20151225 Friday, December 25 2015
Hosea 02: Who Are The Children Of God?

by Wayne Blank
See also 1 Year Holy Bible Reading Plan

"By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil"

The purpose of salvation is to create children of God (see What Was The Lesson Of John 3:16?). It's the reason that God is called the Father of those who will become His children (see Who Can Be Saved?).

Righteousness isn't merely a vain matter of appearance (see How Does Satan Impersonate Jesus Christ?). The evil Devil is very beautiful and righteous in appearance ("11:13 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. 11:14 And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. 11:15 So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness"; 2 Corinthians 11:13-15 KJV). True righteousness is a matter of genuine obedience to the LORD (see The Identity Of The LORD God and The LORD God Our Saviour).

"8:16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 8:17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him." (Romans 8:16-17 KJV)

"8:22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now." (Romans 8:22 KJV)

"5:2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome." (1 John 5:2-3 KJV)

On the other hand, people can be temporarily (until they repent and truly obey the LORD) or permanently (if they defiantly refuse to repent when the Truth has been made known to them) engendered, as a result of spiritual adultery, by the fornicating spirit of the rebel Satan - thereby becoming, temporarily or permanently, by their behavior, regardless of how righteous it appears or is self-declared to be (see Iniquity In History And Prophecy), children of the devil.

"3:8 Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. 3:9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. 3:10 By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. 3:11 For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. 3:12 We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous." (1 John 3:8-12 KJV)

"8:42 Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and I am here. I came not of my own accord, but he sent me. 8:43 Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word. 8:44 You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies. 8:45 But because I tell the truth, you do not believe me." (John 8:42-45 KJV)

The Kingdom of Israel was created, from the nations of the world (see The Origin Of Israelites And Jews), as a living prophecy of the coming Kingdom of God - that will be inhabited by the children of God who will be created from truly-repentant people of all nations of the world. "Israel" were called "out of the world" to live according to the Law of the LORD, rather than the politics and religions of carnal man.

Salvation is a free gift to those who truly obey the LORD. Salvation is not for those who merely use His Name for their self-righteous, make-believe religions (see Why Call Me, Lord, Lord, and Do Not The Things Which I Say?) in which they make, not only a god for themselves, but a god of themselves.

When the Israelites failed to live up to their prophetic purpose, the LORD removed them from His Sight and gave the responsibility to a later generation. It happened over and over and over again.

The adults of the Exodus refused to enter the Promised Land according to the terms that the LORD gave to them, so they were left to die in the wilderness of Sinai over the next forty years. It was their children and grandchildren, most of whom were born in the Sinai, who entered the Promised Land in the time of Joshua (see The Israelite Wanderland and Why A Book Of Deuteronomy In The Bible?).

When King Solomon became a corrupt idol worshiper (see What Caused Solomon's Idolatry?), the LORD removed the united kingdom of Israel from His Sight (see How Many Kings Reigned In The United Kingdom? and When Will The United Kingdom Be Restored?). Two independent kingdoms emerged from that removal - the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah (see Israel In History and Prophecy: Israel and Judah).

When the Kingdom of Israel became corrupt (as covered in this Book of Hosea), the LORD removed them from His Sight in 721 BC at the hand of the Assyrian Empire. They thereafter became known as the "lost ten tribes" (see Israel In History and Prophecy: The Lost Ten Tribes).

When the Kingdom of Judah became corrupt, the LORD removed them from His Sight in 586 BC at the hand of the Babylonian Empire (see Why Did Judah Fall To Babylon?). Their descendants were given to return from the Babylonian exile, seventy years later, solely for the sake of the coming Messiah (see How The Messianic Line Survived In Babylon).

When the returned people of Judah created their own religion, known as "Judaism" (see Israel In History and Prophecy: Judaism) from the actual Way of the LORD that had been given to their ancestors, their traditions and man-made observances caused then to fail to recognize the Messiah when He came. In 70 AD, the LORD again had them removed from His Sight, exactly as He declared and prophesied just before His Crucifixion (see What Did Jesus Christ Say About Those Stones?).

The spiritual adultery principle applies not only to the people of Israel and Judah. It applies just as much to the Christian-professing world who claim His Name for their man-made religions. They have been misled by the same adulterous spirit, for the time being.

So it was then that the LORD gave Hosea to rebuke Israel in the graphic language of spiritual adultery and whoredom that they committed in that time (see also Gomer's Children). The words were a reflection of what they had made of themselves.

"2:1 Say to your brothers, "You are my people," and to your sisters, "You have received mercy."

2:2 "Plead with your mother, plead - for she is not my wife, and I am not her husband - that she put away her whoring from her face, and her adultery from between her breasts; 2:3 lest I strip her naked and make her as in the day she was born, and make her like a wilderness, and make her like a parched land, and kill her with thirst. 2:4 Upon her children also I will have no mercy, because they are children of whoredom. 2:5 For their mother has played the whore; she who conceived them has acted shamefully. For she said, 'I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.' 2:6 Therefore I will hedge up her way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her, so that she cannot find her paths. 2:7 She shall pursue her lovers but not overtake them, and she shall seek them but shall not find them. Then she shall say, 'I will go and return to my first husband, for it was better for me then than now.' 2:8 And she did not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the wine, and the oil, and who lavished on her silver and gold, which they used for Baal.

2:9 Therefore I will take back my grain in its time, and my wine in its season, and I will take away my wool and my flax, which were to cover her nakedness. 2:10 Now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one shall rescue her out of my hand. 2:11 And I will put an end to all her mirth, her feasts, her new moons, her Sabbaths, and all her appointed feasts. 2:12 And I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees, of which she said, 'These are my wages, which my lovers have given me.' I will make them a forest, and the beasts of the field shall devour them. 2:13 And I will punish her for the feast days of the Baals when she burned offerings to them and adorned herself with her ring and jewelry, and went after her lovers and forgot me, declares the LORD.

2:14 "Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. 2:15 And there I will give her her vineyards and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.

2:16 "And in that day, declares the LORD, you will call me 'My Husband,' and no longer will you call me 'My Baal.' 2:17 For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. 2:18 And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety. 2:19 And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. 2:20 I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the LORD.

2:21 "And in that day I will answer, declares the LORD, I will answer the heavens, and they shall answer the earth, 2:22 and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil, and they shall answer Jezreel, 2:23 and I will sow her for myself in the land. And I will have mercy on No Mercy, and I will say to Not My People, 'You are my people'; and he shall say, 'You are my God.'" (Hosea 2:1-23 KJV)

Fact Finder: When will the father of deception be put away forever?
See The Christian Day Of Atonement and Putting Away Satan's Goat