Shalom, everyone. I would like today to start to share with you from the Prophets of Israel, once again from the Old Testament today. And I would like today to look at the prophet that have presented the message to Israel in a time when Israel, as a nation, were far away from him, from the Lord. And the prophet, of course, you are aware of is the prophet Hosea. And so, please turn to the prophet Hosea. In the English Bible, he's found Hosea immediately after the book of Daniel. And he's called by many as a minor prophet. And the interesting thing about this statement is that many called Hosea or placed Hosea with the numbers of prophets that are called minor prophets.

It is interesting because these titles or these names minor prophets were given to these prophets because the length of the words that they have proclaimed to the nation of Israel perhaps was not as long as Isaiah or Jeremiah or Ezekiel. But it is interesting that the length of the letter or the length of the message to the nation of Israel by Hosea was somewhat longer than the prophet Daniel. Daniel, of course, in the Tanakh, in the Hebrew scripture, is really not found among the prophets. He's with the writings. But nevertheless, they are titling Hosea as part of the minor prophet. I would like to suggest today that Hosea's message is not minor.

It's very major. And Hosea's message to the nation of Israel, the northern tribes of Israel, is very important, very appropriate. And he's really speaking to us today because we find ourselves in the church age, in a time of decline, just like Israel of old found himself in a time of decline when Hosea wrote. So please turn to Hosea and we're going to read some of the verses in chapter one for the beginning. I'm going to give some introduction and we are going to move into the book itself. Listen to these first few verses of Hosea chapter one. The word of the Lord that came unto Hosea, the son of Be'eri, in the days of Uzziah, Yotam, Achaz, and Chizkiah, kings of Judah.

And in the days of Yeruvam, the son of Yoash, the king of Israel. The beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea. And the Lord said unto Hosea, go, take unto you a wife of Hudams and children of Hudams. For the land has committed great Hudam, departing from the Lord. So he went and he took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, which conceived and bare him, this is Hosea, a son. And the Lord said unto him, call his name Jezreel, or Yizra'el. For yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Yehu, and I will cause to seize the kingdom of the house of Israel.

And it shall come to pass that day that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel. And she conceived again and bare him a daughter. And God said unto him, call her name Lo-Ruchamah. For I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel. But I will utterly take them away. But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah. And I will save them by the Lord their God. And I will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, nor by horses, nor by horsemen. Now when she had weaned Lo-Ruchamah, she conceived and bare a son.

Then said God, call his name Lo-Ami. For ye are not my people, and I will not be your God. Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured, nor numbered. And it shall come to pass that in the place where it was said unto them, ye are not my people. There it shall be said unto them, ye are the sons of the living God. Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together to appoint themselves one head. And they shall come up out of the land. For great is the day of Jezrael.

Now let me read one more verse into chapter 2, verse 1. Say ye unto your brethren, Ami, and unto your sisters, Ruchamah. And I'm going to stop here with the reading for today. And I'm going to give you a little bit of introduction about the book of Hosea. And at the same time, we're going to go into those chapters and we're going to see the lessons that we are learning here from this prophet, at least from the first chapter of the prophet of Hosea. It is interesting, brothers and sisters, that sometime in the Bible, in biblical history, we learn that God is teaching his people with a special method.

He is not only teaching them by telling them things to do, which is the word of the Lord, but sometime God teaching the nation of Israel or teaching mankind through deeds and action that he expects from the nation, from the people, from the leaders to do. He sometimes asks a prophet or a leader to do something that is so unusual, that it is so unexpected from God to ask from a person to do. And yet God uses these picture lessons to speak to the people of God. You see, in the time when Hosea was raised by God to minister to the nation of Israel, oh, the state of our own people Israel was in such a sad state that God was ready to judge the nation of Israel.

The nation had been divided into the northern tribes and the southern tribes. The ten northern tribes called Israel, the two southern tribes called Judah, and a nation that was once called by God to be united had been divided because of violation of the word of God. Very similar to what's going on today in the present day church age. The church who is called to be united, who are called to be one body and called to practice and enjoy each other, though they are united positionally, they are divided practically. And so God is showing to us his view on the state of the nation of Israel, on the condition of the nation of Israel.

And you see here, and God has asked Hosea to do things that are really unusual. He expected for him to do something because through what he asked him to do, he was going to speak to the nation of Israel. Now you know in the New Testament we have something that's called a parable. In the Greek it's parabolos. Parable is something like throwing alongside something. Yeshua the Messiah oftentimes spoke in parable to his own disciples in the land of Israel. This is a Jewish way of telling stories and teaching spiritual lessons from the stories that you tell them. One of the stories that is very interesting is, for example, the parables of the sower sowing seed.

This is interesting. Yeshua looked in Galilee and he saw a sower sowing seeds and he says, Look, Israel, look, I am the one who sowed the seeds. The seed is a picture of the word of God. The sower is a picture of the Messiah. He's sowing the seeds just like the sower in Galilee sows seeds. Some of the seeds fall on good ground. Some of the seeds fall on rocky ground. Some of the seeds falling among thorns. Some of the seeds falling on bad ground. And out of this literal event that happened in Galilee and the Galilee in Israel, Yeshua the Messiah was teaching us a spiritual lesson.

Just like the sower sowed physical seeds, Yeshua sowed spiritual seeds. And he wanted that these seeds will fall upon good ground, that there will be fruit for God in the life of mankind. Well, look here what God has expected Hosea to do. And we're going to look at that in a few more moments. I want you to turn, for example, just for a second to chapter 12 of the prophet Hosea. And you look what he said, God said to Israel in chapter 12 and verse 10. He's really saying what he expected from Hosea to do. He says in verse 10 of Hosea chapter 12. He says, I have also spoken by the prophets.

And I have multiplied visions. And I use similitudes by the ministry of the prophets. You notice that? Use this expression. I have used similitude, something that is similar by the ministry of the prophets. The Hebrew word for similitude is adameh, something domeh, something similar. That's what he's really saying to us. He spoke through the prophets and he expected them to do something that will teach the nation of Israel a lesson. You know, for example, in Isaiah in chapter 20, he asked Isaiah to walk naked for three years. Very strange. In Ezekiel chapter 4 verses 1 to 6, he asked Ezekiel to lay upon his side for a certain season.

Why would you want to lay on your side for a certain season? Well, God was, through this experience of the prophet, he was telling the nation what he had in mind to speak to the nation. Hosea was asked by God to do things which describes God's relationship to Israel as a husband and wife. Hosea was asked by God to do something that will describe the relationship between God and Israel and the condition of the people. And how they were unfaithful to the God who loved them. How often we are unfaithful to Yeshua, the Messiah, our Lord, who loved us and gave himself for us. The church that is in this present day.

So, Hosea was presenting this to the nation by example. That's what God is showing us here in this chapter. Now, Hosea, the author, we read in verse 1. Look what it says. The word of the Lord came unto Hosea, the son of Be'eri. Now, the word Hosea in Hebrew simply means that God has saved. Or is very similar to the word Yeshua, Jesus. Jehovah the Savior. Similar to Yehoshua, Joshua. Jehovah will save. Hosea simply means Jehovah has saved. But he was the son of Be'eri. Be'eri means my well. In other words, what we learn here, the Hosea, Jehovah the Savior, is the son of my well.

The word Be'er in Hebrew means well. And really, when you think about it, a well is a type of the picture of the nation of Israel. It is God's well. It is God's fountain. It belongs to God. It is mine. The nation is mine. And Hosea was really the son of Be'eri, the son of my well. This is what we read here in this verse 1. Well, the date of the ministry of Hosea is approximately 753 BC to about 722 BC. It is about 30 years or so, ministry of Hosea. And Hosea had preached or ministered to the northern tribes of Israel until the time that they had been taken captives by the Assyrians.

When in 722 they were taken captive and scattered. They had been taken by the Assyrians because of their disobedience to the God of their fathers. And so Hosea was ministering in a time of decline. Doesn't it tell you a lot of what's the condition of the church in this present day? Very similar. Those men and women in their spheres that God raised to serve him in this present day of the church age dispensation is very similar to the time that Hosea or Hosea was raised by God to minister his word to the northern tribes of Israel. In the time of decline. A time where the nation have gone astray.

Have fallen away and have disobeyed the word of God. And so here, brothers and sisters, Hosea was raised. We will learn some of the things that God is thinking about the nation of Israel. One more point before I'm moving here forward. I want you to understand that Israel in the Tanakh in the Old Testament is always looked as the wife of Jehovah. Just the same like we know that the church is called the bride of the Messiah, the bride of Christ. Israel is the wife of Jehovah. God had brought Israel into a relationship with himself. And Israel became this dear loving wife of Jehovah. God loves this nation.

God wants to protect this nation. But the nation was not always faithful to Jehovah who loved that nation so much. Similar to the church. We are the bride of the Messiah, the bride of Christ, the church. And the church is also in a similar way have not been always faithful to the Lord Jesus, the Messiah. And that's what we are going to be occupied and learning today about the desire or the expectation of God from Hosea as a lesson about his relationship with Israel and the nation. So, look at this. He preached, it says here in verse 1, he says that God's word or the Lord's word came unto Hosea, the son of Be'eri.

When did it come? In the days of Uziah, Yotam, Achaz, and Hezekiah, the kings of Judah. Four kings of Judah. At the same time, it says also in the days of Jeroboam or Yeroboam, the king of Israel. In the process, in other words, he was preaching through a long time from those four kings, Uziah, Yotam, Achaz, and Hezekiah, of those who were kings of Judah. But at the same time, he was also preaching to the nation of Israel through in a time when Jeroboam was the king of Israel. And so, the word of the Lord came to him. And now in verses 2 and verse 3, we find out the word that the Lord had given to Hosea about his wife and about her children.

Look at this, what it says in verses 2 and 3. The beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea. And the Lord said unto Hosea, unto Hosea. You go, Hosea, and you take unto you a wife of Hudams and children of Hudams. For the land has committed great Hudam, departing from the Lord. Verse 3, the first part. And so he went, and he took Gomer, the daughter of Dib-la-im. And I'm going to stop here for a moment. Notice in verse 2 and the first part of verse 3, God has asked Hosea to do something very strange. He's asking Hosea to go and to take unto himself a wife of Hudams and children of Hudams.

He's asking Hosea to do something that you and I might say, well, how is it possible that God, a holy and a righteous God, asking Hosea to take unto him as a wife a prostitute? Now, there are two views that some take. Some say that because God has never will allow and command his servants to go and marry a prostitute, therefore it is not possible that God have expected this for Hosea to do. She became a prostitute later on, but not at the time when he married her. That's what some do say. On the other hand, others say, no, God have asked Hosea to go and take a woman that was already a prostitute, which have already had children as a result of her prostitution.

Now, whichever way you want to take it, this is fine. To my understanding from the way the Hebrew construction is, is that he was to take a wife that was already a woman in a state of Hudam, in a state of prostitution. And that's why it used this word, kach lecha eshet znunim in Hebrew. You take to yourself a woman who is already a prostitute. Now, this is amazing to see how God is expecting from Hosea to go and take a woman in such a condition. Well, it is not for you and I to understand everything. We know that God is holy and God wants purity, but God was going to describe to us what kind of a people or how the people that God had redeemed to himself and brought to himself into a relationship with him, the nation of Israel and the condition that they were at, what he had brought them into such a wonderful relationship, and how later on they are falling into the very same condition like they have been in the past.

And so, you see what he is saying to them? He says, Hosea was told to marry a wife of Hudam, a prostitute, and a woman that already had been in such a condition. And you know, if you think about it, when you think about the state of a man or woman, of people, all the human race, where did we come from? The Bible teaches that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We didn't come from a healthy state. We didn't come from a place of dignity. We all came from a slow state of spiritual state and many times practical state. We have all been saved out of our own sad condition.

That's what God had done. He had brought the nation of Israel from a low state that the nation had been, and he had brought this nation to himself. And that's why he is saying, verse 2a, Hosea, you go marry a wife of Hudam, a wife that is in such a sad condition. And you marry her because I want to show you and teach you a lesson about the condition that the nation of Israel are founding at. And so it says here in verse 3a, So he went and he took Gomer, the daughter of Divlaim. Hosea obeyed the word of the Lord. Very strange, brothers and sisters, what God had expected for Hosea to do.

Very strange, but he's going to illustrate the state of the nation of Israel. And he going to show from these verses what he have done in his love for the nation, what he have done for them. He had brought them from such a low state and he had brought them to himself. And so Hosea didn't only take Gomer as a woman who was a prostitute. He also took in the children that she had. The word here in verse 2, it's not only a wife of Hudam, but the children of Hudam. In other words, she must have already had children out of this sad state of Hudam that Hosea was called to bring them in, to take them in and to make them as if it were his own children.

And so he took them in. It says here in verse 3. And so he went and he took Gomer, the daughter of Divlaim. The word for Gomer in Hebrew, in verse 3a, Gomer, the daughter of Divlaim. Gomer simply in the Hebrew means finished. Gomer Ligmo means to complete, to finish. And Divlaim, really in the Hebrew, it has to do with that which speaks of double pleasure. Really what we learn about Gomer, the daughter of Divlaim, she was a woman that was occupied with and desired pleasure all the time. Double pleasure, multitude of pleasures. That was the condition of Gomer. Complete, or I should say total pleasure, double pleasure, completely devoted to earthly pleasures.

Interesting, isn't it? When you think about the word pleasure. Let me just read to you a verse in Hebrews chapter 11. The writers to the Hebrew believers said to them about Moses. Hebrews 11, in verse 23. By faith Moses, when he was born, he was heeded three months of his parents because they saw that he was a proper child. And they were not afraid of the king's commandment. Now listen to this, verse 24 and 25. By faith Moses, when he was come to years, he refused to be called the sons of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing, listen, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.

Moses, he chose to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than to enjoy the pleasure of sin for a season. That's what Moses did. That's what Moses did. Sin is pleasurable, but it is only for a season. In fact, the opposite of Hebrews 11 and verse 25 is Psalm 16 when David says, In the presence, there are pleasures forevermore. In the presence of God, there is pleasures, while away from God, there is the pleasures of this world, but it is only for a season. And so we read that Hosea took Gomer, the daughter of Divlaim, to be his wife, meaning complete devotion to pleasures. And so he did obey the word of the Lord.

Again, I would like to mention, brothers and sisters, that this is very unusual. A man called by God to go to take a woman of Hordam with children of Hordam and to marry her. And by this act and the results of this relationship, God is teaching a picture lesson about the state of the nation that he loves so much, the nation of Israel. Similarly, we have a New Testament. You and I, in a personal relationship with husband and wife, with our own wives and husbands, are a picture of the Messiah, Christ, and the Church. Ephesians 5 teaches us, husbands, love your wife. How? As the Messiah loved the Church, the assembly, and gave himself for her, that he might nourish her and cherish her.

That's what the Lord does. That's what the Lord does. And we are a picture every time a person gets married today. The husband and the wife, the two individuals who are just about to get married, what you really see there is a miniature picture of the relationship that Jehovah had with Israel, that Yeshua the Messiah has with the body of Messiah. It's only a miniature picture of the Lord. It's only a miniature picture of this great relationship of love that we have from the Lord. That's why it says, not only husband, love your wives, as the Messiah loved the Church, but it also says, why be subject unto your own husbands?

In other words, in other words, it shows us the relationship that the Church has to be subject to the Lord of glory, to the Messiah himself. And so these picture lessons, these parables to throw alongside that we have in the Scriptures, how God is teaching spiritual lessons from these certain events that he expected men to do. And so, brothers and sisters, verse 1, we have the Lord's word that came to Hosea, the son of Be'eri. Verse 2 and the first part of verse 3, we have Hosea's wife. Her name is Gomer and her children. Oh, what a state. She was a prostitute. And she had children as a result of the prostitution.

And the sorrow and the sadness and the emptiness. And that's where we came from. You and I came from there. You and I came from a world of sin undone. And God had brought us into a relationship with himself. This is exactly how Israel had become a nation. God had brought Israel. Do you know that our forefather Abraham, his father was worshipping idols on the other side of the river. Abraham was picked up from there and had been brought into a relationship with God. He didn't earn it. God in his love and grace have chosen him and brought him into a relationship with himself. So Hosea, Hosea, in obedience to God, went and did so.

Can you imagine the whole life of Hosea became a picture of the relationship with God and his beloved nation, the nation of Israel. It's not only that he was preaching the word. It is his whole life. His whole relationship that became a picture of the relationship that God has towards his nation Israel. A holy God and a sinful people that he brought them into his own home and made them his own. He embraced them and took them in. And not only took them in, but he took not only her, but her, her children who were children of Hudam. And so he married her. And she became his wife.

And she became his wife. Now that they are married, it didn't take too long where God, now in their immediate relationship, now he's showing to us what he thinks about the state of the nation that he loved so much. And so in verse three, B and verse four and five, we find out about the first son of Hosea and Gomer together. In addition to the sons that he brought in that were sons of Hudams, now he's telling them through the children that they're going to have together what he thinks about the state of the nation. And so notice that I'm reading verse three, B and verse four and five.

And it says, she conceived and bear him. This is Hosea, a son. And the Lord said unto him, you call his name Jezreel or in Hebrew, Yizra'el. For yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Yehu, and I will cause to seize the kingdom of the house of Israel. And it shall come to pass in that day that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel. Now that they got married and Hosea brought her into his own home, now they started to have children of their own. So God is now is telling Hosea through the children that they have together what he thinks about the nation and their state.

And so we read, she conceived and bear a son. Now notice it says in verse three, B, she bear him a son. Now this is not the sons that he received from Hudam, from other relationships in the past. But this is a son that came to him as a result of their relationship as a husband and wife. And you see the Lord said unto him, Hosea, I want you to call him by that name. And he gave him the name in Hebrew we call Yisrael. Now don't mix up between Israel, the nation, Yisrael, and Yisrael, Jezreel. It's two separate names all together. The word Yisrael, the name of the nation of the country, means a prince with God.

The word Yisrael, the word Yisrael, and you notice how I'm using the word Ein. This is another word, it's simply God will sow, in a positive, or God will scatter. And so look, the Lord said unto him, it says in verse four, the name of the man Jezreel, he says it's God will sow, or God will scatter. And then he gives him the reason, and he says, for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Yisrael upon the house of Yehu. And I will cause to seize the kingdom of the house of Israel. You see what happened? When Israel, the northern kingdom, when they have been in the north, separated from the south, from Judah, from the two tribes, Judah and Benjamin.

The northern kingdom had a wicked king after, one after another, who did not go in the ways of the Lord. And this man by the name of Yehu, he was the one that was used by God to ultimately destroy the kingdom of Israel, meaning that he became a king. And he ultimately, this woman Jezebel, if you read second Kings, you will see that he was used by God to kill Jezebel and ultimately Ahab. And he was used by God, but you would think that Jehu will restore the proper worship of Jehovah in the northern tribes. But instead, the Bible tells us that he did not follow the ways of the Lord.

Let me show you this. Please turn to second Kings, chapter nine, verse one. And Elisha, the prophet called one of the children of the prophets. And he said unto him, Gird up your loins, take a box of oil in thine hand, and go to Ramoth Gilad. And when you come thither, look there, a person by the name of Jehu. Here is that name, Yehu. And then verse three, take a box of oil, pour it on his head and say, thus says the Lord, I have anointed thee king over Israel. And here is Jehu, was anointed as a king over Israel by the prophet Elisha, Elisha.

If you turn the page a little bit further, you will find out about Jehu. And you will notice that Jehu did not continue to follow in the ways of the Lord. It says in second Kings, chapter 10 and verse 30. And the Lord said unto Jehu, because you has done well in executing that which is right in mine eyes and is done unto the house of Ahab, according to all that was in mine heart, thy children of the fourth generation shall sit on the throne of Israel. But now notice in verse 31, but Jehu took no heed to walk in the law of the Lord God of Israel with all his heart.

For he departed not from the sins of Jeroboam, which made Israel to sin. So while Jehu did the work that God asked him to do in dealing with the house of Ahab, which was a wicked king of Israel and Jezebel, his wife, Jehu did not continue in the ways of the Lord. In second Kings, chapter 10, we read that he did not listen to the law of the Lord. And he continued, he departed and he went the same way of Jeroboam, the king of Israel, who made Israel sin. So God, in patience towards the nation of Israel, waiting for them to be restored, waiting for them to be brought back to himself.

And instead, they have departed for him further and further. So God said to Hosea, after he got the firstborn son and he called him Jezreel, he is saying to them, listen, he says in verse 4b, he says, I will cause to seize the kingdom from the house of Israel. Verse 5, he said, and it shall come to pass in that day that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel. In other words, here we get the word Jezreel, meaning to scatter, meaning to spread around and to scatter. And God says, I will take, I will cut the bow. The bow has to do with the place of power, with the kingdom.

He says, I will destroy the kingdom of Israel and I will scatter the nation. You're wondering, when you look at the Jewish people, I should say, those who even take the name Jewish people, but those, the tribes of Israel that are scattered all over the world. They are scattered because of their disobedience, because of our people's disobedience to the word of God. God had promised that he will scatter the people of Israel because of their violation of the word of God. And God took Hosea, and he said to him, Hosea, you through your wife Gomer, you will have a son, you will call his name Jezreel.

And that is a lesson to the nation that I will sow, I will scatter the seed of Israel, and I will take away their kingdom from them. And so we read in the next verses, now he is moving, and from speaking about Jezreel, the first son, he is getting now, he is speaking about another child in the life of Hosea. And this person is actually a girl that was born, a daughter that was born. In verse 6 and 7, here is the second child, again, is the second child of Gomer and Hosea. Not the children that Gomer had before she married Hosea, children of prostitution. Here, he is speaking about the child that came out of two of them as a husband and wife.

And so look at this, it says in verse 6 and 7, and she conceived again. And she bare him a daughter this time, and God said unto him, you call her name Lo-Ruchamah. Lo-Ruchamah simply means, Lo means in Hebrew no, Uchamah means mercy, no mercy. And he is saying, for I will have no more mercy upon the house of Israel, but I will utterly take them away. See, in the second child of Hosea and Gomer, God is communicating another message to the nation. He says not only that I will scatter you, but there will be a period of time in a judicial way that I will have no mercy on you.

And through the daughter Lo-Ruchamah, God is saying, I will have no mercy upon the house of Israel. I will utterly take them away. Now, let's make sure that we understand it, that the people of Israel are God's people at all times. Positionally, as a nation, that's what God chose in the nation of Israel, that all time, his nation, his nation as a nation. But what happened that in a judicial way, God has disciplined the nation of Israel, and those are descendants of the nation of Israel. And here we find out that he, in an experiential way, he's saying, I'm not going to have a mercy on you.

I'm going to scatter you. I'm going to discipline you. I'm going to scatter you all over the nation of the world. And here we say through Lo-Ruchamah, I will have no mercy upon the nation of Israel. By the way, in verse 7, he said that I will have mercy upon the house of Judah. Judah. Judah has not yet have arrived to the climax of disobedience. That came a little bit later. When Nebuchadnezzar came and took the Jewish people, Judah, to Babylon. But here we are talking about the northern tribes. And here God says, I will have no mercy upon the house of Israel. And verse 7, but I will have mercy upon the house of Judah.

And I will save them by their Lord their God. And I will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, nor by horses, nor by horsemen. In other words, the Lord himself will still preserve Judah for a certain length of time. It will not be by human power, nor by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, nor by horses, nor by horsemen. But by the Lord himself. And it was the Lord himself. If you read carefully in 2nd King chapter 19, he delivered Judah from the king who was going to come and take them over as well. And God have delivered Judah. You can read it in 2nd King chapter 19 and verses 31 to 37.

Many, many soldiers died from the Assyrian army because God had preserved Judah at that time for another length of time. So, Jezreel, Israel, God will scatter them. Loruchama, God will have no mercy on them for a season. And look at the third child in verses 8 and 9. In verses 8 and 9, she again, after she had weaned Loruchama, she conceived a third time and she bare a son. And then listen to that. Again, I would like, beloved brothers and sisters, that we will understand that in an experiential way there were not his people. The nation all the time are called in the scripture, my people. But here, in discipline.

Here, in judgment. As a nation, not individuals that I am talking about as a nation. God had not only scattered them, Jezreel. Not only had no mercy on them, Loruchama. But he also called them, not my people, Loruchama. The Hebrew word Lo means no. The word Ami means my people. And God said, you are not my people. He said, I will not be your God. What a sad state of the nation. God is judging the nation who have violated his word. He scattered them. He had no mercy on them. He allowed the nations to do to them whatever they pleased. And then he called them, not my people.

They didn't have that enjoyment of the relationship that they should have had if they would only obey him. Only submit to him. And he allowed them to be disciplined and punished. Now this expression, Lo Ami, or not my people, is mentioned more than one time in the Brit HaChadasha, in the New Testament. The first time it's mentioned, if you turn please, to Romans chapter 9, where we have studied in the past already. He's speaking now of the Gentiles at Rome. And he's saying to them in verse 23: And that he might make known the riches of the glory on the vessels of mercy which he had before appeared unto glory, even on us, which he had called not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles, as he saith in Hosea: I will call them my people, which were not my people.

And her beloved, which was not beloved. You see that? The Gentiles who became believers in the Lord Jesus the Messiah, they were not my people. And God said, I will call them my people, when he saved them, and have accepted Yeshua the Messiah. He said, I will call them my people, which were not my people. He's using the text from Hosea, chapter 1. And he's calling the Gentiles believers in Yeshua the Messiah, my people. But they were not my people before they became believers in the Lord Jesus. Look at another verse in 1 Peter, chapter 2. He's speaking about Jewish believers there. And there he's telling them that also they, when they became believers in Yeshua, they became his people, even though the nation of the nation is in the state of not my people.

Look, 1 Peter, chapter 2 and verse 9. He's saying, "But ye are chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people that ye should show forth the praises of him, who has called you out of darkness into the marvelous light, his marvelous light, which in time past were not a people. But now the people of God, which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy." See, it's so interesting how the apostles, both Peter and Paul, uses the expression from Hosea, chapter 1, and applying it, number 1, to the Gentile believers who in the past were not a people. And when they got saved, they became the people of God.

And the Jewish people in the time of Peter, who were also in a state of not my people before they believed in the Messiah. But when they accepted the Messiah, he called them, "But now you are the people of God." And so, brothers and sisters, here we learn how God, who loved the nation and wanted the nation to be so much blessed, have took them in, even if they were in a state of sad condition like Gomer had been and took her children and brought them in. And then he says, "Look at the condition of the nation. I will scatter them. I will have no mercy on them.

And I will place them in a condition of time that they are called Lo Amin, not my people." Now you see, brothers and sisters, you and I have to realize that the love of God, so unique, is so special, is not limited to the condition even of man. His love is far reaching. And God in his love is going to restore the nation of Israel to himself. And he doesn't stop here in this verse 9. He is now showing to us in the next couple of verses, and we're going to finalize this first chapter of Hosea chapter 1. He is just showing to us that God has an ultimate desire in his heart to restore the nation of Israel to himself.

I'm hearing a lot today. God finished with Israel. The Jewish people have no more future. Israel, the nation, is done. There is no more future for the nation of Israel. You see, they killed the Messiah. They rejected the Messiahship of Yeshua. God has no more plan for them. But the Bible never, ever teaches that God has ended his plan for the nation of Israel. God has a plan for them. God has a plan for the nation. And you know, the realization that this nation, just like us, just like us, and I'm using us, the church, we all came from a pit of sin and corruption.

We all have been lifted up by the grace of God. We all have been brought and have been elevated because we all had a nature, a sin nature, that God could say, I'm not going to have anything to do with you. And God says, I love you. And I want to bring you unto myself. And so in the next verses, quickly. Verse 10 and 11, and actually verse 1 of chapter 2. God reversed the whole thing here. The three children that Hosea had together with Gomer, which says, I will scatter you. I will have no mercy on you. I will call you not my people. Now you can see in those three verses, verse 10, 11, and verse 1 of chapter 2, that there is intention in God's purposes to reverse the state that Israel is at.

And so in verse 10, we read that word, yet. Even though this happened, even though God judged his people, yet God has something for them. And so you notice in verse 10, yet God will enlarge the number of the children of Israel. Look, yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea. By the way, that's come from the word Yisrael, the first son of Hosea. God, on the one hand, God had scattered them. That's one way of interpretation, to scatter. But on the other hand, he's sowing the seed and enlarging the number of the nation of Israel. Here we see in verse 10, And the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered.

And it shall come to pass that in a place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God. Beloved brothers and sisters, look at this. When they were scattered, God promised to gather them. When he saw them far away from the land, far away from himself in the past, he's intending to sow them back in the land. And that the nation of Israel will become as the sand of the sea. You cannot measure that. You cannot number them. And eventually, when they were called not my people, they will be called the people or the sons of the living God.

God intending to restore the people of Israel. And so we see that they will be gathered, and they will be enlarged, and they will be called Ami once again, practically now. Positionally, they are always, as a nation, the nation of God. Now notice in verse 11, God will also, not only that he going to do that, he also going to reunite the nation that had been separated between the northern tribes and the southern tribes. In verse 11 he says, Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together and appoint unto themselves one head. And they shall come up out of the land for great shall be the day of Jezreel.

You see, one day is coming. There will be no longer two nations. They will no longer be divided. They will be united together. They will have one head. And this head speaks of the Mashiach, the Messiah, who is one day going to be the one who is going to be king of the Jews, the king of Israel. And he's going to be the head of the nation. And he's going to lead the nation. And they're going to be united, no longer divided and scattered. What a beautiful future for the nation of Israel. And chapter 2 verse 1 says, "I say unto your brethren Ami and to your sister Ruhamah." "Hosea, you say unto your brethren, my people." "Hosea, you say unto your brethren, Ruhamah, I will have mercy on you again." "I'm not going to leave you in a state that you are right now." I don't know about you.

Maybe because I'm Israeli, grown up, born in Jerusalem, raised in Israel. Maybe because I'm Jewish. But I honestly tell you that my desire is to see this coming to pass. To see Israel restored. I believe every Christian who loved the Lord Jesus the Messiah with a pure heart. Has to have the very same desire. Why? You know why? Because if God is not going to fulfill the promises to Israel. How can you be sure that God will fulfill his promises to the church? You cannot take the one side and leave the other. And so, brothers and sisters, what an amazing introduction to the prophet Hosea.

Take a wife that she was a prostitute. Take her in. Take her children in. Marry her. Make her your own. And now, you have children with her. And those children, those additional children that what she had already had from the others. Those three children. Son, daughter, son. I want you to speak to the nation through the names of these children. To tell them what I think about their state and what I'm going to do to them. I will scatter them, Jezreel. I will have no mercy on them. Lo, Ruhama. And I will consider them in a state of not my people. Lo, Amin. But that's not going to be the end.

I'm going to restore them back to myself. And as we're going to go along in the study with the grace of the Lord, you will see the love of God. Brothers and sisters, the love of God that he has for Israel and the love of God that he has for you and for me. That is beyond measure. And for this, we are going to praise him throughout eternity. Can you say amen to that? Amen.