Lesson #15

HOSEA 13
Lesson #14
THE NEED FOR A SAVIOR

• Memory Verse: Hos 13:9

• The wages of sin
• Read Rom 6:22-23
• The concept of death as a consequence of sin is a theme that goes through the entire Bible. While we see it as a concept in both the Old Testament and the New Testament, its reality is demonstrated in the book of Hosea.
• Read Hos 13:1-9
• “When Ephraim spake trembling, he exalted himself in Israel…” (1)
• God told the Israelites to worship Him with fear and trembling. (Psa 2:11)
• When the believer worships and serves God with an awesome respect, God exalts him. (Phi 2:12)
• Of the twelve tribes of Israel, Ephraim became large and powerful. When the leaders of this tribe spoke, everyone listened.
• When the tribe of Ephraim rebelled against the authority of the leaders from the tribe of Judah, the nation of Israel was divided into two nations.
• Ephraim exalted himself to be the leader of the Northern Kingdom.
• Civil rebellion was one thing, but spiritual rebellion soon followed.
• “…but when he offended in Baal, he died.”

(1)

• The tribe of Ephraim led the Northern Kingdom into the idol worship of the golden calf, and into the worship of the god Baal.
• The worship of idols and other gods results in death, simply because there is only eternal life in Jesus Christ.
• The worship of idols and other gods is sin and sin results in spiritual death.
• When you hear people say that there are many ways to God or that we all get to heaven in the end, some by this religion and others by that religion, they are speaking from ignorance of God and the Bible.
• This is the same ignorance that the Israelites had.
• It reminds me of when we lived in Japan before we had come to know Jesus Christ as our personal savior. We were talking to a Baptist missionary. This man had labored many years to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ to the Japanese people with very small results. He said that his biggest obstacle was the common belief among the Japanese people that many roads led to the same eternal destiny. A Japanese man explained it this way. When you are born in Japan you live a good life based on the concepts of good and evil from Confucius where you try not to embarrass your dead ancestors. When the Japanese person marries, he is married by a Shinto priest. When he dies and is buried, he dies as a Buddhist and a Buddhist priest performs the ceremony. Therefore, for a Japanese to add Jesus Christ to this mix of religious practice is not of much importance.
• The tribe of Ephraim brought both physical and spiritual death to the Northern Kingdom :
• The Physical death came from Assyria because of their rebellion against God that left the nation of Israel weak, vulnerable, and divided.
• The Spiritual death came because of their rebellion against God that opened them and introduced them to the idolatry of the worship of the golden calf, and the worship of the god Baal.
• “…Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves.”

(2)

• The kiss was a form of total acknowledgment, respect, and worship.
• Read Psa 2:1-12
• The Psalmist tells us to kiss the son, not the calf.
• Psalms 2 is a prophecy of the judgment of nations that will occur at the beginning of the Millennial Kingdom. Nations will acknowledge how they had treated Jesus Christ.
• Jesus told the Samaritan woman that true worship was to worship in Spirit and in truth. (Joh 4:23)
• True worship is accomplished by:
• How we live our daily lives.
• How we do business.
• How we treat other people.
• How we give to God.
• Our attitudes and actions.
• Our priorities and values.
• Four graphic illustrations to describe the impending judgment:
• =1= the morning cloud
• The morning haze vanishes immediately with the rising sun.
• =2= the early dew
• The early morning dew is small moisture that vanishes immediately when the sun dries it.
• =3= the chaff
• The chaff from the harvest of grain is immediately dispersed by a sudden gust of wind.
• =4= the smoke
• Smoke is a layer of particles in the air that is suddenly dispersed by the wind.
• “…there is no savior beside me.” (

4)

• God tells Israel in verse 4 that He is the God that saved them from their enemy in Egypt.
• The Old Testament concept of a savior that brings salvation is something we, as New Testament believers, need to understand.
• In the Old Testament, the meaning of the word, salvation, contained the following concepts:
• Salvation from personal and national enemies both physically and spiritually.
• Salvation from personal and national need physically, materially and spiritually.
• Salvation of the body, the soul, and the spirit of man from any danger, any threat, any destruction, any illness, any natural disaster, or any need.
• The concept of a savior was anyone who could bring about salvation in any of the previous categories.
• With this Old Testament concept of salvation and a Savior, we can easily see how the Jewish people failed to understand Jesus Christ. They focused primarily on the physical need of salvation from the national enemy, Rome.
• In the same way that Moses led Israel as a nation out of the bondage of Egypt to save them from their national enemy, they looked for someone like Moses to deliver them from their national enemy, Rome.
• While these physical, material, and national aspects of salvation and a savior are evident in many of the stories of the Old Testament, the spiritual aspect of salvation and a savior are of eternal value.
• Jesus Christ is the triumphant savior over man’s ultimate enemy, Satan.
• Jesus Christ is the triumphant savior over man’s sin to fill man’s deepest needs: that of forgiveness from sin, and that of eternal life.
• The New Testament has its focus on this spiritual need of man and presents us with Jesus Christ as the only savior. (Joh 14:6)
• The prophetic beasts that point to Israel’s national need of salvation and a savior.
• Through history for thousands of years, God has permitted other nations to conquer and destroy the Promised Land and its people only to get Israel’s attention to be able to see their need of a savior.
• The names of the various beasts mentioned in Hos 13: 7-8 bring to mind the prophecies of Daniel 7. However, they are not listed in Hosea in the proper order of their historical appearance as nations that crossed Israel’s path. All these nations were or will be Israel’s enemies.
• Lion
• Babylon
• This was the nation that destroyed the Southern Kingdom and took the people captive to Babylon to join the people of the Northern Kingdom already in captivity in Babylon.
• Leopard
• Greece
• The Greek nation of Alexander the Great that controlled the Promised Land for a period of time.
• Bear
• The Medo-Persian Empire
• This empire took control of the Middle East after Babylon. At first it consisted of people from Assyria.
• Hosea tells us that this empire will be like a mother bear that is robbed of its babies.
• The wild beast
• The first non-descript beast, according to Daniel’s prophecies, is the Roman Empire. However, Daniel’s prophecies speak of a second non-descript wild beast.
• The kingdom of the Antichrist in the tribulation period is illustrated as a non-descript wild beast in the book of Revelation. (Rev 13)
• It is this last beast, the Antichrist, that will finally get Israel’s attention and put pressure on them to seek their savior, Jesus Christ.
• What is the meaning of verse 7?
• Through all these historical kingdoms, God is watching the response of Israel to these enemies and is waiting for the Jewish people to seek Him for salvation. He will use these enemies to put pressure on His people.
• Notice the phrase, “O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help.” (9)
• The consequences of their sin has led to the destruction of Israel many times over and will continue to do so until they seek God’s help.

• Read Hos 13:10-16

• “I will be thy king…”

(10)

• From the beginning of Israel as a nation when they entered the Promised Land with Joshua, God wanted to be their king. God’s plan was to have a Theocracy.
• The word, theocracy means = government by the immediate direction and power of God and for God.
• However, the Israelites did not want God to be their king. They wanted a human king like all the other nations. (10) (1Sam 8:5-7)
• In God’s permissive will, He gave them King Saul.
• Like all human kings, Saul was a failure and the people blamed God for Saul’s failures.
• God gave them King David.
• Israel’s second king was King David.
• David was supposed to be Israel’s first king according to the prophecies in Gen 49:8-12. David was from the tribe of Judah while Saul was not. He was from the tribe of Benjamin.
• Therefore, God’s perfect will was for Israel to have a king from the lineage of David.
• However, God could not give Israel its first king from the tribe of Judah because of a curse put on the descendents of that tribe.
• Judah had an immoral sexual relationship with his daughter-in-law, Tamar, (Gen 38) that brought a curse on the tribe of Judah.
• The curse on the tribe of Judah was to last for 10 generations. (Deu 23:2)
• The tenth generation ended with David. (Rut 4:18-22)
• David was God’s choice, but even David was not the “perfect” king. He was human and sinful.
• God’s perfect will and perfect choice is Jesus Christ from the lineage of David and from the similitude of David’s kingdom.
• Jesus Christ will reign as king on this earth for 1000 years after the second coming of Christ in order to fulfill the prophecies in Gen 49.
• The inevitability of judgment:

• “The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; his sin is hid.” (

12)

• People think they get away with their sin, but God keeps a record of it. It may be hidden for a season, but eventually that sin will reap its judgment.
• “The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come upon him: he is an unwise son; for he should not stay long in the place of the breaking forth of children

. (13)

• For a pregnant woman, the pain of childbirth is inevitable. For Israel, the pain of punishment for her sins is also inevitable.
• However, Israel is an unwise son, a baby that does not know when it is time to be born.
• In other words, the Northern Kingdom does not know that they should mature in their faith and grow up. Instead they remain like new born babies.
• 14

I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.” (14)

• Paul used this verse in 1Cor 15:55-57 to tell us about the believer’s victory over death because the price of redemption has been paid by Jesus Christ.

• “…repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.”

(14)

• God will never feel sorry for calling Israel His people. He will never forget to eventually redeem them and restore them.
• God will send the “east wind”.
• Remember that the east wind is a prophetic phrase that indicates judgment that comes from God, and of course, the Assyrians came from the east.
• A specific judgment on the city of Samaria, the capital city of the Northern Kingdom.
• Desolation, destruction, and death were literally fulfilled in 722-721 BC.
• Summary and application:
• How many times did God promise something with the words “I will”?
• Two times in verse 7.

• “I will be unto them as a lion: as a leopard by the way will I observe them”

(7)

• Three times in verse 8.

• “I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps, and will rend the caul of their heart, and there will I devour them like a lion: the wild beast shall tear them.”

(8)

• One time in verse 10.

• ” I will be thy king…”

(10)

• Four times in verse 14

• “I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction:…”

(14)

• A total of 10 times in this chapter God said He would do something. The number 10 is the symbolic and prophetic number of testing according to God’s standard.
• We can also see that this is God’s strange work that we discussed in Lesson #7 (Hosea 6) where God destroys with punishment and God restores with redemption.
• To apply this chapter to our own lives, I encourage you to follow Psa 2:12:
  “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.”

HOMEWORK
HOSEA 14
This is a self-study. Please do not send homework answers to the teacher forcorrection.

• Application of Hos 13
• Like the Old Testament believers, we often limit God’s aspects of salvation. Which of the following aspects of salvation do you need in your life today?
• Salvation from enemies
• Salvation from sickness
• Salvation from poverty
• Salvation from bondage
• Salvation from sin
• Other
• Pray and use your faith to trust God to bring you salvation in this area of your life.

• Preparation for Hos 14
• Read Hos 14:1-9
• What must Israel do to reap God’s forgiveness?
• What is it that a wise believer will do?

Memory verse: Psa 128:1