DAY 345

TAKING DICTATION

Hosea 5 & 8 and Revelation 2

“Hosea has been called the “death-bed” prophet of Israel” because he was the last to prophesy before the Northern Kingdom fell to Assyria (about 722 BC). His ministry followed a golden age in the Northern Kingdom, with a peace and prosperity not seen since the days of Solomon. Unfortunately, with this prosperity came moral decay, and Israel forsook God to worship idols. So God instructed Hosea to marry a “wife of whoredom” (1:2), whose unfaithfulness to her husband would serve as an example of Israel’s unfaithfulness to God. Hosea then explained god’s complaint against Israel and warned of the punishment that would come unless the people returned to the Lord an remained faithful to him. The book shows the depth of God’s love for his people, a love that tolerates no rivals.”—From the ESV Old Testament Introductions.

You might be thinking, “Whoa, really God had Hosea do this?” Consider Ezekiel: God used not just Ezekiel’s words, but his dramatic actions to communicate to the people. God is doing the same again. It may seem extreme…and yes it is…but so is the Cross.

Now onto Revelation, Scene One – The Church in the World, beginning at 1:19: Write therefore the things that you have seen, those that are and those that are to take place after this.

Let me take you back to the opening scene. You are standing there rather stunned, and God says, “I have some dictation for you!” In each of the seven churches that he addresses in chapters 2 and 3 God normally has something positive to say, and then there is the “but.”

EPHESUS: ⁴But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.

SMYRNA: ⁹"'I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich) and the slander of those who say that they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan. 10 Do not fear what you are about to suffer.

PERGAMUM: ¹⁴But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality.

THYATIRA: ²⁰But I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess and is teaching and seducing my servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. 

Now, we do not need to rush, this “scene,” the Church in the World starts at 1:19 and goes through the end of chapter 3. So I merely want you to think about these four churches today. What is going on in each of them? How might they be markers or examples for us in our own day? Tomorrow I will try and pull together this idea of the Church in the World, but for now, enjoy the more leisurely pace and ponder where these four have gotten off course.