This past week I have felt that our nation has been the recipient of those whose father was the originator of the lie (John 8:44). They have certainly told many lies in the nation’s past—but this week they had to change their lies so often.
Several months ago Pastor Elmore asked me if I’d like to do tag team sermons on the first and second chapters of Hosea for a visit we were making to Pastor Harness’ church in Indiana and a second time for a Bible study farm family and I thought it was a great idea. This is our third presentation and Don said we could probably expand our talks because we don’t have the time constraints we had before. So, I have added some new material to elaborate on what Hosea was and is telling us.
Don and I learned something about each other’s approach to sermons over lunch one Sunday after church, because breaking bread with fellow believers is a great way to fellowship. Well, Don usually doesn’t come up with a title until he’s finished with the text. On the other hand, I just can’t get started until I come up with a title. I was guessing that Don was going to title his sermon ‘Hosea 1’. I thought long and hard about what I what title my sermon and after much contemplation and deliberation, I finally decided upon ‘Hosea 2’.
Neither of us had foreknowledge of what the other’s sermon was going to say, and in that manner of presentation, I think it may be more of what the Holy Spirit has to say than us. I’ve been to many Identity conferences over the years and the good ones are when the speaker’s messages (and I’ll use a biblical phrase) are “fitly framed together”, they’re touching the same theme and convey the influence and beauty of the mind of Christ in His servants. So let’s now look at how Hosea 1 and 2 match up.
Today’s Scripture reading was Proverbs 4:14-23 and apparently Esau-Edom partakes of a communion of sorts, “Eating the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence” (v.17). I’m reminded of John’s vision in Rev. 17:6, “And I saw the woman [Mystery Babylon] drunken with the blood of the saints and… the martyrs of Jesus.” What they commune with is the Babylonian Talmud and hang on every word that proceeds from the mouth of their vile rabbis. A rabbi is a jew who is proficient in twisting and convoluting the intent of God’s Word. Evidently, those who enter the path of Talmudic wickedness can’t sleep until they’ve done some mischief and cause people to fall and stumble (v.16).
The current events of this past week are more confirmation of the dialectics of a created solution to satisfy a created problem, which produces the desired result. What is that result? A stumblingblock to perceive reality.
Today’s Scripture reading is Ezekiel 13:16-23. Ezekiel is talking about the smoke and mirrors of false prophets and their lying prophecies. God puts these liars to shame through His divine judgment and making them the object of ridicule. Shame on the political soothsayers and pundits who have been telling tall tales in recent weeks to the American people and the world.
I don’t know about you, but with each passing week I get the impression that there is an escalation in totalitarianism and a loss of control over our personal freedoms. It’s just a continuous social erosion of one thing after another. It’s like watching a train wreck in slow motion. I’m just glad I’m not on that train. I was going to title this message ‘Better Living Under Babylonian Bondage Through the Christian Faith’, but that was a bit wordy. So I chose the often quipped cliché ‘Your papers please,’
