Arraignment and Prosecution
August 1, 2016 at 12:50 pm | Posted in Hosea | 1 CommentTags: Biblical Parenting, commentary on Hosea, criminal charges, criminal law, Hosea, Hosea 4, knowing God, knowledge of God, spiritual adultery, Sunday School lessons on Hosea
The first three chapters of the Book of Hosea deal with the sins of idolatry, ingratitude, and hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is more than just saying one thing and doing another; it’s wrongfully applying the time and energy given to us by God to further the cause of something or someone else besides God. One example of this is parenting. The children that God has given me bear my last name, but they really belong to God. As an entrusted manager or steward over them, I have a responsibility to control the way they behave, so that they glorify their true Owner, God. Discipline is not easy, but if I don’t do it, I’m being a hypocrite. I’m focusing on my peace and my ideas instead of shaping what God has given me for His purpose. In essence, I’m committing idolatry and I’m committing a form of spiritual “adultery” against God.
Hosea Chapters 4-8 deal with God’s response to His people as they are compared to adulterous spouses or disobedient children.
Hear the word of the Lord, ye children of Israel: for the Lord hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.
Hosea 4:1
The Lord’s “controversy” in this context is comparable to a legal claim – as if God is bringing charges or a lawsuit against the people.
The specific charges are listed in the next verse:
By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood.
Hosea 4:2
The Lord also presents evidence of their idolatry:
My people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declareth unto them: for the spirit of whoredoms hath caused them to err, and they have gone a whoring from under their God. They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and burn incense upon the hills, under oaks and poplars and elms, because the shadow thereof is good: therefore your daughters shall commit whoredom, and your spouses shall commit adultery.
Hosea 4:12-13
The people are given no opportunity to mount a “defense,” for this is pointless with an omniscient, omnipresent God. They didn’t even have enough knowledge to present a defense – they were forced to “plead the Fifth.”
My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.
Hosea 4:6
They had no “knowledge” of God. They did not “know” Him. They had no intimate relationship with Him.
Beware the Facial Fall
August 25, 2014 at 11:58 am | Posted in Hosea, The Fives | 4 CommentsTags: arrogance, Cinco de Mayo devotions, commentary on Hosea, face-plants, Hosea, Hosea 5, pride, Sunday School lessons on Hosea
Most kids think it’s hilarious. Someone is running full speed, when suddenly he trips and flies forward before he can even bring his hands up to break the fall. Therefore, he lands face-first (hopefully in something no harder than grass). They call it a “face-plant.” It’s both painful and humiliating.
When the prophet Hosea brought the news of condemnation against Israel (the northern kingdom) and Judah (the southern kingdom) he reminded the people that God had been a first-hand witness to all their spiritual whoredom. These people – the covenant people of the One True God – had committed heinous acts of spiritual prostitution by worshiping calf-idols, mistreating the poor, and seducing the formerly-faithful into their carnal and offensive syncretistic religion.
Hosea reminded them that, rather than being ashamed of themselves, they had made matters worse with their brazen pride.
And the pride of Israel doth testify to his face: therefore shall Israel and Ephraim fall in their iniquity; Judah also shall fall with them.
Hosea 5:5
In addition to God’s omniscient eyewitness testimony against them, their own arrogance was staring them right in the face every time they looked in a mirror. Furthermore, the haughty looks on their faces were a clear indication that they were neither remorseful nor repentant. Among seven things which the Lord has enumerated as provoking His hatred, a “proud look” tops the list. Therefore, both Israel and Judah would “fall flat on their faces” for their rebellion against God.
We need to be very conscious and careful of avoiding the sin of pride in our own lives. Do we show off a “haughty look?” Do we cast a defiant eye toward the Lord when we perceive that He has failed to live up to our ill-informed expectations? Has some long-standing sin made you calloused and disinterested in the Lord’s feelings about the matter? He’s neither ambivalent nor “tolerant” (in the postmodern, liberal sense of that term) when it comes to sin. If we turn our nose upward as we transgress against our Creator, we are bound to trip and fall over the line of His commandments and land face-first in His judgment or chastisement.
Going Beyond Fairy Tale Marriage
October 7, 2013 at 3:05 pm | Posted in Biblical Marriage, Hosea | 7 CommentsTags: 2 Corinthians 5, 2 Timothy 2, Hosea, Hosea 2, Jeremiah 31, marriage, marriage counseling, Romans 12, Romans 5, Sunday School lessons on Hosea
We prefer our love stories to be fairy tales, but the reality of marriage is not always sentimental. Few marriages are a perfect story-book from beginning to end. The Book of Hosea shows the stark reality of what it means to love in difficult circumstances. It shows marital love from the perspective of God’s love for us.
We can not be sure of exactly what happened, but Hosea married a woman named Gomer who either: (1) was already a harlot (prostitute); or (2) became a prostitute after the wedding. Then he ultimately redeemed his wayward wife in obedience to his prophetic call, as one of the greatest demonstrations of sacrificial love in the Bible.
And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies. I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the LORD.
Hosea 2:19-20
God used Hosea to demonstrate His betrothal covenant to His people, and in our marriages we need to exhibit the characteristics and attributes of God’s covenant relationship with us.
Righteousness
God the righteous imputes the righteousness of Jesus to all who are truly born again.
Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
II Corinthians 5:20-21
We have no authority, standing, or ability, as sinful human beings, to impute any sort of true meritorious righteousness to our spouses (or to anyone else for that matter, regardless of the erroneous and heretical teachings of the Roman Catholic Church and its fictitious “treasury of merit”), but we must stand for righteousness on behalf of our spouses. We must be good husbands and wives and try to avoid sin to protect the sanctity of our unions.
Judgment
God’s judgment against sin was satisfied in the Cross for all who believe. We deserved God’s judgment, but Christ intercepted it in love.
Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.
Romans 5:18
Jesus willingly bore the judgment He never deserved. We must bear unrighteous judgment at times on behalf of our spouses.
Lovingkindness
God redeemed His people because He loved us and wanted to show us kindness.
At the same time, saith the LORD, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people. Thus saith the LORD, The people which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest. The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.
Jeremiah 31:1-3
As redeemed creatures we were “meant” for God. In marriage we must think of ourselves as “meant” for each other – ordained by God to show His glory in our union and relationship, and practically, to help work out our sanctification.
Mercies
God withheld from us what we deserved.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
Romans 12:1
In marriage must never punish each other for things for which God has already punished Jesus. Be merciful to each other.
Faithfulness
If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful: he cannot deny himself.
II Timothy 2:13
God is perfectly faithful. We are not. However, we need to do our utmost, with God’s help and by His grace, to be faithful spouses.
Have Mine Own Way
January 6, 2011 at 9:47 am | Posted in Biblical friendship, Hosea, Uncategorized | 14 CommentsTags: backsliding, commentary on Hosea, Exodus 32, golden calf, Hosea 4, idol worship, Judah, King Solomon, Sunday School lessons on Hosea, the prophet Hosea
When King Solomon died his kingdom became divided. Two of the twelve tribes, led by Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, became the southern kingdom of Judah. The other ten tribes, ruled over by Jeroboam, became the northern kingdom of Israel (also known as Ephraim).
Jeroboam did not want his subjects going to the southern kingdom so they could worship in Jerusalem. Therefore, he found a way to entice them to stay. He placed golden calves for the people to worship, and allowed pagan fertility rites and prostitution to be practiced in the northern places of worship. It seems almost unthinkable that a nation of people who had almost been rejected by God because of the worship of a golden calf (see Exodus 32) would back-slide into such evil again.
Hosea the prophet was one of only a very few voices crying out against such wickedness.
For Israel slideth back as a backsliding heifer: now the LORD will feed them as a lamb in a large place.
Hosea 4:16
He also warned the southern kingdom not to follow their example.
Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone.
Hosea 4:17
What a sad day it is when the Lord’s people turn back to that from which they have already been delivered. Many of us have been rescued from the idolatry of this world by loving Christian friends. We must not make the mistake of presuming upon God’s grace, however. There may come a time when the Lord says to your friends, “Let him alone.” One of the harshest disciplines that God may give to His children is to let them have their own way.
The Deep End 
Judgment, Sentencing, and Punishment
October 3, 2016 at 12:53 pm | Posted in Hosea | 4 CommentsTags: closing argument, commentary on Hosea, Hosea 5, Hosea 6, Hosea 7, Hosea 8, idolatry, Jesus the Advocate, Sunday School lessons on Hosea
In Hosea Chapter 4 God listed the charges against the people, and presented evidence of their idolatry. In Chapter 5 He makes His summation or “closing argument.”
Hosea 5:4
God had withdrawn His Spirit from among them. It didn’t matter how Godly they sounded in their protests or professions, nor how fervently they celebrated in their feasts. They would show up at a festival ostensibly to honor God, and then behave like pagans, allowing their daughters to engage in pagan fertility rites and fornication.
Hosea 5:8
With the term “Bethaven” God used Hosea to make a very effective legal argument. Bethel – where they were supposed to worship – meant “house of God.” The pun on the word “Bethaven” meant “house of evil” or “house of deceit.”
Then God had Hosea read the penalty attached to the crimes of which the people had now been convicted.
Hosea 5:12
Moths eat away from the inside, and turn objects into rot.
Hosea 5:14
Moths work secretly for a long time before the destruction they cause is revealed, but lions attack suddenly from the outside, and the damage they cause is quickly and obviously apparent.
In Chapter 6 the people attempted an appeal of their conviction and sentencing.
Hosea 6:1-3
However, their appeal was a false repentance, and it was rejected and denied.
Hosea 6:4
The Lord had no use for a half-baked cake.
Hosea 7:4-8
Hosea 8:4
These people would be cut off, and we all face a judgment in which God would be justified in cutting us off forever from His benevolence, kindness, and favor. However, for those of us who are in Christ Jesus – who have received His salvation – Jesus Himself stands as our Advocate. On the Cross of Calvary He was cut off from God so that we may be accepted.
Here are some previous highlights from Hosea:
1. Going Beyond Fairly Tale Marriage (Hosea 2)
2. Arraignment and Prosecution (Hosea 4)
3. Have Mine Own Way (Hosea 4:16-17)
4. Beware the Facial Fall (Hosea 5:5)