Okay, Shalom everyone. We are going to turn today again to the prophet Hosea. And today we are going to deal with a beautiful chapter. In this chapter, it really shows us the heart of God toward His erring people Israel and the longing of the heart of God for the restoration of the nation of Israel. Hosea, in chapter 11, is really describing before the readers and before the nation what kind of a heart God has for His nation, the nation of Israel. So there in chapter 11, as you get to this chapter, we begin, and we are going to read the first 11 verses, which is actually the conclusion of this chapter.

Verse 12 really belongs to chapter 12. So follow me as we are reading the first 11 verses of Hosea, chapter 11. "When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt. As they called them, so they went from them. They sacrificed unto Bealim, and they burnt incense to graven images. I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms. But they knew not that I healed them. I drew them with cords of men, with bands of love, and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid food unto them. He shall not return into the land of Egypt.

But the Assyrians shall be his king, because they refused to return. And the sword shall abide on his cities, and shall consume his branches and devour them, because of their own counsels. And my people are bent to backsliding from me. Though they called them to the Most High, none at all would exalt him. How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? How shall I deliver thee, Israel? How shall I make thee as Adamah? How shall I set thee as Tsevaim? My heart is turned within me. My repenting are kindled together. I will not execute furiousness of my anger. I will not return to destroy Ephraim. For I am God and not man.

The Holy One in the midst of thee. And I will not enter into the city. They shall walk after the Lord. He shall roar like a lion. When he shall roar, then the children shall tremble from the west. They shall tremble as a bird out of Egypt, and as a dove out of the land of Assyria. And I will place them in their houses, saith the Lord. I am not going to read verse 12, because verse 12 really, even in the Hebrew text, belonged to chapter 12. Actually, chapter 12 began with verse 12 in the Hebrew Tanakh. Brothers and sisters, we have been studying so far in the book of Hosea, the book of Hosea.

Already ten chapters we have been reading. And we can see that the prophet Hosea is appealing to the nation of Israel, the northern kingdom of Israel. And again and again showing to them that there will be judgment that is going to come upon the nation of Israel. And Israel will fall to the hands of the Assyrian. Chapter 10, just that we finished in our last session together, we could see the promise coming fall of the nation of Israel predicted by the prophet Hosea. But chapter 11 is a very interesting chapter because in this chapter, you can see the heart of God towards the nation of Israel. Every one of us who is a parent, a father or a mother can definitely say that our hearts are longing after our own children.

We love them. We love them. We want to bless them. We want to see them growing and developing and moving on to live in a way that is pleasing to God. And we really seek this for them. And this is exactly what we see here in chapter 11 when Hosea is speaking and showing the nation of Israel the heart of Jehovah, the heart of the father towards the nation of Israel. And so in the prophet Hosea chapter 11, the Lord is speaking now to Israel and he began here in verse 1 where you see the love of the Lord for the nation of Israel. Look what it says here in verse 1 when Israel was a child, then I loved him and I called my son out of Egypt.

Notice two things that we learn here in this verse. First of all, he's speaking about Israel as a nation being a child. God or Jehovah, the Lord is speaking and he publicly saying before the nation through the prophet Hosea. He says, look, Israel, when you were a child, a little baby, an immature one, a small one, when you had just the beginning as a nation, I've loved you. I've loved you so much, Israel. In other words, he shows them here in verse 1, the truth of election that God have elected the nation of Israel and set simply his love upon this nation. Unconditional love, a love that does not depend upon the performance of the nation.

It is simply an unconditional love for the nation of Israel. When Israel was a child, he says, I loved him. You know, that reminds me of the verses that is found in the book of Deuteronomy in chapter 7, when Moses had to remind the nation of Israel in chapter 7, verses 6, 7 and 8. When Moses said to the nation of Israel, he said, For thou art a holy people unto the Lord your God. The Lord thy God has chosen thee to be a special people unto himself above all the people that are upon the face of this earth, he said. And look what he said in verse 7. The Lord did not set his love upon you, nor choose you because you were more in number than any people, for you were fewest of the people, but because the Lord have loved you.

And because he would keep his oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, has the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you out of the house of bondage from the hand of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. You see, Moses said to Israel, just the same like Hosea said to Israel, When Israel was a child, I have loved him. It is the unconditional love of God towards the nation of Israel. And God simply set his love upon the nation of Israel simply as a one that have the right, is a sovereign God who has the right to choose whom he will. Notice what it's also saying, verse 1 of the prophet Hosea, not only that he loved him, but it's also said, I have called my son out of Egypt.

That shows us the second point that the prophet is trying to communicate with the nation of Israel. Not only that I have loved you, but I have called you out of Egypt. Now, do you know what happened in Egypt? In Egypt, the people of Israel, the one whom God loved and set his affection and love upon the nation, they were in bondage. They were suffering, they were in sorrow, they were in trial, they were under the taskmaster, they were under the bondage of the Egyptian. They were in a sense, they were slaves and they were in sorrow and in a condition that they really needed help and they cried to God for help.

And God said to them, I have called my son out of Egypt. Again, I want to remind you that in Deuteronomy chapter 7, in verse 8, after God says, because I love you, God said to them, not only that I loved you. And he says, I have brought you out with a mighty hand, and I redeemed you out of the house of bondage and from the hand of Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. You see, the love of God is not only an expression or an emotional expression, but the love of God is proven by the fact that God bringing out the nation of Israel out of bondage, out of sorrow, and out of trial.

And by the way, brothers and sisters, this is exactly what the Lord Jesus the Messiah did for you and I. We learn in the New Testament that we have been elected and chosen by God, that God have elected us and He has chosen us in eternity past. But in time, beloved brothers and sisters, in time, He had brought us out of this world, out of bondage, of sin, and He saved us and He made us part of a family, the family of God. But here, it is so beautiful, in a time when Israel, in a decline, away from God, God's heart is being revealed to the nation.

When Israel was a child, I simply loved Him, and I've called my son out of Egypt. Now, this verse is so important, beloved brothers and sisters, because this verse also is a prophetic verse that speaks to us about Yeshua, the Messiah of Israel. The Bible gives a title to the Messiah, Yeshua, as the Son, the Son of God. And though Israel, the nation, as the Son, had failed God in responding in a proper way to Him, Yeshua, the Son, never failed God. And look at this, you remember we read today in Matthew chapter 2, the story about the birth of the Messiah. And it is interesting that the same Holy Spirit of God, who gave us the prophet of Hosea, to write to us this message by Hosea, is the same Holy Spirit of God, who told us about the birth of the Lord Yeshua, the Messiah.

And in chapter 2, as we read about the birth of the Messiah, it was there that the Holy Spirit of God made a point. That you and I might pass over it lightly, but God, with divine inspiration, make a point to show us that the true Israel of God, And meaning, as the person of Israel of God, the Lord Jesus, the Messiah, Yeshua himself, is the one that God also called him out of the land of Egypt. Look at this, Matthew chapter 2. You remember the story we read about the Magi's, who came and said, where is he that was born, the king of the Jews, in Matthew chapter 2, in the beginning.

And when they were told that he was in the city to go after the star towards the city of Bethlehem. You remember what we read here in verse 13, 14, and 15 of Matthew chapter 2. It says, when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, and he said, Arise. Take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt. And be thou there until I bring thee a word, for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him. When he arose, and he took the young child, and his mother, this is Yosef, the father, the stepfather, by night. And he departed unto Egypt.

And look at the verse 15 with quoting to us, Hosea chapter 11 and verse 1. And there he was until the death of Herod, listen to that, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, and I add Hosea, out of Egypt, and I called my son. Now, it is amazing. You know, when we're reading the Bible, and we are talking about the prophetic ministry that God had given to the prophets of Israel. Some of the prophets recorded passages in the scripture, and some of what they have said literally happened in the past, and literally had been fulfilled in reality, in life, in the person of Yeshua the Messiah.

But some of the prophecies that were given in the scriptures were actually prophecies that was literally happened in the past, in the event of the history of Israel. But it was simply a type of the Messiah that is coming. In the text that we have in Hosea 11:1, we have a literal event that occurred historically. And a typical of what's going to happen in the coming of the Messiah. So literally it happened that Israel as a nation were in Egypt, and literally God had brought them out of Egypt. But by bringing Israel out of Egypt, Israel as a nation became a type of the coming of the Messiah himself out of the land of Egypt, as we read it in Matthew 2:13, 14, and 15.

And how beautiful it is to understand it. Here we don't have a literal events and a literal fulfillment. Here we have a literal event which become a picture, a type of what's going to happen when the Messiah will come out of Egypt, back into the Promised Land. And so, beloved brothers and sisters, here Hosea is saying something about what happened to Israel in the past, and how it became a type of the coming of Yeshua the Messiah. When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt, it says here, I have called my son out of Egypt. And you know, we see the connection here between Israel the nation and Israel the Messiah, Yeshua himself.

Israel the nation is linked so much with the Lord Yeshua the Messiah. You can see the true fulfillment or the link that is linking the person of Yeshua the Messiah with the nation of Israel. Look at another verse that I think will be helpful for us as we are reading this passage here. In Isaiah chapter 49, allow me please to read that. I think it will help us to understand that. In Isaiah chapter 49, we see again Israel connected with the Messiah himself. Look at this. Isaiah chapter 49, and I'm reading the first few verses there. Here we have a proclamation. Listen, O isles unto me. Now the me here is none else but the Messiah himself.

Listen, O isles unto me, and hearken, ye people, from afar. The Lord has called me from the womb. From the bowels of my mother has he made mention of my name. This is the Messiah speaking. And he has made my mouth like a sharp sword. In the shadow of his hand has he hid me. And he made me as a polished shaft in his quiver. Has he hid me? And he said unto me. Now notice, here is the Messiah speaking. And God is saying unto him in verse three. He said unto me, you are my servant, O Israel. Here is one of the titles of the Messiah that God is calling the Messiah Israel.

And how do we know that he doesn't speak about the nation Israel, but he speaks about the Messiah Israel? Look at this. Read the rest of the context here. In verse three. He said unto me, thou art my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified. Then I said. This is again the Messiah speaking. I have labored in vain. I have spent my strength for naught. And in vain. Yet surely my justice is with the Lord. And my work is with my God. He continued. And now says the Lord that for me. This is the Messiah himself from the womb. He says to be his servant, to bring Jacob again to him.

Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I, this is Messiah Israel, will be glorified in the eyes of the Lord. And my God shall be my strength. You see, it is sometimes hard to distinguish. But beloved brothers and sisters, God called his son, the title, the true prince of God, Israel. Then he linked him together with the nation of Israel. This is the whole people, the whole nation of Israel. And he called Israel, the Messiah, to redeem Israel, the nation, and to bring them as a restored nation unto himself. And that's why God can say in Hosea chapter 11, when Israel was a child, I loved him.

And I called my son out of Egypt. And while it is true that God redeemed the nation of Israel out of Egypt. At the same time, it served to be a type of the coming of the Messiah out of Egypt, as it says in Matthew chapter 2 and verse 15. And there he was until the death of Herod. This is in Egypt. And so we see here the beautiful link between Israel, the nation, and Yeshua, the Messiah, who is also have the title Israel in the word of God in Isaiah chapter 49. And now let me move on. So you see the heart of God? You see the love for the nation of Israel as a nation?

We see the type of the Messiah himself, who has truly obeyed God fully? And now in the next verses, verses 2 to 4. We see the Lord's love for Israel is like the love of a father for his son. The Lord's love for the nation of Israel is like a love of a father towards his own son. And he says in verse 2, he says, "As they called them, so they went from them." Now the word "they" here is applied to the Hebrew prophets. As the prophets of Israel called the nation of Israel to repent and to turn to God, the more the prophets called them, the more the nation have turned away and have gone further and further from God.

You know how it hurt the heart of God for this? You know it very well in your personal experience as a father and as a mother. You know when you speak to your children and you give them anything and everything to bring them closer to the Lord Yeshua, the Messiah. And instead of turning back to the Lord and instead of listening to the voice of the Lord, they turn away. And they go further from the Lord. And it grieves the heart of the parents. It hurts the heart of the parents. They pray at night and they pray in the day and they ask the Lord for mercy and to help that their own children will turn back to the Lord.

But what we see here that God say, I sent to them messengers. I sent to them those that will preach to them and will give them the word of God and will turn them back to myself. But instead of listening to the voice of the Lord, what did they do? They turn away from the Lord. You know where we see it very clearly? It's in the book of Kings. In 2 Kings chapter 17, we read in verse 13, it says like this: "Yet the Lord testified against Israel and against Judah by all the prophets and by all the seers. And he said to them, turn ye from your evil ways.

Keep my commandments and my statutes according to all the law which I commended your fathers, and which I sent to you by my servants the prophets." But listen what we read in verse 14 of 2 Kings chapter 17: "Nevertheless, notwithstanding, they would not hear, but they hardened their necks like to the neck of their fathers. And they did not believe the Lord their God. And they rejected his statutes and his covenant that he had with their fathers, and his testimonies which he had testified against them. And they followed vanity, and they became vain, and they went after the heathen that were round about them, concerning whom the Lord had charged them that they would not do like them.

And they left all the commandments of the Lord their God, and they made the molten images, even the two calves, and they made groves, and they worshipped all the hosts of heaven, and they served Baal." Can you imagine how it might have hurt the heart of God as a father to the nation of Israel? Can you just feel, beloved brothers and sisters, the heartbeat of God when God said, "They called them, but they went away from them." Look, it says in verse 2 of Hosea chapter 11, it says, "They sacrificed unto Baalim." It's exactly what we read in 2 Kings chapter 17. "And they burned incense to graven images." Do you see, brothers and sisters, when God has chosen this nation, have loved the nation, have called them out of Egypt, and brought them into redemption, and brought them into the promised land.

He expected from his people to follow his direction. But they didn't in the history of the nation. We cannot say all the history, but the vast majority of the history of the nation. They were a very short time, with a measure of following of the Lord, of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And the heart of God is beating towards the nation. And you know what he says? He says in verse 3, he says, "I taught Ephraim also to go. I took them by their arms, but they knew not that I healed them." You see, I remember this as a father myself, when my little boys were with me at home, under my arms, if you will.

When my dear wife Irene and I were teaching our children. And I remember those days when we, as it says in verse 3, "I taught Ephraim to go." In other words, it is anochitir galti in Hebrew, "I trained them." "I helped them to walk." "I held their hands and I walked with them." Every parent does that. That's what God is saying. "Oh Israel," he says, "I walked you with my own hands." "I helped you to walk along in life." "I brought you through the wilderness journey to the promised land," he said, "like a father." Look what he said at the end of verse 3, "But they did not know that I healed them." They didn't know that.

In other words, they didn't recognize that it was God who healed the nation from all their pain and sorrow. It's like a mother and a father. When the kid is falling on his knees, they take these knees and they kiss it. And they wash it and they cover it. So he can continue, this little boy, little girl can continue to walk, holding them by their hands, walking with them, healing their wounds, taking care of them. And here's the heart of God as a father towards the nation of Israel, aching for them because they are ready to face judgment. They are ready to face the consequence of sin in their lives, disobedience to the Lord.

And so, look at this now, beloved brothers and sisters. And I can take you to many verses that we have in the scriptures concerning the care of God for the nation of Israel. He not only that he carried them, he not only that he taught them, but he healed them. You remember what we read in Exodus 15 and verse 26, "I am the Lord which healeth you." It was the Lord who healed the nation, their emotional healing, their physical healing, their spiritual healing. And that's what he does for you and for me, beloved brothers and sisters. He takes care of us. He walks with us. He holds us by the hands and he helps us to walk with him.

He takes care of us and we have to remember, just like Israel needed to remember, that he was the one who took care of them and healed them and walked with them. And I hope the Lord will speak to us and will remind us that every situation that we as well today live through and go through in life, God does take care of his people and he loves us and he cares for us and he wants us to express appreciation for what he has done for us. And now look what we read in verse 4 of this chapter. The Lord drew Israel with cords of love.

Look, it's verse 4 he says, "I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love. And I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws and I laid food unto them." You see what he's telling them? It's just like you pulling someone with cords to draw him back to yourself. God says, "I drew them to myself, just the same like bands of cords, but with bands of love." He drew them to himself. You know that bands, those cords that we are speaking about here, is really not the physical cords. But when God shows his love towards the nation, he drew them to himself.

What do you think drew you and I to the person of Yeshua the Messiah, if not his love for us? What drew us to come and to say, "God, Father, I'm a sinner. I thank you so much for giving your son for me." It is when we look back and we see the price that Yeshua the Messiah paid for us. And he draws us to God. Jeremiah said, "I have loved you with an everlasting love." That's what drew the nation of Israel. The love of God was an everlasting and eternal love. You know, in the New Testament we read this, one of the verses that we love to repeat so much.

John 3:16, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him shall not perish, but have everlasting life." For God so loved the world. That's amazing. In the New Testament, in the Epistle, it says, "Behold what many of love the Father had bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God." Paul said it in Galatians 2. He says, "The Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me." Paul said that in Galatians 2. It is the love of God that draws us after him. The love of Yeshua the Messiah that draws us after him. And this is exactly what God is saying to the nation.

He's ready to judge them. He's ready to send them to the judgment by the Assyrian to take them captive. But when he's just ready to send them, he's pausing here and he's looking at the history. He's like reminiscing. He's looking back at the history of the people and he says, "When Israel was a child, I loved him." And he says, "I have called my Son out of Egypt." He redeemed the Son, the nation of Israel, brought them out of Egypt and showing to us as a picture of the Messiah Yeshua as the true Israel, the true Son of God. Now notice that he says now in verse 4, after he said to them, he says, "I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws and laid food unto them." You see what he's saying, that he, God, become like a husbandman, like a farmer, loosing up the straps from under the jaws of the oxen in order that the oxen will be able to eat.

You know, when the oxen are being tied together to walk the ground, I'm not a farmer. But apparently under the jaws of the way that the yoke is being tied together is under the jaws. And what God really does is loosen up this yoke. Those straps that put under the jaws so that people could feed the nation to take care, like the ox could feed. He took care of the nation like a farmer would take care of the oxen. He took care of the nation like a father would take care of his son. And that's what he's showing to us in the first four verses, that the love of the Lord for Israel was like the father's love towards his son.

But even though he loved them, even though he called them and he chose them and he redeemed them and he called them out of Egypt, yet we find out how the nation of Israel rebelled against the Lord. And I want to make sure that we get a hold of it. Oftentimes as we study the scriptures see the mistakes and the sins and the failure of the nation of Israel. But let us remember that we in the present day dispensation as part of the church of the Lord Yeshua the Messiah are not better at all. In fact, we are far more accountable in the days of grace to the Lord Yeshua the Messiah than ever Israel are accountable to God in the days of law.

We are far more responsible than even the nation of Israel. They were under the law and they failed. We were under grace and we failed. The church today is not in a much better state than ever the nation of Israel have been. And so in verses 5, 6 and 7, we find out that the punishment for Israel is coming because of her lack of appreciation of what God have done for the nation. And look at this. And look at this. Verses 5, 6 and 7 of Hosea 11. Israel will be taken by the kingdom of Assyria. Look what he says. And my people. It is interesting that he never stopped to call them my people.

You know, this is a wonderful word. The Hebrew word is Ami. My people. He never stopped to call them my people even though he disciplined them. He never stopped to call them my nation even though he judged them. He will judge his own people like we read in scripture. Judgment must begin at the house of God. But the people that belong to God never stopped to belong to him even though he judged them and he punished them. And so he's saying to them in these verses. I read verse 7, but I'm going to go back to verse 5. He shall not return unto the land of Egypt, but Assyrians shall be his king.

I'm reading verse 5 now. Because they refuse to return. Look at verse 6. And a sword shall abide in his cities and shall consume his branches and devour them because of their own counsel. Notice in verses 5 and 6, God is saying he shall not return to Egypt, but the Assyrians shall be his king. In other words, Israel will not go back to Egypt. They're going to be taken now by the Assyrians and the Assyrian king will be their king over them. So, doesn't it remind you of what God said to Samuel the prophet? We talked about it in our ministry before. That when Israel came to Samuel and said, "We would like to have a king like the other nations." And God said to Samuel, He said, "They have not refused you, Samuel, but they refused me for being a king over them." And so what is really happening here, when Israel refused God as their king, God says, "Fine, I'm going to allow you to experience somebody else's kingship over you." And he's telling them in verse 5, "But the Assyrians shall be his king." And he gives them the reason.

Why? Why the Assyrians are going to be your king? Why are you going to go to the land of Assyria? Because they refuse to return. Refusal to turn away. The Hebrew word, the thought here is to turn away, lashuv, to turn back to God from their evil ways. That's what's going to happen. They're going to end up to be captive. They're going to be taken by the Assyrians. And in 722 BC, they were taken captive by the Assyrians. In verse 6, he tells us that they will experience sword and death. Can you imagine that? It says in verse 6, "The sword shall abide on his cities, and they shall consume his branches, and they will devour them." And again, he gives us the reason, "Because of their own counsels." You know, God the Father just gives them a vivid description of what they are going to experience.

A sword. They're going to be consumed. In other words, the sword of the enemy is going to come. And there will be sorrow and death and judgment upon the nation of Israel that will come about when the Assyrians are going to come and take them captive. And why it is? It is because of their own counsel, their own advice. You know, it tells us a lot, brothers and sisters, in lesson for us. But sometimes, we as believers in Yeshua the Messiah, in the present-day dispensation, sometimes, when we are not turning around to the Lord. In walking in a life as believers away from the Lord.

This is a life of sin, a life of disobedience. Then the Lord have to deal with his own children. He must deal with his own children. So what does he do? He allows the believers to experience trials in their lives. Sorrows and sadness and experience to turn them around back to himself. Will they turn around? Will they turn to him? Well, in the case of Israel, when you think about it from 722 BC until the present-day dispensation, the nation is still scattered. Still scattered all over the nations of the world. And even if there is some measure of restoration, national physical restoration to the land, is still very temporary and very shallow.

And not what God has in mind for the nation of Israel. And so he is telling them the two-fold reason why they are going to be taken by the Assyrians, and why they are going to experience sorrows and death is because they refuse to return, and because they sought after their own counsel and not after the counsel of God. And that's why in verse 7, as I have already mentioned, he says, "And my people are bent to backsliding for me. Though they call them to the Most High, none at all would exalt him." Again, my people, Ami, my nation, my people, the one I love, the one I brought out of Egypt, the one I've loved when the nation was a child, this one is bent, as it says in verse 7, "They are bent on backsliding for me." We see it many times in a personal relationship with our own family, our own children, parents and children can see it very well, how often times the children are bent on going their own way.

"And I will do my thing, and I will do my own way, and I will plan my own plans, and I do not want your guidance for me, parents," they say. That's what Israel did, and that's what many believers do. Children of believers, and many times we ourselves are bent in our own way, and God says, "Listen, my people are bent to backsliding for me." And though they call them, and again the word for they is the prophets again, though they call them, the prophets call them to the Most High, "Turn back to the Lord, turn back to the Father, turn back to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob." Yet it says here, "None at all would exalt God, will exalt him." You see, it must have grieved the heart of God as a father that he speak concerning the nation of Israel.

And so verses 5, 6 and 7, punishment for Israel will come because of lack of appreciation of how God had been to them, and what he has been for the nation of Israel. And so brothers and sisters, look at this. It is the lamentation of God as the father of the nation of Israel is found in verse 8. Look what God is saying here. You can just imagine. I know we cannot enter into every thought here that we have, but God is able to work this out through the Spirit of God in our own hearts and conscience. Look at four times he used the word "how." And this verse is filled with the word "I," "me," and "my," in connection with the God of Israel.

Look at this, verse 8. "How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? How shall I deliver thee, Israel? How shall I make thee as Adama? How shall I set thee as Tsevoim? My heart is turned within me. My repentings are kindled together." That's what God is saying. God, as if he is speaking loud and letting every one of us hear his heart toward the nation of Israel, towards the people of Ephraim, the largest tribe representing all the nation of Israel. He asked the question, "How shall I give thee up, Ephraim?" "You are my son. I love you." "And yet I need to discipline you." "I have called you out of Egypt." "And yet you have been bent on backsliding." "I have watched over you.

I have trained you. I have given you so much." "And yet you don't appreciate." How? God is saying, "Shall I give thee up, Ephraim?" "How shall I deliver you, O Israel? How am I going to do that?" Don't you feel that dilemma again, brothers and sisters? As parents, we know that. We know it very well. Our hearts are grieved so much. When we train, and we teach, and we give, and we love, and we heal, and we do everything, and then instead of receiving some fruit for God, the opposite. And then you have to do something in discipline. And then it's like, you don't know what to do.

"Shall I give thee up, Ephraim? How shall I deliver thee, O Israel?" God is saying concerning the nation that he loved. Look what he says in the next part of this verse. He says, "How shall I make thee as Adama? And how shall I set thee as Tsevoim?" These are two cities that have been part of the area of Sodom and Gomorrah. Those additional cities that we don't mention in Genesis chapter 19, when the fire of God's judgment came on Sodom and Gomorrah, here we have Adama and Tsevoim mentioned. They were those additional cities that came under the judgment of God in a time when God judged Sodom and Gomorrah.

In Deuteronomy chapter 29, we get the help on that. Deuteronomy 29, it says in verse 23, "That the whole land thereof is brimstone and salt and burning, that it is not sown, nor bareth, nor any grass grows therein, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Adama and Tsevoim, which the Lord overthrew in his anger and in his wrath." You see what happened? When God judged Sodom and Gomorrah, He judged Adama and Tsevoim, other cities that were in the same area, in the same condition of violation of the Word of God, when Sodom and Gomorrah had to be judged by brimstone from a holy and righteous God. And now what we find out that God says, "How I'm going to give you up, Ephraim?

How I'm going to deliver you, Israel? How shall I make you, this is Ephraim, as Adama and you, this is Israel, as Tsevoim? How I'm going to judge you?" You can see here, beloved brothers and sisters, in verse 8, the lamentation over the nation of Israel by God, by the Lord, by the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who loves so much the nation of Israel. You can see that His heart is turning over within Him. It says in the second half of verse 8, it says here, "Mine heart is turned within me. My repentings are kindled together." See, God's heart is turning within Him. He is yearning for the nation that He loved, but He must judge them.

He is a holy God. But He is yearning. He says, "How I'm going to do this to the nation that I love so much?" Yet judgment must come. And He see that He is anticipating this coming. The Assyrians are going to come, and they're going to take the nation, and they're going to devour the nation, and they're going to scatter the nation of Israel. And, beloved brothers and sisters, the way we find ourselves today as a nation, the nation of Israel, really come out of exactly what we see here in Hosea, chapter 11. The nation is ready to be scattered. The nation is ready to be judged.

But the heart of God is longing for the nation. The heart of God is yearning and turning within Him. And that's why God will judge His people, but no other nations in the world are going to be spared if they are accusing or going against the nation of Israel because God will judge the nations that have judged His very own people also in due time. And that's why it's always better to pray for Israel rather than to go against Israel. That's why it is better to ask God to forgive Israel, to restore Israel rather than to say to God, "Judge them!" It's better to love them than to hate them because God loved them.

God loved this nation. God has called them out of Egypt. God has elected this nation for Himself. Look in that end of this chapter, in chapter 11, verses 9, 10, and 11. Listen. God, in a sense, He is comforting Himself. And He is comforting the nation of Israel with a promise that He has for this nation. He has a promise for them. He has a promise that one day they will be restored. One day they will be fully restored in the fullness of time, the nation as a nation will be restored. And so in verse 9, "The Lord will not utterly destroy Ephraim." He says, look at verse 9, He says, "I will not execute the furiousness of mine anger.

I will not return to destroy Ephraim, for I am God and I am not a man, the Holy One in the midst of Thee, and I will not enter into the city." Here is that God is saying about the nation, He says, "Really, I will not utterly destroy." There will be a period of time of judgment, but there will be not an utter judgment. There will be a restoration in the coming day. Even though today we don't see that the nation of Israel is, spiritually speaking, restored to God, but God promised that there will be a restoration and that He will not utterly destroy Ephraim.

He is going to restore them. And you know that very well, brothers and sisters, where we read in the prophet Zechariah, when the days of grace are going to come, when Israel is going to turn to God on the basis of grace through Yeshua the Messiah, when God is going to restore the nation, in chapter 12 of the prophet Zechariah, "I will pour out upon the house of Israel," verse 10, "house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplication. And they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one mourners for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his own firstborn.

In that day there shall be great mourning in Jerusalem," verse 11, "as the mourning of Hadadrimon in the valley of Megiddo. And the land shall mourn every family apart, the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart, the family of the house of Natan apart, and their wives apart, the family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart, the family of Shimei apart, and their wives apart, all the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart." And now verse 1 of chapter 13 of Zechariah, "In that day there shall be a fountain open unto the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness." Now remember, brothers and sisters, that when Hosea wrote, we didn't have the New Testament, the Brit Hadashah.

When Zechariah wrote, we didn't have the New Testament, the Brit Hadashah. The Messiah hasn't come yet. So the prophets of Israel looked forward to the fullness of time, beyond the present day dispensation of the church age, to the time of the restoration of the nation as a nation. And the prophets knew that there is coming a day that God is going to restore the nation whom He judged because of their sin and sins. "In that day there shall be a fountain open unto the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness." "God is going to come to the nation of Israel and will cleanse them from their sin, and will restore them after He will judge them for a season." And so we read in verse 10, "There will be those who will walk after the Lord even in this present day dispensation." There is always will be a time that they will walk now and ultimately restored." Look at this verse 10.

"He shall roar like a lion. When he shall roar, then the children shall tremble from the West." We are talking about the West now. Usually it is another area of direction. He is talking about the West. He is talking about now the area in which in a sense you and I, the West, Europe, the Western countries of the world, that the children of Israel will be restored to God, to the nation, even from the West. And he is speaking about those that ultimately will turn and walk after the Lord. This is another title of the Messiah or another reference to the Messiah where it says, "He shall roar like a lion." "He shall roar and the children shall tremble from the West." The roaring like a lion speaks of the Messiah coming in His second coming in power and in glory.

You know, the Bible speaks to us about the Lord Jesus, the Messiah. Even in the book of Revelation, we read of Him in Revelation chapter 5, when John has seen the vision in glory, when he is looking at the heaven and he sees the vision of the Messiah, and we read there about the Messiah. It is in the midst of the throne there in verse 5. "The elder saith unto me," Revelation 5:5, "Weep not, behold the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David has prevailed, to open the book and to loose the seven seals thereof." The Messiah, one of the titles of the Messiah is the Lion of the tribe of Judah.

And he is going to roar like a lion. He is coming in power and in glory as we read in Revelation chapter 19. And so he takes us forward to the future day that the Bible tells us that he will walk after the Lord Israel in the fire. He says to him in verse 10, "He will roar like a lion." And it says there, "And when he shall roar, the children shall tremble from the west." In other words, when the Messiah will come in his second coming, the children, the nation who is scattered, are going to follow after him in a time of restoration and being brought back to the promised land.

Not only restored physically, but also restored spiritually. And the last verse here, which is verse 11, is that Israel will be placed back in their own homeland. "They shall tremble as a bird out of Egypt, and as the dove out of the land of Assyria. And I," notice that, "and I will place them in their houses, saith the Lord." That is what God wants to do with the nation of Israel. Yes, He punishes them. Yes, He is going to scatter them and have the Assyrians take them captive. Yes, He is going to have them judged. But that's not the end of the story for the nation of Israel.

God has a plan and a purpose for the nation of Israel. And we need, brothers and sisters, to go along with the purposes of God, to understand that even today in this present-day dispensation, we are to understand that God will restore the nation of Israel for Himself. And He is going to bring them back to their own houses. And I'm going to close this meeting with these verses that are found in Romans chapter 11. Those verses that we love to read so much. Paul said to the Romans believers in the city of Rome, he says, "I say then, has God cast away His people?" And then he says, "God forbid, may it never be.

For I am also an Israeli. I am the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Binyamin." Verse 2, "God has not cast away His people which He foreknew." And then he continues, he says, he is speaking about the restoration of the nation of Israel. He is saying that now in verse 5 he said, "In the present dispensation, in this present time, there is a remnant according to the election of grace." And if by grace no more of works, otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it is of works, then no more of grace, otherwise work is no more work. And so he is saying now in verse 11, he says, "I say, have they stumbled that they should fall, God forbid, but rather through their fall salvation come unto the Gentiles, to provoke them to jealousy.

And if the fall of them be riches to the world, and if the diminishing of them was the riches to the Gentiles." He says, "How much more shall their fullness or full restoration be for the nations of this world?" That's what God has in mind, brothers and sisters. He loved Israel, and he's going to restore the nation of Israel to himself, even though at that time he had to judge them and send them to Assyria, to discipline them harshly because of their disobedience. Now to conclude, I would like to say that. You and I need to be also so much encouraged by such a statement as this, and to have assurance, and some believers unfortunately don't have this assurance, that the love of God is eternal for them.

Some are wondering, "Do you really love me? Does God's love towards me change?" And the Bible does teach us clearly, that even though we failed the Lord many times, the love of Yeshua the Messiah for us as believers is eternal. Our salvation is eternal. But our walk here in this world is important to be a walk that is pleasing to the Lord, God the Father. And therefore, when we don't walk with the Lord, He has to discipline us. He has to judge us. Because the judgment must begin at the house of God. But every judgment is always in view of restoration back to the Father, back to the Son, back to Yeshua the Messiah.

And so when sometime He disciplines us, let us not lose heart. Let us ask the Lord, "Lord, where did I go wrong? Help me Lord, I confess my sins before you. Let us repent to Him, and He will restore us, and we will be restored to this joyful relationship with Yeshua the Messiah." May the Lord help us to do so, for His glory, and for our own blessing. Can you say Amen to that? Amen.