Tag: Hosea

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Hosea

Unfaithful

Broken relationships

We live in a world today where it almost seems taken for granted that husbands will be unfaithful to their wives, and wives to their husbands. And because we take it for granted, we lose sight of how painful and destructive it is to a marriage.

I think the same thing can be said about our relationship with God.

God often compares our relationship with him to a marriage.

As Christians, we are the bride of Christ. And when we are unfaithful to him, it causes great pain to the heart of God and is destructive to our relationship with him.

That’s what God points out in these chapters. Time and again, he points out his faithfulness and love to Israel.

He reminds them how he showed grace and mercy to their father Jacob, though he started out as a deceiver and as one who fought against God.

He reminds them how he brought them out of Egypt, and cared for them in the desert through Moses.

But after Israel came into their land and became strong, they also became proud.

They were unfaithful to God, and started building and worshiping the works of their own hands.

From there, things went from bad to worse. They even started sacrificing their own children to these gods.

And when their enemies came against them, instead of turning to God, they made treaties with other nations and allied themselves with them.

You can see the pain in the words of God as he rebukes Israel. He sounds as a husband who has been scorned by his wife, saying,

Ephraim has surrounded me with lies, the house of Israel with deceit. (Hosea 11:12)

He told them that though he cared for them and redeemed them to be his wife, they had bitterly provoked him to anger. (Hosea 12:14)

And so God warned them of the judgment to come. He said that when it came, there would be no remedy.

No king they set up could save them. And because they had turned from their husband and helper, God wouldn’t help either.

Hosea 13:14 is probably better translated as a question.

Shall I ransom them from the power of Sheol? Shall I redeem them from death?

O Death, where are your thorns? O Sheol, where is your sting? Compassion will be hidden from My sight. (NASB)

Paul would later use this passage to talk about how the thorns and sting of death would be pulled out by Christ’s victory over the grave.

But here, it seems that God is calling for the thorns of death and the sting of Sheol (the Hebrew word for the grave) to pour out all their wrath over the people of Israel for their unfaithfulness.

All Hosea prophesied would come to pass within the next 70 years or so. Israel would collapse as a nation because of their unfaithfulness to God.

Did God still love them?

Yes.

Would he eventually restore them?

Yes, because as I’ve mentioned before, he remains faithful even when we are not.

A marriage can survive unfaithfulness.

But there’s considerable pain and hardship when a partner is unfaithful.

The same is true with our relationship with God. That’s what Israel would eventually learn.

How often do we think about the considerable hurt and anger we cause God by our unfaithfulness to him?

We forget his love and faithfulness towards us and trample on them in order to pursue our other lovers, the things of this world.

Let us always remember that as much as we can cause pain to our husbands or wives by our unfaithfulness to them, we cause great pain to the heart of God by our unfaithfulness to him.

Let us not be that way.

Let us instead be faithful to the one who always has been, and always will be faithful to us.

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Hosea

Refusing God as king

Hosea

Election time is coming in the States.

Every four years, people vote for the person they hope will lead the country to prosperity. And when a new president takes his place, there is often hope in the hearts of the people.

But no president or political leader is the key to a prosperous nation.

That’s what Hosea pointed out here.

Hosea warned the people that God was going to soon punish them for their sin. Though there was currently prosperity in Israel under a wicked king in Jeroboam, it wouldn’t last.

God was about to dethrone him and his descendants.

Hosea then told the people that at that time, they would say,

We have no king because we did not revere the Lord. But even if we had a king, what could he do for us? (Hosea 10:3)

In other words, things would get so bad that they would lose all hope in their political leadership.

Why? Because ultimately, there is no hope for a godless nation in which people live for themselves instead of for God.

There is no hope for a people that refuse to make God king in their lives.

What Hosea wrote about Israel, we could write about our culture today. So many people have lost faith in the political system.

I talk to many Japanese whenever a new prime minister takes power, and it’s very rare that they think it’ll make a difference.

Most simply say, “It doesn’t matter. Nothing will change.” And most times, nothing significant does.

Hosea also talked about how the people were so corrupt, few could be trusted to keep their agreements anymore, and that’s why there was a plethora of lawsuits.

Can anybody say, “America?”

Hosea then went on to say that when the gods people set up in their lives fall, the people mourn.

You only have to look at all of the financial crises in the world to see that.

So many people set god as their money, only to lose it all. As a result, people find themselves struggling financially, wondering how they’re going to survive.

And as they mourn,

[People] say to the mountains, “Cover us,” and to the hills, “Fall on us.” (Hosea 10:8)

Does that passage sound familiar?

Jesus quoted it on the way to the cross to the women who were weeping for him. The people had rejected him as king, and as a result, disaster would soon come in the fall of Jerusalem less than 40 years later.

And so Hosea admonished the people,

Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, until he comes and showers righteousness on you. (Hosea 10:12)

God tells us the same today.

It’s time to seek the Lord. We’ll not find salvation in political leaders. Nor will we find it in the gods of this world that we seek. It can only be found in God.

So let us break up the hardened ground of our hearts and soften it to the seed that God wants to plant in us.

Let us sow the righteousness of God in our lives.

Only then will we reap the fruit of his unfailing love and find true joy and prosperity in our lives.

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Hosea

When the priests fail to act as priests

Hosea

Why are morals collapsing in this world?

There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land.

There’s murder, adultery, stealing, cursing, lying.

All bounds are being broken. Bloodshed follows bloodshed.

Does this sound familiar?

Hosea wrote about all this nearly 2700 years ago.

It’s amazing how little things have changed.

And as God condemned the Israelites of that time, he put the blame on the priests.

These priests were probably the same ones who claimed to be following Yahweh but were doing so through the calf idols set up by Jeroboam.

It’s also possible they were starting to follow Baal as well.

It says in verse 7,

The more the priests increased, the more they sinned against me; they exchanged their Glory for something disgraceful. (Hosea 4:7)

Because of this, the true knowledge of God became lost, or at least greatly distorted.

And so God told the priests,

My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests. (Hosea 4:6)

He then said,

It will be: Like people, like priests. I will punish both of them for their ways. (Hosea 4:9)

I think much the same could be said today.

I’m not talking about the fallen pastors and priests of today. I’m talking about us as Christians. We are the priests of God in the world today. (1 Peter 2:9)

And when we prostitute ourselves to the gods of self, materialism, and the other things of this world, we lose our effectiveness as priests.

When we fail to bring the true knowledge of God to this world, and instead compromise our Lord’s teaching, is it any wonder that the world is in as bad shape as it is today?

But while this world may be going to hell, we will also be held responsible if we are unfaithful in our role as God’s priests.

What kind of priest are you?