Hosea 5
Ask God for Help!
Good morning! This is Pastor Jerry Ingalls from New Castle First Baptist Church and today is Friday,
Have you ever been stuck between a rock and a hard place? What are you to do, and to whom are you to turn, when you find yourself in a seemingly impossible situation? With the Assyrian Empire as the dominate regional power, Israel found itself in such a desperate situation. The nation was divided between the northern ten tribes (Ephraim) and the southern two tribes (Judah), and the hopes of them working together, even for an expedient military alliance, were nonexistent. Worse than their unwillingness to unite, was their stubborn refusal to turn to God for divine aid, forsaking the God who promised to protect them, selling themselves into the false security of foreign powers and playing the harlot with their gods (Hosea 5:3-4).
In the historical context of the Syro-Ephramite War with Tiglath-pileser III (745-727 BC), the leaders of Israel no longer followed God’s law, but the foreign policies of man, which dictated that they pay a hefty financial tribute to Assyria as a vassal state (2 Kings 15:19-20; Isaiah 7:1-9). The Lord declared His judgment for their apostasy in Hosea 5:11-13:
Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment, because he was determined to follow man’s command. Therefore I am like a moth to Ephraim and like rottenness to the house of Judah. When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah his wound, then Ephraim went to Assyria and sent to King Jareb. But he is unable to heal you, or to cure you of your wound.
When stuck between a rock and a hard place, Israel rejected God. They sought their own solution, trusting in man. Like rot in a tree, their rejection of God sealed their judgment, as God gave them over to those in whom they had misplaced their hope.
Seize the moment and ask God for help when you are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Put your hope in God, trusting Him to make a way!
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YOUTUBE:
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