ISHI---YESHUA---YISHEY
ISHI---YESHUA---YISHEY
Hosea 2: 16
Sunday, April 14, 2013, the Year of Our Lord
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
Hosea 2:16: “It shall be in that day, says the Lord, that you shall call me Ishi; and shall call me no more “Baali”.
Ishi #376 means Husband (Yishy, “Yashay”, “Yeshua”)
Yeshua means Jesus. There was no “J” in the early Hebrew alphabet.
Baali #1180 means lord; Ba-al #1166 means to marry and be lord/husband in marriage.
When Pastor Lil de Fin was here, she spoke to me at lunch that one day I will write a book about my journey, (as a widow), of learning to submit to Jesus Christ as husband.
All week I have heard the word, “Ishi”.
So, by faith this teaching/preaching is my first attempt to put in to words the promise of the Holy Bible for Jesus to be our “Ishi”. This promise is not just for widows, widowers, singles, and divorcees. It is to all who will believe on Jesus Christ.
We can all identify with making our earthly beloved an idol and giving him/her lordship over our lives. This chapter speaks volumes about the balance of not allowing anyone or anything to have lordship over our lives.
Only Jesus Christ is our “Ishi”.
The language and message is so strong that worshipping anyone or thing other than God (the Trinity) is whoredom and adultery.
No where in the Old Testament is divine grace more vividly set forth than in Hosea: Here we find the foretelling of the New Covenant one hundred years before Jeremiah 2: 14-20. The prophet presents the grace of the perseverance of God’s unmerited mercy, anticipating the wonder of Calvary. Hosea’s walk and calling is a graphic use of marriage as a simile of God’s relationship with his people.
2 Cor. 11:2: “I am jealous over you with righteous jealousy; for I have espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.”(Yasha the Mashaya)
The purpose of this message is not to dwell so much on Hosea’s adulterous wife, Gomer, but to speak of the blessings promised to us as the Bride of Christ dwells in the provision of the blessedness of union with Christ.
There were seven things Gomer had in harlotry (Hosea 2:5):
1. Lovers
2. Bread
3. Water
4. Wool
5. Flax
6. Oil
7. Drink
This translates to all the lusts of the world and the prosperity of the world.
The prediction is that she would not be happy and successful in her life of harlotry---she would long for her husband again and return to him (Vs. 6-8).
She did not appreciate that her husband had provided her all the things which her lovers had provided, and more (Vs. 8). She was to be punished and taught a lesson not to play the harlot again.
“She did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal. Therefore I will return and take away my corn in the time thereof, and my wine in the season thereof, and will recover my wood and my flax given to cover her nakedness.”
Verses 11-13 is God’s judgment applied to Israel for departing from the Lord as well as the vilest adultery. The purpose of the story is Hosea’s domestic tragedies are parabolic of the Lord’s disappointment with Israel.
If the warnings go unheeded, chastisement will follow---the deprivation of all prosperity and joy.
They had worshipped Baal with the Lord’s blessings whch he bestowed on them, thus the ultimate in apostasy. Hence, the gifts are removed. Similarly the feasts which were to originally honor the Lord but were diverted to celebrate Baal; they had to be stopped.
It is clear here that the Sabbaths of Israel were to be done away with as much as her mirth, feasts, new moons, and other rituals. This is what happened when God made the New Covenant; not a single commandment was given regarding the keeping of any particular day as the Sabbath. No man is to judge another on the question of the Sabbath (Col. 2: 14-17).
Christianity is not a religion of days, weeks, years, and rituals.
Rev. 2:4: “I have somewhat against you, because you have left your first love.”
The lovers of Israel were the many nations round about, whom they made alliances with and trusted in instead of Yahovah (V. 13).
After threats of doom come forecasts of blessing and a great restoration.
2:14: “I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her.”
"The word “allure” in context is a bold word and may be considered “seduce” as in Exod. 22:16. This bold use of words reflects the yearning of God for his people. The seduction arises because the desert, seemingly a place of punishment, proves to be one of renewal of love" (Ellison).
There are seventeen things God will do for Israel (14-22):
1. Speak comfortably to her.
2. Give her back her vineyards.
3. Give her the valley of Achor for a door of hope (Achor –literally means trouble becomes hope).
4. Bring her back to a spirit of singing.
5. Marry her again.
6. Bring her into the intimacy of a second honeymoon with “Ishi” and a renewal of favor with “Yahovah”. The idolatrous relationship with lordship of Baal (translated husband in Jer. 31:32) will no longer be a stumbling block in her life. Then follows the triple betrothal:
7. I will betroth you unto me for ever.
8. I will betroth you unto me in righteousness and in judgment.
9. I will betroth you unto me in loving-kindness and mercy” (Hos. 2:19).
(a) Love (hesed) “loyalty to one’s covenant obligations and devotion to one’s covenant obligations and devotion to one’s covenant partner is amply displayed by God though woefully lacking in Israel
(b) Justice (mispat) implies all the conditions of the covenant. Rom. 3:26: I declare his righteousness that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believes in Jesus”(Yahova is Salvation).
(c) Faithfulness (from the same root word as Amen) is God’s reliability and consistency in contrast to the waywardness of the people.
(d) Acknowledge the Lord is expected of the covenant people. It includes an inner disposition towards God but also a familiarity with the deeds of God in history and obedience to the covenant conditions as set out in the Law.
(e) Compassion translates the same word as ‘ my loved one’ (2:1) and reverses the verdict of 1:6. The kind of tenderness spontaneously called forth by what is small or hurt or cuddly.
10. Bring peace to them.
11. Make them safe.
12. Cause her to know him.
13. Make them prosperous
14. Make her a plant sown by God. 2:21: “It shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, says the Lord. I will hear the heavens and they shall hear the earth. The earth shall hear the corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel (God sows)”.
15. Have mercy upon her
16. Call them His people
17. Become their God.
“In that day” is when God’s purposes in discipline are accomplished. It is my persuasion it is a day of grace opened to us with the Blood of Jesus, His death, burial and Resurrection. “It is finished”. I believe “that day” is for the remnant of God’s people who will walk in the intimate relationship with him as our husband.
Dake believes this is a “day” beyond the present dispensation of grace of the New Covenant. We know that all of Israel has not come into this divine union. We know that our nation and much of the apostate church is as guilty as Israel of all the sins of Israel.
However, it is my Faith statement that I believe there is in every generation a remnant of people who will enter into this divine union with our Heavenly “Ishi”, receive this divine grace and live on earth in the Kingdom of God on earth as it is in Heaven. As Christians we "now' have these graces upon our lives.
Rev. 21:2 “I John saw the “holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.”
Jesus is coming again and “In that Day” 2 Thess. 1: 7: “To you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his “mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that do not know God, and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power. When he shall come to be glorified in his saints and to be admired in all them that believe….We pray always for you that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power.”
Carolyn Sissom, Pastor
Eastgate Ministries, Inc.
Scripture from K.J.V.; I entered into the labors of Dake’s Annotated Reference Bible and F. F. Bruce Bible Commentary, G. J. Pokinghorne. Comments and conclusions are my own and not meant to reflect the views of those whom I entered into their labors.