Hosea 11:1-4 - With cords of kindness

11:1

It is vital that we read Hosea as a whole, just as it is important that we read the Bible as a whole. If we pick out a verse or even a section from here or there we can get either the message “God loves Israel”, or “God is going to inflict terrible judgement upon Israel because of her sin”. To understand the message we to fully take on board both messages. Hosea can in some ways viewed as a drama, with the holiness of God, the terribleness of Israel’s sin and God’s righteous anger against that sin, playing out against God’s love for Israel and deep desire to redeem them. Indeed, in many ways this is what the whole of the Bible is about.

11:2-4

God loved Israel, indeed He created Israel. Just as He created us all, and loved us all. Yet Israel rebelled again and again, despite repeated warnings and discipline. Instead of worshipping the God who created them and saved them, they persisted in worshipping Baals and other idols. Yet it was God who gave Ephraim all that they had. He treated them with loving kindness. When Jesus came to earth He set people free, healing them and casting out demons, yet all the thanks He got was to be nailed to a cross.

Acts 10:14-16 - Surely not Lord

10:14

We see here how God’s command so went against everything that was inbred in Peter. The Law specifically forbid the eating of various foods, most of which were on the blanket in Peter’s vision. He had been brought up not to eat them, and had never eaten with them. For God’s plan to succeed He needed to change the heart and mind of Peter, and we see in this episode that He is perfectly capable of doing that. Ezekiel in Ezek 4:14,15 objected when told to eat impure food. In that case God relented, here He does not. In the case of Ezekiel the eating of impure food (under the Law) was symbolic. Here it is pointing to something much greater, the acceptance into the kingdom of all people who will repent and believe.

10:15,16

In this case there was no relenting, for the matter was so important. What God wanted was a change in Peter’s mind, and in his actions. “What God has made clean, do not call common”. This reminds us of Mark 7:19 where Jesus says that it is what is in a man’s heart that matters, not what he eats, and the comment is added “Thus he declared all foods clean”. Given that Mark was essentially writing on Peter’s behalf, or getting a lot of his information from Peter, one wonders if this incident caused Peter to think back to those words of Jesus and then understood that Jesus was declaring all foods clean. Just to make the point clear, Peter receives the vision three times. There could be no room for error on this one!

Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Christian Freedom

One is all too aware these days of the increasing attempts of society to restrict or hinder those who promote Biblical teaching on sexual ethics. These attempts come from governments, social media, commercial organisations, education etc. In the Book of Acts we read that Paul from time to time claimed his rights as a Roman citizen. He did not rely on this, he did not put his trust in this. His trust was in Christ alone, but he would appeal to these rights when appropriate. Likewise, our trust must be in Christ alone, but we should not be afraid to remind those who seek to silence of, for instance, the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In particular Articles 18 and 19:

Article 18.

Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.

Article 19.

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

In these days we need to hold to Biblical truth, and to teach it in a reasonable manner, and we need to be more assertive when society seeks to silence us. 

Hosea 10:12-15 - You have eaten the fruit of lies

10:12

Now we get a rather sudden change in tone. There has been a fairly relentless condemnation of Israel with numerous warnings of what will befall her and why it will befall her. Now God calls on Israel to change, to repent. Instead of injustice she should sow righteousness. If she does this then she will reap mercy (NKJV) or “steadfast love” (ESV). She is to break up the hard ground. If we live a godless life, if we sow sin then it hardens the “ground”, it makes it impossible to grow anything fruitful. We see this in nations that have been ruled by dictatorships or unrighteousness. It makes it very hard for anything good to grow. The years of apartheid in South Africa have left a very hard ground and South Africa has not yet recovered from this. If instead we sow righteousness then it prepares the way for the Lord’s blessing. Note that what happens is not just a result of natural processes, but also of God’s favour or judgement. This does not mean natural processes are irrelevant, they were created and designed by the Lord. But they are not the be all and end all, the world is affected by our obedience to or rebellion against God.

10:13-15

But Israel had been going in the complete opposite direction. She had ploughed wickedness and sown lies, so she had reaped iniquity and the fruit of lies. We will reap what we sow. She had trusted in her own way and in her own strength. We see the same thing happening in our society today. So terrible destruction would come her way.

Acts 10:9-13 - Get up, kill and eat!

10:9

While God was speaking to Cornelius He was also dealing with Peter. This was not just a simple matter of telling Peter what was going to happen, He also had to deal with wrong presuppositions in Peter. If we look at the whole situation of the gospel reaching the Gentiles it is quite amazing really. The gospel is firmly rooted in Judaism, it came out of the Old Testament, the key events involved Jewish people, the Messiah, Jesus, was Jewish. The Jews had a deeply ingrained distrust of Gentiles. As Paul says in Ephesians, there was a wall of hostility.The rational assessment of the situation would be that it was impossible for the gospel to become a “world religion”, and if it did, the converts would need to become Jews. But as we know, this was not the case. God can overcome, or even work through, all sorts of situation. Here He uses a dream or vision to communicate with Peter. Later on the Council of Jerusalem will be a key event, and this was a very human happening. God uses all sorts of methods. Peter went up on the roof of the house to pray. Something quite amazing was going to happen in this prayer time. Most prayer times will be “normal”, but sometimes amazing things will happen.

10:10-13

Peter was hungry, so a meal was being prepared for him. While this was happening he fell into a trance. In this trance he had a vision of a sheet coming down from heaven to earth, and it contained all sorts of unclean animals on it. Peter was told to “kill and eat”. See how God is using the natural events (ie Peter was hungry) together with supernatural (ie the vision and the voice from heaven) to communicate the message to Peter.

Hosea 10:9-11 - I will discipline them

10:9

Gibeah was where the sin against the Levite’s concubine was carried out by the tribe of Benjamin and the subsequent destruction of most of the tribe of Benjamin (Judges 19,20). It was also the birthplace of Saul. Sin was not an unusual occurrence for Israel, but a way of life. So war would overtake her. Events happen in history and no one seems able to do anything about it.

10:10

God chooses when He will discipline them. And when He does so He will use the nations to discipline them. This happened most obviously with Assyria and Babylon, Assyria conquering the northern kingdom, and then Babylon conquering Judah. These invasions could be viewed in military terms, in political terms, and these views form part of the picture, but God’s actions are also a vital part of the picture. In the same way, the political events we see in the world are not purely human matters, but are also part of God’s plan.

10:11

This verse may be alluding to the way an oxen was trained for service, initially threshing grain before being used to pull a plough, her real purpose. God had a much greater purpose for Ephraim than she ever realised. Judah and Ephraim would be trained for her true purpose, and indeed that is still God’s plan. It is also the way He works in our lives. God’s purpose for us is much greater than we imagine. We may sometimes wonder at the discipline and training He puts us through, but it is because His purpose for our lives is far greater than our own purpose for our lives.

Acts 10:5-8 - Joppa

10:5,6

We see in this whole episode that God is coordinating various people. Peter was in the right part of the country, God speaks to Cornelius, and he will also speak to Peter. God is a God who communicates. Those who deny that God ever speaks to people in a direct personal way are talking a load of unbiblical nonsense. God is still working in the world, and as part of this He, from time to time, speaks directly to individuals. Now, we must not go to the other extreme. The primary way in which God speaks is through His word, the Bible, and by our studying it, understanding it, believing it and acting upon it we can live most of our lives, we can do most of the things that God wants us to do. And without it we can do nothing. But on occasion God may chose to communicate in a more direct manner.

10,7,8

Cornelius acts immediately upon the instruction from the angel. Note that in v3 it says he saw the angel “in a vision”, here it speaks of the angel “departing”. So the exact nature of the appearance of the angel is unclear. Cornelius sent two of his servants, and a devout soldier. Within the army there were some who were committed to God. Cornelius told them everything and sent them to Joppa. They would know that Jews would not normally welcome a gentile into their home, so they needed to have some understanding of what the situation was, and why they were being sent on this rather unusual mission.