Hosea 5 - Pride, Punishment, Disease and the Cure
by Lance Ponder(94)http://fkiprofessor.xanga.com
Punishment Coming
Hos 5:1-2 Hear this, O priests! Pay attention, O house of Israel! Give ear, O house of the king! For the judgment is for you; for you have been a snare at Mizpah and a net spread upon Tabor. And the revolters have gone deep into slaughter, but I will discipline all of them . Religious, social, and political aspects of Israel are being judged. The people and its leaders share the same fate. There are two towns of Mizpah – one in the region of Gilead east of Galilee and the other in the region of Benjamin. The more likely reference is to Benjamin which lies just north of Judah. Tabor is a mountain at the northeast edge of the Jezreel Valley, not far from Samaria. The leaders of Israel led their people into the snare of pagan worship from one end of Israel to the other. These leaders were rebelling God and leading the people to what would be slaughter at the hands of Assyria. All of them, meaning from the highest to the lowest of rebellious Israel would face God’s judgment. It was certainly nothing new for Jesus to say it is better for a millstone to be tied to your neck and be thrown into the sea than to lead someone innocent into sin.
About Ephraim
Hos 5:3-4 I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from me; for now, O Ephraim, you have played the whore; Israel is defiled . Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God. For the spirit of whoredom is within them, and they know not the Lord. Samaria, the capital of the Northern Kingdom, lies in the region of Ephraim. Adam and Eve tried to hide themselves from God and could not. Cain tried to hide the murder of his brother from God and could not. Perhaps a century before Hosea gave these prophecies Jonah tried to hide from God and could not. No sin inside of Israel, even in the darkest hiding places in its capital, could be hidden from God. By referring to Ephraim rather than Samaria specifically, it seems God is speaking to the people as a whole and not merely its priests and politicians. God is declaring through Hosea that He knows they are unfaithful in their worship and practice vile sexual sin both literally and figuratively. Likewise, none can hide from God. At some point all will be judged and found lacking. Only the application of the blood of the Lamb of God can cover sins and provide merciful forgiveness. Whoever enters or otherwise remains in rebellion to God does not know Him and faces the wrath of God when judgment is applied.
Pride Goes Before the Fall
Hos 5:5-7 The pride of Israel testifies to his face; Israel and Ephraim shall stumble in his guilt; Judah also shall stumble with them. 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 borne alien children. Now the new moon shall devour them with their fields . Thinking themselves wise for their prosperity and pleasures, Israel’s pride was obvious for all to see. Pride is when you think highly of yourself. When your opinion of yourself is high you tend to ignore your flaws and in so doing you become vulnerable and worse, blind to your own vulnerabilities. Pride, blind to vulnerabilities, results in a fall like a blind man unaware of a pit. Although Israel broke away from Judah politically, the people still mingled sharing culture and heritage. Israel’s falling away from pure YHWH worship drew Judah down the same perilous road. Samaria fell in 722 BC and little more than a century later Babylon began the attacks that would eventually bring the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC. When the attacks began there were religious movements, but in each case it was too little, too late. This passage reminds me of Mt 7:21-23 where Jesus says some will call out to God but be rejected because their actions did not match their words. False doctrine, empty belief and pretension go hand in hand. Even the most seemingly noble actions may only be hypocritical whitewash covering the tomb of a dead soul.
Klaxon
Hos 5:8-10 Blow the horn in Gibeah, the trumpet in Ramah. Sound the alarm at Beth-aven; we follow you, O Benjamin! Ephraim shall become a desolation in the day of punishment; 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 . It is surprisingly common to find God taunting those whom He confronts. When person or a nation defies God in their human pride, the taunts given them through the prophets are daring them to stand up to God. Sounding the alarm will do no good. Terrible destruction is going to come, first to Ephraim, then to Benjamin, then to Judah. This description was remarkably accurate. Following the collapse of Samaria, the Assyrians moved through the regions of the tribes of Ephraim, then Benjamin, on their way to the gates of Jerusalem. Judah will receive punishment because they have behaved like Israel. Israel dared to move the center of worship away from its established capital and the great Temple of Solomon. Even as Israel’s kings and priests raised idols in place of YHWH worship, false gods were being worshiped in ever-increasing numbers in the Southern Kingdom. The references to “princes” means the wealthy and politically powerful people of Judah. Those in power were growing wealthy through the idol industry and they were going the same way as those of the Northern Kingdom who were driving the common people into sin. The pouring out of God’s wrath was as certain as the fall of water poured from a pitcher. As for sounding the alarm, Hosea might as well have said, “Be afraid, be very afraid.” The faithful were to sound the alarm that God’s wrath was coming in payment for sin in the time of Hosea. It stands to reason then that Christians should be alarmed by the sin in our present world and get to the business of preaching and doing whatever God gives us to do in order to lead people to repentance.
Dry Rot
Hos 5:11-12 Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment, because he was determined to go after filth [or “to follow after human precepts”]. But I am like a moth to Ephraim, and like dry rot to the house of Judah . The reason for the judgment is restated in a new way. The tribes were determined to do evil in the sight of God. They decided to do what they wanted in defiance of what they knew God wanted. They elevated their own will to sate their own material desires. They failed to recognize they had all they need in the company of God. Their greed blinded them. What did not come from God was corrupt and subject to decay just like cloth wasting away by moth or dry rot. Their erosion would seem slow in coming, but in the end the ruin would be just as complete. The idea of rotting away and being moth eaten was a disgusting image. It should have goaded them to repent. Pride, however, refuses to hear truth and pursues its own lusts. And so it was Israel’s unrepentant heart that was its downfall. Throughout the world today people continue to try and find their own fulfillment, denying all the wonderful and priceless grace, mercy, and hope given by a loving Creator who seeks to give His best to an unworthy creation whom He loves anyway.
Incurable
Hos 5:13-14 When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah his wound, then Ephraim went to Assyria, and sent to the great king [or “King Jareb”]. 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. Hosea saw ahead into the near future when Assyria would scatter Israel in the exile of the Northern Kingdom. In submission to their conqueror, the Israelites turned him for help. What they would receive was cruel terrible punishment for their insubordination and dishonest dealings with the evil Assyrian king. They say that if you play with fire you’re going to get burned. This was a painful lesson for Israel resulting in the end of Israel as an independent and cohesive state. God not only allows Assyria to do this, but God is declaring His will goes with the Assyrians, evil though they were, because punishment was determined for Israel’s sin. As an object lesson for modern people, we need to understand that sin destroys and God does dole out fierce punishment for evil doing, even by those who appear to give the pretense of being His people. Calling yourself a Christian is not good enough. Going to church warming a pew is not good enough. God requires a heart contrite in earnest submission that is willing to obey Him above all else. God alone decides who will find mercy and who will be punished. The choice is His and He is sovereign in making that choice. Our role is to obey His choice, to throw ourselves at His mercy, and to seek Him with all our hearts. He promises that we will find him if we seek him earnestly. He promises to be faithful to forgive our sin and purify us. He does not do this so we might go to our sin without guilt, but so that we would be free of sin’s bondage and wrath because we have turned from our selfishness to Him in humility and love.
Heaven Can Wait
Hos 5:15 I will return again to my place, until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face, and in their distress earnestly seek me . In this last verse of Hosea 5 we see what He really expects of us. Wrath is not what He desires to give His people, rather it is the tool we force Him to use to get our attention. Will we rebel until we are utterly destroyed or will we come to our senses, recognize the error of our way, and return repenting humbly. It is easy to get to the idea that God looks smugly down at his puny creation and wants to see us grovel for our measly lives. This is a very unfortunate and distorted picture of God’s character and what He really wants of us. We place ourselves in the position of needing mercy when we sin. The whole point is for us to seek Him. Jesus said seek first the Kingdom of God. He said, “Come to me all who are heavily leaden and I will give you rest.” He told us he came for the sinners, to save the lost, to set the captives free. He spoke to Peter of giving him the keys to kingdom. It seems to me that Peter was to open the door and allow the captives to escape sin’s binding power. Jesus spoke of the rich having the hardest time finding salvation. The reason, it seems, is because as the keepers of the cage they lived with the illusion they were already in the best place. What they failed to realize was that their power was an illusion, their power was over an empty cage, and in the end the king of hell is just as damned as the lowliest sinner who refuses God’s mercy to the end.
Majoring in the Minors
Hosea Chapters:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
Article submitted Wednesday, March 03, 2010 & read 315 times.
Leave Your Comments:
» left by Teresa (144 days 12 hours ago.)
"Those in power were growing wealthy through the idol industry and they were going the same way as those of the Northern Kingdom who were driving the common people into sin." This reminds me of all the people making money of charms of "saints", "the Lords Prayer" and statues. All of which God's people are told to having nothing to do with.We as Christians in general have fallen way too far - Thank you for sharing this lesson. Some Christians may even think its message is too harsh.Lord bless you!Respond to this comment
» left by Lance Ponder(94) (143 days 21 hours ago.)
Faith is not for the faint of heart. That's why its called faith. ;-)
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