked, Is this the will of the Lord? not, Is this the opinion or judgment of _________?" —Testimonies to Ministers, p. 419.

Verse 15—And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.

As a result of her vineyards' being restored, and also of her being given the valley of Achor for a door of hope, the church is to sing as in the days of her youth, as when she came up out of Egypt and lodged in the Promised Land. What could her vineyard be but her own land? And if the valley of Achor is for a door of hope to her, what can it be but what it was in Joshua's time—removal of the Achans of today from her midst (Hos. 2:15)? Indeed, this is her only hope—in fact, even more so than it was in the day of Israel's defeat at Ai, the gate to the Promised Land.

"The class who do not feel grieved over their own spiritual declension, nor mourn over the sins of others, will be left without the seal of God. The Lord commissions His messengers, the men with slaughtering weapons in their hands: 'Go ye after him through the city, and smite; let not your eye spare, neither have ye pity; slay utterly old and young, both maids and little children, and women; but come not near any man upon whom is the mark; and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the ancient men which were before the house.'

"Here we see that the church—the Lord's sanctuary—was the first to feel the stroke of the wrath of God. The ancient men, those to whom God had given great light, and who had stood as guardians of the spiritual interests of the people, had betrayed their trust. They had taken the position that we need not look for miracles and the marked manifestation of God's power as in former days. Times have changed. These words strengthen their unbelief, and they say, The Lord will not do good, neither will He do evil. He is too merciful to visit His people in judgment. Thus peace and safety is the cry from men who will never again lift up their voice like a trumpet to show God's people their transgressions and the house of Jacob their sins. These dumb dogs, that would not bark, are the ones who feel the just vengeance of an offended God. Men, maidens, and little children, all perish together." —Testimonies, Vol. 5, p. 211.

Verse 16—And it shall be at that day, saith the Lord, that thou shalt call Me Ishi; and shalt call Me no more Baali.

So it is that after the hypocrites and sinners are taken out of the way, the church shall no longer call the Saviour Baali (Lord), but she shall call him Ishi (Husband). The significance is that then He will truly be her husband, whereas now He is to her as it were only some great personality.

Verse 18—And in that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the ground: and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the earth, and will make them to lie down safely.

Here is peace, the only peace that one can have today if he so desires. This is peace overflowing with safety. The saints, after the sinners have been removed from among them, need not fear beasts, fowls or creeping things of the ground, neither gun nor sword; they shall lie down in confidence and assurance that nothing shall hurt them, for He "Whose fan is in His hand, . . . will throughly purge His floor, and gather His wheat into the garner; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire." Matt. 3:12.

Verses 19-21—And I will betroth thee unto Me forever; yea, I will betroth thee unto Me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving-kindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto Me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the Lord. And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith the Lord, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth.

In saying that the Lord will hear the heavens, and the heavens the earth, Inspiration actually says that when these things take place on earth, the Lord is to be in the midst of His people, that He is to speak from earth and His subjects in heaven shall hear Him.

Verse 22—And the earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel.

To hear the corn, the wine, and the oil is to hear them speak, and since real corn, wine, and oil cannot speak, they must be figurative of spiritual food and drink—figurative of the mighty message in the great and dreadful day of the Lord. And by the fact that the people of the earth shall hear Jezreel, the mouthpiece of God, it is made clear that the call, "Come out of her, My people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues" (Rev. 18:4), will accomplish its appointed work. Those who come out, go into the aforementioned place of safety. And those who do not hear Jezreel shall perish as did the Jews who rejected the prophets in their day.