It's a picture of fruitfulness and blessing. And God, the gardener, has done a wonderful job of caring for his vine. If God were to take this vine down to the county fair, it would probably win first prize. It's lush, it's fruitful, it displays the skill of the gardener.

But look at what Israel did. Look at how they handled the blessing and provision of God. Let's keep reading. The more His fruit increase, the more He increased the alms. The better His land produced, the better they made the sacred pillars. It's heartbreaking. God has been nothing but good and generous to His people. He has abundantly provided for them. And yet, instead of giving thanks to Him and loving Him, and staying faithful and devoted to Him. They take God's gifts and they use them in the worship of false gods. It's a gross betrayal.

Remember how God talked about this back in Hosea chapter two? God compared Israel to an unfaithful, adulterous wife who takes His gifts and gives them to her lovers. Hosea two, verses five and eight say this. Yes, your mother is from Israel. that I could shame them.

For she thought, I will follow my lovers, the men who give me my food and water, my wool and flats, my oil and drink. And then God says, she does not recognize that it is I who gave her the drink, the new wine. He has generously provided for His people. They're flourishing like a vine. But they have used their prosperity, they've used His gifts to go after other gods. They thought it was the gods of the nations around them who were blessing them, and so they continued to try to make these foreign gods happier and happier so that they would receive more.

What this revealed about Israel's heart was that it was devious. It was the opposite of being truly and faithfully and wholly devoted to the Lord their God. Look at verse 2. God says, their hearts are devious. Now they must bear their guilt. The Lord will break down their hearts and demolish their sacred purpose. All the things that they had spent so much money and time on improving, God is going has been foolish. They have forsaken the one who truly cared for them and provided for them, and they have gone after false gods. And their judgment was come.

God says, now they must take up their guilt. In verses 3 through 8, we see what this judgment will look like. In fact, they're now saying, we have no king. For we do not fear the Lord. What can a king do for us? They speak mere words, taking false oaths, The residents of Samaria will have anxiety over the calf that they have.

Indeed, its idolatrous priest rejoiced over it. The people will mourn over its glory. It will certainly go to exile. The calf itself will be taken to Assyria as an offering to the great king. Ephraim will experience shame. Israel will be ashamed of its council. Samaria's king will disappear like foam on the surface of the water. The high places of Aden, the city of Israel, will be destroyed.

Thorns and thistles will grow over their altars. They will say to the mountains, cover us, and to the hills, follow us. In verses 3, 4, and 7, we see the downfall of the king. Verse 7 is particularly vivid in its imagery. The king will disappear like foam on the surface of the water. It will happen suddenly. It will be gone in an instant. But interestingly, verse 3 seems to indicate that people won't be too bothered by that.

They have become quite a disillusion by the failure and corruption of their kings. In fact, they even ask, what can a king The historical reality for them is that their kings have only made things worse recently. As verse 4 describes, their kings have made covenants with various nations, Assyria, Egypt, to try to secure peace, but then they've broken those covenants and brought war and calamity on their country. However, whereas the Israelites may be okay without a king, it's a whole different story for them to lose their precious golden calf. anxiety over the calf that they, his golden calf, had recognized their God.

Indeed, its idolatrous priest rejoiced over it. The people will mourn over it. Over its glory, it will certainly go into exile. This verse provides a sobering Notice what the residents of Samaria are anxious about. They are anxious about their golden idol cat. They are concerned about what the big bad Assyrians could do to their precious god.

Isn't that telling? Is this really a god worth following? Is this really a god worth trusting in? God that you feel anxious for? A God that is actually quite vulnerable? But isn't this exactly what we do as well? The God replacements we turn to in our lives are plagued by this same vulnerability. And deep down we feel it too. It's easy for our hearts to look to our bloody But is that really the safe place for us to put our hope? Do you tell me no it's not? That's why we obsess about the stock market? That's why we stay up late at night thinking through our finances and our future? The God we have chosen to put our trust in is weak and vulnerable. And so we become anxious over the welfare of our God.

Or take the God of good health. We put our hope and joy in feeling good and being able to do what we want. But is our health a safe place for our hopes and dreams to rest? Not at all. Our health can change in an instant. And so we are plagued by anxiety about getting sick or injured and losing the life and future we so desperately want.

The same is true of our relationships. If we look to a relationship to meet all of our deepest needs, of anxiety over that relationship. The person could move away, could grow apart, sick and hurt in a relationship, and eventually that will separate us from the ones we love. Our relationships And the reason idols are anxiety-inducing is because they are incredibly vulnerable.

Though they make promises to give us the peace, joy, comfort, and security we long for in life, eventually reality hits and we begin to see just how weak and how vulnerable the gods of our own faith actually are. We then become stressed and worried that the thing we have looked to for security, for our happiness, for our satisfaction, we become worried that it will actually fail us. And just like Israel's golden calf, we realize it can easily be picked up, loaded on a cart, and carried away. And if we have heard our hope and our joy in that, then we will be more.

You see God's love for you in calling you to worship him alone. God doesn't want your hope and joy placed on something so vulnerable. God wants you to know the peace and the joy, the security, the stability, the satisfaction that comes from trusting in the one true and living God. A God that a serial or stock market crashes or medical diagnosis do not threaten. A God who is more powerful and good and loving than you can possibly imagine. A God you don't have to be anxious about, but instead a God that you can breathe your anxieties, your burdens, your fears to, because he cares for you. Let me invite you to abandon your vulnerable, anxiety-inducing thoughts behind, and come into the joy and the security of knowing and loving and trusting in the one true living God who will never fail you.

Sadly, Israel has not done this. They have forsaken their God for a golden calf of their own. And this will resolve in their shame as the thing in which they're hoping is loaded out of cart and taken to Assyria as an offering to the Great King. Foodie from the spoils of war.

The God's judgment will not just bring their shame, but their terror as well at the beginning of their escape. road over their altars. They will say to the mountains, cover us, and to the hills, fall on us. This is a sobering verse to read. God's judgment will be so horrible that those experiencing it will beg for the mountains to fall on them. They want an instant death. They would prefer a massive earthquake that crushes them under the earth and to deter the judgment of God for their sin.

This verse gets quoted again in our New Testament in Revelation chapter 6. Listen to what the Apostle John writes about the coming judgment when the Lord Jesus Christ returns to this earth. Revelation 6, 15-17. Then the kings of the earth, the nobles, the generals, the rich, the powerful, What happened on Israel's day with the nation of Syria was a dress rehearsal for the final touch.

At the end of time, when Christ comes back to judge the world, all those who have rejected him will cry out in terror because the day of his wrath has come. However, the good news of Christianity, the reason why we're here today, is that when Jesus comes back, it doesn't have to be terrifying for you. It can actually be a day of tremendous joy and hope.

Because everything hinges on how you relate to Jesus Christ. Those who have rejected Him will be crushed under His judgment. And God's Word is rewarding you with that reality right now. But those who have trusted Him, those who have loved and treasured the Lord Jesus Christ, of this Restorer forever and ever.

If you are here today and you don't have a relationship of trust and love with the Lord Jesus Christ, let me encourage you to give your life to Jesus now. Don't live in the fear of His coming back. Come to know His love and forgiveness through faith in Him. If you want to know more about this, please talk with me or someone sitting around you after this service. Well, let's return to our passage in Hosea then. God is continuing to make His case against His sinful people. Look at what He says in verses 9 and 10. Israel, you have sinned since the days of Gibeah. They have taken their stand.

Will not war against the unjust overtake them in Givia? I will discipline them at my discretion. Nations will be gathered against them and put them in bondage for their double-willing. Now, the reference to Givia is most likely referring back to that horrific incident at the end of the Book of Judges. The men of Givia acted wickedly, and the result was that almost the entire was the story.

And God seems to be saying that not much has changed since the days of Gideon. Instead of moving on, Israel has, in a sense, taken their standing. They've remained in their sin and their rebellion. They're continuing in their wicked and sinful ways. And so just like war overtook those wicked men back then, God is warning war will now overtake the nation. In verse 11, Mosiah employs another metaphor for the nation of Israel.

He says, Ephraim is a well-trained calf that loves to thrush. But I will place a yoke on her fightback. I will harvest Ephraim. Judah will plow. Jacob will do the fighting. What Mosiah seems to be saying is that in the beginning, Israel was a well-trained calf. They did what they were supposed to do, but now they've rebelled, and so life is going to get harder for them. Instead of the pleasant task of threshing, they will now have to do the more difficult work of plowing and wearing the earth. Hosea then rose up and issued his call to God's people.

He leads with them in verse 12, sow righteousness for yourselves and reap faith and love. Break out your unclouded ground. It is time to seek the Lord. Until He comes and sends righteousness on you like the rain. This is what God desired for His people. This is what He wanted them to do. He wanted them to sow seeds of righteousness so that they could reap the fruit of faithful love.

Think about what kind of a society Israel could have enjoyed if they had pursued righteousness, obedience to God's law, if they had committed themselves to doing what God had called them to do. Faithful love would have permeated their society. Their society would have been characterized by covenant keeping, not covenant breaking.

But the problem was that Israel was not good soil. hearts needed a rototiller to break up their unclouded crowd? Are there areas in your life where the rototiller of God's grace is needed? Is your heart part of them or a part of them? Has a certain sin become entrenched as a pattern in your life? If so, pickaxe and go to work. It's not easy to break a blood cloud around you. It is hard, labor-intensive work. It requires blood, sweat, and tears. Are you fighting your sin with that kind of vigor? Are you committing every fiber of your being to seeking the Lord?

This is what Hosea is calling us to. It is time, Hosea says, it is time to seek the Lord. And he promises us that when we do, when we humble ourselves and we truly seek Him, He will send righteousness on us like rain. And this is a picture of His gracious saving and giving. What we have seen is that verse 12 describes what God desires for His people.

But sadly, verse 13 is what Israel has done instead. God says, you have plowed wickedness and breathed injustice. You have eaten the fruit of lies. They've done the exact opposite of what God wanted. They have foolishly and stubbornly gone their own way. in your own way, and in your large number of soldiers, the roar of battle will rise against your people, and all your fortifications will be demolished in a day of war. Like Shalom's destruction of Beth Arma, mothers will be dashed to pieces along with their children. So what will be done to you, Bethlehem, because of your extreme evil, at Dan, the King of Israel, And we destroy first because they trust Him in their own way.

They say, we know what's best. We're not going to listen to God's word. We're going to do our work. And then number two, God says, because we are extremely evil. Extremely evil. Israel is justly deserving of God's judgment. They have failed to trust Him. They've put their trust in themselves and their large number of soldiers. And they've been extremely wicked. They have done things that are very, very evil. And as a result, God says His judgment is coming. Their cities will fall, and their King will be destroyed. But after this devastating word of judgment, it's almost as if God wants As he thinks about where Israel is now, their wickedness, their extreme evil, he can't help but remember the early days when he began his relationship with them. Look at the tenderness of the language beginning in Hosea chapter 11. God says, when Israel was a child, I loved him. And out of Egypt, I called my son. Israel called to the Egyptians, even as Israel was leaving them.

They kept sacrificing the veils and offering offerings to idols. It was I who taught Israel to walk, taking them by the hand. But they never knew that I healed them. I led them with human forms, gross of love. To them, I was like one who eases the yoke from their jaws. I went down. to give them food.

Here, God is reflecting back on his relationship with his people. Israel was his son. He called them out of Egypt. He'd set his love upon them. And like a good father, he had held Israel's hands and taught him to walk. He took care of Israel's needs. He surrounded Israel with his love. He had been a good, good father to them. And they never bowed against him. And verse 2 describes Israel's early rejection of their good and loving father.

I'm going to read it again, but this time for the English Standard Version, because I think it better captures the meaning of this verse. It says, the more they were called, the more they went away. They kept sacrificing the veil as the first offering to the heavens. Notice the contrast with verse 1. In verse 1, God is the one who said, I call my son out of Egypt. But sadly, his son cared more about the calls from the nations around him instead of listening to the voice of his loving father. They gave their ear.

Israel will not return to the lake of Egypt. And Assyria will be its king, because they refused to repent. How many times has God called them to repent? Hundreds of years. God says, a sword will whirl their instincts. It will destroy and devour the arms of those kings because of their schemes. Thy people are bent on turning from you.

Though they call to him by fire, he will not exalt the Lamb. Verse 7 is particularly heartbreaking, isn't it? God's people, his beloved Son, is bent on turning away. Israel has become that rebellious teenager that simply will not listen to his Father. Whatever his Father says, opposite.

And though God warned them over and over again, they refused to repent. The result is that a sword will now whirl through their cities, bringing massive destruction and devastation to God's people. And though Israel will call out their false god Baal, he won't be called out. They will be devoured by we are expecting more pronouncements of judgment. God says this in verse 8.

How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I surrender you to Israel? How can I make you like Madman? How can I treat you like Zavoy? I have had a change of heart by compassion I will not let the full fury of my anger. I will not turn back to destroy eagerness. For I am God and not man. The Holy One above me. I will not run and range. In these verses, we get brought into the very center of the beating heart of God. His compassion is stirred up within them.

He cannot give them up. He cannot completely surrender them. He cannot make them like Adna and Zeboiah. These were cities that he had completely wiped off the face of the earth and started the war. Now this does not mean that God isn't going to judge His people. It still is. Assyria is going to come and attack them and haul them into exile. The sword of judgment is going to whirl through Israel because of their sin. However, whereas God judged Adonai and Samoah and they were never hurt again, God's judgment of His sinful people will not be the end of their story. And forever will remain, Israel will not be defeated. And the reason this is the case, the reason this is true, is not because of who Israel is, but because of who God is.

Look at what God says in verse 9. This is the reason he's giving, for I am God, and I am the whole among you. God is not like a man who holds a crutch. He is the Holy One, meaning He is set apart, distinct, He is different from us. He is perfectly free as God to act how He wills without any constraints or any outside pressures. And though Israel has sinned previously against Him, God is choosing to show them compassion. As God, He is free to do that, and it pleases Him His heart is stirred up, or as some translate, it recoils within him. This is not just a, ah, I'll let this slide. This is, oh, I'm loved by people. This is a guttural response of deep compassion and mercy for his people. And so remarkably, because he is God, in verses 10 and 11. God says, they will follow the Lord.

He will roar like a lion. When he roars, his children will come trembling from the west. They will be roused like birds from Egypt and like doves from the land of Assyria. Then I will settle them in their homes. This is the Lord's declaration. In these verses, God pictures this future day when he will powerfully gather his people together. His people will come a four quarters of the earth and he will settle them in their homes. Not in their living, their homes. The exile will be over. They will fly away and forever.

In the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 2, verse 15, Matthew actually quotes Hosea from Leviticus 1, and he connects it to Jesus. And the point Matthew is making is that Jesus is God's faithful son, and in himself, he embodies the nation of Israel. So whereas God's son, the nation of Israel, failed miserably.

He perfectly sowed righteousness and reaped faithful love. He always sought the Lord as God. But then as the faithful and obedient son of God, he took the place of God's sinful people, and he died a cursed death under God's wrath and judgment. But three days later, he rose from the dead, never to die again. And all those who joined them and are gifted His perfect record of obedience. In staggering compassion, God did not give up His people. He did not surrender them to their sin and their foolishness.

Instead, in Jesus Christ, He became one of His people in order to save them and be able to bring them home with him. And now, it's the message of the gospel that roars like a lion all throughout the earth, calling nations to come to know God. And when King Jesus, the great lion of Judah, returns to this earth and does his final roar, God's redeemed people will live with God on this restored earth, enjoying His compassion, and His love, and His care, and His goodness.

Gracious Father, thank you for your heart and compassion toward your people. Thank you for not leaving us in our sin or our misery. Thank you for setting your very own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to be our Savior. Thank you that you are not like us. You are the Holy One, a God of faithful love, I pray that you would overwhelm us once again with your grace and mercy. Break down any unclouded areas of our hearts and help us to truly seek you. Keep us from looking to idols that will only give us anxiety. Fix our hearts on you. Father, for those here today who don't know you, I pray that they would plead with you to make judgment. and find revenge and salvation in Jesus Christ.