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Hosea 4 - Moral Bankruptcy

About Hosea 4

Paradigm Shift The first three chapters of Hosea use the allegory of a marital relationship to illustrate God’s unfailing love, compassion, and ultimately forgiveness. He looks forward to a time of personal repentance by individual believers and restoration of the kind of the intimacy between Himself and His people we were created for.

The remaining chapters of Hosea, written in a poetic literary form, send a prophetic message to Israel regarding its religious, social and political failures and the consequences. It is important to remember that in spite of the political turmoil in the last few decades prior to the fall of Samaria, the region experienced significant economic prosperity. As the people became increasingly smug in their self-confidence they came to rely less and less on God as provider. They essentially ceased to need God, or so they thought. In the remaining chapters the case is made for Israel’s guilt and judgments are proclaimed. These chapters include a powerful call to repentance, a reminder of God’s unfailing love, and eventual restoration of the faithful.

Moral Bankruptcy
Hos 4:1-2 Hear the word of the Lord, O children of Israel, for the Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land. There is no faithfulness or steadfast love, and no knowledge of God in the land; there is swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed. For nearly two centuries Israel consistently grew more and more worldly. Hosea is warning them that God has had enough. The first charge is that they have forgotten God. He then goes on to charge them with a variety of broken commandments. We break God’s laws when we turn from Him and abandon our relationship with Him. If the kings, priests and people loved the Lord they would seek to find and follow His commandments. In their abandonment of God they grew more and more wicked until they became little better to God than the surrounding nations. Western civilization, however imperfect, has had the powerful influence of Christ through the church in its development for many centuries. By nearly any measure it can be shown that Christianity is growing weaker by the day in America and much of Europe. In its place we see love for fellow man replaced by corporate greed and political corruption. One war follows the last with every form of evil and bloodshed following bloodshed.

Emptiness
Hos 4:3 Therefore the land mourns, and all who dwell in it languish, and also the beasts of the field and the birds of the heavens, and even the fish of the sea are taken away. Everyone sees and turns their back on the evil of Israel. There is great suffering because of the sin in Israel. The moral decay of Israel is pictured as a sadness that drives away what little good there is left. When you think about the moral decay of western civilization in recent decades it is equally fascinating to see the explosion of faith in other parts of the world like Africa and parts of the former Soviet Union. Although the communist government of China persecutes the church there, faith in Christ is growing behind closed doors across Asia. Missionaries are leaving America and Europe. It is as if the faithful are leaving the decadence of material wealth and moral bankruptcy to seek out lives of material humility and moral wealth elsewhere.

Priests Condemned
Hos 4:4-5 Yet let no one contend, and let none accuse, for with you is my contention, O priest. You shall stumble by day; the prophet also shall stumble with you by night; and I will destroy your mother. The order of priests and prophets formed base of the civil government as well as the day to day management of religious affairs in ancient Israel. They were structured as a primarily judiciary government. To “contend” means to bring up a legal case. When God says, “let no one contend and let none accuse,” He is saying there is no point in letting corrupt judges decide matters. It is the priestly order with which the Lord is bringing His case. Corruption causes stumbling because only the righteous can stand upright before God and men. The leaders will stumble and the nation will fall. Corruption has caused the collapse of many governments over the centuries. Modern countries that equivocate and surrender moral absolutes fall into corruption and collapse just as surely as ancient Israel or later Rome collapsed from internal decay.

Forgetting God
Hos 4:6-8 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. The more they increased, the more they sinned against me; I will change their glory into shame. They feed on the sin of my people; they are greedy for their iniquity. A point of God’s contention with the priests is that His people are being destroyed because they do not know Him. The priests were charged with the duty to lead the people in YHWH worship. Instead, they obeyed the ruling king by accepting foreign “religious” practices leading idol worship, taking bribes, and engaging in or supporting all sorts of vile sin from cult prostitution to murder. For the religious leaders to promote evil they had to “forget” God’s laws in the Torah forbidding all these practices. As leaders, they led the people from God to sin and thus from glory to shame. As priests were turned from YHWH worship to the Baals, more and more people were admitted into the order which in turn led more and more people astray. God is glorious, but sin results in shame when gets exposed. God accuses the priests of greedily capitalizing on the sin nature of the people. In Hosea’s words to the religious leaders of Ancient Israel we can see wisdom to apply today. There are a number of false gospels being preached in popular churches today. These great lies delude people into false assurance of salvation. The greed of some high profile preachers, like the priests of old, takes food from the mouths of the poor and leaves the people with empty spiritual bowls. Even sincere religious leaders can be sincerely wrong, deceived by others who take even from them. Beware of the “decision” gospel, “prosperity” gospel, or any other gospel that allows the human to acquire salvation through human activity. Jesus said we must be born again (Jn 3:3) – this cannot be accomplished by our own doing. He never said recite this prayer and be saved. He did not promise worldly wealth. He never gave a four-step or ten-step or twelve-step plan to a better sex life or better health or better income or eternal life. Beware of hypocrisy as well as hypocrites.

Followers Go the Way of Their Leaders
Hos 4:9-11 And it shall be like people, like priest; I will punish them for their ways and repay them for their deeds. They shall eat, but not be satisfied; they shall play the whore, but not multiply, because they have forsaken the Lord to cherish whoredom, wine, and new wine, which take away the understanding. Just as the priests were facing judgment for their sins, their followers were also to face God’s rejection and punishment. This would not be the first time God condemned an entire nation from leaders to citizens, but it would be the first time God’s wrath against sin within Israel would be poured out on the entire nation of Israel to this extent. They would not find contentment in their pleasure. They would not grow as a culture because their culture was corrupt. Turning from the righteousness of God, they sought the kinds of temporary worldly pleasures that cannot satisfy. Their priests directed the movement and the people followed. Jesus said when the blind lead the blind they both fall into the pit. Certainly he could have had Hosea’s prophecy in mind when he proclaimed that bit of wisdom. Sin leads to more sin, all of which leads us away from truth, away from wisdom, away from the relationship with our Lord that provides the contentment of security in eternal life.

Idolatry and Adultery
Hos 4:12-14 My people inquire of a piece of wood, and their walking staff gives them oracles. For a spirit of whoredom has led them astray, and they have left their God to play the whore. They sacrifice on the tops of the mountains and burn offerings on the hills, under oak, poplar, and terebinth, because their shade is good. Therefore your daughters play the whore, and your brides commit adultery. I will not punish your daughters when they play the whore, nor your brides when they commit adultery; for the men themselves go aside with prostitutes and sacrifice with cult prostitutes, and a people without understanding shall come to ruin. It is common in scripture to equate adultery with idolatry. This is because both are forms of unfaithfulness. Both make relationships impure. Both begin with seemingly small and innocent acts that “aren’t really all that bad.” Both are sins that feed on selfish human desires. Both destroy trust. Both are destructive behaviors that lead to great personal loss. Both delude the guilty person into thinking they are the victim when in reality they were willing participants. Hosea appears to be mixing metaphors in this passage. It is worth noting that cult prostitution was integral with idol worship. It is easy to lure women into these cults for the pay they received for their services, particularly if they could assuage their personal guilt by believing their prostitution served some deity. It was easy to lead men into the cults if their physical desires were sufficiently sated. Sexual and spiritual sins both fed a huge and powerful industry in the ancient world.

It would seem like idols serve no practical purpose at all. Although they were dumb bits of wood and metal, the manufacture of idols created a huge business for craftsmen. These craftsmen, in order to remain employed, wanted to see idolatry grow. Salesmen who traded in these idols wanted to promote idolatry to make easy money. Cult priests wanted idols to create the illusion of purpose so they could make their money in the trade of human pleasures. False religion based on idol worship provided income at all these levels. The junk bonds of temporary pleasure drove the expanding market until the bubble burst. A culture deluded by this fakery spent its material fortunes and its moral high ground leaving it far more vulnerable than it could comprehend it was too late.

Hosea equates whoredom with idol worship when he says it is a spirit of whoredom that leads the people astray. Those spiritual unfaithfully to God with idols are like women who have sex with whomever they like. Hosea mentions that they do their evil in shady places. Israel’s girls are led into sin through participation in cult prostitution and idolatry, but they will not be punished alone. The men who visit them are equally guilty in sexual and spiritual sins. The women are not excused; Hosea is actually saying their punishment will be shared with their men. Finally Hosea says that these are people who lack understanding and as a result it will be their ruin.

There are numerous practical applications for these lessons today if we substitute for idols the pleasures we pursue in place of a right relationship with God. We chase wealth, the next great job, the next quick money deal, the next lottery ticket, or whatever else that pleases us. We want to look and be sexy, have the best clothes, and the fastest car. Women want to be hot and men want hot women. Our marriages have become almost as disposable as our contact lenses. Morality without an absolute standard is without understanding and leads to ruin.

No Sharing
Hos 4:15 Though you play the whore, O Israel, let not Judah become guilty. Enter not into Gilgal, nor go up to Beth-aven, and swear not, “As the Lord lives.” Israel is warned against trying to draw the tribe of Judah into their folly. This warning serves the common good of keeping their sin more isolated, but it also is meant to protect the tribe which would eventually produce Messiah. The warning against swearing on the name of the Lord is meant to keep them from multiplying their own sin by promoting the mix YHWH worship with Baal worship. This mixing, called syncretism, is even worse than pure idolatry because it reduces YHWH to the level of and equates YHWH to false gods. Syncretism profoundly violates the first three of the Ten Commandments. It particularly violates the Third Commandment by reducing God’s name (taking the name YHWH in vain). Hosea was sternly warning not to draw Judah into this same sin.

Stupid Is as Stupid Does
Hos 4:16-19 Like a stubborn heifer, Israel is stubborn; can the Lord now feed them like a lamb in a broad pasture? Ephraim is joined to idols; leave him alone. When their drink is gone, they give themselves to whoring; their rulers dearly love shame. A wind has wrapped them in its wings, and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices. In these closing verses of Hosea 4 you can sense the frustration Hosea is expressing toward the stiff necked Israelites. Hosea asks the rhetorical question whether the Lord can feed them in a broad pasture. Of course the answer is that the Lord cannot sustain and support stubborn refusal to repent and return to their God. Ephraim represents the character of Israel as a whole. Hosea is essentially saying not to even bother trying to convert them back to truth. They go into idol temples, drink, and engage in orgies. This literal behavior represents forsaking sanctification by mixing with the world and being unfaithful to God in acts of spiritual adultery. Israel’s leaders dearly love things Hosea sees as shameful. Wind represents spirit. They are wrapped in a spirit that ends in their shameful fall because they commit spiritual adultery with idols for the illusion of pleasure. Little has changed since. Today people take what they want of our Bible and mix with it “new age” or other foreign philosophies and call it Christianity. Souls are in great peril by these lies that deceive and draw people from truth to lies, whether they are drawn by pleasure or power or simply the idea they can affect their own salvation through some brave effort of their own. They look to the world to meet their greatest desires because they have been led away from knowledge of God and the reality of eternity beyond carnal understanding.

Majoring in the Minors

Hosea Chapters:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

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