Hosea 5-7

[00:00:00] You were listening to the Through The Bible Studio series with Pastor Nate Holdridge. Join us as we continue our study through the Old Testament book of Hosea. Here's Nate. As we turn to Hosea chapter 5, God is pronouncing the punishment and discipline and judgment

[00:00:29] that will come upon both the Northern Kingdom Israel or Ephraim and the Southern Kingdom of Judah. He says in verse 1, He says, Here this, oh priests, pay attention, oh house of Israel, give ear, oh house of the King.

[00:00:46] So you have three different groups that are the targets of this particular word of judgment. You have the priests, you have the general population, house of Israel. And then the leadership, govern mentally, the house of the King. He says, For the judgment is for you.

[00:01:06] For you have been a snare at MISPA and a net spread upon table and the revoltors have gone deep into slaughter but I will discipline all of them. And it seems that what God is referencing here is that the people, especially the priests

[00:01:23] and the King were involved in snaring the people into idolatrous places of worship that would eventually trap them into the King. Were involved in snaring the people into idolatrous places of worship that would eventually trap them in strong error.

[00:01:48] These revoltors, in going to these worship sites and in worshiping bail they had gone deep into slaughter God said verse 2. And he says, I will discipline all of them. This is a severe punishment that God is referring to. In verse 3, He goes on.

[00:02:06] He says, I know Ephraim and again this is God's title for the people of Israel. He says, I know Ephraim and Israel is not hidden from me. For now, O Ephraim, you have played the whore. Israel is defiled.

[00:02:21] Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God for the spirit of whoredom is within them and they know not the Lord. And so you see that there's this deep rooted thing within the nation.

[00:02:36] And of course this is expressed in the context of the prophet Joseah who had a pouring wife who went after a life of prostitution and what God says about the nation is that there was this spirit within the nation, a spirit of hordeum was rooted inside of them.

[00:02:54] It was defiling the body in the soul with sin. He says, the pride of Israel testifies to his face. Israel and Eash Ephraim shall stumble in his guilt. Judah also shall stumble with them.

[00:03:10] With their flocks and herds they shall go to seek the Lord but they will not find him. He is with drawn from them. They have dealt faithlessly with the Lord, for they have borne alien children. Again, the offspring of these licentious relationships.

[00:03:28] Now the new moon shall devour them with their fields. God says. And so the pride of Israel, he says, testifies to his face. One of their own arrogance served as sort of a witness against them concerning their guilt.

[00:03:47] And of course as we know from Proverbs 16 verse 18, pride goes before destruction and a horde spirit before a fall. And the pride of Israel at this point to with such an audacious spirit worship false God and neglect the true and living God. Their judgment had come.

[00:04:08] They were breaking their covenant rather knowingly. Now we see here in that little paragraph in verse 5, that Judah would stumble right along with them. In other words, in the southern kingdom, the part of Israel that had the Jerusalem and

[00:04:25] the temple and all of that, they were following along with the northern kingdom's example as well. And they were coming to ruin also. And he says, you know, he talks of this moment in verse 6, where they will go and seek the Lord.

[00:04:42] And read that and it sounds almost encouraging until you realize that all of this is as a desperate last minute attempt, eventually to seek the Lord. But the truth of the matter is that the totality is that they had dealt faithlessly with the Lord.

[00:05:00] They were merritly unfaithful to God right down to the alien children that were born. And which was likely a result of these perverse canonite sexual acts that were part of their cultic religious experiences. He says, the new moon will devour them.

[00:05:19] And in all the practices they were giving to there were likely these obscure fertility sex practices that were connected with the new moon religious festivals. And he said, this is going to lead to, you know, just a horrible thing.

[00:05:38] And maybe even a backwards movement in the population itself. He says, blow the horn in Ghibia, verse 8, the trumpet in Ramah. Sound the alarm at Beth Avan. We follow you, old Benjamin. God here is speaking of again, sweeping destruction in the north.

[00:06:02] The horn and the trumpet, the alarm. These were battle sounds and invading force was coming in judgment upon them in the north. Now he says there at the close of verse 8, we follow you, old Benjamin.

[00:06:18] Now when Hosea says that, this could have been a little bit of a sarcastic twist from the prophet. In the Old Testament, in Judges 5 after one of their miraculous victories. It says in Judges 5 verse 14, from from Ephraim their root, they marched down into the valley following

[00:06:42] you, Benjamin with your kinsmen. And the idea there was that in that battle, the Benjamin had gone out. The Ephraimites had followed them. They'd won this great victory. And it was a song that they would sing. We follow you, old Benjamin.

[00:06:58] It was sort of the, it'd come to be a song that is declaring the military might and authority of the people of Israel. Now here, Ephraim is going to be decimated first and Benjamin will be decimated not long after.

[00:07:15] And so perhaps Hosea is giving a little sarcastic twist when he quotes the song and says, we follow you, old Benjamin. Verse 9, Ephraim shall become a deceleration in the day of punishment. Among the tribes of Israel I make known. What is sure?

[00:07:34] The princes of Judah have become like those who move the landmark. Upon them I will pour out my wrath like water. Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment because he was determined to go after filth.

[00:07:47] But I am like a moth to eat from and like dry rot to the house of Judah. You see there that the authorities in Judah, the princes, they were actually guilty of the sin of moving the ancient landmark.

[00:08:03] That means that they were actually moving a lot lines and claiming property for themselves. This is something that God had back in Deuteronomy 19. He had strictly forbidden and had a curse embedded into it in Deuteronomy 27 verse 17. It's basically theft but theft that also leads to gross social injustice.

[00:08:29] And God says the leadership and Judah, their guilty of this, Ephraim is going to be oppressed here, crushed in judgment because. And here's the reason he was determined to go after filth. I mean all of the worship of the bales, the gross immorality connected with that false worship.

[00:08:51] He had a determination inside of his heart to go after filth. And you see that with people from time to time. Just a determination to go after that which is defiling, which is grotesque. Here they were determined to go after filth and God says,

[00:09:10] I'm like a moth to Ephraim and like dry rot to the house of Judah. Now when Ephraim verse 13 saw his sickness and Judah his wound, then Ephraim went to a Syria and sent to the great king. But he is not able to cure you or heal your wound.

[00:09:30] For I will be like a lion to Ephraim and a young lion to the house of Judah. I even I will tear and go away. I will carry off and no one shall rescue. So God is announcing he's saying listen, I'm like a moth no longer.

[00:09:46] I'm going to be like a lion that tears you, that devourous you. And it's not really actually at the end of the day coming from a Syria. It's coming from me. And you're going to look to the Syrians,

[00:10:03] you're going to look to Egypt, you're going to look to the us Syrians. You're going to look in these different directions. But the reality is I am the one who is doing this tearing. I will be a lion to you. I will bring this judgment upon you.

[00:10:18] But the chapter closes with a word of hope. I will return again to my place until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face and in their distress earnestly. Seek me says God in verse 15.

[00:10:32] Sort of hinting that a day would come where there would be that revival in the nation of Israel. And I believe that that day is still yet future. Now in chapter 6, they're seemed to be at least initially in the first three verses from the people,

[00:10:48] some words of hope. They say, come let us return to the Lord. Now, there are those that think that what's being said here really is coming from the people of that day and at that time. And that they are collectively saying, let's revive. Let's return to the Lord.

[00:11:11] But that when they're saying it, they still aren't dealing with the problem of their sin. They're not confessing anything. They're not speaking of their guilt. So this is sort of a dysfunctional repentance from the people of Israel at the time.

[00:11:28] Personally, I'm with those who think that Ozeha here is actually pleading with the nation that he looks upon the nation and says, let's return to the Lord. And in saying this, I mean, I think of that fits the story of Ozeha and Gomer don't you?

[00:11:46] I mean, Ozeha had to go out and allure his wife to bring her back. He spoke tenderly to her. He says in Ozeha, two verse 16 that a day is coming,

[00:11:57] where it declares the Lord that you will call me my husband and no longer would you call me, my bail. But additionally, there is a future generation, Ozeha 5 verse 15, our final verse of the last chapter, I'll return again to my place until they acknowledge their guilt

[00:12:17] and seek my face and in their distress earnestly, seek me, said the Lord. So it seems that there is a future generation who someday would revive and desire to return back to the Lord. So as I read this, it sounds to me like Ozeha saying these things,

[00:12:38] but that ultimately these words will be said by a future generation who will acknowledge their guilt and will deal with their sin. Now what he says is, let's return. Let's go back to the Lord.

[00:12:56] He says, for he has torn us that he may heal us, he has struck us down and will bind us up. After two days he'll revive us on the third day he'll raise us up that we may live before him.

[00:13:12] In other words, Ozeha is saying to them, this is the work of God. He longs for this wayward prostituting wife to return to him. He loves her so desperately. He longs for her to come.

[00:13:27] And he's torn her that she might be healed. He's struck us so that he might bind us up. He wants to revive us. He wants to raise us that we might live before him. Ozeha declares.

[00:13:45] Now when he says, on the third day he will raise us up. Perhaps we have a little illusion there to the resurrection of Jesus. It's true that we are raised because Christ was raised on that third day.

[00:14:01] Ozeha says in verse 3, let us know. He had said, let us return. He says, let us know. Let us press on to know the Lord. His going out is sure as the dawn. He will come to us as the

[00:14:15] showers as the spring rains that water the earth. And so the second excretation to know the Lord. Literally to pursue or chase the Lord. Press on to know Him to pursue God and intense

[00:14:31] new found devotion. The greatest commandant is this to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength. And it seems that what Ozeha

[00:14:44] is saying when he says his going out is sure as the dawn, it seems that he's saying, hey listen. We don't wonder if the sun will rise. There's a faithfulness to it. And we do not have to

[00:14:58] wonder if God will accept this brand of repentance and sincere seeking of His face. It is built into who He is. God is faithful even when we are faith, less you can be sure that God will respond

[00:15:17] to the repentance of your heart and your true pursuit of Him. You can be so confident that He will bring the showers and the rains of His presence upon us if you pursue Him in that kind of way,

[00:15:31] just as sure as you can be that the sun will rise tomorrow. I think the question that we could ask ourselves is, we not expect God to work abundantly among us when we pursue Him with intensity.

[00:15:49] And deal with our sin. There can be an expectation of the reign that God will pour down upon His people when responding to Him in that way. Now, in verse 4 of chapter 6, God's case against Israel

[00:16:06] is expanded and revisited. And really, this case is going to follow us all the way through chapter 11. We've got real two cycles of judgment. Chapter 6 through 8 and chapter 9 through 11, both of them refer to a return to Egypt in their conclusion. And so now God is speaking in

[00:16:29] verse 4. What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? This is sort of the the sigh of God. You know, a question over the north, a question over the southern kingdom.

[00:16:43] He says your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes early away. You know, your love, your conviction, it's not sincere, it's not legitimate. He tells them. He says your love, it's actually like the morning cloud, like the dew that goes away early.

[00:17:04] If his love was the showers and the latter reigns, their love for God was like this temporary and fading cloud or dew. And you know, often our devotion to God is of the fickle variety, but

[00:17:17] these people, they were stuck in the rut of a flittering love for God. They just could not allow themselves to be released in devotion and passion, worship and praise of the Lord.

[00:17:33] They just continued to go back to the worship of the bells. And so it was just an up and down kind of thing. And oh, how often we've met people who this could be the description of their lives.

[00:17:45] And again, I cannot judge or be critical. I cannot have that harsh spirit for I know the wayward parts of my own heart. I know the moments in my heart where I lack that devotion,

[00:18:00] but God speaking, your love is like a morning cloud. It's like the dew that goes early away. Therefore, verse 5, I have hune them by the prophets. I have slain them by the words of my mouth

[00:18:15] and my judgment goes forth as the light. God announced in this here, he says, Listen, I've had to judge them with the prophetic ministry. I sent the prophets. They were my mouth. They brought my

[00:18:30] judgment. They came as light, like flashes of lightning upon the nation. I am slaying these people with the word of the prophetic mouth. And really, that's exactly what was occurring because when the prophets would speak and the people refused to respond, well, the people were then judged

[00:18:52] because they did not respond to the prophetic message that was given. But just hear that phrase, the power of the word of God flashing forth as the light. For verse 6, I desire steadfast love

[00:19:08] and not sacrifice the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. You see, the thing that God was looking for from the people of Israel, the thing that Hosea was looking for from Gomer was sincere devotion. steadfast love, true intimacy and knowledge of one another. And here he says,

[00:19:34] I wanted that more than I wanted sacrifice and burnt offerings. Now the thing is, God had initiated the sacrificial system. God had prescribed the burnt offerings. But he wasn't interested in theirs. And the reason for that is because it was simply hypocritical, partial obedience.

[00:19:59] And they were reducing their love for God to external religious observances, no way. The God of the universe does not desire that. No, he doesn't want just this reductionist, external

[00:20:17] religious observances, you know, well I show up at church and I show up at my small group. And I give my money or whatever it might be. No, he wants passionate, true devotion and love and an intimacy

[00:20:32] with him does he want a person to be in their church. Absolutely, does he want us to congregate and smaller groups together to pray for and love and serve absolutely does he want us to give? Does he

[00:20:42] want us to serve? Absolutely, but with passion and praise and legitimate longing for the heart of God. And when Jose says this, he's echoing, of course, many other prophets. Isaiah, my God, Amis had said the same. Actually, God said, an Amis, five verse 21, he says,

[00:21:01] I hate, I despise your fees. I take no delight in your solemn assemblies. God is looking for so much more as David said, he said, you will not delight in sacrifice or I'd give it.

[00:21:14] You'll not be pleased with the burn offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. A broken and current, contrite heart. Oh God, you will not despise Isaiah 51 verse 16 and 17. So God is

[00:21:29] recounting their sin here in Jose's six. And he says in verse 70 says, but like Adam, they transgressed the covenant. There they dealt faithlessly with me. Now when Adam fell into sin, Paul explained

[00:21:46] to us in verse 10 at the two verse 14, Paul explains that Adam was not deceived. That means that he was in a covenant with God and he didn't just accidentally break the covenant. He will fully

[00:22:03] broke it. That's what's happening here with Israel. They knew of their covenant and they will fully broke it. I'm ashamed to say that there have been moments in my life, especially I remember one particular instance in my younger years where I made a decision. I mean, it was

[00:22:21] a date on the calendar that I knew that I was going to walk away from God and I was going to enter into sin. Here the people of Israel did the same thing like Adam, they knew and they transgressed

[00:22:34] the covenant. He says in verse 8, decrying their sins, he says, Gilead is a city of evil doers tracked with blood, like Leia, reference to Ramoth Gilead on the other side of the Jordan river.

[00:22:50] And what he's saying here is, you know, the people there are so evil, so murderous that when they walk around their town they're actually just tracking blood everywhere because they are just steeped in this violent murdering kind of society. As robbers, verse 9, lie and

[00:23:10] wait for a man, so the priests band together, they murder on the way to check them, they commit villainy. So the priests as well there in the Northern Kingdom were guilty of, I mean, it's either

[00:23:25] spiritual or even literal murder, banding together like packs of bandits, you know, catching people on the road, they're in Shechem, which was a road on the main going from the main city Samaria to the town that they were committing this spiritual adultery in and Bethel, and he says,

[00:23:48] they're banding together, they're doing this horrible thing, a very violent, bloody kind of work. In the house of Israel, verse 10, I've seen a horrible thing. Ephraim's hoarding is there. Israel is defiled for you also, O Judah, a harvest is appointed when I restore the fortunes of my people.

[00:24:08] And I think that when God is saying that perhaps there's a glimmer of hope there, but it's to me that what God is saying is, there's a harvest of judgment coming upon you as well. O Judah, don't think that you're going to escape this divine judgment, the the

[00:24:25] Serians for the North and the Babylonians are coming for the South. He says in verse 1 of chapter 7, he says, when I would heal Israel, the iniquity of Ephraim is revealed. Remember what they had said,

[00:24:39] they said, you know, if we if we repent or Jose has said, if you repent, he will heal. He says, when I would heal, the iniquity of Ephraim is revealed. And the evil deeds of Samaria,

[00:24:52] for they deal falsely, the thief breaks in and the bandits raid outside. Now, one day, someday, God will heal the sin of the nation of Israel. Believe this with all of my heart,

[00:25:09] Malikai four verse two that those who fear my name, the son of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings. You should go out leaping like calves from the stall. I believe that that day

[00:25:22] of the Lord is coming is future. But at this time, just at the moment where perhaps God is ready to heal the people of Israel here in Jose chapter 7, just at that moment, more sin is uncovered

[00:25:38] the deeds of Samaria, thieving and bandits. And all of that, he says in verse two, but they do not consider that I remember all their evil. Now, there deeds surrounding them, they are set before

[00:25:53] my face. Their sins were blatantly in front of God. He had to deal with them. He sees all. Says in Hebrews 4 verse 13, no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed

[00:26:07] to the eyes of him to whom we must give an account. God saw their sin. He had to deal with it. But it says in verse three, by their evil they make the king glad and the princes by their

[00:26:19] treachery. And so even the leadership of the nation was pleased with this perversion rather than grieved by it. God announces over them, He says, they are all adulterers. And so here we go back to the

[00:26:33] Gomer, Joseah theme. I believe that they were guilty of both literal and of course spiritual adultery at this time. And now God uses four illustrations to describe the nation at this time. The first one

[00:26:48] is that of a heated up and he says, they are like a heated up and whose baker ceases to stir the fire from a needing of the dull until it is leavened. Now what this oven is a picture of is a description.

[00:27:03] He's describing this oven that even though the baker ceases to stir the fire, it's ready to burn something. It's standing there, the oven hot and ready to burn. And what it's communicating

[00:27:18] is that these people they were ready to sin. They were heated up for sin. They were looking for an opportunity. And in the Bible and even in secular literature at that time, this kind of imagery

[00:27:32] was used to describe sexual perversion and sin. And so I mean, isn't that an accurate picture for lust? Just this oven that is hot and burning and ready. And it's just I think we can connect

[00:27:46] with that. Let's see idea of their lust. That's what they were. He says on the day of our King verse 5, the princes became sick with the heat of wine. He stretched out his hand with mockers.

[00:27:59] For with hearts like an oven, they approached their intrigue all night. Their anger smolders in the morning. It blazes like a flaming fire. All of them are as hot as an oven and they

[00:28:13] devour their rulers. Now it's kind of very poetic what is being said there, but the bottom line it seems to be that what God is saying is you have these princes that are assassinating kings.

[00:28:30] And in the previous 20 years, the people of Israel had actually had four kings assassinated. And he's saying this is part of the sin. This is part of that burning oven ready to sin.

[00:28:43] You're killing each other. And God says at the end of verse 7, all their kings have fallen. And none of them call upon me even assassinations of their leaders. Couldn't stir them up to prayer.

[00:28:58] And I just sort of asked the question, what events in our time? In our churches, ought to stir us up to more fervent prayer that when they happen we would pray and God would answer. Then God said in verse 8, He said, Ephraim mixes himself with the people's.

[00:29:17] Ephraim is a cake not turned. So the second illustration is that of Ephraim as a cake not turned. An cake. It seems that what this would say is because they had been mixing with all of these

[00:29:32] pagan nations. He says in verse 9, strangers devour his strength. So he's talking about the alien pagan nations, the inner mixture and the compromise with making friends with people that they shouldn't have been friends with. He says, and he knows it not. He knows that his strength. He doesn't

[00:29:50] know that his strength is devoured. Grey hairs are sprinkled upon him and he knows it not. He doesn't even know that he's growing old. He doesn't even know that his strength is being taken away.

[00:29:59] And this of course is an image of the nation. The pride of his real testifies to his face, yet they do not return to the Lord their God nor seek him for all of this declares God.

[00:30:12] And so the cake that is cooked on one side, it's useless. It's in edible. One side was cooked or overcooked while the other side remained undone. And if all you're focusing on,

[00:30:28] you're just trying to abuse the grace of God, you're just focusing on one side of who God is. You need to have a fully balanced perspective about God and here they were a cake not turned.

[00:30:42] God would reject them. The third illustration is that of a dove. He says verse 11, Ephraim is like a dove. Now in the Bible, a dove would be used to speak of peace at times and

[00:30:55] beauty at times. An image of the Holy Spirit at times. But also in scripture, the dove could be used at times to describe stupidity and folly or a simple nature. He says Ephraim is like a dove

[00:31:12] silly and without sense, calling to Egypt, going to a Syria. They thought that they could call the Egyptians, make a treaty with them and go into battle against the Assyrians. He says,

[00:31:24] as they go, I'll spread my net over them. I will bring them down like birds of the heavens. I will discipline them according to the report made to their congregation. Woe to them verse 3, for they have strayed from me. Destruction to them, for they have

[00:31:42] rebelled against me. I would redeem them but they speak lies against me. They do not cry to me from the heart, but they whale upon their beds for grain and wine. They gash themselves.

[00:31:56] They rebelled against me. You see, they would when they worship bail, they would actually cut themselves. And bail was the God that they thought would bring the rain and produce crops. And so, they wanted more grain and they wanted more wine which required the crop of, you know,

[00:32:13] obviously a great harvest. And so, they weren't praying to God in turning to God but they were cutting themselves for bail, rebelling against God to try to get their crops and they were getting

[00:32:26] none of it. They were whaling on their beds. Although verse 15, I trained and strengthened their arms yet they devise evil against me. You know, God had raised them, God had strengthened them, but they turned against him. They returned verse 16, but not upward. They don't turn to God.

[00:32:44] They are like, and here's the fourth illustration, a treacherous bow. Their princes shall fall by the sword because of the insolence of their tongue. This shall be their derision in the land of Egypt. He says, you're like an unfaithful bow, an unreliable weapon. Your dangerous, nobody

[00:33:03] knows where the arrow is going to go. And so, the unfaithfulness of the people of Israel, God declaring His judgment upon this nation, all that we would be a people who repent with sincerity before

[00:33:18] God that we might not have to fall under the chastening hand of our Father. God bless you.