Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Hosea and Gomer:Yeshua and America

 
The prophet Hosea, whose name, like Jesus' name, means "salvation", "deliverer", was instructed by God to marry a prostitute named Gomer, and have children with her. Many times, Hosea had to go out and find his missing wife, and buy her back from one of her male customers. This marriage was a prophetic picture of how God sadly viewed His relationship with Israel. Like a prostitute, Israel was unfaithful in her relationship with God, her Husband (Hos. 1:2). Gomer's name can mean either "completion" or "failure" in Hebrew. The dichotomy of Gomer's name represents a crossroads in God's relationship with His people, Israel.
Just as Israel came to this crossroads of choice in her relationship with God, America has come to a very similar crossroads of choice with Jesus, Yeshua. The choice we make at these crossroads, as with Hosea's Israel, will determine the future of America. Will we, the people of God in America, choose the road to "completion" in Christ, or "failure"? As Israel was the bride of God, the Church is the bride of Christ. This is a very serious turning point in our history as a nation, which will hinge upon the choice made by God's people-not the politicians, nor unbelievers, but by His own people, called by His name.
We will see clearly the choice that lays before us as we examine the very similar conditions
between the nation of Israel during Hosea's time, and the America of today.
Israel was brought to a crossroads of choice because she forgot her God from whom all of her blessings came, and worshipped instead false gods and idols:
"For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Ba'al."   Hos. 2:8
Though God had blessed Israel, Israel turned to blood-thirsty false gods, who demanded even the sacrifice of their children in fire. Similarly, God's people of America have forgotten the source of her riches and blessings, and have used these abundant riches from God to indulge self, and to enrich the idols of our souls- our own desires, our own will, comfort, entertainment and adornment. We have wrongly believed that the power to get wealth has been a power of our own hands.
Israel saw God remove His wealth and blessings from her (Hos. 2:9-13). America, including God's people, is seeing the same removal of God's blessings in our own economy. Although we are seeking to become economically great again, we will find "failure" instead without seeking God first in repentance. God rewards those who diligently seek Him (Heb. 11:6).
As with the economic similarities between Hosea's Israel and America today, so also are the political, spiritual, and moral similarities. Israel fell into political chaos and division, as well as a spiritual vacuum, as they forgot God:
"For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod (chest piece of a priest's robes which includes the Urim and Thummim) and without teraphim (a figure, or idol, from which oracles are sought)...there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land."  
                                                                                                      Hos. 3:4, 4:1
The chaos of the political condition, and the emptiness of the spiritual condition of Hosea's Israel, was also reflected in the fallen moral condition of God's people at that time:
"By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood. Therefore shall the land mourn, and everyone that dwelleth therein shall languish...My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to Me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children."   Hos. 4:2, 3, 6
We cannot help but see these same things today in America- economic loss, political division and chaos as never before. Truth, faith and morality are at an epic low. And our children! God help the children of America, who, having been raised without the knowledge of God, are treading in the darkness of that loss.
These sad conditions were also reflected in the names of the children Hosea fathered with his wife, the prostitute, Gomer:
Jezreel- God sows/scatters (casting in various directions)
Lo-Ruhamah- no mercy, compassion, nor tender affection
Lo-Ammi- not My people/kindred
Even the Hebrew letters of Gomer's name, gimel, mem, and reysh reflect the spiritual condition of God's people illustrated in the above verses: rising up from the knees in pride, floods of chaos, and what or who is the highest, the most important in our lives.
Like Gomer, God's people in America, have lifted themselves up off of their praying knees, full of pride and self-importance. What has become most important in our lives seems to be everything, and anything other than God. We have given everything to the temporal, the things that pass away, and ignored the eternal, the things that are lasting. Floods of chaos have come into our lives and nation as a result. Truth, mercy, and the knowledge of God, have been replaced by swearing, lying, killing, adulteries, and bloodshed upon bloodshed. We have, as a result, been brought to a crossroads with God.
 
The good news, as it was with Israel, is that God  and "completion" are waiting at these crossroads to forgive, heal, and restore, if we will seek Him, seek His face, once again returning to our knees in prayer, repenting and making Him, and Him only, the God of our life (2 Chron. 7:14).
"...and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said to them, "You are not My people", there it shall be said to them, "Ye are the sons of the living God."
"And I will betroth them unto Me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto Me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto Me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the LORD....And I will sow her unto Me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not My people, "Thou art My people"; and they shall say, "Thou art my God."
"Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God, and David their King (Messiah);and shall fear the LORD and His goodness in the latter days."
                                                                            Hos. 1:10, 2:19, 20, 23, 3:5

We are living in the "latter days". Hosea and Gomer: Yeshua and America. We are at the crossroads of decision with God.
 
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