“In Me is Thine Help” ...the Wayfarer 1/15/14

“In Me is Thine Help”

1/15/14

“O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help.”

(Hosea 13:9)

Today we return to the old prophets, the warnings and promises given through them to Israel, and indeed passed on to all nations willing to listen to the wisdom imparted to us.

We find that Israel had departed from the teachings and commandments given them, as so many times over the centuries, and once again stood in need of warning to return to the path intended, as do so many nations, including my own, today.

“They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek the Lord; but they shall not find him; he hath withdrawn himself from them.

 They have dealt treacherously against the Lord: for they have begotten strange children: now shall a month devour them with their portions”.

(Hosea 5:6&7)

Today we find many who claim to seek the Lord, but what they actually seek is the comfort of a warm fuzzy given through platitudes that require nothing in return, to include no need to turn from the practices of the things that continue to separate them from the One they claim to seek.

We have indeed begotten strange children, whose focus is on the here and the now, and immediate gratification in all things physical, all comforts, all luxuries, all benefits that have come through the years to parents, grand-parents, and other generations, only through having first suffered through the poverty, sorrow, long hard hours of work, and TIME to attain the niceties of life and have those things.

They are unwilling to put in the time and effort required, and instead, would devour the product of the labor of those who actually earned those things.

Once they attain this ill-gotten gain, it is rapidly used up, attention given once again to the produce of others, and demands are made of equality which are actually demands to further redistribute the work of others to provide for a non-productive segment of society, that eventually must either become productive, or cause the complete downfall of that society and all corresponding blessings and benefits previously enjoyed.

“When I would have healed Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered, and the wickedness of Samaria: for they commit falsehood; and the thief cometh in and the troop of robbers spoileth without.

And they consider not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness: now their own doings have beset them about; they are before my face.

They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their lies.

 They are all adulterers, as an oven heated by the baker, who ceaseth from raising after he hath kneaded the dough until it be leavened.”

(Hosea 7:1-4)

Ephraim led Israel to the depths of depravity, turning them away from God, and any connection to Him, substituting the glitter and glamour of the false gods that were worshipped by others.

He saw the prosperity of others, as a due to be given away, and to be taken, with no credit, or thanks to be given to God by honoring Him and the laws given though the prophets by him.

He pursued, and led his people to pursue the easier path that was taught by mankind, ignoring the will and purpose set before him by God.

The falsehoods abounded then, as now. False promises, false justification for failure, false leadership in every aspect possible…and the people were deceived and followed willingly choosing to depart from the God that provided all mercy and blessing to them.

“Israel shall cry unto me, My God, we know thee.

Israel hat cast off the thing that is good: the enemy shall pursue him.

They have set up kings, but not by me: they have made princes, and I knew it not: of their silver and gold have they made them idols, that they may be cut off.

Thy calf, O Samaria, hath cast thee off: mine anger is kindled against them: how long will it be ere they attain to innocency?”

(Hosea 8:2-5)

Just as Israel chose to completely ignored God in choosing it’s leadership, and to ignore God in its everyday life, and approach to that life, choosing instead, in favor the practice of their ungodly and heathen neighbors, so too do we find an entire generation that has forgotten where the past blessings have come from, that seeks to gain them through the same ungodly practices and leadings of others who never knew our God to begin with.

Leadership that takes no note, and gives no credence to our God, and gives no credit to Him for past blessings can only lead to destruction and damnation for the society that is led.

Falsehood and false promises are the tools that are used. Deception and sleight of hand will continue to mislead until there remains no hope for the people being led.

“For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: it hath no stalk: the bud shall yield no meal: if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up.”

(Hosea 8:7)

Any attempts to prosper without first including God in the mix are certain to be doomed to utter failure.

All the lofty promises and concepts that are propagated are empty, blown by the wind, and have no root to grow any good fruit, and may only offer rotted and death dealing placebos to those foolish enough to accept them.

“Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy as other people, for thou hast gone a whoring from thy God, thou hast loved a reward upon every cornfloor.

The floor and the winepress shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail in her.”

(Hosea 9:1&2)

As nations turn away from God, they forget that effort is needed to grow the food consumed, that it takes the blessings delivered by God to provide the proper conditions to grow that food, and that it takes an humble and willing man to do the work to provide it, who also must rely on God, or fail in that provision.

When it becomes completely unprofitable to continue to tend the crops, and herds that feed a society, because of the demand for free things, to include the very sustenance provided by those giving the effort to make that provision, those efforts will be reduced and cease on the behalf of that society, resulting in a further deterioration of law, as the robbers move from the cities and attempt to steal the sustenance of those previously providing it for barter for other comforts.

 In short, the bad old days of Noah return where there is no longer any law except that of the strongest thief able to take what he wants with no conscience while raping and pillaging his once productive and fruitful land.

Yet there is hope. There is help. The help mentioned in the opening verse I chose for today.

“I will be thy king: where is any other that may save thee in all thy cities? And thy judges, of whom thou sadist, Give me a king and princes?

I gave thee a king in mine anger, and took him away in my wrath.

The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; his sin is hid.”

(Hosea 13:10-12)

God is capable and will in fact execute judgment on the leadership that falsely leads any people away from him.

Upon the removal of that false leadership and the return to the will and wishes of God, blessings can and will be restored.

To receive those blessings, however, there is, has been and will always continue to be a requirement to:

“Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

As this book used today was written was a warning to them, the warning for them is the same given us today, the requirement given them is the same given us:

“O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God; for thou hast fallen by thy iniquity.”

(Hosea 14:1)

The time has come, if we are to salvage any vestige of an entire society, not just a single nation, to meet that requirement to return to the only means of redemption.

The requirement is still, and always, the same and I continue to repeat it over and over in hopes that enough hear, and heed it to make the needed difference, before the loss of everything we have had takes place, and our children face the bleakness of what is being left in place of the blessings given over the years.

The only means to that redemption is through the acceptance of Christ Jesus, as the Savior that he was sent to be, adherence to His teachings, and keeping the laws of God, and spurning the abominable ideas and ideals and practices that so many tout as a replacement for them.

There is indeed help.

A cognizant effort must be made to make a choice to seek it and attain it.

Failure to take the time to make that choice is to choose instead the wrath that is promised in place of the blessing.

I close again with heavy heart for nation and society, so enamored of itself that it fails to even see, much less hear, the signs and warnings given us long ago, and unwilling to seek the promised help.

I remain your constant servant, that same poor simple sinner saved by grace, through ardent and complete faith in that help, with the knowledge it is given me by the sacrifice of my Savior, and also the constant soldier, unwilling to lose the battle despite the confidence and surety that the war itself was already won by that Savior long ago when he overcame death and provided the promise of a resurrection, after which all of these worries and trials will no longer be of any concern to this creature intended only to find joy and love… and will experience only these as all glory and honor return to my Lord!

2 Timothy 1:12 ¹²For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day

Amen and Amen.
the Wayfarer