ARROGANT SCORN IN THE FACE OF LOVE
Hosea 6:1-9:17
6:1 Come, and let us return to the LORD; For He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up.
7:10 And the pride of Israel testifies to his face But they do not return to the LORD their God, Nor seek Him for all this.
There could not be a more gracious call sent to a patently wicked people than the one recorded for us here (6:1-3). God owed the nations of Israel nothing but judgment for their total violation of everything He had created them to be as a nation. Never before or since has God chosen and gifted a nation to so fully represent Him in the world. To Israel alone there were given the Oracles of God, the Tabernacle, and the Temple as a place of worship where God manifested Himself like no other place on Earth. No other nation has ever been declared by God to be His bride, daughter, or son. These terms of love were uniquely given to this nation formed from those who had lived as slaves in ancient Egypt.
From the lowest people in the eyes of the world's ancient nations had come a nation that was blessed beyond any other nation in human history. In spite of all the blessings they received, Israel was unequalled in how they threw themselves into sin and rebellion against God. We clearly see this in Hosea's prophetic descriptions (6:4-9:17). Consider just a few descriptive words from this section. They had dealt treacherously with God, were bloodthirsty thieves, had done lewd and horrible things in the Temple, were adulterers, were full of pride and confidence in the help of man but with no confidence in God. They had sown seeds of destruction that had pulled them into a whirlwind of disaster.
In spite of all this insane rebellion against everything good God had called them to be, He still wanted them! The destruction He had begun to bring upon them was His last effort to save them from themselves. Pain, He hoped, would awaken them to their folly. If they awoke, He promised to heal them, revive them, and raise them up to live before Him in ever-growing knowledge and intimacy with Him.
Obviously, Israel has not been the only ones to find themselves in such a situation. In some way, we have all played with the same fire. We have all taken as nothing the privilege of our creation and life, acting as if our life originated in ourselves. We suppress the sin that our own conscience condemns, and we consider the cross of Christ only for those "other really bad sinners," if we consider it necessary at all. And we scorn God's call to repent from our self-imposed delusions about Him, sin, judgment, and ourselves. Let not any of us think that Israel stands alone in judgment. Our disregard for being called from darkness to light, from slaves to freedom, from Satan to God, will sow our own seeds of judgment.
Choose to repent. If we do, healing, revival, and the abundance of God are still offered to all who will.
NKJV BIBLE TEXT
Hosea 6:1-9:17
A Call to Repentance
1 Come, and let us return to the LORD;
For He has torn, but He will heal us;
He has stricken, but He will bind us up.
2 After two days He will revive us;
On the third day He will raise us up,
That we may live in His sight.
3 Let us know,
Let us pursue the knowledge of the LORD.
His going forth is established as the morning;
He will come to us like the rain,
Like the latter and former rain to the earth.
Impenitence of Israel and Judah
4 "O Ephraim, what shall I do to you?
O Judah, what shall I do to you?
For your faithfulness is like a morning cloud,
And like the early dew it goes away.
5 Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets,
I have slain them by the words of My mouth;
And your judgments are like light that goes forth.
6 For I desire mercy and not sacrifice,
And the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.
7 "But like men they transgressed the covenant;
There they dealt treacherously with Me.
8 Gilead is a city of evildoers
And defiled with blood.
9 As bands of robbers lie in wait for a man,
So the company of priests murder on the way to Shechem;
Surely they commit lewdness.
10 I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel:
There is the harlotry of Ephraim;
Israel is defiled.
11 Also, O Judah, a harvest is appointed for you,
When I return the captives of My people.
Hosea 7
1 "When I would have healed Israel,
Then the iniquity of Ephraim was uncovered,
And the wickedness of Samaria.
For they have committed fraud;
A thief comes in;
A band of robbers takes spoil outside.
2 They do not consider in their hearts
That I remember all their wickedness;
Now their own deeds have surrounded them;
They are before My face.
3 They make a king glad with their wickedness,
And princes with their lies.
4 "They are all adulterers.
Like an oven heated by a baker
He ceases stirring the fire after kneading the dough,
Until it is leavened.
5 In the day of our king
Princes have made him sick, inflamed with wine;
He stretched out his hand with scoffers.
6 They prepare their heart like an oven,
While they lie in wait;
Their baker sleeps all night;
In the morning it burns like a flaming fire.
7 They are all hot, like an oven,
And have devoured their judges;
All their kings have fallen.
None among them calls upon Me.
8 "Ephraim has mixed himself among the peoples;
Ephraim is a cake unturned.
9 Aliens have devoured his strength,
But he does not know it;
Yes, gray hairs are here and there on him,
Yet he does not know it.
10 And the pride of Israel testifies to his face,
But they do not return to the LORD their God,
Nor seek Him for all this.
Futile Reliance on the Nations
11 "Ephraim also is like a silly dove, without sense
They call to Egypt,
They go to Assyria.
12 Wherever they go, I will spread My net on them;
I will bring them down like birds of the air;
I will chastise them
According to what their congregation has heard.
13 "Woe to them, for they have fled from Me!
Destruction to them,
Because they have transgressed against Me!
Though I redeemed them,
Yet they have spoken lies against Me.
14 They did not cry out to Me with their heart
When they wailed upon their beds.
"They assemble together for grain and new wine,
They rebel against Me;
15 Though I disciplined and strengthened their arms,
Yet they devise evil against Me;
16 They return, but not to the Most High;
They are like a treacherous bow.
Their princes shall fall by the sword
For the cursings of their tongue.
This shall be their derision in the land of Egypt.
Hosea 8
The Apostasy of Israel
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.
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.
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.
8 Israel is swallowed up;
Now they are among the Gentiles
Like a vessel in which is no pleasure.
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.
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."
Hosea 9
Judgment of Israel's Sin
1 Do not rejoice, O Israel, with joy like other peoples,
For you have played the harlot against your God.
You have made love for hire on every threshing floor.
2 The threshing floor and the winepress
Shall not feed them,
And the new wine shall fail in her.
3 They shall not dwell in the LORD's land,
But Ephraim shall return to Egypt,
And shall eat unclean things in Assyria.
4 They shall not offer wine offerings to the LORD,
Nor shall their sacrifices be pleasing to Him.
It shall be like bread of mourners to them;
All who eat it shall be defiled.
For their bread shall be for their own life;
It shall not come into the house of the LORD.
5 What will you do in the appointed day,
And in the day of the feast of the LORD?
6 For indeed they are gone because of destruction.
Egypt shall gather them up;
Memphis shall bury them.
Nettles shall possess their valuables of silver;
Thorns shall be in their tents.
7 The days of punishment have come;
The days of recompense have come.
Israel knows!
The prophet is a fool,
The spiritual man is insane,
Because of the greatness of your iniquity and great enmity.
8 The watchman of Ephraim is with my God;
But the prophet is a fowler's snare in all his ways
Enmity in the house of his God.
9 They are deeply corrupted,
As in the days of Gibeah.
He will remember their iniquity;
He will punish their sins.
10 "I found Israel
Like grapes in the wilderness;
I saw your fathers
As the firstfruits on the fig tree in its first season.
But they went to Baal Peor,
And separated themselves to that shame;
They became an abomination like the thing they loved.
11 As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird
No birth, no pregnancy, and no conception!
12 Though they bring up their children,
Yet I will bereave them to the last man.
Yes, woe to them when I depart from them!
13 Just as I saw Ephraim like Tyre, planted in a pleasant place,
So Ephraim will bring out his children to the murderer."
14 Give them, O LORD
What will You give?
Give them a miscarrying womb
And dry breasts!
15 "All their wickedness is in Gilgal,
For there I hated them.
Because of the evil of their deeds
I will drive them from My house;
I will love them no more.
All their princes are rebellious.
16 Ephraim is stricken,
Their root is dried up;
They shall bear no fruit.
Yes, were they to bear children,
I would kill the darlings of their womb."
17 My God will cast them away,
Because they did not obey Him;
And they shall be wanderers among the nations.
STUDY NOTES
Hosea 6:1-9:17
v. 1 let us return to the LORD ? An appearance of repentance on the part of Israel. But judging from the words of the LORD that follows, Israel's words are superficial and shallow.
v. 2 After two days ? Israel's hope was that their time of chastisement would be brief.
v. 3 know ? yada (Heb.) intimate knowledge from personal experience (Gen. 3:5, 4:1)
like the rain ? an expectation that the LORD's coming would be refreshing and revitalizing like the rain to the earth
v. 4 like a morning cloud?early dew ? A depiction of Israel's faithfulness toward God being like a pleasant but temporary time of refreshment.
v. 6 mercy and not sacrifice ? Mercy (checed, Heb.), meaning goodness, kindness, faithfulness. The LORD prefers His people walk in goodness and faithfulness rather than just living in sin and then offering up sacrifices. Jesus quoted this phrase twice in the book of Matthew (9:13, 12:7).
knowledge of God more than burnt offerings - Israel sacrificed animals to God, but they never gave themselves to Him as a living sacrifices (Rom. 12:1). They missed what God really wanted: a deep, close relationship with Him.
v. 7 transgressed the covenant ? An intentional disobedience of God's laws and breaking of the contract God had made with them.
treacherously ? bagad (Heb.) a deceitful act of betrayal
v. 8 Gilead ? Probably Ramoth-gilead beyond the Jordan. Gilead was a designated city of refuge where those who had accidentally killed someone could hide from persecution until their trial date and where the priests of Israel also lived (Deut. 4:43; Josh. 20:8, 21:13). This was meant to be a place of safety rather than bloodshed.
v. 9 company of priests murder ? A grievous picture of the so-called priests of God commissioned by wicked King Jeroboam to murder any who would try to cross the border of Israel into Judah to worship the LORD in the Jerusalem Temple.
Lewdness ? zimmah (Heb.) a wicked plan or heinous crime
v. 10 defiled ? tame (Heb.) to be foul, especially in a ceremonial or moral sense (contaminated), polluted
v. 11 harvest is appointed for you ? This phrase seems to have a double meaning. 1.) a harvest of punishment. 2.) When the people of God came back into the land after the Babylonian exile, they mainly settled in the area of Judah. The harvest of returned exiles was mainly for Judah, not for Israel.
Hosea 7
v. 1 When I would have healed Israel, then ? Just as the LORD would be willing to forgive and restore, more sin would surface.
Ephraim ? Because Ephraim was the prominent tribe of Israel and now prominent in sin, the LORD speaks of them as representing all of Israel.
Samaria ? the capitol of the northern kingdom of Israel
v. 2 They do not consider in their hearts ? The plight of every sinner. Israel did not really believe that the LORD was watching them and would repay them for every wicked act.
v. 3 a king?princes ? A reference to wicked King Jeroboam of the northern kingdom of Israel and his princes.
v. 4 Like an oven heated ? always aflame with lust
Until it is leavened ? Leaven is metaphorical language for sin in the scriptures (Ex. 12:15, Lev. 23:17, 1 Cor. 5:6-8, Gal. 5:9).
v. 5 the day of our king ? Probably Jeroboam's coronation day or his birthday. Either would easily turn into a drunken party.
scoffers ? latsats (Heb.) to scorn, make mouths at, talk arrogantly
v. 6 like an oven ? more metaphorical language, meaning hot with lust and full of sin
v. 7 their judges?kings have fallen ? As the history of the kingdom of Israel continued, corruption ruled the courts and one royal house was murdered to make way for another.
v. 8 a cake unturned ? Like a worthless pancake burned on one side and raw on the other.
v. 9 Aliens ? zuwr (Heb.) a foreigner, stranger; likely used here as a term to describe foreign women (i.e. to commit adultery with)
gray hairs?Yet he does not know it ? He grew old before his time but didn't realize his strength was gone and death was nearer than he thought.
v. 10 pride of Israel testifies to his face ? His arrogance testifies against him.
v. 11 like a silly dove ? An equivalent to our modern-day expression "bird brain." Israel's resolution to seek help from the pagan nations rather than the LORD was futile, senseless, and silly.
Egypt?Assyria ? These are the neighboring nations Israel called upon for help and deliverance when the LORD sent judgment via the invading Babylonians.
v. 12 My net ? The LORD reminds Israel that He is the skilled predator who hunts them, rather than the invading nations. And they will not escape His trap.
chastise them ? A reminder that what Israel was experiencing is actually a punishment from God and not merely the invasion of a foreign militia by the will of man.
v. 13 Woe ? owy (Heb.) A lamentation or passionate cry of grief and despair. This term is found in the Bible most often in conjunction with God's judgment.
v. 14 they wailed upon their beds ? a depiction of sleepless anxiety, depression, or sickness
They assemble together for grain and new wine ? The people of Israel gathered in pagan temples to seek the favor and blessings of their idols rather than calling upon the LORD.
v. 15 disciplined ? yacar (Heb.) to instruct through chastening, discipline or admonishment
strengthened ? chazaq (Heb.) cure, help, repair, fortify
Yet they devise evil against Me ? The LORD sought to build up and make His people strong by chastening them. Yet Israel continued to rebel and seek help from other gods and other nations.
v. 16 a treacherous bow ? A bow such as this cannot shoot a straight line and always misses the mark; a picture of the crooked character of Israel.
derision ? la`ag (Heb.) mocking, scoffing, scorn, stammering. The people of Egypt will laugh at them.
Hosea 8
v. 1 Set the trumpet to your mouth ? the sounding of an alarm of an impending attack (Hosea 5:8, Joel 2:1, Amos 3:6)
He shall come like an eagle ? referring to the king of Assyria, who was about to invade Israel
v. 4 set up kings, but not by Me ? The kings of the northern kingdom of Israel were established outside of God's will because they were not from the royal line of David. After Jeroboam II, five kings ruled over Israel in 13 years. Three of these kings seized the throne through treachery and violence (2 Kings 15:8-30).
That they might be cut off ? Israel brought about her own destruction by her idol worship and rejecting the LORD's authority.
v. 5 Your calf ? King Jeroboam (930-909 BC) set up idolatrous golden calves to be worshipped by the people of Israel.
Samaria ? the capitol of the Northern Kingdom of Israel
v. 7 sow the wind?reap the whirlwind ? An expression used even today illustrating the negative side of the sowing and reaping process of life. The point here is that the consequence for Israel's sowing to idolatry will be a reaping of judgment from God in the whirlwind of Assyria attacking them.
The stalk has no bud ? What Israel has sown will have no fruit, harvest, or reward.
Aliens ? the Assyrians
v. 8 they are among the Gentiles ? Israel's choice to reject God's laws and precepts reduced her to the level and status of all the other nations.
Like a vessel ? like a worthless and unusable container
v. 9 Like a wild donkey ? The wild donkey is an independent, untamable, and obstinate beast.
hired lovers ? referring to Israel's tribute to and alliance with other nations for protection (v. 10)
v. 10 the burden of the king of princes ? Israel will soon bear the burden of paying tax and tribute to the great King Pul (the Babylonian name for Tiglath-pileser III) of Assyria whose princes were the kings of many other nations (2 Kings 15:19, 20).
v. 11 many altars for sin ? The many altars to various idols which had been established in Israel at this time.
v. 12 considered a strange thing ? God's Law, which was clearly established for His people in writing, has now become and unknown and foreign concept.
v. 13 return to Egypt ? Because Israel had turned to Egypt for help, as a punishment she will become enslaved again in Egypt as foretold in Deuteronomy 28:68. A bitter judgment that reverses Israel's once-great deliverance from Egypt.
v. 14 Judah also ? The southern kingdom of Judah, though less idolatrous than Israel, betrayed lack of faith in the LORD by trusting more in its palaces and fortresses than in Him; instead of making peace with God for protection, Judah multiplied human defenses.
Hosea 9
v. 1 love for hire on every threshing floor ? An allegory of Israel's spiritual condition. The threshing floor at harvest time was a man's world. The threshers would feast at the end of a hard day's work and stay all night to protect the grain. Prostitutes were common visitors in these places.
v. 2 new wine ? A fresh crop of grapes. This speaks of a recent harvest.
v. 3 shall not dwell in the LORD'S land ? As part of God's judgment upon unfaithful Israel she will be removed from the Promised Land and sent into captivity in other lands.
unclean things ? This was food the Hebrew people will be forced to eat as slaves in Assyria and food that would be considered unlawful according to the Law of Moses (Eze. 4:13, Dan. 1:8, Acts 10:14).
v. 4 bread of mourners ? To eat bread in a house where there had been a death would make one ceremonially unclean according to the Law of Moses (Num. 19:11, 13; Hag. 2:13).
v. 5 What will you do in the appointed day ? What will Israel do on the appointed holy days and feast days set apart for the worship of the LORD when they are in captivity in a foreign land?
v. 6 Memphis ? the capitol of Northern Egypt
Nettles ? qimmowsh (Heb.) a picture of judgment and desolation
v. 7 Israel knows! ? Divine sarcasm. God is mocking Israel's arrogance, thinking that she knows right from wrong without the LORD's guidance.
The prophet is a fool, The spiritual man is insane ? This is what the people of Israel were saying about Hosea. When things in Israel prospered and everyone was happy, Hosea announced God's coming judgment and called for repentance. They thought he was a crazy fool.
v. 8 The watchman ? A way of describing the role of a national prophet who warns the people of God's impending judgment (Eze. 3:17-21).
fowler's snare ? A trap set for a bird. This figure of speech is used to express traps that were set for the prophet of God wherever he turned.
Enmity ? mastemah (Heb.) hatred, animosity, hostility
v. 9 As in the days of Gibeah ? Judges 19 describes horrific crimes of perversion and violence in Israel in the days of the Judges that took place in Gibeah. Hosea says that his day was just as bad as those days in Israel.
v. 10 Like grapes in the wilderness ? like a refreshing and delightful delicacy found in a barren place
Baal Peor ? A comparison to Israel's sins of immorality in the early days of her sojourn when Balaam helped Balak bring down God's people into sin at Baal Peor (Num. 24:25-25:5). Baal Peor means Baal of Peor. Baal was a Moabite (the deity worshipped at Peor with sexually immoral rites)
abomination ? shiqquwts (Heb.) disgusting; a detestable thing or idol
v. 11 No birth, no pregnancy, and no conception ? Your children will die at birth or perish in the womb or never even be conceived.
v. 13 like Tyre ? The Phoenician city pleasantly planted on the Mediterranean coast. Yet she was completely leveled by the judgment of God because of her arrogance and rebellion against the LORD (Eze. 26:3-15; 28:1-10).
v. 14 give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts ? This was Hosea's prayer for mercy. Knowing of the coming judgment, he prayed, LORD, give them few children so less children will have to face the horrors of Your coming judgment.
v. 15 Gilgal ? The first site of an Israelite camp west of the Jordan, east of Jericho, here Samuel was judge, and Saul was made king. Later used for illicit worship.
v. 17 they shall be wanderers among the nations ? This is exactly what the LORD warned them about when they first entered the Promised Land and received God's Law (Deut. 28:58-63).
PRAYER FOCUS
"Come, and let us return to the LORD; For He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up." Hosea 6:1
Repentance and Its Reward Hosea 7:10
Although these verses are from so long ago, we see, Lord, that there is really no difference in our society today. Your Word tells us that if we love You and are following You that You will take us through fiery trials and refine our faith. We know that You seek us when we turn from You. We pray to consider it a joy and privilege to be disciplined by Your just and perfect Hand, for it is a sure sign that we are Your children.
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