So, Hosea 9. We're ready to pick up. We didn't get all the way through, and it's probably a good thing I would have rushed verses. And there's a lot here for us, and like I said, it's not an easy text for us this evening. I'll just ask you to hold on to the end as I try to give us some hope. Hosea 9. We're going to pick up with verse 10. We left with him, with verse 9, saying that they are corrupted, like the days of Gibeah. And we talked about that horrible incident that's kind of marked in the Bible as this thing that's like, whoa, we don't want to be that bad again. But it's where the town of Benjamites had raped this woman to death. And then when the other tribes came to avenge, that they weren't, they were kind of like, why was it a big deal? You know, that it was kind of showed it wasn't just like the acts of these dozen men or whatever it was, but it was the whole attitude of the culture that they were like, yeah, big deal. And then it comes this harsh judgment that they almost wipe out the whole tribe and what, got down to around 600 left or something like that. And so it's a milestone in their depravity is what it's seen as. And so he says, I'm going to remember your iniquity and he will visit their sins. Then verse 10, excuse me, I found Israel like grapes. I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness. I saw your father as the first ripe of the fig tree at her first time. They went to Belpior and separated themselves unto that shame and their abominations were according as they loved. All right, King James, it gets a little lost. But some of it, some of it's just clear. But it says, he's painting a picture for us. And he's basically giving us a review of history of him and his love for Israel. And he said, imagine this. So imagine this. If you were lost in the wilderness, and I know you and I, when we think wilderness, we think the woods, because that's what I always think, because that's where we live. I think of the woods. I think what it'd be like to be lost in the woods and live off the land in the woods. And I spend an inordinate amount of time imagining what it'd be like to live off the land in the woods, because I'm a guy. But this isn't the wilderness he's talking about. He's talking about a desert wilderness. That's a game changer. I'm surprised. I watch some videos of guys who go out trekking into the wilderness, who find things on Google Earth, and they go look, and they find Indian structures and stuff, and that's a different beast. It's the wilderness that Lone Ranger rides around in, you know, where he goes past that same bush all the time, the same big rock. You know, it's that kind of like, oh, you get lost real easy. In this scrub, how does anything live here? But at least there was some scrub, and I'm always encouraged by that. You know, so there's little things, but it's the wilderness. So imagine you're lost in the wilderness of the desert, or desert-y conditions where there's scrub stuff. And you found a vine hanging with grapes. How do you think you'd feel? You're like, oh boy, right? You know, it's like grapes, you know, that would be there. And I don't know about you. Have you ever had a grape, a wild grape? We used to go to a farm, the Davenport Farm. They milk cows. They have a small little thing there. And Dad would buy. We had a big old Tupperware container like this full of milk. And we'd buy it. And we got it from there because it They pasteurized it, but it wasn't processed and we got dad was trying to make us fat and because we were skinny kids And he wants to be mean rough tumble football players, and so we'd go over there. We'd pick up this and it didn't work, but It worked just years later But it didn't work then skinny kids, but we drink this highly rich fat milk and all this, but they had like a Vineyard out there a little little grape arbor that they'd forgotten about, but it still produced grapes. And I remember we'd go over there, and we'd always pick them, and it would be like, you'd bite it, and you'd get, you ever had one of those grape pills, you'd bite it, and it's like, it was the richest, weltchest grape taste you'd ever had in your life. It was like, mmm, it was just good, just good, sweet, good. That's what he's talking about here. It's like, oh, you were like finding that. Like, you had nothing, and now you have this purpley-tasting burst of flavor in your mouth, and it's juicy, and it's there, and you've got clusters of them to get. You'd be happy. You'd be glad. You'd be like, we're saved. We're excited, you know. And that's the picture. He's like, that's what our relationship with Israel like at first. I found them. It's like, what a jewel. I was glad to have them, me and Israel in this relationship. He goes, oh, imagine this. You're a farmer and you have the unfortunate name of Newton. But you grow this farm of figs. That's where my mind went. So it's the Fig Newton is your farm. And everybody knows it as. And so you put all your money into figs because you're like, oh, I want to grow figs. This is your future. This is a farm that you're going to have. But the year you planted them, you have to really watch out for them, and you've got to try to make it to the season when they're finally going to produce. It takes a minute, because it says here in this time, it's the first time they produce. And it takes discipline. My dad loved trees. We bought trees and we would try to care for them. There was one summer my brother and I's job was to set up in their bedroom window and try to shoot everything from eating the cherries. We didn't get a single cherry. We had pie pans tied in there. Those birds didn't care. We couldn't hit them. But we didn't get a single one. Every once in a while we'd get one. But he had pears and he had a group of things. They weren't pretty like a magazine, but it was a lot of work. You know, then you get apple orchards. She's got these little twigs growing up out of the ground. She's got these giant pumpkin apples hanging on there. It's like, but she knew how to like prune them and cut it back and when to do what, you know, Sarah down there working at. It was amazing. So it was, you know, it took discipline to do that. You just couldn't just let it go. And so this guy's done that, you know. And so that's seasonally planted. It's ready for the first figs in the antifrost. You're like, I don't know. Am I going to have a crop? Is it going to make it? The rain wasn't like you had thought. It's like you didn't know if it would be enough to have a crop. You battled the fig beetle. I looked all these up. They had fig beetles that plagued their figs. They had the fig mite. That was pretty fortunate, because they were on fig trees. And they had the fig scale that they had to battle. They had the fig tree boar and the navel orange worm. They had all these boys that were going like, what are we going to do? But then the spring comes around, and it's time, and he goes out, and there's the first fig. And it's ripe and it's everything that you wanted. And you're like, we'll have a crop. We'll make money. We'll have a family. I have generations that I've just instilled in the ground for my children and my children's children to live off this as this succeeds. Imagine what you'd feel like to get that first fig, knowing that you have future. He's like, that's what I felt like with Israel. They're like having that first fig. I'm gonna have generations with you. This is a generational relationship. This is a tree farm. This is gonna last from your kids, and your kids, and your kids, and you're gonna care for it, and we're gonna plant, and we're gonna have a sustainable thing here that goes, and oh, you're all in on it, right? But Israel didn't stay. It soured. It says they became shameful. Verse 10, I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness. I saw your fathers as the first ripe, and the fig tree at her first time. They went to Belpior, and separated themselves unto that shame. And their abominations were according as they loved. Belpior, sounds like a name of a place, and it is, but it's not. It's the name of the place. It means Lord of the Gap. Whenever you see Baal, that's a god. And there are many Baals. Lord of the Flies is Baal. There's a lot of different Baals. They were kind of regional, but they were all these little gods, liturgy gods that were there. Listen, here's the Lord of the Gap. Not the story by Jeans. It's a gap in the mountain. It was the Lord of the Pass there, where they could get through. And at the top, you know, because you can get through this mountain, you know, I was thinking Cumberland Gap, you know, or the Continental Divide, something like that. You know, these places that get this grand name in our history when they found them and now we had easy passage. This was that passage place, you know, and it was a boom to civilization. And so people got there and they were thankful. So Bale says, worship me here. Thank me. It's a high spot. But this is a place where you worship Bale. through licentious rites is the nicest way to put it. Because Baal is always kind of associated with fertility, wanting to be fruitful. So people went to Baal. So they'd worship him by trying to be fruitful. I think that says enough. Baal Peor also means ownership. He's owner of this area. I think him using that name kind of brings that to it. I was your god. So now you made Belpior your god. It's a Moabite god. And here they abandoned the god of gods for this lesser god. There's also what he says, Belpior, there's history behind it. And it should be fresh in the Jews' mind, but it's not fresh in ours. Because sometimes, you know, we have all these foreign names to us, we're just kind of like, read it, try to say it, get by it, you go on. But he inserts it here just like he did with Gibeah, and it meant all that horrible sin. So does Belpior, there's accounts with Moses and everything that happened there. that's supposed to be brought with this. Like, oh, I'm dropping this name. Like, if we said 9-11, that doesn't just mean, oh, that doesn't mean 9-1-1, a phone call. It brings a whole imagery in our mind. How about you? I picture planes flying into the building. I picture those poor people that were diving out of the building because of the heat of the fire that was there. You know, all that that goes on. You know, that, you know, three little things. You know, 9-1-1 brings all that with us. That's what he's saying with Belpior. Remember all that? This whole scenario? This whole issue? So what was that whole scenario? What's the whole issue? It comes up often. Sometimes it'll be the sin of Balaam they'll talk about. But this was Balak. He was the king of the Moabites, and he had hired Balaam, who was a prophet for hire, basically. He was a prophet that would say whatever you told him to if you gave him the right amount of money, much like preachers today. You pay him, tell us something good, tell us something nice. Don't tell us the truth. We want you to encourage us. We want positive, encouraging messages all the time. Balaam's like, sure, give me enough money, I'll do that. But God wasn't happy. And I find it pretty fascinating. There's a lot in this that I could go down deep on, but Balak wanted Balaam to curse Israel. He saw them as their enemies, and they're at Belpior. They're at this mountain pass, and they can look down and see them, and they're a mighty nation. And there's things been told about them, who they are, what they're doing, that God is with them, and the stuff that is happening, and the kings are afraid of them. He's like, I want you to curse them. So he hires him and he says, I'll do it. He goes through this big ritual where he does all these different things. And oh, he acts like he hears from God. And then he's going to say this curse. And every time he opens his mouth to curse Israel, he comes out as a blessing. And the king's like, what's the deal? I just paid you to curse them, and you turn around and gave them a blessing. And each time he does it, it's a bigger blessing than the blessing before. Seven times this happens where he's like, oh, I've got it this time, and he opens his mouth, blessings. Blessings on Israel. Gotta be frustrating for him. But God's like, no, you're not gonna curse my people, you're gonna bless my people. But, Can you imagine that, the frustration? You go to open your mouth, and God has changed the very words that you wanted to say, and you can't control yourself, and you can't stop yourself, and I'm not talking about, it's like, bless you. It's like a multiverse blessing. We're all this upon them, and who they're gonna be, and what they're gonna do. The king's always like, really, seriously, what are you doing? And it's like, I can't stop it. Obviously, God doesn't want me to curse him. But Balaam wants the money. So he gives Balaam advice. Look at Numbers 13. We don't learn this till later. You know, the context is a little bit later. Yeah, look at Numbers 31. I said 13. Numbers 31. Numbers 31, verse 16. Numbers 31, verse 16. Behold, these caused the children of Israel through the council of Balaam, this prophet for hire, to commit trespasses against the Lord in the matter of Peor. That's right, Bel-Peor. And there was a plague among the congregation of the Lord. This is them looking backwards. They're saying, we understand what happened. That he couldn't ever, and what happened is that he couldn't curse them. So he gave them advice that he says, you know what? If you do this, I can't curse them. But if you do as I say, God will curse them. That's what he'd tell them. Look, the number's 25. So he's like, you're God Belpior, and your rights to which you worship him, basically an orgy. You have big old party time up here, you know? He says, bring that to Israel. Put that in front of the men of Israel. They're camped right there. Don't make them come up the mountain. Go down there and show them what's like. Get them to do that. So Numbers 25, verse 1. And Israel bowed and shooed them. But from Mount Peor's in verse 23, or chapter 23, you can hear where they're doing that. But they could see him down there. And the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters of Moab. And so they take the Moabite women And in their service of serving their God, Baal Peor, they go down, verse two. And they called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods. It's like, oh, this isn't just an affair. This isn't just sex. This is worship. These are sex rites. This is fertility things. This is what we're doing. This is who our God is. They're like, well, this is kind of fun. And so they keep going. And so they called the people unto the sacrifices of their God, verse two, and the people did eat. And they bowed down to their gods. It's like, it seems like it worked. There's food, there's all part of it. There's this big feast that goes on with it. And Israel joined himself. Notice how he speaks of it all as one person here. Unto Baal Peor, and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. So it worked. Balaam's like, let them commit this sin. Let them worship this little G-God, and then God will curse them. And there's a plague that happens to where they have to then fight these guys while they wreak havoc upon them because of the sin. And 24,000 of them die. And literally, there's a guy and a midi-nice woman in a tent doing it right in front of the place where they run over and they run a spear through both of them and stab them in the ground. And then it stops right then. And people's like, well, maybe it's not as fun as it looks. And so it stops. So that's what he's mentioning here in Hosea 9. You guys went whoring. You guys are like Gomer. You guys are unfaithful. You guys left me to go serve a sexual God versus me, the good, right God, who saw you as grapes in the wilderness and the first fig. So much promise for generations to come. Then he ends verse 10 with this. I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness. I saw your fathers as the first ripe and the fig tree at her first time. But they went to Belpior, and separated themselves into that shame. That's how God sees it. That's a shameful thing to do, those things. And their abominations were according as they loved. Or the better way to put that might be they became like what they loved. They acted like the God in whom which they served. They became like the God that they worshiped. They become corrupt. They become evil. They became unfaithful. I think we'll find, you can find that here, you can find that in the Psalms and other places where it says it outright like this does in a clunky way. But whatever you worship is what you become like. You worship the world. The world's cold and callous. The world looks out for itself. The world will walk over others to get what it wants. You worship the world, you'll be cold, you'll be callous, you'll look out for yourself, you'll be number one, and you'll walk over whoever it takes to get to the top of what it's gonna be you're gonna do. If we worship our Lord, we should see something that we call the fruit of the Spirit. You'll be loved, loving, you'll be kind, be gracious, be merciful. Because that's who we worship. That's why we see that fruit within us will become like him, because we worship him, because we love him. That should be the fruit that we see in your life. If you worship these foreign gods, you'll see that as a fruit in your life. It's very specific. And if we think that idolatry, because every time we kind of think about this, and this is something Elaine and I wrestled with for years, thinking about our idea of what idolatry was like and what it's actually like. Israelite's like, those idiots, it's just a rock, you know, it's just a statue, it's just a whatever. And there's passages where God says that, and he's like, okay, you carved a nose that can't breathe, you made a mouth that can't talk, and you're gonna worship it? But Paul tells us later, there's a spirit behind all of them. There's something in there, they're seeing something, something is happening, something is going on, it is more than just stupidity. There's something that happens that makes them do that. But we sit here and think, well, at least we don't have idolatry. I remember one of the first times, I was like, I think maybe we do. I don't think we just call musicians and famous people idols for no reason. Because all of a sudden, you know, one time when I was driving downtown, going through the south side, really good, rough part of town. And they're all wearing one glove and a red jacket. I knew who they worshipped. I knew who their idol was because, well, why else would you wear one glove and walk backwards? But they all did. And you can tell. You can go to the fair and say, who do they look up to by how they're all dressed and what is dictating to them? Or look at Colossians. If you're wearing a hat, hold on to it. Colossians chapter three. This one hits close to home. Colossians 3, verse 5. It's talking about how Christians should behave here. But mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth. That's what Christians shouldn't do. We don't fornicate. uncleanness, inordinate affections, evil concupiscence. Here's the shocker, uncovetousness, which is what? Idolatry. Is there idolatry in America? Yeah, your next door neighbor is everything, right? Covetousness is what our currency is, right? It's what makes the gears turn. Are we not an idolatrous nation then? Let alone the sexual impurity, the lust, and the evil desires, you know, that he lists in there. But coveting, wanting more. Wanting what others have. Wanting what others' lives are like. Wanting their lifestyle. Wanting the people that they have, the influence they have, the money they have. You know, it's... It drives. Yeah, there's all kinds of them. Yeah. And so coveting, that's a harsh one. So yeah, we have it. It's here. We just kind of turn a blind eye to our own sin. That's the whole Jesus talking about, oh, he's noticed the might in their eye, and you get a beam sticking out ours. And so are we covetous? Is that what drives us? If we're worshiping that God, how does that affect us? It's like, is the almighty dollar the thing that we pursue over serving the Lord? Hard things, hard questions. That's why God has us here. He says, here's a case. Here's where Israel was. Here's what they were doing. Here's New Testament to kind of bring it home to us. So this is all meshed together to try to help us, to stop us if we're going down a bad path, to change our direction. I love Christianity. We can stop and change any time. You know, that God can then convict us of something new, and now we have a new standard in our life, we have a new passion, a new position, and then we'll seek him after that, that God is ever growing us, and we're all at different places, all different times, with all different things, but drawing towards that same area that God has all these likes and talents going together, pulling it together to that. But he's warring us here against all that. He says, so don't become like what you love, because if you're gonna do that, worship me. and become like me, and we'll be kind and compassionate, merciful and gracious. We'll be long-suffering. We'll have patience. All these different fruits that we can be manifesting that show Him, because it's not in us, right? Because we're fighting for greed. We've been told to strong survive, the weak die. It's like fight, fight, fight. Not the least of these. God says, you go and you be last, and then later I'll make you first. Hard things. Hard things. You pray for your enemy. You pray for those that despitefully use you. You stand up and defend them. You serve them. Hard things. Christianity's not for wimps. Next one. Verse 11. As for Ephraim, Their glory shall fly away like a bird from the birth and from the womb and from the conception. Ephraim. Ephraim means doubly fruitful. I'm sorry, every time I say that, I try not to. I always think of the Double McGum commercial. The whole set of twins doing everything, but it's Ephraim. Doubly fruitful. Their name means blessing. Not only just fruitful, doubly fruitful. That's who they are. And God, it's like they're the yes, they're the yes and the amen. Outside of God, it means double ash heap, double curse, double sorrow on them. Like in God's will, he's like, I made this train to run on my tracks. You take the train off the tracks, it's just disaster. He says, if you're running on the tracks, if you're running on what I've given you, it seems hard, it seems rigid, it seems narrow, but a train is made to run on a train track. That's where it does best when it's run free. And God says, Ephraim and me, that's where you're supposed to run. But if he derails and gets off, it's tragedy. It's a spill. It is horrible. It is a calamity. So it means double ash heap if they're not in God's will. And I guess I think of this. Ephraim, one of the 12 tribes of Israel, with God as their king, who shows himself mightily and to put himself on display, to whom much is given, much is required. He says, if you're with me, I will bless you. If you're against me, it's a curse on you. Their glory, who they are, what they are, or should be known for, he says, are blessings and double blessings on you. It's going to fly away like a bird. It'll fly away like a bird. Be like a bird traveling on free. It's going to leave. What's he say he's going to leave them? You're going to be free from birth. No births for you. Free from pregnancy. Your womb will be empty. There's none there. Free from conception. In other words, no blessings. Because the Bible tells us, blessed or happy is the man who has a quiver full of children. Psalm 125. To have children in your arsenal is a blessing. No, there's something else. God says life begins at conception. He says it right there. There's all these debates. No, it's not a life until it's born. No, it's not a life until so many weeks. God says when you're conceived. I mean, it's kind of, what else is it going to be? Life begins at conception. This is a judgment on them as a people. Ephraim, who should be doubly blessed, he says not anymore. Not anymore, verse 12. This gets rough. Though they bring up their children, yet will I bereave them. But there shall not be a man left. Yea, woe also to them when I depart from them. I didn't realize this, but the word bereaved, in its definition, means to be made childless or to miscarry. Because if you have children, I'll take them away. Because I have a judgment, and even your children are going to suffer. I wish I could skip this. Honestly, this is a hard portion of tech. But he isn't done, and he's going to talk about this for some more. I want you to hold on to the end and not to despair. Hang in there with me while I think God's doing and how God's moving. Our children are attacked in America like never before. It used to be the cry of a civilized nation was women and children first. Our nation puts our children on the altar of sexual gratification. I mean, imagine, when you think of that, when you think of a young child and the things that they are forced to see now. Because I went to that meeting with the county officials and pastors and people who represented the state government that were there. And they're like, schools are indoctrination centers. They don't do education. There's a bill on the floor right now trying to say that schools should teach reading. Isn't that what they're there for? That's not what they think they're there for. They're there to indoctrinate their children to vote the way they want them to vote and to do the things that they want them to do and overturn this culture. We don't have to pass laws to try to get it back to just have education? When you do something like that to a young child, how long does that harm them? Their whole life, right? Drives wedges in there and all kinds of, it ruins God's pictures and the blessings and everything they have. They have no innocence. It's been robbed at a young age. It's been stolen from them. They've been forced in front of wickedness and perversion because of some pervert's gratification because they wanna be able to say, I can assault you whenever I want and now it's okay. They're using children as a pawn, as an evil assault against God. That's America right now. In Montana, a child was taken away from their parent, a 14-year-old girl. She was suicidal because she's gender confused because she goes to a public school. And they keep telling her, maybe you're really a boy. What are you? I don't know. We're not going to call you anything. We'll let you decide who you want to be, what you're going to do, and all this stuff. Between the school and education and the culture, all that being pushed upon her, She decides she wanted to be a boy. So she's in a hospital because she's suicidal, because she's confused. She doesn't know what's going on. So when she gets into the hospital, the hospital, because of their policy, is to call her by a boy's name and to treat her as if she was a boy, even though she's a girl. Her parents said, we are her guardian. Stop it. We don't want this. You're confusing her. You're making it worse. And so they said, everything that you were doing, we're opposed to it all. It goes against our values, our morals, and our religious beliefs. So they sent her to another state. The parents were like, we refuse any kind of gender transition. We don't want it to be medically done. We don't want it to be socially done. Either one is the same way. You're just filling confusion. The kid is 14 and confused, they said. So the hospital moves her to another state. And now they removed her from the family because they refused to comply and call her a boy when she's a girl. They took her away because they said, we know best. And this is what our law is. They appealed to the higher government. And they're like, we think this is applying to the government and the law that we have in place. This is healthiest for her. I think the parents know what's healthiest for her. Welcome to America. Parents are the child's advocate, right? Not the state. Our children are suffering irreversible harm so perverts can be free to satisfy their evil desires is what it is. God help us. Verse 13. Ephraim, as I saw Tyrus, was planted in a pleasant place. But Ephraim shall bring forth his children to the murderer. All right, so we need to adjust our Jewish minds here. Tyre was known for its beauty, as a beautiful place. So God says, Ephraim, the northern half here, the house of Israel, you were a beautiful place. You were something that everyone desired. It was something wonderful to look at. But what do you do? As a beautiful place, you bring your children out to be murdered, slaughtered, some translation put it. And I think, woe to America. The idea of rather than give up their sin or sins and repent, you offer up your children, your heritage, your future, for temporary pleasure. It should be unthinkable. Parents are supposed to be a good, loving parent as someone who dies to their self for their children. I'll do without for my child. They can have all the food. I'll eat later. I'll eat nothing. How many people have done that? You know, in the past, who had not that much. Make sure your kids ate and then you ate nothing. I remember reading one story where a kid was asked by the father because he never ate supper. And he was like, well, I'll be old enough where I won't have to eat supper like you, Dad. And Dad's like, I hope you're never that old. Because he was giving up his meal to make sure his son had something to eat. Parents die to yourself for your children. You do without for your children. You work hard and you work long to better the life for your children. You provide for your children. You don't use children to get more for yourself. So you can get more money, so you can get more in there. Or through paperwork, you can do that within our government system to make sure you just keep having babies. That way you have more money. That way you can use it for whatever you want. Doesn't mean it goes towards the children. Just fills this welfare system in. In our county, we traffic children, so you get money, so you can buy your drug, whatever else it is. People do that. I think it's time we wake up that people do that, because we live in a safe, comfortable, our area. We don't, praise God. It should be shocking to us. It should bother us. But we shouldn't make it normal. We shouldn't accept it and say, that's just who they are. No. Defend the children. Defend women, right? That's who we're supposed to be. God help us. Hosea's sick of it. Hosea's like, I see the same things. The same things going on in this nation that became, with their idolatry and with their pagan gods, that it becomes a shameful act that comes into them, but they even do these things with their children. Same things we're doing, and Hosea, as a prophet of God, is sick of it. And he calls on God to judge them in a rage, in righteous indignation. He cries out, verse 14, he says, give them, O Lord. And he stops. He doesn't finish it. It's like an ellipsis there almost. What will I give? He turns into a question. He's about ready to cry down some judgment on them and he's like, what would you give? What would you do to him, Lord? I think he thinks, what has God said thus far? What has God said he's gonna do? Verse 11, no births, no pregnancies, no conceptions. Verse 12, miscarriaging. Removing children from parents that already have them. Why? Because they're abusing them. Because they're bringing them to murders, or they're murdering them, or they're mutilating them, or whatever it is. So he changes it, verse 14. Give them, O Lord, and he stops. What would thou give? And then he echoes and he picks up what God has already said. Give them miscarrying wounds. and dry breasts. Why? That sounds harsh. Why? I think it's compassion. These children won't suffer at the hands of their parents. These children won't suffer at the hands of their culture. God says, I dry it up. I had a double blessing for you. I'll dry it up, and I'll make it quit, and your population will decrease. And it did. And it does. It's bad for adults to suffer under a judgment, isn't it? What about children? Is it their choices? Is it what they decided? How about watching your children suffer? Can you imagine starving to death and watching your children starve to death? The humility of being judged and transported to another nation. You think they're going to be kind to you? Don't you think these wicked, evil nations as they come in, that God uses them as his tool, are going to pull out whatever they want upon the children? They always do. If they don't just dash their heads against stones, which they often did. Stop the next generation, swing their legs. They rape, they murder. To Hosea, in compassion and mercy for his own people, he says, the less of us, the less suffering. Jesus Christ echoes the same thing. Matthew 24. I wholeheartedly believe in the age of accountability. that children are at the age of accountability, which I think the Bible kind of says right around the time they understand they're right from their left. We begin to make moral judgments, begin to grow. That kind of tells us the time's getting close. That's why our children's church is vital. We're not just pacifying them down there. It's not playtime. We're trying to teach them, instruct them, because they're getting to the ages where they know their right hand from their left, and they're able to make these decisions. And we want it to be natural for them to know who to turn to for salvation when they're convicted of their sin. We want to teach them all that, what the law is, who they are, what's good and what's right, what's wrong, what's good and bad, who is good, who loves them, who's died for them. who doesn't offer up children's sacrifice, who offered up himself as sacrifice for us, we want to point him to them, the good God, the God of the Bible. Under the age of accountability I think that they'll be part of the rapture. I think children go as well. God says, I'm not ready to judge the world. Think I'm going to leave innocent youth? We know before he judged Nineveh he told Jonah, he's like, I forget how many thousands. He said, you know, there's so many that don't even know their right hand from their left, whether they'd be mentally challenged or whether they're that young. He goes, I'm just going to judge, pour down judgment upon them that God considers that. I think he takes them out, takes them out with us. But when you get to the midpoint of the tribulation, you've had three and a half years. You've got three-year-olds, three and a half. And Jesus says, at the time the abomination of desolation happened, he says, woe unto you who have children. Now you're going to try to hide from the beast who is merciless. Food's going to be hard because you've got to take the mark. And if you don't take the mark, which God says, don't take the mark, better for you to starve to death and enter into eternity than be fat and enter into hell for all eternity. It's going to be hard on you and your children. And if you're hiding in rubble or you're hiding in the woods and they're looking for you and your baby's crying, it's all on to you. All of us in here watch MASH. It's always on TV. It's hard not to watch MASH. Well, it was funny. Well, it was good. And you pick it up. Every once in a while, they had some of them, and you're like, well, that was impressive. And I remember one with Hawkeye. They were hiding on a bus, I think it was, and the enemy's coming around. There's a baby crying, and they're all like, get the kid, get the kid, get the kid quiet. And just as the soldiers were getting close, the kid's quiet. And they leave, and they're all relieved. And they looked over, and the mother had smothered the baby. I think of that when I think of woe unto them who have children in that day. So yeah, I think Hosea sees the mercy in what God is saying. I see it, Lord, to be less of us. It's hard enough when you suffer, but to watch your child suffer as well. Verse 15. All their wickedness is as Gilgal, for there I hated them. for their wickedness of their doings. I will drive them out of mine house. I will love them no more, all their princes or revolters. Gilgal, another famous place. A lot of good things happened there. This is where they crossed over the Jordan and they set up the stones and we'll always remember. There's other things that happened, but the bad thing that happened, this is where he told Saul to wait for Samuel to come and offer up the sacrifice. And Saul's like, I can do it, I'm king. He offered up the sacrifice. Samuel comes and says, God's taken your kingdom away. You're going to die. God says, I hate rebellion. Don't ruin my pictures. I have a priest. You can't just do whatever you want. David doesn't walk in and yell, but David's later. No. There's a king and a priest. It all comes together in my son. Don't you ruin my picture of my son. He judges it hard, he tells them, I hated that. He says, you're all disobedient, all your princes, all your children, it just gets passed down, you're all rebels. All your leaders are rebels. Verse 16, Ephraim is smitten, their root is dried up. They shall bear no fruit, yea, though they bring forth, yet will I slay even the beloved fruit of their womb. Root dried up, that is another farming term. If you have a crop, say it's a tree crop again, the tree might not be doing too good. The limbs might be bad. You might have to cut some of it off here and there. Once you got root, you got a redbud tree. I got this one redbud tree in the corner of my driveway. I cut it off at the ground. Root's still good. Redbud comes back. It keeps on coming. They call it Lazarus tree sometimes just because it looks like it's dead. It's back. So it keeps coming back. And so you have to pour salt on it or something like that to get it. But if the root's dead, it's dead. And so if you had a vineyard or if you had a fig tree and the roots were all dead, We had no future. There was no hope. And God tells Ephraim, your root's dried up. You're dead. That's why I'm glad we have the root of Jesse, who's the living water, who's alive and doesn't die. So they are hopeless. They are hopeless. And then he pronounces some of the same judgment on the children, verse 17. My God will cast them away because they did not hearken unto him. And they shall be wanderers among the nations. been wandering, a wandering Jew, hated from one nation, driven to another nation, to another nation, to the point where in World War II we said, let's just give them their own land back afterwards. And now they're still being drawn there because they're hated in other countries. God has intensified it. Now the anti-Semitism comes back at a record level, driving more of them back to their country. But God tells him why. It's because you turned against me. I'm casting you out because you didn't listen, you don't repent, you don't do it. And God has already told him. He's broken in a few other times. He's like, I don't destroy all of you. I'll bring you back in the end. And that's what comes at the end of the tribulation before he finally does. I want to get this in real quick before we finish. I think God, you know God is compassionate and God is caring. And God spares a nation. Here, he's sparing this nation. And part of the sparing of a nation is the fertility. And I think God rescues as well. And so I think that is a hard thing. Why do so many Christians have trouble having children? It's a hard thing. Why? We want them. There's people who don't want them. They're murdering them by the thousands, millions. We want them. I think God rescues with us. I think he says, I love your desire. I want you to have a quiver full. But sometimes he has a harder task for some than others. He says, do you love somebody else's child? Can I break generational sin? Can I take someone out of something where it's just going to happen again and again and again? Can I stop it? Could you house them and show them me? Will you break into that family line and show them me and teach them and restore them and start over? Because God says, I'm a God of second chances. I love these children. Will you take them in? And so Christians are the most who adopt. There's a lot of Christians I've been to. I think sometimes God can count on them. He says, pour your love into them, because here's what heaven is. It's a place of restoration. It's a place of reunion. It's a place where he gives you back what you've lost, what you desired for, you have it. Do I understand all of it? No. Do I trust him? I do. I do. And so I think that's how, as we see this plague come upon our nation, even more so, that we can take hope in that, that God's like, will you be me? We love them, the ones who've been unloved. Will you rescue the perishing? Will you care for the dying? Will you take in the orphan and love and care for them? So it's great to be able to participate in that. We get to rescue them and show them Christ. So pray for those as they go down this hard road. It's not always easy. So pray for Justin and Rachel as they go down. It's an exciting time. Pray for Megan and Adam. It's still a hard battle. It's still a hard battle. It's close to home. They pretend an angel, right? Spirit of our church, right? And so it takes all of us, and it does. And so it continues