When God Gives Up
The Israelites may have been God’s chosen people, but that would not excuse their sins. Persistent in their rebellion against God, they were soon to reap the consequences of their choices.
But God, because of His great love, does not easily let people go. Listen to the anguish in His words as He contemplates “giving up” Israel, the northern kingdom.
Hosea 11:7-8 My people are bent on backsliding from Me. Though they call to the Most High, None at all exalt Him. How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I set you like Zeboiim? My heart churns within Me; My sympathy is stirred.
Finally, God was left with no choice. In the case of the northern kingdom, God “gave up” Israel to the Assyrians.
“Let Him Alone”
Hosea 4:17 Ephraim is joined to idols, Let him alone.
“Let him alone.” How sad those words. What can be more awful than having God just give up on you? And yet, does not the same hold true today – even among Christian churches? How long will it be before God just gives up on us?
Note especially verse 7 of Hosea 11. Look at these two phrases from that verse: “My people are bent on backsliding from Me. Though they call to the Most High” Do you see the contrast? Hell bent on backsliding, hell bent on going their own way and doing their own thing, while at the same time presuming to call on the Most High. That’s called presumption.
A Laodicean Mentality
Read Revelation 3:14-16, the message to the Laodiceans — God last day message to His last day church.
Revelation 3:14-16 And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God: I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.
Truly we have a work of repentance before us. Here again we see a people complacent, self-satisfied in their presumed relationship with God, and yet clearly, they too are blindly going astray – and like the nation of Israel before them, in danger of being cast out from the presence of the Lord.
But all is not lost. Read the rest of the chapter too – As bad as things are, God still holds out hope for those who are willing to humble themselves and receive his counsel. Some of the most glorious promises made to any of the seven churches are made to the Laodiceans.
Scattered to the Four Winds
Finally, when no more could be done for them, God gave Israel up, and its people were scattered to the four winds. This should have been a lesson for Judah the southern kingdom, but sadly it was a lesson that fell on deaf ears and blind eyes, and in the course of time they sank to even greater depths of apostasy than that for which God had destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel. And their sins could have come straight out of today’s headlines. You had theft and fraud and murder. You had prosperity preachers promising prosperity with no condemnation of sin. You had Baal worship, which by the way included a variety of “alternative sexual lifestyles.”
Romans 15:4 For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.
“Cry Aloud, Spare Not”
We would do well to learn the lesson. God says to us:
Isaiah 58:1 Cry aloud, spare not; Lift up your voice like a trumpet; Tell My people their transgression, And the house of Jacob their sins.
By the way, did you catch the phrase “Tell My people.” This is not a call to point fingers at the world and tell them how bad they are. This is a call for preachers to speak plainly to their own people, to their own churches. It is a call to call sin by its right name – in the church itself.
Ezekiel 33:11 Say to them: ‘As I live,’ says the Lord GOD, ‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn, turn from your evil ways! For why should you die, O house of Israel?’
Warnings Rejected
Prophet after prophet appealed to the southern kingdom of Judah as others had appealed to the northern kingdom of Israel. Micah, Isaiah, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Jeremiah and others offered pardon in exchange for repentance – but they preached to the wind.
But whether they hear or not, we are still to present Christ Crucified, a living hope, the only power to turn from sin and death to righteousness and life. We may be preaching to the wind, but we are to lift up Jesus before a dying world, tell them that there is power in His blood to wash away all sin. Some will hear.
2 Chronicles 36:15-17 And the LORD God of their fathers sent warnings to them by His messengers, rising up early and sending them, because He had compassion on His people and on His dwelling place. But they mocked the messengers of God, despised His words, and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the LORD arose against His people, till there was no remedy. Therefore He brought against them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary, and had no compassion on young man or virgin, on the aged or the weak; He gave them all into his hand.
When God “gives up” a person or nation it is not so much that God has separated Himself from them, but rather it is they who have separated themselves from Him.
Isaiah 59:1-2 Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; And your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear.
Next – Daniel Chapter 1, Part 3 The Secret to Spiritual Success