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Episode 650: In this episode, we focus on the book of Hosea, particularly chapter 14. We discuss how Israel's prosperity led them away from God, highlighting the theme of unfaithfulness and the consequences of turning to idols. Despite God's anger and judgment, we emphasize His unwavering love and desire for reconciliation. The poignant imagery of God as a heartbroken lover pursuing His wayward people serves as a powerful reminder of His grace.
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You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in practical ways. Warned everybody, welcome to the Bible Guys. Chris Man. This is going to be a good day. It is. It's always a. Good day, you know, Fridays are great days. Yeah. You know a thing I didn't mention at all this week for our listeners that are watching on YouTube. Yes, they've noticed probably that you are clean shaven, well, relatively clean, relatively clean shaven, relatively clean. Share. So I've been I've been rocking out the goateee for the last six months at least, and it's been pretty bushy. Yeah. Yeah, and then somebody suggested that I go, uh, you know, and just shave it off. And then and then just what was it? Two days ago? I asked my person who does my hair. And then I came home and I asked my family, and my daughter's like, absolutely, you should do it, you know, just try it. You've been you know, you've been you have the go tea for a long time. I'm like, okay, so go upstairs and I do this. My wife comes home and says, I absolutely hate it. She said, grow it back immediately now, And I said. Immediately, and she goes, she goes, why would. You why would you do that? Yeah? And she says, why would you do that? And I said, well, I said, the lady who cuts my hair, said I show her picture. She said, yeah, absolutely, and she goes, oh, are you married to the lady who cuts your hair? Oh? And I said no, and she goes, well, then grow it back, yes, ma'am, Yes, ma'am. Okay, that's fine. So so you've been putting some like a miracle grow. I'll try, yeah, whatever, but but yes, if you're watching, then you probably noticed that I'm definitely. Your boy is chim. That's just showing. Yeah, you know what one one or two people in the office said, oh, you look younger. My wife said, no, you don't look younger. She goes, actually, you look younger. Even even though my beard was white. She said, you have that whole like old man's skin. She said, you don't look younger, you look look older. Okay, Wow, she's brutal. Well, no, she's she's like me. She knows, she knows I need to hear whatever the truth is. Okay, Well, h so today is everybody's favorite segment. What it is? Yeah, everybody's favorite, which for our longtime listeners, we've we've missed a few lately. Yeah, but we're back back this week two weeks ago. Everybody is dying to know what made Chris mad this week? Are they? Yeah? There they are? Are they? They are? People are calling right now. I didn't think about this one for a little bit, so I didn't have one readily readily go. So, but something happened last week, and here it is. Have you ever been in tropical smoothie? Yes? Okay? So what do you normally get a tropical smoothie? I don't have like a favorite thing. I've been there like three times? Okay, yeah or or whatever somebody around me is ordering. So have you ever tasted a smoothie that has greens in it? Like? K? Yes? Yeah? Yeah? Yeah? Do you like them? Not a big fan? No, not a big fan. I don't think the world likes them? Ye right? Right? So recently I said like I was drinking like a cold seaweed drink. Right, So lately I've been trying to drink you know, I've been trying to eat well and all these kind of things. So it's a Tropical Smoothie, and every time i'd go there, I'd be like, Okay, I'm gonna try to get something green, and then that one's just horrible. I'm like, well, let me try to this other healthy one, and that one's just not great. So last week, here's what happens. I'm in Florida and I flew down there to paint my daughter's house, right, and they said, let's go to Tropical Smoothie. And all three of them said, I want to get a peanut butter Paradise, which is you know, it's not healthy at all. No, And I said, fine, get me a peanut butter Paradise because last six times I've been drinking green things. She brings it home and it's got to be the most wonderful smoothie ever. Right. It tastes awesome, and I realized, oh, that's the reason why people like Trouble with Smoothie. It's just really good. Here's where I got mad at immediately, Jeff, immediately, Matt, Okay, here it is you ready, smoothie. This is a strong statement that I mostly don't mean, but I actually do mean. Okay. I think it is God's cruel joke that everything that tastes horrible is good for you, and that everything that is really awesome tasting is bad for you? Does guess what God? Ready, here's a news flash. God could have made it the opposite. God could have made kale tastes like ice cream. He could have made and or let me just say it this way. Why doesn't ice cream make us lose weight? Why doesn't sugar make us lose weight? Why in the world would God make every not everything, but most everything that tastes phenomenal bad for you? And why is it that everything you know, oh you eat this grain, eat these flax seeds, eat brand Brand's good for you? Why you know? Why? Why did God do this? Well, so you're mad at God this week. I'm mad with the system that God set up. Okay, is there a difference? Yeah, well, well not much. Okay, Well, so I would say this. I think things God made you can have them. Honey is pretty great, Yeah, it's. Lose weight. Pineapples pretty great? Yeah, right, Peaches are phenomenal. Strawberries are the best. I love blackberries. Right at pairs, I just had a perfect pair the other day. Right, it's pretty great. I think what you're mad about is the things that people took that God made and then changed them to make them really bad for us. Sugar sugar, refined God made sugar. Refined sugar. God made sugar. Yeah, you made honey too, all things in moderation with the God makes. You can argue fruit all day long, and that's fine, but you also agree that, Like they even tell you not to eat a lot of sugar fruits. Oh yeah, yeah, take off the enamel right off your teeth. Right. But but my point is what come on the heart of what I'm saying. Yeah, but humans are the ones who made ice cream. God didn't make ice cream. It's what humans do to what God made usually that makes it. Worse because okay, ice cream is mostly sugar. So why are you trying but it's refined sugar. Why are you trying to. Sugar to say it's our literally take the fat out because it is our fault. Is our fault, it is not you put on extra calories is not God's fault. It's no. I stick I stick by with what I'm saying. The things that are good for you are. Not fat because God's You know what you sound like to me? You sound like Adam Adam. God goes, Adam, where are you? This is what I hid because I was naked. He said, how did you find out you're naked? He said, well, did you eat from the fruit? He goes, Listen, the woman you gave me gave it to me. That's what you're doing, right. You made food so good it made me fat. No, that's not what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying at all. All the good stuff, all the good stuff, makes me fat. No. I also don't forget the flip side of that. All the really good stuff is awful. You know, kale, flax seed, these things, you know, wheat, germ, whatever you want to call it. Again, those are also dumb people doing dumb things. No, I was like a black seed was never supposed to be eating you more. They were supposed to be for making oil. Right, it's when we do the wrong thing with what got made. I think that makes this. I disagree entirely. Okay, it's his fault. You can sort out with him when you get to have it. Yeah. Well, hey, listen, I think it's okay to be uh not not okay with some things, but you have to accept them. Well, God didn't even get mad at that. I'm for saying it's your fault. You gave me this woman. Well, and so you're saying, God, does you record it? Yeah, it records all the things he was mad about. So so you know, I don't know that God is mad at you for blaming him for putting on extra weight and enjoying and enjoying bad. Stop saying as if it's about me. God, I am so mad forgetting that. I get mad so for everybody. I get mad for human. On behalf of humanity. I am angry that you made pizzas so good that I want to eat five pieces when I only needed one. Yeah, yeah, yeah, French fries are great. That it comes from the earth, right, and by the way. With the refined oils, fine, but. Why couldn't God have made the refined oils and the potatoes that came from the earth, the thing that makes you lose weight. He could have done that. Yeah, yeah, he could have. That's right. I think humanity is to blame for most of this. I disagree. Yeah, I think you're a product of your environment and you learn to like bad things. Well, I mean, I can't deny that statement, right, but that still doesn't change the fact that things like. You're complaining that God invented gravity and that's why you hit the ground, right, Why he could have made it where I could have flown, He could have done all kinds of stuff. But you're mad that when you operate outside of the way he designed it, that there are consequences. I'm saying. I'm saying I have ten thousand taste buds on my tongue, That's what I'm saying. And I'm saying that's the best argument. That's the best argument. Yeah, that's right. He made me with those and they should dance with things that make me lose weight. And they don't. All right, well, why don't you sort it out tonight? Okay? And our listeners, probably more than half of them, are like, you're right, And then there's some listening on the going. Flex seeds. What's wrong with fox seeds? My wife? Yeah, yeah, she takes some. Button These are so good. I'm like, are you? Are you? She learned to like them? You learn to like bad stuff. She learned to like that stuff. Well, she doesn't really like them. She just pretends to, like you, pretends just like everybody shakes. But they got a whole store built around it. Okay, well, hey, speaking of who likes this kind of stuff, I can tell you some stuff God doesn't like. Oh he doesn't like Israel's behaviors. Yeah, well right, they've been cheating nothing for a while. That much is clear. They've been cheating nothing for a while. Before we get into Hoseiah chapter ten, let me go back. I want to read a couple of these. Little said chapter fourteen. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, oh yeah, chapter fourteen. Before we read fourteen, I want to go back, and God goes like in chapter ten, how prosperous Israel is, with its luxuriant vines loaded with fruit. But the richer the people get, the more pagan altars they build. This seems to be the issue. The more prosperous they got, the less they were connected to God, the more they were indulging in their own worship things. Right, so he's getting mad at them again. He's upset with them. Of course, he's telling them, I'm going to send all of this judgment. In chapter eleven, he says, when Israel was a child, I loved him, and I called my son out of Egypt. But the more I called to him, the farther he moved from me, offering sacrifices, the images of bail and burning incense to altars. And then he says, I myself taught Israel how to walk, leading him along by the hand. But he doesn't know or even care that it was Ioh took care of him. Right, So he's got all these things. And so because that, since my people refuse to return to me, then I'm going to send them back. They're going to be forced to serve Assyria. That's what's going to happen. I brought you out to slavery, I taught you how to walk. You've ignored me the whole time, and so now there's going to be another imprisonment, right, that's what he says. But then verse eight in chapter eleven, he goes, oh, how can I give you up? Israel? How can I let you go? Right? So he's as often lovers are mad and then compassionate, and then mad and then compassionate. Your behavior makes me so upset, but I still love you, right. This is where you have This is how you know. It's all about the relationship, the whole thing. So people, godless people, people who don't understand God. When they read these kinds of things. They just think, Man, God's mean, what an angry God? And what you're seeing is God is passionate. It's all about love. You and I know, the best thing in all of human existence is pure love. It really is the ecstasy of pure love. We know that John tells us that God is love. He's the essence of love. It's the essence of who he is. And so this is not about I'm looking for somebody to cast judgment on. This is about a broken hearted lover pursuing is beloved, and is beloved totally ignoring him. And so finally, after hundreds of years, he's like, okay, here comes to Syria. You're gonna wipe you out right. So then he explains everything that's gonna happen for them. But then finally he ends the book with this, return Oh is this chapter fourteen, Return, Oh Israel, to the Lord your God, for your sins have brought you down. Bring your confessions and return to the Lord, and say to him, forgive all our sins and graciously receive us, so that we may offer you our praises. Syria cannot save us, nor can our war horses. Never again will we say to the idols we've made. You are our gods know, and you alone do The orphans find mercy, and the Lord says, then I will heal you of your faithlessness. My love will know no bounds, for my anger will be gone forever. I will be to Israel like a refreshing dew from heaven. Israel blossom like the lily. It'll send roots deep into the soil, like the cedars in Lebanon. Its branches will spread out like beautiful olive trees, as fragrant as the cedars of Lebanon. My people will again live under my shade, and they will flourish like grain and blossom like grape leaves. They will be as fragrant as the wines of Lebanon. Oh, Israel, stay away from idols. I'm the one who answers your prayers and cares for you. I'm like a tree that is always green. All your fruit comes from me. But those who are wise understand these things. But those who with discernment listen carefully. The paths of the Lord are true and right, and righteous people live by walking in them. But those but in those paths sinners stumble and fall. So this whole thing God's chasing them, He's frustrated with them. But then, even after ten chapters of judgment, interjected with the whole bunch of how can I let you go? I don't want to let you go. I'm going to divorce you. I don't want to let you go. Right, but judgment's coming. Even at the very end of all that, he goes, let me tell you how to come back. I'm going to leave the light, the porch light on. I'm going to leave the back door unlocked. Right. If you want back in the house, I'll let you come back. All you have to do has asked me to forgive your sins and receive you and reject Syria and their God's that's all you have to do. And so he leaves the wide open. And then, man, it's going to be great. I will forever, My anger will be gone forever, and my love will know no about. Yeah, so that I love that. The note in the Life Application Study Bible says that people could return to God by asking him to forgive their sins. The same is true for us. We can pray Hoseiah's prayer and know that our sins are forgiven because Christ died for them. And the cross cross, and it references John three sixteen. Forgiveness begins when we see the destructiveness of sin and the futility of life without God. Then we must admit that we cannot save ourselves. Our only hope is in God's mercy. When we ask forgiveness, we must recognize that we do not deserve it and therefore cannot demand it. Isn't that a great phrase? Our appeal must be for God's love and mercy and not for his justice. Although we cannot demand forgiveness, we can be confident that we have received it because God is gracious and loving and wants to restore us to himself, just as he wanted to restore Israel. That's great, What a great what a great note? And uh and so yeah, God again just always gives us the invitation. You know, it's so funny. We just had a church a friend of yours who has a church in Chicago, Uh, brought a lot of his staff over to our church yesterday. It just happened yesterday. And there are church that they're about the same size as us, right Uh, and probably in person maybe a little bigger. And they so they have they have a large staff and actually their staff is larger than ours too, so they so they have they've been a lot going on, a lot of complexities, a lot of campuses, right, and they have a lot going on, and yet they came over to say, hey, let's share best practices. So this was their turn to come over and hopefully we'll have a turn to go share with them. And by the way, I'm saying all of that because I don't know if churches do this, Like if you're part of a church leadership team, maybe you don't take the time to do this. But I got to tell you how beneficial I think it's going to be on both ends. When we decided to go take a team over there and learn best practices over there. There's something about humility. They had an incredible amount of humility, didn't they. And they were just like, hey, this is where we're good, this is where we're really bad. What do you guys do? And let's learn from you and let's have these discussions. But anyway, when I jeez, I almost lost my thought. Here you're talking about the humility when we humble ourselves and repent. Yeah, I had a really good thought here of them coming over and and learning goodn'tess gracious? Yeah, I said, although we cannot demand forgiveness, we can be confident that we've received it because God's gracious. Yes, thank you, thank you. So we had spent some time with that church staff talking about at the end of almost every service, we give an invitation to receive the gospel. That's right, right, So it's about everyone, And I would say almost everyone, right. Only forty five out of fifty two weeks. Forty five out of fifty two weeks. We take the time to say, Okay, maybe you're here today or listening online and you don't know Jesus Christ as your savior. Well, the Bible says that you can know today. It's part of the good News of salvation. Salvation is meant for today, and it's meant for everyone. And so we give the invitation, right, And that's what reminded me of this. It reminded me of God, Who's saying, the invitation is always still there. I invite you home. I invite you just like you said. The back door's open, right, the ports lights on, and the invitation is for you to come home. And no matter how bad you've been or unfaithful that you've behaved. The invitation has always come back home. And that's really what it is. So on a Sunday morning, if you're a part of a church leadership team, especially that there's there's it's always somebody's almost always somebody's first day. There's somebody in the audience where it's their first time visiting your church. Hopefully that's true. And uh and and and we have no idea what's going on in their hearts. We have no idea how they feel or what they've done, or if they if they feel like this is their last ditch effort to try God and church or or whatever it is. We have no idea. But the invitation is it's it's okay, right because it's never too late to repent. It's never you've not committed too much sin. Where God is going to say, I'm never going to invite you back to my loving relationship. Now, now there are consequences for sin. There are judgments obviously, right. You know, Israel is not going to get around this, right, They're gonna they're gonna face judgment. Right unless they repent. Unless they repent, so He is giving them this this this last chapter is returned to me and then it'll be okay. Oh uses an invitation to us escape judgment. Yeah yeah, yeah, Oh, I'm not sure I really read it that way. Return o Israel to the Lord your God, for your sins have brought you down, and bring your confessions and return to the Lord and say to them, and then he says, Then the Lord says, then I will heal you of your faithlessness. So he's already so he's offering to heal them if they would repent. Well, but I always thought that was more of an invitation about your spirit, so like, you know, you could be broken and still go back to God and be healed. Yeah, sure, and still have to pay your concuet. Well, if they have to go through that, then yes, yea, then then that would be the one side. The other one is. But that's not to say that, that's not to say that God wouldn't have spared them. Yeah, exactly. That's That's what I'm trying to say. Is I think he's offering to. But he didn't say God blessed. I did say blessed you, did you? Yeah? Okay, well thank you? You were still recovering from them. God does bless me? Yeah, every day, yep. Because you have good friends. Anyway, That's what I was talking about. It's the invitation. So I just went home last night and I uh put the finishing touches on the on the mess on the message I just wrote, and right at the end, it's just like, hey, maybe you're here today and maybe you don't know Jesus as your savior. The invitation is for you today, and that's God for you. God's going to always invite you back. Listen, You're only one prayer away. You're only one you know, step away. You're only one, you know, attitude shift or repentance posture, away from God's loving relationship, from God's blessing in your life, from God redeeming you, from God blessing you because God always has and always will use broken people for great things. That's right. You know. There's a note here that says we can err by forgetting God's love feeling that our sins are hopeless, right, which is true I think for a lot of people. Yeah, because that says but we can also err by forgetting God's wrath against our sins, thinking he will continue to accept us no matter how we act. Forgiveness is a key word when God forgives us, he judges the sin. That's what he did in the cross. That's why the cross is so horrifically h repulsive to us. It's it's a you know, you watch the Passion of the Christ or one of those things, and it just scratches the surface right of what Jesus did for us, and it's God doing this in his own body for us. That's what he does. So God, when God forgives, he judges the sin at the cross, but shows mercy to the sinner. We should never be afraid to come to God for a clean slate and a renewed life. That's great. Great. By the way, a phrase came in my mind a movie trivia when you said, it begins to just scratch the surface what movies is from. Okay, so take that your experience, take that and multiply it by infinity and take it to the depths of forever, and you'll barely begin to understand. Isn't a great phrase? By the way, it's a great phrase. Yeah, I don't know. It's meet Joe Black. Oh, okay. Joe Black was pretending to be Death and he was so he was sort of the supernatural being. Of course, you know, it's it's it's not. I don't think I ever saw it. Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins. Yeah, that's really good. But anyway, but I loved death when he said that. He said, now take that and multiplyed by infinity and take it to the depths of forever, and then you'll barely begin to understand. That's huge. I thought, that's exactly right. We cannot fathom all that God did for us. That's exactly correct, that's exactly right. Just be overwhelmed by the fact that He loves you so much. That's the whole book, is this, yep. And when we sin, it devastates him. When we rebel, it devastates him even more. But he delights in when we return to him and we say, you know what, those other gods, those other things we tried, they never satisfy. You're the only one. And God said, just watch and see, right, because my anger will not last forever, and my love knows no bounds. Yeah, and he loves us like Jose loves Gomer, Yah, and forgives Gomer and sacrifices for Gomer. Yeah. All right, Well, hey, that's a good wrap up. So hopefully we will see you Monday on the bibble Gush