Mid
Week • Hosea 5-14
Two weeks ago, we ended our study with Hosea 4.
I had hoped we’d be able to cover all 14
chapters in one night by summarizing a good part of the book, but we ran out of
time and so we’ll cover chapters 5-14 tonight
Let’s
do a little recapping as we pick it up at chapter 5.
It’s a time of peace and prosperity in the northern kingdom of Israel.
Though the nation has fallen away from the Lord to
the worship of Baal, they have thought they could also maintain a semblance
of loyalty to Yahweh by worshipping him in the form of a golden calf.
It was their first king, Jeroboam, who had made the cities of Bethel in
the south and Dan in the north centers of the worship of Yahweh in the form of this
idol.
The people mouthed the name of Yahweh and pretended
that they were worshipping Him, but they were also worshipping Baal.
God did not tolerate such divided loyalty – and His
judgment was about to be poured out on Israel in the form of the invasion of
the Assyrians.
Hosea’s ministry, as we saw last time, was to live out his message in
the form of a troubled marriage.
Because Israel was like a willful and errant wife who was committing
spiritual adultery by worshipping Baal – God told Hosea to marry a prostitute.
This would shock and scandalize his neighbors and
family, and by doing so, frame the backdrop of his message.
Her immoral ways of leaving him to pursue unworthy
lovers would be a picture of the way Israel had forsaken God to seek after
unworthy idols.
In chapters 1-3, we read the sad story of Hosea and his adulterous
wife.
Then in chapter 4, the prophet turns the corner and begins to apply that
story to the nation of Israel and their relationship with God
In
Chapters 5-8, God describes Israel’s willful rebellion.
1 “Hear this, O priests! Take heed, O house of Israel! Give ear, O
house of the king! For yours is the judgment, Because you have been a
snare to Mizpah And a net spread on Tabor.
2 The revolters are deeply involved in slaughter, Though I rebuke
them all.
Mizpah
and Tabor were two cult-centers devoted to the worship of Baal, just as Bethel
and Dan had supposedly been devoted to the worship of Yahweh.
It
was the leaders, the priests and royal court that had condoned this
idol-worship, and God holds them responsible for leading the nation into
apostasy.
Idol worship was like a snare, a trap used to catch a bird.
The bait was the offer of prosperity and power, but it ended up being
the means of death.
Friends – idol worship, in whatever form it
takes, never delivers on it’s promise.
It’s a cheat, a trap that the enemy of our souls devises to ensnare us.
Certainly we don’t worship some totem or statue
as they did in the ancient world – but idolatry is alive and well in the modern
world.
Please don’t think that people in the ancient
world were as unsophisticated as to think that a hunk of wood or a lump of
stone was in itself a god.
They understood these things to be symbols, representations of
spiritual beings who held forth the promise of some kind of blessing.
Asherah was the goddess of fertility and promised abundant flocks and
many children.
Baal was the god of the storm and so represented both power in battle and
prosperity in the form of abundant crops due to the seasonal rains.
Molech was a vicious god of power and promised advancement to those who
worshiped him.
But the price was steep, to worship Molech,
you had to offer your newborn infant as a blood sacrifice.
The people worshiped these gods and the others of the pagan nations
around them not because they were inspired by awe or loving devotion.
They worshiped them because they wanted something primal, like
power, prosperity, and pleasure.
These gods sanctified and excused their baser instincts and gave
permission to the expression of their own immorality.
But no one loved Baal or Molech or Asherah –
they merely used them to selfish ends.
The people of our day may not bow down before
a statue of Baal or dance round a pillar of Asherah – but they live their lives
and center their energies around the pursuit of the same things the people of
the ancient world did – power, prosperity, and pleasure.
The idols of today take the form of position and possessions.
Just as in the days of old, people think that
if they could only climb to some higher place, or add a few more zeros to their
bank account, or accumulate this or that toy – THEN they would be happy and
achieve satisfaction.
They spend their time, their energies, even their wealth in the pursuit
of happiness.
But it’s a snare because the more they live
for these things, the more frustrated they become until they arrive at the end
of life, looking back over the years as a fruitless and wasted existence.
The reason why is because life is not about
the accumulation of things or the elevation to some position.
Life is the gift of God he gives us so that we can know and enjoy Him.
The only genuine satisfaction a man or woman will ever find is
found in knowing God.
Any and everything else that people pursue as the main goal and
priority of their lives is an idol and a snare.
3 I know Ephraim, And Israel is not hidden from Me; For now, O
Ephraim, you commit harlotry; Israel is defiled.
4 “They do not direct their deeds Toward turning to their God, For
the spirit of harlotry is in their midst, And they do not know the Lord.
5 The pride of Israel testifies to his face; Therefore Israel and
Ephraim stumble in their iniquity; Judah also stumbles with them.
The
focus of His address here is the tribe of Ephraim which was the lead
tribe of the north.
They provided the majority of the kings that sat on the throne of the
northern kingdom.
It’s
a bit provocative to realize that God identifies the northern ten tribes by the
name of the lead tribe – Ephraim.
What’s provocative about this is that this reminds
us that God often looks at and judges a people on the basis of their
leadership.
Think of the Jews of Jesus’ day – we read that the
common people heard and received Him gladly, but the leaders opposed Him, and
based on that corrupt leadership, Jesus was handed over to the Romans and
executed.
The result was the loss of their nation to the
Romans just 30-some years later in one of the most brutal military campaigns in
all history.
If God does indeed deal with nations on the basis of their leaders,
then it behooves us to pray fervently for our government and cultural leaders!
At
the end of chapter 5, God foretells the eventual restoration of the nation.
Jump on down to v. 15 . . .
15 I will return again to My place Till they acknowledge their
offense. Then they will seek My face; In their affliction they will earnestly
seek Me.”
Even
though Israel has been rebellious and strayed from the Lord since her inception
as a nation, God will not utterly forsake His covenant with her.
When she is brought to repentance in the midst of her exile, He will
move to restore her.
In
chapters 6 & 7, Israel makes a feint at repentance.
Having heard of God’s coming judgment of them for their apostasy, they
feign a move toward righteousness – but God knows it is only a sham, merely an
attempt to avoid trouble.
He rejects their pretense and reaffirms His
judgment.
The proof of their divided heart is in chapter 8 – though they profess
repentance, they never move forward to change their behavior.
They continue to visit the idols of Baal and Asherah that liter the
landscape.
1 “Set the trumpet to your mouth! He shall come like
an eagle against the house of the Lord,
Because they have transgressed My covenant And rebelled against My law.
The
house of the Lord here is the nation of Israel for they were supposed to be the
dwelling place of God.
The eagle is the nation of Assyria whom God will use the sword to
execute His judgment.
2 Israel will cry to Me, ‘My God, we know You!’
3 Israel has rejected the good; The enemy will pursue him.
4 “They set up kings, but not by Me; They made princes, but I did
not acknowledge them. From their silver and gold They made idols for
themselves—That they might be cut off.
5 Your calf is rejected, O Samaria! My anger is aroused against
them—How long until they attain to innocence?
6 For from Israel is even this: A workman made it, and it is
not God; But the calf of Samaria shall be broken to pieces.
When
the judgment of God begins to fall, the people will start acting all holy and
pious, mouthing the name of God as though they had been faithful to Him all
along.
But God tells them He will not be moved by such fake demonstrations of
piety – He knows what’s in their hearts.
Though they say His name with great reverence, their
pagan altars and idols still exist throughout the land.
7 “They sow the wind, And reap the whirlwind. The stalk has no bud; It
shall never produce meal. If it should produce, Aliens would swallow it up.
Hosea
speaks here of the inevitability of reaping what is sown; the law of sowing and
reaping.
This is a principle well established in scripture and given greatest expression
in Galatians 6:7-8 . . .
7Do not be deceived, God is
not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. 8For he
who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the
Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.
Israel
had been sowing vanity and emptiness in all it’s religious endeavors and
political alliances.
For generations they had been worshiping Baal and Asherah in the hopes
of attaining prosperity.
But Baal and Asherah are non-entities and the
prosperity they were enjoying was nothing other than the grace and goodness of
God, though to Him they were not thankful!
So, their years of sowing the wind, sowing emptiness and vanity would now
come back in the form of a twister, a whirlwind that would tear up the homes
and fields.
It’s the law of sowing and reaping that you plant tiny seeds and reap a
bigger harvest.
So it would be for Israel – they had sown rebellion,
they would reap exile.
But there is a flip side to the law of sowing and reaping.
Just as the harvest is always larger than the sowing – that is true for
sowing in righteousness as well!
That’s why Paul tells the Galatians – “He who sows
to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the
Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.”
The investment of ourselves in the sowing of the
Word and prayer will result in a rich harvest of good.
Every time we look to the Spirit instead of the
flesh, we drop another spiritual seed into the spiritual soil that will spring
forth into spiritual life.
8 Israel is swallowed up; Now they are among the Gentiles Like a
vessel in which is no pleasure.
The
nation has lost it’s place of prominence in God’s plan and is like a common pot
in a room full of pots.
9 For they have gone up to Assyria, Like a wild donkey alone
by itself; Ephraim has hired lovers.
10 Yes, though they have hired among the nations, Now I will gather
them; And they shall sorrow a little, Because of the burden of the king of
princes.
Instead
of trusting in God, Israel had entered into fruitless alliances with other
nations, thinking these would ensure their protection.
They would not – those they had allied themselves would turn to attack them.
11 “Because Ephraim has made many altars for sin, They have become for
him altars for sinning.
12 I have written for him the great things of My law, But they
were considered a strange thing.
13 For the sacrifices of My offerings they sacrifice flesh and
eat it, But the Lord does
not accept them. Now He will remember
their iniquity and punish their sins. They shall return to Egypt.
14 “For Israel has forgotten his Maker, And has built temples; Judah also has multiplied fortified cities; But I will send fire upon his cities, And it shall devour his palaces.”
In
chapters 9 & 10, God describes the judgments He will bring on them for
their rebellion.
He will disperse them among the nations and will strip away the
prosperity that they were hiding behind during the days of Hosea.
In
verse 12 of chapter 10 we find a poignant plea from the Lord . . .
12 Sow for yourselves righteousness; Reap in mercy; Break up your
fallow ground, For it is time to seek the Lord, Till He comes and rains
righteousness on you.
Again
we have the picture of sowing and reaping.
And here is God’s plaintive cry – stop sowing the wind and start sowing
righteousness so that you can avoid the whirlwind and judgment and instead reap
mercy!
But even before they began sowing, they needed to break up the ground
of their hearts that was hardened by sin and rebellion.
It’s of no use to scatter seed on soil that’s hard; the birds will come
and eat it or the sun will beat down on it and cook the life right out of it.
Seed must be scattered on soil that’s been turned by
the plow and made ready.
Over
and over again in Scripture, both the OT and the New, we read of God’s appeal
to soften our hearts.
We are constantly exhorted to check the condition of our hearts and
make sure that they are tender toward God.
In Proverbs 4:23
we read – “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues
of life.”
Living in this
world, contrary as it is to the plans and purposes of God, if we aren’t
careful, our hearts can become hard.
We’re immersed in this world, surrounded by it’s pressures – and unless
we make time regularly to bring ourselves into the Lord’s presence, we will
inevitably find our hearts being seduced and captured by the world.
Without even realizing it, we can slip away from the
Lord till our hearts have become hardened to the Lord and we don’t care any
more.
Most
of us tonight know what it’s like for our hearts to become hard toward God, for
our passion for Him to cool and be distracted to other things.
We end up going to church out of routine, but even though we’re sitting
in the seat, our minds are somewhere else.
It isn’t long till other things become more
important than going to church, and soon our attendance is only infrequent or
ends altogether.
How’s your heart tonight?
Is there passion there for God?
Does you love for Him burn bright or has it cooled?
What do we do when we realize our passion’s faded and our hearts have started
to get hard?
We come before the Lord in humble repentance and ask Him to forgive us
and restore the heat, the passion, the light and love that are all the right
things we ought to have and feel for Him.
Let’s
do that right now, shall we?
1 “When Israel was a child, I loved him, And out of Egypt I
called My son.
2 As they called them, So they went from them; They
sacrificed to the Baals, And burned incense to carved images.
3 “I taught Ephraim to walk, Taking them by their arms; But they did
not know that I healed them.
4 I drew them with gentle cords, With bands of love, And I was to
them as those who take the yoke from their neck. I stooped and fed them.
5 “He shall not return to the land of Egypt; But the Assyrian shall
be his king, Because they refused to repent.
6 And the sword shall slash in his cities, Devour his districts, And
consume them, Because of their own counsels.
7 My people are bent on backsliding from Me. Though they call
to the Most High, None at all exalt Him.
What
made Israel’s apostasy all the worse was that while they worshiped Baal, they
also thought they could keep up the forms of worship to Yahweh as well!
They visited the golden calves Jeroboam had set up in Bethel and Dan
and thought that by mouthing God’s name, that somehow meant they were
still faithful to Him.
They had long since rejected his Word and Law, but
had devised their own ideas on what it meant to worship God and so be approved
by Him.
But God said it was all a sham and didn’t impress
Him at all.
This should speak volumes to the fuzzy-headed idea so
common today that so many people have.
They reject Christianity,
but think that because they believe in God, they’re fine!
They think all they have to
do is acknowledge a Creator and that appeases Him!
It’s the God you see
represented on the program Touched by An Angel, where everyone goes to
heaven except Idi Amin, Stalin, and Hitler.
It’s the God of the lowest-common
denominator – “just believe in His existence as entrance requirement to
glory.”
God was not impressed with Israel’s professed belief
in His existence.
The devil believes in God,
but fat lot of good it does him!
Unless belief is
coupled with obedience, it’s empty and accomplishes nothing.
That’s precisely what James
means when he says faith without works is dead.
8 “How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over,
Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I set you like Zeboiim?
My heart churns within Me; My sympathy is stirred.
9 I will not execute the fierceness of My anger; I will not again
destroy Ephraim. For I am God, and not man, The Holy One in your midst;
And I will not come with terror.
10 “They shall walk after the LORD. He will roar like a lion. When He
roars, Then His sons shall come
trembling from the west;
11 They shall come trembling like a bird from Egypt, Like a dove from
the land of Assyria. And I will let
them dwell in their houses,” Says the LORD.
Though
God will judge Israel, that judgment will not utterly annihilate them.
It will be used to correct them and once they’ve been
disciplined, then He will restore them.
12 “Ephraim has encircled Me with lies, And the house of Israel with
deceit; But Judah still walks with God, Even with the Holy One who is
faithful.
Hosea’s
ministry was mainly to the northern kingdom of Israel.
Judah in the south hadn’t fallen as far into sin and rebellion as the
north.
And for that, her judgment would be delayed
until she caught up to wicked Israel.
In
Chapters 12 & 13, God goes on to list more ways Israel had perverted itself
and turned from Him.
The
book ends with God’s appeal for Israel to repent and return.
1 O Israel, return to the LORD your God, For you have stumbled
because of your iniquity;
2 Take words with you, And return to the LORD. Say to Him, “Take
away all iniquity; Receive us graciously, For we will offer the
sacrifices of our lips.
3 Assyria shall not save us, We will not ride on horses, Nor will we
say anymore to the work of our hands, ‘You are our gods.’ For in You the
fatherless finds mercy.”
4 “I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely,
For My anger has turned away from him.
5 I will be like the dew to Israel; He shall grow like the lily, And
lengthen his roots like Lebanon.
6 His branches shall spread;
His beauty shall be like an olive tree, And his fragrance like Lebanon.
7 Those who dwell under his shadow shall return; They shall be
revived like grain, And grow like a vine. Their scent shall be
like the wine of Lebanon.
8 “Ephraim shall say, ‘What have I to do anymore with idols?’
I have heard and observed him. I am
like a green cypress tree; Your fruit is found in Me.”
9 Who is wise? Let him understand these things. Who is
prudent? Let him know them. For the ways of the LORD are right; The
righteous walk in them, But transgressors stumble in them.
Many
of the people of the northern kingdom, when they saw the growing idolatry of
their neighbors and realized that there would be no reform movement that would
keep the nation faithful to God, fled to the southern Kingdom of Judah and
lived there.
About
a 150 years after Israel fell to the Assyrians, the southern kingdom followed
in the evil example of her northern sister and also fell into idolatry.
The Babylonians then did to the south what Assyria had done to
the north and carried them away captive.
All 12 tribes were deported to Babylon – where they
learned to loath the worship of idols.
And as is foretold here, the Jews never had a
problem with idolatry again.
Though the Jews returned and resettled their land after the Babylonian
captivity, they were forever hassled by foreign powers, finally to be displaced
from their land in 70 AD, up to the mid 20th century.
Then in 1948, Israel was once again declared a nation – and ever since,
God has been re-gathering them in their land.
They have turned what was either virtual swampland or desert wilderness
into one of the richest and most agriculturally rich nations of the world.
Today Israel is the largest producer of flowers sold in Europe and is
the world’s 3rd largest citrus producer.
What we read about here in Chapter 14 is
coming to pass in our own day.
But the most important prophecy of this
chapter is Israel’s spiritual return to God!
That will happen when Jesus comes again and may very well commence
during what we call the Tribulation when God turns His Spirit back upon the
nation and people of Israel.