Episode Transcript
The title of the message this morning is "A Fruitful Bow in a Fruitless Land."
While you're turning to Hosea 13-15, I'll give you an update on our gospel outreach this week.
We had a total of 92 gospel contacts made this week, and that brings a yearly subtotal up to 3,963.
Hosea 13, verse 15, "A fruitful bow in a fruitless land."
Hosea 13-15 begins by saying, "Though he be fruitful among his brethren."
But we can't understand this verse without considering the context of the book that we've been studying as well as the Old Testament as a whole.
So the first question we have to ask ourselves, and we're looking at, "Though he be fruitful among his brethren," is, "Who is the he in this verse?"
It says, "Though he be fruitful among his brethren," and we should be asking, "Though who be fruitful among his brethren?"
Who is God talking about?
Well, remember God is talking about the northern kingdom of Israel, which he has been referring to as Ephraim.
Look back with me at Hosea 13-12 real quick, or you can pop up there on your screen.
There it is, that handy screen.
God said, "The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up, his sin is hid."
We looked at that, remember, last week.
And so we're looking at Ephraim.
Now who is Ephraim?
Ephraim was Joseph's younger son, whom Jacob adopted as his own son, and speaking by the Holy Spirit prophetically, gave him a special blessing from God.
Throughout the Old Testament, God uses, and we've talked about this before, he uses double reference prophecies, and this is one of them.
He used a double reference prophecy when he spoke to the serpent and Satan at the same time in the Garden of Eden.
And he's using one now when speaking to the tribe of Ephraim and the nation of Israel at the same time.
Here's a kingdom truth for you this morning.
When two things share the same qualities, they can share the same prophecies.
Now because of that, that's how we're able to apply a prophecy that God gives to Israel and apply it unto us.
You see, because there's many things about Israel that are also attributed to the church.
We share the same qualities in that as Israel was brought out of the land of Egypt, we were brought out of our bondage to sin.
We share the same qualities in that as Israel was brought out of the land of Egypt, we were brought out of our bondage to sin.
We share the same qualities in that as though God was the king over Israel, at least until they rebelled, God is the king of his church.
And so when two things share the same qualities, they can share the same prophecies.
They can be speaking to Ephraim and to Israel and to us at the same time.
It's a beautiful thing, Brother Doug.
We could probably stop right there and say, "Praise God."
That's a good truth for us to chew on this week.
But here's an example.
Ezekiel chapter 28.
Ezekiel chapter 28, verses 11 through 14.
Looking at God speaking to the king of Tyros and speaking to Satan at the same time.
A double reference prophecy.
Why?
Because Tyros and Satan shared some of the same qualities.
And so in those respects, they shared the same prophecies.
Ezekiel 28, 11.
Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto me saying, "Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyros."
And say unto him, "Thus saith the Lord God, thou sealest up the sum full of wisdom and perfect in beauty."
Wow.
That's pretty nice for the king of Tyros, isn't it?
But God's speaking to Tyros because Tyros was wise and Tyros was beautiful and his nation was fantastic.
But he's not just talking to Tyros, he's talking to the devil.
Watch.
He says, verse 13, "Thou hast been and eaten the garden of God."
Well now, Tyros wasn't and eaten the garden of God, but Tyros was in paradise.
All right?
The king of Tyros was in paradise.
And so he says, "Every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the barrel, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuckle, and gold.
The workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou was created."
"Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth."
What?
How can the king of Tyros be a cherub?
How can he be an angel?
Well, he wasn't, but Lucifer was.
All right?
"And I have set thee so," God put him there, "Thou wast upon the holy mountain of God.
Thou hast walked up and down the midst of the stones of fire."
So the king of Tyros and Lucifer shared some of the same qualities.
Both were ordained to a lofty position by God.
Both were cast down from that lofty position because of their pride.
Both were given much by God.
Both lost what they had because of sin.
Both had a great responsibility.
Both were greatly irresponsible.
Both were princes of a domain in this godless world.
Both were judged by the one true God who created this world.
And so they shared some of the same qualities.
Thus, they shared the same prophecy.
What God says about the former applies to the latter, and that's how it is with Israel and Ephraim and us.
As Tyros represented two parties when he was spoken to by God.
So Ephraim represents both the man, his tribe, his country, and then God's spiritual kingdom as well.
Now, with that said, let's go back to our text this morning.
God says of Ephraim, "Though he," that is though Ephraim, "be fruitful among his brethren."
Now the name Ephraim means double fruit.
Double fruit.
And this double fruit moniker refers to the bountiful offspring that Ephraim gave his father Joseph.
He was the second born when Joseph was in Egypt before the famine, and Joseph named him Ephraim, double fruit.
Joseph was Jacob's favorite son, if you'll remember.
And he had two sons before that famine came.
He named the first son Manasseh.
And then Genesis 41, 52 says, "The name of the second called he Ephraim, for God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction."
Double fruit.
Okay?
So we can see why God says that Ephraim was fruitful.
Now shortly before Jacob died, he called his two grandsons Ephraim and Manasseh over to him, set them in front of him, and he put his hands on both of them.
But he put his main hand on Ephraim, and he gave him a special blessing.
Even though Ephraim was the youngest of the two, he gave him a special blessing of bounty from the Lord.
And Joseph didn't like that the younger son was being blessed more than the older.
So he tried to correct his father.
He thought, well, he's old.
He's making a mistake.
He can't see well or whatever.
And when he did, Genesis 48, 19 says, "And his father refused and said, 'I know it, my son.
I know it.
He also shall become a people, and he also shall be great.'"
He's teaching him in Asa.
"But truly his younger brother, that is Ephraim, shall be greater than he.
In his seed shall become a multitude of nations."
And when you look at that in the literal translation, he's saying that his seed shall become the fullness of the nations.
So instead of Joseph becoming a tribe, being one of the tribes, one of the sons of Jacob, one of the sons of Israel, instead of Joseph alone becoming a tribe, then Jacob adopted spiritually Joseph's two sons.
And so now Joseph gets two for one.
He adopts Joseph's two sons, and now you have a tribe of Ephraim, and you have a tribe of Manasseh, double fruit for Joseph.
Isn't that neat?
Double fruit for Joseph.
And Ephraim will be more fruitful than Manasseh.
And this showed God's blessings on Joseph for being faithful to him during his hardships in Egypt.
The fruitfulness of Ephraim was due to the faithfulness of Joseph.
You get that?
The fruitfulness of Ephraim was due to the faithfulness of Joseph.
So fruitfulness and faithfulness go hand in hand.
Now the problem was fruitful Israel was no longer faithful Israel.
Israel had now become faithless toward God.
And now if he which was once faithful becomes unfaithful, then he'll become unfruitful.
That's how it works.
Though he had been fruitful in Israel, his fruitfulness shall come to the end.
Why?
Because God said, look back in your text, "an east wind shall come."
An east wind shall come.
Now this east wind takes us back to Ephraim's dad, Joseph.
Remember Joseph had two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh.
He called Ephraim double fruit because God had blessed him with two sons, and this was before the famine came in the land of Egypt.
Now if you've never been through the Genesis to Jesus class, some of this may be going over your head, which is why we have that.
But in those of you who've been there, then you're just clicking right along because you remember the stories.
But taking us back to the land of Egypt when Joseph was there, before the famine came, then there was this dream.
This dream that Pharaoh had.
Genesis 41 verse 5 through 6 says, "He slept and dreamed the second time, and behold seven ears of corn came upon one stalk, rank and good, and behold seven thin ears," watch this now, "blasted with what?
The east wind."
So you might want to take Genesis 41.6 and write that down in your margin outside of Hosea, our text here in Hosea this morning, where it says, "East wind shall come, then draw an arrow to your margin and write down Genesis 41.6.
And so it blasted with the east wind, sprung up after them."
So what happened in Egypt was there was seven good years of fruitful harvest, and then there was seven years of drought afterward, and the seven years of drought took away all the bounties.
I mean it was so bad that seven years of drought, they'd forgotten all about those seven good years of plenty that they had.
And so in the dream, the seven ears of corn come up, and they're blasted by the east wind, which shows the seven ears represent seven years of famine, the blasting of that east wind.
So after the fruitful harvest, this east wind comes and brings a famine for seven years.
So notice then that the east wind, what does it do?
It took away the prior fruitfulness in Egypt.
When you see an east wind in the Bible like this, think about God taking away the prior fruitfulness in the land.
That's what the east wind's about to do with Ephraim.
He's about to, God's about to take away his prior season of fruitfulness.
Here's another Kingdom Truth for you this morning.
Unfaithfulness leads to unfruitfulness, no matter how faithful you've been before.
Unfaithfulness leads to unfruitfulness, no matter how faithful you've been before.
With that in mind, it's important to understand that this destructive east wind that takes away our prior season of fruitfulness comes from God.
It's not just a wind.
Not just any old wind will do, not a west wind, not a north wind, not a south wind.
This is an east wind, and direction has spiritual application in the scripture.
And east is the direction that God comes from in the Bible.
So an east wind that's taking away prior fruitfulness has the idea of God visiting his unfaithful people in judgment and removing their fruitfulness due to their unfaithfulness.
The east wind, God coming from the east.
Write this down in your notes or in your margin.
Ezekiel chapter 43, Ezekiel chapter 43 verse 4, "And the glory of the Lord came into the house by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the east."
Excuse me.
"The glory of the Lord came into the house by the way of the gate whose prospect is toward the east."
Eastward.
So in short, if faithful people become unfaithful people, then God will come like an east wind and dry up their fruitfulness.
In Joshua chapter 24, Joshua chapter 24, Joshua warned Israel about this very thing.
Joshua 24 verse 20, and remember, whatever God says to Israel, he's saying to us, it's a double prophecy.
Joshua 24, 20, Joshua warned Israel saying, "If ye forsake the Lord and serve strange gods that he will turn, that is, he was doing you good, now he will turn as you turned.
You turn from him, he'll turn against you.
He will turn and do you hurt and consume you.
After that he hath done you good."
Isn't that something?
Joshua foresees this already.
He says, "Guys, if you forsake God and as a nation you start worshiping false gods, then the God who's been blessing you this whole time, he's going to turn and end up doing you harm after he's done you good.
Don't do it."
It's all the same as saying if you become unfaithful, God's going to come like an east wind and make you unfruitful.
He's going to blast you with an east wind.
It's all the same thing.
This is exactly what happened to Israel.
God is going to come like a dry, hot, blasting wind that dries up the blessings and just blows them away.
Notice that Hosea said this east wind would come, look back in your text, up from the wilderness.
Man, I love the imagery here.
Up from the wilderness, not down from the mountain, not across the sea, but up from the wilderness.
Now remember, any time you go to Israel, you're always going up in the Bible.
Israel's always up.
No one ever goes down to Israel.
Israel is the Jerusalem.
The nation of Israel is always the capital of the earth and everyone's always going up to there.
We have an east wind that means it's coming from God and it's coming up from the wilderness, which means it's going to the Holy Land.
God's going to visit the Holy Land, but the wind's coming from the wilderness.
Now the children of Israel spent 40 years in the wilderness due to what?
Their rebellion against God.
God had them wandering around 40 years in the wilderness and finally a generation sprung up that believed God and obeyed God and then God brought them out of that wilderness into the land that flowed with milk and honey and he made them fruitful there.
So here they are now, living in a fruitful land with their fruit being taken away.
A wind would come up from the wilderness.
A wind would come up from the wilderness.
They had left the wilderness.
They were now in the fruitful land and now wind's going to come up from the wilderness.
Here's a kingdom and truth for you this morning.
God may not bring you to the wilderness, but he can bring the wilderness to you.
God may not bring you to the wilderness, but he can bring the wilderness to you.
God doesn't bless our unfaithfulness in the present based on our faithfulness in the past.
God could have you right now in a position of fruitfulness.
You can be right now in a position of blessing and plenty and spiritual fruitfulness in your service to God based on your past faithfulness, but you can't go off that forever.
If you become unfaithful to God, you will then become unfruitful to God.
You may still be in the same position to give you a fine example.
Right now God's blessing our church.
I thank God for that.
It's wonderful.
I love being in the pulpit.
I love preaching.
I love hearing Brother Shepherd get up and expound the Scriptures on Sunday mornings.
I love listening to Brother Doug teach at the nursing home.
Those are lands of fruitfulness for us, you see.
But you know what can happen if I ever start becoming unfaithful to God?
God may not take me out of the pulpit.
He may not take me from the land of fruitfulness, but He can sure bring a wind from the wilderness to make the fruitful place unfruitful.
He can drive this church up.
He can drive Brother Shepherd Sunday School.
He can drive that nursing home ministry just like that.
Don't count on the prosperity of the land you live in, for God can send an east wind to dry it up.
He can turn your land of milk and honey into a wilderness.
The Bible says, look back in your text, God said His east wind would come and His, that His ephraim spring, shall become dry.
Ephraim spring shall become dry.
Now a spring has the idea of a well watered land.
If you have a spring, you have a perpetual source of hydration.
You've got water, so you've got life.
You can have fruitfulness and abundance.
So Ephraim has enjoyed this spring all this time, and God said, I'm about to dry that spring up.
I'm about to send an east wind from the wilderness.
I'm about to come and bring the wilderness to that fruitful land.
I won't bring the wilderness to that spring.
You see a spring is just a place in the ground where water bursts forth.
That's all it is.
That piece of ground is no different and no better than any other piece of ground in the world.
It's just a piece of ground before the water comes, and once that water stops, it's just another piece of ground again.
Nothing special about the place where the water comes from.
It's the God who sends the water to that place.
That's what we have to understand.
The familiarity of God's blessing doesn't guarantee the longevity of God's blessing.
This morning, I don't know how many years ago it was now, I wrote, "Knowing I'm Saved," and after that I wrote, "Leaving Egypt."
By God's grace, I can get on there and look, and I can see when people get those books.
This morning, someone got five "Leaving Egypt" books, and it's telling me they're probably giving them away or using them in a Bible study.
I just thank God for that.
You know what that is to me?
It's a spiritual spring.
I'll see that someone got a book, and I'll say, "Lord, I pray for those people who are reading these books and the tracts that our church is passing out."
I try to always do that.
You know what?
It's been a blessing to me.
The "Knowing I'm Saved" website has been a blessing to me since 2007.
It's been a spring of fruitfulness.
You know what?
I better never trust in that.
I better never trust in that, because you know what can happen?
You know what "Know I'm Saved" website is?
It's just some digital creation online.
It's just a hole that God uses to push water through.
That's all it is.
It's just some letters in the "WWW" in front of it.
It's all it is.
And the God who sends that water through that spring, if I become unfaithful, can dry it up, can turn it against me, can make it a curse even.
Don't ever rest upon prior faithfulness.
Don't ever trust in the spring.
Trust in the God who sends the water.
Don't ever look and say, "Oh Lord, thank You for this," and then begin to rest in the place of blessing that He's given you.
Don't rest in the place.
Rest in the person who sends the blessing.
Just because you've been drinking God's blessings from the same source for a long time doesn't mean that source won't eventually dry up.
Those became dry.
Why?
Because they kept going to that familiar source of water rather than the faithful supplier of that water.
Look back in your text, and that is because of this, God said, "His fountain shall be dried up."
God help us to always turn to Him each and every day to seek a fresh supply of His grace.
At our lives, at our ministry.
God's grace was going to turn to God's judgment for Israel.
God caused a fountain to spring forth in the wilderness.
Remember that?
When Israel was in the wilderness, God made a fountain come out of a rock.
God took bitter water and made it sweet.
And now they're in a place where there's plenty of water and God's going to dry it up.
This is spiritually speaking.
He's going to dry it up.
He's not talking about water literally.
He's not going to make Israel a desert.
He's talking about the spiritual and kingdom blessings that God had given him.
He's about to dry up.
So as God gave water in the wilderness, He's about to take water away in the fruitful land.
That means God can bless you in the worst circumstances of your life and God can judge you in the best circumstances of your life.
And then Hosea said, look back in your text, "He shall spoil the treasure of all pleasant vessels."
Do you know what know-im-save.com is to me?
It's a pleasant vessel.
You know what the books are to me?
They're pleasant vessels.
Do you know what this church is to me?
It's a pleasant vessel.
This church holds treasures that are dear to me.
You are dear to me.
Your faith in God is dear to me.
It means so much to me.
And God, your family may be one of your pleasant vessels, but when we're talking about spiritually speaking a pleasant vessel is a beautiful thing that holds God's grace and God's blessing and God's bounty to you.
Vessels were in.
They once trusted, Israel once trusted to store the abundance of God's blessing.
God would now spoil the treasures inside them.
Don't trust in your pleasant vessels.
The walls of Jericho couldn't keep God's judgment for reaching them.
The temple of God, which Israel built, wherein they stored their treasures, the gold, the silver, the brass, all of that in the house of God, the temple of God, and the fence around the temple of God that didn't keep God's judgment from reaching there.
That definitely was the most pleasant vessel of all.
In the Old Testament, God even spoiled the treasures of his own house because of Israel's unfaithfulness to him.
They had to go and rip gold off the wall, brother, gold off the doors, or wherever.
They had to go take the pleasant things out of the God's house and give them away to try to keep the enemy from destroying them.
So here's an application for us as we begin to close.
Church, God may be richly blessing you right now because of your faithfulness.
There's someone in this church right now who's speaking to you, and for privacy's sake, will keep private.
But I was speaking to you last week, and this person received a significant pay raise at work.
And the person knew in their heart that God was blessing them because of previous faithfulness to God financially, that God was just rewarding that.
And this person was giving God all the glory.
And I thank God for that.
Listen, don't trust in your 401(k) to protect you from God's judgment.
Don't trust in your salary to protect you from God's judgment.
Don't trust in the FDIC to protect you from God's judgment.
Don't trust your safe deposit box to protect you from God's judgment.
And then spiritually speaking, don't trust your church to protect you from God's judgment.
Don't trust your ministry to protect you from God's judgment.
Those things are pleasant vessels to us, but the treasures inside can be spoiled if we become unfaithful to our Lord.
Churches that are well watered by God's spiritual blessings today can draw up tomorrow if people turn from God.
Pleasant vessels are the places that hold God's blessings, but pleasant vessels cannot protect us from unpleasant things.
With that, we'll go ahead and close, and Lord willing, we'll take back up in our next verse, next Lord's day.
Father, we thank you so much for the amazing truths, Lord, that you've given us in your word.
Thank you, Father, for the rich imagery that you give us.
Lord, the east wind that comes from the wilderness.
Thank you, Lord, showing us that it dries up the fruitfulness because of the unfaithfulness.
And Lord, we trust you as the one who supplies our spring.
We look to you, dear Father God.
I pray, dear Lord God, you'll help us, Lord, to always be faithful to you.
We know that we're saved by your wonderful grace, but Lord, we want to bear fruit.
We want to live in a well watered land, spiritually speaking.
We want to walk with you and talk with you and fellowship with you.
We want to see your great work, and we want you to use us, Father, in your kingdom.
Oh Lord, help us, Father, to never become careless in our walk with you.
Help us, Father, to continually pray, to continually seek your face, to continually, Father God, put you before all things in our lives.
We ask it in Jesus' wonderful name.
Amen.
