Hosea #5

teaching through it and maybe as you've read through it before, maybe as you might even be reading through it now, during this this teaching time, during this time of equipping on Sunday mornings, Hosea is a difficult book. Not only is it a difficult book, definitely in sections to understand and make sense of, but once you understand and make sense of it, it's difficult in a different regard. It's a hard book to read. It's much like Jeremiah or Lamentations.

And that once you truly grasp what the Lord is revealing, once you really understand what's going on here, it's a difficult book to digest, a difficult book to consume. Mainly because it's primarily full of judgment.

The reprieve of judgment, spoiler alert, doesn't come until the last chapter of the book. And so, you know, this morning, this morning, there's a full chapter of judgment like we've seen previously.

It's just a very glimmer of hope at the end, but we're going to take hold of that glimmer of hope for everything the Lord gives it to us for.

And this book opens up with, I've divided this in two parts. Verses 1 through 7 is part 1 and verses 8 through 15 is part 2. So that's the way I'm going to address it this morning.

And this is part 5, verses 1 through 7 is part 1 and Hosea chapter 5 verses 8 through 15 and in the second.

Hosea 5:8–15

The first part opens with this, Hear this, O priest, pay attention, O house of Israel, give ear, O house of the king, for the judgment is on you. For you have been a snare at Mispa and a net spread upon Tabor.

And the revolters have gone deep into slaughter, but I will discipline all of them. First thing we see here is that Hosea is now turning direct aim, direct attention at the leaders of Israel and Judah.

Hosea is primarily a resident and primarily talks about the northern kingdom and history of Israel. The kingdom is split at this point. There is a divide between Israel and Judah.

Or sometimes Israel is called Ephraim because Ephraim is the most prominent tribe in the kingdom of Israel at this point.

So when he refers to Ephraim, he's also referring to Israel as a whole, just so that you can have that nugget of info and that'll help us in our reading of this.

But he's oftentimes Hosea or prophets in general, we'll just take aim at a general nation and they'll say, Judah has fallen away, Israel has fallen away.

It's talking about not just the leaders or not the people, but the whole thing.

Well, this chapter opens up taking square aim at the priests and leaders of these two kingdoms, of these two nations at this point.

He says squarely this or straight with no parsing of language, which is straight language that this for the judgment is for you.

And the next two lines give us an explanation, a little bit of a reason why.

He says, for you have been a snare at Misba and a net spread upon Taber.

What exactly is this referring to here? Well, Misba and Taber were two were two kind of mountain peaks or two points in the in this region or in these in this country.

They would have been used for two things. There's two imagery here by referring to Misba and Taber.

There's two major things that this is communicating. The first is that this would have been these would have been places of hunting.

This is where hunters and trappers would go up and set a snare and spread nets.

This is where they would go do their go do their hunting.

This is where the first day of deer season would be most popular would be in Misba or in the area of Taber.

So that's why that language is used. You have been a snare at Misba and a net spread upon Taber.

The leaders of the nation have ensnared the people. They have entrapped the people in their nets, in their snares.

There's a second meaning here, though, that these would have been what's commonly what we commonly see throughout the Old Testament as high places.

We know that Hosea is the whole theme being this idea or not the idea, but this of Israel exemplifying spiritual adultery or what might be called what is better called idolatry.

Israel's idolatry, Judah's idolatry, is being portrayed through the imagery of adultery in this harlot that Hosea was set to marry at the beginning of the chapters, this marriage to Gomer.

This is the great theme and motif of this whole book.

What is the idolatry that's creeping into the churches, though? It's Baal worship.

It's Baal worship in the keen forms of practices that we're creeping in, or the word that you might have heard used is called synchronization or syncretizing itself with syncretism, syncretizing itself within Christianity. So Baal worship in some of its practices is bleeding in to the worship of the one and true God.

This is what is being addressed time and time again by Hosea.

So this is the that is the snare, that is the net spread in those references by the priest, by the leaders of the nation.

They are allowing and permitting this idolatry to take place, this spiritual adultery, the spiritual prostitution to take place.

We'll take some of your gods, we'll take some of your godless culture in exchange for goods, in exchange for services, in exchange for a greater economy, in exchange for prosperity, in exchange for protection.

This is why Hosea is rightly to call this and frame this in a theme of prostitution.

In verse 2, in the revolters have gone deep into slaughter, but I will discipline all of them.

I think this is a reference to the manner in which God is viewing their religious practices and sacrifices.

God is not a sweet savor before the Lord, before him, but now he views them as mere slaughter.

And this of course is carrying on with a theme of language of what a hunter would do after ensnaring a prey or trapping them in its net in the places of hunting at Misba and Taber.

It's offered up as a religious sacrifice, but it's slaughtered, it's field dressed, and then the meat is brought in for enjoyment.

What is here is not religious practice being exemplified, but the leaders have ensnared the nation by permitting this sort of debased worship.

And it's not pure and undefiled before the Lord, but it's more like animal being slaughtered in the woods for the consuming of its meat.

Now, I am a benefactor of some of your trophy hunts, okay?

So don't hear me criticizing you hunting deer come this fall.

I know some of you are already practicing getting your shot right with your bow, and so do not forget me when the harvest comes, okay?

The Scriptures here are not criticizing hunting, but there's a difference between that and what true sacrifice is to be before the Lord.

And what true worship is to be before the Lord, and it's using this imagery of a snare and entrapment and the slaughter of an animal versus...

It's using that as an analogy for the way the leaders have now brought the people of Israel and Judah.

It's talking about the wickedness they have permitted.

I've already touched on this a bit, this idea of prostitution or Ephraim, Israel, Judah, and the Lord.

I've already touched on this a bit, this idea of prostitution or Ephraim, Israel, Judah, playing the whore or having a spirit of whoredom within them.

It's a very, very major theme. And the one thing that I want to point out here that would be somewhat new to our study through Hosea is this idea here.

In verse 4, their deeds do not permit them to return to their God.

What is the Lord saying there? What is the prophet Hosea proclaiming there? That is a striking statement.

This means, biblically speaking, just in this text, what we see clearly here is that it's not the Lord at this point that's not permitting them to return to Him.

It's their own lust of their desires that is not permitting them to turn to the Lord. They can turn at any point.

In fact, in this very chapter, the Lord through Hosea is, this is the very word of prophecy in this chapter, is for these kingdoms to do exactly this, to turn to the Lord.

But their own desires, their own deeds do not permit them to return to God. They are their own stumbling block.

They are themselves their own hurdle to the Lord. They have gotten into their own way. Why?

As it says again, for the spirit of whoredom is within them, and they know not the Lord.

Now that phrase, they know not the Lord is not that they are ignorant of God. I don't think anyone of us would think that at this point.

They're very much aware of God. It's not they are ignorant of Him. It's not that He has not made Himself known to them.

That's not what this word, they have not known the Lord is referring to. It's that they have forgotten the Lord, as they have ignored the Lord.

They have looked for their sustenance and prosperity and entertainment and identity and desires to other nations, meaning that they have looked to other gods at this point.

They have forgotten the Lord. They've got a spirit of unfaithfulness. They've got a spirit of adultery within them. Spirit of idolatry.

Moving on, the pride of Israel testifies to His face. Israel and Ephraim shall stumble in His guilt. Judah also shall stumble with Him.

With their flocks and herds they shall go to seek the Lord. But they will not find Him. He has withdrawn from them. They have dealt faithlessly with the Lord.

For they have born alien children. Now the new moon shall devour them with their fields.

So what does Hosea say here? Okay. Once they actually go to seek the Lord, it says that the pride of Israel testifies to His face.

Once they go to turn to Him, once they stumble, once it says Israel and Ephraim stumble in His guilt, Judah will stumble with Him.

The pride comes before fall. We see this exemplified here. The pride of Israel testifies to His face and then each three of them stumble.

Each three of them fall in their guilt. It's at that point they will take their flocks and their herds and they shall go to seek the Lord.

But they will not find Him because the Lord has then at this point withdrawn from them.

Because they have been faithless. They have dealt faithlessly with the Lord.

So they have born alien children. This is both physically and spiritually. They have born, going back to our theme here, they have born illegitimate children.

Both by natural birth as they have done which they were not commanded to do, not permitted to do, and mixing with the other nations, embedding themselves in their culture, worshipping with their gods.

Going back to the theme here of prostitution. It's bearing forth illegitimate children in that way as well, or alien children in that way as well.

But these are both pictures to what is happening spiritually. They are bearing forth children who know nothing of the Lord.

It's their spiritual offspring. What the leaders are bearing forth in their own nation are alien, are children alien to the Lord.

I hope you can see that theme clearly there.

And lastly in the first section here it says, now the new moon shall devour them with their fields.

We read of new moon festivals, or the time of the new moon throughout the Old Testament.

This should be a time of celebration. This should be a time of festival.

This should be a time of recognizing prosperity and giving thanks to the Lord for what He has provided them.

But this time, but now the new moon shall devour them with their fields, as there will not be provision from the Lord.

There will not be celebration. There will not be prosperity as these nations have come to enjoy.

And that leads us to our next section.

We start in verse 8 with the announcement of coming war. This is what verses 8 through 12 are all about.

This is where I find our setting coming into very close contact with the setting of Hosea.

Hosea is preaching, prophesying, proclaiming to a nation that is enjoying great prosperity at this time, but is rotting from the inside out.

Does that sound familiar to any of you?

Great prosperity. I mean, I can go back there, get a cup of coffee, go back to the refrigerator.

If I had stocked it with food, there would be plenty in there, but I don't do that here.

Because I know how public fridges work. I would stock it and then it would be gone.

But I could go back there to the fridge or go down the street to my home and there's a bounty of prosperity or a bounty of prosperity in there.

Yes, we live in a great time of wealth, great time of prosperity.

But yet our culture, not even going to talk about our nation, it's not needful to get political, although it's easy to do.

But just talk about our culture. Just look at the state of the world and we can see that we are rotting from the inside out.

The Lord's giving a declaration of warning here and saying, hey, things are not going to stay that way.

Blow the horn in Gibeah, the trumpet in Rama, sound the alarm at Beth-Avon.

We follow you, O Benjamin. Ephraim shall become a desolation in the day of judgment.

Among the tribes of Israel, I make known what is sure.

The princes of Judah have become like those who move the landmark. Upon them I will pour out my wrath like water.

Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment because he was determined to go after filth.

But I am like a moth to Ephraim and like dry rot to the house of Judah.

Verse 13, when Ephraim saw his sickness and Judah his wound, then Ephraim went to Assyria and sent to the great king.

But he is not able to cure you or heal your wound, for I will be like a lion to Ephraim and like a young lion to the house of Judah.

I, even I, will tear and go away. I will carry off and no one shall rescue.

So the trumpet, the horn, these are horns of warning to signal that there is an approaching enemy.

There is someone coming to invade. And in fact, this is a prophecy about two things, really.

Big picture, it's a prophecy about in the end, these kingdoms are going to be conquered by Assyria.

Assyria is going to conquer the whole thing.

But more specifically, if you'd like to turn with me or just make note of this reference in 2nd Chronicles verses 16 through 21, where it talks about Ephraim looking to Assyria and sent to the great king for aid.

Let me read what that's referencing real quick.

At that time, King A has sent to the king of Assyria for help. This is 2nd Chronicles. Sorry, did I say 2nd Corinthians?

Okay. Yeah, Corinthians would not have made sense.

2nd Chronicles, sorry, chapter 28. 2nd Chronicles 28.

The larger context starts in probably verse 12. I'm only going to start in verse 16 for the sake of time.

At that time, King A has sent to the king of Assyria for help.

For the Edomites had again invaded and defeated Judah and carried away captives.

And the Philistines had made raids on the cities of Shaphala and Negeb of Judah and had taken Besh Shemesh, I-Jalan, Gadaroth, Sakho and its villages, Timnah and his villages, and Gimzo with his villages, and they settled there.

For the Lord humbled Judah because of A has king of Israel, for he had made Judah act sinfully and had been very unfaithful to the Lord.

So Tiglath, Piler, king of Assyria, came against him and afflicted him instead of strengthening him.

And the Gethsemane, as it was, took a portion from the house of the Lord and the house of the king and of the princes and gave tribute to the king of Assyria, but it did not help him.

Let's read our text again.

Then Ephraim went to Assyria and sent to the great king, but he is not able to cure you or heal your wound.

This is what's being prophesied here, that your prosperity, your prominence is coming to an end, and it's because you have forgotten the God of Israel, the God of Judah, the God, the one and true God.

And this is why they are rotting from the inside out.

They are going to other nations, they are looking to other gods, they are doing the exact thing that Hosea is prophesying against them about.

This is what they are doing. They are actively in their worry, in their fear, in their pragmatism.

We need alliances, we need help from other nations.

To do that, they compromise, they adopt their gods, they borrow their gods, they begin practices of pagan practices for fertility, and they use religious or cultish prostitutes in their worship.

These are the things that they are adopting so that they can hang on to, so that they can retain their prominence, their prosperity in the land.

This is the exact thing that Hosea is striking down with a straight arrow.

Now look at the last phrase here. The last verse.

I will return again to my place, until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face, and in their distress they earnestly seek me.

So this is the Lord giving, this is that glimmer of hope, that shred of hope right here at the end.

Let's compare and contrast this to the first part, the first section here, where we see that their deeds do not permit them to return to their God in verse 4.

And then further on, in verse 6, with their flocks and herds they shall go seek the Lord, but they will not find him, he has withdrawn from them.

These are two competing ways of seeking the Lord.

In verse 6 and 7, they will turn to the Lord, but the Lord will withdraw from them.

They will not be able to find the Lord because they have dealt faithlessly with the Lord.

But in verse 15, the Lord is saying, I will return to my place.

Basically he's saying I'm going to leave them to the judgment that is going to happen.

Until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face, so I'm going to return to my place, I'm going to leave them to this judgment.

This is going to play out until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face, and in their distress earnestly seek me.

So what's the difference between verse 15 in seeking the Lord and verses 6 and 7 in seeking the Lord?

In verses 6 and 7, they sought the Lord in their pride, and they sought the Lord without forsaking the gods in the false worship that they were partaking in.

They wanted their cake, and they wanted to eat it too.

They wanted the Lord and the other gods. They wanted the Lord and did not give up their sin.

Oftentimes this is how we come to the Lord, is it not? We come to the Lord under conviction. We come to the Lord troubling.

We want to be saved. We want to be rescued from our sin. We want to be further sanctified of our sin.

But yet we are not willing to come to him, as verse 15 says, and acknowledge our guilt before seeking his face.

Or in seeking his face, acknowledge our guilt.

That we do not come to the Lord earnestly, as verse 15 says, but we come to the Lord with one hand on our sin and one hand reaching out to the Lord.

If the Lord gives us this sign of hope here, this one little verse at the end of a chapter of judgment of various kinds of all forms, calling Israel all sorts of names that my mother would wash my mouth out with soap if I spoke these as a kid.

But, and rightfully so, Hosea through the Lord, or the Lord through Hosea, is dealing very direct and very harsh with Israel and Judah at this time.

But in verse 15, we see it's almost implicit here though, that the Lord has returned to his place until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face.

It's a little implicit here, as I said, but we know because we have more of God's revelation that repentance does eventually come.

Now not in full fledged force of a form of a great national revival, and the kingdoms of Israel and Judah are not restored, and the unified kingdom of Israel is not restored as it was before.

It's pointing to a true repentance, a greater repentance, where many will turn their face and seek the Lord and forsake their sin.

It's pointing to times of revival, it's pointing to a place where some in Israel, some in Judah, some in Ephraim will look again to the Lord and give up the worship of Baal.

These leaders are being judged now, but we have a sign of hope here in verse 15, that if you're in your sin, you can still turn to the Lord, that the Lord will turn his face to you, that the Lord will not withdraw from you, but that the Lord will turn his face to you, and that the Lord will turn his face to you, and that the Lord will turn his face to you, and that the Lord will turn his face to you, and that the Lord will turn his face to you, and that the Lord will turn his face to you, and that the Lord will turn his face to you, and that the Lord will turn his face to you, and that the Lord will turn his face to you, and that the Lord will turn his face to you, and that the Lord will turn his face to you, and that the Lord will turn his face to you, and that the Lord will turn his face to you, and that the Lord will turn his face to you, and that the Lord will turn his face to you, and that the Lord will turn his face to you, and that the Lord will turn his face to you, and that the Lord will turn his face to you, and that the Lord will turn his face to you, and Lord, we want to turn from that. We repent from that. Lord, we thank you and praise you that you are a God, that we come to you with earnest repentance, that we come to you with an acknowledge of guilt and seeking your forgiveness, that you do not turn yourself from us. You are a good and gracious God. You've done this ultimately in the person of Jesus Christ.

He is our only accomplishment of our salvation. He is the way that you have fully turned your face for us, that you were pleased to dwell.

It says of him that the fullness of God was pleased to dwell in Jesus Christ. You have surely brought salvation near to us.

We praise this. We give you all praise for Jesus Christ himself. Amen.

Amen.

You