Okay, Shalom everyone. We are going to turn today to the prophet Hosea, or as we call him in Hebrew, Hosea. And in our last session together, on that prophet, we have finalized the fourth chapter. And I would like to move on to the next chapter. Because in the next chapter, we have a continuation of what God had said concerning the northern kingdom of Israel in particular, and also concerning the southern kingdom of Israel, Judah, what he is going to pronounce, or what he is going to accomplish, or what he is going to do to the nation of Israel, because of their violation of his word, because of their disobedience.

But all what he has said to them, dear brothers and sisters, is always in view of the restoration of the nation. It is so precious to know that God is not only judging his people because of disobedience, but God also desires to see restoration in the life, both of the life of Israel, in the history of Israel, in the people of Israel, but also in the history of the church, of the assembly. And so please turn to Hosea, chapter 5, and I am reading from verse 1. We are going to read those 15 verses of this chapter. Hear ye this, O priests, and hearken, O ye house of Israel.

And give ye ear, O house of the king, for judgment is toward you. Because ye have been a snare on Mitzpah, a net spread upon Tavor. And the revolters are profound to make slaughter, though I have been a rebuker of them all. I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me. For now, O Ephraim, thou committest whodom, and Israel is defiled. They will not frame their doings to turn unto their God. For the spirit of whodoms is in the midst of them, and they have not known the Lord. And the pride of Israel does testify to his face. Therefore shall Israel and Ephraim fall in their iniquity.

Judah also shall fall with them. They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek the Lord. But they shall not find him; he has withdrawn himself from them. They have dealt treacherously against the Lord. For they have begotten strange children. Now shall a month devour them with their portions. Blow ye the Shofar in Giv'ah, and the Chatzotzrah or the Trumpet in Ramah. Cry aloud at Bet Aven after thee, O Benjamin. Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke. Among the tribes of Israel have I made known that which shall surely be. The princes of Judah were like them that remove the bound.

Therefore I will pour out my wrath upon them like water. Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment because he willingly walked after the commandment. And therefore will I be unto Ephraim as a moth, and to the house of Judah as rottenness. When Ephraim saw his sickness and Judah saw his wound, Then went Ephraim to the Assyrian, and sent to king of Yarev, yet could he not heal you, nor cure you of your wound. For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will tear and go away. I will take away, and none shall rescue him.

I will go and return to my place, until they will acknowledge their offenses, and they will seek my face. In their affliction they will seek me early. I'm stopping here at the end of this chapter, Hosea chapter 5. And brothers and sisters, when we read such a chapter, it's kind of a chapter that is weighing us down. Because there is statements here that God is saying to the people of Israel that are very serious. Statements that God is saying to his beloved nation Israel that are rather heavy. And we, in a sense, would say we wouldn't like to hear those kind of statements. But God apparently sees the necessity of saying this to the nation of Israel.

You remember we covered the first four chapters. And we have learned already how Hosea became not only a prophet that spoke the word of the Lord. But he became a prophet that acted, that did something that God told him to do. He took a woman that was a prostitute. He brought her into his house. He married her. He took her children. He made them their own. And then, in addition to that, he had children with the woman by the name of Gomer. And after that, Gomer left him and went away and went astray. And became an idolatrist. And she became a person that not only worshipped idols.

But she kept a life that was not in order, not in the will of the Lord. And then, Hosea went and he brought her back. And he brought her into his home again. And he stayed with her. And he said, you stay here in my home. And then, you are no longer going to be going after other men. It is a picture of the condition of the state that existed at that time with the people of Israel. And God clearly said this, that it is the way that Hosea behaved towards his wife Gomer is the same way that God behaved towards the nation of Israel.

He loved his people. And he cared for his people. Well, now in chapter 5, we really see that Israel's sin had caused the Lord to withdraw from them. I don't know if you can see it in our personal life. Sometime when we love somebody so much. And we want to be with somebody so much. And that's somebody that we dearly love. It may be a relationship between husband and a wife. It may be a relationship between two friends that really care for each other. But sometime, because of the wrong that one of the parties do, causes the other one to withdraw himself. Or to go back and no longer, at least for a temporary season, not to have the same relationship as they have had before.

Now we know that the marriage relationship is for good. But sometime, because one is not behaving in the right way, the other ones seem to not have the same affection towards the other. Because this one person, one member of these two have been not right, not behaved right, did not act, did not say the right thing. And the other person withdraws himself back. And he's no longer in the same way as he used to be before. Well, that's what we have in chapter 5 here of this book of Hosea. We can see God withdrawing himself from his own people whom he loved, allowing them to experience the consequence of their sin.

That's what God does in the life of a believer too. You know, when we, as believers, as children of the Father, as those that belong to Yeshua the Messiah, when we are not living a life that is pleasing to the Lord, sometime we will sense as if the Lord left us. As if he is not active in our life the same way that he used to be before. It's not that we are not saved anymore. It's not that we are stopping to belong to him anymore. But he withdrew from us for a while to allow us to experience the consequences of disobedience and sin in our life.

And so in this chapter, brothers and sisters, we have some of the points that Jehovah is telling Israel his people concerning their disobedience in violation to him. So notice in the first two verses, he telling the leadership of Israel, he's accusing the leadership and he's telling them, look in verses 1 and 2, Hear ye this, O priests? And hearken ye, house of Israel? And give ear, O house of the king? For judgment is toward you. Because ye have been a snare on Mitzpah, and a net spread upon Tavor, and the revolters are profound to make slaughter, for I have been a rebuker of them all. Now, notice that, first of all, he's speaking to the priests.

Notice that, all priests. Then he's talking about the house of Israel in general. And then he's speaking about the house of the king. The priests, and the house of Israel, and the king. And you know what happened is, the house of the king, and the house of the priests, are those that ought to have led the nation in a way that is directing them towards the Jehovah, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But what did they do? Instead of leading the people back to God, he's saying to them that they became a snare, and they became a net that is spread in the mountain of Tavor, and in the mountain of Mitzpah.

Now, those two mountains here, the Hebrew word is Mitzpah and Tavor, a very high mountain in the north part of Israel. These two high mountains, Tavor, by the way, is believed by many to be the mountain of transfiguration. Some believe that in Mount Tavor, Tavor, it really looked like a kippah, like a very large mountain in the north part of Galilee, and many did believe that when Yeshua went up to a high mountain, and he was transfigured before them, that it may have been on Mount Tavor. Others believe that the mountain of transfiguration is really Mount Hermon, the higher mountain, a little bit further north, in Golan Heights.

I remember this mountain very well, because when I was a soldier in 1973, in the Yom Kippur War, we end up going up to this mountain, because from this mountain, the Syrian were shooting at our people, at our soldiers, and many Israeli soldiers have died on Mount Hermon, seeking to take it back. And finally, we took back Mount Hermon in the 1973 war, Yom Kippur War. But it is interesting that the priests and the kings of Israel, instead of leading the nation back to God, to the truth of the word of God, what they did, they became a snare on Mitzpah, and they put a net, they spread a net upon Tavor.

Now the Hebrew word for a snare, it simply means pach, means a pot. It's like a garbage pail. In other words, you know when you have a pot, and somebody falling into the pot, and he's stumbling and he's falling, this is exactly what Hosea, speaking by the word of the Lord, telling the leadership of Israel. Instead of you leading the nation back to the things of the Lord, what you end up doing, priests, kings, is you end up putting a pot, a pach, a place that the children of Israel will stumble and will fall, and will not continue to grow, and go back to the God of their fathers.

And if you remember from Biblical history, when Israel and Judah have separated, and they divided into two nations, what happened in the north of Israel is that they have set up a worship that was wrong worship, and that in order to hold on the people of the north from coming to Judah, to Jerusalem, to worship in the temple. Because the kings and the priests did not want the ordinary Israeli of the ten tribes to come to Jerusalem in the place of worship, to worship the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So what did they do? They introduced another type of worship. They set up an altar, and they end up leading the people of Israel in the north to worship God on these altars.

They set up a calf, like a golden calf like in the past, and they actually led the Israeli into false worship. And so he's accusing them. He's telling them, "You leadership, you the priests, you the king, instead of leading the nation of Israel, you set up a pach, a pot, or a snare, as he calls it here, a way to fall and not to go to worship the true and living God." Let me make an application to a New Testament time. When professing Christians, teach false doctrine. When people who claim to be believers in Yeshua, the Messiah, teach things that are leading astray, both professors and confessors.

Instead of teaching A, B, C of the scriptures, they teach all kinds of things that have nothing to do with the word of God, and leading God's people astray. That's what happened here, beloved brothers and sisters. And it's interesting that he's using the two mountains, Mitzpah, in Hebrew, Mitzpah means a place where you look around and you can see everything from there. It's a high place. And Mount Tavo is a high place. It's a place that perhaps what he's really meaning by that, that the priest and the king set up some people, and on top of these mountains, to see if there is any Israeli go to the city of Jerusalem to worship the Lord in the temple, in the right place where they were called to worship.

And so he's accusing them. And you know, God is so clear. You remember when Yeshua came to the temple in the city of Jerusalem? When he dealt with the leadership 2,000 years ago, he was directing his challenge to the leadership. Not to the ordinary people among the nation of Israel, not because they are not important, but because the leadership has a responsibility. They have a responsibility to teach the word of God, to lead the nation in the right way. There is a responsibility. That's why James says, "Be not many of you teachers, because we have a greater accountability, a greater responsibility to the Lord." And here, he's challenging the priests.

And what a shame. Isn't it a shame? When a priest takes the privileged place that he has, and he's using it to cause people to stumble, and not to lead them in the right way. Do you know what a challenge, what a responsibility it is for a priest, for a leader that is responsible before the Lord? God will hold him accountable, and God will deal with him one way or another. And that's why he's challenging those leaders, the priests and the kings. Notice what he's telling them in verse 2. He's telling them, "The revolters are profound." The word profound comes from the Hebrew word deep. Amok.

In other words, those that revolt are so deep in their way. Those that are revolting against God, and they are so deep in their desires and practices, that what do they do? They make slaughter. And then he says, "Though I have been a rebuker of them all." So what we find here, that Israel's leadership will be judged by God. The one whom God entrusted to them the responsibility of judging the people, ultimately will be judged by the God who gave them this responsibility. They made a snare, they put a net, and they spread it, and they became a revolters against the things of God. Judgment must begin at the house of God.

That's what we learn here. The judgment will begin at the leadership of the nation. Now again, remember, this is Hosea speaking. Up till the end of chapter 3, he was doing what God told him to do. From chapter 4, he's preaching. He's giving a message to the leaders of Israel and to the rest of the nation of Israel. He was presenting before them what God has to say about their activities. Then he's telling them now in the next verse 3, he's telling them something, that you and I have to be aware of this as well. In verse 3 he says, "I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me.

For now, O Ephraim, you committed hudom, and Israel is defiled." You see, what God is saying, "I know everything about you Ephraim. I know what you are doing. Israel, don't you think for a moment that you are hid from me?" I will learn here the truth concerning the omniscience of the Lord. You know, in Psalm 139, in fact, I would like you to turn to Psalm 139 for a moment. It's a psalm that shows us that God is not all powerful. He is not all everywhere, but he also knows everything. Nothing is hid from the Lord himself. Nothing is hid from him. He knows everything. And so in Psalm 139, look at these verses.

I'll just read verses 5 and 6. It says in these verses 5, "You have beset me behind, and before, and laid thine hand upon me." And listen to verse 6, "Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high. I cannot attain it." If you go back in verse 1, and you see what he's saying in the psalmist, he says, "Oh, Lord, you had searched me, and you know me. You know as my down-sitting and my uprising. You understand my thoughts afar off." Do you know, brothers and sisters, we sometimes forget that God knows everything. He knows our thoughts afar off. He knows when we go down to sleep. You know when we get up in the morning.

It says in verse 3, "You compassed my path, and my laying down, and you are acquainted with all my ways." The psalmist says. You know God, you know everything. There is nothing that you do not know. For there is not a word," verse 4, "that in my tongue, but law, O Lord, you knoweth it all together." So the Lord knows everything. And Ephraim, this is the largest tribe of the northern tribes of Israel, became really the leader of the nation of Israel. Sometime when you read Ephraim, you really read about the whole nation of Israel. Ephraim, the Lord is saying to him, "You know Ephraim? I know you.

You know Ephraim? You know Israel? You are not hid from me," God is saying to them. God knows every thoughts and imagination that is coming from the mind of man. He knows everything about everyone. And Ephraim had to be told by God, "Listen Ephraim, I know what you are doing. Israel, you are not hid from me. I know everything about you." Ephraim, "Thou committest hudam, and Israel is defiled." You see, Israel defiled themselves, and that expression of hudam is spiritual fornication. They end up associating themselves with idols. They end up associating themselves with false messages and they convey it to the people. And all the people end up to be influenced by these false messages, false worship, by association with that which is not in accordance with the will of God.

And God says, "You know Ephraim? I know what you are doing. I am aware of what you are doing, Ephraim." And Ephraim had to be told that he had committed hudam and he defiled the rest of the nation of Israel. And I still would like to suggest, brothers and sisters, that specifically Hosea, by the word of the Lord, speaking to the leadership of Israel, the priests and the house of the king, who were responsible to be leading the nation in a way that is pleasing to the Lord. So God knows everything, and there is nothing that is hid from God concerning Ephraim and concerning Israel.

I am reminded of the verse that we have in the book of the Gospel of John. I am reminded of these verses in the Gospel. And you remember what these verses tell us about the Lord Jesus Himself? You remember? Many people believe on the name of the Lord Jesus because they saw the miracles that He did. But you remember what we read in John chapter 2, that He did not commit Himself unto them because He knew what was in man. Yeshua knew everything in the heart of man. He did not commit Himself to those that believe on Him only because of the external miracles. And He says, "Listen, they really did not come to know Me in an intimate way and to acknowledge Me as their Messiah, but they only used Me or wanted Me because I made some miracles." And the Lord wants us to realize that He knows our hearts.

He knows man's heart. Nothing is hid from God concerning Ephraim. Nothing is hid from God concerning mankind. And so Hosea was saying to the nation of Israel, "Listen, you are responsible, the leaders are responsible for what they have done, and God knows everything that they have done. Nothing is hid from God concerning the actions of Ephraim." But look what's happened next. Look what God pointing through Hosea about Israel's wrong. Israel's wrong. He's pointing some things very clearly in verses 4 and 5. There are four things that we're going to look at here in the next verses. In verses 4 and 5, He is pointing directly to some of the deeds and some of the actions that Israel have done.

In the first part of verse 4, He says Israel's action will not allow them to return to God. He says in verse 4, "They will not frame their doings to turn unto their God." In other words, you know, when you frame something, when you put something together, you are not framing, you are not allowing, you are not working out things in your actions to show that you really turn to God. You see, repentance means to turn away in practice, not only intellectually, not only in our mind to say, "Oh God, I am confessing that I have been wrong before you," but continuing on to go in a direction that is not pleasing to Him.

No, He's saying you have to change your practices. And He's saying to them, "Look if I am," He says, "You will not frame your doings in order to turn back to God." You don't change your actions. You continue on. Those of us that are parents, those of us that are older, and we have to instruct the younger ones, we know very well what it is. We know how many times you say, "Listen, you have to change your actions." "You have to frame a way that we show will be a proof that you're really turning back to God." That's the first thing that He is telling them.

Then in verse 4b, the second part, He's saying, "Israel has a spirit of spiritual hudam." An attitude of spiritual hudam, He says, in verse 4b, He says, "For the spirit of hudam is in the midst of them, and they have not known the Lord." In other words, they are still worshipping other idols. In other words, they still really have a heart and a will that says, "I'm not going to turn to God." "I have a spiritual bankruptcy." In other words, "I am spiritually walking in such a way that is not turning back to God, in a way that is not pleasing to the Lord." They have a spirit of hudam that is in the midst of them, and they have not known the Lord.

He's pointing to some areas in Israel, practices that shows that they are really in a state of being away from the Lord. In verse 5, He's telling them of something that you and I have a big problem with, and a problem with pride. Look what He's telling them in verse 5, "And the pride of Israel does testify to His face." You know, the Bible is filled with verses that are challenging us because of our pride. You know, what is pride? Pride is one elevating himself above what he or she is supposed to elevate themselves. Pride comes, brothers and sisters, before a fall. The Bible teaches us. Pride.

In fact, pride is the cause of the fall of man already in Genesis chapter 3, where God said to Adam, "Of the fruit of all the trees of the garden you may freely eat, but of that fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it, for in the day that you will eat of it, but you shall surely die." And what do you think happened there? Adam, actually in pride, says, "You gave me everything to the north, to the south, to the east, to the west, but you did not allow me to eat of this tree, and I want it." And even though we know Eve was beguiled, Adam, in violation of the Word of God, in pride, that he took of the fruit of the tree and plunged the whole human race into sin.

And don't you blame Adam, because if you were there, you would have done the very same thing. Sin came into this world because of pride. In fact, if you look back into what preceded the fall of Adam, was the fall of Lucifer, who, as well because of pride, have ended up to be cast down. In his pride, he says, "I will be like the Most High." And God resists the proud. Pride is not the way to go because God's desire is to have his people humble before him. The greatest example, beloved brothers and sisters, in humility comes in the person of Yeshua, our Messiah. The greatest humility.

Though he was equal with God. He counted not robbery to be equal with God, but he made himself, Philippians chapter 2, of no reputation. He took upon himself the form of a man. He came even lower, took the form of a servant, and he became obedient unto death. And that's the death of the cross. And you notice the process. Immediately in Philippians 2 verse 9, it says, "Therefore God hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Yeshua every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess." And so the pride of Israel testified to his face. By the way, he repeats that same verse here in verse 5.

He repeats it in chapter 7 and verse 10, and he says, "And the pride of Israel testifies to his face." At the end of the game, the pride that one has will ultimately will testify to his own face, and to our own face. And so we read in the scriptures that the pride of Israel does testify to himself. It was Peter, the early Hebrew believer in Yeshua the Messiah, who said to the early believers, Jewish believers, in 1 Peter chapter 5, he said to them, "Listen." He said, "But God, the God of all grace." And I'm reading 1 Peter chapter 5. He says, "Younger, submit yourself unto the elder." Verse 5. "Yea all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility, for God resists the proud, and he gives grace to the humble." "Humble therefore yourself under the mighty hand of God, that he will exalt you in due time." Peter was actually referring to many other passages that before him King Solomon in the book of Proverbs have said such various statements concerning the necessity of not being proud.

But you know, it is there that we have failed so much. Pride divides us many times. Pride causes a lot of friction among the people of God. Pride breaks homes. Pride breaks relationship between good friends. Pride comes at the end of the game. When we finish to practice pride, it's actually testify to our face and shows us that's what you wanted, that's what you got. And so Israel was told by God that pride filled them, testify to his face. And also he's saying in verse 5, that Israel and Ephraim will eventually fall. Second part of verse 5, "Therefore shall Israel and Ephraim fall in their iniquity, Judah also shall fall with them." You know, it didn't take too long that the tribe of Judah in the south also failed because of disobedience to the Lord, and also end up to be taken captive to Babylon, they had to remember that.

And there they had to remember the great time that they had in Jerusalem before God sent them captive to the Babylonians. And so in those verse 1 and 2, Israel's leadership is being judged. In verse 3, God knows everything about Ephraim and everything about Israel. In verse 4 and 5, he pointing out through the prophet Hoshea the wrongs of Israel that will lead them ultimately to a fall. And so now God is telling them, "I'm going to withdraw myself from you." You know, God loves Israel, but he had to withdraw himself from his own beloved nation for a season. He has to withdraw. You know, love is not always allowing the other person to do what they want.

You know, true love is honest, is just. True love is not merely affection, though we need affection, but it's also truth and honesty and righteousness. And so we read in these next verse 6 and 7 that God withdrawing himself from Israel. He says, "They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek the Lord." In other words, he's saying, "They will assume or they will give the impression or they will be without real sincere depth of conviction. They will not come to the Lord back in a real sincere way. Come back to the Lord in pretension, without sincerity." And God demands sincerity and brokenness if there will be a true restoration.

And so he's saying, "They will or they shall go with their flocks." You know, you take a flocks and herds, why? Because you're going to bring sacrifice. So you take animals and you bring to the temple or to the place of worship as if you are going to sacrifice. And God is saying, "Listen, that's what they're going to do. They're going to come as if they're going to really bring their flocks and bring their herds. Oh yeah, God, we are going to deal with the metals. We are going to sacrifice and we are going to come back to you." And God said to them in verse 6b, "But they shall not find him.

He has withdrawn himself from them." You see, there is a time coming in a relationship that we have with God, with the Lord Jesus as well. There is a time coming that he seemingly would give us the impression that he left us. Oh yeah, I know the verse that says at the end of the Gospel of Matthew, "I will never leave. I will be with you all the way even to the end of the age." We know the verse that says, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." And it's true that God has never forsaken his people, but nevertheless there is coming a time that he withdraw himself for a season that his people will experience the consequence of their rebellion and sin against him.

And so look, it says here in verse 6, "They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek the Lord," it says there, "but they shall not find him. He has withdrawn himself from them." You know, I'm reminded of a verse that I want to read. If you allow me please to read it. Turn with me to the Song of Solomon. We call him in Hebrew, "Shir Hashirim." It's a nice, beautiful writings of Solomon, one of the songs that he wrote. And it's a song that has to do with a relationship between a bride and a bridegroom. And really, prophetically, it speaks about the relationship that God had with his people Israel.

And I know that many times they apply it to the relationship of the Lord Jesus with the church. But long before the church was born, it was applied really to the nation of Israel and to the relationship that God had with his own people, the nation of Israel. I want you to know that we turn to Song of Songs or Shir Hashirim to chapter 5. And look what we read there, very nice. It says in verse 1: "I am coming to my garden, my sister, my spouse. I have gathered my myrrh with my spice. I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey. I have drunk my wine with my milk.

O friends, eat, O friends. Drink ye, yet drink abundantly, O beloved." And now we find out that the bride is speaking. And she said, "I sleep, but my heart is wakening. It is the voice of my beloved that he knocketh and he say, Open to me." Here's the bride. Hear the door on the door and knock from her beloved. And the beloved, she hear the voice of him. He's saying, Open the door for me, my beloved. My sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled. For my head is filled with dew and my locks with the drops of the night." So look what we read. She says to him, "I have put off my coat.

How shall I put it on? I have washed my feet. How shall I defile them?" She said, "I'm not going to get up to open the door." She said, "I already put off my coat and my clothes and I'm sleeping. My feet and how shall I defile them?" And other words, "I'm not going to get up. I don't have time for you now." And so we read in verse 4, "My beloved, put in his hand by the holes of the door and my balls were moved for him." In other words, you know, it's like the Middle Eastern doors. These old times the doors are divided into two sections.

In other words, there's a hole there and you put your hands inside and you're kind of trying to open the door from the outside, from the inside. And she said, "When she heard that, her bowels were moved for him." And now notice, in other words, he was seeking to get in into her life. But she resisted and resisted. She says, "How can I get up? Now I don't have time right now for this. I'm not going to get out. I put my coat away. I've already washed my feet. I'm not going to get up." But she hears him as if it were knocking and trying to get in.

And finally, when she rose, look what happened. It says in verse 5, "I rose up to open my beloved and my hand drops with myrrh and my fingers with sweet-smelling myrrh upon the handles of the lock." And then as she's opening the door, "I open it," in verse 6, "I open to my beloved, but my beloved has withdrawn himself." You know, it tells us of a relationship of love between God and Israel. He's appealing to the nation. He's longing to have them restored to Him. He wants to see them back in His arm, in the arm of Jehovah, protected. And as the husband of the nation of Israel, He wanted it.

Knocking at the door, "Come back." And when they finally decide to come back, and yet they don't do it in the right way, they find that He withdrew Himself from them. And as He withdrew, now all of a sudden she realized that He's not there. And now she starts to look for Him. See, that's what God does in the life of individual believers, in the life of the church, and that's what He did in the life of Israel. He wants Israel to seek for Him. He wants us to seek for Him. He sought us, He found us, He saved us, He brought us to Himself, but He wants a response.

We read in the Psalms, "Shall I render unto the Lord for all the benefits that He had given unto me." And so look at her. When she finally got up to open the door, He withdrew Himself. And so we read, "My soul failed." "When He's back, and I sought Him, but I could not find Him. I called Him, and He gave me no answer. The watchmen that went about the city found me. They smote me. They wound me. The keepers of the walls took away my veil from me. I charge you," He said, "O daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, that ye tell Him that I am sick of love." See what God does, brothers and sisters.

He wants to produce a response to Him that comes out of the heart, a real sincere love towards Him. He doesn't want this wishy-washy type of relationship. He wants a relationship of love and affection, and we know that in our own personal life as husbands and wives, as parents and children, as two friends together, as brothers and sisters in a local fellowship. We don't want only a relationship of, "You know what? You come, and once in a while we see each other, and you know, hello, shalom, and shalom, goodbye." He wants a relationship of love, a real commitment. And he withdrew himself. And all of a sudden she felt that she was alone.

And all of a sudden she realized that she really needs to fall afresh in love with her beloved. And so she began to seek for Him. If you read the Song of Solomon, chapter 5, it's so beautiful. You'll notice how many times the word, "My beloved." In fact, just one more statement. Ask her in verse 9, "What is your beloved more than any other beloved?" "Oh, you fairest among women." And they continued to ask, "What is your beloved more than another beloved that you're charging us about him?" "What's so special about your beloved?" Well, when somebody asks you about Yeshua, can you tell to other people how precious Yeshua really is?

The uniqueness of His person. The grace that He provides. "Can you tell others about the beauty of the Messiah?" She told them. "If you read the rest, my beloved is white and ruddy. He is the chief among 10,000." She now realized how precious is that bridegroom. How precious is her beloved. She made a mistake when she was appealed by Him to come in, to be with her. That instead of allowing Him to come in, she says, "I don't have the time." Brothers and sisters, you know what? I notice also in many Gospel preachers that preach, many say, "You know, we have time for pleasure. We have time for business.

But many times we don't have time for Jesus. We have time for all kind of things to do, but no time to give our blessed Lord Yeshua the Messiah." And so here, we can see Israel as a nation. How the Lord is telling them through the prophet Hosea, He is challenging the nation. And now, when finally they are being coming back to Him, and you can see that it was not a real return. You know, how do we know that it is not a real return? Because if you notice in verse 7, we find out why the Lord withdrew Himself from the nation of Israel. In verse 7 of Hosea 5, it says, "They have dealt treacherously against the Lord, for they have begotten strained children.

Now shall a month devour them with their portions." But we find out that even though, in verse 6, they say they brought flocks and herds to seek the Lord, actually, they really, verse 7, dealt treacherously with the Lord. They were not fair in their relationship towards Him. So He withdrew Himself. He withdrew Himself. And you know, if you look from history today, it seemed to be that God withdrew Himself from our own nation, from the nation of Israel, for a couple of thousands of years already. Israel scattered. The Jewish people are all over the world, animosity towards the Jewish people on every hand. It seemed to be as God withdrawn Himself from the nation, allowing the nation to experience the consequence of the rejection of Him, and ultimately the rejection of the Messiahship of Yeshua.

And so, in the next verses, 8, 9, 10, and 12, the Lord gives warning of a coming judgment. There is judgment coming. The judgment is coming, notice verse 8, He's saying, "Blow the shofar, because the enemy is after you." "Blow the shofar in Giva'ah, and the trumpet, this is the Chatzotzra in Ramah, cry aloud at Beit Aven, after thee." "Oh Benjamin, that thought of after thee, that the enemies are after the nation of Israel." And you can see, he's talking about Benjamin here, because somehow he's going beyond the judgment that's going to come on the nation of Israel, on the northern tribe, but also on the southern tribes. "Blow the shofar." You know, the shofar will be blown, the Chatzotzra, this is the silver trumpet, will also be blown, because the judgment is going to come.

In verse 9, He's saying that Ephraim will be desolate. "Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke among the tribes of Israel have I made known that which shall surely be." And God's saying, "Listen, there will be a surely discipline that's going to come upon the nation of Israel." "Ephraim will be desolate." In verse 10, He's going beyond Ephraim, beyond Israel, and ultimately He's getting to the people of Judah as well. And notice what He says of Judah in verse 10. "The princes of Judah were like them that removed the bound, therefore I will pour out My wrath upon them like water." Now, you see, He doesn't only talk about Israel, even though Hosea was speaking to the northern tribes of Israel.

But He also prophetically shows us that it's not going to be only Israel, the north, but also the south. Judah himself! But you know what He says about Judah also? That is interesting here in this verse. He says, "The princes of Judah were like them that removed the bounds." Now that is an amazing statement. Removing the boundary is like removing the line where you cannot pass over. In other words, this was a principle that is taught in the Scriptures. The Toranomy 19 speaks about it. The Toranomy 27 speaks about it. That you cannot remove the boundaries between you and your neighbor. Let's assume you and I own the property.

And you are my neighbor. And what I do, I come at night without you knowing. And I'm moving two yards the line. And I'm saying up to here now is my property. And your property becomes smaller. And my property becomes larger. But there is also a spiritual lesson behind this. It says, what we learn here is that they have removed the boundaries, the spiritual boundaries of the people of God. You know, God puts some boundaries. And we often seem to push boundaries. We don't like to have boundaries. You know, I feel the same. I feel for myself. I often mention the highway because I am a lot on the highway.

The boundary says 100 kilometers. And you know, sometimes we bring this heavy rock and we put it on the gas pedal and we pass that. But we do those boundaries. We push them in many other areas. Not only in don't step on the grass, don't do this, but we move the boundaries spiritually. Let me give you an example. Very much example in the church age today. Many tells us today that the Bible is not necessarily the Word of God. The Bible, you know, you can read it. Maybe God the Father is there, but some believe that there is God the Mother. Or others believe that, for example, the virgin birth is not necessary, that Yeshua could sin.

They move the boundaries. Others believe that, you know what, after all, we don't have a triune God. And that, you know, we have that Jesus was really only a man. He was not divine. He didn't have divine nature. Moving the boundaries. And you know what God says to the nation of Israel? You know, I will judge you, Judah, because you have removed the boundaries. Therefore, I will pour out my wrath upon you like water. You will be judged, because you have moved the boundaries. You have gone beyond what God has allowed us. I remember the verse in Psalm 2, where we read of those that rejected the Messiah.

Where they said the heathen, and the people, and the kings of the earth, they did not appreciate the Messiah. And it said in verse 3, "Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us." In other words, man does not like the boundaries that God placed around him. And they break it. They don't like it. You don't like it by nature, and I don't like it by nature. But God gave us boundaries for our protection, for our blessing. When we go outside of God's boundaries, we end up messing up everything. We end up violating God's word, hurting each other, hurting the Lord, hurting ourselves.

And God ultimately said to Israel, "I will pour out my wrath upon Israel and upon Judah. Even though they are my people, and I love them, that's why I will deal with my people." And so, look at the end of the chapter. In verses 13, 14, and 15, try to escape God's judgment, but he will not be able to escape it. By the way, I said in verse 10 that the princes of Judah, them that moved the bounds, I didn't read verse 11, Ephraim is opposed and broken in judgment because he willingly walked after the commandment. And then, "Therefore will I be unto Ephraim as a moth, and to the house of Judah as a rottenness." That's what God is saying.

"I will judge you, I'm going to be to you in such a way." And so now in verse 13, 14, and 15, Ephraim is trying to escape God's judgment. And you know, no one will ever escape the judgment of God. Sooner or later, he will have to face the judgment of God. In the Gospel, when we preach the Gospel, we tell unbelieving individuals that it is better to fall and to bow before the Lord Yeshua, the Messiah, at the foot of the cross as the Lamb of God. It is better to come there to confess that he is Lord, that he is the Messiah, than to fall into his hands when he is going to act as the lion, the tribe of Judah, at the great white throne judgment.

And here we see Ephraim, he sought relief. And look at this. Verse 13. "When Ephraim saw his wickedness, and Judah saw his wound, then went Ephraim to Assyria, and he sent to King Yarev, yet he could not heal you, nor curse or cure you of your wound." And that's what happened. You read in 1 Kings and 2 Kings there, and you will notice in 2 Kings chapter 15, 2 Kings chapter 16, before Israel were taken captive by the Assyrian, they went to ask for help from the Assyrian. And they thought that, "Oh, if I'm going to get help from the Assyrian, I will fix up my problem, and I will not be judged." But you know, brothers and sisters, we often make the mistake in going to try to get some help some place that we shouldn't go there.

We should always go back to the arms of the Lord, that he's always ready to receive us. After we stumbled, after we failed him, he always want us to come back to him. And so they're trying to find a way, a solution to their problem, so they're going to the Assyrian, and the Assyrian could not help him. In fact, the Lord is saying, "Yet could he not heal you, nor cure you of your wound." What do you do when you have gone wrong, and you end up hurting yourself, hurting others, hurting the Lord? What do you do? Do you go to find solution to your problems elsewhere?

Do you think somebody else is going to be able to fix your problem? The best thing, brothers and sisters, is to go back to the foot of the cross, to come back to Yeshua, and tell him, "Lord, I messed up. I confess it before you, and I want you to help me to be restored." That's what God wants. And that's what he does here. He's saying to Israel, he's saying to Judah, he says, "Listen, you're going to go Ephraim, and you, Judah, are going to go to Assyria. You're going to try to get help from there? They're not going to help you. They're not going to cure your problem." A problem can only be cured at the presence of the Lord, when we are back restoring to himself.

Look what the Lord is saying to them in verse 14, "I will be to Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah." What we learn here, that God is going to be with his furiousness in judgment upon Ephraim, nothing going to help them. Only the Lord will be able to help them. And he's saying to them, "I will be like a lion," the Hebrew word is "keshachal." And as a young lion, this is "kekfir," I will be unto Judah. "And even I will tear and go away. I will take away, and none shall secure him." God is acting in judgment against his people like a lion, devour and tear in judgment.

Oh yeah, he wants to heal, but he will allow them to experience their sin and disobedience. And then notice that, brothers and sisters, this is a beautiful verse in conclusion of this chapter, because that takes us all the way to the tribulation period, when Israel will end up to have to cry to the Lord, to recognize the Messiahship of Yeshua at the end of this chapter. It says in verse 15 that the Lord will return unto his place until Israel will come to him in acknowledging their sin and disobedience. I will go and return to my place, God is saying, until. Until they will acknowledge their offenses.

And they will seek my face. In their affliction, they will seek me early. It tells so much about the history of Israel. It says so much about the history of the church. It even says so much about our own personal history. Usually, when we have problem and affliction in our lives, we end up thinking about God. And when things are well with us, we're inclined to forget God. And God is saying, "I will go and I will return unto my place." In other words, God, again, remove himself. Withdrawn himself from the nation. Return, he says, "Okay, you don't want me? You want idols?" Fine. You want to ask help from Assyria?

Fine. You go. I'm going to return unto my place. But I love that word, until. It is found in the Bible many times. It's found in the Scripture. God said, Jehovah said to his Lord, "Sit down on my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool." You shall not see me henceforth, we read in the Scripture. Yeshua said, "Until you will say, Baruch haba b'shem Adonai." You are not going to see me until you are going to acknowledge your offenses. It's the very same thing in salvation. You know, a person who is unsaved and without the Messiah. He or she will never have peace until they confess their sin before the Lord and says, "Lord Jesus, Yeshua, I am a sinner and I need your forgiveness of sins.

I thank you for shedding your blood on the cross, on the tree for my sins. I confess my sins before you." For a believer, it is the same thing. If we confess our sins, 1 John 1. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But we need to repent and we need to confess. "I will go and to return unto my place," he says, "until they acknowledge their offenses." And then he said, "They will seek my face in their affliction." You know, that expression "affliction" here, it takes us to the tribulation period. It takes us over the generation after generation.

From the time that Israel was taken captive and Judah was taken after to Babylon. And then the time passes by until the Messiah came. And even when the Messiah Yeshua came and he died for us on the tree. And he was buried and he rose and he went to heaven. He taught his disciples about the tribulation period. And he told them concerning coming days. When there will be a time of judgment, a time that has never been in the history of the world. Like the time that he spoke to them concerning the tribulation time. And I am quickly going to read those verses in Matthew chapter 24 beginning in verse 15.

Yeshua is saying at that time when he was in the land of Israel among his people. He says in chapter 24 beginning in verse 14.

"When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation." "Spoken of Daniel the prophet." "Standing in a holy place, whosoever read, let him understand." "Let them which are in Judea flee into the mountain." "Let him which is on a housetop not come down to take anything out of his house." "Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes." "And woe unto them that are with child and to them that give sack in those days." "But pray that your flight be not in the winter, neither on a Shabbat day." "For then shall be great tribulation such as was not since the beginning of the world." "No, no, no, ever shall be." "And

except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved." "But for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened." "Then if any man shall say unto you, here is the Messiah, or there, believe ye not." "For there shall arise false messiahs and false prophets and shall show great signs and wonders." "If it were possible, they shall be deceived, even the elect." "Behold, I have told you before." "Wherefore, if they shall say unto you, behold, he is in the desert, go not forth." "Behold, he is in the secret chambers, believe not." "For as the lightning cometh out of the east and shineth even to the west, so shall also the coming of the Son

of Man be." "The carcassus is, there will the eagles be gathered together." The Lord Yeshua the Messiah was speaking about the tribulation period, the time of distress.

It is called in Jeremiah 30, "Jacob's trouble." And so I am going to conclude with this statement, brothers and sisters. Ultimately, Israel, in their distress, they are going to seek the Lord very fast. When Israel is going to go through the ultimate distress in the tribulation period, they are finally going to cry. And as we read in the prophet Zechariah chapter 12, "They shall look upon him whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn." "They will ultimately acknowledge that Yeshua is the Messiah, and they will turn back to the Lord himself." And so the judgment that we see here. God withdrew himself from his people for a season.

To experience the consequence of their sin. And ultimately, he desired them to be restored unto him. Sometime when you feel very lonely and very discouraged, and you feel that, as if it were, the Lord does not hear your voice, the best thing to do, brothers and sisters, is to always ask the Lord, "Lord, if I have wronged you, if I have sinned, and you know it, we know it, I want to confess it before you. I want you to help me to be restored, because I want this intimate relationship with you, so I can live my life to honor you and to be a blessing to the people of God." And you know what the Bible does say?

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And then the relationship is being restored, and then we can move on and seek to live for him another day, till he is going to come to take us to be with him at home. Can you say amen to that? Amen.