{"id":29331,"date":"2024-01-02T22:00:26","date_gmt":"2024-01-03T05:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/hosea-9_1-17-copy\/"},"modified":"2023-12-26T18:12:31","modified_gmt":"2023-12-27T01:12:31","slug":"hosea-10_1-15","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/hosea-10_1-15\/","title":{"rendered":"Sow Righteousness, Reap Unfailing Love"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hosea\u00a0 \u00a010:1-15\u00a0 \u00a0 <\/strong>\u00a0(CLICK HERE FOR\u00a0BIBLE VERSES)<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today’s passage is Hosea 10:1-15.\u00a0 Let’s go!<\/p>\n

Hosea 10:1-15 (NIV)<\/strong>
\n1\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Israel was a spreading vine; he brought forth fruit for himself. As his fruit increased, he built more altars; as his land prospered, he adorned his sacred stones.
\n2\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Their heart is deceitful, and now they must bear their guilt. The\u00a0LORD\u00a0will demolish their altars and destroy their sacred stones.
\n3\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Then they will say, “We have no king because we did not revere the\u00a0LORD. But even if we had a king, what could he do for us?”
\n4\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0They make many promises, take false oaths and make agreements; therefore lawsuits spring up like poisonous weeds in a plowed field.
\n5\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The people who live in Samaria fear for the calf-idol of Beth Aven. Its people will mourn over it, and so will its idolatrous priests, those who had rejoiced over its splendor, because it is taken from them into exile.
\n6\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0It will be carried to Assyria as tribute for the great king. Ephraim will be disgraced; Israel will be ashamed of its wooden idols.
\n7\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Samaria and its king will float away like a twig on the surface of the waters.
\n8\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0The high places of wickedness will be destroyed– it is the sin of Israel. Thorns and thistles will grow up and cover their altars. Then they will say to the mountains, “Cover us!” and to the hills, “Fall on us!”
\n9\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0“Since the days of Gibeah, you have sinned, O Israel, and there you have remained. Did not war overtake the evildoers in Gibeah?
\n10\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0When I please, I will punish them; nations will be gathered against them to put them in bonds for their double sin.
\n11\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Ephraim is a trained heifer that loves to thresh; so I will put a yoke on her fair neck. I will drive Ephraim, Judah must plow, and Jacob must break up the ground.
\n12\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the\u00a0LORD, until he comes and showers righteousness on you.
\n13\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0But you have planted wickedness, you have reaped evil, you have eaten the fruit of deception. Because you have depended on your own strength and on your many warriors,
\n14\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0the roar of battle will rise against your people, so that all your fortresses will be devastated– as Shalman devastated Beth Arbel on the day of battle, when mothers were dashed to the ground with their children.
\n15\u00a0<\/sup>\u00a0Thus will it happen to you, O Bethel, because your wickedness is great. When that day dawns, the king of Israel will be completely destroyed.<\/em><\/p>\n

On verses 1-15:\u00a0 Here are four lessons I learned from Hosea 10.<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0 Hosea 10 describes Israel’s situation as well as our own.\u00a0 God made us to live righteously and to obey His commands (“sow righteousness” – v12).\u00a0 In return, God would give us His unfailing love (“reap unfailing love” – v12) and \u201cshower righteousness\u201d on us (v12).\u00a0 But we did not live up to our end of the relationship.\u00a0 Instead of living righteously, we “planted wickedness” (v13), depending on our own strength and worshiping other people, places and things.\u00a0 We have deceitful motives (v2).\u00a0 We have made promises we couldn’t keep (“false oaths”) and hurt people in the process (v4), ending up in all kinds of disputes and fighting.<\/p>\n

In so doing, the consequence we deserved was not unfailing love but destruction (“all your fortresses will be devastated” – v14).\u00a0 Instead of being a house of God (“Bethel”), we became a house of wickedness (“Beth-Aven”, a derogatory name for the city of Bethel) (v5).<\/p>\n

But as we will see in the chapter that follows, God decided to have mercy on sinful and wayward Israel.\u00a0 Similarly, God chose to have mercy on us as well when He sent Jesus Christ to die for our sins.\u00a0 The devastation and destruction that we deserved was placed on Jesus, the true King of Israel, who was “completely destroyed” for our sake (v15).<\/p>\n

2. These verses also speak to how\u00a0we all want to serve someone or something<\/strong>.\u00a0 Like “a trained heifer that loves to thresh” (v11), as crazy as it sounds, we naturally want to bear a yoke and be subject to someone. \u00a0If we do not serve and submit to God, we will end up serving and submitting to a much crueler master.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0In Israel’s case, those crueler masters would be other nations who would be “gathered against them to put them in bonds for their double sin” (v10).<\/p>\n

3. These verses also speak about how\u00a0when we put our hope in an idol, that idol will not last.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Just as the human king that the Israelites had put so much hope in was taken away (v3, 7, 15), just as the calf-idol that the Israelites worshiped in Bethel was taken away to Assyria (v5-6), just like the high places where the Israelites committed their idolatrous practices would be destroyed (v8), the idols we worship will eventually be taken away and destroyed.\u00a0 When we put our hope in something or someone other than God, we will ultimately be disappointed because that idol cannot and will not last.<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0 Instead of chasing after idols that won\u2019t last, let\u2019s make verse 12 our theme today: \u201cSow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the\u00a0LORD, until he comes and showers righteousness on you.\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s not that we can earn God\u2019s unfailing love by anything good that we do, but when we seek to live a life that is pleasing to God (\u201csow for yourselves righteousness\u201d), we experience God\u2019s unfailing, unconditional love and we break up the unplowed ground in our hearts and lives, giving God room to sow and reap even more.<\/p>\n

Thank You, Lord, that You made me to serve and submit to You, that You are a gentle and kind master, whereas all other people, places and things that I might otherwise bow down to are cruel masters.\u00a0 Thank You that when all I deserved was destruction, You placed that complete devastation on Your Son Jesus instead, so that I could go free.\u00a0 Thank You for Your amazing grace for me.\u00a0 In Jesus’ name, AMEN!<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2021 Justin Lim. All rights reserved.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hi GAMErs!<\/p>\n

Today’s passage is Hosea 10:1-15.\u00a0 Let’s go!
\n\u00a0
\nHosea 10:1-15 (NIV)
\n1\u00a0\u00a0Israel was a spreading vine; he brought forth fruit for himself. As his fruit increased, he built more altars; as his land prospered, he adorned his sacred stones.
\n2\u00a0\u00a0Their heart is deceitful, and now they must bear their guilt. The\u00a0LORD\u00a0will demolish their altars and destroy their sacred stones.
\n3\u00a0\u00a0Then they will say, “We have no king because we did not revere the\u00a0LORD. But even if we had a king, what could he do for us?”
\n4\u00a0\u00a0They make many promises, take false oaths and make agreements; therefore lawsuits spring up like poisonous weeds in a plowed field.<\/p>\n

On verses 1-15:\u00a0 Here are four lessons I learned from Hosea 10.<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0 Hosea 10 describes Israel’s situation as well as our own.\u00a0 God made us to live righteously and to obey His commands (“sow righteousness” – v12).\u00a0 In return, God would give us His unfailing love (“reap unfailing love” – v12) and \u201cshower righteousness\u201d on us (v12).\u00a0 But we did not live up to our end of the relationship.\u00a0 Instead of living righteously, we “planted wickedness” (v13), depending on our own strength and worshiping other people, places and things.\u00a0 We have deceitful motives (v2).\u00a0 We have made promises we couldn’t keep (“false oaths”) and hurt people in the process (v4), ending up in all kinds of disputes and fighting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":29333,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gametime-sharing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29331"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29331\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29334,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29331\/revisions\/29334"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocbf.ca\/2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}