Hosea 7, Similes and their Application Today (2)

We are continuing to review the similes of Hos. 6-8.

·       Hos. 7:15-16: They were “like a treacherous bow.”  They are like a bow that doesn’t shoot straight.  But note the context of v15: God disciplined and strengthened their arms so they could handle the bow, but the bow they used had a problem.  God disciplines us when we choose the wisdom of the world.  He does it by the failure of that wisdom.  It is actually God’s grace when our lives fail under the wisdom of man.  So we are encouraged to follow a new way, but instead of choosing the way of truth in the Bible we pick up another philosophy of man that still misses the mark.

·       Hos. 8:8: Israel was “like a vessel in which is no pleasure.”  Notice the context in v8: Israel is now in or among the Gentiles.  She was created by God to be His chosen nation.  But because of their harlotries (idolatry) they have become indistinguishable from the godless nations around her.  She has become useless in terms of God’s purpose, that she should be a witness to the world of the greatness of the God of Israel.

Now think about this.  We have God’s people whose faithfulness is like a morning cloud; whose passions burn as a baker’s oven, just waiting to lead us in our own lusts; whose half-baked ideas are not capable of meeting every need in life; who flit about from one “savior” to another; whose wisdom is faulty from the start; and who have become useless to God.

Listen to Paul’s warning to Timothy about the church in the latter days: For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers, and they will turn their ears away from the truth and not be turned aside to fables (2 Tim. 4:3-4).  In that one description we see essentially every one of the descriptions of the prophet Hosea concerning God’s people in his own day. 

But now, what did Paul tell Timothy he needed to do about this?  But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry (2 Tim. 4:5).  This is a summary of what he had told his “son in the faith” in the first letter (1 Tim. 4:12-16): be an example to the believers; give attention to God’s word and sound doctrine, giving yourself entirely to them.  In short: Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine.  Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you (1 Tim. 4:16).