“Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone.” (Hosea 4:17)
Our God is longsuffering and full of mercy, but there is a line that must not be crossed. It is dangerous to presume that God will always continue to forgive; He can become a “consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:29).
The leaders of Ephraim (a collective term for the 10 northern tribes of Israel) had passed this point of no return. They had become completely infatuated with the pantheistic polytheism of the nations, being “joined” to their symbolic models of natural forces and all the immoral practices that accompanied such worship. The word for “joined” means “fascinated by.” They had been brought so deeply under the occult powers behind these idols as to be so irrevocably committed to them that it would be a waste of time and tears to try to reclaim them now.
The Scriptures contain many similar warnings. “My spirit shall not always strive with man” (Genesis 6:3). “Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind” (Matthew 15:14). “There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it” (1 John 5:16). “Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine” (Matthew 7:6). Pharaoh repeatedly “hardened his heart” against God, and finally God Himself hardened Pharaoh’s heart (e.g., Exodus 8:15; 10:27). “God gave them up” (Romans 1:24, 26, 28).
These should be sobering words to anyone who is becoming enchanted with evolutionism, occultism, or any form of pantheistic humanism. As long as such a person has any qualm of conscience, or even any doubts about the pseudo-scientific philosophy to which he is becoming addicted, there is hope that he may yet turn to the true God of creation. To continue in his present course, however, is presumptuous and deadly. The time will come, perhaps sooner than he thinks, when God will say: “Let him alone.” HMM
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