Hosea 13:4-16
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The last complaint
The last complaint
But I am the Lord your God
from the land of Egypt;
you know no God but me,
and besides me there is no savior.
Here we begin the last complaint God has and it also concludes our reference back to Egypt and the Exodus. The “you know no God but me” I think is better translated “you shall know no other gods but me” - as in a reference to the FIRST commandment. How is it phrased in Exodus though?
Exo 20.3 ““You shall have no other gods before me.” I think, like we’ve talked about, this emphasizes the change of ‘have’ to ‘know’ - and especially since we’re in Hosea. “To know” someone can mean in Hebrew to have intercourse with them. The parallel between the whoring of Israel aka ‘knowing’ other gods vs having other gods is what I think gets emphasized with this change of words in Hosea. Especially since the whole analogy here is the wife that’s going around ‘knowing’ other men.
It was I who knew you in the wilderness,
in the land of drought;
There is no other savior but God. God was there with them in the wilderness. He saved them in a land of drought. All of this points us back to the Exodus.
All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Sin by stages, according to the commandment of the Lord, and camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?” But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” So Moses cried to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” And the Lord said to Moses, “Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.” And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the Lord by saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”
God was indeed among his people. There is a warning though… After this time spent wandering they were going to be going into the last that prospered and so moses warned them not to be comfortable and forget God.
“Take care lest you forget the Lord your God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I command you today, lest, when you have eaten and are full and have built good houses and live in them, and when your herds and flocks multiply and your silver and gold is multiplied and all that you have is multiplied, then your heart be lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery, who led you through the great and terrifying wilderness, with its fiery serpents and scorpions and thirsty ground where there was no water, who brought you water out of the flinty rock, who fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers did not know, that he might humble you and test you, to do you good in the end. Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day. And if you forget the Lord your God and go after other gods and serve them and worship them, I solemnly warn you today that you shall surely perish. Like the nations that the Lord makes to perish before you, so shall you perish, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God.
Knowing this we see sad words back in Hosea 13:6
but when they had grazed, they became full,
they were filled, and their heart was lifted up;
therefore they forgot me.
They did exactly what they were warned about. And they will perish for it like Moses tells them they will be in Deut.
So I am to them like a lion;
like a leopard I will lurk beside the way.
I will fall upon them like a bear robbed of her cubs;
I will tear open their breast,
and there I will devour them like a lion,
as a wild beast would rip them open.
He destroys you, O Israel,
for you are against me, against your helper.
Where now is your king, to save you in all your cities?
Where are all your rulers—
those of whom you said,
“Give me a king and princes”?
I gave you a king in my anger,
and I took him away in my wrath.
This is mostly a very clear text and is quite bold in how it describes God in such beastly ferocity. The taunt at the end though is quite interesting. The rulers are called out, the people who cried for a king are called out. The verbs here are all future tense, so I don’t know why most texts render it paste tense. It seems it should say I will give you a king in my anger (He will give them the king of Assyria to rule over them) and He will take their king away.
The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up;
his sin is kept in store.
The pangs of childbirth come for him,
but he is an unwise son,
for at the right time he does not present himself
at the opening of the womb.
It’s much worse to have your sin stored up, credited to your account. You’re ready to be delivered but won’t do what you should. The great physician stepping in is the only remedy.
I shall ransom them from the power of Sheol;
I shall redeem them from Death.
O Death, where are your plagues?
O Sheol, where is your sting?
Compassion is hidden from my eyes.
We actually get an interpretation of this passage in the NT so instead of my thoughts let’s get Paul’s.
“O death, where is your victory?
O death, where is your sting?”
The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.
When you don’t stay laboring for the Lord you will wander and end up in sin.
Though he may flourish among his brothers,
the east wind, the wind of the Lord, shall come,
rising from the wilderness,
and his fountain shall dry up;
his spring shall be parched;
it shall strip his treasury
of every precious thing.
Samaria shall bear her guilt,
because she has rebelled against her God;
they shall fall by the sword;
their little ones shall be dashed in pieces,
and their pregnant women ripped open.
The end of the northern kingdom was a brutal brutal takeover. Let’s keep our watch that we would do the same as a church who listens to the Lord. A church who labors for the Lord’s causes.
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