Hosea 6:4-11 [HCSB]
May 15, 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)
Last time we looked at Hosea we looked at v.1-3 of this chapter and it was a cry by Hosea for the nations of Israel and Judah to repent! However, Hosea’s cry was a proclamation that came directly from God!
Thru Hosea God was telling ALL the people that IF they would repent and turn to Him that He would REVERSE His declarations about punishment and destruction! IF they would repent He would instead bring blessing! Where there is true repentance, God will bless!
However, the remainder of this chapter is NOT as optimistic or accommodating to the people! In fact, the remainder of this chapter speaks to the sorrow God knows He is about to experience because of sin and apostasy from the people! God KNOWS that even tho’ He has offered blessing for them to repent that their hearts are hardened and they won’t repent!
He is very clear that IF they would repent that He would bless them and reverse His judgments BUT He knew their hearts and knew that they would NOT change and so here in the remainder of this chapter God speaks directly about those sins…
The remaining verses of this chapter express a great sorrow that God was feeling toward His people because He knew that they were NOT going to change…
The remaining verses express God’s sorrow from several aspects. The first aspect Hosea reveals is God’s sorrow expressed thru His tremendous FRUSTRATION toward the people!
Let’s look at GOD’S FRUSTRATION in v.4-6
4What am I going to do with you, Ephraim? What am I going to do with you, Judah? Your loyalty is like the morning mist and like the early dew that vanishes. 5This is why I have used the prophets to cut them down; I have killed them with the words of My mouth. My judgment strikes like lightning. 6For I desire loyalty and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
Here we see God airing His ultimate frustration with the nations of Israel and Judah because of their short-lived devotion to Him… they would promise obedience but would stray SOON after making that promise! They would never stick to a covenant with God.
V4 is almost like a parent looking at their children and saying “what am I going to do with you?”… in fact this translation actually uses that phrase!
4What am I going to do with you, Ephraim? What am I going to do with you, Judah? Your loyalty is like the morning mist and like the early dew that vanishes.
Now I want us to remember that the…
Ephraim = Northern Kingdom/Israel/10 tribes
Judah = Southern Kingdom/2 tribes
“What am I going to do with you?” is a phrase of exasperation that parents use with children who just won’t listen to them and refuse to obey them; no matter how strict they get with them or no matter how severe they punish them…
Here God is clearly exasperated with these 2 nations (of which He considered ONE nation… THEY had divided themselves… God had NOT divided them)
He is sorrowful and frustrated with the people because of their constant refusal to obey and submit to Him as their God. They would SAY they want God as their God and that they would praise Him for their blessings and the covenant God had promised!
BUT instead God knows that they are unwilling to follow thru on their words. They were NOT willing to fulfill their part of the covenant (obedience/submission) and they were constantly RUNNING away from serving God! They had found other gods they wanted to put in God’s rightful place!
They were like the wayward child who continues to disobey and fails to recognize the authority of his/her parents. The parent loves their child but will come a point and a time when the parents have to take a stand and step into their children’s lives and assert their authority.
This usually happens thru discipline! AND we find that discipline is exactly what God is promising here for the people here in Hosea…
How often does God get exasperated and frustrated with YOU? How often do we NOT do what we know God wants us to do? How often do we DO what we know God does NOT want us to do?
The Apostle Paul said that he KNEW what he should be doing and he found himself doing just the opposite and that he knew what he should NOT be doing and he found himself going the other way… This is human nature to seek our own direction and desires! BUT this is NOT God’s way! We must focus on Him and follow Him!
God wants to forgive us and move us forward in our walk with Him… LIKEWISE, God WANTED to forgive these nations and move forward in their obedience and walk with Him… but God’s sorrow here in this passage IS great because He knew they would NOT change…
Hosea expresses this with an illustration at the end of v4…
“…Your loyalty is like the morning mist and like the early dew that vanishes…”
It was NOT as if they were willingly lying to God, or that their words meant nothing. I believe that the people were honest about it when they said they would follow God-- they wanted to submit to Him when He had rescued them… but what Hosea is saying here was that their words would not match their commitment…
OR should I say their commitment would not match their words! Like the morning dew that was real and there in the morning… is gone by midday! Burned off by the heat of the sun… their commitment would be burned away by the heat of pressure from the world to conform to them & NOT God!
God wanted true commitment to Him and what is being said here was that the people just were not able to stay true to their commitment/covenant to God. But God continues in v5
Here He reminds the people this has happened in the past and in the past when they were disobedient that there were severe consequences for their disobedience…he said:
“…This is why I have used the prophets to cut them down; I have killed them with the words of My mouth. My judgment strikes like lightning…”
Here God is illustrating what past disobedience has brought to the nation! Disobedience always brings the judgment of God!
Also, God reminds them that His judgment was very swift and powerful – just like a bolt of lightning. His judgment will strike them when they least expect it and His judgment would be very destructive.
What about you here… have you ever had God come down hard on you? Have you ever been ‘struck by spiritual lightning?’ I believe the discipline of God is swift and painful and there are many times God has to bring us to our knees…so that we look to Him!
The important lesson we can learn here is that when we DO reach that point in our lives… that we LOOK to God and not to something else for our deliverance! The nation of Israel looked elsewhere and that move cost them dearly… We must NOT look to the world for anything but rely on God for everything!
Now as we go back to v1-3 we can see God’s plea was that IF the nation would just repent that He would not have to do this… this is the basic message of what God is crying out to the nation at this point!
However, when we move onto v6 we find God is revealing what it means to truly SERVE Him! Many of the nation had come to believe that the ceremony or ritual was what God wanted and that it was the important aspect of worship!
However, here God says that the ritual and ceremony was NOT what He desired! It was all about their hearts!
Look what He says in v6
“…For I desire loyalty and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings…”
The people were NOT avoiding or neglecting the ceremony and ritual set forth for them in the Law, but what they were doing was meaningless to them and they were simply going thru the motions!
God was not and still IS not about WHAT we do as much as He is about WHY we are doing it! What God desires is our heart… when He has our heart he knows that He has EVERYTHING about us!
When we come to church, go to small group, or give our tithe… it means NOTHING if we are NOT doing it with the right heart! God is seeking a relationship with His people!
Do you remember back to when Hosea was telling the religious leaders that God holds THEM responsible for the spiritual state of the nation? What was the main reason God was upset? It was because the people had NO KNOWLEDGE of God! They had not been taught by the religious leaders!
Here God again lets the people know that KNOWING Him is much more important to Him than any ritual or sacrifice! I am telling you… we see this everyday in our spouses or with our children… they can try to DO things for us but if they don’t want to spend time with us and get to know us… we know that they truly do NOT love us!
God wants that relationship… he desires fellowship with His people! This requires us to GET TO KNOW Him… not just ritual or ceremony! Ritual and ceremony have their place, but they cannot and DO not replace our relationship with God!
In the remaining verses [read v7-11] we find God describing the extremity of their disobedience as he compares it to the disobedience of Adam! How ‘to the point’ is that remark… Adam was the ONE who fell in the Garden with Eve… His actions carried eternal consequences!
God is telling the people here that their disobedience is going to carry tremendous consequences with them… FAR beyond anything they could comprehend! Remember… Gods goal here in this chapter was repentance… He is still attempting coax them into a repentant attitude and heart!
Then God reveals 2 specific groups that represent the evil present in the nation… The city of Gilead represented pure evil… and it was a representative of the nation before God. Also God mentions ‘priests’ along the road to Shechem who murder and raid those on the road!
This is a picture of what the nation’s religious leaders were doing to the nation… Their leadership was deadly, leading the nation to be stripped of who they were before God and robbed of their identity and the nation being destroyed!
He ends the chapter with a sad statement… I can see the evil… It is evident in Israel/Ephraim… and Judah you are not too far behind! Again, this reflects the heart of a lovelorn parent who just wants what is best for his child BUT they are stubborn and rebellious…
I can see the parent saying, “I love you but I see what is coming down the road if you continue like this…” God did not want this, but knew what was ahead! The final line of the chapter reflects God’s heart in this matter as He says:
“…When I return My people from captivity…” It is God’s desire to see them free and serving Him as ONE nation, but their actions and disobedience is preventing that from happening and in fact is going to lead them to MORE destruction!
Now think about your walk with Him? What do you think God is saying about YOUR walk with Him? Is he standing over you saying, “I love you but you are headed the wrong way… I see it coming and I want to help you avoid it…but you will have to turn to Me!”
I know that so often we try to make a case before God to bless OUR desires and plans AS HIS… We call for God to honor OUR plans as if they were HIS! And this gets us into trouble…
The nation here was at a crossroads and God knew the direction they were going to take but he was pleading with them to take HIS direction and NOT their own…
I believe that as a fellowship… as a body we TOO are at a crossroads in our service to God! We can NO longer think that simply going thru the motions is going to please God! God wants our heart… God wants our obedience… God wants a sincere heart from every member! Where are you this evening?
Let’s pray!
