Written by Robert Grant who rightly used his influential position in England’s Parliament for God’s glory and the furtherance of God’s Kingdom. We, too, are each to be faithful in our callings - exactly where God has placed us. Allowing Him the freedom to use us as He so desires. We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. And indeed He does have a plan for each of us:
For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:11-13 (NIV)
I want to commend you all for going “further still” in your study of God’s Word! Hosea isn’t a warm and fuzzy Book of the Bible to be sure yet it is ever so applicable for our times! To be certain, whatever effort we put forth in obtaining eternal wisdom from this rich book will be rewarded. Remember, we want to be believers who are skilled in discerning the Truth – all of the Truth - not weak willed and easily duped by every wind of doctrine that comes across our paths. Like the Bereans in Paul’s day who were commended by him:
11 Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true. Acts 17:11 (NIV)
Donna Evans’ Bible Bits (1)
Chapter Eight of Hosea opens up with a loud note of alarm. The prophet must sound the trumpet – an enemy was coming to seize their land therefore a warning must be given to signal the impending battle. God is forever giving forth pristinely clear warnings to us – we should never be taken by surprise. He does not hide His will nor His ways from us but rather desires for us to walk in them for our good and His glory. We become confused when we seek to twist the Truth to make it fit with our fleshly desires or pluck verses out of context and build our entire theology and trust on them. It is the whole of Scripture upon which we lean. There will always be blessings in obedience as well as consequences to sin and disobedience. God is here telling the Israelites that judgment is pending because of their rebellious attitudes and actions. Certainly unbeknownst to them, the Assyrians would be God’s chosen vessels to meet out His judgment against the Israelites. The Israelites had been warned specifically by God all the way back in Deuteronomy of blessings for obedience as well as curses for disobedience when they entered the Promised Land. Yet, they failed to heed His warning again and again. This note of alarm would remind them of this covenant curse:
15 However, if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you: 16 You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country. 17 Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed. 18 The fruit of your womb will be cursed, and the crops of your land, and the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks. 19 You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out. 20 The Lord will send on you curses, confusion and rebuke in everything you put your hand to, until you are destroyed and come to sudden ruin because of the evil you have done in forsaking him. Deuteronomy 28:15-20 (NIV)
45 All these curses will come upon you. They will pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the Lord your God and observe the commands and decrees he gave you. 46 They will be a sign and a wonder to you and your descendants forever. 47 Because you did not serve the Lord your God joyfully and gladly in the time of prosperity, 48 therefore in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and dire poverty, you will serve the enemies the Lord sends against you. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you. 49 The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away, from the ends of the earth, like an eagle swooping down, a nation whose language you will not understand, 50 a fierce-looking nation without respect for the old or pity for the young. Deuteronomy 28:45-50 (NIV)
These verses were to be red flags for the Israelites yet they paid no attention reminiscent of Isaiah’s words:
4 “So I also will choose harsh treatment for them and will bring upon them what they dread. For when I called, no one answered, when I spoke, no one listened. They did evil in my sight and chose what displeases me.” Isaiah 66:4 (NIV)
The Israelites had broken the covenant by doing foolishly and dealing deceitfully. They made a pretense of devotion to the Lord, addressing Him as their own God and claiming to acknowledge His authority over them. However, this profession was mere lip service. Their sinful actions spoke much louder than their words. Their hypocritical claim of relation in their distress was a pretense as in their prosperity they did not desire relation rather despised it. But what good will it do a man to be able to say, “My God I acknowledge you”, when he cannot say, “My God, I love you”. They had rejected what is good; the Lord’s moral and ethical requirements (the service and worship of God), which is, in effect, casting off God. They chose their own way over His. Interestingly, in verse three (V 3) the word “good” is from the Hebrew word “Tob” meaning: “To do well, be pleasing, good pleasant, beautiful, excellent, lovely, delightful, joyful, fruitful, precious, cheerful, kind, correct, righteous, that which is good, right, virtue, happiness, pleasantness, used in the context of seeking for the ultimate purpose in life.” Old Testament Lexical Aids Hebrew – Greek Key Word Study Bible. This good they chose to reject. When we choose our own way instead of His, we reject what is best for us. Indeed, His way is the best way. Amos, Hosea’s contemporary writes:
14 Seek good, not evil, that you may live. Then the Lord God Almighty will be with you, just as you say he is. 15 Hate evil, love good; maintain justice in the courts. Perhaps the Lord God Almighty will have mercy on the remnant of Joseph. Amos 5:14-15 (NIV)
Consequently, an enemy would soon pursue the Israelites. The swift retreat pictured here again fulfills the covenant curse of Deuteronomy 28:45:
45 All these curses will come upon you. They will pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the Lord your God and observe the commands and decrees he gave you.
God has a prescribed way for His people to follow. Red flag! Red flag! Those who break their covenant of friendship with Him make themselves cheap and easy prey for the enemy. Remember, God always has our best interest at heart. His ways are always for our good. He is the Author of all life while the enemy is the author of death and destruction.
In verse four God states two ways Israel had gone against Him: They had appointed kings and other leaders without consulting the Lord – so they did when they rejected Samuel over Saul, so they did when they set up Jeroboam, so they did at that time when Hosea prophesized, when it appears to have become in vogue to set up kings and dispose them again; and they had also made idols for themselves in direct violation of the second commandment. They set up calves and called them gods yet God calls them idols the word which signified grief and trouble because they are offensive to God and ruinous to those who worship them. Trace them to their origin and they will be found the creatures of their own imaginations and the work of their hands. The calf they worshipped is the “calf of Samaria” epitomizing Israel’s idolatrous ways. The calf idol image was most probably the image set up by Jeroboam at Dan and Bethel thus repeating the sins of an earlier generation in which Aaron regrettably set up a calf idol for the Israelites to worship in Moses’ absence. The gold and silver of which it was made were collected from the people of Israel – it is a poor god that owes its manufacture to people’s gifts. A craftsman has made it - not God. A man made god is no God at all and it will not last nor serve to be of any benefit whatsoever to us. They made idols to their own destruction bringing separation from God, from their own land and from the land of the living. Jonah writes:
8 “Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs.” Jonah 2:8 (NIV)
Those who allow themselves to be deceived into any idolatries will certainly find themselves deceived in them. We see in Exodus:
1 When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don't know what has happened to him.” 2 Aaron answered them, “Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.” 3 So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. 4 He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.” Exodus 32:1-4 (NIV)
We might sneer at the stupidity of this but have we ever considered how we often attribute the miraculous to some man-made, self-help whatever and proceed to place our hope in that?
Read Chip Ingram (2)
The prophet asks “How long will they be incapable of purity?” This is not meant of absolute purity, rather how long before they would become free from the sin of idolatry.
Read Michael Youssef (3)
In distress and trouble they cry out for mercy yet they fail to hear Him ask for their return to Him in trusting faithful obedience. God desires for us to be broken over our sin not merely the consequences of it. A broken and contrite heart God would never despise. True repentance results in a changed behavior and demonstrates our Trust in God. Do we trust Him? If we do our actions will demonstrate it.
Read Max Lucado (4)
It is interesting to me that God had to show the Israelites over and over again the folly of trusting in what was made by their own devices. I am reminded of the showdown between Elijah and the Prophets of Baal and Asherah in 1 Kings 18 on Mount Carmel which demonstrated the futility of idolatry:
20 So Ahab sent word throughout all Israel and assembled the prophets on Mount Carmel. 21 Elijah went before the people and said, “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.” But the people said nothing. 22 Then Elijah said to them, “I am the only one of the Lord's prophets left, but Baal has four hundred and fifty prophets. 23 Get two bulls for us. Let them choose one for themselves, and let them cut it into pieces and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. I will prepare the other bull and put it on the wood but not set fire to it. 24 Then you call on the name of your god, and I will call on the name of the Lord. The god who answers by fire--he is God.” Then all the people said, “What you say is good.” 25 Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose one of the bulls and prepare it first, since there are so many of you. Call on the name of your god, but do not light the fire.” 26 So they took the bull given them and prepared it. Then they called on the name of Baal from morning till noon. “O Baal, answer us!” they shouted. But there was no response; no one answered. And they danced around the altar they had made. 27 At noon Elijah began to taunt them. “Shout louder!” he said. “Surely he is a god! Perhaps he is deep in thought, or busy, or traveling. Maybe he is sleeping and must be awakened.” 28 So they shouted louder and slashed themselves with swords and spears, as was their custom, until their blood flowed. 29 Midday passed, and they continued their frantic prophesying until the time for the evening sacrifice. But there was no response, no one answered, no one paid attention. 30 Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come here to me.” They came to him, and he repaired the altar of the Lord, which was in ruins. 31 Elijah took twelve stones, one for each of the tribes descended from Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord had come, saying, “Your name shall be Israel.” 32 With the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord, and he dug a trench around it large enough to hold two seahs of seed. 33 He arranged the wood, cut the bull into pieces and laid it on the wood. Then he said to them, “Fill four large jars with water and pour it on the offering and on the wood.” 34 “Do it again,” he said, and they did it again. “Do it a third time,” he ordered, and they did it the third time. 35 The water ran down around the altar and even filled the trench. 36 At the time of sacrifice, the prophet Elijah stepped forward and prayed: “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel, let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things at your command. 37 Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so these people will know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you are turning their hearts back again.” 38 Then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up the sacrifice, the wood, the stones and the soil, and also licked up the water in the trench. 39 When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, “The Lord--he is God! The Lord--he is God!” 40 Then Elijah commanded them, “Seize the prophets of Baal. Don't let anyone get away!” They seized them, and Elijah had them brought down to the Kishon Valley and slaughtered there. 1 Kings 18:20-40 (NIV)
Scripture now states in Hosea 8:7: “They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind.” This alludes to the futility of both her idolatrous worship and her foreign policy. “Wind” here represents that which lacks substance and is therefore worthless and of no assistance. Proverbs 11:29A states:
29 He who brings trouble on his family will inherit only wind. Proverbs 11:29 (NIV)
Israel would reap in extra measure what she had sown. The futility (wind) which she had planted like seed, would yield a crop of destruction here represented by the whirlwind. All her efforts directed toward self-preservation would be self-destructive. Her crop would be worthless, containing only stalks without grain. Even if she were able to produce again, foreigners would take it away and the nation would not benefit from her labor. The service of idols is an unprofitable service, and the works of darkness are unfruitful. Those things result in death. Paul tells us in Romans:
20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. 21 What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! Romans 6:20-21 (NIV)
*Israel becomes “swallowed up” and “worthless” her involvement with foreigners was swiftly robbing the nation of its strength and identity as the Lord’s people. Sounds all too familiar our day as well does it not? The words “worthless thing” are quite literally, “a pot in which no one delights”. *
Jeremiah tells us:
13 “My people have committed two sins: They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water.” Jeremiah 2:13 (NIV)
They had forsaken God replacing Him with false idols. Man's heart, like nature, abhors a vacuum. We will fill our hearts with something – they never remain void or empty.
“You cannot imagine how great is people’s foolishness…..by hoping in themselves and putting trust in their own knowledge.” St. Catherine
The Israelites sold themselves to their lovers going to great expense to purchase the friendship of the nations around them yet they soon become devoured by strangers and eaten up. Being impoverished they lost their reputation like a merchant who becomes bankrupt. They wandered about headstrong and unruly as a donkey independent of all restrictions making them easy prey for their enemies. The King of Assyria, whose friendship they solicited, only laid burdens upon burdens on them. Despite her attempts to preserve herself, God’s judgment was certain. God is pictured in verse 10 as bringing her back from her wanderings to oppress her. The instrument of judgment would be the mighty King of Assyria from whom, ironically, they had sought aid. How foolish are we not to seek the Lord Who loves us and fully placing our trust and hope in Him. He is worthy of our trust.
5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; 6 in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight. 7 Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil. 8 This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones. Proverbs 3:5-8 (NIV)
“The conviction of the Holy Spirit is always precise: He identifies root causes of sin, and He moves the heart to specific acts of repentance and obedience. All those who trust God sufficiently to desire to obey Him, and who are patient in waiting upon Him, will find unfailingly that HE gives clear guidance. ‘In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths’, promises Proverbs 3:6. For those who love God everything is aboveboard. To know Him is to know what He requires and more than that, it is to have the power to carry it out. In fact these two—enlightenment and empowering—go hand in hand, and where they do not, then the Lord is not in it.” Mike Mason
“On Him then reckon, to Him look, on Him depend: and be assured that if you walk with Him, look to Him and expect help from Him, He will never fail you. An older brother, who has known the Lord for forty-four years, who writes this, says for your encouragement that He has never failed him. In the greatest difficulties, in the heaviest trials, in the deepest poverty and necessities, He has never failed me; but because I was enabled by His grace to trust in Him, He has always appeared for my help. I delight in speaking well of His Name.” George Mueller
Another of Israel’s sins was its hypocritical ritualism. The people had built many altars for sin offerings but these altars had become altars for sinning as the religious acts they conducted there were merely hypocritical. Sacrifices are an offense to God when not combined with a wholehearted devotion to His commandments:
6 For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings. Hosea 6:6 (NIV)
11 “"The multitude of your sacrifices-- what are they to me?” says the Lord. “I have more than enough of burnt offerings, of rams and the fat of fattened animals; I have no pleasure in the blood of bulls and lambs and goats. 12 When you come to appear before me, who has asked this of you, this trampling of my courts? 13 Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations-- I cannot bear your evil assemblies. 14 Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts my soul hates. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. 15 When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood; 16 wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing wrong, 17 learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow.” 18 “Come now, let us reason together,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool. 19 If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best from the land; 20 but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword.” For the mouth of the Lord has spoken Isaiah 1:11-20 (NIV)
Israel had done the rituals yet their heart’s had remained hardened – determined to go their own way bringing ruin to themselves. They had disregarded the many things of God’s Law and treated them as alien which, BTW, were for their own good. We do ourselves the greatest harm by choosing our own way over God’s prescribed way. Instead of God accepting their rote religiosity He would punish their sins by sending her into exile. Egypt stands here as a symbol for the place of exile and bondage. This highlights the appropriateness of God’s judgment. In the deliverance from Egyptian bondage Israel had experienced God’s amazing grace. Having spurned that grace, she would return to slavery. They had trampled the great gift of grace and God gives them back over to slavery. They had denied the power of godliness disregarding the things of God’s Law and yet considered themselves safe. This is addressed in the New Testament as well. Hebrews tells us:
25 See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven? 26 At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, “Once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens.” 27 The words “once more” indicate the removing of what can be shaken--that is, created things--so that what cannot be shaken may remain. 28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, 29 for our “God is a consuming fire.” Hebrews 12:25-29 (NIV)
“A believer who departs from his magnificent privileges will invite God's retribution.” Bible Knowledge Commentary
“Seek, O believer, that every good thing you have may be an abiding thing. May your character not be a writing upon the sand, but an inscription upon the rock! May your faith be no ‘baseless fabric of a vision,’ but may it be built of material able to endure that awful fire which shall consume the wood, hay, and stubble of the hypocrite. May you be rooted and grounded in love. May your convictions be deep, your love real, your desire earnest. May your whole life be so firm and strong, that all the blasts of hell and the storms of earth shall never be able to remove you.” Charles Spurgeon
Again, the things of God’s Law are the great things of God. They are things that proclaim the greatness of the Lawgiver and certainly things that are of great importance to us; as Moses said, these are not merely idle words for us, they are to be our life and our wellbeing depends upon our observance of them and obedience to them. It is an immense privilege to have the things of God’s Law written and to be able to hold it in our hands and hearts. Yet the Israelites regarded them as something foreign, as unintelligible and unreasonable or worse yet trite and ineffectual becoming ever calloused and indifferent to the Truth therein. Do we do the same in our day and age? Are we aware of God’s precepts and delight in His ways or do we desire to go our own way with little or no regard to His revealed will in His Word? To counter their disobedience they multiplied their religiosity by building many altars and offering countless sacrifices in hopes that by observing the ceremonial law they would excuse their poor behavior of the lack of obligation to God’s moral precepts. And the Lord was not pleased with them. And why should He be when they merely sacrificed meat rather than the spiritual sacrifice of a repentant believing heart? A petition for permission to sin amounts for a spoken curse for sin. Proverbs tells us that God hates a heart that devises wicked schemes (among other things):
16 There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: 17 haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, 18 a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are quick to rush into evil, 19 a false witness who pours out lies and a man who stirs up dissension among brothers. Proverbs 6:16-19 (NIV)
The last verse in Chapter Eight begins with the statement that Israel had forgotten his Maker. When we forget Whom we rightfully belong to we start on a slippery slope down going nowhere fast. The Israelites had become self-sufficient and proudly sought prominence through building palaces for themselves. They also fortified their towns - all through their own efforts and strengths - forgetting their very existence depended upon God and never taking into account the wind of God that would soon blow hard against them for their disobedient actions. They had foolishly lulled themselves into thinking things would never change yet God states He would send fire upon their cities and consume their fortresses.
These are Beth’s personal notes, due to this fact sources are not often stated.