Missions Paul

The northern kingdom (ten tribes) were known as Israel and the southern as Judah (basically two tribes, Judah and Benjamin). They were both exiled by other nations, Assyria and Babylon respectively. There is recorded a beautiful restoration after 70 years for Judah (2 Chronicles 36 and Ezra 1) but there are no records of Israel’s restoration either biblically or historically. They seem to be simply lost.

Why? It was their unfaithfulness to their God.

How? It ended with the King of Assyria in approx. 720 BC taking them into exile. But it started with Hosea. If only they had listened!

He married Gomer the prostitute. He named his children with names to support his prophetic declaration to Israel. Jezreel, Lo-Ruhamah and now …

“After she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, Gomer had another son. Then the Lord said, “Call him Lo-Ammi (which means “not my people”), for you are not my people, and I am not your God.” (Hosea 1 v 8-9)

The third child of Hosea and Gomer is named ‘not my people’. This was the killer blow for the people of God. Not only would God sow punishment to them and not show them love, He is now saying He would not be their God. This was such a damning prospect. To be a nation that would lose their identity.

If they were not the people of God and if God were no longer their God, then who were they?

If ‘ammi’ (God’s people) become Lo-ammi (not God’s people) then what becomes of them? It is judgment. For these northern tribes of Israel they would be taken by Assyria.

Of course we who were ‘Lo-ammi’ have now become ‘ammi’ through the precious blood of Jesus Christ. But the warning is for if we turn our back on the mercy and grace of our Saviour. The warning is for if we reject His love and walk our own path. How many do we know who have done this? The warning is His mercy and protection can be lifted from us.

These northern tribes are now known as the ‘Lost tribes of Israel’ and all around the world in places like India and Africa, tribal groups declare their ancestry belongs to one of these lost tribes.

But lost is their condition. Mission agencies reach out trying to find them and lead them to Jesus Christ for regardless of their ancestry He is their only future. Nothing of their past guarantees them anything but the mercy of Jesus does and will.

Do you know anyone who is ‘lost’ today? The gospel calls you to find them.

Then there was 4! A daughter was born to Gomer and Hosea. He had named their son Jezreel because it would point to the fact that God was going to punish the northern Kingdom of Israel. The name means God would ‘sow’ punishment.

^“Gomer conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. Then the Lord said to Hosea, “Call her Lo-Ruhamah (which means “not loved”), for I will no longer show love to Israel, that I should at all forgive them. ⁷ Yet I will show love to Judah; and I will save them—not by bow, sword or battle, or by horses and horsemen, but I, the Lord their God, will save them.” (Hosea 1 v 6-7)

Can you imagine what the neighbours thought?!

Every time they called their daughter they would say ‘not loved’! If that wasn’t bad enough. this girl would be known with this name for at least 30 years until the nation fell under the power of the Assyrians (2 Kings 19).

However her name spoke more than the demise of the northern kingdom. The purpose of God for your life exceeds what you might understand of your life. What you see now and what you have experienced isn’t everything. There is another perspective and there are things still to happen. God has not finished.

Her name also declared the love of God on the south, Judah, probably because their kings were not as evil as the north’s. As she grew, Lo-Ruhamah became more aware that her name was not only speaking judgment but it was speaking hope and that God would be fighting for Judah through supernatural means not conventional ones.

This woman came to understand that her name was not her identity but the prophetic declaration of her God. The purpose of God was far bigger than her name and the misunderstanding from people regarding that name. It is one of the biggest lessons of life: knowing and trusting God’s purpose is greater than our earthly understanding of our life.

Hosea lived in the 8^th century BC in the northern kingdom of Israel. It was a wicked society that had turned their back on God. In this opening chapter we see Hosea receiving his call to prophecy into this nation. His calling involves a marriage to Gomer who had been a prostitute. That marriage showed the beautiful heart of God to save people. Soon they had their first child together.

“So he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. Then the Lord said to Hosea, “Call him Jezreel, because I will soon punish the house of Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel. In that day I will break Israel’s bow in the Valley of Jezreel.” (Hosea 1 v 3-5)

There is joy as they celebrate their first child and Hosea receives this message from God to call his son Jezreel. Living out the prophetic message applies to the naming of his son. Hosea is beginning to surround himself with the burden of the prophetic. But it raises some questions and leads us to an important lesson.

Why punish the house of Jehu when he only did what God called him to do in wiping out wicked Ahab and his family? (2 Kings 9:7-8)

Something happened at Jezreel which Hosea believed God was upset about. What was it?

“So Jehu killed everyone in Jezreel who remained of the house of Ahab, as well as all his chief men, his close friends and his priests, leaving him no survivor.” (2 Kings 10:11) God never told him to do that. This was excessive.

His ego led him to exceed his mandate.

There are many who have done great things for God. There is no doubting it. The books written by them and others on what they have done are valuable for us. However at the same some of these people who did great things also exceeded what the Great God told them to do. They think they are being obedient to God because it flows from the pathway of obedience. However pathways of obedience can lead into fields of mud and there are many today who have lost what they had and there is little power nor purity left in their life.

As the name Jezreel means God will ‘scatter’ because Jehu who went off script then appointed Jeroboam II and before Hosea’s prophetic ministry ended this nation had been taken and finished by the Assyrians (2 Kings 17)

Why did God allow that pain to take place? Why did He lead you into that valley of suffering? Why did He direct you to do something that on the surface looked unwise at the least and so traumatic at its worst? Do you think similar questions?

“When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, “Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the Lord.” So he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.” (Hosea 1 v 2-3)

Hosea experienced promiscuity against him before he began to speak about the promiscuity against God.

The context was simply this: the northern kingdom rebelled against God led by King Jeroboam who set up 2 golden calves and the people of God stopped worshipping Him and started worshipping Baal and Asherah. God had a message for them and He chose Hosea to deliver that message but first this prophet had to go on a journey to truly understand and feel this message.

So Hosea marries a prostitute. How does he explain this? Why does he have to do this? Why couldn’t he just speak the message from God? Will we ever know? But pause for a moment.

No doubt she promised him her undivided affection when they married. She was going to stop being a prostitute and she made a commitment to Hosea that he would be her man. And why wouldn’t she? For she probably had never had such an unbelievable offer.

We don’t know why she had become a prostitute. We don’t know the pain behind her life but there probably was. Men had come to her for one thing and it wasn’t to set up a home for her. She was living in the worst scenario, a world that pretended to give her love but just took from her. She was a sinner but she was also sinned against. She was abused and had little dignity left. Then one day ‘Salvation/Hosea’ came along and promised her a new life!

That day a saviour came to her to rescue her from the place and pain of unfaithfulness. What a day of rejoicing that was as it was for us!

The story will continue and soon Hosea will see the full extent and power of salvation and what is the heart of God for all people who rebel and turn from Him.

But for today we pause and we are thankful for the salvation that He continues to pour out on this world. The Great Rescuer continues to save men and women from places of despair. He did it for Gomer and for us and He still does it for others! Let us rejoice!

I begin delving into the Minor Prophets this morning. Minor only because they are smaller than the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel and Daniel who are seen as Major Prophets because they have larger texts. I am looking forward to the journey as we walk slowly through each of the 12:  Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi.

So we open Hosea. And for the last couple of hours I have been simply overwhelmed with this opening verse. I hope it blesses you as much as it does me. Stay with me because after wading through some important detail you realise the importance of this verse.

“The word of the Lord that came to Hosea son of Beeri during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and during the reign of Jeroboam son of Jehoash king of Israel” (Hosea 1 v 1)

Breaking this verse down and understanding the importance of the names, what do we learn about God? Pay particular attention to the emboldened names and words.

Hosea = Prophet in the northern kingdom of Israel (c.750 BC) witnessed the decline and ending of that kingdom under Jereboam. Calls people back to God using his marriage as an illustration. His name means ‘Yahweh has saved’. The name Joshua and then Jesus arises from Hosea. ‘Salvation’ (another form of Hosea) was the only prophet from the Northern Kingdom in the Old Testament. He was born during the wicked leadership of Jeroboam. And though the economy had grown and the nation was initially prosperous, God’s people walked away and worshipped BAAL and ASHERAH. Hosea calls them back but experiences the decline and ending of that nation he was born into. He was still prophesying when Hezekiah became King in the south.

Beeri = The gentile name for BEER meaning ‘well, cistern’ a refreshing place.

Kings of Judah (southern kingdom)

Uzziah = His name means ‘Yahweh is my strength’ and for the large part of his life that was the case. “He sought God during the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God. As long as he sought the Lord, God gave him success.” (2 Chronicles 26:5) Sadly the latter part of his life was filled with pride.

Jotham = His name means ‘Yahweh is perfect’ and after succeeding his father Uzziah was influenced by Isaiah. God gave him victory over the Ammonites (2 Chronicles 27:5). A good king.

Ahaz = His name means ‘Yahweh has taken hold of to protect’. However He didn’t mirror his name for he let go of Yahweh and did not walk by faith. A bad king. “Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel” (Isaiah 7:14) said after Ahaz would not step into faith and trust God. A Messianic promise of salvation.

Hezekiah = His name means ‘Yahweh has strengthened me’. A good king (he reopened the Temple) but in later life rebelled and paid the price. God stepped in and saved the city of Jerusalem (2 Kings 19:35)

Kings of Israel (northern kingdom)

Jeroboam = A bad king on the whole and his name means ‘The people are great’! But an interesting detail is that Hosea, Jonah and Amos prophesied during his reign and Jeroboam does appear to listen to the prophecy from Jonah (2 Kings 14:25) and he re-established Israel’s borders by being obedient to the word from God.

Jehoash = His name means ‘Yahweh has granted’ and though he was a bad King, God enabled him to defeat King Benhadad and recover cities that had been taken (2 Kings 13)

Perhaps someone needs to hear this simply message today! Maybe you need to hear a prophet declare truth to you. Mediate on what you will read based on this simple yet powerful verse!

Out of the well (Beer) salvation (Hosea) came and out of the well of your heart God’s presence will flow and He will save you.

Even in the context of challenging circumstances:

He will give you success;

He will give you victory;

He will give you the promise of Him coming to you;

He will step in and save you;

He will re-establish whatever has been broken down;

He will recover for you what has been taken or lost;

How?

He is your strength;

He is perfect;

He has taken hold of you to protect you;

He is your strength;

He alone is great;

He is your giver.

Amen!

What beautiful powerful promises and truth! Walk in them today!

My last devotional on Jude and we end with Jesus Christ our Lord!

“To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— to the only God our Saviour be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.” (Jude v 25)

Can we just pause and not rush? Can we just slowly think of Jesus?

The world need to know who God is.

They need to know what Jesus has done.

They need to know who they are as a result of that.

They need to know how to live.

For that to happen they need to know who Jesus is.

They need to know the centrality and supremacy of Christ in 2023.

They need to know that when you look at Jesus you look at God.

• Jesus Christ is not a created being. He is Lord and He is God.
• Everything is about Jesus Christ.
• The enemy does not have free reign to do whatever he wants to you.
• Even your worst day, the worst attack from your enemy on your life serve Christ’s higher purposes and for His glory in your life.
• We were not created for our own plans and pleasures but for His. Life is not Christ living in our story but US living in His story.
• We don’t have rights to this life. We cannot demand that we live a long life on earth and become rich in every way. The majority of the world struggle in this life. Life was never meant to be fair. It is for Christ and He will bring us all home to a new heaven and new earth. This earth isn’t the ultimate. We are passing through.

You may wonder if God really cares for you or the world you live in. But on those days look again on Jesus Christ. Look on His sacrifice on the cross. Look how He came and walked this earth and got down into the dust and reached out to the lost, the last and the least. See how He cared. See what He said. See how He loved. He holds even the broken pieces.

No matter how broken our lives may become. Jesus is more powerful than whatever caused the hurt that you may be experiencing. You may think you will not survive this life that you are beyond fixing. Jesus created it all, sustains it all and can fix it all. He is holding you today.

He holds life and He holds death.

I may not be sure about many things but I am confident that my life and my death is in His hands. It doesn’t matter what I have or don’t have in this life. It doesn’t matter how long I live or whether I am cut off in the prime of my life. I am in His hands.

I may have many questions and few answers. I may be hard pressed, persecuted or in pain but I have a Person His name is Jesus.

I may journey on my own but I am not alone.

I may have desires unfulfilled but He is the greatest desire.

Spiritual powers may attack but they sit in His hand.

Nothing, absolutely nothing happens to me that He is not holding. He never drops me. He never lets go and He is never in a crisis.

Jesus Christ is Lord.

Do you feel life is unfair? Do you believe you are entitled to something more? Do you look at what others have and want it?

Remember Job? He lost his children, his livelihood, everything, even the respect from his wife.

What have you lost? If you lost everything will you still love Jesus? Is He enough?

If you never get married, if you never get that job, that house, those friends, that popularity, will you still love Jesus?

If He never answered another prayer of yours the way you want Him to, will you still love Him?

Jesus Christ is still your Lord.

This is a letter from a brother of Jesus who at one time refused to believe in who he was. He thought Jesus mad at least and certainly not the Son of God and he was not afraid to let that be known (John 7:5 – “For even his own brothers did not believe in him.”). But in the days preceding Pentecost he is in a prayer meeting (Acts 1:14 – “They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers”). Why the change? Surely it was the living proof of the resurrection of his brother who was indeed the Son of God. Whether or not Jesus showed himself to Jude/Judas he definitely met James (1 Corinthians 15:7 “Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles”).

We all have years of our lives where unbelief and periods of doubt dominated our walk with God. For some the knocks of life weakened our walk with God and perhaps we are not as strong as we used to be. Jude starts his letter by saying two words really, ‘Be confident’. False teachers had got into the church and he was having none of it. They were robbing the Christians and he wrote with clear description to oust these deceivers from the community. He wants the Church to stand firm and to be confident in Christ.

And Jude ends the letter by saying God will keep us through the Lordship of Jesus throughout time, the ages. He will keep you now and He will keep you forever. Amen!

Pray that the eyes of your heart may see His glory, majesty, power and authority!

“To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— 25 to the only God our Saviour be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.” (Jude 24-25)

He alone is great. No charismatic personality is great. No Church or denomination or organisation is great. He is magnificent. He is glorious and he will never fade.

He alone is great. No nation, terrorist group, army or AI technology are strong enough to overwhelm Him. No deceptive ungodly people infiltrating Jude’s church can stand against Him either.

In every age, in Jude’s day and in 2023 let our prayer be:

1.         Let your GLORY be seen. Let God be seen. Let His radiant manifestation of His presence be on His church. On you!

2.         Let your MAJESTY be known in our lives. We are royal priests. We are not cast-offs. We can have that air of importance in our lives not that we become arrogant with that knowledge but that we no longer fall under the lies of the enemy that says we are rubbish.

3.         Let your POWER be demonstrated throughout our lives. Let miracles be known in the Church and on the street. Let signs and wonders flow.

4.         Let your AUTHORITY reveal that we will not give up and we will not fear man.

We need these 4 attributes of God and when our lives are filled with them then confidence is ours.

In June 2023 the world news was focused on a tourist submersible vessel which was destroyed going to view the sunken Titanic. A nonsensical tragedy which killed 5 people based around the tragic historical story of a sunken ship in 1912 where more than 1,500 people died. No one could save them in 1912 or in 2023.

What carries you may go down. The storm of life may cause your security to be broken up. The foundation gone. The vehicle that is taking you to your destination lost forever. Yet at that time you will find that what you thought was carrying you actually wasn’t. It is someone else who is carrying you. The God of the seas is carrying you!

“To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— to the only God our Saviour be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.” (Jude 24-25)

You won’t go down with this ship. You will not be lost. You have a Saviour. And if you do go down He not only is Saviour He is the Resurrection! You don’t lose.

But it takes courage to remain when the ship sinks. You have to make a decision to maintain your resilience. Never surrender your life to any storm that comes your way. From moments of discouragement to depths of despair many have said ‘I give up’. But the Spirit urges you today to hold on, to get a grip of yourself. You see, the real battle is not the storm of circumstance but the storm within. To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy. How? He is God our Saviour! He saves! He saves not only from sin and death but He saves from being deceived by the false teachers as in Jude’s day so in ours. He saves from those who infiltrate through stealth to try to divide and destroy what has been handed to us. And … He saves you today from whatever you are going through!

Let the ship go down, not everything lasts, but the eternal everlasting all-powerful Father will never lose you. He holds you today, so take courage.

One day our earthly bodies will all sink but we will be saved!

“Weeping may stay for the night, but rejoicing comes in the morning” (Psalm 30:5)

You can face today for you will live in a joyful tomorrow.

You may be uncertain about today but you already have the certainty of eternal joy so you can face tomorrow.

You may be wondering where life is taking but you know it is to the place of great joy so you are not afraid.

“To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— ²⁵ to the only God our Saviour be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.” (Jude 24-25)

He’s not only got you but He will be with you till the end when He brings you into great joy!

These are some of the most important words for those today who are uncertain about what they should be doing, where they are going and how much time is left. Lean into the truth that you are going to be brought into great joy!

What the enemy of your soul tries to take from you is immaterial. What your fiercest critic says about you matters not. Even what you might say in your self-condemnatory life does not count. The prognosis may not be good if all there is what is in this world. But for those who follow Jesus we will all be led into an eternal experience of great joy!

If today was your last day on earth it is okay you are safe. There is no need to worry. Your future is secure because your present, today, is full of joy!

Since the first lie in the garden the enemy of our soul has been continually working at telling us we are not good enough for the world we live in and for God.

Every bereavement he has exploited; every accusation he has magnified; every mistake he has echoed; he has continually worked at reminding you of what you don’t have and who you are not; you have fallen short and do not make the grade; you are not acceptable to God or to anyone. This is the work of the father of lies. As you read this you can remember the voice that has tried to destabilise you, blind you and bring you down.

It is time that we stopped listening to such lies.

“To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy— to the only God our Saviour be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.” (Jude 24-25)

He will not only keep you from falling; He’s not only got you; He will be with you to the end and will present you faultless before His glorious presence. You make it. You are not only acceptable you are presentable!

When people (or you!) say you are not what you should be then remind yourself of this promise. When the voices of doubt say you need to perform and prove yourself in order to be accepted by God then it is a complete lie. Do not listen to that lie. It is a falsehood. Ignore it.

You are complete in Him; you are alive in Him; you are free and not afraid; you are a child of God and belong to Him; you are without blame within His love; you have peace with God and the peace of God in your mind; you have the Spirit of God hovering over your life and dwelling in you; you have the Spirits wisdom and understanding for every situation you face; you have the powerful strengthening enabling to be and do whatever needs to happen; you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you; you are chosen by God for this moment; you have everything you need for this life because you have Him; you are a temple of the Holy Spirit; cleansed, forgiven and set aside for a holy life; you are saved by the grace of God. That’s who you are! It’s all because of Him. He’s got you and He will get you there!