And the more these ideas go unchallenged the more we might be tempted not to give religion any serious attention at all. After all is everyone is right then no-one is wrong. And if I'm not likely to be wrong then why on earth should I bother myself about spiritual matters? – I can just get on with eating and drinking and being merry.

But is this really the case? Upon what authority are the above assertions made? Even if a majority of people believe them to be true does this make them true? Being in the majority is no guarantee whatsoever of truth.

Those common beliefs just mentioned stand in stark contrast to what God says in His Word the Bible and yet Jesus Himself declared that God's Word is truth. If Jesus' is to be believed then it does matter very much both what we believe and what we do.

As we turn to consider the teaching of Hosea ch.13 we are confronted with some very serious matters indeed which we will ignore at our peril. What we have to consider as we look at these verses is not the ranting of some extremist fundamentalist but the very words that God Himself has chosen to describe the alternate ways in which He will meet with people. If you have bought into the sentimental kind of religious thinking where God is little more than a benevolent if doddery grandfather figure, as tame as he is toothless, then the language God uses of Himself may be sound profoundly shocking to your ears. But far better to be shocked than duped!

Two alternatives

Again and again in the Bible we find two alternatives and only two presented to us: light and darkness; dead or alive; in the flesh or in the Spirit; righteousness or unrighteousness; believer or unbeliever; sinner or saint; for Christ or against Him.

Although many might like to imagine that they haven't yet made up there mind and that they're in some way neutral, having not yet decided which way to jump, the Bible's outlook is that there simply is no fence to sit on!

God presents us with two alternatives again in this chapter. He describes how He relates to people in two, and only two different ways, and He does this by choosing to use certain words and pictures.

Lets us look at the alternatives:

a) Nice words and images

b) Shocking comparisons

Nice words

1. v.4 saviour

2. vv.5-6 the picture is of a generous provider

3. v. 9 helper

These are the pictures that we love to dwell upon aren't they? How encouraging it is to know that God is a saviour – that is He is the One who can, and does, rescue from all kinds of disastrous situations. Here once again Hosea is concerned to remind the people of Israel of just what the LORD had done for them in their own history – He had saved them when they were held captive in such horrible slavery in Egypt. It had been the LORD, and only He, who had secured their release and there had been a time when they recognised the truthfulness of this historical fact.

But the LORD was more than that for His people He hadn't brought them out of Egypt to leave them to their own devices in the wilderness but He continued to provide for them and He had in fact provided for them in great richness. His was no niggardly provision! By means of His provision the people became "full". It was as though they had come to table to eat and they had fully satisfied their hunger – they hadn't begun a meal only to find there wasn't enough to go round – they were filled. How generously God met with His people.

He called Himself a Helper. Isn't that a pleasant sounding word? In the NT the gift of "helps" is listed amongst the gifts that the Spirit of God grants to the church. You're struggling with some problem and suddenly someone is there to help – aren't you glad! It might be moving a piece of furniture, changing a light bulb, sorting out a problem with a car or a computer. It might be with advice over your homework or some counsel over a difficult decision to be taken. Help is such a valuable thing and here is God the LORD reminding His people that He was their Helper.

So far so good. I rather doubt whether anyone is going to complain about such a God and why should they – this is what He is like and this is how He is prepared to be known by men and women and boys and girls.

But this is not the only way in which God says, in this chapter, that He will relate to people. We must not stop with partial truths for partial truths about God lead to idolatry and idolatry is both deceptive and destructive.

Shocking Words

In the same chapter where God reminds His people of His loving character expressed in nice pleasant words, He also speaks of how is quite prepared to come and to relate to them in a totally different manner. The descriptions would be blasphemous if they were not the Words of God Himself:

Just look for a moment at vv.7+8

"So I am to them like a lion; like a leopard I will lurk beside the way. I will fall upon them like a bear robbed of her cubs; I will tear open their breast, and there I will devour them like a lion, as a wild beast would rip them open."

He will be like a lion to them – strong and powerful – and like a leopard – swift and inescapable. He will be as ferocious with them as a she-bear robbed of her cubs – there will be no means of calming this ferocity and cooling this anger. He will be like a wild beast – would you dare describe God this way? Yet this is how He describes Himself! – which shows no mercy, no pity towards its victim.

Further on in the chapter the LORD in v.11 He speaks too of His anger and His wrath.

Which alternative will it be?

What will determine the treatment that men and women will receive from the hands of the LORD God Almighty?

What is it that causes One and the same God to act in such utterly different ways towards people?

We find the answer as we think about what it was that was causing Him to change with regard to the people of Israel, the Ephraim of ch.13.

Sin

There is a change in God's attitude and behaviour because there has been a change in Ephraim's beliefs and behaviour. This alone should make us stop and think seriously about our own understanding – you see men may like to imagine that beliefs and behaviour don't really matter that much but they do for God! Surely you would be wise to believe God rather than men who have lied to you and deceived you and let you down time after time!

The change in beliefs and behaviour that is in question in ch.13 is nothing that might be described as being neutral, it is not that their new ideas and their new practices were of equal worth with what they had previously known. Hosea speaks of sin and reminds the people that sin always implies a decline, a dropping away, a fall.

Once Ephraim had been influential and respected but that was no longer the case. Why? Because in turning to Baal worship (just one example of false worship) Ephraim had incurred guilt. Guilt is not incurred when good is accomplished but when evil is – Ephraim turned from the One True Living God in sinful rebellion and the result was a spiritual loss of life.

They might of argued that they were only doing as the nations round about them but those nations were in spiritual darkness, to go their way was to deliberately choose to reject the way of life and truth.

There is something else for us to learn about sin in these verses – it doesn't stand still but progresses! That is what v.2 says – "they sin more and more". It began with some involvement with Baal worship but pretty quickly they were multiplying for themselves idols none of which were real because every single one of them was the work of their own craftsmen. They have even moved on to being associated with human sacrifice.

You may be tempted, indeed you probably are tempted, to tolerate sin in your own life. But beware sin won't stand still – if you don't by the Spirit put to death the misdeeds of the body rest assured that sin will spread in your life!

Do you remember the first time you acted against conscience in a certain matter? How troubled you were and how uncomfortable it all was? It wasn't quite as bad the second time was it? Silencing conscience and the Spirit is grieved and withdraws His precious influences and unless we repent and put things right we'll simply go ever deeper into sinful rebellion. Just as Ephraim had done!

Oh yes, there are consequences for sin!

You may well know what the apostle Paul wrote about sin in Rom.3:23:

"for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,"

The word glory means "weightiness" this is something of substance, something solid, dependable and durable. It is something that counts, it is of significance in the balance scales.

But now look at what sin had brought the people of Ephraim to v.3

"Therefore they shall be like the morning mist or like the dew that goes early away, like the chaff that swirls from the threshing floor or like smoke from a window."

(Cf. ch.6)

Once Ephraim had been exalted and respected, he counted for something amongst the nations but no longer – how insignificant he had become now, how unstable, how ephemeral:

Both chaff and smoke are associated with judgment (Ps.68:2; Ps.1:4).

As Ephraim was blessed so Ephraim became puffed up and in his pride turned away from God. They forgot God and thought they were safe and secure – they were rich after all, they were full!

You see Ephraim's sin was not overlooked or forgotten but it was being stored up for the day of reckoning. There self-confidence was built upon shaky foundations.

The time was ripe for one thing says Hosea – there was only one safe course of action to follow – and he employs the image of child-birth. The pregnancy has reached its term and the only safe course of action is for the baby to present itself for delivery! In those days failure to do so would lead in every case to disaster. And Ephraim stubbornly refuses to make the wise choice!!

And you? Are you basing your hopes upon shaky foundations? Jesus said the wise man builds his house upon the rocks and is safe when the storm comes, but what about you? Oh, yes, Ephraim seemed to be getting on fine but the destructive east wind was waiting to blow, the lion was waiting to destroy, the leopard was ready to chase down its prey and the she-bear was ferociously enraged.

Everything about Ephraim indicated that the meeting with the LORD God would be utterly disastrous.

But all has not been said.

Grace

Although sin if left undealt with will prove equally destructive and disastrous in our lives as it would be in Ephraim's sin is not the only factor that we must take note of. We must also take note of God's outstanding grace which breaks through and shines most brightly once again in this chapter.

Chapter 13 is grim and dark but there is a stunning breaking through of God's wonderfully undeserved love and favour – we call it grace. In the light of the NT we explain grace in this simple way God's Riches At Christ's Expense.

After yet another catalogue of Ephraim's ungratefulness and worse surely all that we might expect is a categorical verdict of condemnation and yet what is it that we read in v.14?

"I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. O Death, I will be your plagues! O Grave, I will be your destruction! Pity is hidden from My eyes."

Pity for death and the grave that is!

What an engagement this is for the people. Yes, they have sinned, yes, they will sadly have to experience the horrors of a brutal exile but all is not finished. It looks as though the nation is dead and gone forever but there is a promise of new life! How unexpected yet how generous and how kind! What a wonderful God of Grace is the God revealed in the Bible.

There will be a remnant saved by grace that will return. The northern nation of Israel would not survive the exile as a political entity but there would be some even from that nation saved and redeemed.

There would be some brought back after the Assyrian exile and there would be some saved at the time of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and down through the centuries there will be some saved according to the ongoing pouring out of grace as Jesus Christ is proclaimed to the nations as the Saviour of the World.

As any avid Bible reader will of course know, the apostle Paul picks up this fourteenth verse of Hosea when writing his famous chapter on the resurrection!

Sin works its worst and ravages the human race but yet it is not sin that has the last word. The wages of sin is death but death has been conquered by our Lord Jesus Christ. He died upon Calvary's cross to pay this price of sin – it wasn't for His own sin as He had none, but He paid the price for the sin of His people, for all those who will take refuge in Him, repenting of their sin and calling upon His Name for salvation!

The sacrifice of His Holy and innocent life was fully acceptable and accepted by the Father and death could not maintain its grip upon such a victim – He burst to newness of life the third raised. The Bible's comment on this is that He was raised for our justification. That is God may justly declare us to be righteous in sight because of all that Jesus has done on our behalf!

1Cor.15:54b-57 "“Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

Conclusion

Don't go on and on in sin.

Don't go on and on imagining that just being like everyone else is good enough.

Don't go on and on turning your back on the God who so generously offers you a full and free salvation.

Don't put off till some imaginary future when everything will be easier – it won't and a heart that you harden today is in danger of being hardened forever.

But now, even now, you may and you must respond to the wonderful grace of God in Jesus Christ.

And if you have so responded make no pacts with sin, don't allow it a foothold in your life because it will only grow and spoil. Life your life to the glory of God and may your life indeed be weighty in the scales to count for Him!

Amen.

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