UPDATE WITH FRIENDS OF ISRAEL
Well, it’s been a blessing to be able to visit you guys again, and I’m looking forward to dive into God’s Word later in the service. As I mentioned, Pastor Glenn asked me to share an update, but first I just want to introduce myself for those who don’t know who I am. My name is Jared Esser, and I serve as the Coordinator of Church and Field staff with the Canadian Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry.
So I am up north a little bit, across the border. I send welcomes from the 51st state. I’m awaiting my perks and benefits, but we haven’t received them yet.
Can you go tell your president to hurry up on that? But it’s great to be here, and joining my ministry is my dear wife Germaine and my son Boaz, who just turned three, and we’re soon to be awaiting our newest arrival come later this November. So, the Lord has been good to us. When asked what I do, I get to minister, I reply, I get to minister to both of God’s people.
First, to His wayward children, the Jewish people, as I grow relationships and point them towards their Messiah, Jesus. Of course, this is not the right time. I have to grow relations with them, but my goal is to show them how the Old Testament connects to the New Testament in all points to Jesus being the promised Messiah of the Tanakh. That’s the Jewish Bible.
Second, I get to share with God’s faithful people, you, the church, and remind you of where Jesus is in Old Testament prophecy, where He is throughout all this book. We often look at the Old Testament and we’re like, ah, Jesus isn’t there, and we wait till the New Testament.
Friends, He’s just as alive in the Old Testament as He is in the New Testament. HisTransfiguration.. I mean He’s as alive in the Old Testament as He’s in the New Testament. Sometimes I argue He’s even more alive. We often forget that for seven hundred years the glory of the Lord sat with Israel in the temple. The physical representation of God with man.
Who was that? Well, we’ll get into that a little bit today, as I argue and I share, and I share with my Jewish friends, that was the pre-incarnate Messiah. That was my Jesus. So, He is quite active.
Pastor Glenn asked me to give an update on what’s happening, so I’ll give you an update of what’s happening with FOI in Canada, and then I’ll share a little bit with Israel and, of course, my ministry. So, I’ll try to keep this pretty short, but let’s jump in. First, I want to share with you the state of Canada and our Jewish population.
We often think of Israel, but there’s Jews all across the world right now that need help. In Canada, we’re in a steady decline, to the point that I saw an article this past week where Oklahoma may be starting to welcome Jews fleeing Canada due to threats of anti-Semitism. When I was young, this idea was not… We were a refuge to the Jewish people.
We were a refuge of freedom for the world. Yet, that’s changing, and especially for the Jewish community. We’re witnessing a deeply concerning, disproportionate targeting of the Jewish community.
Jewish Canadians make up only 1% of our population, yet they’re the target of 70% of all religion-motivated hate crimes. 70% of all Canada. The day-to-day reality is equally alarming.
The 2025 calendar year recorded a staggering 6,800 incidents, and it represents a 9.3% increase from 2024. In perspective, in Canada, there’s about 19 anti-Semitic incidents a day. And what does that mean? It means repeated harassment, not just like one thing or little comments, repeated harassment, vandalism, and violence happening every single day across Canada.
Overall, this is a Jewish organization, B’nai B’rith, reports that Canada has experienced a shocking 145.6% surge in anti-Semitism since 2022, highlighting a rapid escalating crisis. Unfortunately, this trend is only intensifying as the first six months of this year, 2026, has been released, and there’s already been 27 violent anti-Semitic attacks. That is double the number of violent incidents recorded in all of 2025.
You’re seeing an exponential growth every year in Canada against the Jewish people. A report from the Jewish students in university continue to show that this is probably not going to change as the upcoming generation is not any better. Why? Because 95.7% of Jewish students in Canadian universities have experienced or witnessed at least one anti-Semitic incident in the past year.
What does it look like with the numbers, studies? What does it look like? You see that, but what does it look like on the ground? In the hotspot of the country, Toronto and Quebec, where most of our Jewish population lives, we are seeing shooting at schools and synagogues. Asking where they’re getting the guns for that? I can’t tell you, but supposedly we banned them all, yet that’s still happening. Violent attacks against religious Jews to the point where a Jewish father was beat in public in front of his children.
This was in a public space in the middle of our metropolitan, not even like a poor, dangerous area. And there was even a targeted murder with a man traveling all the way from Alberta to Montreal. That’s half the country.
In kind of your mind, that’s from traveling from western Montana to New York State to target and murder a Jewish person. That’s what this person does, and he released a manifesto calling for more violence against the Jews. That’s what’s happening on the ground.
That’s how numbers are converting to reality. And despite this, our federal government stance is weak. They say they’re against the hate, yet despite that, they do nothing.
This picture over here is from my city, Winnipeg. We have what’s called the Canadian Human Rights Museum. It’s the only museum in the world dedicated entirely to human rights, and what have they just released? It’s called the Nakba Exhibit, and really, it’s an atrocious, factual, academic joke of an exhibit where even to their own standards, it’s a joke.
And what is it doing? It’s painting Jews, Israel, and everything in between as a genocidal problem on this world, all based on untrue facts, and it is very unfortunate. It’s not even that the Jewish people are against the Palestinians having such a thing. We just want the facts shared.
But academic integrity? That’s not what Canada’s federally looking at, and we’re funding this. So as you can see, there’s a lot of work to do in Canada. The Jews are in a place where it’s disheartening and it’s not looking great for them.
They’re in a very dangerous position. But despite that, there’s incredible news. Despite this dark reality, the ground for us in Jewish ministry is getting easier and easier to work.
Because we at FOI stand with the Jewish community, and they’re in crisis, FOI reps are being welcomed in as allies. They look at us and see, oh, you’re one of the few people in this world that will stand with us. And so we get to stand with them.
It takes what used to take months and sometimes years to grow certain relationships in the Jewish community, and they’re happening like that as they are looking for people to stand with them. And it gives us the perfect opportunity to come in and say, Hey, we stand with you and we have a message. And we’ve been seeing more and more opportunities than ever to get into spiritual conversations, to get into the gospel.
And I believe Canada has prepared Canada for this, and that’s what I’m hearing from my reps here in the U.S. because the same thing that’s happening in Canada is starting to grow here in the U.S. So I believe, and not only that, the Lord has been doubling our FOI reps in Canada and it’s growing in the States as well, as I believe God knows that the Jewish people need to hear the gospel and we’re getting into a time where they will be the most receptive. So what does that look like? Well, for many of our reps, it’s kind of a missionary aspect. When you ask a missionary, what does it look like? It starts with having and answering physical needs in the Jewish community.
And it can look in many different ways depending on the person. For me, I’ll share a little bit about this year. I got to start, I got to step in a little bit what I call the networking class of reality.
I was recently asked to emcee with the Canadian, again, Davida Adam. That’s the organization that provides first aid and hospital and first response in Israel. There was a gather right here in Winnipeg that I got asked to emcee and so I got to sit with a group of Jewish doctors, shared my childhood health struggles, had great conversations, ones that I was able to take and go further in with them after.
People often assume when I show up to these events, oh, that I’m Jewish, and then they find out I’m not. And it always comes out when they hear that, they ask in surprise, well, why are you here? I wonder, is it a bit of, oh, hesitancy? Or also just, it always seems to be also a sense of pure wonder. Why are you taking time to, when the world hates us, why are you here? And I tell them, because I’m a Christian, that my Messiah loves the Jewish people, that in the Bible, my Bible, God loves the Jewish people.
And they are always really deeply appreciative and it opens the door to those greater spiritual conversations. The Lord’s kept me busy in other areas, from standing with the community against anti-Semitism, that’s us, again, at the human rights exhibit before I was being brought up, joining with the Jewish community, joining Passover services. My absolute favorite ministry right now is providing fresh vegetables to the Jewish Child and Family Services, JCFS.
It helps with Jewish families in need in Winnipeg. I’ve actually become known as the veggie man around there, so it’s always exciting to see what that brings and they’re always excited to see me, to see what I bring. So, the Lord has kept me busy.
And that’s kind of an example of what FY is doing, but all over the world. In Poland, they’re running camps for Jewish kids. In Britain, they’re kind of doing similarly what I’m doing, joining in with the Jewish community and providing in physical ways and getting into those spiritual conversations.
In Israel, our reps are building churches and bringing in the Jewish people to come hear about Jesus and running Jewish universities there that focus on Christ. And here in the states, it’s wide from campus ministry to teaching ministry here in churches and of course, really doing the same thing. Getting into the Jewish community and sharing the Gospel.
And we’ve been seeing a lot of feedback from the Jewish community and it is great to see. Ministry in Canada and really anywhere in the Diaspora really just often mirrors Israel, but it’s more intense. As we see in Israel, we’re getting more opportunities to share the Gospel.
Anti-Semitism is growing here, but in Israel, it’s the hatred for their whole nation. It’s just being dualized in different forms. Here, we don’t like the Jewish people and we use Israel as a little bit of an excuse for them.
Just everyone hates them just because they exist. And really, most of the Jews here are getting more flack because they hate Israel and oh, they are Jewish and support the state. So, it crosses over.
Israel has lost the PR war in all these conflicts happening today in the last four years. And even for the ones that were initiated by their enemies through gruesome attacks like October 7th, it doesn’t matter. The constant war has made Jewish people tired of conflict in Israel.
All they want is peace and to be left alone and it’s not happening. So, they’re looking for answers. Everything from infighting is happening more.
There’s conflict between religious Jews and secular Jews in Israel clashing more and more. And again, it’s looking to be very chaotic for the state of Israel and for the Jewish people. But, just like here in Canada, just like it is for here in Canada, it’s opening up so many doors.
I heard my mentor share, I haven’t gone to go to Israel yet, I keep getting the chance, but missiles keep happening, that there’s over 300 churches in Israel proper. That’s not including things like Catholic churches. So, they’re small, small congregations, but they’re growing in number.
People are wanting to hear about their Messiah. The IDF has become a place where many soldiers are wanting to come here and are open to hearing about the Messiah. Not only is there some, what seems to be, miracles happening in Israel that soldiers are seeing.
When the start of October 7th happened, they didn’t have all, oh, we’re ready, we have all of our guns. They were scrambling for just basic equipment from military helmets to rations to stuff like that. They were totally kept off guard.
They were just used to, oh, we’ll just bomb them from afar. They didn’t realize we’d have to send troops in so fast. All that was not in place.
So, there’s been tons of chaos. And through these events, there’ll be soldiers in Gaza. They have old everything.
Stuff that hasn’t been used in like 20 years. It was jamming all throughout practice. They’re in battle.
It doesn’t jam. All the ammo’s there. They’re seeing what seems to be to them supernatural events.
And they’re starting to be like, Oh, God. And God’s coming up more and more on their minds. You want to know where our reps are? Many of our reps are also reservists.
So, they’re also in these places. And they’re hearing this and getting to share about the Messiah, about Yeshua, and they’re receptive. So, this conflict in Israel, and really, this gloom of anti-Semitism that is rising has provided more and more opportunities to share with a people that are looking for hope, hope in their Messiah.
And I don’t see it changing anytime soon. The future is unstable for Israel. Elections are on the horizon.
I believe Netanyahu honestly might lose this next one, letting Israel liberals come in and allow for some concerning geopolitical stuff that really just starts to match biblical realities. But, God might also have them stay. And if so, I sense there’ll be even more military conflicts in the Middle East then, as God would use that to shape the Middle East as well to look what the Bible means.
There’s a lot of stuff that has to happen out there to match what prophecy in the Bible seems to relate it will look like. A lot. I always say, Daniel’s last kingdom, that last superpower that rises in this world, I don’t think we’ve seen it yet.
It seems centered in the Middle East. So, we’ll be seeing what happens. One thing I can say, ministry will continue to get brighter and brighter for us at the FOI because the Jews are going to continue to be crushed more and more, pressured more and more by the outside world and they’re going to continue to lose all their friends until, at one point, at the end of the tribulation, which we believe, they’ll have nowhere to look except to their God, the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of David.
And we pray that our Jewish friends get to know the Messiah in a relational way, way before that. And so, that’s kind of the overview of what’s happening. I don’t have a huge amount of time.
We could go into plenty of details. But, that’s for after the service if you would like to ask some questions. Just wanted to let you know, FOI has a lot of programs from our Bible Equip class, which is free and it’s online.
Wherever you are in the world, you can join it to help. You can also help with the growing needs of our Tikva team. Volunteer in the local Jewish community with FOI.
We’ll help you. We’ll mentor you. This is not only in Canada.
Everything here started in the States and I get to change it over to Canada usually. And if you want, you can potentially go to Israel to serve or to go for a tour. We have a bunch of programs you can look into.
So, just ask me after service if you have any questions. And I have left information on the back of the table. Feel free to take everything for the kids.
I put a ton of stickers back there. So, I know how kids are with stickers. Boaz loves them.
So, that’s kind of a quick update of what’s happening right now in Israel.
MESSAGE:
Friends, I’m excited for today. I get to go into one of my, one of the most precious prophets to me. It’s a lie, all the prophets are precious to me, but I always love speaking, especially on the lesser prophets.
We’re going to be exploring today the prophet and book of Hosea. So please, turn to that in your Bibles. It’ll be right after Daniel and right before Joel.
You’re finding Hosea in your Bible, I want to give you a little context that will help us as we go through this first chapter together. Hosea is a prophet that served the northern kingdom of Israel, often referred to as Ephraim, due to its dominant tribe being the tribe of Ephraim. Hosea comes right after the prophet Jonah prophesied and God brought a golden age to the northern kingdom of Israel.
You can read about that in 2 Kings 14, 23-26. And it is a very unique read as if you ever read about the kings of Judah, you’ll notice that good times are brought to Judah when they’re faithful to God. Yet, this prophecy that Jonah brings and what 2 Kings 14, 23-26 tells and what comes forward is the northern kingdom of Israel were given a blessing of good times undeservingly.
Their king didn’t turn to God and say, oh, save me. Oh, we’ve done wrong. We’ve sinned.
No, every king of Israel of the northern kingdom was seen as evil before God. Yet, God provided a time of peace and power to the northern kingdom despite her evil, even with her king Jeroboam II walking in evil. It is a very unique, interesting time in biblical history.
Something you cannot ignore because God’s not usually in the business of giving free mercy out. Well, He is, but He wants you to be repentant first, meaning you recognize that you’re a sinner and that you can’t fix your sin, that you need God. He responds to that all the time and He’s like, free mercy, free mercy, free mercy.
But if you’re not that, He’s not usually in that area of being like, okay, I’m going to specifically bless you in power, especially for the kings. So why would God do this? And God tells us in 2 Kings 14, 23-29, He says, the Lord would not blot out the name of Israel from under heaven as God really has blessed Israel with reprieve from her enemies because of what? And it’s referenced, the Abrahamic covenant, that precious covenant God made with Abraham undeservingly. As God really is reminding the northern kingdom of Israel, I am a merciful God.
I will show you kindness. Will you listen? See, the Abrahamic covenant, if it had no context from the rest of the Bible and was in a vacuum, would have God make sure His special nation, Israel, would never be crushed, defeated, as His promise was to protect it to Abraham, that special nation going forward that would come for Him. So God decided to show that mercy to the evil northern kingdom of Israel to show that amazing reality.
And again, it’s God just wanting to show, My word’s true. Look it. It’s playing the nice parent.
I told you I’d give you nice things. Here’s your first chance. I’m going to give you nice things.
Did Israel recognize it though? No. The wicked Israel took this amazing gift that came from the prophet Jonah and they squandered it. King Jeroboam wasn’t like, Oh, look at this nice gift that we got from the Lord.
We’re going to turn away from our sins. We’re going to go back. We’ve done wrong.
No. They kept doing what they were doing. That is human nature 101 right there.
Provide them a good thing and often they’ll reject it. Why do you think most people reject the amazing gift of Jesus today? Why is it the popular way how preachers preach that it’s doom and gloom and eternal judgment? It’s because humans don’t really almost always respond to, Here’s a good gift. Just accept it just to accept it.
We’re a very prideful people. Humanity is. So, God sees that a wicked Israel is refusing to recognize God’s blessing that He provided for free is continuing to oppose Him so He knows it has to change and that is where our prophet Hosea comes in.
Because the words we’re about to read are about to be very harsh but they are dealing with the people that were given a free gift and just didn’t care. Given mercy even though they hadn’t seen their wrongs and just didn’t care. So, let’s start.
Hosea 1:1-2
The word of the Lord that came unto Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel. 2 The beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea. And the Lord said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the Lord.
When the Lord began to speak to Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry and children of harlotry, for the land has committed great harlotry by departing from the Lord.
We’ll stop there. God here is starting to share how the reality… Remember, everything of why He shared this mercy was because of the Abrahamic covenant. And He’s going to share how the Abrahamic covenant and the Mosaic covenant need to interact with each other because we have two of God’s words, promises, given to Israel and they’re starting to contradict each other.
The Abrahamic covenant says, Oh, I will protect you and you’ll always exist, Israel, or this future nation that comes from Abraham. The Mosaic covenant says, If you’re doing wickedness, I will get you out of my sight, wicked Israel and Judah. And we’re having a wicked Israel who despite being shown that mercy, is saying, Nope, we’re fine.
So, the law has to be enacted. And so, God’s telling Hosea, Take a prostitute as a wife. And it’s going to represent how Israel is acting in these covenants because you want to know what? The Mosaic covenant, if kept, meant God married the nation of Israel.
Israel’s husband was God and God’s wife was Israel. And so, God’s saying, Hosea, you taking this prostitute as a wife will show you my relation I have with you as a people right now. Friends, God never does anything random.
And He’ll even use different learning styles to make His point. For us, it seems weird. God, you’re telling your prophet, your man of the hour, to go marry a harlot? That doesn’t seem holy.
But God needs to get to the people’s minds. He wants to teach them something. And sometimes words don’t do justice.
There’s learning styles, as I learned in education. Sometimes they need to see it. Sometimes they need to feel it.
Sometimes they need a different learning style. So God’s like, you know what? I’m going to give it to you. Hosea, you’re going to act as me.
And your wife, the harlot, will be Israel. And you’re going to see in person that representation physically. The point’s going to be clear.
And it kind of reminds us of Jesus. He kind of uses the same thing to communicate things to people at His time and us. We can go to Matthew 16 as Jesus answers the unbelieving religious elite asking for a sign.
What does Jesus say? Matthew 16:4
4 A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them, and departed.
The sign of Jonah, what was that? Well, go read the book of Jonah. The book of Jonah prophesied Jonah, it starts in the context of the Old Testament, that he prophesied a golden age to a wicked northern kingdom of Israel. And then he was sent by God to prophesy to a wicked Gentile nation called Assyria to their capital Nineveh.
Assyria. Unlike Israel, the Ninevites, the Assyrians, they mourned over their sin and believed. And due to that, they got a golden age and there was mercy shown upon them.
Unlike Israel, who continued on in their evil, and guess who got the opportunity to bring justice to Israel? That very nation Jonah blessed. Well, Jesus is saying, in using history and a physical thing that’s going to happen, again, it’s not just, oh, you want to listen to my words or my voice? Again, He’s telling them all these things. I’m the Messiah.
I’m here. Believe in Me. I’ll bring in the golden age.
And they’re not wanting to listen to Him. And so He says, the sign of Jonah will happen. As it was a warning and prophecy all in one that Judah at Jesus’ time would go through exactly what northern Israel would go through in the past.
See, God loves and shares reality with humanity. He wants to come to us and explain things to us in any way, shape, or form. And He goes to extreme measures, even telling His prophet to go marry a harlot, to try to get the point through, the gospel through to His people.
That is what I find amazing about God. He’s not limited of how you and I would do things. He will share things and get to a point even though we think it’s crazy and don’t want to listen.
Well, this judgment that Jesus references for teaching in His time due to Jonah has not come quite yet by Hosea’s time. Hosea is actually prophesying about it coming. As we go through Hosea, it’s going to have Him letting Israel know this judgment from the Assyrians is coming.
And we’ll see that as we continue through Hosea 1 verses 3-5. So, the story goes on as God wants to show this physical story through Hosea’s family.
Hosea 1:3
3 So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim; which conceived, and bare him a son.
Then the Lord said to him, Call his name Jezreel, for in a little while I will avenge the bloodshed of Jezreel in the house of Jehu and bring an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. It shall come to pass in that day that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel. Well, Israel marries to a prostitute named Gomer and they start to have children.
And God had Hosea name them in accordance to this story of Israel that God wants to share and warn Israel about. God has Hosea name his firstborn son, Jezreel. And we’re not going to go into the rich depth of this story, but this son’s whole name is a whole reference to Israel’s history.
Kind of like the method Jesus used. Look back at your history, O Israel. Learn from the past.
Get the Gospel in. You’ll see what I will do. As it’s really a reference to about events 90 years prior to Hosea, which 2 Kings 9 describes.
As the prophet Elisha, anointed under God, anoints Jehu, a military commander, as the next king of northern Israel. Why? Because that king is evil. He is against God.
And not only that, the king in Judah is doing the exact same thing. And it kind of reminds you of David at first. You have a prophet sending to anoint a person to replace the evil king, but you soon realize that Jehu is not David in the story.
As in the valley of Jezreel, the name that Hosea’s child is named after, Jehu kills the evil king, King Joram of Israel, and wounds to death the evil king of Judah. Both of them, yes, were wicked rulers, but this is the opposite of what David did, didn’t he? Saul was a wicked ruler, was he not? Yet, when David got the opportunity to go against the king that he was promised to go in front of, did he violently try to kill Saul? He didn’t. He did the opposite.
He showed mercy because he recognized that’s God’s anointed. I will let God judge him. I’m not going to take it in my own hands.
What did Jehu do? He did the exact opposite. As he rose to power himself, not relying on God to make him king. And he violently went against the current king, God’s anointed.
He, in the end, killed both of God’s anointed, the king of Israel and the king of Judah. After that, he went against the former king’s family and slaughtered over 90 plus people, killing them. Not only that, 42 relatives from the family of Judah came up to mourn, and he murdered them as well because he saw them as potential political threats.
Again, what did David do? What did David do to Saul’s children? And it’s actually, again, the opposite. David tried to resist going against Saul’s children every chance he got, even with one taking him into his very own household and protecting him. As David knew, the sins of the father are not to be applied to those around him.
In comparison to David, Jehu is a monster becoming a king and dealing with former leaders. And God, through this story and through Hosea’s son, is prophesying to Israel, I am coming to judge evil like this. Your king, Jeroboam II, he’s like those wicked kings that needed to be judged.
That northern kingdom of Israel and that southern king of Judah. But you also want to know what? Jeroboam II is the son, actually he’s the great-grandson of Jehu. And I have not forgotten Jehu’s evils.
He has done evil before me and I am going to judge that too. And so, he named again the son Jezreel and that they’re going to face the same fate of what happened in the Jezreel Valley. Jehu would end with his whole line being wiped out.
That’s the prophecy we see in Hosea 3-5. And what happened? 2 Kings 15.8-10 share how Jeroboam II’s son was assassinated. Killed.
The line ended. Really the same way of the Jezreel Valley in 2 Kings 9. Israel’s bow, their military, would then break. 2 Kings 17-20-23 had what? Israel fall to the Assyrian Empire.
Ending both Jehu’s line as Jeroboam II would be removed and judgment would be brought to Israel just as it was needed to be brought to back in the day. Hosea started his ministry around 755 B.C. Israel fell to Assyria in 722 B.C. That’s 33 years. And this is the interesting part.
Hosea and his son Jezreel, probably early 30s at that point, would be the living testament to Israel of God’s Word being true. As God wants to let the northern kingdom of Israel know what I say happens. My covenants are true.
You go against the Mosaic Covenant, I will bring judgment just as I told you. Everything that has happened before, I will do. It stands as a reminder.
Our God is one of justice who does not forget and He will avenge evil. Something humbling. Even if God chose you to do a job and you decided to go do evil like Jehu, He will judge you.
And it might be very, very bad. But Jezreel was only one of Hosea’s children. Hosea 1.6-7 shares with us the next child.
Hosea 1:6-7
6 And she conceived again, and bare a daughter. And God said unto him, Call her name Lo-ruhamah: for I will no more have mercy upon the house of Israel; but I will utterly take them away. 7 But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah, and will save them by the Lord their God, and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, by horses, nor by horsemen.
Hosea’s daughter Lo-ruhumah, her name meant no mercy, or not pity, not love. As God is making clear through Hosea’s daughter that that coming prophecy, the breaking of the bow of Israel, would have God showing no mercy anymore on Israel. They would be taken and thrown out of the land.
They got their taste of mercy, undeserving mercy, and they rejected it. So He will not have mercy on them next. As God is saying, mercy is done.
The Abrahamic covenant was based on if you had faith. And you, northern kingdom of Israel, do not have faith. So, God is saying, compassion is done.
And this time, unlike when Syria happened, your evil will bring you to exile. Get Judah. Judah, I will show mercy to.
And here’s an amazing thing. We’re many years before this event, but God already shows a hint. He is letting future leaders of Judah know if they’re listening to the debacle that’s happening with northern Israel, and they listen to Hosea one day, there’s a warning for them.
That God will show mercy to Judah. And interestingly, as time went on, the context kind of points to it, but I will show you mercy from the very people that I’ll bring to bring judgment to northern Israel. And you won’t even need to go to war.
You won’t even pick up a weapon to fend off this attacker. This is a prophecy. And it’s for Judah a little bit too.
What happens 54 years later? Well, Hosea is probably still alive. He’s still enjoying seeing God’s words come true. I hope the generation to see a whole bunch of God’s words come true exactly like Hosea did.
It’d be amazing. And I’m sure Lo-Ruhamah is living a full life. Maybe a little angry at her name, but living a full life most likely.
And Hosea’s contemporary Isaiah would come on the scene. He would be assuring the king of Judah, Hezekiah, that God would push away the Assyrians from Judah. Because the Assyrians have dealt with northern Israel.
They’re exiled. They’re gone. And you want to know who their eyes are on next? The land of Judah.
And the Assyrians are sending letters to Hezekiah mocking him, saying, oh, you’re being faithful to your god Galilee. Well, look at all the nations we have destroyed. And look where their god is.
We’re doing the same for you. Either bend the knee, become our vassal, or we will do the same thing we have done to all these other nations and their gods. And Hezekiah is a faithful king to God, as we know.
And what does he do? At first, he falters. He tries to use his own hands like any of you and I would do. He tries to make a vassal agreement with Assyria.
He tries to buy peace. He takes the precious things of the temple and offers them. And it’s starting to look good.
But some place, some place, I believe he might have been reading Hosea, he gets convicted. And he backtracks, goes up to the Assyrian representatives and says, no. Our God will protect us.
And we are not becoming your vassals and you are not getting the temple gold. We are not going to be paying you tribute. He goes to the superpower at his time and rejects them.
The most precious part of Hezekiah’s story, other than its ending, is found in 2 Kings 19: 14-19.
14 And Hezekiah received the letter of the hand of the messengers, and read it: and Hezekiah went up into the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord. 15 And Hezekiah prayed before the Lord, and said, O Lord God of Israel, which dwellest between the cherubims, thou art the God, even thou alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth; thou hast made heaven and earth. 16 Lord, bow down thine ear, and hear: open, Lord, thine eyes, and see: and hear the words of Sennacherib, which hath sent him to reproach the living God. 17 Of a truth, Lord, the kings of Assyria have destroyed the nations and their lands, 18 and have cast their gods into the fire: for they were no gods, but the work of men’s hands, wood and stone: therefore they have destroyed them. 19 Now therefore, O Lord our God, I beseech thee, save thou us out of his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that thou art the Lord God, even thou only.
This is Hezekiah crying out for God for help. He goes to the temple outer courtyard. He brings the letter that the Assyrian kings or messengers gave him of this threatening letter that you can read about.
And he puts all of his worries to God, the one who sits between the Ark of the Covenant, between the two cherubims. He’s asking for help. Want to know what comes after this? Isaiah comes and he says exactly what Hosea says.
Do not bring any weapons. Take up musical instruments and go out to the field and watch what your God’s going to do. What happens at the end of this? You see the angel of the Lord come and slaughter Assyria’s armies as God Himself personally comes and responds to Hezekiah.
And He saves Judah just as prophesied by Isaiah and then prophesied even earlier by Hosea in a sideline. That’s the side part of the prophecy of Hosea. It’s amazing.
Every word. But you want to know what’s even more precious? Isaiah 37.16 states, The Lord of Hosts is the One who dwells between the cherubims. That’s who came and that’s who came and slaughtered the Assyrians.
It’s a figure you often see in the Old Testament, especially the Exodus story. You see Him a lot in prophecy. But He has another title.
One that David provides in Psalms 80. It says, Give ear, O shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock, you who dwell between the cherubims, shine forth. David calls God the Shepherd of Israel.
He’s the Great Shepherd. This is how God works. It’s these little details.
What does Jesus say in John 10:11.
11 I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep.
He takes the title. He sees Himself equal with God and takes the title that David gave Him and says, that’s Me. I am the One who sits between the cherubims.
I am God. Friends, the One who answered, the One who Hezekiah was on His knees asking to save Him in front of the temple was none other than the pre-incarnate Messiah Jesus who came later to die for Hezekiah and all of us to provide us mercy. He is the Great Shepherd.
He is the Lord of hosts. He is the God of Israel. And He’s the One that came and slaughtered 185,000 Assyrians in their sleep saving Judah.
He is salvation in a physical sense and a spiritual sense. Guess who saw it all? Lo Ruhamah and probably Hosea probably alive during this point. Lo Ruhamah is probably 52 at the time of this event with Hezekiah when God saves Judah from the Assyrians.
A physical reminder even to that very day of this prophecy being completed. There was one more child. Oh yeah.
There was one more child.
Hosea 1:8-11
8 Now when she had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she conceived, and bare a son. 9 Then said God, Call his name Lo-ammi: for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God.
10 Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye are the sons of the living God. 11 Then shall the children of Judah and the children of Israel be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head, and they shall come up out of the land: for great shall be the day of Jezreel.
Now, when she had weaned Lo Ruhamah, she conceived and bore a son. Then God said, Call His name Lo-Ami.