DAD'S RAMBLINGS -- GUILTY AS CHARGED

DAD'S RAMBLINGS – GUILTY AS CHARGED

"Israel empties his vine; He brings forth fruit for himself. According to the multitude of his fruit he has increased the altars; according to the bounty of his land they have embellished his sacred pillars. Their heart is divided; Now they are held guilty. He will break down their altars; He will ruin their sacred pillars."

Picture a courtroom. The accused stands before the judge. All the evidence is in and it points to his guilt. There is no jury of his peers, who might try to make excuses for his transgressions. He only faces the judge, who, after viewing all the evidence, says, "Guilty," and then pronounces the sentence.

These prophecies of Hosea delineated the offenses that Judah, Israel, and Ephraim have committed. In our text, God gets to the nitty-gritty of the crime. Selfishness. Israel's vineyards have produced fruit, but instead of blessing God and thanking Him, Israel used all the abundance to heap things up for themselves. In their selfishness, they increased the heathen altars with golden pillars.

Isn't that the essence of sin? We want to do our own thing, and make our own altars. We spend the bounty of God's goodness on our own lusts instead of blessing God. All of our other expressions of harlotry boil down to this – we want to do our own things to please ourselves instead of submitting to the God who made us.

Guilty as charged!!! All of the evidence points to this fact.

The sentence God pronounces is not pretty. Read the words of Hosea, and you will only see pain and suffering. That is the consequence of sin.

The text talks about a divided heart. I want to do good but end up doing badly, ala Romans 7: "The good that I will [want] to do, I do not do, but the evil I will not [don't want] to do, that I practice….For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man, but I see another lay in my members warring against the law of my mind…." (Romans 7:19, 23). Here's the truth. I can never measure up to God's standard no matter how hard we try. There is always a part of me that wants to do what I want to do. That's why the Gospel is so important. Jesus took the judgment for the part of us that does not serve God. What a wonderful Savior!

Love, Dad