Hosea 10-11

[00:00:00] You were listening to the through the Bible's studio series with Pastor Nate Holdridge. Join us as we continue our study through the Old Testament book of Hosea. Here's Nate. Well, let's return to Hosea 10-10. God continues through the prophet Hosea to pronounce a coming judgment upon the people

[00:00:33] of Israel. We saw in chapter 9 that part of the judgment that they would experience would be the dryness of the nation, not just agriculture, but also that the womb in Israel and the north, the 10-north, and tribes would generally grow in barrenness.

[00:00:54] In other words, the population would steadily, therein the north, decrease. Now all of this was brought on because of rebellion and sin. The people, of course, historically over the years had been worshiping golden calves at

[00:01:09] Dan, but then primarily a place called Bethel, which means the house of God and was supposed to be a place that was set apart for the worship of the Lord, but the people of Israel

[00:01:20] were using it to worship these false gods and really to slip into the worship of pagan gods as well. So here in chapter 10, God is going to move past just saying that dryness is going to be part of the judgment, but actual destruction from the armies of Assyria.

[00:01:41] He says in verse 1 through Hosea, he says Israel is a luxuriant vine that yields its fruit. This is, of course, an analogy that God uses all throughout His Word to describe the people of Israel. Isaiah 5 is probably the paramount passage that talks about Israel being like a vineyard

[00:02:03] or a vine that God established and gave a beautiful opportunity for growth in the growing of fruit. Psalm A.V. Verse 8 says, you brought a vine out of Egypt. You drove out the nations and planted it. You cleared the ground for it.

[00:02:19] It took deep root and filled the land. The mountains were covered with its shade. The mighty seeders with its branches, it sent out its branches to the sea and it shoots to the rivers.

[00:02:30] This is the Psalmist way of describing the people of Israel as being fruitful and expansive and blessed by God. Here in Hosea 10, verse 1, God says, Israel is a luxuriant vine that yields its fruit. The utilizes the imagery of Israel as a vineyard.

[00:02:54] This, of course, helps us understand that God is looking for fruit from our lives. But here what God announces is, verse 1, the more His fruit increased, the more altars he built as His country improved, He improved His altars or His pillars. Now this is an astounding statement.

[00:03:17] What God is announcing about the people of Israel is, listen, I brought them into the land of Canaan. I gave them the Promised Land and as they expanded, the more their fruit increased. The more they actually increased their idolatry.

[00:03:32] It's important to remember that this idolatry was rooted in Jeroboam branching off after the death of Solomon and Solomon's reign was an incredibly expansive moment or time in Israel's history. After all of that great expansion, this great fruit that they're bearing, the people

[00:03:53] of Israel as their fruit increased, increased their altars and increased their pillars. These are altars and pillars that are designed to worship pagan God. And I think that there's a great warning there in verse 1 to those of us who as believers

[00:04:12] want to be fruitful unto God, in times of fruit, in times of success unto the Lord. It's important that we check our hearts and that we continue to worship God and press and to God in seasons of quote unquote success.

[00:04:28] Because in those moments that apparently our human hearts are so ready to begin to drift from God, these people were incredibly fruitful unto God but in that fruitfulness they drifted from the Lord. So much so that God said in verse 2, their heart is false.

[00:04:48] Now they must bear their guilt. The Lord will break down their altars and destroy their pillars. You see when the people of Israel went into the Promised Land, they were supposed to break down the altars and destroy the pillars of the false gods that existed there.

[00:05:04] He did not do it in its entirety but now God will take the opportunity and do it himself. So he sees their heart. It says in verse 3, for now they will say, we have no king for we do not fear the Lord

[00:05:20] and a king what could he do for us? This appears to be a statement that the people of Israel would say in the future. Notice verse 3, for now they will say.

[00:05:35] So not what they are saying but what they will say and what they would say in the future when a Syrian came against them is we have no king.

[00:05:43] We haven't fear the Lord and even if we had a king what could he do for us in the face of these a Syrian invaders? There would be a hopelessness that would come over their hearts as a result of the judgment.

[00:05:57] They utter verse 4, mere words with empty oaths they make covenants so judgment springs up like poisonous weeds in the furrows of the field. God here announces about Israel he says, listen, they have had so many opportunities to repent, so many opportunities to get right with me.

[00:06:16] So when the Assyrian king comes against them and they begin to make their oaths and their covenants understand their mere words. So globally as well, God is also talking about the empty vows that they made to one another, breaking their own legal agreements.

[00:06:36] And anytime you see a group of people that break legal agreements with one another, you know that it is reflective of their lack of respect for the God who is watching over them. So he says, they utter mere words.

[00:06:51] The inhabitants verse 5 of Samaria tremble for the calf of Beth Avan. Now the calf was actually located in Beth L, but God renames it Beth Avan which is not a positive term in the least of the house of evil or the house of wickedness and unrighteousness.

[00:07:14] He says they're trembling the people of Israel for this calf of Beth Avan. These people mourn for it and so do its idolatrous priests, those who rejoiced over it and it's end over its glory. For it has departed from them.

[00:07:30] The thing, this is what God calls the calf, the thing, verse 6, itself shall be carried to Assyria as a tribute to the great king, Ephraim, that's Israel or another name for them, shall be put to shame and Israel shall be ashamed of his idols.

[00:07:50] So God pronounces this judgment and says that this golden calf will be carried away to the king there in Assyria. An interesting little note there in verse 5, when God says that the idolatrous priests mourn

[00:08:05] for the golden calf that's carried away, the interesting thing is that's a rare title, idolatrous priests, it's a rare title used only of the priests of Baal, 2 Kings 23, Zefaniah chapter 1. So it tells you all you need to know about God's attitude concerning these priests.

[00:08:26] He then goes on in verse 7 and says, Samaria's king shall perish like a twig on the face of the waters. That kind of picture, a twig floating, you know, away in a stream, floating away

[00:08:41] in a river, you know, sometimes with my kids will put leaves or have put leaves in a gutter or in a river and just watch them float away. That's a great description of what happened when Assyria came and attacked the people of Israel.

[00:08:57] Some taken away captive, some just spread over the face of the earth like the spreading of waters and others absolutely decimated by the sword. He says the high places, verse 8 of Avan, the sin of Israel shall be destroyed.

[00:09:15] Thor and thistles shall grow up on their altars and they shall say to the mountains cover us into the hills fall on us. So God pronounces judgment upon the high places that they were worshiping these false gods.

[00:09:28] Interestingly enough, he says, you know, the thorn in the thistle are going to grow up on their altars. This is what God had wanted for years that they would leave those places alone that they

[00:09:38] would turn their backs on them that weeds and thorns and thistles would grow over them because of their unused state. But God says, well, no, as you're banished, now these places will finally be unused.

[00:09:52] You are going to say God prophesies to the mountains cover us into the hills fall on us. Now the terror of the Assyrians was so strong and history tells us that they were a very

[00:10:06] wicked people when it came to ruling over a people when they would defeat them militarily. They would take people away captive and their forms of torture were absolutely grotesque. I've read of taking human skin and furnishing chairs, covering chairs or a poultry

[00:10:27] with human skin, bearing people alive up to the neck and causing their tongues to come out of their mouths, piercing their tongues in a way to which their tongues continue to

[00:10:39] be out of their mouths so that the birds and beasts of the air and the ground would come and eat the people alive and torture them in that kind of way. Some have said that certain towns and villages when the Assyrians came would actually commit

[00:10:53] mass suicide because they preferred it over what they thought was coming as a result of the Assyrians, all of the torture and all of that. So God says here you're going to actually say to the mountains cover us into the hills fall on us.

[00:11:09] Now it's interesting because this verse is repeated by Jesus in Luke 23 verse 30 concerning what Jerusalem would say in the future and also in Revelation chapter 6 verse 16 which I believe is an indication that these words will be spoken in the future in a great

[00:11:30] tribulation during a time of great suffering and pain. Here on earth is the result of the rejection of God. He says again in verse 9 from the days of Ghibia, now he referred to this in chapter 9, but here it is again in chapter 10.

[00:11:47] Now what happened in the days of Ghibia is recorded for us in judges chapter 19 and following. There was militant, homosexuality there in Ghibia in which was an Israelite town. So you had great sin in the camp and God remembers that moment and he says from that

[00:12:06] moment until now you have sinned O Israel. There they have continued. She'll not the war against the unjust overtake them in Ghibia. When I please I will discipline them. God says, and nations shall be gathered against them when they are bound up for their double in equities.

[00:12:26] So they had so compounded their sin. God calls it double in equity. Perhaps the sin of Ghibia and also their current idolatry or maybe the sin of embracing a non-dividic kingdom or monarchy plus their idolatry but God says you've compounded your sin.

[00:12:50] E from verse 11 was a trained calf that loved to thrash and I spared her neck. So God here now speaks about his people, the people of Israel calling them again E from. He speaks of them in glowing terms but remembers them like a beast of burden.

[00:13:11] Calls them a trained calf, you know that loved to thrash he spared her fair neck. In other words to thrash it meant un-muscled eating, well-working. It spoke of an easier task, light labor. They never had the yolk placed upon them and really for the people of Israel that's

[00:13:32] what it was like and going into the promised land. You know things were prepared for them as they walked in. It's sure there was war, sure there was work but it was of the blessed variety.

[00:13:44] You would work as you walk with God and the fruit of your hands would be prosperous. And so often this is not our experience. Work can lead to great frustration and difficulty and lack of fruit but not for them.

[00:13:59] It was an easy task they were eating well-working, God had given them light labor. But because of their sin God said I will put E from to the yolk. Verse 11, Judah must plow Jacob must herof for himself so Israel in the north and

[00:14:17] Judah in the south would experience difficulty and have to work. And what would they need to work on? Well notice what he says in verse 12, so for yourselves righteousness, reap steadfast

[00:14:30] love, break up your phyllo ground for it is the time to seek the Lord that He may come and reign righteousness upon you. The work that they needed to do was to sow to righteousness.

[00:14:44] They needed to break up their hard hearts and begin to do that which is right. When they repented of their sin and began to do what was right, God would reign not literal reign on them although for Israel that would be the case but the reign of righteousness

[00:15:01] upon their lives. Elijah it says in James chapter 5, prayed and that as a result of his prayer it did not reign in Israel for three and a half years and then he prayed again and the reign came.

[00:15:17] I think that it's easy for us to accept that Elijah prayed for reign but do you remember Elijah first prayed for drought? He saw that which displeased God and he read I think in God's word that the people in Israel were committing to idolatry would lead to drought.

[00:15:42] And I think when Elijah read that in the law of God, he began to pray for that drought. And so here I think verse 12 helps us understand that what we want more than anything is a legitimate move of God here on earth.

[00:15:56] We don't want a false move of God, false revival, false excitement about the Lord. We want something real, tangible, powerful, strong, true righteousness. A crowd of people a revival does not make but to have a people that are longing for righteousness.

[00:16:14] Now you've got some of the sparks of revival amongst God's people. He says of them in verse 13 he says, you have plowed iniquity. You have reaped injustice. You have eaten the fruit of lies because you have trusted in your own way and in the multitude

[00:16:32] of your warriors they were trusting in their own strength which is always a battle for the people of God. Therefore verse 14, the two-mult of war shall arise among your people and all your fortresses shall be destroyed.

[00:16:46] As shall man destroyed, Beth R. Bell on the day of battle, mothers were dashed in pieces with their children. Thus it shall be done to you, O Bethel because of your great evil. At dawn the king of Israel will surely be cut off.

[00:17:03] Now we really don't know the exact identity of Chalmin destroying Beth R. Bell. The location of Beth R. Bell is uncertain to us, the identity of Chalmin is uncertain to us but it apparently wasn't an uncertain historical reference to the people Joseo was prophesying to.

[00:17:26] So apparently there was some kind of past destruction not recorded in the Bible that these people were conscious of which is very plausible and Joseo references it in his prophecy to say, listen, the same kind of destruction is coming upon you.

[00:17:45] Now in chapter 11 God begins to reminisce over the people of Israel and his word of reminiscing actually leads to a word of hope. Here we see the love of God for his bride.

[00:17:59] You remember, of course, at the setting of the prophet or the book of Joseo is that Joseo was told to marry a wife named Gomer who would give herself away into prostitution. He was supposed to through that broken and fractured relationship represent the broken heart

[00:18:19] of God in watching his bride walk away into other relationships. And so here God begins like a broken hearted parent and also like a broken hearted husband to weep over his people.

[00:18:34] He says in verse 1, when Israel was a child I loved him and out of Egypt I called my son. So here we understand that the Lord is looking upon Israel like a parent who's watching

[00:18:49] their son or daughter walk away from the faith or walk away from them as a prodigal. When you read the parable of the prodigal son and Luke 15, you're seeing the heart of God. God says in verse 2, the more they were called, the more they went away.

[00:19:05] They kept sacrificing to the bells and offering and burning offerings to idols. So the more that God pursued them, the more that they rebuffed his overtures and walked away from him, the more he called them, the more they went away.

[00:19:25] Now there is an interesting statement there in verse 1. The out of Egypt I called my son. Interesting for two reasons. Number 1, it seems clear throughout the book of Hosea that when God brought them out of Egypt in his mind that was the beginning of their marital relationship.

[00:19:43] He called them to be his people, his bride. The other thing that's very interesting there is that Matthew actually used that phrase out of Egypt I called my son in Matthew chapter 2 as a prophecy concerning Jesus.

[00:20:00] When King Herid was tipped off by the wise men and commanded that every two-year-old child and under in Bethlehem would be killed, Joseph was warned in a dream to take Jesus and marry down to Egypt.

[00:20:19] And Matthew tells us so that they would say out of Egypt I called my son to fulfill that prophecy. Now the reason that's interesting here is because when you're reading it in Hosea, Levin verse 1, it really doesn't even look like it's a Messianic prophecy.

[00:20:34] So that perhaps tells us that the apostles had little bit keener insight into the Old Testament in the way that it related to Christ than we might naturally think of. It also helps us see that the Old Testament speaks of the Lord, is speaking of Jesus.

[00:20:53] But of course in the midst of this I would say, I would never come to those conclusions in and of myself the apostles would need to do it for me. But then also I would say that's a secondary meaning.

[00:21:08] Here primarily God is saying, I remember when I brought these people out of Egypt and they were mine like a child walking with me. He says in verse 3, yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk.

[00:21:19] I took them up by their arms but they did not know that I healed them. I led them with cords of kindness so he's saying of them like a child. I taught them to walk. I held their little hands and their little fingers.

[00:21:31] I trained up their feet to be able to and their legs to be able to walk and they're using those very same feet and legs to walk away from me today. He then compares them to an animal when he says in verse 4, I led them with cords

[00:21:47] not of harshness but of kindness, with the bands of love and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws and I bent down to them and fed them. In other words he's saying, I treated them very well as my people.

[00:22:03] They shall not verse 5 return to the land of Egypt but as Syria shall be their king. Because they have refused to turn to me. Now this is an important part of the book of Hosea, verse 5 of chapter 11, because

[00:22:18] all throughout the prophecy, Hosea is talking about a return to Egypt. We've been saying all along that it's not a literal return to Egypt but spiritual Egypt and that a Syria is going to be the literal nation that they go to. And here God makes that clear.

[00:22:35] They are really not going to God says in verse 5 return to the land of Egypt but as Syria, the Assyrian people and the King of Assyria will be their king. The sword, verse 6, shall rage against their cities, consume the bars of their gates and

[00:22:55] devour them because of their own councils. My people are bent on turning away from me and they'll call out to the most high. Even in that late hour he says, he shall not raise them up at all.

[00:23:09] Verse 8 and 9 we have some of the most heart felt verses in the entirety of the Old Testament. There's a conflict it appears within the heart of God. Notice it in verse 8. How can I give you up O Ephraim? How can I hand you over? O Israel.

[00:23:28] How can I make you like Adma? How can I treat you like Zeboim? These were cities which were also annihilated right along with Sodom and Gomorrah in the book of Genesis. He says, how can I do that to you?

[00:23:44] How can I treat you like those cities and bring that level of divine judgment upon you? I love you O Ephraim. How can I hand you over O Israel? He says, my heart recoils within me. My compassion grows warm and tender. I will not verse 9 execute my anger.

[00:24:04] I will not again destroy Ephraim. For I am God and not a man, the Holy One in your midst and I will not come in wrath. Now this is a very strong expression of divine emotion in these verses.

[00:24:20] Now I think that it's good to state that when God says this, it seems that what He is saying is not that He will withhold a Syria from Israel because a Syria most certainly came.

[00:24:32] It appears that what God is saying is, I am not going to again after this destroy these people completely. I have a heart for them, I love them, I have a future for them.

[00:24:45] And I think that what you're saying is, a conflict God is love but God is holy and God is just. And there is a battle there within the heart of God, His holiness, His righteousness demands justice.

[00:24:59] But His love for the people of Israel was all consuming within His heart. How would God solve this riddle? This almost, I don't know that tension is the right word but the love of God and the justice of God, the holiness of God, how would they be satisfied?

[00:25:18] Well we know that they would ultimately be satisfied only in the cross of Christ. But it also seems as if God here is saying, I will never completely desert my people. He says in verse 9, I am God and not a man. I am God and not a man.

[00:25:40] You see men divorce their wives, parents separate themselves from their children and vice versa. But God is saying, I am different from man. It is not my within the realm of my capability to divorce myself from my people.

[00:26:00] Jose is being asked to continue to be married to Gomer and God looking at his people committing great spiritual prostitution could not divorce himself from his people. To me this is another clue in the direction of the future saying to us that there

[00:26:22] is indeed a time in the future when God will fulfill His promises to the nation of Israel. I don't think that God has said, I divorce myself from them and the church replaces them. Now I believe personally that God is going to fulfill all of these beautiful promises

[00:26:41] in His second coming and in His millennial, literal thousand year rule and reign here on earth we will see Israel operate as it was originally intended to operate. There seems to be an indication of this in verse 10.

[00:26:58] When God closes out this chapter by saying, they shall go after the Lord. In other words there will be a revival. When will that happen? He says, well he will roar like a lion. And when he roars, his children shall come trembling from the West.

[00:27:16] They shall come trembling like birds from Egypt and like dubs from the land of Assyria and I will return them to their homes to clairs the Lord. So God has been pronouncing future gloom but here he pronounces future glory. When will he come roaring like a lion?

[00:27:34] Well when Jesus came in His first coming, he came as the Lamb of God who takes away the Son of the World. When he comes again which is highlighted for us or detailed for us in Revelation chapter

[00:27:45] 19, he will come as the lion of the tribe of Judah, the conquering one. And when he roars, I believe he will gather together his people and that he will restore Israel and he will bring a millennial glory, rule and reign where we get to see the

[00:28:02] way that it should have been. Verse 12, our last verse for the day, God says, E from though has surrounded me with lies, the house of Israel with deceit. But Judah down in the south still walks with God. And His faithful to the Holy One.

[00:28:23] There was still a little hope in the south, a little hope in Judah. But here God is showing us his deep heart for his people and don't you know that his deep heart extends not just to Israel but to his church. God bless you and amen.

[00:28:46] Thank you for listening. For additional resources and teachings or to contact us, please visit us at