The Ram's Horn is Sounding

Hos.8:1 - Set the trumpet to thy mouth…

Hosea was a prophet called by Go to speak to the ten northern tribes, the largest of which was the tribe of Ephraim. Now God’s people had been bewitched by the prosperity of the heathen and soon after they went seeking these things they began to leave the precepts of God and quickly they went into Spiritual adultery. God instructs Hosea to marry a woman named Gomer, who was immoral and a harlot, because God wanted Hosea’s married life to reflect Israel’s spiritual life. Throughout his ministry Hosea would warn God’s people of impending judgment but to no avail. They continued in their treachery against God and eventually they were carried away in chains to Assyria, never to be seen again.

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In verse one the trumpet is the Ram’s horn and God has used it for several purposes. It is blown sometimes as a call for God’s people to worship. Sometimes it is blown to call God’s people into battle against the enemy. It is blown in times of great celebration. And sometimes it is sounded as a warning, not about the approaching enemy, but as a warning about God’s judgment. These trumpets are blown in Rash Hashanah as a representation for Israel to repent. It is in this way that God says to put the trumpet to Hosea’s mouth as a warning to the people of God as they have slid into a deep state of compromise and hedonism.

Hosea 8:1 - ...because they have transgressed my convenant, and trespassed my law.

Verse one sets the stage for all of Israel’s sins because it identifies the foundation for all backsliding and worldliness, the transgression of God’s Holy Word. This transgression comes in various forms, sometimes openly and recognizable, but sometimes in a well meaning but clandestine form. While the scribes of old attempted to be painfully careful in how they put God’s Word on paper they were well aware that sometimes a slight deviation in the transfer could result in the change of the meaning which they considered an anathema. And even with their obsessive attention to every detail they sometimes made mistakes in their copying which had to be corrected. Of course the Spirit was mysteriously overseeing the entire process and preserved His Word for generations to come.

Now if we have the preserved Word of the Creator today, how should it be interpreted? As the scribes were so careful in transferring the written Word from paper to paper, how careful should we be in transferring it from paper into the hearts of men? That is the question that surrounds the evangelical community today because many preachers espouse the veracity and accuracy and even the inerrancy of God’s written Word in their doctrinal statements, but in practice and presentation and obviously in emphasis they stray far from what others have taught in the past. So indeed, how should we interpret and then spread the Word of God today? It is the ultimate question that again confronts believers. Of course there are also those who now teach that the Bible is an overall story with no specific, doctrinal authority. It is not inerrant, they say, but they claim to adhere to the core redemptive teachings. That, my friends, seems legitimate to the natural man but it is the beginning of the end for Christianity itself in those circles. Maybe not for this generation but for generations to come, and the effect of that thinking has rapidly pervaded many theological circles to such an extent already that some are beginning to claim that God’s overall story includes all the other faiths. I am just putting the Ram’s horn to my mouth, you must open the ears of your heart.

So what about we who believe that God not only spoke to man, He was also powerful enough to preserve His Words? Some now believe that the Bible must be interpreted within the framework of the present culture. All the Biblical absolutes are to be contoured to adjust and mesh with the western cultural thought processes. They assume the average American for example can not connect with the theological terms that many of us have learned throughout church history and our own personal journey. Redemption, holiness, substitution, and even salvation are terms which have been lost to the post modern vocabulary so they insist that new and more relevant expressions of Biblical truth must be sought out. That again sounds legitimate to the well intentioned mind, but it is a path that quickly is leading to an unrecognizable form of Christianity that seems disjointed from past evangelical movements.

Keep listening to the warning of God’s horn, this situation has gotten so bad so quickly it is bound to deepen disproportionately in the coming years. And it is heralded by learned and well meaning men and many of them are humble and friendly men who are willing to engage in polite and respectful discussions about almost every deviant strain of Christian thought. The situation gets worse by the day and the doctrinal morass like volcanic lava continues to consistently take over more and more of the evangelical landscape.

And then there are those who say that the all encompassing purpose of the church is to mold the Word in such a way as to appeal to the lost and dark world. They have become quite adept at presenting God’s Word in a format that everyone will enjoy and without any sacrifice or conviction of sin people by the millions are repeating a neat little prayer and immediately being told, on the authority of God’s Word no less, that they are saved and on their way to heaven. The Sunday messages are centered on these earthly lives and how to overcome problems and let God fix your problems because that is why He came into your life in the first place. Most of the church gatherings resemble nothing more than a place of entertainment and after the show they exhibit little or none of God’s power. And like the children of Israel people are running to hear how they can better their earthly lives and enjoy the abundant life God has promised. Bigger houses, bigger cars, better clothes, bigger church buildings, bigger staffs, bigger televisions, and bigger salaries are sought after, not bigger prayer lives, deeper holiness, financial sacrifice, and broken hearts over how we have treated God’s Word.

So God tells Hosea that His very people have transgressed His covenant and His Word. They are supposed to hear this divine lament through the Ram’s horn of God’s warning, judgment is coming. And today God’s judgment has come but we still do not understand. God has written Ichabod over most of the church saying “The glory of the Lord is departed”. Where, you ask, is the judgment of God in our midst? How did God judge His people in the Old Testament? He pulled back His presence and He allowed the heathen to overrun His own people in punishment and discipline. Has your blindness so overtaken your eyesight that you continue to sleep unawares as the heathen come over the hill to pillage, destroy, and deceive God’s people?

Look at how our children are being bombarded by the heathen with every evil work. And where is the church, where are the anointed prophets that are calling us to repentance? No, our prophets take the easy and carnal way, they scold and speak out against the heathen. What if Hosea spoke about Assyria and not to Israel, would God have been pleased with him? Oh, they say, the world is full of abortion, full of pornography, full of child molestation, full of immorality, full of divorce, full of greed, and full of sin in general. And while they rail against the godless world God’s people say “Amen” while they themselves are full of these very things. And if the prophets of God would speak God’s Words to whom God intended would they be applauded by God’s people or as the Lord they seek to emulate would they be without honor in their own communities?

Hosea 8:9 - For they have gone up to Assyria, a wild ass alone by himself...

In verse 9 God says that Israel has gone up into Assyria and is like a wild donkey with no care and frolicking about without any restraint. The church is now the world. How many unregenerate people sit Sunday after Sunday in the congregation without any thought about their eternity? And why? Because the preacher isn’t talking about eternity, he’s talking about things that appeal to the unregenerate. The average “service” is nothing more than a place to enjoy a neat little oratorical presentation by a man who sometimes has spent more time on the golf course than the prayer closet. And the glory of God has departed from their midst and like Samson they don’t even know His presence and power has departed. And if what I am sharing from my soul isn’t accurate than relax, eat drink and be merry, but if what I believe is happening is true than incline your ears to God’s trumpet and repent. Run out of Assyria and return to God’s presence.

The emergents have left the building, they are not returning. The same with the relevant seeker crowd, they have invented a system that will appeal to the Assyrians themselves but is not what God desires.

Hosea 8:4 - They have set up kings, but not by me: they have made princes and I knew it not; of their silver and their gold have they made them idols...

In verse 4 God says that His people have set up their own leaders but they are not the ones God has chosen. In that verse God identifies what these preachers will be presenting for worship, idols of silver and gold. Does it not astound you how trans-generational God’s Word is? We don’t need a new and relevant version, we don’t even need to wring our hands over the Hebrew and Greek, let us start by obeying the ENGLISH in brokenness and contrition, begging God to live His life through us not invite Him into ours.

Hosea 8:2 - Israel shall cry unto me, My God, we know thee...

And probably most sad and striking of all, in verse 2 God says that Israel will not heed the trumpet’s warning but they will respond by saying, “My God, we know You”. What are they saying? Oh my, they are using their very knowledge of the Lord as an excuse to stop up their ears from hearing His voice. I said - They will use their knowledge of the Lord as an excuse not to hear His voice !!!? So today people are saying “We are Christians also so do not correct us from our worldly ways because we know Him too”. And so the wild donkeys continue to frolic wildly throughout the church world and the world’s church. Keep sounding the trumpet to all of us.

And before we get puffed up and allow our hearts to grow disdain and hatred toward our wayward brethren, let me show you God’s heart. In Hosea 4:17 God says “Ephraim is joined to his idols, let him alone”. Oh yes, God is angry. Israel has closed her ears to God’s correction and gone a-whoring after her own idols so God gives up on her. But draw your attention to Hosea 11:8 where God’s great heart overwhelms Him and He declares, “How shall I give thee up, Ephraim?”. If you have hatred or disdain in your heart for Warren or Bell or Kimball or for that matter anyone else, you do not have God’s heart and you are no better than the heathen.

Let us all hear the Ram’s horn as it blows a sound of warning to all of us, and let us beg God for the power that we need to change our lives forever.