Relentless Judgment on Israel
“When Ephraim spoke, trembling, he exalted himself in Israel; but when he offended through Baal worship, he died. Now they sin more and more, and have made for themselves molded images, idols of their silver, according to their skill; all of it is the work of craftsmen. They say of them, “Let the men who sacrifice (Or those who offer human sacrifice) kiss the calves!” Therefore they shall be like the morning cloud and like the early dew that passes away, like chaff blown off from a threshing floor and like smoke from a chimney.
“Yet I am the Lord your God ever since the land of Egypt, and you shall know no God but Me; for there is no savior besides Me. I knew you (Cared for you) in the wilderness, in the land of great drought.
When they had pasture, they were filled; they were filled and their heart was exalted; therefore they forgot Me. “So I will be to them like a lion; like a leopard by the road I will lurk; I will meet them like a bear deprived of her cubs; I will tear open their rib cage, and there I will devour them like a lion. The wild beast shall tear them.
“O Israel, you are destroyed, but your help is from Me. I will be your King; where is any other, that he may save you in all your cities? And your judges to whom you said, ‘Give me a king and princes’? I gave you a king in My anger, and took him away in My wrath.
“The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; his sin is stored up. The sorrows of a woman in childbirth shall come upon him.
He is an unwise son, for he should not stay long where children are born.
“I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. O Death, I will be your plagues!
O Grave, I will be your destruction! Pity is hidden from My eyes.”
Though he is fruitful among his brethren, an east wind shall come; the wind of the Lord shall come up from the wilderness. Then his spring shall become dry, and his fountain shall be dried up. He shall plunder the treasury of every desirable prize. Samaria is held guilty, for she has rebelled against her God. They shall fall by the sword, their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child ripped open.”
“When Ephraim spoke, trembling, he exalted himself in Israel; but when he offended through Baal worship, he died.” The citizens of the Northern Kingdom, referred to here as “Ephraim,” have gone in for full-bore idol worship, turning themselves into spiritual zombies in the process. “Now they sin more and more, and have made for themselves molded images, idols of their silver, according to their skill; all of it is the work of craftsmen. They say of them, “Let the men who sacrifice (Or those who offer human sacrifice) kiss the calves!” Not content with sacrificing animals to idols, they evidently have regressed to human sacrifice as well. “Kiss the calves” refers to idol worshipers kissing the idols of calves originally set up by King Jeroboam in an effort to prevent his people from worshiping in Jerusalem.
“Yet I am the Lord your God ever since the land of Egypt, and you shall know no God but Me; for there is no savior besides Me. I knew you (Cared for you) in the wilderness, in the land of great drought.” God led the Israelites through the wilderness for forty years, providing food and water and protecting them from attack by surrounding tribes. But as soon as the Israelites settled in Canaan, they conveniently forgot the Lord, turning to idols instead. Here God is warning His people that He is about to withdraw His protection, leaving them to attack by wild animals as well as invaders such as the Assyrians.
“O Israel, you are destroyed, but your help is from Me. I will be your King; where is any other, that he may save you in all your cities?” Originally, God planned to reign as sovereign over the Israelites; however, at the time of the prophet Samuel, the Israelites rejected God as king, demanding a human king instead. Subsequently, the Israelites have had ample opportunity to realize that human kings cannot save them. God still wants to save the Israelites; however, He cannot save them from themselves, and their eventual fate will be grisly destruction. In the final verses, God graphically describes the standard practices of invading armies bent only on loot and annihilation. Truly, the Israelites are “dead men walking.”
APPLICATION: More than thirty years ago, Stephen Covey authored a book entitled The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.One of the distinctions Covey drew was the difference between form and substance. Covey pointed out that many people settle for things that appear good, settling for form, rather than for things that actually are good, that have substance. Covey asserted, “You have to decide what your highest priorities are and have the courage-pleasantly, smilingly, nonapolgetically, to say “no” to other things. And the way you do that is by having a bigger “yes” burning inside. The enemy of the “best” is often the “good.”
The mistake many of us make is choosing things and people by appearances rather than by character. God took the Israelites through the wilderness experience to give them the opportunity to get rid of the deleterious effects of living in Egypt for 400 years. Egyptian religion focused on death while God wanted then and has always wanted to give people life. Jesus told his disciples in John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come that they may have life, and have it in all its fullness.” Unfortunately, the Israelites persisted in reverting to idolatry, sometimes including employing mediums to secure guidance from the dead.
Are we “dead men/women walking?” Are we settling for something less than God’s best? Are we so impressed by things that look good that we fail to realize these things may have the life span of a May fly? One of Covey’s other tenets was “keeping the main thing the main thing.” We need to search our hearts. Where are our priorities? What is most dear to us? If we do not take care, we may find ourselves sidetracked by the good, while all the time God wants us to have His very best.
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Lord, help us to seek Your perfect will for our lives, rather than settling for things that appear pleasant but that have no substance. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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