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Mixing with the Nations

Friday, October 09, 2009, 5:13 a.m. – I woke to this song in my head:

He That Winneth Souls is Wise / NewSong

There’s a battle going on through the ages -
A war between darkness and light.
And though some may ignore it, it still rages -
It’s time we stand up and fight.

The weapons of our warfare are not carnal,
But we are mighty through prayer.
Let us tear down the strongholds of Satan.
We must show the world we care.

Jesus is the victor of the ages,
And as his warriors we must go.
If we don’t get the message to the captives,
Then tell me, how will they know?

He that winneth souls is wise,
Going behind enemy lines,
Leading the captives home to Christ.
Bless the one who shines his light,
And leads the lost ones through the night.
He that winneth souls is wise.
He that winneth souls is wise.

Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening. I read Hosea 6:11b-7:16:

Whenever I would restore the fortunes of my people,
whenever I would heal Israel,
the sins of Ephraim are exposed
and the crimes of Samaria revealed.
They practice deceit,
thieves break into houses,
bandits rob in the streets;
2 but they do not realize
that I remember all their evil deeds.
Their sins engulf them;
they are always before me.
3 "They delight the king with their wickedness,
the princes with their lies.

4 They are all adulterers,
burning like an oven
whose fire the baker need not stir
from the kneading of the dough till it rises.
5 On the day of the festival of our king
the princes become inflamed with wine,
and he joins hands with the mockers.
6 Their hearts are like an oven;
they approach him with intrigue.
Their passion smolders all night;
in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire.
7 All of them are hot as an oven;
they devour their rulers.
All their kings fall,
and none of them calls on me.

8 "Ephraim mixes with the nations;
Ephraim is a flat cake not turned over.
9 Foreigners sap his strength,
but he does not realize it.
His hair is sprinkled with gray,
but he does not notice.
10 Israel's arrogance testifies against him,
but despite all this
he does not return to the LORD his God
or search for him.

11 "Ephraim is like a dove,
easily deceived and senseless—
now calling to Egypt,
now turning to Assyria.
12 When they go, I will throw my net over them;
I will pull them down like birds of the air.
When I hear them flocking together,
I will catch them.
13 Woe to them,
because they have strayed from me!
Destruction to them,
because they have rebelled against me!
I long to redeem them
but they speak lies against me.

14 They do not cry out to me from their hearts
but wail upon their beds.
They gather together for grain and new wine
but turn away from me.
15 I trained them and strengthened them,
but they plot evil against me.
16 They do not turn to the Most High;
they are like a faulty bow.
Their leaders will fall by the sword
because of their insolent words.
For this they will be ridiculed
in the land of Egypt.

My Understanding: This is an interesting beginning to this chapter in Hosea. God is saying, basically, that whenever he would get ready to restore and to heal Israel that it would only become more evident that they were not ready for healing and restoration. Now, God knows that. He knows the end from the beginning. Yet, he does long to bring us to repentance, to restore us and to heal us, i.e. to bring us back into a right relationship with him. So, he is expressing, I believe, that though this is the desire of his heart and what he longs to be able to do for his people, they are not yet ready (we in the USA are not ready), because they (we) are still living in gross sin against God. So, he is not able to bring that healing and restoration just yet.

Then, he goes on to describe their sin – they practice deceit, they break into houses, they rob people in the streets and they delight the king with their wickedness. This is a fascinating statement, as well. It appears here that these crimes mentioned are those of the capital city of Samaria, and I do so see parallels here to our capital city here in the USA, and the crimes being committed by our government (kings and princes). The kings and the princes in Samaria seemed to delight in the people’s wickedness, which, again, is a picture of the government of the USA, I believe.

The sin of adultery, in particularly spiritual adultery gets special mention here. I believe there is another kind of adultery going on here, as well, and that is our leaders committing adultery against their own people by not fulfilling their covenant with them and, in fact, going against that covenant with the people and pursuing other gods (wealth; power; greed; other nations; etc.). He describes these adulterers as burning like an oven, which is like lust. Basically, the leaders in our capital city are lusting after these “other gods” to the point that they are willing to sacrifice their own people to accomplish their goals.

Going along with this lust toward other gods includes an assassination of a king, in particularly their king. This assassination takes place “on the day of the festival of our king”. My Zondervan NIV Commentary merely states that the assassination was to take place on a special day; a festival day, yet it appears to me to read that this is a festival of the king, as though the special day was somehow associated with the king, like his birthday or an anniversary or something or some type of celebration that is personally associated with the king. The people plotting the assassination would get the king drunk and they would be drunk, as well, and all night the assassins, his friends and companions, would lust with desire to kill their king and by morning, the deed would be done. Their king would fall, yet they would not call on God.

Included in this “lust” toward other gods is that Israel (Ephraim) was mixing with other nations, which is what our government leaders in the USA are doing, too, and which is partly why they are breaking covenant with their own people, so that they can become part of this One World Order and no longer be an independent nation with its own government. Perhaps the “assassination” is more directed at the position than the person, i.e. for the USA, for instance, to join in this One World Order and to no longer be a sovereign nation, our leaders have to “kill” our present form of government and our constitution of the United States of America so that we can truly be under the government of the One World Order, if we are not already.

Our government leaders are deceived into thinking that this is the best road to travel. They are blinded by their pride, their arrogance, their greed and their hunger for power and wealth. They are so blinded by their quest for this One World Order that they do not acknowledge Almighty God; they do not see their need to return to the Lord their God and they do not search for God. They will be lured by those in whom they have placed their trust; in these other nations with whom we have joined forces to solve the ills of the world, only to be entrapped by them and then to be brought down. Some of our leaders are party to the downfall of the USA, so this will not take them by surprise, but many of the people of America will be devastated when they learn that their leaders, in whom they trusted, have betrayed them.

God will allow this destruction of our nation, I believe, as his judgment against us because the people of God in the USA, for the most part, have strayed from pure devotion to Almighty God and they are living in idolatry and spiritual adultery. The church is indistinguishable from the world. So, God must bring his divine discipline against us in order to bring us to our knees and to get us to repent and to turn back to Almighty God in faith and obedience. God so longs to revive us if we will be revived. Yet, we see so little weeping and repenting over sin now days. The people do not cry out to God from their hearts. They continue to turn away from him. Even though God is our Father and Jesus our Savior, yet the people, by their actions, behaviors and heart attitudes have plotted against God in their worship of false gods.

The people of God were turning everywhere but to Almighty God who alone could help them and deliver them from their troubles. And, that is so true again today. Christians turn to entertainment, jobs, sports, friendships, Facebook and other social networks, TV, movies, the Internet, games, etc. yet so many have such little time for God or none at all. He is not even a blip on their radar or a thought during their day oftentimes. He has become something that they “do” on a particular day of the week and yet he is barely even mentioned the other 6 days of the week.

God is a jealous God. He wants his people back. Because he loves us, he must discipline us. He must remind us that he alone is to be our God and that we are not to have any other gods before Him. He cares very much about our relationship with him. If you have strayed from him, will you come back today? He’s waiting for you.

This song kept going through my mind all afternoon: Arise My Love / Newsong

Not a word was heard at the tomb that day.
Just shuffling of soldiers feet as they guarded the grave.
One day, two days, three days had past.
Could it be that Jesus breathed His last?

Could it be that His Father had forsaken him?
Turned his back on his son despising our sin.
All hell seemed to whisper "Just forget Him, He's dead."
Then the Father looked down to his son and he said..

Arise, My love. Arise, My love.
The grave no longer has a hold on you
No more death's sting; No more suffering
Arise...Arise...my love.

The Earth trembled and the tomb began to shake,
And like lightening from Heaven the stone was rolled away.
And as dead men the guards they all stood there in fright
As the power of love displayed its might
Then suddenly a melody filled the air
Riding wings of wind, it was everywhere
The words all creation had been longing to hear
The sweet sound of victory, so loud and clear…

Sin, where are your shackles?
Death, where is your sting?
Hell has been defeated.
The grave could not hold the king.

Arise, My love. Arise, My love.
The grave no longer has a hold on you
No more death's sting; No more suffering
Arise....Arise....Arise

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