“Yet I will leave a remnant, so that you may have some who escape the sword among the nations, when you are scattered through the countries. 9 Then those of you who escape will remember Me among the nations where they are carried captive, because I was crushed by their adulterous heart which has departed from Me, and by their eyes which play the harlot after their idols; they will loathe themselves for the evils which they committed in all their abominations. 10 And they shall know that I am the Lord; I have not said in vain that I would bring this calamity upon them.”
11 ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Pound your fists and stamp your feet, and say, ‘Alas, for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel! For they shall fall by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. 12 He who is far off shall die by the pestilence, he who is near shall fall by the sword, and he who remains and is besieged shall die by the famine. Thus will I spend My fury upon them. 13 Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when their slain are among their idols all around their altars, on every high hill, on all the mountaintops, under every green tree, and under every thick oak, wherever they offered sweet incense to all their idols. 14 So I will stretch out My hand against them and make the land desolate, yes, more desolate than the wilderness toward Diblah, in all their dwelling places. Then they shall know that I am the Lord.’ ” ’ ” Ezekiel 6: 8-14 NKJV
Ezekiel 6: 8-14 The Heart of God
2 When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.” 3 So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. Hosea 1: 2-3
Yet I will leave a remnant - Babylon is coming to finish Israel off, to punish her infidelity. In the last post we read verses 1-7 which outline her idolatries, the high places, her superstitions, and gods that were modeled after her preferred sins. Molech, the god of pleasure, who required for her sexual indulgences, the sacrifice of her children. Planned Parenthood is the valley of Topheth of our day, where our children are offered to the gods of convenience, immorality, greed and sexual perversion. They had their Ashtoreth poles, phallic symbols like our stripper poles now, where they did those things that God had warned against. Every idol they worshiped fed their sin and egos, yet God knew this about them before any were born, and He chose to create them anyway. From this people, blessed in the riches of the knowledge of God, His covenant people, who had broken the Mosaic covenant of "do this and you shall live", He still manages a remnant. He chose this remnant in Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit before time began.
…8And the Daughter of Zion is abandoned like a shelter in a vineyard, like a shack in a cucumber field, like a city besieged. 9Unless the LORD of Hosts had left us a few survivors, we would have become like Sodom, we would have resembled Gomorrah. Isaiah 1: 8-9
…25As He says in Hosea: “I will call them ‘My People’ who are not My people, and I will call her ‘My Beloved’ who is not My beloved,” 26and, “It will happen that in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not My people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’” 27Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the Israelites is like the sand of the sea, only the remnant will be saved.… Romans 9: 25-27
…4And what was the divine reply to him? “I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” 5In the same way, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. 6And if it is by grace, then it is no longer by works. Otherwise, grace would no longer be grace.… Romans 11: 4-6
Will remember Me - God calls His church, describes Israel as His betrothed, those whom He has a covenant with He describes by the same bond which He instituted, that in which a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, the two becoming one flesh. After your relationship to the Creator there is no more serious institution, this is the building block of the family which is the building block of society, and this is why marriage is always placed under so much attack. God holds it in a high place, and those that do not truly love God esteem it as a small thing, yet He uses it to compare to His relationship with Him. They had forgotten their first love, the reason they breathe, Him, Who set them free from the bonds of Egypt, their provider, the only true God.
“My precepts which they violated, my mercies which they abused, my threats which they despised, my promises which they refused, my prophets whom they persecuted, my judgments which have executed; and shall consider and return, and seek me in their affliction.” (Poole)
And the Lord said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins.” 2 So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley. 3 And I said to her, “You must dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore, or belong to another man; so will I also be to you.” 4 For the children of Israel shall dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or household gods. 5 Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and they shall come in fear to the Lord and to his goodness in the latter days. Hosea 3: 1-5
It is a penitent remnant (v. 9): Those who escape of you shall remember me. Note, To those whom god designs for life he will give repentance unto life. They are reprieved, and escape the sword, that they may have time to return to God. Note, God's patience both leaves room for repentance and is an encouragement to sinners to repent. Where God designs grace to repent he allows space to repent; yet many who have the space want the grace, many who escape the sword do not forsake the sin, as it is promised that these shall do. This remnant, here marked for salvation, is a type of the remnant reserved out of the body of mankind to be monuments of mercy, who are made safe in the same way that these were, by being brought to repentance. - Matthew Henry
“When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! 18 I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. 19 I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.’ 20 So he got up and went to his father. Luke 15: 17-20
Because I was crushed by their adulterous heart - This is a hard line to come across, and it makes me so angry when I hear, not just other men, but my own mouth in the past, speak so lightly of the blood of Christ, that, "it is covered" when I sin. God hates sin, and here I find that it is no arbitrary thing, and neither is His love. He has set His affection on us before time began, knowing that we would fall away, that we would sin and forsake Him for our vain imaginings, things that cannot replace God, things that He made. We would not only leave Him for our sins, our pride, but we would become so delusional as to think we somehow exist without Him. The smallest sin is cosmic treason; there are no white lies or sins that do not lead to death, and so every breath says mercy, though we have become deaf to it. You know you truly love your parent or your spouse when you fear their displeasure, their heart ache, more than your discomfort. God so vested Himself in us that He weeps for Lazarus, that He is grieved by our sin, that He does not just say, "love", but spells it out with a cross. He loves us, but He is holy and hates sin, so He takes all the pain it causes, all the wrath that is owed, and He becomes a man, to do all that we didn't do, keep the law, be found pleasing to the Father, die in my place. Now what is the small thing? I will tell you, it is nothing for Him to say, "if you love Me, then keep my commandments." That is a small thing to ask, that should be the delight of every child.
This they shall remember in the day of their repentance, and it shall affect and humble them more than any thing, not so much that their peace was broken, and their country broken, as that God was broken by their sin. Thus they shall look on him whom they have pierced and shall mourn, Zec. 12:10. Note, Nothing grieves a true penitent so much as to think that his sin has been a grief to God and to the Spirit of his grace. - Matthew Henry
“The strongest figure possible is used to portray the Divine suffering. God is represented as broken.” (Morgan)
ii. “The amazing truth is most vividly brought out in the prophecy of Hosea, a man who was brought into an understanding of the suffering of God, by his own domestic tragedy. That is the force of these words.” (Morgan)
iii. “Our sin can give God the heartbreak, because He loves us so. Indeed, on the Cross the Lord died of a broken heart; of this the issuing stream of blood and water was the sign. O heart of stone, thou too must break and loathe thyself, when thou seest thy Lord broken by thy sin!” (Meyer)
9He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in His death, although He had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth. 10Yet it was the LORD’s will to crush Him and to cause Him to suffer; and when His soul is made a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, and the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand. 11After the anguish of His soul, He will see the light of life and be satisfied. By His knowledge My righteous Servant will justify many, and He will bear their iniquities.… Isaiah 53: 9-11
They will loathe themselves - Look at the whole of Isaiah 53.
36Therefore let all Israel know with certainty that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ!” 37When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and asked Peter and the other apostles, “ Brothers, what shall we do?” 38Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.… Acts 2: 36-38
I have not said in vain - It is not a threat, this calamity is sure. God does not posture or play poker face; He does not lie like men.
Pound your fist and stomp your feet - This seems to anticipate a defiant response. Remember, God has hardened Ezekiel to their hardness, he will not back down. It is serious and they need to understand it; they have seen and taken everything so lightly.
“‘Clap you hands, and stamp your foot’ are instructions that intend both to draw attention and to convey a premonition of threat and defiance.” (Vawter and Hoppe)
Wherever they offered sweet incense - The bodies would collect there, the stench would no longer be sweet. It would be as God saw it, gross, and their "holy" places would be defiled as they were already spiritually.
Return, Israel, to the Lord your God.
Your sins have been your downfall!
2 Take words with you
and return to the Lord.
Say to him:
“Forgive all our sins
and receive us graciously,
that we may offer the fruit of our lips.
3 Assyria cannot save us;
we will not mount warhorses.
We will never again say ‘Our gods’
to what our own hands have made,
for in you the fatherless find compassion.”
4 “I will heal their waywardness
and love them freely,
for my anger has turned away from them.
5 I will be like the dew to Israel;
he will blossom like a lily.
Like a cedar of Lebanon
he will send down his roots;
6 his young shoots will grow.
His splendor will be like an olive tree,
his fragrance like a cedar of Lebanon.
7 People will dwell again in his shade;
they will flourish like the grain,
they will blossom like the vine—
Israel’s fame will be like the wine of Lebanon.
8 Ephraim, what more have I to do with idols?
I will answer him and care for him.
I am like a flourishing juniper;
your fruitfulness comes from me.”
9 Who is wise? Let them realize these things.
Who is discerning? Let them understand.
The ways of the Lord are right;
the righteous walk in them,
but the rebellious stumble in them. Hosea 14 NIV
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