Title: God Who Wrote the Law in Thousands
Contents
about:blank
Hosea 8
11. Ephraim made many altars for his sins, and those altars were made to cause him to sin.
12. I have written my law for him in ten thousand things, but they regard it as irrelevant.
13. As for the sacrifices offered to me, they offer meat sacrifices and eat them, but the LORD is not pleased with them, and now remembers their iniquity and punishes them, and they will go back to Egypt.
14. Israel has forgotten its maker and built temples, and Judah has built many fortified cities, but I will send fire upon them and devour them.
Matthew 11
16. What would you like to compare this generation to? For example, the children sit in the marketplace and call their comrades.
17. As it is said, We played the flute for you, but you did not dance; we mourned, but ye did not beat our hearts.
18. When John came neither eating nor drinking, they said, He has a demon.
19. The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and saying, Behold, a glutton and a drinker of wine, a friend of tax collectors and sinners. Wisdom is justified by what he has done.
20. Then he rebuked the towns in which Jesus had bestowed his power, because they did not repent.
21. Woe to Chorazin, woe to Bethsaida, if all the mighty works that were done in you had been done in Tire and Sidon, they would have repented already in sackcloth and sitting in ashes.
22. I tell you, it will be more tolerable for Tire and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you.
23. Will you be exalted to heaven, Capernaum? You will be brought down to hell. If all the mighty works that were done in you had been done in Sodom, the city would still exist to this day.
24. I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom on the day of judgment than for you.
Content
Title: The God Who Wrote the Law in Ten Thousand Words
Text: Hosea 8:11-14, Matthew 11:16-24,
“I have written my law for him ten thousand things, but they regard it as irrelevant” (Hosea 8:12). This is God's lament for Northern Israel. It was God's judgment that the chosen people of Israel were divided into north and south. The dark shadow that appeared during the reign of King Solomon is said to be the origin. This is because the wisdom and glory that God has granted also escaped God's rule and caused problems. The wealth and prosperity of a country that ignored the suffering of its people who were bent over due to excessive taxation was like a house on the sand. The result is a crisis with Solomon's death. Rehoboam in Judah and Jeroboam in northern Israel both follow people's will rather than asking God's will, leading to an irreversible division of the nation. So the 200th year of division (922-722 B.C.) begins.
The northern kingdom without legitimacy triggers even more God's wrath. With the political intention of perpetuating national division, the object of faith is replaced with a golden calf. An idol of a golden calf was erected at Bethel to prevent sacrifices to Jerusalem. It is a reproduction of the sins of our ancestors under Mt. Sinai that were committed during the old Exodus (Exodus 32). This is the first verse of today's Old Testament text. “Ephraim made many altars for sin, and those altars made him sin” (Hosea 8:11). In order to confront a sanctuary in Jerusalem in southern Judah, northern Israel built many altars to add to their sins. Outwardly, northern Israel was superior to southern Judah in almost every way. The number of tribes was 10/2, the population was 2/1 from the north to the south, and the territory was 3/1.
There were more prophetic activities in the Northern Kingdom. The prophecy movement before Isaiah was limited to the Northern Kingdom. Amos was also born in Tekoa, the southern kingdom, and prophesied in the northern kingdom. This is probably because it was a hotbed of sin that became the reason for judgment in history at that time. The reason for the judgment of northern Israel that left Jehovah God is ‘idol worship and evil alliances with other nations’. With this historical background, it is necessary to understand today's text, which was about 10 years before the fall of the Northern Kingdom (about 732 B.C.). Even in the midst of such sins, the love of Jehovah, the God of Israel, remained (Hos. 8:12). ‘Writing in ten thousand ways’ means ‘recording over and over again, using all methods to record’. It is the constant effort of God's love.
However, the response exceeded God's expectations. 'We regard it as irrelevant' means 'considered it as troublesome'. It means that they distanced themselves from God's laws and prophecies as they were a bondage to their lives. It reminds me of 'the image of God who wrote the laws in ten thousand ways' and 'the image of people who consider them irrelevant and bothered. The words of the New Testament text (Matthew 11:16-24) are also reminiscent of this. It is Jesus' lament for a generation that goes against the history that is being made through the Savior Jesus Christ. You used children's market games as an example. The history through John the Baptist ‘has possessed a demon’ The history through Jesus Christ is ‘a glutton and a drinker of wine. He said the reverse reaction of being a friend of tax collectors and sinners. He said that the result of losing the opportunity to repent is only a terrible judgment. The result of insensitivity that is considered irrelevant is judgment.