Morning Light – October 17th, 2017 – Hosea 06: Are We Entering into God’s “Third Day”?

Morning Light – Hosea 06
Today: [Hosea 6] Are We Entering into God’s “Third Day”? In Hosea chapter 6 the prophet speaks by the Spirit of God regarding a number of 1000 year days, calculated from the resurrection of Christ. The description given seems to fit perfectly the historical timeline of human history in the 1st, 2nd and now the beginning of the 3rd 1000 year timeframe from the time that Jesus walked the earth. The promise is that while there have been and do continue to be dark times in human history, that a great outpouring of God’s spirit, unprecedented in history is very likely about to be made manifest on the earth, in the very day that you and I live.
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[Hos 6:1-11 KJV] 1 Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. 2 After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight. 3 Then shall we know, [if] we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter [and] former rain unto the earth. 4 O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? for your goodness [is] as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away. 5 Therefore have I hewed [them] by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and thy judgments [are as] the light [that] goeth forth. 6 For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. 7 But they like men have transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against me. 8 Gilead [is] a city of them that work iniquity, [and is] polluted with blood. 9 And as troops of robbers wait for a man, [so] the company of priests murder in the way by consent: for they commit lewdness. 10 I have seen an horrible thing in the house of Israel: there [is] the whoredom of Ephraim, Israel is defiled. 11 Also, O Judah, he hath set an harvest for thee, when I returned the captivity of my people.
Hosea 6 holds for us a profound foretelling of character and timing of the coming of Christ in our times. It also brings up a theme found in biblical prophecy known as the “third day”. Of course, we know that Jesus was resurrected on the third day (as Jesus predicted beforehand in Matt. 17:23), therefore the meaning of the third day is connected with renewal, completion and fulfillment. Other references to the third day include:
Gen. 1:13 The third day of creation when God established seed-time and harvest. In the book of Hosea the prophet names his children Jezreel, Lo-Ruamah, and Lo-ammi. Lo-Ruaman and Lo-Ammi have their names changed from judgmental meanings to names denoting God’s graciousness and forgiving nature. Jezreel’s name however remains unchanged, meaning “God sows”. This tells us that in the transition from the Old Covenant under the law to the New Covenant under grace that the law of sowing and reaping, of seedtime and harvest is a universal constant. Paul affirms this in his letter to the Galatians:
[Gal 6:7 KJV] 7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
In Christian culture the general consensus allowed to promulgate among believers is that somehow when we accept Christ that there is a negation of the law of sowing and reaping, regarding our character, our actions, our treatment of others, etc.. The people in Hosea’s time believed just the same. There were many flagrant violations of the law regarding fair treatment of others, agricultural and religious laws that were grossly violated for generations by God’s people, because in Hosea’s day they believed that all their disobediences were mitigated by the sin sacrifice made by the high priest once a year when he entered into the temple to sprinkle the blood of the lamb in the Holy of Holies. However, when God did allow the people to go into captivity, the reason cited was in order to recover the seventy “seven year Sabbaths” (the practice of leaving the land lay fallow every seven years) that was NEVER practiced from Joshua’s day right down to Zedekiah. What this tells us is that we must not presume upon the grace of God that we can somehow live in flagrant and open transgression to His word, erroneously thinking that there will be no recompense because “the blood covers”.
In Ex. 19:15 the “third day” was the day that God came down on Mt. Sinai to give the law to Moses. Therefore we see the third day as speaking to us of the season of God’s visitation.
In Lev. 7:17 we see that anything remaining of a consecration offering previously given had to be very carefully and completely consumed by fire on the third day or the entire sacrifice was rendered disqualified in behalf of the person offering it.
In Numbers 19:12 the priests were to purify themselves on the third day of a seven-day ritual. If they failed to purify themselves on the third day, then when the seven day ritual was complete they would still be considered unclean.
In Esther 5:1 we see Esther going to appear before the king on the third day – speaking of the bride of Christ being presented to the Bridegroom on the third day.
The understanding of this chapter is tied to a principle of God’s timing found in 2 Peter 3:8:
[2Pe 3:8 KJV] 8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day [is] with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
In applying 2 Peter 3:8 to Hosea 6 what is God’s “third day”. We know from looking at history that we have just entered into the 7th 1000 year period of recorded history. Even those believing in evolution instead of creation acknowledge that the boundary between known or written history and prehistory began 6000 years ago. We have just passed in recent years into the 7th 1000-year period from Adam until now. The passage of 7 1000 year periods speaks to us according to 2 Peter 3:8 of the fulfillment of God’s dispensational week. Prophetically the 7th 1000-year period speaks to us of the Millennial Reign of Christ. Not only are we in the 7th 1000 year period from Adam, we are also in the 3rd 1000 year period from the resurrection of Christ and the birth of the church. Verses 1-3 give us a prophetic picture of the last 2000 years:
1. He hath torn (he hath smitten)
2. He will heal us (he will bind us up)
3. After two days he will revive us.
4. In the THIRD DAY he will raise us up and we will live in His sight.
In the closing years of the 1st 1000-year time frame from the resurrection the world was cast in darkness. The medieval world was gripped in the clutches of a corrupt church. The eastern church split permanently from the western church. There were three years of inexplicable darkness upon the earth that could not be explained at the time. The black death decimated a third of population of the west.
In the second 1000 year timeframe from the resurrection we see mankind was healed and bound up. The reformation came under Luther. The renaissance brought culture and society change into the earth. The 1st, 2nd and 3rd Great Awakenings shook the earth and brought renewal and blessing to men and women of faith.
We are now in the beginnings of God’s “third day”. What can we expect? The verse says that “after two days” God will “revive us”. What does that mean? That means there is an “after two days” period when 2000 years have been accomplished from the time of Christ but the “3rd day” millennium hasn’t fully come to pass. It points to what William Branham described as a “gap-time” between the Church age and the Millenium. This is a time that the promise of God is that He will “revive” after when the 3rd day promise is immediately fulfilled “that He will raise us up and we shall walk in His sight”.
The raising up spoken of as coming at the beginning of the 3rd Millennia from Christ might indeed be what some term “the rapture” of the Church but some of the wording gives us pause to consider what that might look like. At that time of raising up verse 3 says “then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord”. What are we going to know? We are going to know “that His coming is as the rain, as the former rain upon the earth…” Rather than describing an apocalyptic move of the church from earth to heaven, this passage better describes an unprecedented outpouring of the Spirit of God during the time frame of transition from the 2nd Millennia from Christ to the 3rd. Calculating using the 2 Peter 3:8 understanding of a 1000 years is as a day and a day is as a 1000 years, we can rightly conclude that we are living in a time that the bible predicts a great outpouring of God’s spirit.