Hosea 9: 1 – 17
Churches that abuse
1 Do not rejoice, O Israel, with joy like other peoples, for you have played the harlot against your God. You have made love for hire on every threshing floor. 2 The threshing floor and the winepress shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail in her. 3 They shall not dwell in the LORD’s land, but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and shall eat unclean things in Assyria. 4 They shall not offer wine offerings to the LORD, nor shall their sacrifices be pleasing to Him. It shall be like bread of mourners to them; All who eat it shall be defiled. For their bread shall be for their own life; It shall not come into the house of the LORD. 5 What will you do in the appointed day, and in the day of the feast of the LORD? 6 For indeed they are gone because of destruction. Egypt shall gather them up; Memphis shall bury them. Nettles shall possess their valuables of silver; Thorns shall be in their tents. 7 The days of punishment have come; The days of recompense have come. Israel knows! The prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is insane, because of the greatness of your iniquity and great enmity. 8 The watchman of Ephraim is with my God; But the prophet is a fowler’s snare in all his ways—Enmity in the house of his God. 9 They are deeply corrupted, as in the days of Gibeah. He will remember their iniquity; He will punish their sins. 10 “I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the first fruits on the fig tree in its first season. But they went to Baal Peor and separated themselves to that shame; They became an abomination like the thing they loved. 11 As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird—No birth, no pregnancy, and no conception! 12 Though they bring up their children, yet I will bereave them to the last man. Yes, woe to them when I depart from them! 13 Just as I saw Ephraim like Tyre, planted in a pleasant place, so Ephraim will bring out his children to the murderer.” 14 Give them, O LORD—What will You give? Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts! 15 “All their wickedness is in Gilgal, for there I hated them. Because of the evil of their deeds I will drive them from My house; I will love them no more. All their princes are rebellious. 16 Ephraim is stricken, their root is dried up; They shall bear no fruit. Yes, were they to bear children, I would kill the darlings of their womb.” 17 My God will cast them away, because they did not obey Him; and they shall be wanderers among the nations.
Today’s special verse is “8 The watchman of Ephraim is with my God; But the prophet is a fowler’s snare in all his ways—Enmity in the house of his God.’
So, you are probably saying, ‘what’s my point?’ Let me throw at you a hint from a different bible version. The same verse is from the NASB - New American Standard Bible and reads as follows, “Ephraim was a watchman with my God, a prophet; Yet the snare of a bird catcher is in all his ways, and there is only hostility in the house of his God.”
In today’s term the verse says there are churches that abuse their fellow brothers and sisters.
Amazingly I had just communicated with a great sister in Christ who personally experienced church abuse. So, I want to list some signs of a spiritually abusive church? Here are some warning signs for you to think about.
The Pastor is not your friend. He hopefully has been selected by our Holy Master and King Jesus Christ to be His co-shepherd. He whole heartedly is obedient and faithful to God Holy Word. He doesn’t compromise God’s truth.
Saints need to watch out for a Pastor who is charming, charismatic, intense, persuasive and intelligent. His personality holds unquestioned sway over his congregation. He is treated like a celebrity; Not held accountable; Not held to same standard as the rest of the congregation.
He operates independently: has no oversight, doesn't answer to an established board of elders, there is no way for grievances to be filed or addressed, even in cases of outright abuse the police or civil authorities are not called, the matters are attempted to be handled internally.
Be concerned that the church does not delegate the saints to a modern day commune society. The bible says that we are in the world but not of the world. Many churches and its congregants break off from any friendship other than with those they see in church.
Active members of the church devote their whole lives to the church, center all their activities around church activities, discouraged to have friends outside the church, family members who express concern about the church are cut off, leaving the church is the same as leaving God.
Be alert about works. The church might teach the truth that we are saved not by works but by God’s Grace while at the same time issue out a plethora of required/mandatory-without-saying-it's-mandatory activities that fill up the weekly schedule, giving time and energy for free to various hard labor projects at various locations.
Giving obsessive attention to members is another thing to watch out for. It is nice that people care about you but this can also get out of hand. Some churches create a big brother-type monitoring. This is called "just keeping each other accountable." Calling to "just check in" if a member misses church meeting. Seeking out answers to rumors, watching online activity for "problematic" opinions and posts--all under the guise of "spiritual care" for the person's soul.
Unrealistic Promises are given from the pulpit and counseling session. : Members of an unhealthy church are often seduced by big talk about all the wealth, blessings and riches God will give them if they just devote their lives to this church. Delivery on these promises is rare. Those who do not experience God's blessings are told they have "weak faith."
I think the worse abuse is being shunned. If someone leaves the church, church leadership requires without any written instruction other key members to ignore this person or family until they "repent." Parents are told to shun or use tuff love with their "rebellious" teenagers. Divorce is granted to couples for all kinds of reasons. If you don’t listen to the church, then go somewhere else to fellowship. The church ministers to the ones they should put out of the church and put out of the church the saints they should be ministering to.
The Ends Justify the Means mentality from a spiritually abusive church justifies all kinds of oppressive behavior by saying they only desire to truly serve and love God. "We're doing this for Jesus, so it's OK!" ‘If you love Jesus then you should be doing this.’ Be wary of a church that emphasizes "purity of church rules" over the way it treats people. Methods and processes matter. The ends do ‘NOT’ justify the means.
The words that follow may well have been spoken by Hosea at the northern version of the Feast of Tabernacles (1 Kings 12.32) which celebrated the end of the season of harvests and sought to encourage the coming of the rains ready for the new harvest. He warns the people not to be so full of rejoicing and exultation because shortly they will be removed from YHWH’s land, and will thus have no harvests to enjoy. They will ‘return to Egypt’ and eat unclean food in Assyria. And this will occur because they are at enmity with YHWH, and because they have ‘played the harlot’ in their ways, like the way in which Israel had sinned at Baal-peor, making a mockery of true YHWH worship.
1 Do not rejoice, O Israel, with joy like other peoples, for you have played the harlot against your God. You have made love for hire on every threshing floor.
Hosea warns Israel not to be so full of joy at their harvest feast at the Feast of Tabernacles because they needed to recognize that by their adulterous behavior they have made God angry. Such ideas of joy were being typical of the Jewish feasts, which were supposed to be joyous occasions (Leviticus 23.40). But they were not proper when their behavior was lacking - ; ‘Do not shout for joy’
The charge against them was that they had ‘played the harlot from their God’, either by worshipping Baal and Asherah, or by worshipping YHWH on a false basis by using cult prostitutes and trying to ‘move Him to action’ by their adulterous behavior. Either way they were being faithless to YHWH’s covenant, and therefore behaving like an unfaithful wife to Him. They had been warned about such behavior in Exodus 34.15-16; and it was the kind of behavior prophesied of them, along with the consequences, in Deuteronomy 31.16.
God’s charge against them was that they ‘loved’ their cohabitation with hired cult prostitutes which they were involved in during their ritual activities wherever they occurred, which was regularly. Grain floors were wide open spaces suitable for gatherings (and for sexual activity), and it is very probable that they were widely used for religious activity, a certain sacredness being see in them as the place where the grain (the gift of God) was finally made edible and provided in abundance.
2 The threshing floor and the winepress shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail in her.
They were to recognize that in the not too distant future they would discover that their threshing floors and oil presses would no longer provide food for them, and that their new wine would fail. This would be because they were no longer to dwell in Israel, having been transported to a foreign country.
3 They shall not dwell in the LORD’s land, but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and shall eat unclean things in Assyria.
They would no longer be allowed to live ‘in YHWH’s land’. They had overlooked the fact that the land was YHWH’s (Leviticus 25.23) and that they were being bad tenants and could therefore be expelled. But it was something that they should have known, for it had been clearly spelled out in Leviticus 26.33-39; Deuteronomy 28.64. YHWH had delivered them from bondage in Egypt into His own land, but now they would ‘return to Egypt’ and eat unclean food in Assyria.
The words ‘Return to Egypt’ was symbolic of being trodden down and returned to slavery. But the main destination for the captured exiles would be Assyria. They would ‘eat unclean food’ there because the food would not have been sanctified by the offering of the first fruits, and they would probably also in many cases be driven to eat what food was available, which would not necessarily be ‘kosher’.
4 They shall not offer wine offerings to the LORD, nor shall their sacrifices be pleasing to Him. It shall be like bread of mourners to them; All who eat it shall be defiled. For their bread shall be for their own life; It shall not come into the house of the LORD.
Once in exile there will be no more wine offerings to YHWH, or any other offering. There would be no more wine-offerings because there would be no more sacrifices. Furthermore, nothing that they did would be pleasing to Him. And if they were to offer sacrifices (to foreign gods), such sacrifices would be unclean like bread which was eaten by mourners. Food eaten by mourners was necessarily unclean because of its contact with the dead. Thus, to participate in anything like that would make them polluted.
5 What will you do in the appointed day, and in the day of the feast of the LORD?
As there would be no offerings and sacrifices, what would they do on the day of solemn assembly, when, had they been at home, they would have gathered to worship and offer sacrifices? And what especially would they do when the feast of YHWH came around? They would not only have lost their land, but also things that were at the very center of their religious thought. They would not be rejoicing then.
6 For indeed they are gone because of destruction. Egypt shall gather them up; Memphis shall bury them. Nettles shall possess their valuables of silver; Thorns shall be in their tents.
For when they went into exile they would leave behind them a scene of destruction. Israel and Samaria would have been destroyed. And in the bleak future that lay ahead they would be ‘gathered up’ by Egypt, and buried in the Egyptian city of Memphis, scene of a famous burial ground and of the pyramids. Hosea was using their knowledge of the past to bring home to them the seriousness of what was about to happen. All knew of how Israel had been enslaved in Egypt. And now it was to happen again, both in Assyria and in Egypt.
The picture of being ‘gathered up’ may have been a reference to the way in which YHWH had gathered up His people prior to leading them from Egypt, and then ‘gathered’ them to meet Him at the Tabernacle (Leviticus 8.4). Now it would be Egypt who would gather them up. And it would not only be for a short period. It would be long enough for them to be buried there.
The consequence for them would be that their rich houses with their silver trimmings would become the haunt of nettles, and their colorful tents which they would have left behind as they were snatched away by the enemy, would be invaded by thorns.
7 The days of punishment have come; The days of recompense have come. Israel knows! The prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is insane, because of the greatness of your iniquity and great enmity.
For what they would now face would not be ‘days of assembly’ and ‘days of YHWH’s feasts’. They would rather be ‘days of visitation’ by an angry God, and ‘days of recompense’ for their sins. The plural of ‘days’ indicates that it was to be no short judgment. And then Israel will know the truth about what was to happen and would recognize that their false prophets who had prophesied peace and security were fools, and that the man who had professed to have ‘the spirit of prophecy’ and had encouraged them in their ways, had been mad. And this would occur because of the fullness of their iniquity, and because, to some extent without their necessarily realizing it, their enmity with YHWH had been great.
8 The watchman of Ephraim is with my God; But the prophet is a fowler’s snare in all his ways—Enmity in the house of his God.
Hosea then sarcastically asks the people whether they thought that they were YHWH’s watchman, or considered themselves to be YHWH’s prophet? And if not, why did they think that what they were holding on to be the truth? Far from that being so, in all the ways in which they went they were in fact being trapped like ‘silly doves’ in a fowler’s snare by the lies and deceit of their religious leaders and were found to be enemies of God in ‘the house of his God’, that is, in Israel because of their faithless ways.
9 They are deeply corrupted, as in the days of Gibeah. He will remember their iniquity; He will punish their sins.
For YHWH’s charge against Israel was that their sins were as deep as the sins of Gibeah, which had also had sexual motivation and had been of the most despicable kind (Judges 19.22). They had deeply corrupted themselves. And just as He had taken note of the sins of Gibeah, which had almost resulted in the extinction of one of the tribes of Israel, so He would remember theirs, and would visit them with judgment because of them.
10 “I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the first fruits on the fig tree in its first season. But they went to Baal Peor and separated themselves to that shame; They became an abomination like the thing they loved.
Then He dredges up the past as an example to them. Let them remember that when YHWH had found His people (Deuteronomy 32.10) they had been like withered grapes, the kind which would grow on a vine in the wilderness, struggling to survive, and like the partially inedible first fruits of a newly planted fig tree which no one wanted to eat (Isaiah 28.4 the first ripe fig is compared to ‘the fading flower of a wilting floral crown’s glorious beauty’. As with all fruit trees fruit from a fig tree was not to be eaten until the fifth year (Leviticus 19.23-25).
They had underlined this truth about themselves when they had arrived at Baal-peor and, instead of consecrating themselves to YHWH and remaining pure, had consecrated themselves to whoredom and idolatry (the shameful thing), chasing after Baal and thus becoming as abominable as the thing that they lusted after (Numbers 25).
In that case the reversal at Baal-peor must be finally indicating what they really were. They had subsequently proved a huge disappointment, and that was now repeating itself. In the same way we must continually beware lest we also become a disappointment to Him
Because of their sinfulness Ephraim’s future is depicted as being very bleak. Their wealth and prosperity will fly away, the wombs of their wives will be barren, and their children will be brought out to the slayers. And this was because YHWH has determined to drive them out of His House and love them no more, because of the wickedness of their ways. The result will be that they will become wanderers among the nations.
11 As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird—No birth, no pregnancy, and no conception!
Ephraim’s fate is sealed, and it is a bleak one indeed. ‘Their glory’ may indicate such wealth as they have (Isaiah 17.3), but in context clearly includes their children. They will ‘fly away like a bird’. In other words, they will simply be found to have vanished. For there is to be no birth, no one with child, and no conception. This would be the initial effect of their captivity. Such an idea would hit hard into Israel’s soul, for children were the greatest desire of their hearts.
12 Though they bring up their children, yet I will bereave them to the last man. Yes, woe to them when I depart from them!
And even though they seek to bring up the children that they already have, yet will YHWH bereave them so that no child is left. According to the curse formula in Leviticus 26 this would partly result from the overabundance of wild beasts which would seize their children (Leviticus 26.22). The consequence will be that their families and their names will slowly begin to die out. This will be the woeful result of their having deserted YHWH.
13 Just as I saw Ephraim like Tyre, planted in a pleasant place, so Ephraim will bring out his children to the murderer.”
Like Tyre, Ephraim are planted in a pleasant place. If the reference to ‘like Tyre’ has in mind the undergoing siege and on their last legs. This would tie in with the idea that they would have to bring their children out to ‘the slayer’.
14 Give them, O LORD—What will You give? Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts!
Moved by what he sees before him at the feast Hosea calls on YHWH to act against the people in judgment. As he ponders what to ask for, he turns his thoughts to YHWH’s words in verse 12, and in consequence asks for their fulfilment. Let Israel’s women be given ‘miscarrying wombs and dry breasts’, reversing the promised blessings in Exodus 23.26; Genesis 49.29. It sounds harsh, but it was asking that YHWH carry out His threatened curses, and at the same time it contains within it a thought of mercy. For his prayer is in response to the fact that if children are born it will be to a fate worse than death. It was thus better in his view that they were never born.
15 “All their wickedness is in Gilgal, for there I hated them. Because of the evil of their deeds I will drive them from My house; I will love them no more. All their princes are rebellious.
‘All their wickedness is in Gilgal’ has in mind that Gilgal was one of Israel’s cultic centers parallel to Bethel. There Israel engaged in all forms of wickedness, centering on adultery and idolatry. These were central to Canaanite worship, for Baalism was a very ‘earthy’ religion. By engaging in sexual activity before the altar the people hoped to persuade Baal to reproduce through the earth. In Israel’s eyes Gilgal was one of their pleasant places, where they indulged in their ritualistic sexual activities. In God’s eyes it was hateful for that very reason. And because of the wickedness of their doings practiced there, He would drive them from His house (from Israel) and love them no more, because their whole leadership approved of the worship there, thus proving that they were rebels against YHWH.
Gilgal was also the place where Saul was finally rejected by Samuel because of his gross disobedience and lies (1 Samuel 15.22) and was thus an example of treachery.
Furthermore, Gilgal was not far from Baal-peor. and was the first place at which Israel had erected the Tabernacle after leaving Baal-peor and crossing the Jordan. Thus false worship at Gilgal was almost like a repetition of what had happened at Baal-peor. It was introducing the same curse into the promised land itself. That holy site which had represented a new beginning was now being turned into another Baal-peor by an Israel who were just as wayward as they had been at Baal-peor..
16 Ephraim is stricken, their root is dried up; They shall bear no fruit. Yes, were they to bear children, I would kill the darlings of their womb.”
Hosea closes the passage as he opened it. Ephraim will be smitten, their root will be dried up, and they will bear no fruit (no birth, none with child, no conception - verse 11). And even those that they do bring forth, the beloved children of their womb, will be slain by YHWH (verse 12), probably by the sword of the Assyrians.
17 My God will cast them away, because they did not obey Him; and they shall be wanderers among the nations.
For because they had continually refused to listen responsively to Him He now intended to cast them away, with the result that they would become wanderers among the nations, in accordance with the curse depicted in Deuteronomy 28.65; Leviticus 26.26-27. They would go on and on wandering, with nowhere to hide.
