Through His prophet Hosea, God said to the house of Israel, “You are not my people, and I will not be your God” (See Hosea 1:9). It was with great reluctance God gave Israel up, removing them from His sight, no longer guiding them or leading them or hearing their cries. Rising up early He sent to them all His servants the prophets, imploring, “Turn ye, turn ye for why will ye die?” “Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered. And it shall come to pass where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the people of the living God. THEN (yes, at that point in time – still in the distant future) shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head (King David – see Hosea 3:5), and they shall come up out of the land (Hebrew, “the ground, the earth” via a resurrection), for great shall be the day of Jezreel (Hebrew, “God will sow” or “seed of God”). (See Hosea 1:10-11). The divided kingdom will be divided no more.
But the mind of the apostle Paul is illuminated by God’s Holy Spirit to see much more in Hosea 1:10-11 than first meets the eye. Notice what Paul writes in his letter to the believers in Rome: “What if God, willing to show his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction (the rebellious Israelites. See Psalm 106:6-8). And that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had afore prepared unto glory, even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles, as he says also in Hosea, I will call them my people, which were not my people, and her beloved which was not beloved. And it shall come to pass that in the place where it was said unto them (the Gentiles as well as the rebellious house of Israel), ye are not my people, there shall they be called the children of the living God” (Romans 9:22-26).
Through His prophet Hosea, God plainly and clearly warns what He is about to bring to pass regarding the fate of the northern ten-tribed kingdom of the house of Israel. Notice: “I…will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel” (Hosea 1:4). “I will utterly take them away” (Hosea 1:6). “Israel is swallowed up: now shall they be among the Gentiles as a vessel wherein is no pleasure” (Hosea 8:8). “Egypt shall gather them up. Memphis shall bury them” (Hosea 9:6). “As for Ephraim (the ruling tribe of the house of Israel), their glory shall fly away like a bird, from the birth and from the womb, and from the conception. Though they bring up their children, yet will I bereave them that there shall not be a man left, yea, woe also to them when I depart from them. Ephraim, as I saw Tyrus, is planted in a pleasant place, but Ephraim shall bring forth his children to the murderer. Give them, O Lord, what will thou give? Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts. All their wickedness is in Gilgal, for there I hated them for the wickedness of their doings. I will drive them out of mine house. I will love them no more. All their princes are revolters. Ephraim is smitten. Their root is dried up. They shall bear no fruit, yea, though they bring forth, yet will I slay even the beloved fruit of their womb. My God will cast them away, because they did not hearken unto him, and they shall be wanderers among the nations.” (See Hosea 9:11-17). Continued in Part 4.
Christ’s Faithful Servant (Galatians 1:10-12),
Donald Wiley