Verse by verse teaching - Hosea 11:10,11 "He Shall Roar"

Hosea 11, God willing, will be expounding verses 10 through 11 this morning. The tile of the message is, "He shall roar." He shall roar. In verse 9 last week, God said He would not execute the fierceness of His anger against Israel, meaning He would not punish them for their sins in the sense that He would totally annihilate Israel and totally destroy Israel, but He would punish them in measure and just not make a full end of them. Because He's going to keep His promises to Abraham. He's going to keep His promises to Israel and to David. He made an everlasting covenant with them. God said He was the Holy One in the midst of them, meaning He had forever identified Himself with them. And we looked at the correlation between God telling Israel and the Old Testament that He was in the midst of them between Jesus telling us and the New Testament, He's in the midst of us. Because whatever God tells Israel, God tells the church. So though Israel rebels against God's word for now, rejecting His word and the Savior He sent, God said that in the end, if you look now at Hosea 11, 10, in the end, God said, "They shall walk after the Lord." "They shall walk after the Lord." Let's pray. Father, we thank You for Your precious word. Thank You, Father, for allowing us to have the privilege, Father, of walking after You and serving You. Thank You for the great mercy You've shown us. Thank You for the people who've come here this morning to serve, to sing, to learn, to teach, and to set this day aside for You, Lord. Glorify Your name this morning. May all eyes be on You. Teach Your precious people as we look to You alone, Father, to feed Your sheep. In Jesus' name, amen. They shall walk after the Lord. Now, if we said they shall run after the Lord, or they shall chase after the Lord, that might sound a little more familiar to us. But whether Israel is walking or running or chasing, the point is they will be going after the Lord, whereas before they were going from the Lord. So there's going to be this great turning that we can expect from the nation of Israel. They will no longer be known as the nation that rejects Jesus as their Messiah. They will no longer be known as a nation that's trying to mimic democracies like the United States. They're going to become a theocracy again. They're going to embrace the Lord Jesus Christ. God said they were prone to backsliding, as we looked at in the previous verses, but in the end they won't be going back from the Lord. They're going to be going after Him. To walk after the Lord is also another way of saying to follow Him, because God is leading and they're going after Him. So Israel is going to do an about-face in the future and turn to the Lord their God and walk after Him. At this time, the nation of Israel can't do that. They can't follow the Lord because they're in bondage to sin and unbelief. You can't follow after someone that you're running away from. You can't follow after someone that you don't believe in. Satan has blinded their eyes so they can't walk after the Lord today. It's very, very sad. This means since Satan has blinded their eyes, he's got them in bondage. Someone stronger than Satan has to come along. You're right, ain't I right, brother? Someone stronger than Satan has to come along. He's like the hostage taker. He's like the man that goes into the house, binds the man of the house, as Jesus said, and then spoils his goods. So Satan has gone in to the nation of Israel. He's bound them in their unbelief. He's spoiled them. Someone stronger than him is going to have to come and overcome Satan. Then by doing so, free them from that bondage. Sin and unbelief hold people captive to the lies that they believe in practice. That's the condition that Israel is in right now. Before people can walk after the Lord, they must believe on him. So God must defeat the enemies who tell these lies to his people so he can set them free. This being the case, God said they shall walk after the Lord when, look back in your text, when he shall roar like a lion. They're going to be set free from their spiritual captors. When he shall roar like a lion. What does that mean? Well, Jesus is the Lamb of God. And as the Lamb of God, he atones for our sins. But Jesus is also the line of God. And as the line of God, he defeats our enemies. You need both. You need the Lamb that dies and puts the blood on the doorpost in Exodus, on the pass overnight. But you also need the lion that opens up that red sea and swallows up the enemies and leaves them behind, drowned on the seashore. You have to have blood and you have to have power to be redeemed. Both. As a lamb, Jesus died for us. As a lion, Jesus will fight for us. You see the difference? Repeat that again. As a lamb, Jesus died for us. As a lion, Jesus will fight for us. Hosea said he shall roar. And this speaks of God slaying Israel's enemies as a lion slays his prey. Now, Jeremiah, remember, Hosea is a book of prophecy. Jeremiah prophesied of this same thing in Jeremiah chapter 25. Jeremiah 25, 30, God told Jeremiah, "Therefore prophesy thou against them all these words and say unto them, 'The Lord shall roar from on high and utter his voice from his holy habitation.' He shall mightily roar upon his habitation. He shall give a shout as they that tread the grapes against all the inhabitants of the earth." Man, this is rich doctrine here. Listen to what he's saying now. Jeremiah said that God is going to mightily roar, and then when he roars, he's going to give a shout. So the roaring and the shouting are synonymous. You see? Now, when is God going to mightily roar for the nation of Israel? When is this mighty shout going to take place? Look back in your text, and there is a clue as to, look back at your text now, when he shall roar. You see that in the Scripture? When he shall roar. We're going to put some time on this now. When he roars, Jeremiah said he shall give a shout, and the shout or this roar is going to occur at the second coming of Jesus Christ. 1 Thessalonians, write this in your notes or your margin. 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 16. "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout." Now that shouting and the roaring are one and the same. So when he comes with a shout, those aren't just words the Apostle Paul came up with. He's not just saying, "Well, he's going to come with a shout," and, you know, this is a little information for you there. No, the shouting is taking you back to Jeremiah's prophecy. When Jeremiah said he will roar, he will shout. So the shouting is not a shout of, "Hey, it's me." The shouting is a shout as a mighty lion roaring. It's a shout of victory. It's a shout of conquest when Jesus comes. So he says, "For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God." Now that's Christ. The Lord himself is going to roar like a lion. He's going to shout as the archangel, as the trump of God. And what happens when this roar, when the shout takes place, it says, "And the dead in Christ shall rise first." So the roaring and the rising of the dead are coming at the same time. You see? You have a roar. You have conquest. You have a shout. And so the conquest is this. When there's conquest, any time there's conquest, any time there's victory, you're going to have the defeated and the victorious. So when he roars, his roar to us will be a shout that brings us up from the dead. His roar to the enemies of the cross will be a shout that brings them down to the dead. You see? The shout will bring us from the dead. The shout's going to take them to an everlasting death, even the second death as the book of the Revelation puts it. The roar and the shout are one of the same, for Jeremiah said and Jeremiah 25, 30, "He shall mightily roar upon his habitation. He shall give a shout as they that tread the grapes." Now, if you're familiar with the book of the Revelation, as we studied several years ago, you'll remember that Jesus treads the grapes. The roar is going to be a shout of war. As a lamb, Jesus shed his blood. We looked at this morning in the Genesis to Jesus class on the Passover night. Jesus took the bread. He broke it. He said, "Take, this is my body." And then after that, he took the grape juice. He passed that cup around. They all drank it. He said, "This is my blood of the New Testament, and it's shed for you." Right? And so as a lamb, Jesus shed his blood like juice pressed from the grape. But as a lion, Jesus isn't going to be shedding his blood. He's going to be shedding the blood of his enemies. They're going to be the one with their blood expressed from their veins. He will be treading the grapes this time when he comes back, and his enemies will be the ones that are slain. When Jesus roars, Osean said, it will be after the tribulation. See that? When he roars, it's going to be the second coming of Christ. It's going to be the rising from the dead. It is going to be our victory. But that roaring and that victory and that resurrection is coming after the tribulation and not before as most people think. Now at this time, the Bible says the devil walks around like a roaring lion. Remember that? The Bible says it were to be sober, would it be vigilant because the devil as a roaring lion walks about seeking whom he may devour. So right now, who's the lion? The lion of this world at this time is the devil, walking about seeking whom he may devour. So we have to be careful for that lion. During the tribulation time, the devilish lion is going to be the one going around bullying everybody. He'll be the one going around and persecuting the church, persecuting believers, lifting up the man of sin, standing against God, standing against his Christ. But after that tribulation that we go through, that's when the lion of the tribe of Judah comes and destroys the lion that's walking around now. See how that works? So the tribulation saints will endure the devilish lion, but God will end that tribulation time for us by sending the lion of the tribe of Judah to deliver us. At that time the earth will shake, but the Lord will be the hope of his people. When it talks about the earth shaking, you see, the people that follow Satan, the people that reject God, the only hope they have is in this world. That's all they have. They're earthly wealth, they're earthly positions, they're earthly pleasures, they're flesh that they're walking around in. That's all that these people have is all their hope, all their joy is wrapped up in this present world. When the lion comes back, when the lion of the tribe of Judah, our lion comes back, the devil's their lion. When our lion comes back, the world is going to be shaken, meaning everything they put their trust in will be like an earthquake. It's going to come tumbling down. It'll be like the walls of Jericho. They put so much stock in these walls, but when the priests walk around, and that ark of the covenant walks around, and they blow through the ram's horns, it's a picture of our lion shouting. Guess what happens when they shout and that victory happens? They had conquest, and the walls that people trusted in came tumbling down. When Jesus comes back, he's going to roar like a lion in the walls that they put their trust in. It's going to come tumbling down. But since we haven't put our trust in this world, since we haven't put our trust in the kingdoms of this world, but in the kingdom that's going to come, when the walls come tumbling down here, it was defeat for Jericho, it was victory for Israel, and when Jesus comes back and the world is shaken for them, it means it's going to be victory for us. Their hope's going to come tumbling down. Our hope's going to be coming down in the clouds, and he will be victorious on our behalf. And this again is going to happen after the tribulation. That's when the earth will be shaken. That's when our hope will come. Listen to how the prophet Joel describes this in Joel chapter 3. Joel chapter 3, verse 15 through 16. Joel says, "The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining. The Lord also shall roar out of Zion and utter his voice," that's the shout Paul talked about in Thessalonians, "from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth shall shake." That's this present world. But the Lord will be the hope of his people, you see, and the strength of the children of Israel. Now notice that Joel said, "When this roaring takes place, the sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining." And when will this happen? Again, it will happen after the tribulation. Write down in your notes or in your margin, Matthew chapter 24, verse 29. Matthew chapter 24, verse 29 says this, "Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken." That's exactly what Joel just got through describing. Now when this happens, when the Lord roars like a lion and defeats Israel's enemies, Hosea said, look back in your text now in Hosea 11, Hosea said, "Then the children shall tremble from the west." When the Lord roars, then the children shall tremble from the west. Now the children here are talking about the children of the kingdom of God, the children of the promise of Abraham. Now the once proud, once rebellious children, shall tremble at God's word with humility and thanksgiving. That's what it's talking about. The once proud Israelites who didn't follow God's word, they're now going to tremble at God's word, which is a sign of humility. It's a sign of contrition, and because they tremble at God's word, they shall be saved by it. On the other hand, those who thought that they were doing God a favor by destroying Israel shall be ashamed when God roars on their behalf. Now, when the Muslims, when they go and they destroy Israel, and they kill those Israelites over there, they think they're doing God service. They think they're helping God. That's why they say, "Alayhi wakbar! God is great! God be praised! God is great!" They're bringing glory to God, they think, by destroying His people. The Israelites, by destroying us, Christians, we're all just good little infidels to them. And so when they destroy us, they think they're doing God a favor, they think they're serving God. And so if you'll look here now, those who thought they were doing God a favor by destroying Israel are going to be ashamed when God roars. Isaiah 66, verse 5. Isaiah 66, verse 5. "Speaking to the children of Israel that tremble at His word, and the saints of God that tremble at His word." Listen now. "Hear the word of the Lord, ye that tremble at His word, your brethren that hated you." Now, the Muslims are the brethren of the Israelites, right? One came from Isaac, the other came from Ishmael, alright? He says, "Your brethren that hated you, that cast you out for my name's sake, said, 'Let the Lord be glorified.'" In other words, by casting out the Israelites, by cutting off their heads, by lobbing bombs over to them and destroying them, not far. "But He shall appear to your joy, and they shall be ashamed." What a switch is going to take place. They thought this whole time that they're glorifying God by slaying His people. But when God roars, the heavens going to be shaken, their hope is going to come down, Israel's going to have great joy, and their persecutors and ours will have great shame. "Hosea said, 'Now they shall tremble how? From the west." From the west. Now, underscore the word "from" in your Bible, "from." That's a key word here. "In the last day, the children of God who were formerly rebels shall tremble from the west." Not to the west. Not in the west. They'll tremble from the west. In the Bible, "east" is always the designated direction of God. Always. God comes from the east in Scripture. It's like symbolism, just like the numbers in the Scriptures are. So God always comes from the east in Scripture. Write this down in your notes, your margin, Matthew 24, 27. "For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." So Jesus is going to be coming out of the east unto the west. The sun comes from the east, and then as it travels westward, it shines its light upon a dark world. And that's a picture of Christ bringing light into our spiritually dark world. So Christ comes from the east to the west, which means the sinner, if the sinner's returning to Christ, what direction are they going to be going from? From the west to the east. They'll come trembling from the west at His word. And God said, verse 11, "They shall tremble as a bird out of Egypt." Now, remember back to what we've learned the past few weeks. Egypt is a, again, it's a symbol of Israel's spiritual bondage, remember? God said they're going to go into bondage to Egypt, but then He said, "But they're not actually going to Egypt. They're going to Egypt spiritually, but they're not going to Egypt geographically." Syria's going to take them, and that will be all the same as if they're going into Egypt. Remember, we've been studying that, and Brother Shepherd has been teaching somewhat on that time period there in his Sunday school class. And so we learned that there's going to be a second, God said there will be a second deliverance from Egypt for Israel. The first was by Moses, physically out of Egypt. The second will be by Jesus, spiritually out of spiritual Egypt. And so, "They shall tremble as a bird out of Egypt." Now, what does a bird do? A bird takes flight. Man, I used to sing a song when I was a little boy, my mama taught me, and I'd sing in church, "Thank God I am free, free, free from this world of sin." But one of the verses was, "Like a bird out of prison that's taken its flight, like a blind man that God gave back his sight, like a poor, wretched beggar found fortune in fame." I'm so glad that I came out, something like that, through His holy name. Anyway, it's like a bird taking its flight. They're going to tremble at God's Word. They're going to be in spiritual bondage in Egypt, and when God roars, it's going to set them free. They're going to be given light from the Savior, who roars from the east and brings light into the spiritual darkness. They'll tremble at God's Word. They'll receive God's Son. And like a bird, they're going to fly out of Egypt to Jesus. And all this shall be saved. In such rich, amazing text here, they shall tremble as a bird out of Egypt, out of Egypt, not into Egypt. You can't tremble at God's Word and go into Egypt. But when you tremble at God's Word, you'll sure come out of it. Man whom the Son sets free is free indeed. They won't tremble in Egypt. They're going to tremble out. Look back in your text. They shall tremble as a bird out of Egypt and as a dove out of the land of Assyria. Remember, the Assyrians are coming to get them. The Assyrians are getting them. And again, Assyria ends up becoming a metaphor as well, because it's not a specific nation, a specific condition that Israel is in. It's all the same as if they're captured by Assyrians. It's all the same as if they're in bondage held as prisoners in Egypt when they are in bondage to their sin and unbelief. And when the lion roars and the light shines, they will tremble at his Word and they'll be set free. Like a bird out of Egypt, like a dove out of the land of Assyria. You see? Here they come flying. Egypt and Assyria again. They're one and the same. It's a spiritual deliverance that God is talking about. It's a spiritual flight out of bondage God is talking about. God's going to free them from their sin, from Satan, from death, and from all their enemies on the earth. And not only will God deliver them out of their captivity, but he said, look back in your text, "And I will place them in their houses, saith the Lord." Well, you're talking about a happy ending. "I will place them in their houses." I don't care where I go. I don't care how much I enjoy myself. We went to a wedding last night. My niece's wedding. My family was there. We had a good time. We had good food. But I don't care where I go or how much I enjoy it. This fellow here is always ready to get back to the house. There is no place like home. I was speaking to a fellow believer last week, and we were talking about how this world is not our home. You read the news. You see the foolishness going on in this world. Me and him were just talking about how we're waiting on the city that God is going to build for us. The longer I live in this world, the more I realize that I'm just a stranger passing through. For now, the devil continues to roar, and we continue to tremble at God's word. Then one day, God is going to roar, and when he does, he's going to bring his trembling people home. We'll finally, finally be home. Father, we thank you so much for your precious word. We thank you, Father God, for the bird that will fly from prison. We thank you, Father God, for the great lion of the tribe of Judah who will roar and shake the foundations of this present world that he may build a new heaven and a new earth that's founded upon a rock, Jesus Christ, an unshakable foundation. We thank you for giving us your word. We thank you, Father, for causing our hearts to tremble at it, Lord, rather than be obstinate toward it. We thank you, Father, for your promise to redeem Israel. We thank you, Father, that in the end, those who are proud will be ashamed and those who are persecuted will rejoice. In Jesus' precious name, we thank you for the lamb and for the lion. Amen.