Hosea Paints the Picture!
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Back to 1The Bible’s Greatest Prophecies Unlocked!
The fifth chapter of Hosea paints a graphic and painful picture of what lies ahead for those to be punished. It includes the reason for the punishment and exactly what God is looking for before He will intervene on Israel’s behalf. It also offers hope. Let’s read more fully what was quoted in part in a previous chapter: “And the pride of Israel does testify to his face: therefore shall Israel and Ephraim [America, Britain, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, etc.] 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go with their flocks and with their herds to seek the Lord; but they shall not find Him [why is this the case?]; He has withdrawn Himself from them. They have dealt treacherously against the Lord: for they have begotten strange children [today’s rotten, “filthy,” Proverbs 30:11-14 generation]: now shall a month devour them with their portions” (Prov 30:5-7).
Notice that after a certain point God will not be found of those who seek Him because “He has withdrawn Himself from them.” This presents an irony. Today, Israel can still seek God—as can you!—because He can still be found. But she will not. The time is coming when Israel will seek God, but He cannot be found—and this is because the punishment has begun and NOTHING can stop it until God’s purpose is completed!
The above passage ends with a curious reference to how “a month” shall “devour them.” Here is what this means, and it is touched upon earlier in the book: At the 1,290 days before Christ’s Return, when the Church flees to the place of safety, the Great Tribulation is only 30 days away. This is thesame month that will at its end “devour” Israel after the Work of God’s Church is over and the Church is protected.
Recall what Christ said in Matthew 24:1-54 right after His instruction to flee at the abomination’s arrival: “For then [30 days later] shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved [alive]: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened” (Mt 24:21-22).
If God did not intervene, Earth’s entire population would be wiped out. Of course, this would include Israel. The only reason there is a remnant of her saved is God “cuts short” events, including her punishment.
Famine of Hearing God’s Word
Let’s momentarily move backward in time to the point just before the beginning of the Tribulation. Recall that there is to be a prophesied “famine” of hearing God’s Word that comes suddenly as the final Work is “cut short” (Rom. 9:28). At this point, the John 9:4 “night” will have come when “no man can work,” including the Work of God’s Church warning those who had better heed NOW!
First, let’s read what God inspired Amos to record. Then let’s understand the prophecy: “Behold, the days come, says the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord ” (Amos 8:11).
Next, Amos describes what happens at the time of this famine. How do people react? “And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord, and shall not find it” (Amos 8:12).
This is a shocking moment for frantic scores of millions who can no longer hear (find) what God has been declaring through His Church. Another prophecy implied here is that people will have been accustomed to “hearing the Word of the Lord.” Do not miss this.
This takes us back to Ezekiel 33:1-33 and an attitude that will become dominant through Israelite lands, because of what this Church will have been announcing. Notice how this chapter about the “watchman,” referenced earlier, concludes: “Also, you son of man [a modern Ezekiel], the children of your people still are talking against [Hebrew: “about”] you by the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak one to another, every one to his brother, saying, Come, I pray you, and hear what is the word that comes forth from the Lord” (Eze 33:30).
The unceasing and intensifying message from His Work—the only place that word from the Lord could come—will eventually be a subject on many millions of lips. These will be regularly coming to hear what God’s Church and Work has to say on the most salient and important matters of the time. Great numbers—an audience of vast proportion—will be talking about and debating the meaning of powerful prophecies. This very book will be part of—in fact the center of—the debate. However, most, even of those who understand, will remain unwilling to act on what they are learning. Let’s see why: “They come unto you as the people comes, and they sit before you as My people [in appearance only], and they hear your words, but they will not DO them: for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goes after their covetousness” (Eze 33:31).
The last phrase in the passage introduces the problem.
The “Music” Suddenly Stops
Tragically, the pull of materialism will overpower people’s desire to act on ominous, impending prophecies made plain in Scripture by God’s Work. Covetousness will continue to rule the thinking of most. But people will remain interested because the message will be so compelling: “And, lo, you are unto them as a very lovely song of one that has a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument: for they hear your words, but they DO them not” (Eze 33:32).
But abruptly, as though in the middle of the “song,” the “music” and “lyrics” stop. God suddenly concludes the warning. Space to take action is gone. Those who would not heed will realize they have made a horrible miscalculation about how much time remained. Desperate millions will be searching the airwaves, newspapers, the Internet and every other outlet used for what can no longer be found—because the greatest “famine” of all time has struck! And it has become too late to escape!
This brings us back to Hosea 5:1-15 where the context continues with God speaking about Himself at the moment of famine: “I will go and return to My place, till they [Israel] acknowledge their offense, and seek My face: in their affliction [brutal enslavement] they will seek Me early” (Hosea 5:15). When God “withdraws Himself,” He describes it as a “return to His place” in the third heaven (II Cor. 12:2).
He will remain ready to intervene—but this will not happen until His chastisement is complete!
Moment of Intervention
Let’s continue in Hosea and see what triggers God’s intervention on Israel’s behalf. Recognize that the message about Israel’s condition overlaps into the next chapter. (Remember, men added chapter divisions in the Bible.) Let’s read what happens to her as the Day of the Lord arrives. Notice Israel’s attitude at the point where “they acknowledge their offense” before God: “Come, and let us return unto the Lord: for He has torn, and He will heal us; He has smitten, and He will bind us up. After two days will He revive us: in the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His sight” (Hosea 6:1-2).
This presents a fascinating point of prophetic understanding about the nature and timing of the Great Tribulation and Day of the Lord. It reveals what God will do for Israel and how He will “raise…up” the surviving remnant in the “third day,” meaning third year (each day for a year), of the Tribulation. Israel recognizes what is happening and declares, “We shall live in His sight.”
Get these crucial time periods straight in your mind. Remember that the Day of the Lord is also called the Year of the Lord in other places.
An inset: Note a passage previously referenced—that Ezekiel 20:35 stated how God pleads with the regathered tribes of Israel “in the wilderness”—and that God also reveals He will take spiritual Israel, the Church, “into the wilderness, into her place” (Rev. 12:14).
We might speculate: Is it possible that the remnant of Israel is brought back to a large area near, but outside, the place of safety?
Back to Isaiah—God “Tithes” on His People
Recall that 200 million Israelites—the final third—go into captivity. Also recognize that these do not all survive the new World War III version of what will function like death camps.
It is Isaiah who reveals how many in Israel will survive the coming catastrophe. Here is the verse that, in effect, reveals a number of survivors! This is an astonishing passage, so read carefully. An earlier chapter of the book actually offered a clue when it was speaking of the whole world: “Then said I, Lord, how long? And He answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate, and the Lord have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking [the total breakdown of all law and order and character, triggering punishment] in the midst of the land. But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree [these can regrow quickly even if cut down at ground level], and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof” (Isa 6:11-13).
The prophet Amos is even more explicit regarding the number—the overall percentage of survivors—among the people of Israel and Judah who return from captivity, and one critical passage becomes a corroboration of what Isaiah is saying. Some background first.
Amos has much to say in the early chapters of his book about God’s view of Israel, and what lies in store for her. For instance, chapter 3, Amos 3:1, begins, “Hear this word that the Lord has spoken against you, O children of Israel…” Then Amos 3:2 declares, “I will punish you for all your iniquities [lawlessness]” before God then asks this in regard to His relationship with Israel: “Can two walk together, except they be agreed?” (Amos 3:3). Few who read this passage check the all-important context of what this rhetorical question in Amos is actually talking about. God is stating the obvious through means of a question—that He cannot any longer walk with His people, Israel. All semblance of birthright blessings from Him cease.
Chapter 5 then opens with another lamentation against Israel and how she was “fallen” and “forsaken” with “none to raise her up” (Amos 5:2). Then Amos 5:3 records, “For thus says the Lord God; the city that went out by a thousand shall leave an hundred, and that which went forth by an hundred shall leave ten, to the house of Israel.”
This presents a mind-boggling reality!
No more than 60 million Israelites—just ONE TENTH of 600 million today!—will survive the soon-coming Great Tribulation to participate in the greatest exodus of all time. Yet, compared to perhaps 3 or 4 million leaving Egypt, this is a vastly bigger number for the angelic “fishers” and “hunters” to regather and bring back to Israel’s land of nativity.
Still, over a half-billion human beings just in Israel will not have survived by this point, having through procrastination and inaction terribly miscalculated the seriousness of what would come, and when.
Assembled and Recovered a Second Time