Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Every choice and action in life has consequences.

Not all consequences are negative as a consequence is the result or effect of an action or condition.

Choices we make in life have consequences.

God speaking through the prophecy of Hosea tells Israel (and Judah) the consequences of their choices.

The emphasis is on their choice - God’s choice is to bless them and have them be a holy righteous nation and people.

These consequences aren’t because God chose it for them but because Israel chose it for themselves.

Lets read and understand what choices Israel made and then see what the consequences for them were.

My prayer is by doing this we can evaluate our choices and understand that we are choosing consequences for ourselves

Choosing to Reject What is Good

Hosea 8:1–3 (CSB)

1 Put the ram’s horn to your mouth!

One like an eagle comes against the house of the Lord, because they transgress my covenant and rebel against my law. 2 Israel cries out to me, “My God, we know you!” 3 Israel has rejected what is good;

The ram’s horn was the trumpet of the day and an instrument used in a variety of ways, depending on how many sounded and how long the blasts were.

They would be used to announce special occasions, sound alarms, to gather people for assemblies or worship and to proclaim war.

The Lord says the enemy is hovering over and it is time to sound the alarm.

I believe the Lord is saying blow the trumpet as a call to prepare - for they are being given an opportunity to repent yet again.

It describes the scene as one like an eagle comes against the house of the Lord.

No this is not America.

The eagle was also the national symbol for the Assyrians.

The Lord describes and identifies the group that would devour them.

The eagle also describes the swiftness of this defeat as well.

Israel cries out - My God we know you.

Literally we experience you.

They claim a devotion to God but that devotion is nothing more than a pretense based on their own choice.

They transgress My - God’s covenant.

They literally act in disregard to it.

Also God says Israel has rejected what is good.

Rejected - refused - to either accept or acknowledge and practice what is good.

Now today the word good has many different meanings but here the context is that which is of moral excellence.

Israel has chosen to transgress God’s covenant (law) by rejecting that which is of moral excellence.

The choice to reject God’s moral and ethical requirements in the law reveals a pretense of devotion.

Jesus spoke of this type of pretended devotion as well - there will be those who say they know God and Jesus but the trouble is God and Jesus dont know them!

Choosing Leaders Apart From God

Hosea 8:4 (CSB)

4 They have installed kings, but not through me.

They have appointed leaders, but without my approval.

God continues on revealing choices that Israel has made, saying they have installed kings, but not through me.

They have made or anointed people to the position of king and they have done this without the direction or even approval from God.

The leaders over Israel are not God’s choice, but they are Israel’s choice.

Honestly God didnt even approve of the division in the nation as far as God was concerned since Jeroboam I Israel has been a kingdom He didnt want or choose and their kings were none that He rose up or put into place.

After listing the customary rights that the king would have and enjoy - then the prophet Samuel said this

Many years later when Saul was rejected as king - the Lord came to Samuel and told him to anoint another

Men always must choose based on inferior methods and practices, for they cannot see the hearts of men and are susceptible to deception - men are deceived by their own hearts.

This is why God was to be sought in anointing kings and those whom He has chosen as leaders.

God is the only discerner of hearts.

Even in the church care must be given to allowing God to reveal men’s true hearts.

What a foolish and dangerous thing it is to choose kings and leaders without God’s direction and leading.

Choosing Idolatry

Hosea 8:4 (CSB)

They make their silver and gold into idols for themselves for their own destruction.

Hosea 8:6 (CSB)

6 For this thing is from Israel— a craftsman made it, and it is not God.

They take their wealth and blessing their gold and silver and they turn it into idols for themselves.

For their own destruction.

Israel has rejected what is good and instead has turned towards and chosen to pursue idolatry.

This thing from Israel a craftsmen made it and it is not God.

Israel has rejected God through the choice of idolatry.

How could the things their own hands crafted possibly be God?

To craft a thing into an idol is a deliberate choice to actively reject the true God for a false god - it does not become God because one simply chooses.

Choosing Wrong Security

God describes Israel as being swallowed up.

Now this has two meanings the first is an obvious judgment against them in that they will be conquered and assimilated into Assyria.

The second meaning how ever is about Israel’s choice of security in that they chose Assyria to be their security and they in return have been swallowed up in identity with them.

Ephraim has paid for love they have paid a hefty price for the security of Assyria.

They in fact chose to pay so much for the security that they are now among the nations like discarded pottery - once fashioned as useful and now determined to be of no more use.

A worthless pot a thing in which no one delights.

The money paid was likened to one paying for love - illicit and illegitimate love.

To choose to pay a fee for security is like one who pays for love it only lasts with the money.

They chose to go to Assyria for security against the Southern kingdom and the Lord describes this as being like a wild donkey.

A donkey is a stubborn animal that desires its own thing independent of any restraints or restrictions.

This donkey of a nation has gone off on its own without God.

Its foreign policy absent of God has taken her strength.

They choose to procure self-preservation apart from God

Only God provides true security to choose security elsewhere is to choose wrong

Choosing To Worship Their Own Way

Ephraim multiplied his altars for sin - or increased the numbers places to make sin offerings, sacrifices to cover their sins.

Instead of covering their sins the altars became places where they offered sin - by choice.

They decided they would worship in their own way apart from the Lord’s prescribed way to worship them.

God commanded Israel to make sacrifices on the altar in Jerusalem - that was the only identified altar.

By increasing the places of offering sacrifices for sin Israel chose foolishly to increase their opportunity to sin in ignoring the worship commanded by God.

They offered more and more sin increasingly with every altar and became a place of hypocrisy instead of worship.

God says that though I were to write out for him ten thousand points of my instruction they would be regarded as something strange.

God did write it out for them - His word and His law.

They disregard and choose their own way and therefore that makes God’s ways strange unexpected and out of the ordinary.

When we worship our own way and not the way God prescribes though God calls that strange fire

Whatever it was the men did to render the offering profane, it was a sign of their disregard for the utter holiness of God and the need to honor and obey Him in solemn and holy fear.

Their carelessness and irreverence were their downfall.

They choose to erect many altars to make offerings but the words and commands of God were foreign and strange to consider.

They chose to worship their way by rejecting and ignoring the word of God which instructs them to worship God His way.

“If this be the Word of God, what will become of some of you who have not read it for the last month?

Most people treat the Bible very politely … When they get home, they lay it up in a drawer till next Sunday morning; then it comes out again for a little bit of a treat and goes to chapel; that is all the poor Bible gets in the way of an airing.

That is your style of entertaining this heavenly messenger.

There is dust enough on some of your Bibles to write “damnation” with your fingers.”

--Spurgeon--

Consequences of their Choices

Israel has made their choices and done things the way they want to.

God likens it to sowing the wind.

Wind lacks substance and is of no assistance.

They sow the wind yet they will reap the whirlwind.