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THE SYNOPSIS |
f Jereboam IL J
TIME. / Uzziah SB. C. 750-730. |
t Hezekiah. J ♦
I. The Prophet’s Preparation— Chapters I-111. !
11. Wickedness Exposed— Chapters IV-V.
1. The Wickedness of the Whole Peo- |
pie—V: 1-2.
(a) No Mercy
(b) No Truth J
(c) No Knowledge of God.
(d) Swearing I
(e) Lying
(f) Killing
(g) Stealing »
(h) Adultery ♦
(i) Blood shed ♦
2. The Wickedness of the Priests —V. |
111. A Call to Repentance— Chapter VI. |
IV. Causes of Depravity— Chapter VII. |
1. A failure to Recognize God v-2 |
2. Social Impurity v-4 |
3. Drunkenness of the King v-5 |
4. Corruption of Judges and King v-7
5. One-sidedness v-8 !
6. Pride 5-10 |
7. Federation with Idolatrous |
Powers v-11 j
8. Failure to Call Upon God v-14 |
V. Judgment Pronounced— Chapters VIII-X. |
1. Wind and Whirlwind viii-7
2. Fire viii-14 |
3. Driven out of the land ix-3
4. Bread of mourning ix-4
5. Sins Visited ix-9 f
6. Glory Departed ix-11 ♦
7. Vanished Love ix-15 |
8. Wandering among nations ix-17 j
9. Destroyed Altars ix-2
10. Spoiled Fortresses x-14 j
VI. The Final Call to Repentance and Restor- |
ation— Chapter XI-XIV. J
1. God’s Love and Leadership xi |
2. Divine Protection xii »
3. Past Methods of Government xiii-1-8 i
4. Restoration Promised xiii-9-xiv |
(a) Its source xiii-9 J
(b) Its Method VV 10 |
(c) Its Operation xiii-14 I
(d) Forgiveness xiii-4 ♦
(e) Its Strength xiv-5
(f) Its Scope xiv-6
| . T
THE BOOK OF HOSEA.
~ I
IE Book of Hosea is one of the
most interesting, most pathetic
and most terrible of all the prophe
cies of the Old Testament. It pre
sents a picture of the fall of the
greatest people God ever gave the
world, a people God-led, God-gov
erned and God-blessed.
At the time of the prophecy Jere-
boam II was King of Israel; Uzziah was King of
Judea. The prophecy continues, however, af
ter the reign of Jereboam and Uzziah, and cov
ers a part of the reign of Hezekiah. This was
a great period of prosperity for Israel and Ju
dea, and it was due largely to two things.
First, it was due to the natural productiveness
of the country; it was at the very zenith of its
fertility at this time. Then, it was due to the
decline of the two rival powers, Egypt and
Assyria. While Israel and Judea are moving
rapidly upward in prosperity and power, these
two rival powers, Egypt and Assyria, were de
clining as rapidly, and on their decline Israel
and Judea were fattening. The result of the
great and unprecedented prosperity of these
countries was first, an exaggerated idea of their
own importance; you can well understand that.
And( second, an insatiable greed for more; you
can well understand that. The more they got
the more they wanted. And, third, an align
ment with corrupt nations and people, for the
gratification of their greed. As a nation begins
to prosper it somehow feels at liberty to enter
into alignments which otherwise it would never
have thought of; and so this was true of Israel.
As she grew in prosperity, she stretched her
THE FALLEN NATION
Wednesday Night Bible Lecture by Rev. Len G. Broughton, D.D., of Christ Church, London
The Golden Age for December 12, 1912.
Reported for The Golden Age by M. I. H.—Copyright Applied for.
wings over territory which was forbidden.
This resulted in the lowering of their stand
ards of right and righteousness, all this result
ing in the lowest order of wholesale vice and
immorality ranging from the King on the
throne down to the humblest peasant, taking in
even priests.
Now, upon this scene of social and political
rottenness came Hosea, the prophet. There is
very little said about him except what is said
in connection with his book of prophecies.
The first three chapters of his prophecy give
an account of his peculiar preparation for his
life work. Here we have this man—who is to
be the prophet to sound this terrible note —led
out by God himself to take an idolatrous wife
unto himself, and then, through this marriage
he is brought to see the evil of idolatrous en
tanglement. Following this, his own heart is
broken to pieces, resulting in conviction that
it is impossible for him to properly govern his
household, and all because he has a wife that
is unclean and idolatrous, one who is unfit in
every respect to be his wife, under normal
conditions.
If you read these first three chapters and
stop there you will have a hard conception
of the dealings of God with this man Hosea.
You want to remember that God told him to
take Gomer unto himself for a wife. You will
not understand why it is that God led him into
all this trouble unless you read the rest of the
book. When you have read the rest of the book
I think the meaning will be clear. Hosea is
called of God, to sound a most terrible note ever
sounded to his people, God’s own chosen peo
ple, the people that God loved more than any
other people in the world.
Over their wickedness his own heart was
breaking; and Hosea has been selected as the
man to sound the note of God’s disapproval,
and coming judgment; and so terrible is this
note that he is to sound, that God would not
trust him to do it until he had first broken
his own heart. God wanted to bring him to
the place where he could feel as He felt; where
he could feel as He felt with respect to his
household —those under him in rebellion and
sin.
And this leads me to say this: No man is
prepared to sound a terrible note for God until
he has passed through terrible affliction, and
that is the reason, verily, I believe, why some
men are carried through affliction, and that is
why the preaching of a great many men is
more effective than the preaching of others.
So, when God has brought him through this
preparation He gives him the message that he
is to give—a terrible, awful message, we find
in the rest of the book.
From chapter four, through chapter five, he
exposes the wickedness of this people. Imme
diately after he passes through his experience
he begins his work, exposing the wickedness
of the people. Do not imagine for a moment
that he did that with any austere feeling, or
a feeling anything akin to that of a Pharisee.
No. If you read Hosea, his awful warnings
to these people, his terrific thundering; if you
read them in tones of thunder, you have mis
conceived the whole thing; you have not prop
erly interpreted the first three chapters. Get
those first three chapters into your heart until
you can feel for-Hosea —with a family like that,
and yet he loved them! And then begin read
ing his terrific exposure of these people. In
chapter four I am going to read verses one
and two, with all the pathos I can put into it:
“Hear the word of Jehovah, ye children of
Israel, for Jehovah hath a controversy with the
inhabitants of the land, because there is no
truth, nor goodness, nor knowledge of God in
the land. There is nought but swearing and
breaking faith, and killing, and stealing, and
committing adultery; they break out, and blood
toucheth blood.”
Summing up what he says, there, we find the
following, and I want you, if you can, to get a
picture of the extent to which this people—
God’s own beloved people—had gone into the
world of sin. Now, see it: No truth, no mercy,
no knowledge of God, swearing, lying, killing,
adultery, bloodshed. Can you think of another
thing to put in there to express the awful deg
radation of this people?
Then as you proceed in the rest of that chap
ter, and on to the end of the fifth chapter, you
find the scope enlarges upon these things spe
cified in those first two verses; and remember,
now, that this is descriptive, not of one class of
the people, but the whole people, ranging from
the king on the throne down to the humblest
peasant. The whole people.
Then, in chapter five, we have the wickedness
of the priests. There is nothing specially strik
ing about that to demand close attention. The
fact that the priests, like the people, had gone
off after wickedness and had led the people
into ways of iniquity.
In chapter six there is a call to repentace.
VI: 1. “Come and let us return unto Je
hovah, for He hath torn, and Will heal us.
He hath smitten and He will bind us up.”
Now I think it is impossible to put the pathos
in that, that Hosea had in it. You observe that
he does not wait until the close of his prophecy
to put in this note of appeal. He does it right
here, following this terrific arraignment. Im
mediately following it he jumps in with a note
of appeal.
And the rest of the chapter is an enlarge
ment of this appeal.
Now we come to chapter seven. In this chap
ter he reviews the causes that led to their de
pravity, and there are eight. First, a failure
to recognize God. Second, social impurity.
Third, drunkenness of the king. Fourth, cor
ruption of both judges and kings. Fifth, one
sidedness. Sixth, pride. Seventh, federation
with idolatrous powers. Eighth, failure to call
upon God.
Take chapters eight to ten, and here is the
most terrible part of the whole prophecy. He
gives the condition, then he gives the note of
appeal, and then he goes back and reviews the
causes that led up to that terrible condition.
Now he comes with his note of judgment from
God upon the people. First, “they have sown
the wind; they shall reap the whirlwind.”
Second, “I will send fire upon the cities,
and it shall devour the palaces thereof.”
Third, “They shall not dwell in the Lord’s
land.”
Fourth, “Their sacrifices shall be unto them
as the bread of mourners.”
Fifth, “He will remember their iniquity; He
will visit their sins.”
Sixth, “Their glory shall fly away like a
bird.”
Seventh, ‘ ‘ I will drive them out of my house;
I will love them no more.”
Eighth, “They shall be wanderers among
the nations.”
Ninth, “He shall break down their altars.”
Tenth, “A tumult shall arise among their
people, and all thy fortresses shall be spoiled.”
Can you conceive of a more terrible punish
ment than that ? I feel, in reading these words
of punishment, that God spoke through His
servant ; we want to be very careful as to the
note that we sound in reading them. They
were not spoken harshly Hosea never deliver
ed this message in any severe tone. He could
not. He had back of him his own family he
had within his own broken heart, and he could
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