our time, and we pray that as we give ourselves to a study of your word for a moment, as we give ourselves to a time of prayer together, Lord, we pray that these matters would be pleasing in your sight and honoring to Christ. Lord, of course, we're always interested in being encouraged in our souls through these spiritual disciplines. of study and prayer, and so we ask that that would be the case for us this evening. Lord, we always pray, and Dave has done that for us before our dinner, but we want to pray for our Pioneer Clubs as well, for our children, and ask that you have mercy by your covenant promises upon our children. So we commit our time to you this evening, and we do so in Jesus' name. Amen. OK, we're back to Hosea chapter 10. And let me give you sort of an update of where we are to just remind you of the flow of this chapter to give us some context. I want to look at verses seven and eight this evening. But you'll remember from verse two, that second phrase, now they must bear their guilt that we recognize that at this point, God is is saying that he is going to do what he has always said he would do, and that is he's going to hold the Israelites accountable for their actions and of their lives. And as we work through the first several verses of this chapter, we see a good reason why that needs to take place. You'll remember in verse one, God talks about the self-centeredness of the people. He says there, he produces fruit for himself, does not live for God, but rather the Israelites are living for themselves. In verse 2, we have noted there is a divided commitment, where you can see the Lord says, their heart is faithless, or you remember we've talked, that word can be translated as divided Verse three, there's virtually a spiritual anarchy as they seek to try to throw off the lordship of God. When the Lord says show it now, they will say we have no king for we do not revere the Lord. And so this is how, again, they were going about living their lives. In verse four, there is the deceitfulness of their words and the worthless oaths with which they enter into a covenant. And verse five, we've called a misplaced loyalty, how God, in essence, calls them people of the calf, how they have committed themselves to this calf idol that was set up long ago in Dan and at Bethel. And so that's where we are. Those are the reasons why God looks at the people and says, They must bear their guilt. Then starting with verse six, we start into a section on the discipline of God, on the fact that God is, in fact, going to punish his people. We've talked about this in verse six, how the idols that they've committed themselves to are going to be taken over by the Assyrians and how the Israelites will be ashamed of the counsel that they have accepted and the wisdom that they have lived by as they have worshipped these idols. Now we're brought to verse 7, where God, by way of Hosea, says Samaria will be cut off with her king like a stick on the surface of the water. He's talking about Samaria at this point, which you know is the capital city of the nation of Israel. Her king, of course, is its ruler. And so when God talks about the king of Samaria, Samaria and her king being cut off, he is talking about, he's using terms that represent the nation. What he says is going to happen to Samaria and the king in Samaria is what is ultimately going to happen to the Israelites as a whole. You can think of it this way. This way, perhaps. For my recreational reading, I'm presently reading a biography of Alexander Hamilton. How many of you have heard of him? Good. How many of you have any dollar bills that have been signed by Alexander Hamilton? Okay. So you know the era in which he lived. He was a revolutionary patriot, of course, on the staff of General George Washington. during the Revolutionary War, the British actually captured Philadelphia, which was at that time the capital city of the colonies. And the only reason that the Continentals got it back was because the British got tired of holding it and they just left. But it was also at this time when Benedict Arnold pursued his treason. It was a treasonous plan. that set out for the British to capture Washington and all of his staff. Now, these were things that happened at different times, but imagine what would have been the case for the revolution if both of those things had actually taken place, and at the same time, the capital cities captured by British, and Washington and his entire staff, including Alexander Hamilton. captured as well. What would have happened to the revolution? It would have ended right then and there, which is exactly what the British, of course, were after. Well, of course, under the providence of God, those things did not take place. The demise of Philadelphia, the demise of Washington and his staff would have been the demise of our nation. And that's exactly what God is talking about here at this point as he speaks of Samaria and her king, the demise of Samaria, the demise of the king is the demise of Israel as a nation. And what he says about this is that once that die is cast, if you look down at verse 10, he says, when it is my desire, I will chastise them. When that moment comes, there is nothing that the Israelites can do to thwart the just providence of God at this point. And that's what he means when he says, Samaria will be cut off with her king like a stick on the surface of the water. Surely we've all been in some kind of a circumstance where you've been on a stream or you've been next to a river or whatever, where the water is flowing and you see or you throw a piece of wood or a branch or you spit into the river, whatever you're doing. And what happens? That stick is at the mercy of the current of the water, is it not? There is nothing that stick or that branch or that piece of wood can do to extricate itself from that flow of water. And that's exactly what God means when he says what he is saying here. Israel, once that providential die of God has been cast, cannot thwart that just province of the Lord. Verse 8, then, he goes on. He says, also, the high places of Avon, the sin of Israel, will be destroyed. The high places of Avon. Avon is a word we've talked about before. It can be translated as wickedness. And so some of your Bibles may translate it that way. The high places of wickedness. Or it can be translated as a proper noun, as a place, a place name. And when we translate it or think of it in that way, we've seen this before. This is a reference to Bethel. And you remember that we have seen it spoken of as Beth-Avon. We've seen that in Hosea 4.15. We've seen that in Hosea 5.8. We've also seen just a few verses prior to this in chapter 10, verse 2, where you can see that in the chapter where we are. Beth-Avon was the name that Bethel was changed to. You remember Beth-el, meaning the house of God, was changed to Beth-Avim, that house of wickedness, and that because Jeroboam I, remember, had set up those golden tares for the Israelites to worship in Dan in the north and Beth-el, Bethel in the south. And so, of course, to characterize what was going on in Bethel for All of these generations, from the days of Jeroboam, now into the days of Hosea, the name was changed to the house of wickedness. And here it's just shortened now, when God speaks and he says, the high places of Aden, the city of Israel, will be destroyed. In other words, this place of idolatry and the forsaking of God that takes place here is not considered by the Lord to be simple moral or religious shortcomings on the part of the Israelites. It is not some sort of religious inadvertent failure on their part. It is exactly what God calls it in this verse. He calls it the sin of Israel. This is really at the heart of all that is going on amongst the Israelites at this point. And it is represented by this place called Bateaven, the house of wickedness. They have forsaken God and they have pursued other idols, whatever that might be, even down to the very issues of the very desires of their hearts. It doesn't have to be a physical golden calf, duffle, that they worship, that they follow. It can simply be their own sinful hearts, desires that they prefer and that they live rather than living in obedience to God. And so for this sin and the absence of repentance for this sin, this heart of wickedness, God says Israel will be destroyed. Now, that image or that that That truth is strengthened by the image that comes next, in the next phrase in verse eight, when he says, thorn and thistle will grow on their altars. And what does that, what kind of an image does that create? I'm always absolutely desolation, destruction, the very things that God is talking about, but presented now in in graphic imagery. I'm always struck by some of the pictures that come out of Middle Eastern archeological work. And you can see this in a variety of places, particularly when ancient pagan altars are found. For example, one has been found some years ago in the northern Israelite city of Hazor that was destroyed and burned with fire by Joshua and the Israelites under the days of the conquest. But they've dug this thing up and it is still intact. And yet here it is in the midst of ruin. Here it is in the midst of destruction. And yet this was a place that was extremely important to a people long ago. It was a place that they took pride in. It was a place that they built with their own hands. It was a place that they built in a certain sort of a way. And it was a place to which they would come as a matter of their religious faith. This was an important point for a people, an ancient people of long ago. And yet today we see it in ruins. We ask ourselves the question, why is that? That's the picture that's being painted here. Thorn and thistle will grow on their pagan altars. That altar upon which that golden calf, that Bethel, was placed, to which the Israelites had come and fallen down in worship, that will become a place, God says, where only weeds are going to grow because of neglect, because of destruction, because of abandonment. And we ask ourselves again the question, why? And the answer, of course, in this particular instance, is because of the judgment of God. When God speaks about thorn and thistle, what comes to your mind? Thorn and thistle. What reference from the scriptures does that conjure up for us in our thinking? I wasn't thinking of that, but that certainly could be. I don't think that's the correct answer. Sorry, Keith. Thorn and thistle. Yeah, how far back in Genesis? All the way. All the way back, sure. Is this not the language of Genesis 3? Is this not the language of covenant curse because of covenant breaking? Genesis chapter 3, subsequent to that very first act of covenant breaking by Adam and Eve, in part, this is an all, but in part what God says here to Adam, In verses 17 and 18, cursed is the ground because of you in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life, both thorns and thistles, it shall grow for you and you shall eat the plants of the field. You see, the image of the thorn and the thistle is really an image of the judgment of God. It is an image of the punishment of God poured out upon unrepentant sin, it was a symbol of the just judgment of God from Genesis chapter 3. It is a symbol of the just judgment of God over the Israelites covenant breaking in Hosea chapter 10. And I want to suggest to you that it remains a symbol of the just judgment of God even today. And so when you go out onto your property in the year spring, it will round up like I do constantly. to beat the weeds and the thistles back on my property, it is a reminder to us of our sin. It's a reminder to us even today of our covenant breaking. It is a reminder to us, or it should be, of our need for repentance and to seek the forgiveness of God. And that should be a symbol and a sign that brings these matters to our remembrance. Here it is again, this covenantal symbol of the just judgment of God poured out against sin and covenant breaking. And so now we find God using that very symbol here with the contemporary people with Hosea. But the question comes, well, how bad can the judgment of God for sin be? God is warning them for the thousands time at this point about their sin, about their lack of repentance, about the fact that there is an absence of their seeking forgiveness of the Lord. We say, how bad can that just judgment of God for sin be? God answers that question himself in the latter part of verse eight when he says, then they will say to the mountains, cover us and to the hills fall on us. To cut to the quick, what the Lord is saying at this point, what we need to glean from that, first of all, is that the judgment of God is no small matter. This is important. It is important to God, and we need to see from this text these two issues, that the Lord's wrath poured out on the unrepentant wicked will be, first of all, just. It is going to be, I keep calling it, it is going to be a just judgment of God. Again, to talk about the thorn and the thistle, we need to recognize that that represents the justice of God in covenant. It is the justice of God in covenant with the earth and those with whom he has populated the earth. In other words, it is the very nature of covenant that it include warning about covenant breaking. Is that not exactly what we see back in Genesis chapter 2 from the very beginning of these matters? In Genesis chapter 2, verses 16 and 17, God says to Adam and Eve, from any of the trees of the garden you may eat freely. But from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it. For in the day in which you eat of it, you shall surely die." It is a part of the character of covenant to include warning against covenant breaking. It has always been that way. It has been that way from Genesis chapter 2. And this is why when we come back to these repeated warnings of the Lord to his people here, about their unrepentant sin that I had been saying to you from our studies in Hosea, that it is a part of God's covenant-keeping to hold His people accountable for their sin and their covenant-breaking. You remember? That's exactly what we're talking about at this point. To punish unrepentant covenant-breaking is covenantally just. It will happen. because it covenantally must happen, or God becomes a covenant breaker if he does not hold us accountable to the covenant. Okay? Does that make sense? So even by using this covenantal language of judgment, as God is speaking by way of Hosea, he is declaring and he is warning, first of all, that his wrath poured out upon the unrepentant sinner will be covenantally just. But secondly, it is going to be horrific. The judgment that our sin covenantally demands is a just judgment. And it is a horrific judgment. We get a sense of that by looking at these verses seven through 10, and we can't really see that in the English translation. So here's where you have to do a little bit of Hebraic trust towards me, because I think it's fairly clear in the Hebrew text, for example, in verse seven. The verb will be cut off. Is emphatic in the Hebrew text. In verse eight, The verb will be destroyed is emphatic in the Hebrew text. In verse 9, the verb will overtake them is emphatic. And in verse 10, the verb will be gathered against them is also emphatic in the Hebrew text. And so as God is speaking through Hosea, And he is giving these continual warnings. He is saying, if you do not repent, you will be cut off. If you do not repent, you will be destroyed. If you do not repent, a judgment will overtake you. If you do not repent, I will send the nations and gather them against you. He is making it very clear what the cost of unrepentant covenant breaking will be. The judgment of God will be intense. It will be inescapable to the point that the wicked on that day of judgment will say to the mountains, cover us, and to the hills, fall on us. You see, beloved, this is the nature of our sin that I'm not certain we often enough recognize. Consider for a moment just how bad do you think it is to sin against God? You all look to me like you've gotten off easy. And because of the grace of Jesus Christ, you have. And as we're looking at our studies of Matthew's gospel, Jesus did not. But what we need to recognize is that our sin, no matter what it is, our sin justly deserves the wrath of God. Now, that I want to suggest to you is presented to us as well. There's a starting here in this text and in this verse in particular, when When verse 8 says, they will say to the mountains, in this context of the just judgment of God, they will say to the mountains, cover us, and to the hills, fall on us. Again, what do you think about? What comes to your mind in terms of the scriptures? Does that sound familiar? Anything? Where? Luke chapter 23 and Revelation chapter 6. There's also another Old Testament reference in Isaiah chapter 2. I want us to look at those in a progression of what is really taking place here at this point. What God is talking about in Hosea 10.8 is the destruction of the Israelites when the Assyrian army comes in, we've been talking about, and it is specifically that destruction. that we know biblically and historically took place in 722 B.C. when the Assyrians came in, they basically sacked Israel as a whole. They didn't so much go down as far south as Judah, and they they sacked Samaria and overthrew it. And God is saying that experience historically. He is saying that will be so horrific that the inhabitants of Samaria will cry out, that the mountains and the hills and the rocks might fall upon them, that would be better than to fall into the hands of the Assyrians." That's what he's saying. What happens next, of course, comes in the history of these matters is in 586 B.C. with the city of Jerusalem. When the Babylonian men under the province of God for exactly the same reasons, the Assyrians have come in to Israel and they overwhelmed Judah and they overtake Jerusalem. This is 586 B.C. and Isaiah prophesies about that matter. In Isaiah chapter two, Isaiah is a contemporary of Hosea. Speaking, prophesying some to those who are part of his generation, as was the case with Hosea, but more so in the book, in the prophecy of Isaiah, and in particular in chapter two, verse one, you can see that this is the word of the Lord that that was going to Judah and Jerusalem. OK. Let's start reading with verse 12. For the Lord of hosts will have a day of reckoning. Doesn't that sound a lot like Hosea 10, 2? Now they must bear their guilt. Are those not the same things? Isaiah says, For the Lord of hosts will have a day of reckoning against everyone who is proud and lofty, against everyone who is lifted up that he may be abased. And it will be against all the cedars of Lebanon that are lofty and lifted up, against all the oaks of Bashan, against all the lofty mountains, all the hills that are lifted up, against every high tower, against every fortified wall, against all the ships of Tarshish, and against all the beautiful craft. And the pride of men will be humbled, and the loftiness of men will be abased. And the Lord alone will be exalted in that day. But the idols will completely vanish. And men will go into caves or the rocks and the holes of the ground before the terror of the Lord or before the splendor of his majesty when he arises to make the earth tremble. What does that sound like? What is that language that is reminiscent of? Exactly what Hosea is preaching in Hosea 10. Verse 20. In that day, men will cast away to the moles and the bats, their idols of silver and their idols of gold, which they made for themselves to worship. They should have done it. well before this day of reckoning, in order to go into the caverns of the rocks and the clefts of the cliffs before the terror of the Lord and the splendor of his majesty when he arises to make the earth tremble." What does Isaiah say? That when the Babylonians overrun Jerusalem in 586 BC, it will be so horrific that they will think it better to crawl into the caves and have the mountains and the rocks fall upon them than to fall into the hands of the Babylonians. Let's go to Luke, chapter 23. Luke, chapter 23, beginning with verse 26. And when they had led Jesus away, they laid a hold of one Simon of Cyrene coming in from the country and placed on him the cross. to carry behind Jesus. And there were following him a great multitude of the people and of women who were mourning and lamenting him. But Jesus turning to them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, stop weeping for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed. Then they will begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us and to the hills, cover us. He's quoting from Hosea 10, 8. Jesus is on the way, his way to the crucifixion, and he is quoting to the inhabitants of Jerusalem from Hosea 10, 8 at this point. He finishes it in verse 31 when he says, for if they do these things in the green tree, what will happen in the dry? I think Jesus is referring to the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD under the Romans. He's saying, if they do this to me in the time of a green tree, when I, the Son of God, am with you, when I am gone and it is the dry time, what do you think they will do to you? See, the same thing. So what we're looking at is this same kind of language. It doesn't matter if you're at 722 B.C. in Samaria under the Assyrians. It doesn't matter if you're at 586 B.C. in Jerusalem under the Babylonians. It doesn't matter if it's 70 A.D. in Jerusalem under the Romans. But it will matter in whatever A.D. in the world under the reign of a resurrected Christ. In Revelation chapter 6, starting with verse 12, And it looked when he broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood. And the stars of the sky fell to the earth as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. And the sky was split apart like a scroll when it was rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains. And they said to the mountains and to the rocks, Fall on us and hide us from the presence of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of a lamb. For the great day of their wrath has come. And who is able to stand? You see, in 722 A.D., it was better to have the mountains fall on you than to fall into the hands of the Assyrians. Or in 586 B.C., it would be better to have the mountains and the rocks fall on you than to fall into the hands of the Babylonians. Or in 70 A.D., it would be far better for you to die in an earthquake with mountains falling upon you than to fall into the hands of the Romans. But that is nothing, though all those things are representative of that ultimate day of the wrath of God that is yet to come. It would be better to have the mountains and the rocks fall upon you than to fall into the hands of the living God still in your unrepentant sin. The issue before us is that mountains and hills and dirt and rocks cannot cover sin. Only the blood of Jesus Christ can do that. All of these things being the case, then of course we say, well, what does it mean for us? I would answer just very simply. from a couple of scriptures this evening, 2 Peter 1.10. 2 Peter 1.10 says this, Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about his calling and choosing you. Or the Apostle Paul is writing in 2 Corinthians chapter 13, verse 5, when he says, Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith. Examine yourselves. You see, beloved, it is an issue for us in the Scriptures to search for that biblical sense of being the redeemed of God. But we must always be searching the depths of our souls to make certain that we are indeed in the faith. of faith in Jesus Christ that redeems. That is a question we should never tire of putting ourselves to the test over. This is what all this means for us. Test yourselves to see and make sure that you're in the faith before the day of the wrath of the Lamb of God comes upon you. And then it'll be too late. For when that day comes, you will be like a stick on a stream of water. And there'll be no way to extricate yourself from it. Not even the hills and the mountains can hide you from the wrath of the Lamb that is to come. And what else does it mean for us? I think it means for us what we've seen Jesus teach us about the end of the age in Matthew 24, 14, when he says in this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for witness to all the nations and then the end shall come. These are the two issues that are left for us. Recognize that that ultimate judgment of God that is still yet to come. It will be just. Covenantally so. And it will be horrific like nothing anyone has ever seen. What does that motivate for us? motivates us to continue to search for our own souls, to make sure that we indeed belong in the faith that is found in Jesus Christ. And it ought to motivate us to participate in whatever way God has called us to, to see that this gospel of the kingdom of God and His Christ is extended to the ends of the earth. And we must do it now, before the day of the wrath of the Lamb comes. Let's pray. So, Lord, we look to your word again, and here we find warning as is appropriate in a covenant relationship with you. And we also see grace in Jesus Christ. So, Lord God, we pray that you would help us as a covenant people to really search our hearts according to the truths of the gospel to make sure that we do belong to faith. And our God, we also pray that you would use these truths as an impetus for us in our lives, that we might move forward in this ministry of the gospel, that in whatever way you have for us in this generation in which we live, that we might serve Christ by promoting the message of the gospel around the world. So help us, God, we pray, in that precious name of Jesus, who is the Christ. Amen.