Love Of The Thresher

[dave c]

simpletruth #138k Revisited 19May10 salicart@msn.com

HOSEA 10:12—Part Eleven: Love Of The Thresher

by rev. dave c

Hosea 10:12, Sow for yourselves righteousness; Reap in mercy; Break up your fallow ground, For it is time to seek the LORD, Till He comes and rains righteousness on you (NKJV).

In Part 10 we discussed how Jesus reprimanded Israel’s leadership, "Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices--mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law--justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former (Mt 23:23; NIV). We also discussed how Micah 6:8 and Zechariah 7:9 add humility and compassion to faithfulness as an admonition for justice tempered with mercy in our dealings with one another as modeled by God’s relationship with us.

The key verse for this series, Hosea 10:12, stands as a banner born aloft by God, Himself, to the nation of Israel to repent and return to the ways of righteousness so that they might receive God’s abundant blessings. This banner is raised in stark contrast to verse 10:11 that precedes it [Ephraim is a trained heifer that loves to thresh; so I will put a yoke on her fair neck. I will drive Ephraim, Judah must plow, and Jacob must break up the ground (NIV) (also ref. Je 50:11)]—and verse 10:13 that follows it [But you have planted wickedness, you have reaped evil, you have eaten the fruit of deception. Because you have depended on your own strength and on your many warriors (NIV) (also ref. Je 48:7)].

We, as the Church of Jesus Christ in this time and in this place of Western Culture, must understand that we are Ephraim...a trained heifer that loves to thresh. ‘A trained heifer’ was generally a young cow who received a great deal of attention and who was given the privileged job of turning the thresher in slow circles as it ate at will as much of the grain at its feet as it desired. Obviously such a heifer would grow sleek and fat. In verse 10:11, God is telling Israel (us) that they (we) have grown presumptuous and complacent as they (we) live out our days in the ease of preferential duties and material abundance. Because God loves Israel too much to allow dissipation that leads to death, He is taking the heifer from the thresher and yoking her to the plow—a job that requires hard work all day long with infrequent breaks and refreshment. This is not an issue of punishment, rather it is an issue of discipline for strength and healthy growth—and, ultimately, for life itself.

Hosea 10:12 provides an outline of how Israel (we) can yet turn back to our Almighty Creator, Faithful Sustainer, Righteous Lord, and Loving Savior in humility of submission, faithfulness of commitment, and compassion for one another...and so regain God’s overt blessings. Verse 10:13, however, reminds them (us) that the path chosen is that of planting wickedness, reaping evil, and eating the fruit of personal and cultural lies. In the New Testament, Romans 1:29-32 tells us, They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them (NIV).

Through these Scriptures we can clearly see that, just as during the time of Hosea when God’s people had fallen into darkness 700 years before the first advent of Christ, the early Church faced the same issues during the First Century—and it should be obvious that the Body and the Bride of Jesus in the 21st Century has come to that same point. Movies, TV, music, magazines, books, newspapers, and the Internet are all evidence of how we not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them, because we depend on [our] own strength and on [our] many warriors.

Revelation 3:14 "To the angel of the church in Laodicea write: These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God's creation. 15 I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! 16 So, because you are lukewarm--neither hot nor cold--I am about to spit you out of my mouth. 17 You say, `I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. 18 I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. 19 Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent. 20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. 21 To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. 22 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches" (NIV).

I pray that we will heed the exhortations of Hosea 10:12 by recognizing that we are standing at a turning point of critical decision. If our nation is to be turned back toward the Face of God, we must individually submit to the yoke of righteous obedience. Let us take God at His word in Second Chronicles 7:13&14, “When I shut up heaven and there is no rain, or command the locusts to devour the land, or send pestilence among My people, if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land” (NKJV). Amen.