Corrupted from the inside

Hosea 4 ends with, [16] For Israel slideth back as a backsliding heifer: now the LORD will feed them as a lamb in a large place.

[17] Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone.
[18] Their drink is sour: they have committed whoredom continually: her rulers with shame do love, Give ye.
[19] The wind hath bound her up in her wings, and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices.

This is describing how the rulers are going to rob and pillage and oppress the people. They’re going around trying to get more, saying, "Give me, give me!" That’s the way they were. Always out to get more. They loved their bellies.

Hosea 5: [9] Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke: among the tribes of Israel have I made known that which shall surely be.

[10] The princes of Judah were like them that remove the bound: therefore I will pour out my wrath upon them like water.
[11] Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment, because he willingly walked after the commandment.

That’s not the commandment of God he’s walking after. He’s walking after the commandment to do what verse 10 says, "Remove the boundaries." It’s the commandment the false prophets have given him.

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You read some of this stuff in Micah, especially in chapter 6, and my blood runs cold when I watch what goes on in the news around us today. I’m so grateful to know my citizenship is in heaven, not on Planet Earth.

Micah 6:16 says, "For the statutes of Omri are kept, and all the works of the house of Ahab, and ye walk in their counsels; that I should make thee desolation and the inhabitants thereof an hissing: therefore ye shall bear the reproach of my people."

After he’s talked to them about the bogus currency and all the other things that are happening, he says, "For the statutes of Omri."

Notice their walking in the statutes. When it says in Hosea that they "willingly walk after the commandments," it’s the commandments and statutes of Omri in the house of Ahab.

Omri’s dynasty with Ahab and Jezebel made Baal worship the official religion of Israel. That nation’s in the complete and total grip of the Adversary and God destroys them from that internal destruction. This is this multi-generational problem; it didn’t just come up in one generation.

What’s happened now is Israel is completely taken away into that apostate system and they willingly walk in these statutes, and they willingly give their allegiance to the Baal worship system, and there’s a dynasty of it.

It’s not one generation; it’s a long-term infection and the only answer for it is to destroy the nation; the corrupt government established by it so they could establish a new government.

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Hosea 5:12: [12] Therefore will I be unto Ephraim as a moth, and to the house of Judah as rottenness. 

God says, "Because they’re in complete apostasy, I’m going to eat away; I’m going to destroy them."

A moth and rottenness. That’s stuff that corrupts you from inside. It’s not like somebody just comes along with a blowtorch and burns up your clothes. That moth is in your closet and you go to take something out of the closet and what happens? Now it’s all holes.

When Ephraim saw his sickness and Judah saw his wound, we read that passage in Isaiah 1 about how the whole body is sick from the top of the head down to the bottom of the feet. There’s a spiritual sickness that’s overtaken them and when Ephraim saw his sickness and Judah saw his wound, they wept.

Hosea 5:13-15: [13] When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound, then went Ephraim to the Assyrian, and sent to king Jareb: yet could he not heal you, nor cure you of your wound.

[14] For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah: I, even I, will tear and go away; I will take away, and none shall rescue him.
[15] I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early.

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Bible commentaries say that that name Jareb, if you count it out in numerics, comes out to be 666. Who would that be? The Assyrian (Isaiah 10, Micah 5) is identified as the Antichrist.

So what does Israel do to solve their problem? They turn to Satan’s program. They turn to the wrong guy. The false messiah. ‘Yet could he not heal you, nor cure you of your wound.’

They’re going to look to the Antichrist for help and you know what they’re going to find? There’s no help there. Verse 14 mentions the lion. When Nebuchadnezzar comes against Judah, he’s described in the Book of Jeremiah 50 as a lion. I Peter 5 describes Satan as a ‘roaring lion.’

The lion is the Antichrist and that’s what God’s going to bring against Israel to tear them; to devour them. He says, "I’m going to tear and go away." Now, that’s the point here.

Verse15: "I will go and return to my place till they acknowledge their offence." You can circle that word "till" because there’s the "nevertheless." There’s the hope.

Notice what God’s going to do. He’s going to go away; ‘return to my place.’ II Chronicles 36:23 says, "Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth hath the LORD God of heaven given me; and he hath charged me to build him an house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people? The LORD his God be with him, and let him go up."

God had said to Israel, "I’m going to give you a place where you can meet with me." That was the door of the tabernacle. Then when they built the permanent temple, it was at the temple.

And God placed His name in Jerusalem; the place where He chose to put His dwelling. Now He says, "I’m going to leave and I’m going to change my place of residence from here to my place, meaning heaven."

He’s no longer "the Lord God of all the earth"; now He’s "the Lord God of heaven." The reason for that is explained in Hosea 5:14-15. He’s forsaken the earth and gone on exile.

Where was God supposed to be? Jerusalem. Where was He? He’s in heaven. He told the disciples, "When you pray, say, ‘Our Father which art in heaven.’ " That isn’t a good thing. He was supposed to be Emmanuel—"God with us.;"