HOW COULD I GIVE YOU UP EPHRAIM?
THE GREATEST LOVE STORY EVER TOLD
A STUDY OF THE BOOK OF HOSEA
From Hosea 11 and 14: “How could I give you up Ephraim? How could I hand you over Israel? How could I make you like Admah? How could I treat you like Zeboim? [two cities of the plain, destroyed with Sodom and Gomorrah] My heart turns within Me. All my compassion is kindled. I shall not let the heat of My wrath burn. I shall not turn to destroy Ephraim. For I am El and not man--the Set-Apart One in your midst--and I shall not come in enmity. Let them follow Yahuweh. Like a lion He roars. And when He roars, then sons come trembling from the west. Oh Israel, return to Yahuweh your Elohhim…I shall heal their backslidings, I shall love them spontaneously, for My displeasure has turned away from him”. (Italics mine)
This Shabbat morning Abba Yahuweh, with the Spirit of Truth to teach me, I went through the book of Hosea, written exclusively to the House of Ephraim. When He teaches, He is very personal. I had to stop over and over and weep--for my own sins and the sins of Ephraim, because I am mostly from the House of Ephraim. At the end of 1998, Abba spoke to me: “You are of the tribe of Asher”. I never had such peace in my life that night as I studied the prophecies to Asher. My mother often quoted from the prophecy to Asher “as your days are, so shall your strength be”. Later Abba confirmed it in so many ways. The story in Hosea is the story of my own life from beginning to now. His mercy, loving kindness and compassion are beyond description. When we realize what we deserve for our sins, and His great love to forgive us and restore us, all we can do is humble ourselves and repent, weep for our sin, and cry with joy for His great Father’s heart.
As we go through the book of Hosea and see the sins that caused Yahuweh to have to drive the ten northern tribes into exile AMONG the nations, in punishment for 2, 730 years, we should weep greatly--for these are our forefathers, and this is us!
He had to break the engagement with the ten northern tribes, writing a “bill of divorcement”, and send them away from His land AMONG gentiles (nations) who did not know Him, for their evil was that great—our evil is that great. Today, we still sin as they did then, some to
lesser degrees, some to a greater degree, but we all are included in
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the sins of Ephraim, unless you are 100% Judah or Levi that is.
But, at one point Yahuweh said that Judah was worse than Ephraim. It was the guarding of Torah that kept Judah from suffering the same
fate. [For understanding, study with the articles “Who Are the Ten?” and “Are You A Gentile?”]
Ephraim became a wild olive branch, but remained an olive branch. The olive tree is a symbol of Israel. But through faith in the shed blood and resurrection of Messiah Yahushua, the wild olive branch can become a new creation, and re-grafted in to the tree of Israel (Ya’cob).
Messiah Yahushua said in Matthew 15:24: “I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the House of Israel”. He told His disciples (taught ones) in Matthew 10:5-6: “Do not go into the way of the gentiles (the barbaric, heathen, pagan, foreign, stranger, alien, nations); do not enter a city of the Samaritans, but rather go to the lost sheep of the House of Israel”. And so that’s what the Apostles did, for the renewed covenant with Yahuweh, in the blood of Yahushua, is with the House of Israel, and the House of Judah (Jeremiah 31:31-34). Matthew 26:28: “For this is My blood, that of the renewed covenant, which is shed for many for the forgiveness of sins”.
The word translated as “new” in Greek carries the same meaning as the Hebrew word translated as “new” in Jeremiah 31:31 – it means a refreshing of what was old, a renewal, as the new moon is a renewal each month. Messiah came to restore and renew the covenant of Yahuweh with His people, in His own blood, for the forgiveness of the sins of Ephraim, and of Judah, including offering forgiveness to all the peoples of the earth, who would enter into covenant with Yahuweh (Exodus 12:48-49; Isaiah 56:6-7 and Ezekiel 47:21-23, as examples).
The Elohim of Abraham Isaac and Y’acob (Jacob) never made a covenant with “gentiles”. He NEVER refers to His people as gentiles! He says His people were scattered AMONG the gentiles! He says He will bring His people from AMONG the gentiles.
Can one who is not of the House of Ya’cob, not one of the twelve tribes, be saved by receiving the salvation of Yahushua by faith? Yes! As I said above Exodus 12:48-49, Isaiah 59:3-8, and Ezekiel 47:22-23 attest to that. No one in Messiah is considered a gentile (heathen, barbarian, etc.)--Ephesians 2:8-19 is very clear. Rahab and Ruth are good examples.
The love of Yahuweh cost Him the sacrifice of His own Son. (Isaiah 53) Messiah came to buy back, redeem, the “lost sheep of the House of Israel”. Once the divorce was official, even though it was to break
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the engagement sealed at Sinai, according to His own Torah, because Ephraim was a whore, and still is, Yahushua could not remarry her. (Deuteronomy 24:1-4) The House of Israel-Ya’cob (Ephraim/Joseph) whored in northern Israel; she whored in the nations; she is still whoring. She is still an idolater. She still rejects the Torah of Yahuweh for the most part. Thus He is coming for a remnant who love Him.
In the nations Ephraim embraced the great whore of Babylon-- Revelation 17 describes the counterfeit religion from Nimrod. The ten northern tribes went along with Jeroboam to create a counterfeit religion. And so in the nations, she quickly embraced the counterfeit religion – the counterfeit of Yahushua, who came to restore her to the covenant of Yahuweh by His own blood. She rejected the Torah of
Yahuweh. Yahushua paid the price for her, the price for His Bride – His own blood, yet she chose a Greek/Roman counterfeit religion in the nations because it suited her whoring heart. This counterfeit became a cheap grace, easy-belief religion. Ephraim accepted a substitute god as her savior, based on the Greek savior, Zeus, and the Persian savior, Mithra, and used her religion to advance her power, control, authority and wealth. I think most of you understand I am referring to Greco/Roman Christianity, whose root is Nimrod. For documentation on this refer to: “The Foundation of Deception” – a complete study on the roots of pagan Christianity from the mid-first century.
Yahuweh and Yahushua are NOT a religion! Many Ephramites are coming out of the religion of Christianity. Some are angry to know they’ve been in falsehood. But few are repenting for being in falsehood. So they seek another religion to jump into. They begin listening to intellect-provoking false teachers, and many are jumping into the religion of Rabbinic Judaism, created by Rabbi Akiva around 133 CE, not realizing it is also a branch of Catholic Rome. [Refer to: “Exposing Rabbinic Judaism and Its Link to Rome”]
The Greeks and Romans hated the Torah and outlawed it. The renegade House of Ephraim went right along with that hate, so when told by their “church” that they didn’t have to keep Torah anymore, Ephraim was content with it. Protestant broke with Rome, but its despising of the Torah didn’t change.
Ephraim has little interest in personal knowledge of the Word of Yahuweh, except to gain intellectual knowledge – and very little interest in obeying it. The lifestyle required of a disciple is not understood by the western mind. Those of the affluent west are too in love with appeasing their fleshly desires to lay down their life for a Master. Ephraim is too busy to sit in the Presence of Yahuweh to let His Spirit teach them. They are too busy with their own plans to care
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about His. Ephraim sees a free ticket out of hell as good, but not commitment to Yahushua as His disciple—“taught one”.
Slowly and prayerfully go through the book of Hosea. In it, Yahuweh reveals the sins of Ephraim that caused Him to have to separate from them. Now the seed of the ten northern tribes is as the stars of the heavens and the sand of the sea for number—they cannot be counted. Judah can be counted, but not Ephraim. Quite a number of Ehramites have some DNA from Judah also, like myself. Religious spirits work in Ephraim to cause them to “want to be Jewish”. A lot of the lost ten have an identity problem! Sadly, some Ephramites are deceitfully scheming to get Israeli citizenship by pretending to deny Yahushua. This is a damning deception. [Refer to: “Ashamed”]
But, we must realize that Ephraim is the prodigal, the pig-slop eating prodigal of Luke 15:11-32. Read that carefully. Judah is the older brother--proud and haughty against the repentant prodigal, Ephraim. These two spirits war in the minds and emotions of those with both Houses in their DNA--religious pride, and yet a feeling of rejection and inferiority to Judah. Beware of where those spirits can take you! Remove yourself from religion! Learn to know Elohim by His Word as taught by His Spirit. Yahuweh stripped the prodigal--all of his pride was taken away. He had received his inheritance from his father, and
then went away and squandered it in appeasing his flesh. “Ephraim says `Indeed, I have become rich; I have found wealth for myself’…But, I am Yahuweh your Elohim since the land of Egypt, again I shall make you dwell in tents…” (Hosea 12:8-9)
When his money ran out the prodigal was destitute. He found work feeding pigs in a pigsty. He began thinking--even the servants of his father were better off. So, he rehearsed his lines of repentance, even though he most likely wished he had his money and fun lifestyle back, and went to his father to beg to be one of his servants. He did not expect the reception he got. This is the heart of Abba Yahuweh. He will reduce the pride of Ephraim down to a pigsty-and humble him. Ephraim would love to continue in affluence. Going back to Yahuweh is not what Ephraim’s sin nature would choose on his own. But, because of Yahuweh stripping him of all of his idols and his abilities to provide for himself, Ephraim wants to go home. When world economy collapses, and that’s soon, all those who are now flying high monetarily will all of a sudden be reduced to helplessness. The intellect and pride of man won’t be able to handle it, and many will commit suicide. (Isaiah 2:11-22 and Ezekiel 7) Famine is also coming, and the proud and lofty will be reduced to eating pig slop, like the prodigal.
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Abba Yahuweh knows that Ephraim loves sin. But, the father in the parable sees the prodigal afar off, and rejoices. Yahuweh sees us afar off and rejoices that we are returning to Him. He knew us before the foundation of the world: I Peter 1:1-4 and Ephesians 1:1-5.
Yes, there will be a remnant of Ephraim as there is of Judah, who will come home because they want to. But, for the manipulative prodigal, He gives the words of Jeremiah 32:37-41; Ezekiel 20:34-44 and 36:16-32. Yet, no matter why the prodigal returns the robe is ready, and the fatted calf, and the rejoicing, for the return of the sinner.
Read all of Luke 15 and weep. It’s talking about you, and me. Read aloud Jeremiah 31, and the above Scriptures in Jeremiah and Ezekiel--proclaim the love and goodness of Yahuweh for the House of Ephraim. [Refer to: Aliyah Scriptures]
I am preparing to go on a major intercession assignment to the further-most point where Ephraim went before crossing the Atlantic, to call the remnant of Ephraim to repentance and return to Yahuweh. Today, besides Europe, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Canada – the “young lions of Tarshish”, America has a greater concentration of the tribes of Israel than any other nation on earth, and is second in population of Judah next to modern Israel, the nation.
The end of Ephraim’s punishment was September 12, 2007--the final year, from 722 BCE, of their dispersion out of the land into the nations. Their punishment was 2, 730 years, as per the mathematics in Ezekiel 4:4-5 and Leviticus 26. Now a small remnant is coming
home. The great remnant will come at the resurrection of the just, when Messiah comes. Right now the political nation of Israel has kept limits on who can be a citizen—those with proper records proving they are Jews. It is of Yahuweh. He has held back the influx of Ephraim until the time that Ephraim repents and humbles themselves, and seeks Yahuweh with a broken heart.
You can be a part of paving the way for Ephraim’s return! Daniel 9:1-22 tells us that about 1-2 years before the end of the punishment of Judah, 70 years captivity in Babylon, he began repenting for the sins that caused them to be exiled. He first repented for his own sins, then the sins of the people, but not just for Judah.
Daniel 9:7: “Oh Yahuweh, to You is the righteous, to us the shame of face, as it is this day--to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel – those near, and those far off in all the lands to which You have driven them, because of their trespasses which they have trespassed against You”.
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Those “near” were the Ephraimites who went into captivity with Judah when Nebuchadnezzar burned Jerusalem. Those “afar off” were most of us. So Daniel included us in his repentance. We must follow his
example, and humble ourselves and repent for the sins that caused
our ancestors to be driven from His land—following the sins of Jeroboam. Use Daniel 9:1-19 for your own prayer.
As you go through Hosea, and also study what happened when the ten northern tribes split from the southern tribes of Judah and Levi, read I Kings 12:25-33 in context.
The great passion of the heart of Yahuweh and His Son Yahushua is for the re-gathering of all of the tribes back to the land!
Jeremiah 32:37-41: “See, I am gathering them out of all the lands where I have driven them in My displeasure, and in My wrath, and in great rage. And I shall bring them back to this place (Samaria and Judea), and shall let them dwell in safety. And they shall be My people, and I shall be their Elohim. And I shall give them one heart and one way, to fear Me, all the days, for the good of them and their children after them. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I do not turn back from doing good to them. And I shall put My fear in their heart so as not to turn aside from Me. And I shall rejoice over them to do good to them, and shall plant them in this land in truth, WITH ALL MY HEART AND ALL MY SOUL”. (Italics mine)
Hosea 1: The prophet is told by Yahuweh to take a whore for himself, for the whole land of Israel (northern ten tribes) is whoring.
By her, he had three children. The first, a son, was named Jezre’el – meaning “Elohim will sow”--will sow judgment. The second was a daughter, whose name was Lo-Rubamah, which means “not pitied”. Of her Yahuweh said “no longer do I have compassion on the house of Israel so as to forgive them all”. The third was a son, named Lo-Ammi, which means “not My people”, of which He said: “you are not my people, and I am not for you”.
Hosea 2: Yahuweh begins pronouncing judgment and listing Israel’s sins: “… she is not My wife, nor am I her Husband!” Verses 4-7: Similar wording that the prodigal son used to his father: “And I shall not have compassion on her children, for they are the children of whoring. For their mother has whored, she who conceived them has acted shamelessly. For she said, `I go after my lovers who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my linen, my oil and my drink’.
Therefore I am hedging up your way with thorns, and I shall wall her
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in, so that she does not find her paths. And she shall pursue her lovers but not overtake them, and shall seek hem but not find them. Then she shall say `Let me go and return to my first husband, for then it was better for me than now.”
“Whoring” in the Word is breaking the first three commandments –
putting other gods in His face, running after what appeases the flesh, and rejecting His rule over us, and bringing His Name to nothingness. The free-soul attitudes of rebellion, stubbornness, and being head-strong, goes after what is self-pleasing, self-advancing, and rejects the responsibility to obey the Creator. Such is the whole culture of the western world! Greco/Roman culture is Lucifer-rooted, based on the thinking of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Thus, the whore does not want to submit to the boundaries of the Elohim of the tree of life. All follow after Adam and Eve’s thinking, and so lose the precious Presence of the Creator.