Mission Venture Ministries

“Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone.” (Hosea 4:17) 

Ephraim, meaning the whole people of Israel, the 10 tribes, had been warned again, and again, and because they did not pay attention to the warning, but refused the message of God, and continued in their sin, at last God was provoked by them, and said to His servant Hosea, “Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone.” He basically said, no longer waste your energy on these backslid-den minds, their case has become utterly hopeless; cease your labor, go somewhere else where hearts will be touched, and ears will be opened to the Word – leave them alone. 

God’s grievance against Israel charged her with an apostate spirit and many lawless and wicked deeds. Truth and loyalty had been replaced by lying and immorality. Rebuke was pointless because it was ignored. Israel had forgotten the law of their God and, therefore, was “destroyed for lack of knowledge” (Hosea 4:6). Not only the people, but also the priests who encouraged sin for their own advantage would be eliminated. “The spirit of prostitution” had caused Israel to go astray (Hosea 4:12). 

Our God is long-suffering and full of mercy, but there is a line which must not be crossed. It is dangerous to presume that God will always continue to forgive; for those who refuse to obey and believe, He will one day become a “consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:29). 

Every time you refuse to listen to the message of mercy, you strengthen yourself in unbelief. Every time you fail to open the door of your heart to Christ, you become more and more unwilling to listen to His voice and you diminish your chance of responding to the last appeal of mercy. Let it not be written of you, as of ancient Israel, “Ephraim is joined to idols; let him alone.” Let not Christ weep over you as He wept over Jerusalem, saying, “how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate” (Luke 13:34-35).  

For those who refuse to turn back from their evil ways the Scriptures contain many similar warnings.

• “My spirit shall not always strive with man” (Genesis 6:3).
• “Leave them; they are blind guides. If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit” (Matthew 15:14).
• “Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces” (Matthew 7:6).
•  “Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done” (Romans 1:28). 

The danger for those who refuse to walk in the light is when God brings upon them the terrible crisis of being left to follow their own ways. They start making their own unwise decision, and the conscience becomes more seared and the voice of God seems to become more and more distant, and the person is left to their own passion, lies and hypocrisy. When this happens, the person resists every appeal, despises all counsel and advice, and turns from every provision made for their salvation. . . . The Spirit of God no longer exerts a restraining power over them, and the sentence is passed, “their deeds do not permit them to return to their God. A spirit of prostitution is in their heart; they do not acknowledge the Lord” (Hosea 5:4). This is the process through which the soul passes that rejects the working of the Holy Spirit and refuses to hear God’s warnings, they are too far gone. 

These should be sobering words to anyone who is becoming rebellious, and is being enchanted with, witchcraft, idolatry, occultism, perversion, harlotry or any form of humanism. As we see, the enemy promises pleasure, comfort, escape, and excitement. But what he actually gives is a life of bondage to lust, pornography, immorality, and adultery and eternity in the Lake of Fire, a bondage that ruins relationship with God and people.

For those that are unaware or have not given it much thought, to commit adultery or to participate in committing adultery which refers to the manner society dresses provocatively to allure the opposite sex by leaving nothing to the imagination but by flaunting and reveling all they have. All that the spirit of harlotry can really deliver is death. Jesus said: “But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28); and in this generation that goes as much for men as for women. 

Unfortunately, people are so oblivious to their behavior, disobedience, lack of knowledge, and their actions that they can not realize that they will not be part of an eternity in heaven but will spend eternity in hell apart from God (1 Corinthians 6:9). 

On a positive and hopeful note, as long as a person has any uneasiness of conscience there is hope that they might yet turn to the true God of creation; however, to continue in their present course, is presumptuous and deadly. The time will come, perhaps sooner than they think, when God will say: “Let him alone.” 

As we read though the book of Hosea we see that God will not allow sin to go unpunished, however, it also tells of God’s mercy (Hosea 1:10-11; 2:14-17, 2:21-23). God’s earnest desire was that His people would repent of their sins (Hosea 14:1). God wants us all to serve Him because that is what our hearts truly should desire to do. He wants our “words” to reveal a heart of humility and subjection to His will (Hosea 14:2). God desires His people to “earnestly seek Him” (Hosea 5:15) and confess their sins (Hosea 14:2). 

Nothing has changed through the years. God still demands our interest, humility and subjection (Matthew 12:33). The Christian today must be careful not to allow an interest in this world to interfere with their eternal interest in God. Therefore, “Whoever is wise, let him understand these things; whoever is discerning, let him know them. For the ways of the Lord are right, and the righteous will walk in them, but transgressors will stumble in them.” (Hosea 14:9). 

Remember God is full of mercies but if we continue in rebellion against Him, there will come a time when He will say: “Let him alone.”