Hosea Chapter 9 Series

Hosea 9:10-17 [NLT]

June 19, 2013

Oak Park Baptist Church – Wed Bible Study Series

Hosea Bible Study

A Study of the Minor Prophets Hosea (750-725 BC)

HOSEA to Israel (Northern Kingdom)

What we have learned so far is that the nation of Israel has been rebellious and stubborn about serving/obeying God.

They have rebelled to the point where God is ready to discipline them and thru the prophet Hosea He has proclaimed what His judgment is going to be total destruction of the nation and its inhabitants taken into captivity as well.

God’s desire is NOT judgment, but He seeks repentance and reconciliation from the people… His desire is that they turn FROM the false gods they have come to worship and turn BACK to Him as their God.

He has promised to NOT go thru with the destruction if they would but turn back to Him, but understands that their hearts are NOT focused on turning to Him, but on their own selfish desires!

As we look at ch8 tonight we are going to find that this is yet another divine complaint from God against the people of Israel… God’s focus of blame is on the religious and secular leaders BUT His judgment is prophesied to fall on ALL the people.

Here in ch8 we find God upset that Israel is NOT willing to submit to Him as their God and protector… His complaint is about Israel believing that they were secure in their ownself!

READ VERSES HERE… Reading from NLT

10The Lord says, “O Israel, when I first found you, it was like finding fresh grapes in the desert. When I saw your ancestors, it was like seeing the first ripe figs of the season. But then they deserted me for Baal-peor, giving themselves to that shameful idol. Soon they became vile, as vile as the god they worshiped.

Here we find God expressing His sadness about the nation of Israel (Northern & Southern Kingdoms… to God they were still ONE nation)

They had abandoned the God of their deliverance and had turned to a false God in Ba’al! Ba’al was a Canaanite god and was supposedly a god of fertility… for the people, for the land and for their livestock…

But we find here in this verse where the nation took a wrong turn at a place called Ba’al-peor when they took Ba’al as their god. [read Num 25:1-8 from screen]

This was a vile and disgusting choice in God’s eyes and He knew that the people would soon be just as vile and disgusting in their lives as this choice had been…

How often as parents did we tell our children that the choices they were making would lead to trouble and they would ridicule our advice… and when their choices led them to the trouble we had predicted they look at us and ask ‘how did you know’… WE know because we had also traveled this road! God knew because God knows all…

This verse begins a section of dire consequences being laid out by God to the nation because of their choice to abandon God and choose Ba’al…

11The glory of Israel will fly away like a bird, for your children will not be born or grow in the womb or even be conceived.

12Even if you do have children who grow up, I will take them from you. It will be a terrible day when I turn away and leave you alone.

Have you ever tried to catch a chicken? I can remember when I was young we had chicken houses and after they would come to collect the chickens for the processing plant, there would always be 12-15 chickens that eluded them… they would leave them for us to catch!

A chicken can take flight for a short time and cover a short distance, but mainly they run… and they are really quick! I can remember how HARD it was to catch them!

In our verse tonight we see Hosea saying, “…the glory of Israel will fly away like a bird…” If a chicken that cannot fly can successfully elude humans for a period of time, think about a graceful bird that can take flight and soar up to the sky!

The nation believed its glory would not be taken away… that it BELONGED to them! However, God is telling them that the glory HE had given them would be gone as quickly as a bird taking flight and soaring away in the sky… and just like they could not catch a bird and stop it from flying away… they could not stop their glory as a nation from being stripped away!

God tells them how this is going to happen by pointing out that future generations would NOT survive. You won’t conceive or give birth… a nation that does not procreate will fall into ruin and this is what God is saying!