THE DIFFICULTY OF GOD Hosea 6:4-7

1. Introduction

A. Oh Ephraim, Oh Judah, what shall I do with thee?

1. It is a strange and startling question because it is suggesting that God has a problem. What shall I do?

2. It also reveals the reason for the difficulty; your goodness is as a morning cloud as the dew that quickly

passes away.

B. God is seen in difficulty - Is there any of escape from this difficulty that God is facing?

II. Let's consider this difficulty in order to Understand what God is facing.

A. I can understand a person saying, What must I do to be saved?

1. But here we have God saying, "what must I do to save you?"

2. This is not the cry of a person seeking after God.

3. It is the cry of God seeking after His people.

B. It is not the picture of a man in difficulty because he can't find God.

1. It is the picture of God in difficulty because man is unresponsive to Him.

2. Oh Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee?

III. What does all this mean - What is God's Difficulty?

A. The answer to that question is clearly given.

1. The reason God gives for His difficulty

is not their sin.

2. If it's not their sin - then what is His difficulty?

3. According to 6:4 - Their goodness constitutes His difficulty.

B. At this point we discover an element that startles us, God in difficulty in the presence of goodness.

1. Mark well the figures of speech - A morning cloud early dew.

2. The morning cloud with the sun rising behind it is a thing of beauty. The early morning dew sparkling like a

diamond is also a thing of great beauty.

3. Both however are transitory - they gradually fade from view.

4. They produce no permanent result - that is God's difficulty.

C. God's difficulty has nothing to do with our overt sinning.

1. He can and does deal with our sins - no problem.

2. But God says his difficulty comes when our goodness is like the morning cloud and the early dew. They just don't last very long.

III. What is this goodness that God refers to?

A. The Hebrew word for goodness has its root idea in the phrase "Bending the Neck."

1. The word suggests an attitude that is opposite of a stiff neck. Deut 31:27

2. So we could translate verse 4 "Oh Judah what shall I do to thee? for your submission is as a morning cloud."

3. Goodness is right because all goodness is as a result of submission to God.

B. In the opening verse - we have the prophet exhorting us to return to the Lord.

I. It's almost like God interrupts the prophet saying, but that's the trouble, in their returning to God there is no

resoluteness, no abiding or lasting commitment.

2. They have come back so often, their coming means nothing.

3. Down the aisle they come but they have no lasting walk with God.

4. How is it that we have so often£had that kind of experience?:

C. It's because we have been affected by a superficial feeling.

1. Feeling is not wrong but it is not enough in and of itself.

2. We must make our commitment based on our intellect as well as our feelings.

3. After our feelings pass away our intellect must carry us on.

4. Our shallowness, our lack of depth, that is God's difficulty.

IV. Is there a solution to this problem?

A. To put it another way, is there a cure for this up and down, in and out experience.

1. This time the solution is not with God but with us.

2. The question is not, what is God to do? It is what shall I do?

3. Look at verse 3 - let us know, let us press on to know.

4. In verse one - let us return - notice and underline in your bible the words let us, let us.

5. Let us return, let us know, let us press on to know the Lord.

6. If we obey these injunctions, we solve God's difficulty and we satisfy His heart.

B. Then underline the words - He will in verses 1-3.

1. He will heal us, He will bind us up. He will revive us.

2. He will raise us up. He will come to us like the rain.

3. This is what God is waiting to do.

C. God does not want to blast us or damn us.

1. That is not the heart of God.

2. If you are ever damned or blasted, it will not be by God's choice.

3. I wonder if God is saying to any of us, this morning, "the trouble with you is that your goodness, your submission to God is like the morning cloud or the early dew.

4. We can deliver God from His difficulty by returning and knowing and pressing on to know the Lord.

5. Make up your mind today - that you will serve Him all your days - no matter what.