Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God, and David their king; and shall fear the LORD and his goodness in the latter days.
The question the above verse raises is, why would Israel now fear the LORD’s goodness? It comes in the final verse of Hosea 3, where the LORD tells Hosea to love an adulteress, who is Israel, symbolically called Gomer, meaning completion. The chapter tells of God’s people leaving Him to follow other men, who lead them astray into evil, which causes them to fear when revealed in these latter days.
Hosea is the Hebrew name, Howshea’, meaning deliverer or salvation, and is also rendered Oshea and Hoshea. As was we know, in Numbers 13:16, Oshea the son of Nun (perpetuity), is there renamed Joshua by Moses, thereby describing him as Jehovah’s salvation or deliverer personified (Jehovah Howshea’, is Joshua, is Jesus). Hosea isn’t seen as Jesus until God’s people realize He is Jehovah’s promised salvation personified, sent to deliver them. This is today’s message, the LORD, AGAIN, showing the foretelling pattern in this time, the latter days that wait for the completion of God’s strayed people, in the epiphany (the realization of the manifestation).
Hosea 3
1 Then said the LORD unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the LORD toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love flagons of wine.
2 So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for a homer of barley, and a half homer of barley:
3 And I said unto her, You shall abide for me many days; you shall not play the harlot, and you shall not be for another man: so will I also be for you.
4 For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim:
5 Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God, and David their king; and shall fear the LORD and his goodness in the latter days.
The “return” of God’s people to Him, Gomer’s completion, comes with first realizing what we lack: the “goodness” spoken of in verse 4.
The word “image” is the Hebrews matstsebah, “something stationed, i.e. a column or (memorial stone); by analogy, an idol.” It is most often rendered “pillar,” and is speaking of a marked-out boundary, an immovable standard (of truth).
The “ephod” is the Hebrew word ‘ephowd, meaning, “a girdle; specifically the ephod or high-priest’s shoulder-piece; also generally, an image.” It speaks of a yoke, God’s immovable standards binding us together with Him, into His house (family). Teraphim, from traphiym, means healer, plural of the word raphah, meaning to mend or cure.
The things we have been many days without are the King (God the Father), and the prince (the son through who He speaks), who is the sacrifice He desires of us (paying the necessary price to speak His word, the bread from His mouth). As we saw in the previous post, from Psalms 146:10, the LORD is the King who reigns, whose immovable standard is the truth He keeps forever. When yoked to Him, in His truth, it mends the breach in the house of David and cures our blindness to Him.
Psalms 146
1 Praise you the LORD. Praise the LORD, O my soul.
2 While I live will I praise the LORD: I will sing praises unto my God while I have any being.
3 Put not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man, in whom there is no help.
4 His breath goes forth, he returns to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish [contrasted with the LORD’s truth, which He keeps forever].
5 Happy is he that has the God of Jacob for his help, whose hope is in the LORD his God:
6 Which made heaven, and earth, the sea, and all that therein is: which keeps truth forever:
7 Which executes judgment for the oppressed: which gives food to the hungry. The LORD looses the prisoners:
8 The LORD opens the eyes of the blind: the LORD raises them that are bowed down: the LORD loves the righteous:
9 The LORD preserves the strangers [those who don’t actually know Him, but are not His enemies]; he relieves the fatherless and widow [those who don’t have a man to lead and care for them]: but the way of the wicked he turns upside down.
10 The LORD shall reign forever, even your God, O Zion, unto all generations. Praise you the LORD.
The realization that comes when the “pillars” are reset: God’s unchanging truth, is first spoken of in Genesis 28 as Jacob awakens from His sleep. He realizes they are the stones, as pillows in the night, upon which he has rested his head (while ignorant of God, during Abram’s deep sleep).
Genesis 28
10 And Jacob went out from Beersheba [the well of the oath – the word of God and His promises], and went toward Haran [parched – to where there was no understanding of God word].
11 And he lighted upon a certain place, and tarried there all night [a period of ignorance], because the sun [understanding] was set; and he took of the stones of that place, and put them for his pillows, and lay down in that place to sleep.
12 And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.
13 And, behold, the LORD stood above it, and said, I am the LORD God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon you lie, to you will I give it, and to your seed;
14 And your seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and you shall spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in you and in your seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.
15 And, behold, I am with you, and will keep you in all places whither you go, and will bring you again into this land; for I will not leave you, until I have done that which I have spoken to you of.
16 And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the LORD is in this place; and I knew it not.
17 And he was afraid [fearing the LORD’s goodness], and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.
18 And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar [matstsebah – a memorial boundary – so he would remember they are the pillars of health and cure], and poured oil upon the top of it.
19 And he called the name of that place Bethel [none other than the house {family} of God]: but the name of that city was called Luz [almond tree – the place where life first shoots forth after the long winter] at the first.
20 And Jacob vowed a vow [nadar], saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on,
21 So that I come again to my father’s house in peace; then shall the LORD be my God:
22 And this stone, which I have set for a pillar [matstsebah], shall be God’s house: and of all that you shall give me I will surely give the tenth unto you.
Isaiah 19
12 Where are they? where are your wise men? and let them tell you now, and let them know what the LORD of hosts has purposed upon Egypt [the oppressors].
13 The princes of Zoan [who’ve departed from the LORD] are become fools, the princes of Noph [those present in the high places – the capitals] are deceived; they have also seduced Egypt, even they that are the stay of the tribes thereof.
14 The LORD has mingled a perverse spirit in the midst thereof: and they have caused Egypt to err in every work thereof, as a drunken man staggers in his vomit.
15 Neither shall there be any work for Egypt, which the head [the ancients] or tail [the prophets that teach lies], branch or rush, may do.
16 In that day shall Egypt be like unto women: and it shall be afraid and fear because of the shaking of the hand of the LORD of hosts, which he shakes over it.
17 And the land of Judah [the elect remnant] shall be a terror unto Egypt, every one that makes mention thereof shall be afraid in himself, because of the counsel of the LORD of hosts, which he has determined against it.
18 In that day shall five cities in the land of Egypt speak the language of Canaan, and swear to the LORD of hosts; one shall be called, The city of destruction [upon whose ruin will He build Jerusalem].
19 In that day shall there be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar [matstsebah – an immovable and unchanging standard] at the border thereof to the LORD.
20 And it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt: for they shall cry unto the LORD because of the oppressors, and he shall send them a savior, and a great one, and he shall deliver them.
21 And the LORD shall be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians shall know the LORD in that day, and shall do sacrifice and oblation; yea, they shall vow [nadar] a vow [neder] unto the LORD, and perform it.
22 And the LORD shall smite Egypt: he shall smite and heal it: and they shall return even to the LORD, and he shall be entreated of them, and shall heal them.
23 In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt to Assyria [the communists], and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians.
24 In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land:
25 Whom the LORD of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance.
Ecclesiastes
4 When you vow [nadar] a vow [neder] unto God, defer not to pay it; for he has no pleasure in fools: pay that which you have vowed [nadar].
5 Better is it that you should not vow [nadar], than that you should vow [nadar] and not pay.
6 Suffer not your mouth to cause your flesh to sin; neither say you before the angel, that it was an error: wherefore should God be angry at your voice, and destroy the work of your hands?
7 For in the multitude of dreams and many words there are also divers vanities: but fear you God.
8 If you see the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter: for he that is higher than the highest regards; and there be higher than they.
9 Moreover the profit of the earth is for all: the king himself is served by the field.
10 He that loves silver shall not be satisfied with silver; nor he that loves abundance with increase: this is also vanity.
11 When goods increase, they are increased that eat them: and what good is there to the owners thereof, saving the beholding of them with their eyes?
12 The sleep of a laboring man is sweet, whether he eat little or much: but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep.
13 There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely, riches kept for the owners thereof to their hurt.
14 But those riches perish by evil travail: and he begets a son, and there is nothing in his hand.
15 As he came forth of his mother’s womb, naked shall he return to go as he came, and shall take nothing of his labor, which he may carry away in his hand.
16 And this also is a sore evil, that in all points as he came, so shall he go: and what profit has he that has labored for the wind?
17 All his days also he eats in darkness, and he has much sorrow and wrath with his sickness.
18 Behold that which I have seen: it is good and comely for one to eat and to drink, and to enjoy the good of all his labor that he taketh under the sun all the days of his life, which God gives him: for it is his portion.
19 Every man also to whom God has given riches and wealth, and has given him power to eat thereof, and to take his portion, and to rejoice in his labor; this is the gift of God.
20 For he shall not much remember the days of his life; because God answers him in the joy of his heart.
Jonah 1
15 So they took up Jonah, and cast him forth into the sea: and the sea ceased from her raging.
16 Then the men feared the LORD exceedingly, and offered a sacrifice unto the LORD, and made [nadar] vows [neder].
17 Now the LORD had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish [the cause of the storm – the ever-open mouths of men] three days and three nights.
Jonah 2
1 Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish’s belly [the belly of hell, caused by the ever-open mouths, the advice of men],
2 And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell [Sheol – the habitation of the dead] cried I, and you heard my voice.
3 For you had cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas [the masses, into who the rivers, the words of men, flow]; and the floods compassed me about: all your billows and your [pride of men, swelled, exalted above the word of the LORD] waves passed over me.
4 Then I said, I am cast out of your sight [the world blinded to the LORD, by the ignorant teaching of men, and their advice]; yet I will look again toward your holy temple.
5 The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth [this deep understanding] closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head.
6 I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me forever: yet have you brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God.
7 When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto you, into your holy temple.
8 They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.
9 But I will sacrifice unto you with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed [nadar]. Salvation is of the LORD.
10 And the LORD spoke unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land [where this word of the LORD isn’t heard].
Jonah 3
1 And the word of the LORD came unto Jonah the second time, saying,
2 Arise, go unto Nineveh, that great city, and preach unto it the preaching that I bid you.
Hosea 10
1 Israel is an empty vine, he brings forth fruit unto himself: according to the multitude of his fruit he has increased the altars; according to the goodness of his land they have made goodly images [matstsebah – their own standards they put in God’s place].
2 Their heart is divided; now shall they be found faulty: he shall break down their altars, he shall spoil their images [matstsebah – their ever-changing standard, molten image].
3 For now they shall say, We have no king, because we feared not the LORD; what then should a king do to us?
4 They have spoken words, swearing falsely in making a covenant: thus judgment springs up as hemlock in the furrows of the field.
5 The inhabitants of Samaria [where the strangers are mixed among God’s people and all worship idols they call God] shall fear because of the calves of Bethaven [the worthless house]: for the people thereof shall mourn over it, and the priests thereof that rejoiced on it, for the glory thereof, because it is departed from it.
6 It shall be also carried unto Assyria [communists] for a present to king Jareb [who contends with God]: Ephraim shall receive shame [when they see the goodness of God and understand they have followed idols away from Him], and Israel shall be ashamed [as is Ephraim] of his own counsel.
7 As for Samaria, her king [sorry Joe] is cut off as the foam upon the water.
8 The high places also of Aven [worthlessness], the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed: the thorn and the thistle [the misleaders who spring us in a time of neglect] shall come up on their altars; and they shall say to the mountains, Cover us; and to the hills, Fall on us.
9 O Israel, you have sinned from the days of Gibeah: there they stood: the battle in Gibeah against the children of iniquity did not overtake them.
Hosea 5
7 They have dealt treacherously against the LORD: for they have begotten strange children: now shall a month devour them with their portions.
8 Blow you the cornet in Gibeah, and the trumpet in Ramah: cry aloud at Bethaven [the worthless house], after you, O Benjamin.
9 Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke: among the tribes of Israel have I made known that which shall surely be.
10 The princes of Judah were like them that remove the bound: therefore I will pour out my wrath upon them like water.
11 Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment, because he willingly walked after the commandment [of the misleader].
12 Therefore will I be unto Ephraim as a moth, and to the house of Judah as rottenness.
13 When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound, then went Ephraim to the Assyrian [to the communists], and sent to king Jareb [who contends with God]: yet could he not heal you, nor cure you of your wound.
14 For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah: I, even I, will tear and go away; I will take away, and none shall rescue him.
15 I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offense, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early.
Ezekiel 44
1 Then he brought me back the way of the gate of the outward sanctuary which looks toward the east; and it was shut.
2 Then said the LORD unto me; This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall enter in by it; because the LORD, the God of Israel, has entered in by it, therefore it shall be shut.
3 It is for the prince; the prince, he shall sit in it to eat bread before the LORD; he shall enter by the way of the porch of that gate, and shall go out by the way of the same.
4 Then brought he me the way of the north gate before the house: and I looked, and, behold, the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD: and I fell upon my face.
5 And the LORD said unto me, Son of man, mark well, and behold with your eyes, and hear with your ears all that I say unto you concerning all the ordinances of the house of the LORD, and all the laws thereof; and mark well the entering in of the house, with every going forth of the sanctuary.
6 And you shall say to the rebellious, even to the house of Israel, Thus says the LORD God; O you house of Israel, let it suffice you of all your abominations,
7 In that you have brought into my sanctuary strangers, uncircumcised in heart, and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in my sanctuary, to pollute it, even my house, when you offer my bread, the fat and the blood, and they have broken my covenant because of all your abominations.
8 And you have not kept the charge of mine holy things: but you have set keepers of my charge in my sanctuary for yourselves.
9 Thus says the LORD God; No stranger, uncircumcised in heart, nor uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter into my sanctuary, of any stranger that is among the children of Israel.
10 And the Levites that are gone away far from me, when Israel went astray, which went astray away from me after their idols; they shall even bear their iniquity.
11 Yet they shall be ministers in my sanctuary, having charge at the gates of the house, and ministering to the house: they shall slay the burnt offering and the sacrifice [zebach – the same as Hosea 3:4] for the people, and they shall stand before them to minister unto them.
12 Because they ministered unto them before their idols, and caused the house of Israel to fall into iniquity; therefore have I lifted up mine hand against them, says the LORD God, and they shall bear their iniquity.
13 And they shall not come near unto me, to do the office of a priest unto me, nor to come near to any of my holy things, in the Most Holy place: but they shall bear their shame, and their abominations which they have committed.
14 But I will make them keepers of the charge of the house, for all the service thereof, and for all that shall be done therein.
15 But the priests the Levites, the sons of Zadok [righteousness], that kept the charge of my sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from me, they shall come near to me to minister unto me, and they shall stand before me to offer unto me the fat and the blood, says the LORD God:
16 They shall enter into my sanctuary, and they shall come near to my table, to minister unto me, and they shall keep my charge.
17 And it shall come to pass, that when they enter in at the gates of the inner court, they shall be clothed with linen [purity] garments; and no wool shall come upon them [they shall not take from the flock], whiles they minister in the gates of the inner court, and within.
18 They shall have linen bonnets upon their heads, and shall have linen breeches upon their loins; they shall not gird themselves with anything that causes sweat.
19 And when they go forth into the utter court, even into the utter court to the people, they shall put off their garments wherein they ministered, and lay them in the holy chambers, and they shall put on other garments; and they shall not sanctify the people with their garments.
20 Neither shall they shave their heads, nor suffer their locks to grow long; they shall only poll their heads.
21 Neither shall any priest drink wine, when they enter into the inner court.
22 Neither shall they take for their wives a widow, nor her that is put away: but they shall take maidens of the seed of the house of Israel, or a widow that had a priest before.
23 And they shall teach my people the difference between the holy and profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean.
Jeremiah 16
14 Therefore, behold, the days come, says the LORD, that it shall no more be said, The LORD lives, that brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt;
15 But, The LORD lives, that brought up the children of Israel from the land of the north, and from all the lands whither he had driven them: and I will bring them again into their land that I gave unto their fathers.
16 Behold, I will send for many fishers, says the LORD, and they shall fish them; and after will I send for many hunters, and they shall hunt them from every mountain, and from every hill, and out of the holes of the rocks.
17 For mine eyes are upon all their ways: they are not hid from my face, neither is their iniquity hid from mine eyes.
18 And first I will recompense their iniquity and their sin double; because they have defiled my land, they have filled mine inheritance with the carcasses of their detestable and abominable things.
19 O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto you from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit.
20 Shall a man make gods unto himself, and they are no gods?
21 Therefore, behold, I will this once cause them to know, I will cause them to know mine hand and my might; and they shall know that my name is The LORD.
Jeremiah 17
1 The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with the point of a diamond: it is graven upon the table of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars;
2 Whilst their children remember their altars and their groves by the green trees upon the high hills.
3 O my mountain in the field, I will give your substance and all your treasures to the spoil, and your high places for sin, throughout all your borders.
4 And you, even yourself, shall discontinue from your heritage that I gave you; and I will cause you to serve your enemies in the land which you know not: for you have kindled a fire in mine anger, which shall burn for ever.
5 Thus says the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from the LORD.
6 For he shall be like the heath [his condition plainly seen] in the desert, and shall not see when good comes; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited.
7 Blessed is the man that trusts in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is.
8 For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreads out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat comes, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.
9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
10 I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.
Jeremiah 43
7 So they came into the land of Egypt: for they obeyed not the voice of the LORD: thus came they even to Tahpanhes.
8 Then came the word of the LORD unto Jeremiah in Tahpanhes [the place where the LORD pities the ignorant], saying,
9 Take great stones in your hand, and hide them in the clay in the brick-kiln [the furnace], which is at the entry of Pharaoh’s house in Tahpanhes, in the sight of the men of Judah;
10 And say unto them, Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will send and take Nebuchadrezzar the king of Babylon [the false prophets who protect the crown of confusion], my servant, and will set his throne upon these stones that I have hid; and he shall spread his royal pavilion over them.
11 And when he comes, he shall smite the land of Egypt, and deliver such as are for death to death; and such as are for captivity to captivity; and such as are for the sword to the sword.
12 And I will kindle a fire in the houses of the gods of Egypt; and he shall burn them, and carry them away captives: and he shall array himself with the land of Egypt, as a shepherd puts on his garment; and he shall go forth from thence in peace.
13 He shall break also the images [matstsebah – the false standard, the pillars of deceit and violence] of Bethshemesh [the house {family} of the sun rise – when understanding and truth are uncovered], that is in the land of Egypt; and the houses of the gods of the Egyptians shall he burn with fire.
Psalms 81
1 Sing aloud unto God our strength: make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob.
2 Take a psalm, and bring hither the timbrel, the pleasant harp with the psaltery.
3 Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on our solemn feast day.
4 For this was a statute for Israel, and a law of the God of Jacob.
5 This he ordained in Joseph for a testimony, when he went out through the land of Egypt: where I heard a language that I understood not.
6 I removed his shoulder from the burden: his hands were delivered from the pots.
7 You called in trouble, and I delivered you; I answered you in the secret place of thunder [the sound of light, the voice of understanding]: I proved you at the waters of Meribah [strife and contention]. Selah.
8 Hear, O my people, and I will testify unto you: O Israel, if you will hearken unto me;
9 There shall no strange god be in you; neither shall you worship any strange god.
10 I am the LORD your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt: open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.
11 But my people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of me.
12 So I gave them up unto their own hearts’ lust: and they walked in their own counsels.
13 Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways!
14 I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries.
15 The haters of the LORD should have submitted themselves unto him: but their time would have endured forever.
16 He would have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied you.
