Hosea 10.1-15
Divided Loyalties
If you were to ask Taylor “What does Daddy hate most?” she would, I hope, tell you that I hate lies. The old saying “You can watch a thief but not a liar” is so true. At what point do you believe someone after they have lied to you? When do you start to trust them again? Lies are such dreadful things and they do immense damage to lives, relationships and hopes. This morning in our passage before us that is exactly what God accuses the people of Israel of being – liars.
Verses 1-2 Israel is selfish.
What a lovely picture is painted at the beginning of verse 1 – this fruitful vine that has spread and brought forth an abundance of fruit. But, and it is an important ‘but,’ the fruit was for its own glory. A vine was never meant to bring forth fruit for itself but for the benefit and blessing of others, most notably the farmer who planted it, watered it, tended it and would ultimately harvest the fruit from it. Not so the vine of Israel. Israel had forgotten their purpose – to bring glory to God. As the second part of the verse tells us as the blessing of harvest increased the people moved further and further away from God. They set up their own altars and adorned them with all sorts of precious stones. The more they harvested the more altars they built and the more lavish they became as they put their wealth into these man made idols. There is only one conclusion for God to arrive at concerning these people – verse 2. They are liars and their hearts are full of lies. They spoke of God as their God and as of themselves being in a covenantal relationship with God. The reality however was different. Just as Gomer could speak of being married to Hosea, and technically she was, but the reality was that her heart and love was directed towards other men who were not her husband. Israel’s love and devotion was directed at idols and false gods, whilst all the time paying lip-service to the true and living God. The result of such selfishness and deceit is inevitable. God warns them that He will destroy their altars and precious stones because He will not share His glory with anyone or anything else.
Verses 3-4 Israel makes false promises.
In verse 3 we read of where these people thought power and authority lay – in kingship – like the nations around them. Yet they are forced to admit that the reason they had no king was because they did not ‘revere the Lord.’ Proverbs tells us that ‘the beginning of all wisdom is the fear of the Lord.’ These people, the chosen people of God, had ceased to fear, or revere, the Lord God. They had become so self-centred and selfish that reverence for God and the things of God had long departed from their hearts and minds. The latter part of the verse shows the despair they now felt – even if they had a king he would be powerless in such a situation. Here are a people who have lost all hope in human authority and ability and whilst acknowledging the cause is the abandonment of a relationship with God they still fail to seek Him. In verse 4 the corrupt, fickle and unstable nature of their kings is shown. The kings had not sought God as protector or guide but the alliances they could make with other nations around about them. Israel had made an agreement with Assyria (2 Kings 17) but a little later he made another alliance against Assyria with Egypt (2 Kings 17.3-4) with the result that Assyria marched in and Israel ceased to exist as an independent kingdom. The word of their kings could not be trusted when it came to agreements, even if they had sworn the agreement on an oath – they were not to be trusted. The second half of verse 4 shows the poisonous result of their lying – lawsuits spring up just like weeds in a field. If you are a gardener you will know that some weeds are very persistent and spread under the soil without you seeing until they appear some day. Weeds have to be dug out at their roots if they are to be destroyed and if you do not keep constant watch over the ground they soon come back. It is the same with lies – the ground of our hearts and minds needs to constantly tended and a watch put on our lips that lies are not spoken and are not tolerated. If we do not check them, rip them out at the very root then they will spread and overrun our lives. How awful to be known as someone not to be believed, especially if you are supposed to be a follower of Christ.
Verses 5-6 Israel is guilty of false worship. Their lies are followed by false worship. It really is not a healthy picture that God is painting of these people. They were supposed to be known as people of truth but instead they are people of lies. Beth Aven which means ‘house of wickedness’ was originally called ‘Bethel’ or ‘house of God.’ In 1 Kings 12.29 we read of the erection of a golden calf in Bethel and another in Dan so that the people of Israel no longer had to travel south to Jerusalem to worship God, or so they thought. As verse 6 tells us these were mere wooden idols and not how God had commanded His people to worship Him. Friends, these people bowed before a golden calf in the mistaken belief that they were worshipping the living God. How quickly these people had forgotten God’s anger of Exodus 32 and the destruction of a generation of their forefathers who wandered in the wilderness for 40 years for worshipping a golden calf which had been dedicated as a festival to the Lord. Hosea tells us that the people will mourn when these golden calves are carried off as the spoils of war to Assyria and presented to the heathen king. Yet what is even worse in the eyes of God is the disgrace such idols will be for the people of God before His eyes and the eyes of the pagan nations. Friends, listen to me here, see the danger of bowing down to idols in the mistaken belief that we are worshipping God because in the end they will be carried off and all they will bring into our lives, into our church fellowship, is disgrace before God and the world around us. Why else would we hear people say that the Christians of this land are no different from the non-Christians. You know one of the complaints the Christians in Africa have against Christians in the west is our embracing of the immoral lifestyles of our culture. Those of you who spent any time with the children from Uganda or Neema when she was here know how distinctive they were compared to Christian young people in Northern Ireland today. Ask yourself what are the golden calves in my life? I might believe it is for the Lord that I am doing it but if it is not what He has asked of us then it is an idol? Let me say to you the things of God are not only right but they must be achieved by the right means and methods. The end never justifies the means in Christian faith.
Verses 7-8 Divine judgment.
Who here has played pooh sticks? You throw the stick into the stream and watch it float down stream under a bridge and see which one comes out the other side first. You know that the stick has no power to resist the flow of the river. Wherever the river takes it that is where it will go. It may get smashed against rocks or stuck but it has no say in the matter. God says that is exactly how these people will be before His judgment. What a devastating picture of the inadequacy of people to save themselves when the Day of Judgment comes. In verse 8 the devastation of the judgement of God, in the form of the Assyrian army overrunning Israel, is seen in the desolation of their places of pagan worship. Their altars that they built out of their harvest would all be destroyed and weeds would grow up around them because they would be so neglected over time. The places of worship, where they thought their wealth and security came from would in the end be a place of briers and thistles. Friends the same will be true in your life and my life if we build altars to other gods in our lives. The briers and thistles, which are a physical manifestation of the fall of man from the perfection of Eden and the presence of God, are symbolic of the weeds of sin which will ensnare our lives when we depart from God. Look at the second part of verse 8. These people cry out to the hills to fall on them and to cover them from the judgement of God. Let me read to you three verses from the Psalms – Ps 121.1; 125.2; and 36.6 – what a contrast to these words. Words that John echoed in Revelation 6.15-16 when speaking of the Day of Judgement that is yet to come on this world when Christ returns. Hosea warns them that a great judgement is coming on Israel, in the form of the Assyrians, and they are to heed this warning. One day a greater judgement is coming on this world, and as the people of Israel, without God, called on the mountains to cover them and to hide them, so will you call out if you are without Christ.
Verses 9-15 It is time to seek the Lord.
God now speaks to His people about their past history. Once again Gibeah is set before them as an example of their sinfulness and waywardness. The startling thing is that they have remained in their sin (verse 9), despite the fact that they had seen the consequences of the sin of Gibeah for the tribe of Benjamin. In the case of the tribe of Benjamin the other tribes executed God’s judgment but this time it would be other nations. God warns them that the punishment will come for their double sin. They sinned like Gibeah and like Gibeah remained in their sin. There was no repentance for their sin. Let me read to you Jeremiah 2.13. This is what the people of Israel had done – they had forsaken God (the living water) and had gone after their own man made gods (dug their own wells). Let me ask you from what well are you drinking this morning?
Please note will you the beginning of verse 10: “When I please…” God will bring judgement in His time and at His choosing.
Verses 11-12 Israel had been chosen for blessing.
Do you remember last week how we noted that things had started out with great hope and potential for Israel? Here again God points this out to the people of Israel. In Deut.25.4 God instructs the people not to muzzle the oxen when they tread out the grain so that they could eat some corn as they worked. This was an easy and pleasant task for the animals. The animals were trained to tread out the grain and they delighted in doing so. In the same way Ephraim had been trained to serve God and at one time had delighted to serve God but she had wandered from the truth of God and from delight in the service of God. The result was that God would once again put a yoke on Ephraim to train her in the ways of righteousness. It would be hard work – having to plough up the hard ground of their sinful hearts and lives in order for the word of God to find a ready soil in which to take root, grow and bear fruit. I want you to note something here, something very important. It is God who puts the yoke on the neck of Ephraim and who drives Ephraim to plough and break up the hard ground of their lives. Ephraim would never do this on their own, just as no oxen would ever put a yoke on itself and plough the field. The oxen needed the farmer’s hand to put on the yoke and to drive them to plough. Ephraim, as all people, needed God to put His yoke (Matthew 11.29-30), on their hearts and lives and to drive them (through discipline and punishment) to plough up their hard hearts of sin. Ploughing and breaking up of the ground speaks of their need to repent and to dig out the sinful ways that they had so quickly embraced. Then in verse 12 they must sow the seeds of righteousness into their lives and the result would be a harvest of God’s unfailing love. You see they had a role to play in all of this – the breaking of the ground, the ploughing of the land and the planting of the seed – but it would be God who watered it, made the seed grow and bear fruit in their lives – just as Paul says in 1 Cor.3.6. Friends at this moment in time, in the land of Ephraim, through the prophet Hosea God tells the people ‘it is time to seek the Lord’ and that they must continue to seek Him “until He comes and showers righteousness upon them.” This one of those ‘kairos’ moments in time – a God-given opportunity in the life of a people to turn to God and to receive His righteousness, a righteousness not their own, upon them. Such times are not to be ignored because if they are the result is not ‘showers of righteousness’ but ‘judgment and punishment’ from God. Isaiah 55.6-7 warns us to call on the Lord God whilst He is near.
Verses 13-15 Israel remains disobedient.
Despite the call to repentance and the promise of blessing from God Israel remains in her sin. They knew what they ought to do but in their stubbornness they have chosen to do the very opposite. Continuing with the agricultural illustration God, through Hosea, warns the people that if they sow wickedness into their lives then the harvest they reap will be one of evil. The fruit that they eat will be lies. How come? Well listen to these words of Christ Jesus in John 8.44. Do you understand? If you follow the father of lies, if you listen to him and plant his seed in your life then the result will be a harvest of lies. What lies do I plant in my life? That material wealth will make you happy? There are no consequences to sin? No one will get hurt? No one will ever find out? The greatest lie of all – there is no judgment to come? Friends if you listen to those lies and if you plant those lies in your life then the harvest in your life will be evil. Don’t take my word for it – open your eyes and look around you this morning. Take God’s Word for it.
Ephraim thought all would be well because they had built alliances with other nations and they thought their armies would protect them for invaders – it didn’t happen. In fact Assyria, to whom they had turned to for an alliance, became the very ones who oppressed them and took them of into captivity. The horror of that day is graphically painted in verse 14. Whatever happened at Shalman had left a devastating and horrifying memory behind. A bit like the memory created by the Holocaust and places like Belsen and Auschwitz. The final warning is given in verse 15 – this is what will happen to you when you plant wickedness and not righteousness. When that dreadful day dawns the king of Israel, the one to whom they looked for strength and leadership, will be totally destroyed.
Friends listen to me here. Such a day will one day dawn on this world and in your life. When the day dawns and the heavens part and in all His glory the Son of God comes again to whom will you turn and cry out. Will it be to the mountains to fall on you and cover you from His sight and from His gaze? Will all the things that you thought made you strong and gave you security fall away before your very eyes? Will you realise too late that they were all lies and that you had been deceived? How dreadful that would be and yet it does not have to be like that for any of us this morning. Heed the words of God through Hosea – it is time to plough you and break up the hard ground of your heart. it is time to seek the Lord God and He has promised that He will be found when we seek Him (Deut.4.29). this morning for some people this is a ‘kairos’ moment in your life. This is a God-given moment in time for you to come to Christ and repent of your sins and to sow the seeds of righteousness in your life which God will feed and water to a harvest of righteousness in your life. This is a ‘kairos’ moment – a moment not to be ignored and not to be allowed to pass without your response. You can be like Ephraim and continue in your sin but hear the warning of the coming judgment that you will bring upon yourself when that Day Dawns eternal. Or you can grasp this ‘kairos’ moment and repent of your sin and know the forgiveness of God through Christ and the showers of righteousness pouring down upon you this morning. It is time to seek the Lord – a ‘kairos’ moment – what do you want to do? What will you do with this ‘kairos’ moment?
Amen
