"For the Israelites will live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred stones, without ephod or household gods. Afterward the Israelites will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the Lord and to His blessings in the last days." (Hosea 3:4-5)
The Lord is going to allow the northern kingdom of Israel to fall to the Assyrian army. Most of the citizens will be deported to various foreign lands where they will be ruled over by foreign kings. Those who remain in the land will be ruled over by foreigners. This is what the Lord means when He says the Israelites "will live many days without king or prince", meaning without a king or prince from among their own people. There has been no literal king of Israel ever since the northern kingdom fell to Assyria and there has been no literal king of Judah ever since the southern kingdom fell to Babylon. All the people were subject to foreign governments for centuries until at last, in 1948, Israel became a sovereign nation in the world again. Since then there have been national leaders of Israel but no actual king and there will be no king until the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of kings, reigns over the whole world from His throne in Israel. This is who is being spoken of when the Lord says the people will seek "David their king". The Lord Jesus, direct descendant of King David, will be the one the people of God look toward at that time.
This is a Messianic prophecy; therefore it has not yet found complete fulfillment because the Messiah is not yet enthroned as king. But the prophecy has found partial fulfillment in that there is once again a nation of Israel to which this king will return. This could not have been said prior to the reinstatement of Israel as an independent nation. A return to the land has occurred in part as well. In ancient times many returned to the land after being released from foreign governments and many more returned after the reinstatement of Israel as a nation. But we know from our previous studies of Revelation that a day is coming when more Jewish people will return to Israel than ever before.
But between now (in the book of Hosea) and then (during the eternal reign of Christ), the Lord must take disciplinary action against ancient Israel for the rampant idolatry the people are engaging in and for the injustices they are perpetrating against the poor, against the widows and orphans, and against the foreigners who are seeking asylum or seeking to make a peaceful living within Israel's borders.
As we open Chapter 4 we find the Lord charging the Israelites with crimes. "Hear the word of the Lord, you Israelites, because the Lord has a charge to bring against you who live in the land: 'There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgement of God in the land. There is only cursing, lying and murder, stealing and adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed. Because of this the land dries up, and all who live in it waste away; the beasts of the field, the birds in the sky and the fish in the sea are swept away." (Hosea 4:1-3)
The farther the people have fallen from God, the farther they have fallen into immorality and inhumanity. Before ever bringing the people into the promised land, the Lord assured them He would provide everything they needed if they remained faithful to Him. He said if they followed His decrees and commandments, "I will send you rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops and the trees their fruit." (Leviticus 26:4) But the Lord appears to be speaking of a drought as we begin Chapter 4 and that drought is a direct result of their sin. The drought should be causing them to ask themselves, "Why is this happening to us? Why is the Lord not providing the rain He promised?" And these questions should produce the answer, "It is because we have forsaken Him." He warned them that forsaking Him would cause Him to "make the sky above you like iron and the ground beneath you like bronze". (Leviticus 26:19, Deuteronomy 28:23)
Whenever hardship comes into our lives, the first and most important question we should ask is, "Have I brought this on myself? Am I living in disobedience to the Lord?" We must pray and examine our hearts and ask the Lord to reveal to us any sin that needs to be dealt with. Not all hardship is the result of living in deliberate sin; we can be living within the will of the Lord and still experience trouble in this fallen world where bad things happen and where unbelievers (and believers too, sometimes) mistreat their fellow man. But we should always question whether a hardship is discipline for disobedience. If we determine this is the case, we must immediately repent and ask the Lord to help us get back on track and stay on track. We must turn away from whatever sin we've fallen into. The drought the Lord sent the people wasn't for the purpose of destroying them but was for the purpose of causing them to acknowledge their sin and turn away from it. If they had done this, He would have accepted their repentance and would have poured out the blessings He promised for obedience. But since they did not do this, the fall of the nation is soon at hand. Invasion, defeat, and deportation will occur within the span of the next thirty years.
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