“Hewn”

As we continue to experience the Word of the Lord together, Let us Pray. Give us, we pray, O God, thoughts higher than our own thoughts, prayers better than our own prayers, powers beyond our biological possibilities, that we may spend and be spent in the preaching and hearing of Thy Word. Amen.

“Come, let us return to the LORD; for it is he who has torn, and he will heal us; he has struck down, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him. Let us know, let us press on to know the LORD; his appearing is as sure as the dawn; he will come to us like the showers, like the spring rains that water the earth.” What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes away early. Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets, I have killed them by the words of my mouth, and my judgment goes forth as the light”

The Word of the Lord…Thanks be to God.

As we begin, it is important to know the story of Hosea to understand these words as we find them in verse 6, these words first from a people to God, and then from God to the people. I would love to tell you about Hosea’s story, especially in my own words, but I won’t. You see, Hosea’s story is not one that dignified preachers can speak about in front of good church going people on Sunday morning. This is not good church talk. It’s in the Bible, but it’s not the kind of stuff you can bring up in church.

So, instead of my telling you about it, let me read it to you, from Hosea 1, verses 2 and 3.  ² When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea, “Go, take for yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the LORD.” ³So he went and took Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.

She goes on to conceive and bear a daughter, and then another son, three children of whoredom, as our Bible reads. And this is to Hosea, God’s chosen, a prophet, one who understands and follows the law, one who is supposedly a favored child of the Most High.

[Matt now proceeds to the A-Frame for the balance of the sermon (on audio).]