HOSEA 8: REAPING THE WHIRLWIND

 

Hosea 8

8:1-6 

Crime and Punishment (Israel’s Idolatry & God’s Punishment)

Verse 1 is a warning that invasion is at hand. The trumpet is blown to warn that the enemy is in sight. This is similar to 5:8 where the command to blow the horn is given. The enemy is probably Assyria. It is portrayed as a vulture, a bird of prey.

The background for this may be Deuteronomy 28:49, where Moses recites the curses for disobedience to the covenant: “The LORD will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, swooping down like the eagle…”.  

The “house of the Lord” in verse one is not referring to the temple, but to Israel as God’s people. 

The reason for the invasion is Israel’s transgression of the covenant and rebellion against God’s law. Despite their transgressions, the Israelites claim to know God. (2) Yet they have spurned the good, or the “good one”. By rejecting the covenant, they rejected God. So, God will bring an enemy to pursue Israel. (3) 

Being pursued means to lose in a war. It again reflects language fro Deuteronomy 28, where verse 45 says:

 “All these curses shall come upon you and pursue you and overtake you till you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of the LORD your god, to keep his commandments and his statutes that he commanded you.” 

God has set judgment in motion. 

This scenario is repeated in the time of Jesus. Many of the Jews, and the Pharisees in particular, claimed to know and obey God. Yet they mostly performed rituals without a real love for God. So, Jesus said “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord’, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven”. (Matthew 7:21) 

Another complaint is that Israel chose kings who were not chosen or anointed by God. (4) The king was to be God’s representative, not just the choice of the people. 

Deuteronomy 17:14-20 sets forth the requirements for kings. They must be one that God chooses.

God chose Saul to be the first king of Israel. (1 Samuel 9:15) Next, the Lord chose David to be king. (1 Samuel 16:11-12) Then the Lord chose the descendants of David to be the kings of Israel. (2 Samuel 7)

When the kingdom split, the Lord chose Jeroboam to be king of the northern kingdom (Israel). (2 Kings 12) But, from that point on, men became kings through intrigue and assignation, as opposed to being chosen by God. 

God also pointed to their idolatry, worshipping idols they made. This violated both the first and second commandments. The first is to have no other gods and the second is to make no idols. (Exodus 20:3-4)

He especially noted the golden calf. Originally, two golden calves were made by Jeroboam. He placed one in Dan and one in Bethel. By the time of this prophecy, Judah had reclaimed Bethel. (2 Chronicles 13:19) That calf may have been destroyed. 

Thus God refers to only one calf, the one in Dan. He vowed to break the calf into pieces. (6)

There were other idols in Israel, though. As they broke away from the worship of God as prescribed in the covenant, they began to add other gods to their worship. This happened many times in Israel’s history, but certainly Solomon put it into motion by building high places and altars for the gods of the foreign women he married among his 700 wives. (1 Kings 11:1-8) 

8:7-10

Looking To Nations Rather Than God

Part of the covenant was God’s promise to protect Israel from its enemies. (Deuteronomy 28:7, 10) He proved his faithfulness by delivering Israel many times. Yet, Israel in Hosea’s time did not turn to God for protection. Instead, they made alliances. Specifically, they made an alliance with Assyria, which would not protect them. This was Israel sowing the wind. (7)

Now, the consequences of that alliance came upon them. Assyria came to invade and destroy. This was Israel reaping the whirlwind. Further, their crops did not grow (another covenant curse) and, if they did, others, particularly Assyria, would devour them. 

Even when the alliance worked, Israel was crippled by the amount of tribute they had to pay. (10) Israel put itself in a no win situation by trusting men rather than God.

8:11-14

Forgetting God; Experiencing Wrath

Israel was so involved with its idolatry that they forgot God’s law and even thought it to be strange. So many in our culture are this way today. They are ignorant of the Christian faith and the Bible, but criticize it anyway where it would restrict their behavior. 

Because of all of this, God vowed to destroy Israel despite its strongholds and fortified cities. They would be taken into captivity in Assyria, which Hosea compares to a return to slavery in Egypt. (13) 

Takeaways

As there was a trumpet to announce judgment of Israel, there will be a trumpet that sounds for all mankind, announcing the return of Christ and the following judgment which determines the eternal destiny of all mankind.

Hanging out with the people of God does not make you one of them. Doing what God requires, believing and trusting Jesus for salvation, is what makes you one of them. 

We must be diligent to read and know Scripture so we can live in a way that is pleasing to God, and so we can explain it to those who are outside the faith.