Hosea Chapter 9

At this point in the history of Israel, there's two kingdoms.

There's a Northern Kingdom and a Southern Kingdom.

Ephraim was the most populated tribe or region in the Northern Kingdom.

And so sometimes Ephraim is just like a pseudonym for not a pseudonym, but a label or a representative title, a representative tribe for all of the Northern Kingdoms.

So you've got a split here between Judah and Israel, or the Northern Kingdom and the Southern Kingdom.

And Hosea has been mentioned a couple of times now through the series, through our teaching through this book.

He's native to the Northern Kingdom.

He's native to maybe not Ephraim particularly or specifically, but that's where he's from.

He's a member of the Northern Kingdom.

He's very familiar with the cities and places and customs of which he speaks.

So in chapter nine, I think we get a little clear insight into exactly what kind of idolatry or syncretism has taken place here.

Syncretism being the blending of religions.

So it was in our text here, we're gonna see that the people were still celebrating the Feast of Booths or the Feast of Tabernacles at the time of harvest, but they were also participating in fertility rituals that were part of Baal worship or part of the religion of Baal.

And so you've got a syncretized people here.

They're worshiping two gods.

And we know that the Lord Yahweh, the Lord, the one true God has said that there shall be no other gods before me.

That's what he has told his people.

That's what he has told us.

But yet we find the people of Israel, both in the Northern and Southern kingdoms, but in chapter nine, it's focusing on the Northern Kingdom here, judging them for that syncretism, that accepting in part of, at least part of another religion or at least accepting the opportunity to practice another religion while trying to carry out the rituals and faith of their fathers at the same time.

So let's begin.

Chapter nine, rejoice not, O Israel, exalt not like the peoples, for you have played the whore, forsaking your God.

You have loved a prostitutes wages on all threshing floors.

Threshing floor and wine vat shall not feed them and the new wine shall fail them.

They shall not remain in the land of the Lord, but Ephraim shall return to Egypt and they shall eat unclean food and Assyria.

Already this chapter is jam packed and we see very dire words, very harsh words from the Lord through the prophet Hosea.

But don't think that these are inappropriate words.

Rather they are very much appropriate for exactly what Israel is partaking in.

Why does he start out saying rejoice not, O Israel?

Well, because there's a current prosperity that they are living in in the Northern Kingdom.

They're fat, happy and healthy.

And yet Hosea's proclaiming on them, prophesying to them, coming judgment.

And it's hard for them to believe because things are going so well.

It's hard for them to believe because they live in what seemingly is such a land of prosperity.

And so this is why it opens up with rejoice not, O Israel, there's no reason for you to be rejoicing.

You may be able to have these great feasts.

You may be living in great prosperity.

You may be able to cultivate much wealth, but there's no reason for rejoicing.

You should not exalt yourself as the peoples.

You should not be prideful.

You should not be thinking of yourself as good or great in the world.

Why?

For you have played the war forsaking your God.

And this is what, this isn't new to the book of Hosea.

We've been reading about this.

But in the explanation of you have loved the prostitutes wages, this is in reference to Hosea chapter two, verse four.

Chapter two, verse four shows us all the way at the beginning of Hosea's prophecy here.

It says, or beginning in verse four, I should say, upon her children also I will have no mercy because they are children of Hordom.

For their mother has played the war.

She who conceived them has acted shamefully.

For she said, I will go after my lovers who give me bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my dream.

So this is why that's in reference to the threshing floors as well in verse one is because we see in Israel or the Northern Kingdom's prosperity, the picture that's being painted here is like, okay, you've gone and bought in and worshiped Baal and worship even other gods beyond that.

And the connection is being made here is for prosperity.

Where did they get this economic opportunity?

Where did they get the prosperity that they found on the threshing floors?

Well, it's through their Hordom of religion.

It's through their false worship.

It's through their assimilating and syncretizing into the culture and the faith and religion of the surrounding cities, the surrounding nations.

Verse three, they shall not remain in the land of the Lord, but Ephraim shall return to Egypt and they shall eat unclean food in Assyria.

This is a just can't even stop here, but this is allusion to Ephraim shall return to Egypt.

Of course, Ephraim was one of Joseph's sons.

And so this is saying Ephraim's going to return to Egypt.

So it's a connection to the story of Joseph, the exodus out of Egypt.

So this is judgment and saying, look, you're going to find yourself back in Egypt.

You're gonna be cast away back into Egypt where Ephraim, the nation itself, which is the tribe of the son of Joseph who was the deliverance of his people through Egypt now they're going to be returned to Egypt.

And they shall eat unclean food in Assyria.

This is also a reference to the political situation here where the Northern Kingdom was doing political deals between Egypt and Assyria as a war was going on here.

And they were finding their hope, their shelter of not only prosperity, but survival or kind of, let's make sure we get on the right team here in this war.

And so they were looking to these foreign nations instead of looking to God for success, survival, and even the victory in times of conflict here.

This is a running theme through through Hosea as well.

That's the political context.

Let's move on here.

Verse four, they shall not pour drink offerings of wine to the Lord and their sacrifices shall not please him.

It shall be like mourners bred to them.

All who eat of it shall be defiled for their bread shall be for their hunger only.

It shall not come to the house of the Lord.

What will you do on the day of the appointed festival and on the day of the feast of the Lord for behold they are going away from destruction.

But Egypt shall gather them.

Limphists shall bury them.

Nettles shall possess their precious things of silver.

Thorns shall be in their tents.

So this is really where I'm gonna key in on on this chapter, okay?

I think this is the thrust of this chapter.

This is the, we see the substance here.

We see the golden treasure, the golden nugget here.

Let's turn to Isaiah 6, chapter 6, verse 6.

Chapter 6, verse 6, I think really helps us understand those two paragraphs there.

For I desire steadfast love and not sacrificed the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

Let me read that again.

For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.

This is a key truth.

This is a key thing that Hosea said to preach.

Hosea said to prophesy.

This is something that we see throughout the Old Testament but also more fully revealed or not more fully revealed but kind of like it could not be more fully revealed in the New Testament.

That that truth is that God desires steadfast love and knowing him over sacrifices.

We think of things in, we think of places in the book of Hebrews that when the writer of Hebrews says the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sins.

So what is God actually after here?

This is why God is so offended is because Israel is still pouring out drink offerings of wine to the Lord.

They're still offering up their sacrifices but yet they mean nothing.

They are meaningless because they're worshiping other gods at the same time.

This is the theme of the book of Hosea.

This is worship idolatry.

This is worship adultery here.

The Lord will not, we see here that the Lord will not receive their worship.

The Lord will not receive their drink offerings.

The Lord will not receive their sacrifices.

It shall be like mourners bred to them.

What is that reference to?

It's a reference to a food being in the home of someone who died would be marked as unclean.

You can't eat it and surely you cannot or you should not eat it and surely you cannot sacrifice that you cannot bring that bread to the offering table.

And so their offerings were viewed as mourners bred.

Their offerings reviewed as unedible, unholy, unclean bread because of the state of their hearts.

Because they were worshiping after other gods.

Because they had other gods they were viewing.

Maybe not even on the equal plane as God but they were worshiping them as gods nonetheless.

So the Lord will not receive their worship.

He's not receiving it.

So and because of that in verse five, what will you do on the day of the appointed festival?

If the Lord's not going to receive your worship, what are you gonna do on the day of the appointed festival?

This is a reference to either the feast of Boos or the feast of the tabernacle.

And on the day of the feast of the Lord.

For behold, they are going away from destruction.

So this is the part where he starts to talk about the coming, they're in great prosperity but he's like, things are about to get bad.

You're about to be destroyed.

This prosperity that you're enjoying, you're going to have no longer.

You're going to be carried away back into Egypt.

You're going to be conquered by Assyria.

So there's a coming invasion here.

They're going away from destruction but Egypt shall gather them.

Memphis shall bury them.

Memphis was a city in Egypt known for its cemeteries and tombs.

So look at that kind of word picture there.

Memphis shall bury them.

After reading this, I realized why Memphis, Tennessee has a pyramid in it now.

I'm sure it was biblically inspired.

That's what I'm thinking.

Back at Bass Pro was reading Hosea 9 when they decided to buy it.

All right, back to seriousness.

Metals shall possess their precious things of silver.

Thorns shall be in their tents.

Okay, here's the direct word of application here in Hosea 9 is that false worship leads to ruin.

False worship leads to ruin.

In your own lives, we can think of cities, states, nations.

False worship leads to ruin.

The psalmist writes often, why does it look like the wicked are prospering?

David writing that is not living in the same day as Hosea.

This was many years after, but this is what I think about when I read this.

It looks like the idolaters of Israel are prospering and Hosea's main message is to say your prosperity is like vapor and the wind.

And the Lord is not overlooking this.

Brothers and sisters, it's easy for us to think of this in terms of idolatrous Israel.

But when our heart creeps into loving something, loving something above what it should be, when we find ourselves with something in our life that we're either willing to sin to get or sin to keep, we found ourselves in a state, in a position of idolatry.

This is where we find our own hearts, even as Christians oftentimes.

Let's not think ourselves better than the people of Israel here.

It's easy to look back and think of how ridiculous they were.

But how many times in our own hearts, in our own life, do we find ourselves needing to hair down and alter?

Needing to tear down our own idol, little idol that we've built in our own mind, in our own heart, in our own life.

And the Lord is not okay with that.

I mean, he's okay with us tearing it down.

That's what he wants, that's repentance.

But he doesn't look lightly on the little idols that we build in our lives.

He's going to bury them.

He's going to destroy them.

And oftentimes, we're so grateful for that.

The days of verse seven, the days of punishment have come, the days of recompense have come.

Israel shall know it.

The prophet is a fool.

This is starting to sound like 1 Corinthians here.

The prophet is a fool.

The man of the spirit is mad.

This sounds like people making fun of Moses while building the ark.

Or it sounds like 1 Corinthians where the gospel is foolishness to the Gentiles and a stumbling block to the Jews.

The apostles are ridiculous.

The prophets are ridiculous.

Prophet is a fool.

The man of the spirit is mad.

Because, why do people view it that way?

Because of your great iniquity and great hatred.

It's the people's own wickedness that caused them to view the truth of God, the revelation of God as foolish, as mad.

The prophet is the watchman of Ephraim with my God.

Yet a fowler's snare is on all his ways.

So, Jose is here saying, look, I'm calling to be a prophet, a watchman of Ephraim with my God.

God sent me a message for your good.

And yet, you seek to ensnare me, trap me, hunt me in all my ways.

And hatred is in hatred in the house of his God.

He's pointing out that because of their wickedness, because of their idolatry, that they actually hate God.

And it's because they hate the words of his prophet.

They have deeply corrupted themselves as in the days of Gibeah.

He will remember their iniquity.

He will punish their sins.

Like grapes in the wilderness, I found Israel.

Like the first fruit on the fig tree in its first season, I saw your fathers.

This is a reference to God's delight.

And what I have just written in here, an unlikely providence, that he said that he found Israel like grapes in the wilderness.

That's not a common theme.

Let's put that into Arcanzan.

It's like finding a blackberry bramble in the woods.

You can pick of it's surprising delight, because usually those aren't found so easily.

Like the first fruit on a fig tree in its first season.

Usually a fig tree does not bear fruit in its first season, or it bears little fruit in its first season.

But yet, this is the way that God viewed Ephraim, Israel's forefathers.

But they came to Baal-Pior.

This is a city that's just across the way from Gilgal.

In verse 15, it talks about Gilgal.

And Gilgal was the first encampment that Joshua settled or encamped at as he was conquering the land of Canaan.

So Gilgal was just across the Jordan River of Baal-Pior.

And so this is showing us where the influence came from.

They were very close to the city of Baal, and they began to probably trade with the city next to them.

And yet, before long, they began to share cultures and intermarry and begin to worship each other's gods as a result.

They consecrated themselves to the theme of shame.

And it became detestable like the thing that they loved.

Ephraim's glory shall fly away like a bird.

No birth, no pregnancy, no conception.

So Ephraim, again, was the great tribe in the Northern Kingdom.

They were the most populous tribe.

And God is going to judge them accordingly.

And here's a piece of information that you need.

Is that part of their idolatry, a large part of their idolatry, was participating in the fertility rituals.

These were sexually immoral acts in Baal worship.

And so God is judging them according to the very sin that they are committing.

And so he's gonna take away their fertility.

He's going to take away their children as they have been gained via idolatry, via spiritual adultery.

Even if, these are hard words to read, even if they bring up children, I will bereave them till none is left.

Woe to them when I depart from them.

Ephraim, as I have seen, was like a young palm planted in a meadow.

But Ephraim must lead his children out to slaughter.

Give them, oh Lord, what will you give?

Give them a miscarrying womb and a dry breast.

These are very hard words to read, but this is the extent that God takes his worship so seriously.

You cannot go to Baal for your infertility.

You cannot go to Baal to learn how to raise your children.

You cannot raise your children in the nurture and admonition of Baal.

God takes his worship this seriously.

But go to the Lord your God, your gracious, heavenly Father, with your miscarriages, with your infertility, with your troubled children that you are trying to faithfully raise.

Do not turn to other gods.

God's calling you, worship me.

Worship the Lord who has been faithful to your forefathers.

Worship me who has offered you perfect and complete salvation in the promise seed which is Jesus Christ.

Do not go to the world, brothers and sisters, with your troubles.

Do not go to the world, brothers and sisters, with your pursuit and ambition of prosperity, but serve the Lord, serve the Lord above all else and serve no other God.

This is the message of Hosea 9.

This is the great calling of repentance and it's because the Lord takes his worship this seriously.

Now, just to finish, every evil, verse 15, every evil of theirs is in Gilgal where I began to hate them.

Remember Gilgal is right across the river Jordan.

This is where all this seemingly started.

Because of the wickedness of their deeds, I will drive them out of my house.

I will love them no more.

All their princes are rebels.

Ephraim is stricken, their root is dried up.

They shall bear no fruit.

So the most fruitful tribe is now going to rot.

It's now going to be dried up.

It's not going to be the fruitful garden that it has been.

Even though they give birth, I will put their beloved children to death.

My God will reject them because they have not listened to him.

They shall be wanderers among the nations.

My God will reject them because they have not listened to him.

Now brothers and sisters, hold on.

In a few weeks, we're going to get to a great chapter of hope.

But it is true that if we do not listen to God, if the nations do not listen to God, God will reject them because of that.

Because we have not listened.

We have not bowed the knee.

We have not received, received the calling and wisdom and admonition of the very God, of very God.

This is why he's rejecting them.

This seems dire, but I don't want to leave you without hope.

Keep coming.

A great chapter of hope is upon us.

And the Lord does provide a way of salvation.

The Lord does provide this way of hope.

Ephraim is in the end, not left with these dire and grim curses of the Lord.

But yet there is a coming Savior, Jesus Christ, that all hope for Ephraim, the Northern Kingdom, the Southern Kingdom, and it turns out all the nations, every tribe, nation and tongue, believes upon this man, Jesus Christ.

Therefore, listening to the Lord and being not only removed from his judgment, but brought in to his blessing.

That's the, not necessarily the message of Hosea 9, but that's the ending message of Hosea and truly all the New Testament.

Praise God, thank you.