Hosea 8-10

Hosea 8 – 10

In chapter 7, we have the nation of Israel making a halfhearted holiness confession and it is not received but condemned.  “They have sown the wind…”  The chapter ends with  “They look everywhere except to heaven, to the Most High God.  They are like a crooked bow that always misses targets; their leaders will perish by the sword of the enemy for their insolence to me.  They will be laughed at throughout Egypt.”  Like an eloquent prosecuting attorney, Hosea has illustrated his case against wayward Israel with vivid word pictures, comparing the sinful nation to a raging fire, a half-baked cake, a witless dove, a crooked bow, a broken pot and a wild ass.  The coming destruction will be the result of the nation’s own doing.  The people have willfully sown the sin of disobedience, they must now reap the whirlwind of God’s judgment—the inevitable sorrow of consequences for their sin. 

And now in Chp. 8, their wholehearted corruption is corrected.  Yes, they had sown to the wind and now they will reap the whirlwind.”  Political whirlwinds in Hosea’s Day…even as Hosea prophesied in Israel, the political consequences of the nation’s sin were being felt in the form of cruelty and brutality.  Four of the nation’s last six kings were brutally assassinated and a fifth was deported to Assyria. 

Framing is based on two fundamental laws of nature:  1.  You reap what you sow (a qualitative law).  2.  You reap more than you sow (a quantitative law).  Plant a seed of corn and it will yield a harvest of corn—and nothing else.  Not beans, or potatoes, or rutabagas.  And that see of corn will return the original investment with interest, producing many ears of corn with hundreds of kernels per ear. 

Hosea applies these laws of the harvest to Israel’s sin.  The people have sown evil, they should not expect GOOD to come of it.  And they have sown so much evil for so long that the coming harvest of God’s wrath will be nothing short of a “bumper crop”.  But these simple farming truths apply to good deeds as well.  The small seeds of goodness and godliness that you plant today will come back to you “Pressed down…and running over”  Luke 6:38

So what will you sow today?  A bad habit…a sinful attitude…a lopsided priority…or a good deed done from honest, truthful, loving motives?  Remember that the harvest is never far behind the planting!

“Lengthening your patience is the best way to shorten your troubles.”

Chapter 9 begins to tell us of the Calamity in Israel.  Tho long delayed in God’s patient mercy. “the day of recompense is almost here.” V. 7  Hosea whose message of doom has been faithfully broadcast for years, now paints in somber tones the day of tragedy and tears about to befall his countrymen.  Premature death, miscarriage, famine, murder, forced labor, destruction of the nation’s fortresses—all this and more await God’s rebellious children.  Once a fruitful vine Israel now lies spiritually barren and fruitless.  Though unfaithful to her God, Israel will nevertheless experience again God’s faithfulness to her for her chastening will pave the way to renewed blessing from the hand of her God. 

“Those are the best prepared for God’s greatest mercies who see themselves unworthy of the least.”

Doubly Fruitful, Doubly Barren v. 9-10 Ephraim literally means “doubly fruitful.”  But because the nation had followed after the pagan practices of Baal—a heathen religion, characterized by fertility rites and temple prostitutes—God would use dispersion and captivity to remove from His people any hope of a posterity.  Fruitfulness would turn to barrenness until that “sad day when I turn away and leave you alone.”  V. 12…(17) My God will destroy the people of Israel because they will not listen or obey.  They will be wandering Jews, homeless among the nations. “

v. 7 – 11 Ephraim will be laughed at for trusting in this idol!!!!  “glory shall fly away like a bird; there shall be no birth, no being with child, and because of their impurity, no becoming pregnant.  We born agains will be laughed at for our handmade idols!  “And the people will cry to the mountains and hills to fall on them and crush them”  and we will cry out likewise!!!  ANSWER:  (V.12) Plant the good seed of righteousness and you will reap a crop of my love; plow the hard ground of your hearts, for now is the time to seek the LORD, that He may come and shower salvation upon you.

Chp. 10 v.9 “You have willfully sinned from the days of Gibeah”  v. 10 two transgressions are mentioned specifically 1. Revolt from the Lord their God and the worship of idols! 

AMERICA:  “(V.13) But you have cultivated wickedness and raised a thriving crop of sins.  You have earned the full reward of trusting in a lie—believing that military might and great armies can make a nation safe!”

You have plowed and plotted wickedness, you have reaped the willful injustice of oppressors you have eaten the fruit of lies.  Because you have trusted in your OWN way and your chariots in the multitude of your mighty men.