The Book Of Hosea. Day 29, Broken Altars Of Sin

In Monday's study we talked about how no other god but the Lord ever spoke to Israel, ever rescued Israel from Egypt with great signs and wonders, ever miraculously provided for Israel in the wilderness, ever rooted out the nations before them and planted them in the promised land, ever gave them the laws and commandments, ever provided them with protection and prosperity, or ever made a covenant with them. Yet so many forsook Him in favor of the gods of the nations---gods that didn't even exist, gods that never spoke to them, gods that never did anything for them. In today's study the Lord proclaims that the altars of these gods will be brought to ruin.

"Their heart is deceitful, and now must bear their guilt. The Lord will demolish their altars and destroy their sacred stones." (Hosea 10:2) The word translated into English as "deceitful" literally means "smooth" in the original language. This indicates they flattered the Lord with their words while their affections lay elsewhere. You'll recall that Hosea's wife Gomer has been repeatedly unfaithful to him; some scholars believe Hosea had often been the victim of her smooth and deceitful words. Perhaps she claimed time and time again that she was turning away from her wandering nature and would be faithful to her husband, yet time and time again she broke her promises, just as time and time again the people of the northern kingdom were unfaithful to the Lord. The Lord will say of these people through the prophet Isaiah, "These people come near to Me with their mouth and honor Me with their lips but their hearts are far from Me." (Isaiah 29:13a)

Hosea's ministry began sometime during the prosperous reign of King Jeroboam II but Jeroboam's successor will be assassinated soon after his coronation. The same fate will befall several other kings in quick order before the Assyrian invasion, at which point the northern kingdom will be a sovereign nation no more. When these tumultuous events begin to happen, "Then they will say, 'We have no king because we did not revere the Lord. But even if we had a king, what could he do for us?'" (Hosea 10:3) Even if they had a king, unless the nation underwent a widescale turning back to the Lord, no human king was capable of rescuing the nation from the hand of the enemy. It was the Lord's will for them to be conquered and taken into captivity due to their unrepentant idolatry and there wasn't a man on earth who could thwart His will. 

We learned earlier in our study of Hosea that justice had long ago fallen by the wayside. Judges were accepting bribes. People were defrauding their neighbors. Defenseless widows and orphans and foreigners were being deprived of their rights. Even the king (or several kings) have spoken falsehood, not only to their own people but to other leaders with whom they've attempted to ally themselves. And those allies have not kept their word either, being unwilling or unable to come to Israel's aid. "They make many promises, take false oaths and make agreements; therefore lawsuits spring up like poisonous weeds in a plowed field." (Hosea 10:4)

"The people who live in Samaria fear for the calf-idol of Beth-Aven. Its people will mourn over it, and so will its idolatrous priests, those who had rejoiced over its splendor, because it is taken from them into exile. It will be carried to Assyria as tribute for the great king." (Hosea 10:5-6a) This is not the first time we've seen the Lord referring to Bethel as Beth-Aven. Bethel meant "house of God" but Bethel, near the capital city of Samaria, is where King Jeroboam I set up one of his two golden calves (the other being placed in Dan) and the Lord is refusing to call that location the "house of God" but instead uses a term that means "house of wickedness".

When the nation falls to the enemy, the enemy soldiers will carry the calf idol of Bethel to the king of Assyria. The idol will not be able to protect itself or the people who so often made offerings and sacrifices on the altar in front of it. They have wasted their energy, their prayers, and their resources at this sinful religious site. As the author of Psalm 115 states, "Their idols are silver and gold, made by human hands. They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but cannot see. They have ears, but cannot hear, noses, but cannot smell. They have hands, but cannot feel, feet, but cannot walk, nor can they utter a sound with their throats." (Psalm 115:4-7) 

Only the living God, who established Israel as a nation, is their helper. He can speak to them. He can see them. He can hear them. He can save them. But despite all the prophets who were sent to them, the vast majority of the people did not turn back to Him, and so they were swept away like a flood by the enemy army. No idol lifted a finger to help them. 

The Book Of Hosea. Day 28, Fruit Produced By The Wrong Methods

Before we begin today's study I'd like to apologize for how sporadic the posts have been for the last week. Last week was a difficult week at my house and several things happened that threw off the morning schedule here, plus I was sick for a few days and had to spend one morning getting a prescription for antibiotics before work and leaving early to go get them. Morning is the only time of day when I generally have peaceful, uninterrupted, clear-minded time to work on the Bible study. Hopefully this week's schedule will be back to normal! 

We are moving on into Chapter 10 and in it we learn that the very prosperity the people enjoyed is what they allowed to get between themselves and God. Prosperity was a blessing the Lord promised them for obedience and in the nation's early days in the promised land this is why they enjoyed so many wonderful things---because they were faithful to the Lord. But after the northern kingdom split away from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, they fell into more and more idolatry and fell into many other types of sin as a result of that idolatry. They began adding to their prosperity by employing wicked methods to get what they wanted.

In this world there is a type of prosperity that can be gained by our own sinful methods. Many people have become rich through sin. They've defrauded others to make their money. They've preyed on the poor and charged exorbitant interest rates. They've become famous and wealthy by creating sinful music, sinful movies, or sinful photographs. They've engaged in the drug trade. They've owned and operated gambling establishments. They've owned and operated clubs where people can get drunk while viewing unclothed women dancers. These are just a few examples of all sorts of ways in which people have gained wealth for themselves while breaking the laws of God and while exploiting their fellow man. By Hosea's day, the prosperity the people are enjoying is not that which the Lord pours out for obedience; it's the prosperity of sin and lawlessness. There is no true, soul-deep satisfaction in that type of prosperity but it's often the case that a person will engage in even more sin in order to try to fill up the emptiness. Prosperity that we gain by our own methods comes between us and the Lord and eventually He must remove the prosperity in order to get our attention.

The Lord says, "Israel was a spreading vine; he brought forth fruit for himself. As his fruit increased, he built more altars; as his land prospered, he adorned his sacred stones." (Hosea 10:1) It was the Lord who led Israel out of Egypt with great signs and wonders, who miraculously provided for Israel for forty years in the wilderness, who powerfully drove out the pagan tribes of Canaan and planted Israel in their place. It was the Lord who gave them a land flowing with milk and honey. Yet many forsook Him and began bowing to idols, crediting the idols with their prosperity. Because they credited the idols with their prosperity, they served idols more and more in hopes that the gods of the heathen nations would bless them more and more. But it was never these gods who did anything for them at all. No god ever spoke to them except the Lord. No god ever blessed them except the Lord. No god ever could do anything for them since there is no God except the Lord. As the Lord said to the people through the prophet Isaiah, "Before Me no god was formed, nor will there be one after Me. I, even I, am the Lord, and apart from Me there is no savior. I have revealed and saved and proclaimed---I, and not some foreign god among you...I am the first and I am the last; apart from Me there is no God." (Isaiah 43:10b-12a, 44:6b) 

References to fruitful spreading trees or fruitful spreading vines are usually good things when the references are being made to the blessings given in return for faithfulness. But in our text today the fruit is bad. The nation has obtained prosperity through unrighteous means---by carnal human methods---rather than through obedience to the Lord. This type of prosperity is as impermanent and unsatisfying as overripe or rotten fruit. It is not good fruit, but bad. And what do we do with rotten fruit? We throw it out, which is exactly what the Lord is going to do soon with the northern kingdom. He is going to allow the people to be cast out of the land by an enemy invader.

The Lord is a good father and like any good father He wants to see His children producing good fruit. Just as eating fresh fruit is good for our human bodies, producing good spiritual fruit is good for our souls. But just as eating rotten fruit will make our physical bodies sick, producing sinful fruit makes our souls sick. The Lord is going to allow those who have clung to idols to be taken to foreign lands where idols are everywhere. In other words, He's going to make them sick of idols. He's going to make them so sick of useless idolatry that they will see the light---His light---and give their hearts back to Him.

The Book Of Hosea. Day 27, A Sad History Lesson, Part Three

As we've been going through Chapter 9 the Lord has been bringing up incidences of the people's unfaithfulness. We talked about what happened at Baal Peor and what happened at Gibeah. Today we talk about Gilgal.

Today's text appears to begin with Hosea asking the Lord a question. Up until now it has been the Lord speaking but the narrative switches in such a way that it seems to be the prophet speaking now. "Give them, Lord---what will you give them? Give them wombs that miscarry and breasts that are dry." (Hosea 9:14) The Lord has already talked about His intention to lessen their fertility rates but He also talked about His intention to destroy crops, allow an enemy to invade, and allow the people to be scattered among the nations. I think perhaps Hosea is asking the Lord to do only one of these things but not all three. Lowering the birth rate seems more merciful to Hosea than war, starvation from famine, the fall of the nation, and deportation to other nations. Some scholars think Hosea is not asking for the Lord to hold back His judgment in any way but that the prophet is saying that a lower birth rate would be desirable under desperate conditions: fewer children born means fewer children will endure the hardships to come.

The narrative switches again and it seems to be the Lord speaking now. "Because of their wickedness in Gilgal, I hated them there. Because of their sinful deeds, I will drive them out of My house." (Hosea 9:15a) At one time Gilgal was an important center of worship. Prior to the building of the temple, there was an altar there for sacrifices and offerings. There was also a school of prophets---true prophets---there during the days of Elijah and Elisha. The Lord previously indicated that a sinful type of worship was going on at Gilgal in Hosea 4:15, for He instructed the people to stop going there and to the idolatrous site at Bethel, which makes me think Gilgal was being used for idolatry as well. Later in Chapter 12 the Lord will say that bulls are being sacrificed in Gilgal, but evidently not to Him or if to Him then in some sort of unlawful way because He rejects these offerings. 

"I will no longer love them; all their leaders are rebellious. Ephraim is blighted, their root is withered, they yield no fruit. Even if they bear children, I will slay their cherished offspring." (Hosea 9:15b-16) The type of pagan rituals the people engaged in are not described in detail but the worship of heathen gods involved fertility rites. There are a number of references in the Old Testament about the people "committing adultery" against Him by lying down under every spreading tree. The groves were places where fertility rituals were carried out, with people indulging in sexual immorality underneath the trees. The fruitlessness of worshiping heathen gods will be demonstrated by the fruitlessness of the people; their birth rate will drop significantly and their mortality rate will rise significantly. Only by obeying the Lord can they prosper.

The chapter ends with words I believe are spoken by Hosea. "My God will reject them because they have not obeyed Him; they will be wanderers among the nations." (Hosea 9:17) They rejected Him first, and although His rejection of them will not be forever (just as Hosea's separation from his unfaithful wife was not forever), He is going to follow through with the warning He gave them before He brought them into the promised land. He told them if they forsook Him and followed the gods of the nations, He would uproot them from the land and scatter them among the nations. The Lord doesn't make empty threats. He has delayed judgment but He would be going against His righteous nature if He never judged unrepentant sin.

The Book Of Hosea. Day 26, A Sad History Lesson, Part Two

In Chapter 9 the Lord talks about the privileges given to Israel and the people's failure to remain faithful to Him. In yesterday's study He compared their current state of lawlessness to that which existed in the days of the judges. Today He talks about the glory they could have had versus the judgment that's coming instead.

"When I found Israel, it was like finding grapes in the desert; when I saw your ancestors, it was like seeing the early fruit on the fig tree." (Hosea 9:10a) Imagine how wonderful it would be, when traveling across a dry and dusty desert, to find a fruitful grapevine. Imagine what a welcome sight the early figs would be to a weary traveler going down a roadway. When the Lord first called Israel to be a nation, He called her through Abraham. Abraham believed in God and forsook the idols of his ancestors, choosing instead to trust God and go wherever He said to go. Abraham's descendants ended up in Egypt but the Lord never forgot them; they prospered greatly in number and it's estimated that perhaps as many as two million people emerged in the exodus. They could have been a fruitful blessing, like the finding of fruit, but instead they sinned against the Lord as He points out below.

"But when they came to Baal Peor, they consecrated themselves to that shameful idol and became as vile as the thing they loved." (Hosea 9:10b) A large number of the men of Israel sinned against the Lord at Baal Peor during the wilderness years. Moabite women set out to seduce them and lure them into idolatry, in hopes that God would destroy Israel. The men who allowed themselves to fall into this temptation accompanied the women to a pagan feast, where sacrifices were made to false gods, and they "ate the sacrificial meal and bowed down before these gods". (Numbers 25:2b) It's highly likely that the men engaged in occult sexual rituals with the women as well, for later in that same chapter an Israelite man brought a Midianite woman (the Midianites had allied themselves with the Moabites in this plot against Israel) right into the Israelite camp in the sight of everyone and took her into his tent. The Lord says that those who engaged in idolatry in Numbers 25 "became as vile as the thing they loved"---they became as unholy as the idols to which they bowed. Idolatry led them into sin, sin they probably never pictured themselves committing, and 24,000 men died in a plague of judgment for having fallen into idolatry and sexual immorality.

Idolatry has plagued the nation since then up until Hosea's day. Time and time again the people have fallen into idolatry in one form or another. In some cases they've blended idolatry with their worship of the Lord, such as bringing offerings and sacrifices to the golden calves intended (wrongly) to represent Him or by sacrificing to Him on the old high places which He commanded to be torn down (although they never tore them all down) when the temple was built. In other cases they repudiated Him altogether in favor of foreign gods. But in all the cases of those who chose these routes, they drifted from a right relationship with Him and drifted more and more into sins---into bigger and bigger sins---until at last He is going to have to bring about the calamities He warned them about.

"Ephraim's glory will fly away like a bird---no birth, no pregnancy, no conception. Even if they rear children, I will bereave them of every one. Woe to them when I turn away from them! I have seen Ephraim, like Tyre, planted in a pleasant place. But Ephraim will bring out their children to the slayer." (Hosea 9:11-13) The people have always increased. Even when they were slaves in Egypt, you'll recall from our study of the exodus that the Egyptians bewailed the fact that the Israelites in their midst were so fertile. They feared they would become so large in number that they could stage a successful revolt, and although some of the wicked people in the Bible suffered from unfounded paranoia (for the wicked flee when no one pursues, as Proverbs 28:1 says), the Israelites apparently really were far more fertile than the Egyptians and their numbers were growing by leaps and bounds. But now, as judgment for idolatry, the Lord is going to allow their fertility to decrease so their numbers will decrease. And He is going to allow an invader to come, causing many Israelite males to fall in battle, causing many people of all ages to be carried away captive, and causing those left in the land to deal with the deprivations of famine. 

As we close I want to point out again that judgment can fall on any nation in the world today that forgets God. We can't look back at ancient Israel and point our finger or shake our heads over their waywardness when there are people in our own nation who are just as wayward. Sometimes we go a bit astray ourselves, in spite of having already accepted the Lord as our Savior. We must remain steadfast in our own faithfulness and we must pray for revival in our country.

The Book Of Hosea. Day 25, A Sad History Lesson, Part One

The remainder of Chapter 9 contains some of the details of the history of the northern kingdom---details about how they've gone spiritually off course.

When we left off yesterday we learned that many of the people of the northern kingdom considered the Lord's prophets to be insane. They didn't believe their message. The land was currently prospering and they couldn't imagine that a day of reckoning for their sins was coming. After all, they'd already been engaging in pagan religious practices for a long time and nothing had happened yet. But they failed to understand that this was the mercy of the Lord! The Lord is giving them opportunities to repent; that is why He has not yet allowed the nation to fall. But the time for action is almost at hand and, if the Lord is holy and righteous, He must judge sin. The delay in judgment has been because He's taken pity on them. The Apostle Peter, in New Testament times, made an observation about what people consider the Lord's slowness to act; the slowness, if they wanted to call it that, was a merciful delay. "The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, as some understand slowness. Instead He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance." (2 Peter 3:9)

I am sure there must have been some souls saved during the many decades the Lord held back from causing judgment to fall. After all, men like Hosea were born during that time period. At some point in his life he made a conscious decision to follow the Lord rather than idols. Other prophets and priests did the same, as did average citizens. Although sin and idolatry were practiced by a large majority of the people by Hosea's day, not everyone was lost. The Lord knows ahead of time who will accept His message and who will not. His delay in bringing judgment allowed those who would be willing to hear Him to have an opportunity to hear Him and accept His word.

But a lot of people despised the Lord's message, as we learned yesterday when He said: "The prophet is considered a fool, the inspired person a maniac." This is where we pick up today with the next portion of our text: "The prophet, along with my God, is the watchman over Ephraim, yet snares await him on all his paths, and hostility in the house of his God. They have sunk deep into corruption, as in the days of Gibeah. God will remember their wickedness and punish them for their sins." (Hosea 9:8-9)

Not only are the people rejecting the Lord's word through Hosea, but they are actively waiting for an opportunity to do harm to Hosea, according to the passage above. Hosea isn't the first prophet in the Bible that people despised and he won't be the last. Even the Lord Jesus Christ had enemies who wanted to kill Him and who took every opportunity to try to trap Him by His words in order to accuse Him of speaking against the Roman government or against the law of Moses. 

The reference to Gibeah in verse 9 is a reference to lawlessness and the absence of concern for one's fellow man. In Judges 19, while a Levite and his wife were lodging in Gibeah at the home of a man who had kindly invited them to stay the night on their journey home to the hill country of Ephraim, a large band of wicked men surrounded the house and demanded that the men send the Levite's wife out to them so they could all have sexual relations with her. This incident was similar to the one that happened in the region of Sodom and Gomorrah during the days of Lot, although in that case the men were demanding males inside the household be sent out to them. The homeowner in Judges 19 begged the men to go away and do no harm to anyone under his protection but the men would not listen. They had their way with the woman all night, resulting in her death. When the Lord says the northern kingdom of Israel has "sunk deep into corruption, as in the days of Gibeah", He means they have sunk into utter depravity. 

As we continue on through Chapter 9 in our next study session we will find the Lord referring to other incidences of wickedness. The people have sunk to depths no one could ever have imagined when they first entered the promised land. They have become just like the tribes who inhabited the land before them---the tribes the Lord removed due to their sin. He is about to do the same thing to the nation that has become as sinful as the ancient tribes of Canaan. 

The Book Of Hosea. Day 24, A Day Of Reckoning

In Monday's study the Lord spoke about Israel's having rejected His laws. Today He moves on to speak about a day of reckoning that is soon coming. Many scholars believe Hosea preached the message of Chapter 9 during or just after a harvest celebration---a harvest celebration that contains sinful elements.

The Lord certainly appears to be making reference to a celebratory occasion, both for Israel and for other nations, as this chapter opens. It very well may be that it is the harvest time of year in Israel and surrounding nations. But the Lord warns Israel that it's not a time of celebrating for her. She has violated His laws, bowed to other gods, and participated in immoral religious rites (such as asking "the gods" for a good harvest) like the heathen nations.

The Lord says, "Do not rejoice, Israel; do not be jubilant like the other nations. For you have been unfaithful to your God; you love the wages of a prostitute at every threshing floor." (Hosea 9:1) All manner of debauchery went on at pagan harvest festivals, including sexual immorality on the threshing floors, and verse 1 lets us know that a large number of people in Israel must have been participating in these shameful deeds. 

Interestingly, the Lord isn't telling the heathen nations not to rejoice at harvest time, although they were living in the abject depths of sin. It's not that He didn't judge other nations for idolatry and immorality (many of the nations and tribes mentioned in the Bible do not exist as a distinct group of people in today's world; their cities and towns fell long ago to invaders), but that He and Israel had made a covenant with each other---a covenant the Israelites repeatedly broke. We've talked before about how our deeds are judged by the knowledge we possess. A person who knows the laws and commandments of God is far more responsible for keeping them than a person who knows very little about what the Lord considers godly living. The Lord initiated a personal relationship with the people of Israel. He chose to reveal His character to them and to give them His laws and commandments. He communicated with them in a way no other group of people on earth at that time had ever experienced. He brought them into a prosperous land and made a great nation of them. But in spite of all this, they desired to serve the gods of the nations. They wanted to go their own way and do their own thing. They didn't aspire to the holy mode of living to which the Lord called them; they served gods whose character was presumed to be just like man's character---a character that contained jealousy, lust, anger, greed, and all the other qualities of the carnal side of man. 

The debauchery in the threshing floors and vineyards and orchards will do them no good. The Lord abhors immorality and "the gods" they called upon there do not exist and cannot help them. An invader will take whatever crops manage to come to harvest. An invader (Assyria) will take the people to other lands; some will flee to other lands (such as Egypt) in an effort to escape the invasion. The people will eat and drink in foreign lands where only foreign gods are served. "Threshing floors and winepresses will not feed the people; the new wine will fail them. They will not remain in the Lord's land; Ephraim will return to Egypt and eat unclean food in Assyria." (Hosea 9:2-3) The purpose in sending them to foreign lands where they will see nothing but idols is not so they will serve idols more and more but that they will see the futility of worshiping idols and turn back to the Lord. It's so they will long for Him, repent to Him, and commit themselves to Him wholeheartedly. 

After the people have either refugeed to other lands or have been taken forcibly to other lands, those who have eschewed the temple for so long will wish they were free to go there and make offerings to the Lord. But they will not be free to return for some time. While they were still free to come and go as they pleased, they chose not to, resorting instead to pagan temples and altars. "They will not pour out wine offerings to the Lord, nor will their sacrifices please Him. Such sacrifices will be to them like the bread of mourners; all who eat them will be unclean. This food will be for themselves; it will not come into the temple of the Lord." (Hosea 9:4)

The Lord continues with the theme of how little good it has done them to serve other gods. The gods will not protect them from crop failure or crop destruction. The gods will not protect them from an invading enemy. The gods will not protect them from captivity and deportation. The gods will not prevent their worldly goods and treasures from being carried off by the enemy. Only by remaining faithful to Him could they have remained secure and prosperous in their own land. "What will you do on the day of your appointed festivals, on the feast days of the Lord? Even if they escape from destruction, Egypt will gather them, and Memphis will bury them. Their treasures of silver will be taken over by briers, and thorns will overrun their tents." (Hosea 9:5-6) 

Some of the commentaries I consulted suggested that Hosea preached this part of his message during a time of great prosperity. We know that he ministered to the nation during the reign of King Jeroboam II, which was the most prosperous of any of the reigns of the kings of the northern kingdom, and the people scoffed at Hosea's warning that bad times were coming. They didn't believe him, so the Lord says, "The days of punishment are coming, the days of reckoning are at hand. Let Israel know this. Because your sins are so many and your hostility so great, the prophet is considered a fool, the inspired person a maniac." (Hosea 9:7) 

The people preferred to remain in their wayward mode of living, so they dismissed Hosea's pleas to repent and his warnings of a coming judgment by convincing themselves he was a madman. In the face of the prosperity they were currently enjoying, they could not picture a time when things would not be just as good as they are right now. But the Jehu dynasty, to which Jeroboam II belongs, is about to come to an end. The Lord told Jehu that his dynasty would only last to the fourth generation and the time is almost up, for Jeroboam's son and heir (King Zechariah) will be assassinated only six months into his reign by a man named Shallum who is not of the family line of Jehu. There will follow a quick succession of short-reigning kings, each of whom will be assassinated and succeeded by his killer. The glory days of the northern kingdom will soon come to an end, just as Hosea has said.

The Book Of Hosea. Day 23, Rejecting The Law

The Lord talks about how the people rejected His law and then embraced the practices of other cultures. As we closed our last study session we found Him saying that the people had erected many altars in the land that they used for sinning. On those altars some of them sacrificed to other gods, though some were presumably making offerings to the Lord, but even in those cases He's told us that most of their  hearts were far from Him.

He says, "I wrote for them the many things of My law, but they regarded them as something foreign." (Hosea 8:12) In some translations the word "foreign" is "strange". The word "strange" is used in the Scriptures to describe things that don't belong in the life of the child of God, such as idolatry. It should have been the idols and the pagan religious practices that the children of Israel considered "strange" but instead they treated the law of God as if it were something that didn't belong in their lives. 

The Lord takes no pleasure in anything offered on any of the altars of the northern kingdom. He did not authorize the golden calf sites at Dan and Bethel. He no longer has a stamp of approval on the hilltop altars of old that were used prior to the construction of the temple. He wants the temple to be the central location of worship where the males of Israel are required to appear at three major holy festival per year, although if feasible they should go even more often. As we talked about in our last session, the importance of corporate worship cannot be overstated. God's people need to gather together to encourage one another and to learn about Him together. But this is not happening and He doesn't place a stamp of approval on the things that are happening in the northern kingdom. "Though they offer sacrifices as gifts to Me, and though they eat the meat, the Lord is not pleased with them." (Hosea 8:13a) 

They love idols so much that the Lord is going to disperse them among the idolatrous nations. "Now He will remember their wickedness and punish their sins: They will return to Egypt. Israel has forgotten their Maker and built palaces; Judah has fortified many towns. But I will send fire on their cities that will consume their fortresses." (Hosea 8:13b-14) Hosea lived during the time of King Jeroboam II during whose reign the northern kingdom was the most prosperous. The king won some major military conquests in which he took back territories of Israel that had been seized by other nations. Militarily, economically, and politically the nation appeared to be doing well---from the outside. But on the inside it was as if the people were still slaves in Egypt because they had voluntarily given themselves over to the bondage of idolatry. In their hearts they were in Egypt (the name of Egypt being used in the Old Testament as a symbol for idolatry) and soon they will physically be scattered among idolatrous nations. 

No matter how many palaces stand in Israel, no matter how many fortified cities are present in Judah, both nations will fall prey to invaders. The northern kingdom will fall to the Assyrian Empire and about 130 years later the southern kingdom will fall to the Neo-Babylonian Empire. It won't matter how thick the walls are around their cities. It won't matter how fierce are the soldiers stationed at the garrisons around the countryside. The Lord has determined to allow the fall of these nations to happen because the majority of the people already have, or soon will, forsake Him. I am reminded of the wise words of King Solomon who said, "Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the guards stand watch in vain." (Psalm 127:1) 

The "house" of the northern kingdom wasn't built by the Lord's laws or in His honor. A form of idolatry was introduced at the very outset, by the northern kingdom's first king, when he was afraid to let his subjects go to Jerusalem to the temple lest they decide to transfer their allegiance to the king of Judah. That was the beginning of their slide into widescale idolatry and rejection of the Lord's laws. The guards can stand watch all they want but it will do them no good, for the sins of the northern kingdom have reached their tipping point and the Lord will bring about the things He warned the people of before He brought them into the promised land. He warned them of defeat and captivity if they turned away from Him. Now these things will soon come to pass.

It is only by building our lives on the solid Rock---our God---that we can stand firm. The Lord is our security. The Lord is our strength. When we replace Him with anything or anyone else, we become weak and frail spiritually and are headed down a very slippery and dangerous slope.

The Book Of Hosea. Day 22, Altars For Sinning

I'm sorry for not having a Bible study post for Thursday. I've been having problems with my laptop disconnecting repeatedly from my wifi and it happened so many times yesterday morning that I ran out of time to complete the Bible study before I had to go to work.

In today's text the Lord talks about the altars of sin in the northern kingdom. As we concluded Wednesday's passage we found the Lord warning Israel that she would "reap the whirlwind" because she had sown nothing but wind. In other words, she had occupied herself with vain things that produced no fruit. She had fallen into idolatry, a thing that is useless. The idols will be no help to her when judgment begins to fall.

Today's text picks back up on the theme of fruitlessness before speaking of all the religious sin going on in the nation. "The stalk has no head; it will produce no flour. Were it to yield grain, foreigners would swallow it up." (Hosea 8:7b) Israel, like a stalk of grain that produces no head, has yielded no fruit of a spiritual nature. Even if a little fruit is borne at this point, judgment is still coming. Just as enemy invaders steal or destroy crops, the nation is going to be destroyed and its people stolen.

"Israel is swallowed up; now she is among the nations like something no one wants." (Hosea 8:8) A stronger empire (Assyria) will attack and conquer, carrying the majority of the people away captive and scattering them among other nations and tribes the Assyrians have already conquered. This was the practice of the ancient Assyrians and of many other ancient countries; they would deport the citizens of a region they conquered and settle it with conquered people from other regions. They would create mixed multitudes in each of these areas as a method of preventing the people from effectively banding together to form a powerful rebellion, for they would speak different languages and have different customs and different religions. They could not communicate well with each other and, due to their cultural clashes and religious differences, would harbor prejudices against each other. 

"For they have gone up to Assyria like a wild donkey wandering alone. Ephraim has sold herself to lovers. Although they have sold themselves among the nations, I will now gather them together. They will begin to waste away under the oppression of the mighty king." (Hosea 8:9-10) The people looked to heathen nations for friendship and help. The people called upon heathen gods. Therefore the Lord says they sold themselves to lovers, playing the harlot instead of being faithful to Him. In return He will put them under the control of the pagan nations and the pagan religious systems with which they've flirted and committed adultery against Him.

"Though Ephraim built many altars for sin offerings, these have become altars for sinning." (Hosea 8:11) In the northern kingdom the people worshiped at the perverted religious sites at Dan and Bethel, where the golden calves were erected. They worshiped at the old altars on the high places. They built altars to foreign gods. All of these things were sins against the Lord. They were forbidden to make an image of Him. They were forbidden to bow to an image made of man or of animal or of any so-called god. They were no longer supposed to use the high places of the patriarchs but were to come together in communal worship at the temple in Jerusalem so they would not be separated from the body of believers---so each of them would not customize their worship of the Lord to suit themselves and so they could be taught of the priests at Jerusalem. Instead they preferred to do their own thing and those altars dotting the landscape became a snare to them. 

In the New Testament we find the Lord Jesus at a synagogue or at the temple on the Sabbath. I am sure He spent many other days of the week at religious centers of worship. If the Son of God thought it was vital to associate with the body of believers at the Lord's house, how much more should you and I make it a regular practice to attend a house of worship? Separating ourselves from the body of Christ is a slippery slope. It will almost certainly cause us to listen to the word of God less often and to read the Bible less often and to pray less often. We will begin to drift from a close relationship with our Lord. We will be going about our days without the godly examples of fellow believers and we will be going through the trials of this world without the very important encouragement of fellow believers. Keeping ourselves apart from the Lord's house and from fellow believers is a trap the devil eagerly desires to see us fall into. Just as a lion finds it easier to take down an animal that has separated itself from the herd, Satan finds it easier to cause a person to sin if they have separated themselves from the body of Christ.

The Book Of Hosea. Day 21, Reaping The Whirlwind

As we begin Chapter 8 the Lord compares Israel's idolatry to a farmer sowing wind in his fields. Just as wind has no form that we can hold in our hands, and just as wind is incapable of filling our tummies and satisfying us, idolatry is formless and useless and unsatisfying. Because the people have sown that which is useless, they will reap what is useless. As the Apostle Paul famously said: "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows." (Galatians 6:7)

It is a law of nature in this world created by God that, for example, we can't reap wheat if we plant corn. We can't harvest tomatoes if we plant cucumbers. Likewise, we can't reap blessings if we sow sin. Sin is the root cause of every calamity and every heartbreak in the world. Sin is the cause of illnesses, accidents, and death. Sin is the cause of addictions and family breakups. Sin is the cause of all crimes and all of man's inhumanity to his fellow man and all of man's inhumanity to the animal world. If we sow sin, there's nothing we can reap except destruction. And while no one is capable of living a fully sinless life, the more sin we commit, the more troubles we bring into our lives and into the lives of those close to us. To quote the Apostle Paul again: "Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life." (Galatians 6:8)

The Lord charges Israel with having sown sin. He provided them with fertile ground (the promised land) in which to sow godliness and righteousness but instead they have committed idolatry and have broken His laws and commandments. "Put the trumpet to your lips! An eagle is over the house of the Lord because the people have broken My covenant and rebelled against My law. Israel cries out to Me, 'Our God, we acknowledge You!' But Israel has rejected what is good; an enemy will pursue Him. They have set up kings without My consent; they choose princes without My approval. With their silver and gold they make idols for themselves to their own destruction." (Hosea 8:1-4) 

I am not sure what is meant here by "an eagle" and when I consulted various commentaries it appears that Bible scholars are unsure as well. We know that an eagle flies very high but has such sharp eyesight that it can see something very small on the ground. This could be a reference to the eagle eye of God, for He is above all things and sees all things. He knows every sin the people of the northern kingdom have committed. Some scholars suggest that the reference is to the Assyrian Empire which, in the days of Hosea, was eyeing the nation of Israel for itself. It won't be long after Hosea preaches this message that Assyria will swoop in and conquer Israel.

"Samaria, throw out your calf-idol! My anger burns against them. How long will they be incapable of purity? They are from Israel! This calf---a metalworker has made it; it is not God. It will be broken in pieces, that calf of Samaria." (Hosea 8:5-6) Samaria, the capitol of the northern kingdom, was near the golden calf religious center of Bethel. The altar at Bethel is the one at which the kings (except for those who had been of the Ahab dynasty, who worshiped Baal) brought their offerings and sacrifices. The Lord points out how illogical it is to worship an inanimate object made by human hands when they have the living God who brought them out of Egypt and made them into the great nation of Israel. He reminds them who they are---Israel---and not some heathen nation that has never known the Lord or had a relationship with Him. They could have been the most spiritually, militarily, politically, and economically blessed nation of the entire world, from the day He brought them into the promised land up until our own time, if they had never forsaken Him for idols.

Because they have sown bad seed (sin) they won't reap a harvest of blessing. Their worship of idols has been useless, profiting them nothing. "They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind." (Hosea 8:7a) Another law of nature is that we reap more than we sow. From one seed sprouts a large plant that produces several vegetables or fruits. The nation that has forsaken the Lord has sown the wind but will reap something even bigger: the whirlwind. And it will sweep them away.

The Book Of Hosea. Day 20, Birds Of A Feather

Today's portion of Hosea 7 reminds me of the saying, "Birds of a feather flock together." This segment is about the people's reliance on idolatrous nations (because an idolatrous nation is what they've become themselves) instead of calling upon the Lord for help. In that sense they are trying to flock together with those who are just like them but the heathen nations will be of no use to them. Indeed, it will be a heathen nation that conquers them. 

Again we find the Lord referring to the northern kingdom of Israel by the name of its largest tribe, Ephraim. "Ephraim is like a dove, easily deceived and senseless---now calling to Egypt, now turning to Assyria. When they go, I will throw My net over them; I will pull them down like the birds in the sky. When I hear them flocking together, I will catch them." (Hosea 7:11-12)

A dove is not considered an especially shrewd bird; it can easily be lured into a trap because of its thoughtless nature. The people of the northern kingdom thoughtlessly dabbled in idolatry, despite the Lord's warnings against it, and were soon ensnared by it. Making alliances with heathen nations was also a snare the Lord warned them about. He commanded them not to mix with heathens militarily, politically, or in marriage because soon they would be bowing to the gods of the heathens, which is exactly what they did. 

Assyria and Egypt were rival nations; allying with one was bound to catch the attention of the other and foster fears that two of the nations were about to combine forces to attack the third. Some in Israel evidently wanted to submit to the rising world power of the Assyrian Empire while others wanted to appeal to Egypt for help, since Assyria was a threat to Egypt also. But turning to either of these heathen nations was a mistake. Turning to the Lord was the proper response and the people would not be finding themselves in danger of falling to other nations if they had not already turned away from the Lord.

"Woe to them, because they have strayed from Me! Destruction to them, because they have rebelled against Me! I long to redeem them but they speak about Me falsely." (Hosea 7:13) The Lord doesn't want to let the kingdom fall, but it's better for the kingdom to fall than for the people to be utterly spiritually destroyed by idolatry. After they've been conquered and taken captive, many of them will realize what led to their downfall and will give their hearts back to the Lord. They will yearn for Him in foreign lands. They will repent of rejecting Him. The Lord's goal for everyone is that they would be in relationship with Him. If prosperity doesn't foster a spirit of thanksgiving and praise and faithfulness, adversity often does. He brought the people into a prosperous land but the people have allowed their prosperity to make them spiritually lazy. They've indulged in every pleasure. They've intermarried with pagan people. They've mixed pagan practices with their worship of the Lord and, in many cases, have forsaken Him entirely in favor of other gods. They've rejected the warnings of the prophets over and over, even killing some of them. Adversity is what is necessary now to get their attention.

Even as they call out to the Lord for help, they are not calling out to Him in spirit and in truth. They are still hedging their bets by calling on heathen gods at the same time. They haven't destroyed their idols and repented. "They do not cry out to Me from their hearts but wail on their beds. They slash themselves, appealing to their gods for grain and new wine, but they turn away from Me." (Hosea 7:14) This "slashing" is a reference to ritual cutting that was practiced by some of the heathen cultures. (Leviticus 19:28) Heathens would cut themselves, possibly for the purpose of applying tattoo ink, in remembrance for the dead. Heathens would also cut themselves as a way of making living blood offerings as an appeal to their gods as they did on Mount Carmel in the days of Elijah in 1 Kings 18:28) 

The people have forsaken the Lord, who is their strength, and have given their allegiance to other gods and other nations, which will be their downfall. "I trained them and strengthened their arms, but they plot evil against Me. They do not turn to the Most High; they are like a faulty bow. Their leaders will fall by the sword because of their insolent words. For this they will be ridiculed in the land of Egypt." (Hosea 7:15-16) A faulty bow will not shoot straight. It is ineffective. The army of Israel will be ineffective against the armies of their enemies because they have turned away from the Lord, their true strength. For this they will become a laughingstock among their enemies. Their enemies will gloat over the fact that they have fallen.

This is a calamity that can fall upon any nation in any era. The United States could fall. Great Britain could fall. Any first-world country in existence today could fall if enough of its people forsake the Lord and descend into lawlessness and inhumanity. We need to take the lessons of the Bible to heart in our own day. The Lord could allow the same things to happen to us as He allowed to happen to ancient Israel. It's vital that we pray for our own spiritual health and the spiritual health of every member of our nation----to pray that those who already belong to the Lord will stand firm in their faith and to pray that more and more people would turn to the Lord. 

The Book Of Hosea. Day 19, Hot And Cold

Today's segment of Chapter 7 continues the theme of the condition of the hearts of a majority of the people of Hosea's day. The Lord will compare them to a cake burned on one side (hot) and raw on the other side (cold). Later on in the Old Testament, in the book of Revelation, the Lord will say that it's easier to work with a cold heart or a hot heart than to try to influence a lukewarm heart. (Revelation 3:15-16) That passage is about an entirely different situation than the one we find in the book of Hosea. In Revelation the Lord was speaking to a particular group of people who had just enough "religion" to think they were ok; they did not realize they hadn't formed much of a relationship with Him. In Hosea the Lord is talking about people whose hearts burn for idols and whose hearts are cold toward Him.

Sin has invaded the population from the least to the greatest. The poor, the middle class, the wealthy, and the members of the royal family are all participating in it. "They delight the king with their wickedness, the princes with their lies. They are all adulterers, burning like an oven whose fire the baker need not stir from the kneading of the dough until it rises." (Hosea 7:3-4) 

Jeroboam II was king of the ten northern tribes during a good portion of Hosea's ministry. The nation was very prosperous during the time of this king. Jeroboam II reclaimed much land that had been taken by Israel's enemies and the king's economic policies brought prosperity to the nation. Jeroboam II participated in a perverted form of religion by taking his offerings and sacrifices to the golden calf site at Bethel, just as his predecessor and namesake Jeroboam I (the first king of the ten northern tribes) did, as did many other kings. The people are following his example, pleasing him and the princes of the royal family. They are also adding in religious practices from the pagan nations around them, as we will see when the Lord states that Ephraim (meaning the nation as a whole) "mixes with the nations". This is why the Lord says, "They are all adulterers," because they are being unfaithful to Him. They are leavened bread, for He compares them to dough that rises, and leaven is often used as a symbol for sin in the Scriptures.

All manner of debauchery is included in the people's festivals. Some of these festivals may claim to be the festivals commanded by the law, but they are being observed in the wrong ways. That means a lot of carnal activity is included, according to this next segment. Drunkenness, immorality, and violence are taking place. "On the day of the festival of our king the princes become inflamed with wine, and he joins hands with the mockers. Their hearts are like an oven; they approach him with intrigue. Their passion smolders all night; in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire. All of them are hot as an oven; they devour their rulers. All their kings fall, and none of them calls on Me." (Hosea 7:5-7)

Hosea refers to Jeroboam II as "our king" but then he goes on to mention the fall of the kings, for after the death of Jeroboam II several kings of Israel quickly ascended to the throne and were assassinated after short reigns. Jeroboam's son, Zechariah, was assassinated by Shallum. Shallum was assassinated by Menahem. Menahem was assassinated by Pekahiah. Pekahiah was assassinated by Pekah. Pekah was assassinated by Hoshea. The Jehu dynasty ended with the death of Jeroboam's son Zechariah and, as the northern kingdom neared the end of its life, many kings quickly rose and quickly fell due to all the "intrigue", as Hosea phrased it, and the general unrest and violence and lawlessness in the land. The nation began falling apart on the inside before it was conquered by Assyria from the outside. This is because the people fell apart on the inside. As the Lord said, "None of them calls on Me."

"Ephraim mixes with the nations; Ephraim is a flat loaf not turned over. Foreigners sap his strength, but he does not realize it. His hair is sprinkled with gray, but he does not notice." (Hosea 7:8-9) The nation has been hot for the wrong things. The people's hearts burned for the gods of other nations instead of for the Lord. Like a cake not turned on the fire, they are burning up on one side but are cold on the other side. They are so consumed by their revelry that they do not notice. They have lost their strength---the Lord---and have traded His love and protection for useless idols that cannot hear them and cannot save them. The Lord compares the nation to a gray-headed old man because the ten-tribe northern kingdom is nearing the end of its life. He has warned the people time and time again through His prophets but they have remained oblivious to the peril into which they continue to sink. They've grown weak and frail without realizing it. They've grown old without noticing it. While their hearts burned for idols, they grew cold toward the Lord and lost the favorable hand of protection that was formerly upon them. 

This type of thing can happen to any nation that forsakes the Lord. Our passage from Hosea is one we can all take to heart. It should encourage us to make certain we are living in ways that honor the Lord and it should compel us to pray for spiritual revival in our nation.

The Book Of Hosea. Day 18, Nothing Is Hidden

The first half of Chapter 6 dealt with the Lord calling upon the people, through Hosea, to repent. The second half of the chapter had to do with the Lord's observance that very few actually repented but were instead going about the motions of religion on the outside while on the inside their hearts were far from Him. He has been speaking about the coming fall of the northern kingdom and has been hinting about an eventual fall of the southern kingdom as well, but as we close Chapter 6 we find Him foretelling a return of many exiles to the land. This will primarily be a return to and a resettling of the region of the southern kingdom. 

"Also for you, Judah, a harvest is appointed. Whenever I would restore the fortunes of My people, whenever I would heal Israel, the sins of Ephraim are exposed and the crimes of Samaria revealed." (Hosea 6:11-Hosea 7:1a) A number of times in the Old Testament we will find the northern kingdom of Israel referred to as Ephraim; we also find it referred to by the name of its capital city, Samaria. The majority of the people from both kingdoms who return to the promised land will return to the region of Judah. This is why the Lord says that to Judah a harvest is appointed. 

The Lord appears to be saying in verse 1a that every time one wound (sin) is healed, another wound lies underneath it. There is layer upon layer of idolatry, waywardness, lawlessness, and inhumanity in the land. No one can hide their sins from God, no matter how deeply the sins are buried, which is why the Lord Jesus said, "There is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open." (Luke 8:17)

The best way to deal with sin is to bring it out into the open ourselves and confess it to Him, repent of it, and ask Him to forgive us. It's far better that we willingly disclose our sin than that the Lord would have to confront us with it. Just as a human physician can't treat a wound if we keep our hand over it to cover it, the Great Physician can't heal our sin if we keep trying to conceal it from ourselves and from Him. The Lord doesn't want us to be sin sick but to be healed. 

The people of the northern kingdom are trying to conceal their sins. They think they can fool the Lord but He reminds them that He knows all things. He has seen every lawless and immoral act. "They practice deceit, thieves break into houses, bandits rob in the streets; but they do not realize that I remember all their evil deeds. Their sins engulf them; they are always before Me." (Hosea 7:1b-2)

There have been times when I freely acknowledged my sin to the Lord and got it out into the open before He had to bring it up to me. There have been times when I ignored my sin or even deliberately reveled in it for a time until He, like a good Father, took me to task for it. It was a much more pleasant experience when I took the initiative, compared to when He had to take the initiative. When it comes to the sin of the people of Hosea's day, the Lord is having to take the initiative. He would far rather they had repented at the preaching of His prophets. It hurts Him to have to discipline mankind but it would hurt Him and us far more if He kept letting us go down the path of destruction.

The Book Of Hosea. Day 17, A Surface Level Faithfulness

In yesterday's study Hosea called upon the people to return wholeheartedly to the Lord. Today the Lord bemoans the fact that so many people's faithfulness is only on the surface.

He says, "What can I do with you, Ephraim? What can I do with you, Judah? Your love is like the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears." (Hosea 6:4) I grew up in a rural area in the heart of Appalachia and it was a common expression there to say that the morning mist would "burn off" soon. Many summer days began with the mountains and the skies completely obscured by mist but, knowing that a hot and sunny day was forecast, we would plan accordingly because we knew the mist would "burn off" soon and wouldn't hamper our plans. Surface faithfulness is the type of faithfulness that "burns off" when the going gets tough---and sometimes it only has to get a little tough to burn it off. It's easy to sing the Lord's praises when everything about our day is going the way we want it to go. That doesn't prove much about our depth of faith. But if we can sing His praises on a day fraught with one inconvenience after another, that demonstrates a faith that's more than surface-deep. And if we can sing His praises when more difficult hardships are in our lives, that's a faith with very deep roots.

Because a large number of the people only gave the Lord lip-service and cared nothing for Him in their hearts, they began to do wicked things. They began to oppress their fellow man. They began to serve heathen gods. Time and time again the Lord sent prophets to warn them of the wrath to come if they did not repent. "Therefore I cut you in pieces with My prophets, I killed you with the words of My mouth---then My judgments go forth like the sun." (Hosea 6:5) The word of God is sometimes referred to as a sword in the Bible. It cuts straight to the heart and reveals what is there. It tries and condemns the guilty. 

As we've already learned in our study of the prophets and as we will learn as we continue studying the prophets, a great deal of injustice is taking place in the land. Judges are accepting bribes to rule against the poor and defenseless. Widows and orphans are being disenfranchised. Peaceful, hardworking foreigners in their midst are being mistreated and discriminated against. Highway robbery is taking place and all sort of lawlessness and lewdness abounds in the land. In view of all this inhumanity and depravity, what difference does it make if people are giving lip-service to the Lord and observing holy days and times of sacrifice? It makes no difference at all what the mouth speaks or what the hands do if the heart is far from the Lord, so He says, "For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings." (Hosea 6:6)

"As at Adam, they have broken the covenant; they were unfaithful to Me there. Gilead is a city of evildoers, stained with footprints of blood. As marauders lie in ambush for a victim, so do bands of priests; they murder on the road to Shechem, carrying out their wicked schemes. I have seen a horrible thing in Israel: There Ephraim is given to prostitution, Israel is defiled." (Hosea 6:7-10) Verse 7 might be more accurately rendered as, "Like Adam, they have broken the covenant," but scholars cannot be certain that is what is meant here. But to be sure, Adam broke the covenant with the Lord and every person after him has sinned.

The Lord Jesus compared hypocrisy to cleaning the outside of a cup while leaving the inside full of filth. (Matthew 23:25) God the Father is saying the same type of thing in today's passage of Hosea. Those whose faith is only surface deep are cleaning the outside of the cup while inside---in their hearts---there is all manner of wickedness.

The Book Of Hosea. Day 16, Torn But Then Healed

As we conclude Chapter 5 we see the Lord referring to Himself as a lion that will tear the northern kingdom (and later the southern kingdom) apart. But as we begin Chapter 6 we see that repentance is the key to being healed and put back together again.

"For I will be like a lion to Ephraim, like a great lion to Judah. I will tear them to pieces and go away; I will carry them off, with no one to rescue them." (Hosea 5:14) We know from our study of the kings that the northern kingdom of Israel was conquered by Assyria and that all but the poorest citizens were taken captive and carried away. Likewise, the southern kingdom of Judah was conquered by Babylon and all but the poorest citizens were taken captive and carried away. The kings of Israel and Judah called for help from their allies but no one was able to rescue them out of their enemies' hands because the fall of both kingdoms was ordained by the Lord because of the people's idolatry.

But the Lord's purpose in allowing these calamities was not to make an end of the descendants of Jacob. Rather, His purpose was to bring about repentance and restoration. "Then I will return to My lair until they have borne their guilt and seek My face---in their misery they will earnestly seek Me." (Hosea 5:15) Sometimes the Lord cannot get our attention except with adversity. Sometimes we won't listen to Him until He falls silent. Then, if we respond appropriately to these forms of correction, we will say as David said, "Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I obey Your word." (Psalm 119:67) It would behoove us to recognize our sin and repent of it before the Lord has to discipline us, but we often do the opposite. We often keep drifting deeper into sin, ignoring our consciences, until the Lord confronts us with our guilt by sending hardship our way which causes us to ask, "Why has this trouble come into my life? Why is the Lord not hedging me about with His protection as He did in the past?"

We know that not every hardship of life has been caused by our own personal sin but there is no doubt that we bring trouble upon ourselves from time to time by not living according to the Lord's word. We've talked about this before but the best thing---and the first thing---we should do when trouble knocks on the door is to humbly ask the Lord to reveal to us whether we have gotten off track. If that turns out to be the case, what we need to do immediately is repent and allow Him to guide us back onto the right track.

This is what Hosea advises his people to do as we begin Chapter 6. "Come, let us return to the Lord. He has torn us to pieces but He will heal us; He has injured us but He will bind up our wounds. After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will restore us, that we may live in His presence. Let us acknowledge the Lord; let us press on to acknowledge Him. As surely as the sun rises, He will appear; He will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth." (Hosea 6:1-3) 

There's nothing as refreshing as feeling close to the Lord again after we've gone through a period of spiritual dryness. I've gone through a period of spiritual dryness for almost a year. Some of the feelings of distance between myself and God were due to shock, grief, and depression due to one very calamitous circumstance in my life and several smaller circumstances. I don't believe anything I did brought my trouble upon me; bad things happen in this fallen world. Events happen that cause us pain and in our pain we don't always feel close to the Lord. My grief was not a sin. But I was angry, bitter, hurt, and offended that He'd allowed those things to happen to me. Therefore, my attitude was sinful and I believe I'd have felt refreshed long before now if I hadn't clung to those wrong feelings. Sometimes it feels good, to the carnal side of our nature, to wallow in wrong feelings. But the Lord has been in the process of sending me "the spring rains that water the earth", spiritually speaking, and I'm beginning to revive. Last week He came through in a big way for a specific need I'd been praying about and now I can see that He sent the need my way so I would cling closer to Him and He could revive my spirit. 

Hosea says to the people, "Cast down your idols! Stop clinging to them and return to the Lord your God. Cling to Him only. He will revive and refresh you. He will restore to you the joy of your salvation. He will satisfy your soul in a way nothing in this world can."

The Book Of Hosea. Day 15, The Battle Cry

Earlier in Chapter 5 we found the Lord declaring that the majority of the people, in all walks of life in ancient Israel, are stumbling around in sin and idolatry. Today He makes reference again to a coming disaster but it's important to keep in mind that every time He confronts them with their sins and warns them of disaster it is an opportunity to repent. He would much prefer repentance but they have refused time and time again. He knows they will continue to refuse and that is why He says things like, "Sound the battle cry," and, "I will pour out My wrath". 

The people have removed themselves far from the Lord, spiritually speaking, and the tipping point has now been reached. He stands aloof from them in the book of Hosea because they have stood aloof from Him for so long. "When they go with their flocks and herds to seek the Lord, they will not find Him; He has withdrawn Himself from them. They are unfaithful to the Lord; they give birth to illegitimate children. When they celebrate their New Moon feasts, He will devour their fields." (Hosea 5:6-7) 

These verses aren't saying that the Lord would not hear a sincere prayer of repentance. But as we've been told before in the book of Hosea and in the books of the prophets we've already studied, they are only going through the motions when they observe the prescribed religious rites. There is no heart to their observances of these rituals. As the Lord will say later through the prophet Isaiah, "They honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me." (Isaiah 29:13) Their hearts belong to other gods and to other things and to themselves, not to the Lord, which is why He compares them to an unfaithful wife who has conceived children that don't belong to her husband. You'll recall that Hosea's wife Gomer has been unfaithful to him and that it's extremely likely that only the first of their three children is actually his. Hosea understands the heartbreak of having the one you love be unfaithful; he can relate to what the Lord is saying about Israel.

You and I know from our study of the kings that the army of Assyria will soon attack and conquer the northern kingdom of Israel. The Lord has already decided to allow this to happen. He doesn't specifically warn Israel where the threat is coming from but He announces that the threat is imminent. Not only is there an advancing threat on the northern kingdom, but the southern kingdom of Judah has been falling into some of the same sinful practices as the northern kingdom. The situation in Judah will continue to deteriorate until that nation also falls (to Babylon) about 130 years after the northern kingdom. "Sound the trumpet in Gibeah, the horn in Ramah. Raise the battle cry in Beth Aven; lead on, Benjamin. Ephraim will be laid waste on the day of reckoning. Among the tribes of Israel I proclaim what is certain. Judah's leaders are like those who move a boundary stone. I will pour out My wrath on them like a flood of water. Ephraim is oppressed, trampled in judgment, intent on pursuing idols. I am like a moth to Ephraim, like rot to the people of Judah." (Hosea 5:8-12) 

The references to moths and rot are references to things that cause destruction. Although the Lord intends to bring destruction through the armies of foreign nations, He makes it clear that this is His work. Assyria couldn't become an ancient world power and lift a finger against Israel if He didn't allow it. Babylon could never muster enough strength to overthrow Assyria and then conquer Judah if He didn't allow it. The judgment is from Him---from the One they've rejected. So He says that He is like a moth or like rot because He is the one bringing about the calamities ahead. 

"When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah his sores, then Ephraim turned to Assyria, and sent to the great king for help." (Hosea 5:13a) It's ironic that the people to which they turned for help will be the very people to bring about the ruin of the nation. The people forgot that the Lord was their helper. In trouble they forsook Him in favor of human help, but as David once said, "Human help is worthless." (Psalm 60:11b) The Lord will often send us help through our fellow man, but we are to look to Him for everything we need with the understanding that all our needs are supplied by Him whether He chooses to supply those needs supernaturally or through our fellow man or other natural means. What happened in ancient Israel and Judah is that so many people forsook Him entirely, not acknowledging Him as the giver and sustainer of life, and they looked to pagan deities and to pagan kings for help.

We have all sinned and we can't point a finger at anyone in the Bible since we aren't guiltless ourselves. We have also been guilty at times of depending on our own strength and ingenuity to solve our problems. I was guilty of that lately, turning a problem around and around in my mind until I made myself distraught, only to finally realize I wasn't turning it over to the Lord for help. I was hanging onto it myself and it wasn't until I turned it over to Him that the breakthrough came. I praise Him for that! The whole situation suddenly turned around because He turned it around. So we can't look down on the people of the Bible since we aren't sinless ourselves but we can learn from their mistakes. 

We can learn, through the Scriptures, about the folly of placing all our hopes on our own strength or on the help of our fellow man. We can study what the Lord said through the prophets in regard to trusting in anyone or anything except the Lord. We can clearly see, through our study of the Scriptures, the sad consequences of forsaking the Lord. He is the One who created us, who loves us, who provides for us, who hears our prayers, and who makes a way for us to obtain eternal salvation. We couldn't do any of these things for ourselves and this is why He must remain first and foremost at the center of our lives and hearts. He alone is God. He alone created us and sustains us. He alone imputes righteousness to us so that we can someday go into His presence and enjoy fellowship with Him forever. If we refuse His merciful offer of forgiveness, nothing remains to us but judgment. Nothing can be done except for Him to say, "Raise the battle cry!", because we are fighting against the very One---the only One---who can save us from the consequences of our sin and rebellion.

The Book Of Hosea. Day 14, Stumbling In Sin

As Chapter 5 opens we find the Lord speaking more on the subject of "stumbling in sin". We typically think of stumbling as something that happens accidentally, such as when we stub our toe or turn our ankle. Humans don't tend to intentionally stumble, physically speaking, because we don't want to injure our physical bodies. But we do have a tendency to make deliberate decisions that lead to us stumbling spiritually. That is what has happened to the people of Israel in Hosea's time. They made deliberate decisions (engaging in idolatrous practices) that led to them stumbling spiritually.

What does a person do when they stumble physically? They get up, if they can, and if they cannot get up on their own, they call for someone to help them. We ought to handle spiritual stumbles in the same way. As soon as we realize we've made an error, we should get up and stop doing the thing that caused us to stumble. We should repent, in other words, and call upon the Lord to help us not to make that same mistake again. But we don't always treat physical falls and spiritual falls in the same way and that is because our carnal natures take pleasure in sin. For example, if I slip and fall in my front yard, I'm not going to find that to be a pleasant experience and I'm not going to just lie there wallowing on the ground for fun. I'll get up and take extra care not to fall again. But falling in my front yard doesn't provide any gratification for the "reward centers" in my brain like committing sin does. If our carnal nature enjoys something we've done in disobedience to the Lord, we are more likely to do the same thing again, and after a while a pattern forms as we gratify the reward centers in our brain over and over. Every time we commit the same sin, it becomes more difficult to turn away from it. 

This is why in our text today the Lord will say of the people of Hosea's day, "Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God." It's not that it's impossible for them to decide to repent and turn back to Him, but many of them have lived in disobedience to Him for so long that they've lost the desire to change their behavior. They enjoy their manner of living and do not want to change it. The things they are engaging in are more appealing to them than having a personal relationship with their Creator. 

The Lord calls out to all the citizens of all walks of life in the ancient northern kingdom of Israel. "Hear this, you priests! Pay attention, you Israelites! Listen, royal house! This judgment is against you." (Hosea 5:1a) Idolatry has entered the hearts of people of all income levels and of many different professions. Priests are involved in it. The king and the members of the royal household are involved in it. The wealthy, the middle income, the poor---a majority of people from every class are now living in ways that do not honor the Lord. This is why the situation has reached such a tipping point that the Lord will not refrain from judgment much longer.

He says, "You have been a snare at Mizpah, a net spread out on Tabor. The rebels are knee-deep in slaughter. I will discipline all of them. I know all about Ephraim; Israel is not hidden from Me. Ephraim, you have now turned to prostitution; Israel is corrupt. Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God. A spirit of prostitution is in their heart; they do not acknowledge the Lord. Israel's arrogance testifies against them; the Israelites, even Ephraim, stumble in their sin; Judah also stumbles with them." (Hosea 5:1b-5) 

The reference to snares and nets is a reference to hidden traps, such as those a hunter would set in order to catch game. The setting up of the golden calf idols at Bethel and at Dan was a hidden trap in that the northern kingdom's first king, Jeroboam I, presented these idols as representing the Lord who had brought them out of Egypt. When we studied the kings we noted that the Bible expressly explains to us that Jeroboam created these sites of worship in order to prevent the people of his kingdom from going into the kingdom of Judah to worship the Lord at the temple in Jerusalem; Jeroboam was afraid his people would defect and give their allegiance to King Rehoboam of Judah. He presented the religious sites as alternative sites---as being just as good as worshiping at Jerusalem---and persuaded a large number of people to accept these sites without them knowing he was doing so for his own political gain. Many of the priests of the tribe of Levi and other citizens left the northern kingdom and moved into Judah because they refused to commit the sin of bowing to representations of the Lord, but most of the people did not abandon their homes and lands and occupations but accepted the sites instead. Doing so gradually led them into mixing other idolatrous practices with their worship of the Lord or abandoning Him altogether for idolatry. 

Satan doesn't lay a trap for us and then place a big red X on it. We'd avoid it if he did that. Instead he disguises the trap. He dresses it up. He makes it attractive to us. He makes it look harmless to us. And even though, once we fall into the trap, we realize we are committing an error, there is pleasure in sin for a season. (Hebrews 11:25) The carnal side of our nature sometimes wins out and we continue wallowing in sin. That's what happened to the people of the northern kingdom. They fell into the trap and began worshiping the Lord in ways He had commanded them not to worship Him. It was easier to remain in the northern kingdom than to travel (against Jeroboam's wishes) into Judah. It was easier to worship nearby and it was easier to ignore some of the Lord's laws and commandments while they remained at a distance from the temple where the priests were still being faithful to the Lord and teaching the people. It was easier to begin "customizing" their religion to suit their carnal natures and, in time, it became easier and easier to fall into wholehearted idolatry and to serve deities who did not require godly living.

The carnal side of our nature likes to take the path of least resistance. It was the path of least resistance for most of the people of the northern kingdom to remain there and worship where Jeroboam told them to worship. It was the path of least resistance to stop closely following the Lord's laws and commandments. During the era of King Ahab, it was the path of least resistance to follow his state-sponsored worship of Baal. Idolatry really began to abound then and not everyone gave it up to go back to the golden calf sites when Jehu (who slaughtered the descendants of Ahab and took the throne) ordered the people to forsake Baal and go back to the religious practices first put in place by Jeroboam, but even if they had all done as Jehu said, they would still have been living in disobedience to the Lord who commanded no idols be fashioned to represent Him and no sacrifices to be brought to Him anywhere but at the temple. The Lord knew if there was no central location of worship, and if the people weren't commanded to attend it, they would start doing their own thing and customizing their religion to suit themselves. That is exactly what has happened and, in spite of sending them prophet after prophet to urge them to repent, they have not repented. At this point they have chosen to remain lying in the pit into which they originally stumbled. 

If we compare spiritual stumbling to physical stumbling, remaining in a pit of sin is as illogical as continuing to lie in a mud hole when help is available to lift us out. The Lord has offered, time and time again, to lift them out. There is a limit as to how long this situation can continue, which is why He will say in our next study session, He has "withdrawn Himself". 

The Book Of Hosea. Day 13, The Shame Of Idolatry

The remainder of Chapter 4 deals with the idolatry of the Israelites and the Lord's intention to judge their idolatry.

He says, "My people consult a wooden idol, and a diviner's rod speaks to them. A spirit of prostitution leads them astray; they are unfaithful to their God. They sacrifice on the mountaintops and burn offerings on the hills, under oak, poplar and terebinth, where the shade is pleasant." (Hosea 4:12-13a)

The Lord refers to Israel's unfaithfulness to Him as "prostitution". She has forsaken the living God for a wooden idol. She has eschewed His holy laws and commandments in favor of vain superstitions. She refuses to attend His authorized altar at Jerusalem and makes offerings to heathen gods (and sometimes to Him as well) on mountaintops and in shady arbors. These shady arbors were also used for immoral sexual practices in pagan fertility rituals.

The text above paints a picture of people who are living lives of sad futility. The God who actually speaks to them has been pushed aside while they call out in vain to carved blocks of wood. The author of Psalm 115 described these useless idols like this: "They have mouths, but cannot speak, eyes, but cannot see. They have ears, but cannot hear, noses, but cannot smell. They have hands, but cannot feel, feet, but cannot walk, nor can they utter a sound with their throats. Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them." (Psalm 115:5-8) Idols can't help anyone because the gods they represent don't exist. The psalmist says that those who put their trust in idols will be as useless as the idols. Idolaters can't be of spiritual help to anyone.

The Lord doesn't judge sin based on who a person is (their status or wealth) and He doesn't judge based on the sex of the person who is committing the sins. In ancient patriarchal cultures it was typical to hold women to stricter standards of morality than men but the Lord expects both men and women to obey Him and He doesn't discipline women more harshly than men. He warns the men of Israel not to think they will get a pass for their sexual and spiritual immorality. The idolatrous women are sinners, to be sure, but their sin is no worse just because they are women. "Therefore your daughters turn to prostitution and your daughters-in-law to adultery. I will not punish your daughters when they turn to prostitution, nor your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery, because the men themselves consort with harlots and sacrifice with shrine prostitutes---a people without understanding will come to ruin!" (Hosea 4:13b-14)

He says something like, "You men need not point your fingers in accusation at the women among you, for you are no better than they are. You think they should be punished but that I should turn a blind eye to your own sins. You are hypocrites! You are committing the same sins your women are committing but you think their sins are worse because they are women. If I punish one for adultery, I will punish all for adultery, no matter whether you are a man or a woman."

The Lord now issues a warning to the southern kingdom of Judah not to fall into idolatry as Israel has. "Though you, Israel, commit adultery, do not let Judah become guilty." (Hosea 4:15a) This verse means something like, "Judah, I will not hold you guiltless if you are unfaithful to Me, anymore than I intend to hold Israel guiltless for being unfaithful to Me. I will not punish her sins while turning a blind eye to your sins." We can see how verse 15a is closely connected to verses 13b and 14. The Lord is no respecter of persons, as the Bible says time and time again, and He doesn't judge only the sins of women or the sins of the poor; He judges the sins of men and the sins of the rich and influential as well. 

The Lord next commands the people of Judah (both literally and figuratively) not to go to pagan altars. He mentions two sinful religious locations that lie within the borders of the northern kingdom and He literally means not to go to these actual locations but the mention of these locations is figurative as well because He does not want them visiting any sinful religious site. "Do not go to Gilgal; do not go up to Beth Aven. And do not swear, 'As surely as the Lord lives!'" (Hosea 4:15b) Beth Aven is a reference to the golden calf site at Bethel. This is a play on words, for Bethel means "House of God" but it has not truly been used as a house of God. It has been used as a substitute for God and for His temple, so He refers to it as Beth Aven which means "House of Deceit". 

The Lord concludes Hosea 4 by mourning the fact that Israel has been so difficult to lead. He longs to be a shepherd to the people---to lovingly lead them to green pastures and still waters---but they are unwilling to be gentle and obedient lambs. Instead they are like bold and wandering cows who won't follow a shepherd. Cows must be driven; they are not natural followers. Cows love to roam to other pastures instead of remaining on their master's land. "The Israelites are stubborn, like a stubborn heifer. How then can the Lord pasture them like lambs in a meadow? Ephraim is joined to idols; leave him alone! Even when their drinks are gone, they continue their prostitution; their rulers dearly love shameful ways. A whirlwind will sweep them away, and their sacrifices will bring them shame." (Hosea 4:16-19)

The name of the tribe of Ephraim, which was the largest tribe of the northern kingdom, is sometimes used interchangeably with the name of Israel. Israel has broken her vows with the Lord and has been unfaithful to Him; therefore, He will leave her alone for now. We learned earlier in the book of Hosea that a reconciliation will eventually occur but that time is not now. The Lord is going to take His protective hand off the nation and "a whirlwind" (Assyria) will "sweep them away" (conquer and deport them). In time the people will yearn for the God who protected them when they were still faithful to Him. In time they will repent of their infidelity. But in between now in the book of Hosea and the day of reconciliation is a terrible time of trouble.

The Book Of Hosea. Day 12, Charged With Crimes, Part Three

The Lord has been talking about the ways in which the people of the northern kingdom of Israel have violated His laws and commandments. We closed yesterday with Him saying that even the priests and prophets have gone astray and cannot be depended upon to guide the people. He said that these men were stumbling (spiritually speaking) and were causing others to stumble with them.

Now He says, "So I will destroy your mother---My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge." (Hosea 4:5b-6a) I believe that when the Lord says "your mother" this is either a reference to the nation as a whole or to its capital city of Samaria. We know that it won't be long until this comes true when the nation of Assyria attacks and conquers Israel. 

It's not that knowledge about the Lord wasn't available to the priests and the people. They had the laws and the commandments. But they've strayed so far away from His precepts and they've strayed for so long that the majority of the population has lost interest in seeking the Lord and in knowing His will for their lives. Not even the priests cared to retain their knowledge of Him, for when King Jeroboam (Jeroboam the First) set up the golden calf worship sites as substitute sites for the one at the temple in Jerusalem, he appointed priests who were not of the tribe of Levi, which was in violation to the Lord's commands. 

Jeroboam did this for two reasons. The first is that (as you may recall from our study of the kings) many of the priests of the tribe of Levi objected to the golden calf sites and left their houses and lands behind to move permanently to the southern kingdom of Judah. Priests of the tribe of Levi who did not remove their allegiance from Jeroboam were presumably on board with his religious policies---and men who found Jeroboam's religious policies acceptable were not godly men. The other reason Jeroboam appointed men from other tribes as priests is because this enabled him to lure in greedy, ambitious men who would go along with anything he said, regardless of whether what he said lined up with what the Lord said.

One of the primary duties of a priest was to teach the people what the Lord said. Because these men have not fulfilled this duty, He has harsh words for them. "Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as My priests; because you have ignored the law of your God, I also will ignore your children. The more priests there were, the more they sinned against Me; they exchanged their glorious God for something disgraceful. They feed on the sins of My people and relish their wickedness. And it will be: Like people, like priests. I will punish both of them and repay them for their deeds." (Hosea 4:6a-9)

The priests of the northern kingdom were supported from the royal treasury (even those reprehensible priests and prophets of Baal during the era of King Ahab and Queen Jezebel) as well as being supported through the offerings and sacrifices brought by the people. Earlier in the Bible when we studied the offerings and sacrifices, we learned that a portion of most of these things went to the priests for their upkeep and for the upkeep of their families. The Lord appears to be saying that the priests of the northern kingdom care only about maintaining their standard of living rather than learning about and teaching the word of God. When we look at it like that, they are essentially getting paid without having performed their proper duties. They are enjoying the prestige of being priests and are enjoying a fairly comfortable lifestyle without carrying out the God-ordained duties of priests. He will soon remove their prestige and prosperity from them.

"They will eat but not have enough; they will engage in prostitution but not flourish, because they have deserted the Lord to give themselves to prostitution; old wine and new wine take away their understanding." (Hosea 4:10-11) The Lord often refers to Israel's idolatry as prostitution or infidelity. He uses the analogy of Himself as the husband and Israel as the wife and He speaks of idolatry in the same way one would speak of sexual immorality. They have engaged in all sorts of debauchery, thinking this will satisfy them, thinking this is a form of "freedom". But sin is a snare and ungodly living causes an empty, gnawing hunger at the very core of a person's soul.

We were created for fellowship with our Creator. Leaving Him out of our lives and going our own way will never satisfy us. We might try to ignore the emptiness inside by distracting ourselves with worldly pursuits and worldly pleasures, which is why so many people fall into dreadful addictions since it takes more and more of their drug or habit of choice to numb themselves to the emptiness, but nothing will ever satisfy us except a relationship with the God who created us. 

The Book Of Hosea. Day 11, Charged With Crimes, Part Two

In Chapter 4 we find the Lord laying out His charges against Israel. In yesterday's text He said that the land was "full of cursing, lying and murder, stealing and adultery". He said the people were willing to "break all bounds". He said they were violent: "bloodshed follows bloodshed". Because of these sins, along with their sins of idolatry, drought was in the land. The drought was intended to cause them to reflect on their character and come to an acknowledgement of their sins, but they have not taken advantage of that opportunity. 

This next portion may have a couple of different interpretations, according to what I read in my background study. We will look at it first and then discuss it. The Lord says, "But let no one bring a charge, let no one accuse another, for your people are like those who bring charges against a priest." (Hosea 4:4)

My first impression is that verse 4 is a warning against hypocrisy. The Lord has pointed out the sins taking place in the land and each person should examine his or her heart to determine whether they are guilty of these sins. Therefore, the Lord may be commanding them not to look around and point fingers at others when they are just as guilty themselves. Another interpretation may be that He's saying it's no use for anyone to go to a fellow citizen to try to help them see the error of their ways. He may be saying something like, "They won't listen to you. Even if a godly priest were to go to them and gently confront them with their waywardness, they would take offense. Instead of facing their own guilt, they would accuse the priest of being a sinner." After all, they have not listened to the Lord Himself; they are hardly likely to listen to a fellow citizen or to a religious leader. 

We know that the northern kingdom maintained many unlawful priests who were not of the tribe of Levi. We know that these unlawful priests served at the unauthorized golden calf sites at Bethel and at Dan. Most of the officially recognized priests in the northern kingdom were not appointed by or approved of by God. They can scarcely lead people onto the right path when they are not walking the right path themselves. As the Lord Jesus said of ungodly priests and teachers, "They are blind guides. If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit." (Matthew 15:14) It's bad enough that so many priests cannot give godly guidance to the people but the nation abounds with false prophets as well. "You stumble day and night, and the prophets stumble with you." (Hosea 4:5a) The false prophets are blind guides too. They are headed toward a pit and are leading others to the pit with them.

It can be easier to see other people's sins than to see our own sins. After all, we spend more time looking at other people than we spend looking at ourselves in the mirror. But we have valuable mirrors at our disposal: the word of God and prayer with God. If we spend daily time looking at ourselves through those mirrors, we will be far less hypocritical because those mirrors will reveal to us our own sins. Then, when we recognize and repent of those sins, we won't be blind guides but will be able to encourage and comfort others and give them Scripture-based advice. 

The Book Of Hosea. Day 10, Charged With Crimes, Part One

In our last study session the Lord told Hosea to take back his unfaithful wife, just as the Lord intends to take back unfaithful Israel. Hosea went to Gomer and wooed her home, telling her they would live together for many days and be true to each other. A lot of scholars interpret this to mean that it took time to repair the relationship between Hosea and Gomer, emotionally and spiritually. The Lord says something similar about Israel---about it taking time to repair the relationship---as we close Chapter 3.

"For the Israelites will live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred stones, without ephod or household gods. Afterward the Israelites will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the Lord and to His blessings in the last days." (Hosea 3:4-5) 

The Lord is going to allow the northern kingdom of Israel to fall to the Assyrian army. Most of the citizens will be deported to various foreign lands where they will be ruled over by foreign kings. Those who remain in the land will be ruled over by foreigners. This is what the Lord means when He says the Israelites "will live many days without king or prince", meaning without a king or prince from among their own people. There has been no literal king of Israel ever since the northern kingdom fell to Assyria and there has been no literal king of Judah ever since the southern kingdom fell to Babylon. All the people were subject to foreign governments for centuries until at last, in 1948, Israel became a sovereign nation in the world again. Since then there have been national leaders of Israel but no actual king and there will be no king until the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of kings, reigns over the whole world from His throne in Israel. This is who is being spoken of when the Lord says the people will seek "David their king". The Lord Jesus, direct descendant of King David, will be the one the people of God look toward at that time.

This is a Messianic prophecy; therefore it has not yet found complete fulfillment because the Messiah is not yet enthroned as king. But the prophecy has found partial fulfillment in that there is once again a nation of Israel to which this king will return. This could not have been said prior to the reinstatement of Israel as an independent nation. A return to the land has occurred in part as well. In ancient times many returned to the land after being released from foreign governments and many more returned after the reinstatement of Israel as a nation. But we know from our previous studies of Revelation that a day is coming when more Jewish people will return to Israel than ever before.

But between now (in the book of Hosea) and then (during the eternal reign of Christ), the Lord must take disciplinary action against ancient Israel for the rampant idolatry the people are engaging in and for the injustices they are perpetrating against the poor, against the widows and orphans, and against the foreigners who are seeking asylum or seeking to make a peaceful living within Israel's borders. 

As we open Chapter 4 we find the Lord charging the Israelites with crimes. "Hear the word of the Lord, you Israelites, because the Lord has a charge to bring against you who live in the land: 'There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgement of God in the land. There is only cursing, lying and murder, stealing and adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed. Because of this the land dries up, and all who live in it waste away; the beasts of the field, the birds in the sky and the fish in the sea are swept away." (Hosea 4:1-3)

The farther the people have fallen from God, the farther they have fallen into immorality and inhumanity. Before ever bringing the people into the promised land, the Lord assured them He would provide everything they needed if they remained faithful to Him. He said if they followed His decrees and commandments, "I will send you rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops and the trees their fruit." (Leviticus 26:4) But the Lord appears to be speaking of a drought as we begin Chapter 4 and that drought is a direct result of their sin. The drought should be causing them to ask themselves, "Why is this happening to us? Why is the Lord not providing the rain He promised?" And these questions should produce the answer, "It is because we have forsaken Him." He warned them that forsaking Him would cause Him to "make the sky above you like iron and the ground beneath you like bronze". (Leviticus 26:19, Deuteronomy 28:23) 

Whenever hardship comes into our lives, the first and most important question we should ask is, "Have I brought this on myself? Am I living in disobedience to the Lord?" We must pray and examine our hearts and ask the Lord to reveal to us any sin that needs to be dealt with. Not all hardship is the result of living in deliberate sin; we can be living within the will of the Lord and still experience trouble in this fallen world where bad things happen and where unbelievers (and believers too, sometimes) mistreat their fellow man. But we should always question whether a hardship is discipline for disobedience. If we determine this is the case, we must immediately repent and ask the Lord to help us get back on track and stay on track. We must turn away from whatever sin we've fallen into. The drought the Lord sent the people wasn't for the purpose of destroying them but was for the purpose of causing them to acknowledge their sin and turn away from it. If they had done this, He would have accepted their repentance and would have poured out the blessings He promised for obedience. But since they did not do this, the fall of the nation is soon at hand. Invasion, defeat, and deportation will occur within the span of the next thirty years.