Hosea Week 3
Review Hosea 1-6
Hosea prophesies over a long period of time potentially 30+ years
The major theme in his book is spiritual adultery and he uses the imagery of physical adultery to demonstrate it.
Hosea acts out prophetic drama or “sign-act” by marrying Gomer who is unfaithful
Last week we saw that God gives his steadfast love and faithfulness to Israel, but they do not return that same commitment to him (Kesed and Emet)
Israel had bad leaders and a lack of knowledge of who God is
Israel was caught up in the spirit of the age, sin clouded their ability to think clearly
God disciplined Israel for the sake of having them return to him
If you’ll remember, I said Hosea doesn’t have a clear outline or progression, this one I have on the board gives you a little bit of an idea of what is happening, but it would be false to say that the book really fits that format.
So I’m going to just cover one section at a time and make some comments. Go ahead and put a line under verse 11. We’ll stop there.
6:4-11
Vs. 4 he gives some great metaphors of their love for God. It’s there in the morning, but it vanishes by midday like a fog. It starts off strong, but then disappears.
Vs 6 is significant. Circle the words “steadfast love” and “knowledge of God”. These are two of the major three things that he brought up in 4:1. In 4:1 he said, there is no faithfulness, there is no steadfast love, there is no knowledge of God in the land. He reaffirms that here. Interestingly, what is the thing that they ARE doing? It’s offering sacrifices and burnt offerings. God says, I’m not interested in those. I want you to know me and I want your heart. This is like in a marriage where say the husband is cold and distant from his wife, but he keeps showing up in the evening and he’ll do the dishes before bed. He keeps bringing in a paycheck. If the wife gets upset that their marriage seems lifeless, he’ll say, “But I’m still doing the dishes! I’m still paying for all of this!” And that’s what Israel is trying to pull off here. “We’re still doing all the stuff we’re supposed to do” and God says, "I want your heart. I want you to know me.” There are many people today trying to pull this same thing with God, “I go to church. I give my tithe. What else do you want from me?” Let’s move on.
Vs 7 mentions that they transgressed the covenant. Underline that phrase. Covenants in the Bible would be quite the rabbit hole for us to go down that would take literally weeks and months even to sort through, And perhaps someday we’ll get into them in depth, but we do need to talk about them at least a little bit in Hosea because twice in today’s passage he’ll say that they transgressed the covenant. Jump ahead to 8:1 and underline “they transgressed my covenant” in that verse too.
How did Adam break a covenant? So think back to the garden of Eden. God gives Adam everything he could ever want or need. He puts him in a beautiful location. He says you’ll have every fruit you could ever eat. I will take care of you and provide for you forever. Simply do not break my law - which was of course don’t eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This is a type of covenant. The word covenant is never used in Genesis 3, but we see here in Hosea 6:7 that it’s clearly a covenant. If you obey, you will live with my blessings, if you disobey you will be cast out and die. That’s Adam.
Next we have Israel and God makes a covenant with them. They escape from Egypt with Moses. They cross the Red Sea. They get to Mount Sinai and here’s what God says to them right before he gives them all of the laws, like the Ten Commandments, etc. In Exodus 19:5, he says, “Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine;” This is a very similar covenant. If you obey my laws, you will receive my blessings, but if you disobey you will be cast out and die. Those punishments are clarified in other passages.
Just like Adam broke God’s covenant and was kicked out of Eden to the east. Israel has broken God’s covenant and will be kicked out of the promised land to the east.
In vs 8-10 he gives some examples of their covenant breaking - violence, etc.
Vs 11, he mentions that it’s not just the northern kingdom of Israel, but the southern kingdom of Judah is also guilty. But their exile won’t come for quite some time.
Now chapter 7 is going to go through a series of four illustrations about how Israel is acting. The first one will be from vs 1-7 so you can put a line under vs 7.
7:1-7
What is the illustration in this section? Look at verse 4. It says, “They are like a heated oven” put a box around that. This is the illustration for this section.
How are they like an oven? They are like an oven in how they treat their kings. You’ll notice the words king, rules, and princes show up a lot here. Look at vs 3 - “By their evil they make the king glad” - so the king likes it when they join him in evil. He likes it when they help him assassinate the guy who came before him and kill his family. “Hurray! These people are just as evil as me and have helped me overthrow the former king.” But the king forgets that these people can’t be trusted. They are adulterers. They never stick with one person. They will turn on him just like they turned on the former king. So the image of an oven. The baker has a big stone oven and its fires are so useful for him in making his bread. But at night, even after he stops encouraging the fire, it smolders. Meanwhile the baker is enjoying his wine. And when the morning comes the fire has revived on its own! It is a blazing inferno which burns down the house and destroys the baker with it.
READ VS 4-7a - I don’t like the word “intrigue” because most of us don’t know what it means here. We tend to think of intriguing as interesting, but here intrigue means secret plans and ambush. So the king likes their evil when it helps him overthrow a king, but the king doesn’t like it when the same evil overthrows him. They say “haters gonna hate” and here we have “murderers gonna murder”
All the while God sits by watching in verse 1 he says, “I would heal Israel” underline that, and in closing he says in vs 7, “none of them calls upon me” underline that. Returning to God will resolve this, but no one is interested
The second illustration is in verses 8-10, so put a line under verse 10
7:8-10
In verse 8 we read “Ephraim is a cake not turned” put a box around that. That’s what he’s calling them - an unturned pancake. What does that mean? It means that they are slowly being ruined and they don’t notice it until it’s too late. Ever forgot your meal in the oven? It’s getting ruined but no one is taking notice until the smoke fills the kitchen and it’s too late to save it. Israel has slowly been getting ruined and “he knows it not”. Wicked people are coming in and “devouring his strength” but he doesn’t notice.
All the while again God sits by and says in verse 10 “yet they do not return to the Lord their God nor seek him for all this” underline that phrase.
We’ve seen this happen in our own life. We’ve seen this happen in other people’s lives. It’s not usually one horrendous decision that leads them to ruin, but it’s a slow imperceptible process. It’s not until the smoke alarm goes off that they realize - oh no. I’ve made a mistake. This is why in Hebrews 2:1 it tells us to pay close attention to ourselves lest we drift away. None of us will coast into godliness. We all coast into ruin. So pay close attention.
Ok on to the third illustration this one is verses 11-13 so put a line under verse 13
7:11-13
This one is also pretty straightforward, verse 11 “Israel is like a dove” put a box around that. How are they like a dove? Hosea tells us that the dove is silly and doesn’t make any sense. First Israel is trying to run to Egypt then they try Assyria. Then back to Egypt then Assyria again. When a dove is in danger it flits around nervously and doesn’t flee in a straight line. Sometimes this results in it being easier to capture than other birds. To use a more modern and common example, Israel is like a squirrel that can’t figure out which side of the road to run to. It goes left, then right, then left, if it doesn’t decide it will get run over. But in Israel’s case they will be captured by God for discipline. So next time you see an indecisive squirrel, think “Israel is a silly dove!”
Of course, as in each of our sections God observes wondering why they won’t come to him. In verse 13 he states, “I would redeem them” Underline that. In each of these cases God wants to save and wants to forgive.
Last illustration. It’s in verses 14-16, put a line under 16.
7:14-16
In verse 16 we see “they are like a treacherous bow”. Put a box around that one. God prepared Israel to be a useful tool for him to bless the whole world and defeat evil, but then like a bow that snaps in the moment when you most need it, Israel betrayed God.
Something I have to point out here is that they show some sort of signs of repentance, but it’s not true repentance. Look at verse 16 where it says, “They return but not upward” underline that. Remember that return is a key word of ours in Hosea and it carries the idea of repentance. So they are doing some sort of repenting but they’re not turning to God. Look at verse 14, he says “They do not cry to me from the heart” underline that one too. They are on their beds and they’re wailing and crying. Their sins have ruined them and they are sad. But what are they sad for? They miss their grain and wine. They want all of that back again. They don’t care about God or turning to him. They just miss their stuff.
There’s an important principle here that is confirmed elsewhere in the Bible. Sin often produces grief and sorrow. But not all sorrow over sin is godly. There is a godly sorrow that leads to true repentance and there is a worldly sorrow that leads to death. Godly sorrow is grieved over the fact that you have wronged God and your desire is to repent of sin and turn to him. Worldly sorrow is grieved over the loss of your stuff, like Israel here. So for example, you might have two people who have both been caught with a huge gambling problem that has led them to lie and steal from their families. Both people will seem sad and will grieve what has happened to them. It might look exactly the same. But a godly grief is over how they have wronged the Lord and want to be made right with him again. A worldly grief is just sad they got caught or sad they might lose their family or their stuff.
We don’t have time to look at it today, but write down 2 Corinthians 7:8-11 and read that sometime. It explains this very well.
I’m going to lump all of chapter 8 into one section. So put a line under 8:14.
8:1-14
There are multiple things to look at here, but only one thing that I’ll highlight. Underline in verse 7 “They sow the wind and they shall reap the whirlwind”. This is a very “You reap what you sow” type principle.
It shows up again in verse 11. Just underline that whole verse. I love this verse. It sounds so silly, but it’s a profound truth we often miss.
Think of it this way, “The thing you invest in, becomes the thing you’re invested in”. Israel spends lots of time and effort into making these altars to false gods. Best case scenario, maybe they thought, we’ll just have them if we need them. We’ll still want to worship the true God. But after putting time, money, and effort into something, you tend to care a lot about it. They spent all of their time at the sinful altars and were uninterested in God’s temple.
How do we do this same thing? “The thing you invest in becomes the thing you’re invested in” Imagine you decide that your tv is a little small and you’d like a bigger one. So you go out and spend a couple thousand dollars on a 100”+ tv. Wouldn’t it be nice just to have it in case you need it? Well after spending so much money on it and then spending time purchasing it and then installing it. You are quite invested in it. It should be of no surprise then when you care a lot about what happens to it. You watch it all the time. You get furious if anyone bumps it or smudges it. It becomes a dominating concern in your life. The thing you invest in becomes the thing you’re invested in.
Or maybe other examples, you invest a lot into your car, you care about what people do to it and you make financial decisions based on keeping your car pristine. You continue to be invested in it. You spend a lot of time making a meal. You really care about how people respond to it. You purchase lots of hunting equipment, you’re going to spend lots of time hunting. The thing you invest in becomes the thing you’re invested in. It’s almost as if, “where your treasure is, there will your heart be also”.
So what is the warning in all of this? If you want to direct your heart toward the right things it will require you to invest in those things. If you want to care about missions then you’ll need to invest in those things whether by time or by money. If you want to care about the lost, then you need to invest in people who are lost. If you want to care about God, then you need to invest time, effort, and dare I say even money into the things of God.
Israel multiplied altars for sinning and they were then invested in altars for sinning.
The final section is 9:1-9, and the big theme we’ll see here is that “sin stops paying” as in there used to be a return for them when they sinned, but now there is none. I’ll read the chapter and just highlight that theme along the way.
9:1-9
Vs 1-2 They used to get paid in food and drink for their prostitution, but no longer.
Vs 4 They used to give offerings to God, but now they have nothing left to offer and he’s not pleased by their offerings anyways
Vs 8 They used to trust the prophets to keep watch over them, but now the prophets are trying to capture them.
Vs 9 The “fun” of sin has run out and now it’s time to pay the price