EATING OF THE FRUIT OF LIES

KEY VERSES: Ye have plowed wickedness, ye have reaped iniquity; ye have eaten the fruit of lies: because thou didst trust in thy way, in the multitude of thy mighty men. (Hosea 10:13) So shall Bethel do unto you because of your great wickedness: in a morning shall the king of Israel utterly be cut off. (Hosea 10:15)

  The works of sin are always the same; people trust their own way and depend on the strength of the powerful. In the key verses, that’s the sin of Israel. The northern portion of David’s nation quit depending on God, and depended on their own and their wicked king’s devices. With God’s protection removed due to the wickedness of Israel, their last king was deposed and they became a vassal state of Assyria. 

  The man Israel (Jacob) wrestled with God and God let him win. When the country, Israel, wrestled with God, God allowed Assyria to win. Jacob had the right sinew of his thigh marked, resulting in a limp, and here we see Israel limping along until they got so limp that they fell! 

  They depended on Baal and their wicked kings for safety rather than God. The key verses should bring to mind another story – the original sin.

The serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? …And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die… And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. (Gen 3:1,3,5)

  Adam and Eve did a wicked thing; they depended on their own newly acquired knowledge and ate forbidden fruit, just as Israel did as related in the key verses. Their king became the Serpent, who by the way, will become “king” for a time in the apocalypse. If the Serpent was their “king,” who was their god? It turns out that Adam and Eve who had limited knowledge that made them proud, became “gods” themselves; not really gods, but they perceived themselves that way.

  By the end of the kings in Israel, everyone did what was right in their own eyes, as they always had, “In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes” (Jud 17:6). They didn’t need a king on Earth or in Heaven because the people of Israel became their own kings and gods. There is nothing new under the sun - Israel’s sin was Adam’s and Eve’s sin. They did not need God! 

  We find in Genesis 3 that Adam and Eve were cut-off from God. Sin separates men from God because sin replaces “the Great I AM” with the pretenders, “I want TO BE.” When God tired of Israel’s harlotry with Baalim, because of its great wickedness, their king and the nation Israel was cut-off just as with Adam and Eve. Like them, Israel, because God is merciful, would limp along for centuries and be restored in 1948 when Judah and Israel again became the nation of Israel. That is in accordance with the Abrahamic Covenant.

  Israel had “eaten of the fruit of lies,” just as Eve had. Eve played the harlot to the Serpent even in the face of God who Adam represented. Israel is “the harlot Babylon” in the Book of Revelation, who God would make fit to be His bride again. Prophecy is being fulfilled, as the bride (Israel) is being prepared for the wedding with Jesus. That will come during the Great Tribulation.

  Shalamanezer, came up against Samaria (Israel) and conquered (2 Kings 18:9). Israel, thereafter, was under the law of sin and the doctrine of Shalamanezer who is a type of Serpent. It seems that Shalamanezer represents the Beast (Antichrist) who will come from the Middle East to rule over his global empire. My contention is that Shalamanezer represents Islam, and Isa, their Antichrist, will be king for awhile until God tires of the “harlot Israel” again. It seems Israel is a fickle harlot, she returns to her trade often but like Mary Magdalene, will become a faithful servant to God.

  The Antichurch – liberal Protestantism, the Unholy Roman Empire, and Islam will be the “Baalim” that the world will have as a prostitute. Protestants need to quit looking at Catholics as the harlot. They will be part of Baal’s brothel themselves! They too will do what is right in their own eyes as if there is no King. 

  Hosea did not write much but what he saw, but it had great bearing on the demise of wicked Israel, and the demise of the world which too will be cleansed from its harlotry (Rev 21).  

  Christians are easily deceived, just as innocent Eve! We still see that today when Christians vote for the unrighteous when there are righteous men available. It pains me to see Christians vote for economic issues over godly things. They fail to recognize that if they trust God, then they will need no “king” to provide. In Kentucky, a large number of Christians voted against a Christian pro-life governor for the antithesis of him – a spendthrift abortion proponent. Do they really think God will honor Kentucky and its people who have turned their faces from God as the Israelites did? 

  They have “eaten the fruit of lies” just as Eve and the Israelites. When will naïve children turn from their wicked ways? “I was deceived by the Democrat propaganda machine,” will be no excuse. Eve tried that and it didn’t work for her. Israel used that excuse and it still was not acceptable!