What is the book of Hosea all about? Here are 5 big themes.
- Spiritual decline
- The influential power of sin
If only spiritual decline was self-contained. But it isn’t. It impacts on others. What happened in the northern kingdom where Hosea was prophesying seeped into the territory of the south, into Judah.
If you have ever seen the negative impact from someone’s decisions to walk away from God then you know it is often more than a stone in the water causing ripples. Sometimes it can be a tsunami of impact. When people fall from grace they always take others down with them.
There is however one thing worse than this and that is to lead others astray.
“Though you, Israel, commit adultery, do not let Judah become guilty.” (Hosea 4 v 15) Judah was as open to idolatry as the Northern Kingdom. It didn’t take much for Judah to go astray.
“Israel has forgotten their Maker and built palaces; Judah has fortified many towns. But I will send fire on their cities that will consume their fortresses.” (Hosea 8 v 14) Judah’s history reveals they were only spared the destruction that happened in the north because their waywardness was interspersed with revivals. Nevertheless what happened in the north impacted the south. Sin doesn’t stay still, it grows like a cancer that consumes and spills out and continues to invade others. Sin impacts those closest to us and then it continues to hurt, damage and lead astray as many as possible. Whole communities can turn to idolatry because of charismatic personalities who behind the scenes are committing idolatry in various forms.
So what can we do to protect ourselves from sinful influence?
- Not everything you hear can be trusted and believed blindly.
- Not everything that is inspirational is from Him even though it might make you feel good.
- Not everything that is false looks false at first otherwise there wouldn’t be a possibility of being led astray.
- Everything must be filtered through this one test: Jesus is the Christ in flesh sent from God.
- Every religious experience must come under the submission of the orthodox teaching of and about Jesus Christ.
- Everything the Spirit of Christ does points to Jesus and if it doesn’t then it is the spirit of the antichrist.
Missions Paul 