Echoes From the Campfire

[Don Adkisson]

      “Things are changin', me and other folk...ain't much more than relics of a time that's gone...and it ain't comin' back.”

                    --Lou Bradshaw  (and Cain Smiled)

       "But hold fast what you have till I come."

                    --Revelation 2:25 (NKJV)
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Have you ever noticed that when reading the Bible, light all of a sudden dawns in your brain?  You can read a portion over and over, then, wham one day a different perspective is shown or a part of the verse never noticed before is seen.  I do want to mention something about prophecy.  So often there is a misconception regarding prophecy for it means telling the truth.  I may or may not have something to do with the future.  Remember, if you read the words of the prophets, they were primarily writing and speaking to the people of their day, however, the covenant background may be seen in their words at times, also there may be messianic and eschatological messages in their speaking.

               "When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.  The more they were called, the more they went away; they kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning offerings to idols."
                         --Hosea 11:1-2 (ESV)

       In verse one it is clear to see a double prophecy.  First is the idea that God loved Israel, He regarded Israel as His son.  He cared for them, treated them with special care, made special covenants with them, and delivered them in many instances but clearly from the slavery of Egypt.  We also see this as a Messianic prophecy.  Matthew writes, "Out of Egypt I called My Son." (Matthew 2:15, NKJV)  You may remember that Joseph was warned to take the baby Jesus and Mary and flee to Egypt until the time of Herod's death.
       That's the portion that is very familiar to me.  But verse two is what struck me this time.  Look at it closely, take time to contemplate it.  "The more they were called, the more they went away..."  A Jewish text reads, "I sent prophets to a thousand of them."  (Targum)  The prophets were sent to Israel, God's "son".  They had messages of repentance, warning, about proper worship and living.  However, look at the verse, "the more they were called, the more they went away."  Think of the access to the gospel we have today.  God is speaking, God is always speaking, but more and more the people are turning away.  There is the call to repentance, but it falls on deaf ears.  The people do not want to hear the voice of God; they want to do what is right in their own eyes.
       I remember in years gone by I would try to tune in the radio in the car, or on my transistor.  It seems that most of the time all I got was static.  That was the way of Israel when Hosea prophesied, the message was often jammed with other messages, or static interfered.  Static coming from the peoples' hearts.  The more they went from God the more they turned to Baals.  We see it happening today; we see the words of Paul coming tragically more and more true, "...who exchanged the truth of God for the lie..." (Romans 1:25, NKJV).  The more people were given the opportunity to know God the more they resisted.  Paul writes, "And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting." (Romans 1:28, NKJV)
       When the radio waves cry out a voice of repentance, when the media is full of scripture verses, podcasts, sermons--the voice of repentance is there, but are the people listening or are they turning more and more to their Baals?  Israel upon the word of God coming to them, "kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning offerings to idols."  Remember, many of those sacrifices were children.  Do we see the sacrificing of our children in abortion?  Maybe more deceiving and more sinister are the drag queens reading to children in the schools.  The media spewing forth the vomit of transgendering and the gay agenda.  The more people are called, it seems, the more they went away.
       Back to prophecy, it is speaking the truth.  The prophet spoke to the people of his day, but the message may be for those of the future.  It may be eschatological and show us that we are indeed, living in the last days.  Jesus spoke about the offenses to children, but His words rang deeper than just the children, "But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea.  Woe to the world because of offenses!  For offenses must come, but woe to that man by whom the offense comes!"  (Matthew 18:6-7, NKJV).

D. C. Adkisson