THE VINE AND THE CALF THE DESTRUCTION OF MIXED WORSHIP

Hosha/Hosea 10
= YHWH/Yahweh; = Yahushua (Yahweh is our Salvation/Saviour)

Shabbat Shalom, praise Tehillim/Psalm 111:1 Praise Yah! I thank with all my heart, in the company of the
straight and of the congregation. I am in the company of the straight and of the congregation, am I not well praise Yah
can you thank with all your heart? Or are there parts of your heart that have devotion to another in a form and
dilemma of mixed worship? For many it often becomes extremely hard to give full attention and devotion to in all
areas of their lives, especially as the world throws so much in your face to draw your worship and obedience away from
living set-apart unto our Elohim. What we ought to realise is that despite the on-going attack for worship from the
enemy, we as children of the Most High El are to be single minded and devoted in our love for Him. And as we all know
that love for Elohim is to guard His commands that is to be fully committed and devoted to walking fully in His
Instructions no matter what tries to draw our worship away from Him. tells us clearly that He is the Vine and we
are the branches and we can bear no fruit without Him yet we ought to be bearing much fruit fruit that lasts and that
is for the benefit of the body and others to taste as see how good our Maker and Saviour is. The reality for most today is
that they assume that they are in fact in the Vine and producing fruit yet the fruit they may think they have is being used
for self as they lend themselves over to a lifestyle of compromise in mixing their worship with the love for self and the
flesh, always seeking a means to gain more stuff that they think strengthens who they are and in the process they are
lending themselves over to idolatry and the love of mammon, not realising that their form of mixed worship is in fact a
destructive path of profane worship in their half-hearted attempts at worshipping the Father in spirit and truth! With ALL OUR HEART ALL OUR BEING ALL OUR MIGHT we are to love the Father, anything less is not worship but merely
religion that lacks power! In a message tonight called, The Vine and the Calf The Destruction of Mixed Worship, I
would like us to look at the description of Yisral in their degenerate state of mixed worship and the call to repentance in
stripping away all form of mixed worship. The title should say it all The Vine and the Calf cannot go together We know
as I have said that is the Vine, and in Scripture we have a number of accounts of calf worship a picture of
idolatry the two cannot go together, so with that in mind please turn with me to Hosha/Hosea 10 (Read).
A very descriptive chapter indeed, one that follows on from chapter 9 in revealing the sin of Yisral who had completely
profaned their worship and mixed it with pagan idolatry, and the theme or call of this chapter is the desperate need to set
things right with in having the right priorities in place in living set-apart lives and being a light to the nations there
is a stern call for repentance and it is a very stern call that is clearly going out today. As we look at these verses we can
clearly see a very clear description of the false worship going on today and so there is much we can learn and take
warning from in this chapter.
This chapter in referring to Yisral is in fact referring to the House of Yisral the Northern 10 Tribes, also referred to as
Ephrayim. In following on from the previous chapter we see here the description of this now corrupt and idolatrous
nation they are described as being a degenerate vine. The Hebrew Word used here for degenerate is bqq
(Strongs H1238) and can mean to be in a state or condition of destruction; a degenerating withering vine i.e. the state or
condition of lacking moisture in a plant and indicates poor health, and it can also mean, to be growing and fruitful as a
healthy plant. This can sound contradictory that the same word can mean two opposites but what we have here is a
nation who by all accounts are fruitful, yet what we see is that they fruit they were bearing was in a sense, empty fruit
as their fruit had quickly turned to false worship. A picture of false worship of Christianity has the appearance of fruit
and increase yet it is empty, void and vain and in a state of lacking moisture!
Tehillim/Psalm 128:3 Let your wife be as a fruit-bearing vine within your house, your sons like olive plants all around
your table.
Yisral was to be a fruitful wife, a betrothed bride bearing great fruit within the house, yet they had adulterated
themselves with the nations and were corrupting their worship by mixing in pagan practices and so this fruitful wife was
actually a degenerate wife. Why were they worthless and void and empty in other words why was their worship
empty and in vain? Because they wasted their fruitfulness on idols and pagan altars and directed that worship unto
which as we know in Scripture that this form of worship is not worship but rather an abomination in the eyes of
Elohim. The more that Yisral increased and bettered their land the more they profaned themselves by making pillars,
which were erected as huge monuments, pillars or standing stones and were often built in a prescribed form that had
cultic meanings to them along with pagan altars. This traces back to Nimrod worship, as these were actually phallic
symbols of fertility. When Constantine, the father of the church and mixed religion of Christianity issued a decree and
mandated that everyone in the Roman Empire was to become a Christian, many temples were turned into churches and
tall pillars were placed on top of the buildings for added visibility known also as steeples something we know and see
very clearly all around us in every city and suburb today! The Bride has profaned her worship and integrated pagan
idolatry as a means and form that ultimately led to formalised religion!

As a result their heart was not fully devoted to , but was slippery and was guilty as a result. Notice here that the
singular form of heart is used in speaking of a group or nation and clearly the unity that ought to have been being one
heart and one mind was not evident. There was no unity and as a result what did they do multiplied their pillars in
other words they kept making more and more pagan alters and erecting steeples to cater for the needs of all! I see this
clearly as a picture we see in the profanity of Christianity as it gains ground more pillars are erected and more pagan
altars are built different denominations it is estimated that there are over 34000 different denominations of
Christianity today!! ! Clearly a picture of division and a divided heart! This gives the whole concept of church planting a
new meaning the more ground they are gaining the more pagan worship centres and pillars/steeples they are erecting!
Mattithyahu/Matthew 6:24 No one is able to serve two masters, for either he shall hate the one and love the other,
or else he shall cleave to the one and despise the other. You are not able to serve Elohim and mammon.
Yaaqo/James 4:8 Draw near to Elohim and He shall draw near to you. Cleanse hands, sinners. And cleanse the
hearts, you double-minded!
Melaim Aleph/1 Kings 18:21 And liyahu came to all the people, and said, How long would you keep hopping
between two opinions? If is Elohim, follow Him; and if Baal, follow him. But the people answered him not a
word.
If serve Him if Baal (The Lord) serve him! Why do I say the Lord in brackets? Well because the Hebrew word Baal
means husband, land owner, or lord and when referred to in the context of Scripture in reference to profane worship
unto pagan sun-god worship then Baal was the pagan title for their deity and to translate it to English would in fact be,
The Lord. You have to ask yourself why it is that translators did not translate this into English. Baal is not a name so why
then keep it in the Hebrew when all the other text is in English? Well I think we all know the reason for that too many
today do not realise this dangerous mix of pagan deities and truth it does not work!!! Too many today are divided in
their worship being all mixed up with pagan idolatry and this is not worship, but rather a twisted form of man-made
religion that seeks to satisfy self.
Their hearts were slippery the Hebrew word used here is lq (Strongs H2505) and means to be smooth, or
being deceitful in giving misleading opinions or thought about what is true and often encouraging wrong behaviour,
and also means to flatter or seduce. Wow how sad it is today to see how so many have been seduced in following
misleading opinions and are being encouraged to be disobedient by the smooth talkers beware of the smooth
talkers! And even more importantly do not be a smooth talker be a truth talker!
There is coming a day when will destroy all the steeples and pillars and pagan worship places! Yisral were so
steeped in mixed profane worship that they said they no longer had a king well they did have a king yet did not
respect him. They did not fear who was to be their King and so were actually acknowledging their sinfulness here
and by not fearing they were right they had no king. The fear of is the beginning of wisdom there are too
many fools in the kingdom because they do not fear and therefore do not subject themselves to the Kings
instructions. In not subjecting themselves to the Highest Authority what would an earthly king be able to do for them!
Today you may hear the sad saying by many fools I say fools as they do not fear and therefore cannot begin to
walk in wisdom They say things like, We cannot keep the whole Torah, so why bother with any of it! That is the talk
of fools! The destructive nature of mixed worship will cause hearts to be greatly deceived and believe the deception.
Many will say Oh but He knows my heart! Well they are right the word says that the heart is crooked above all and
desperately sick. Many are sick and they do not know it.
Sick hearts speak falsehood! Verse 4 we see that Yisral had spoken falsely they made insincere promises. We are
fellows workers with Elohim, called to work in the field of Elohim, the building of Elohim (1 Corinthians 3:9) and a divided
heart will only be slack in its duty and make promises that are quickly broken. We must not use idle words - takes
our words seriously, even when we do not!!! Let you yes be yes and your no be no and do not swear falsely your words
will come back and bite you.
What we have thus far is a nation so twisted in its attempt at worship that they are lying and cheating and twisting words
to cover up their wickedness and so they have put more trust in self and their worship programmes and idols rather than
in . They were more afraid of losing their calf to the enemy than actually stripping away the lies!
When Yaro am, the king of the northern tribes, had built She em in the north as the capital of Ephrayim, he did not want
people to go to Yerushalayim to worship in fear that they would return to e a am, the king of Yehuah, and so he
made two calves of gold, setting one up in Byth l and another in Dan, made high places of all sorts and made many
priests from all sorts of people who were not from Lwi. And this became the focus of their worship calf worship they
had not learnt from the incident in the Wilderness many years before when Aharon built a golden calf proclaiming a
festival unto , while in s eyes it was an abomination (Shemoth/Exodus 32). This time was no different
does not change!
Yisral was more concerned about their calf being captured due to the tightening grip of judgement was coming upon
them and here we see the place Byth l being called Byth Awen. Byth Awen means house of iniquity/ house of

wickedness/ house of vanity. What we see very clearly here is the fact that the House of El had now become the House of
iniquity!!! False worship taking place and the people leading the services were false priests! The word used here for
priests is kmer (Strongs H3649) and describes Idolatrous priests or priests in idol worship!!! How did this
happen? Well remember that Yaro am made anyone a priest and this is the result!!! It is who calls not man, and
today there is a man-driven system of appointing priests that adhere to man-made standards which will only as a result
end up in priests who are engaged in idolatry and teaching others likewise! The word for idolatrous priests comes from a
root word that can mean black giving reference to the black garments of idolatry as opposed to the white robes of
righteousness!!! Well you do not have to look too far to see some black robed priests!!! Black robes have also developed
into very expensive suits and ties and more often than not dark ones at it too, apart from those who are masquerading as
messengers of Truth who come in their sparkling all white apparel beware of these wolves in sheeps clothing!
False priests false worship and the people were afraid they would lose their idols sad picture yet so real in the world
today. Let me ask you at this point are there any golden calves in your life? What do I mean by that? Well, are there
things that you are afraid you might have to lose or give up as you strip away idolatrous and vain teachings and
traditions? Their calf would be given to the enemy king and Ephrayim would be put to shame as their wickedness is
exposed! There are some things that many have made and worship that they must let go and give it back to the world
so to speak after all render to Caesar what is Caesars and to Elohim what is Elohims!!! Golden calves are not Elohims.
Idols belong to pagans and must have no part in the life of a set-apart child of Elohim what idols are you struggling to let
go of? Are you hiding them in fear of exposure and shame? Give them up now before Himself exposes you!
Yisrals sites of idol worship would be destroyed and the ruins would become overgrown with thorns and thistles the
very places of worship they were commanded to destroy when they entered the Promised Land they had failed to do and
used a foreign army to accomplish His purpose. In utter desperation the people would cry out for the rocks to fall
upon them! This is also a foreshadow of what is to come as quoted verse 8 on His way to death in Luqas/Luke
23:30 and this verse also places its timing for us in the last days when the wrath of comes:
azon/Revelation 6:15-17 And the sovereigns of the earth, and the great ones, and the rich ones, and the
commanders, and the mighty, and every slave and every free one, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the
mountains, 16 and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him sitting on the throne
and from the wrath of the Lamb, 17 because the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?
Those covered in the shame of idolatry and false worship will cry out to be hidden and crushed by the rocks, hidden from
the wrath of Elohim.
Yisral had sinned since the days of Gibah! What happened at Gibah? You can read of these accounts in
Shophetim/Judges 19-21 where a Lwite man and his concubine had travelled to Gibah and it was there where the men
of Gibah from the tribe of Binyamin had raped the concubine and she died. The Lwite cut her up and distributed her
body parts this ended up in a terrible battle where the rest of Yisral came up against Binyamin a terrible account
that took place between the tribes please go and read but that is what happened at Gibah. Gibah was also the home
town of King Shaul and it was where his fortress palace was built and he relied heavily upon his own military might and
strength, while lacking Dawids devotion to . So here we can in effect see the two terrible sins for which the people
of Elohim had committed:
1 They had forsaken
2 They had relied on their own might and tried to make it on their own
Yirmeyahu/Jeremiah 2:13 For My people have done two evils: they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters1,
to hew out for themselves cisterns, cracked cisterns, which do not hold water.
They were doubly guilty and for this they would be punished:
Yirmeyahu/Jeremiah 16:18 And first I shall repay double for their crookedness and their sin, because they have defiled
My land with the dead bodies of their disgusting matters, and have filled My inheritance with their abominations.
The two evils that made them guilty forsaking and establishing their own ways and that still happens today! But
as one takes a look not so far back we can see the same sin happening in the form of the Crusades in using man-driven
military might to gain coverts to a false twisted religion yet we must know that will punish for apostasy and
militarism as many rely on their own might and strength and forsake following .
All that Yisral was doing was learning the ways of the pagans instead of doing what was required in the Torah, and here
in verse 12 -13 comes the call to repentance: Sowing and reaping a man reaps what he sows if you sow wrongness you
will reap unrighteousness and eat the fruit of your lies because you trust in mans ways rather than that of Elohim.
This is exactly the description of Christianity, whether we would like to believe it or not. They have forsaken the
commands of Elohim, set up idols in worship and are eating the fruit of generations of lies and it is now time to seek
!
We are to sow righteousness: That is to guard to do all He commands us to and our hearts must be prepared:

Yirmeyahu/Jeremiah 4:1-4 If you do return, O Yisral, declares , return to Me. And if you remove your
abominations from My presence, and cease straying, 2 and shall swear, As lives, in truth, in right-ruling, and in
righteousness then nations shall bless themselves in Him, and they shall boast in Him! 3 For this is what said to
the men of Yehuah and Yerushalayim, Break up your tillable ground, and do not sow among thorns. 4 Circumcise
yourselves unto , and take away the foreskins of your hearts, you men of Yehuah and inhabitants of
Yerushalayim, lest My wrath come forth like fire and burn, with none to quench it, because of the evil of your deeds.
When we sow righteousness and hunger and thirst for righteousness we shall be filled in the doing we will be filled and
so we will reap according to our loving commitment (obedience) the more we sow the more we will reap how lovingly
committed are you? You will reap according to loving-commitment so how committed are you? Do you think that just
because you made it to an evening fellowship service for Shabbat that you have now kept Shabbat? What about the rest
of the day that follows? Some think that by attending an evening service they have done enough and done their duty
while forgetting the rest of the Sabbath day that follows the morning after! Each week we get to rehearse entering into
His perfect rest as we rehearse that which it also foreshadows in the Millennial Reign the 7th day/7th Millennium I
therefore want to enjoy every minute resting in Him, being gathered together as a body, immersed in His Word and
fellowshipping how about you? It will be seen in your sowing in your doing of righteousness (in your obedience) and
this takes work our hearts must be fully committed unto Him are you prepared to work! Notice it says sow for
yourselves you have to do it nobody can do it for you! Each one must work out their own salvation with fear and
trembling!
Break up tillable ground: We must break up the ground that has been left and become hard the heart is the ground and
the Torah is to be upon our heart! It is time to break up the ground and dig into the Torah, each week as we come
together and every day in your quiet time breaking up the ground that is tillable in order to receive the Truth. The Torah
has been in effect unused for far too long and the ground of many hearts has become calloused in the process and the
ground must be worked it takes effort and a lot of sweat by that I mean it may cause many tears but work it!
The time is now not next year or whenever you think you have it all together the time is now to seek . For some
this has been going well for others you may have started but lost the heart or energy to give it your all hardness of
heart takes a lot of ploughing in order to get rid of the weeds and thorns getting rid of fears and worries of life and
deceitfulness of wealth. The time is now to seek.
The word for seek here is dra (Strongs H1875) and means more than just taking a peek, or more than a little
curiosity! It means figuratively to read repeatedly, study, search out, seek with care, investigate, practice, follow, seek
with application.
I think many do not understand the seriousness of this command to seek is not a game it is a matter of life and
death. How are you at seeking ?Are you studying His Word, reading it repeatedly, or is it boring for you? Are you
investigating His Word, searching it out, practicing it or do you think that is only for some? We all are to seek and
live! And now is the time before the rains come the ground of our hearts must be well prepared and righteousness
sown before the rains come or else we will simply be washed away with flash floods of destruction if the ground of our
hearts is hard and impenetrable through lust and selfish pride.
Lessons:
What we can certainly learn from this passage is great and if we will learn and apply His Truth the rewards will be great
if not well you know!
Yisral was hard hearted they had become calloused in their worship and the causes for this and numerous:
1 Ingratitude they were selfish and full of pride, looking out for themselves and had no gratitude for what had
done. We must give thanks in all things unto . Too many, like Yisral did back then, forsake giving thanks when
things seem to be going well and they let pride slip in and rather thank self do not show ingratitude toward Elohim
give thanks in all occasions!
2 Instability A double minded man is unstable in all his ways! A slippery heart is an unstable heart and you cannot
serve two masters! A divided heart leads to a distracted life. There is sure stability in the Word stay in it!
3 Indifference They had no need for or so they thought they were fruitful and as they grew they lost the need
to cling to . So many today leave the path of obedience when things start going well beware of the trap of
indifference no matter the circumstances, good or tough be content in .
4 Impotent Promises Vain promises empty promises making commitments with your mouth and not keeping
them. Be careful of this - disloyalty with breeds disloyalty to man!
Pride and selfishness and the lust of the flesh will cause to not bear the fruit of righteous living, do not be caught doing
what Yisral did - the more they got they more they built altars it is a mentality of the more we get the more we got

to have! You do not need that extra pair of shoes, or that brand new TV because you got a raise what about the body
and the Kingdom, or are you about building your own?
The Vine and the calf are not a good combination that is mixed worship which in fact is not worship at all, but rather
only a form of religion without power. We must remain in the Vine that is to stay in Him, and to stay in Him means to
walk as He walked walking in His instructions.
Has there, or rather are there any golden calves in your life, and they have kind of had a way of being integrated into your
worship through compromised living when you really know that its got to go? Then get rid of them! Have you lacked the
ability to sow consistently and there are now more weeds and thorns than before popping up in your heart break up
that ground do not say you cannot change for the heart is tillable ground it may be hard but it is tillable. It is time to
sow, dig and seek after righteousness and destroy the calves that will only render you a degenerate vine.
I was shocked quite a bit when I saw on the net lyrics of a song sung by a band I have never heard of, as it struck me that
even the world out there the pagan world if you will, even know this concept that the Vine and the calf cannot go
together here are the words from a verse from the song:
Accepting the new sacred calf of the pagans, as we die on the vine; accepting the new calf of the pagans thats life in
hells motel!
I do not know what it sounds like nor do I want to I am simply showing you how the world out there even knows what I
am talking about tonight. We are to be in the Vine, , and remain in Him and not to be found mixing our worship in
any way with calf worship. Any self-made calf or man-made systematic form of worship is nothing more than mixed
worship and is an abomination unto !Do not accept any form of calf worship walk in the Truth, remain in the Truth
and rejoice in the Truth. It is time to seek and live!
May we learn from this chapter and respond with great speed for the need to have a heart after !
Dont mix the calf with the Vine mixed worship will kill you come out and be set-apart and bear much fruit that will
last,
bless you and guard you; make His face shine upon you and give you favour; lift up His face toward you
and give you peace.