Hosea 10
The Minor Prophets • Sermon • Submitted
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Fruitcakes
Fruitcakes
We start chapter ten saying the opposite from a few verses back. Just moments ago they were dried up would bear no fruit and now they’re a luxuriant vine?
Israel is a luxuriant vine
that yields its fruit.
The more his fruit increased,
the more altars he built;
as his country improved,
he improved his pillars.
Their heart is false;
now they must bear their guilt.
The Lord will break down their altars
and destroy their pillars.
For now they will say:
“We have no king,
for we do not fear the Lord;
and a king—what could he do for us?”
They utter mere words;
with empty oaths they make covenants;
so judgment springs up like poisonous weeds
in the furrows of the field.
I think this takes a back a little bit to pointing out how things progressed wildly out of control. They prospered in the land, the more they prospered the more they built up their idols and altars. They rejected God and got a King, they reject the Kings and get scattered.
The inhabitants of Samaria tremble
for the calf of Beth-aven.
Its people mourn for it, and so do its idolatrous priests—
those who rejoiced over it and over its glory—
for it has departed from them.
The thing itself shall be carried to Assyria
as tribute to the great king.
Ephraim shall be put to shame,
and Israel shall be ashamed of his idol.
Samaria’s king shall perish
like a twig on the face of the waters.
The high places of Aven, the sin of Israel,
shall be destroyed.
Thorn and thistle shall grow up
on their altars,
and they shall say to the mountains, “Cover us,”
and to the hills, “Fall on us.”
They tremble in the reverent way… The way they should be before God not this idol calf.
Part of their judgment is that this thing is going away and they’ll be shamed over this idol.
Their king dies like driftwood carried off by a wave…
The high places are the places you put up an altar. Aven which means wickedness so this could be saying the high places of wickedness and not necessarily a location like Beth-Aven which was mentioned previously as a location. This calling out for the mountains and the hills to come down on them might ring a bell though we hear that phrase some other places.
And the haughtiness of man shall be humbled,
and the lofty pride of men shall be brought low,
and the Lord alone will be exalted in that day.
And the idols shall utterly pass away.
And people shall enter the caves of the rocks
and the holes of the ground,
from before the terror of the Lord,
and from the splendor of his majesty,
when he rises to terrify the earth.
In that day mankind will cast away
their idols of silver and their idols of gold,
which they made for themselves to worship,
to the moles and to the bats,
to enter the caverns of the rocks
and the clefts of the cliffs,
from before the terror of the Lord,
and from the splendor of his majesty,
when he rises to terrify the earth.
Stop regarding man
in whose nostrils is breath,
for of what account is he?
And as they led him away, they seized one Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, and laid on him the cross, to carry it behind Jesus. And there followed him a great multitude of the people and of women who were mourning and lamenting for him. But turning to them Jesus said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For behold, the days are coming when they will say, ‘Blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ Then they will begin to say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us,’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us.’ For if they do these things when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?”
calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb,
When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?”
Hosea is our first chronological event happening with this phrase but Isaiah repeats it, Jesus repeats it on the way to be crucified, and it’s reported again in Revelation All of them are pointing to the same event ultimately in Revelation and at an event in their own time.
We have 3 parts to make up the rest of the chapter. These three make a up an ABA structure to point us to God’s desire the point in the middle of this.
First is pointing to Israel’s reliance on military power and it’s “by the sword” so to say that they are defeated.
From the days of Gibeah, you have sinned, O Israel;
there they have continued.
Shall not the war against the unjust overtake them in Gibeah?
When I please, I will discipline them,
and nations shall be gathered against them
when they are bound up for their double iniquity.
If we remember back many chapters it was in Gibeah the horn of war sounded. Hos 5.8 “Blow the horn in Gibeah, the trumpet in Ramah. Sound the alarm at Beth-aven; we follow you, O Benjamin!” And it’s Gibeah where Saul had a massive military fortress. Archeologists don’t think it was used much after the time of David. But this place signifies their militaristic reliance. That’s one of the two iniquities here. Could we possibly guess what that other iniquity could be? Yeah, it’s the apostacy, or idolatry, the rejection of Yahweh.
Then Israel is pictured as the heifer and encouraged to stick to righteousness.
Ephraim was a trained calf
that loved to thresh,
and I spared her fair neck;
but I will put Ephraim to the yoke;
Judah must plow;
Jacob must harrow for himself.
Sow for yourselves righteousness;
reap steadfast love;
break up your fallow ground,
for it is the time to seek the Lord,
that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.
So we get, like the beginning of the chapter, this picture of something good; the trained calf like a good vine that grows. Instead of the good work they could be doing they were sowing evil. So now we see an exhortation, a strong encouragement to instead plant righteousness, reap love, prepare for fertile soil, seek the Lord.
This should remind us of doing the opposite of what they’re doing wrong Hos 4.1 “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;” God is calling on them to repent and come back and promises His righteousness to pour on them in return.
And third which again points to their violent history and trust in military power which is also their defeat.
You have plowed iniquity;
you have reaped injustice;
you have eaten the fruit of lies.
Because you have trusted in your own way
and in the multitude of your warriors,
therefore the tumult of war shall arise among your people,
and all your fortresses shall be destroyed,
as Shalman destroyed Beth-arbel on the day of battle;
mothers were dashed in pieces with their children.
Thus it shall be done to you, O Bethel,
because of your great evil.
At dawn the king of Israel
shall be utterly cut off.
So how do we take these things? I think we need to see the call to remain faithful but also the warning to not rely on our privilege. I know that’s a loaded term in our current political climate but we have always need to be weary of taking the advantages we inherit or earn for granted. They should be accepted as a blessing from God. We don’t boast in those things and shouldn’t use them to get our way just because we can. Those things will be things that destroy us when we think we have a right to them. I earned all this money, I attained all this power, I have amassed this influence. Those things will cut us off, and do it very early. This last verse “At dawn the king of Israel shall be utterly cut off.” indicates the battle ends quickly. Israel did not put up a long fight here. The reality is the battle is over before it begins. Either you’re on Gods side or your on the other side.