Judgments And Prophecy

Ephraim Frank

Israel

June 25, 2009

Chapter XLVII

Judgments and Prophecy

While Israel was following the ways (sins) of Jeroboam, Judah also was not free from iniquity, as it is written: "Now Judah did evil in the sight of YHVH, and they provoked Him to jealousy with their sins which they committed, more than all that their fathers had done. For they also built for themselves high places, sacred pillars, and wooden images on every high hill and under every green tree" (1 Kings 14:22-23).

The two nations of Israel, as represented by their respective capital cities - Samaria and Jerusalem – are compared by the prophet Ezekiel to two sisters. The prophet contrasts Samaria with Sodom, and then goes on to conclude that Jerusalem's sins are far worse than Samaria's: "Furthermore, Samaria did not commit half of your sins, for you have multiplied your abominations more than they. Thus you have made your sisters appear righteous by all your abominations which you have committed" (Ezekiel 16:51).

If Judah's sins were worse than Israel's, how is it that Judah was not judged equally? Since Judah's destiny was going to be different than Israel's, her lessons and the consequences of her sins would not be identical to those of her compatriots from the house of Israel. Thus, in meting out justice in a non-identical way, YHVH was making a clear distinction between the two parts of Israel. His purpose in dividing the house of Jacob was not only for judicial purposes (dividing the positional firstborn rights because of inherent sin), as mentioned in earlier chapters, but also because ultimately His two houses (Jeremiah 3:18), two nations (Ezekiel 35:10; 36:22), two lands (Ezekiel 35:10), two sisters/wives (ref. Jeremiah 3: 6-10), two kingdoms (ref. Ezekiel 36:22), two sticks/trees (ref. Ezekiel 37:19), were to become two witnesses of His faithfulness, mercy, and love (ref. Isaiah 43:10,12; 44:8) in the form of two olive branches/trees (Zechariah 4:3,11,12; ref. Revelation 11:4) and two lamp stands (ref. Revelation 11:4).

Let us now take a look at some of the descriptions of the ensuing results of sin, but which at the same time also point to a prophetic destiny of the house of Israel. YHVH sends the prophet Hosea to the house of Israel/Joseph/ Ephraim, whom he compares to a harlot by the name of Gomer. Interestingly, Gomer was also the name of Japheth's firstborn (ref. Genesis 10:2). The prophet Ezekiel mentions Gomer too, as one of the nations that will come down from the far north in the battle of Gog and Magog, which will occur in the latter days (after Judah and Ephraim are united and living securely in their land; Ezekiel 38:1-8). However, many millennia before this end time scenario will take place, the house of Ephraim will end up in the land of Gomer, when taken there by the Assyrians in 722 BC. It is there where they will mix with the inhabitants and lose their identity, as is prophesied by Hosea (ref. 8:8). But from that point they will also multiply, as befits Ephraim's name -"doubly fruitful".

Hosea is told by YHVH to have children by this harlot, whose names were already predetermined because of their prophetic significance. The firstborn son was to be named Jezreel, which means "Yah will sow". YHVH was reiterating what He had said to the forefathers when He made the covenant with them, namely that He would multiply their seed/life plentifully. But this kind of "sowing" also implies scattering and hence demolishing the kingdom and the deportation of its subjects. Additionally, the loss of the kingdom was also a form of a punishment over the house of Jehu, one of the kings of the northern kingdom who shed in Jezreel the blood of Ahaziah king of Judah, David's offspring and YHVH's anointed (ref. Hosea 1:4).

The next child was to be named Lo-Ruhama, "for I will no longer have compassion/mercy on the house of Israel that I should ever forgive them" (Hosea 1:6). Here again is a prophetic tag on the temporary destiny of this house, which sets the stage for them to become ultimately "YHVH's mercy vessels" through a new, or renewed, covenant (see Romans 11:31). Much later on, the apostle Peter quotes from these very prophecies when addressing his audience, a fact that points to their identity (ref 1 Peter 2:10).

Making a plain differentiation between the future of Israel’s two kingdoms, Hosea says to the house of Judah: "Yet I will have mercy on the house of Judah, will save them by YHVH their Elohim, and will not save them by bow, nor by sword or battle, by horses or horsemen" (Hosea 1:7). Thus Judah was destined to remain an identifiable entity (to be known as the Jews).

Gomer conceived and gave birth to another boy who was to be named Lo-Ami, meaning "not My people", to which YHVH added, "and I am not your Elohim" (ref. Hosea 1:9; 1 Peter 2:10a). With these words YHVH cut off the branches of Jacob's proverbial olive tree. The rejected ones would no longer have roots or links to the People of Israel, nor to the forefathers. They have just become the cut-off and scattered olive branches (which by taking root will become an uncultivated olive tree), strangers to the covenants, aliens to the house of Isaac and Jacob. YHVH not only cut them off, but He also burned them in the fires of His jealousy. They have become ashes - "epher" - which just happens to be the first three consonants of the name Ephraim. YHVH then sends a desert wind, which blows the ashes northward and westward, until Ephraim is well mixed in all nations (ref Hosea 7:8). However, the divine spark which has been placed into those ashes is YHVH's word, and thus when His Spirit will blow on these dim sparks they will become a mighty flame (ref Obadiah 1:18). This flame promises to be beautiful; as YHVH assures Israel that He will give them beauty for ashes (ref. Isaiah 61:3).

But in spite of these future promises, at present the judgments that were to be inflicted upon Ephraim were so severe that it looked like nothing would be left of them: "Ephraim is stricken, their root is dried up; they shall bear no fruit. Yes, were they to bear children, I would kill the darlings of their womb." (Hosea 9:16). What a contrast to their declared destiny of multiplicity! But just like in the previous chapter, where we noted that darkness and sin at times form a veil over YHVH’s purposes, here too we find that He conceals His intents in what appears to be a paradox (Luke 8:10; Isaiah 6:9).

Hosea's prophecy of doom does not end with a tragic prediction. Like all the other prophets of Israel, he too points to the "hope of Israel" and to the faithfulness of a covenant keeping Elohim: "Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, 'You are not My people,' There it shall be said to them, 'You are sons of the living Elohim.' Then the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together, and appoint for themselves one head; and they shall come up out of the earth, for great will be the day of Jezreel"! (Hosea 10-11).

"'For as the sash clings to the waist of a man, so I have caused the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah to cling to Me,' says YHVH, 'that they may become My people, for renown, for praise, and for glory; but they would not hear/listen.'" (Jeremiah 13:11 emphasis added).

Shm'ah Israel!

Shabbat Shalom

Ephraim