Hosea

Chapter Introduction

Those sowing to the flesh are determined to reap corruption.  They turn their back on God, enjoying the blessings as though their goodness earned them.  They forgot all the blessings and provisions that come from the hand of Yahweh.  Nations under the blessing begin to imagine they’ve created those blessings.   God’s cure for apostasy is to give the nations over to themselves.

Hosea 8:1-3

Putting the trumpet to the lips was preparation to sound the warning. The warning is of the impending judgment from the Assyrians.  The warning began a series of preparations.  Gather the livestock, fortify the walls, take up arms, and lay up provisions.  The eagle could also be a vulture.  It’s a bird of prey portraying a foreign invader. 

Look back at what Moses said to the Israelites if they were disobedient towards the Lord:

⁴⁷ “Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and gladness of heart, for the abundance of everything, ⁴⁸ therefore you shall serve your enemies, whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in need of everything; and He will put a yoke of iron on your neck until He has destroyed you. ⁴⁹ The Lord will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flies, a nation whose language you will not understand, ⁵⁰ a nation of fierce countenance, which does not respect the elderly nor show favor to the young. ⁵¹ And they shall eat the increase of your livestock and the produce of your land, until you are destroyed; they shall not leave you grain or new wine or oil, or the increase of your cattle or the offspring of your flocks, until they have destroyed you.   (Deuteronomy 28:47-51)

As swift as an eagle, this will happen.  This is a consequence of disobedience.  Disobedience shows disbelief.  It can be viewed as God’s active judgment, or a God passively allowing what they brought on by their actions.   When a nation removes itself from following God, this becomes a normal and natural thing.  If there is no higher standard of life than that of the strongest and most powerful, the people are at the mercy of that ever-changing, man-defined standard.  When God is removed, the enemy is free to enslave us through our sin-nature, bringing destruction, death, and dark times.

In response to this swift judgment, the Israelites cry out to God.  This is like a child in the hands of his father about to spank him. He will say what needs to be told to avoid punishment.  But this only happens because it becomes abundantly clear that spanking cannot be avoided.  It’s not a cry of repentance. It’s a cry of grief over circumstances they feel are out of their control.  The humanistic spirit of man says, “I’m in control of my destiny.  I make my way.  I am the captain of my ship.”  When we suddenly realize that isn’t the case, we cry out to God.  But our cry isn’t for God to captain our ship, but for God to give us our boat back so that we can once again take hold of the rudder.

Israel says, “God, we know you.”  God said, “No, you don’t!”  What a scary place for them to be.  Judgment was crashing down on them, and they didn’t know God.  They had played the religious game for years, never really committed to God, all along, in the back of their mind, figuring they had time.  God was their plan B. If all else went wrong, God would step in and save them. 

Hosea 8:4-6

They set up kings without seeking God, beginning with Jereboam.  They put princes in places that wouldn’t acknowledge God.  They made idols for themselves that did nothing but cut them off from the Lord.  Jereboam made golden calves to place in Dan and Bethel, in order to prevent people from traveling to Jerusalem. 

Of all the idols they could have made, they made a golden calf.  This is reminiscent of the Israelites at the base of Mount Sinai, where God gave the law to Moses.  This is so offensive to God.  It can be nothing less than Satanically inspired.  They were so far from knowing God that this seemed right to them.

Israel refused to stop idol worship until it was too late.  The calf was rejected!  Samaria was the capital of the northern kingdom of Israel, representing the entire region.  The northern kingdom was rejected.  God’s anger was aroused.  This phrase means it causes a burning in God's nose.  It was as if God were saying this calf stinks to high heaven. 

How long?  How long could they expect God to look past this?  They made this with their hands. It had nothing to do with God Most High.  How could they forget all that Yahweh had said, documented, and done for them? 

We might ask the same: how long?  With all that God has done to bless this nation, we suddenly find ourselves facing inevitable judgment.  How could we forget all that God did to found this nation?  How can we forget what God has given us for His glory? 

God is a God to be obeyed.  He is a God of mercy and justice.  Our society is quick to acknowledge God when convenient.  The acknowledgment is not noticeable in the way we live. 

Hosea 8:7-10

The whirlwind will not seem fair or right.  The whirlwind is violent and yields nothing of value.  The Israelites would look to God as unjust in this.  The punishment seemed so much harsher than the sin.  Isn’t this always the case?  We view our sin as small, insignificant, and hardly worth mentioning.  Yet, it reveals our lack of understanding of holiness.  In God’s holiness, righteousness, and perfection, our sin brings him great offense.  Sin against an eternal God is deserving of an eternal punishment.  

Israel sowed apostasy and unrighteousness for years.  When judgment didn’t come, they became even more complacent and frequent in their sin.  They sought gods that couldn’t deliver, instead of sowing in holiness with God Most High.  What they reaped from those years of sowing in the enemy's fields was a whirlwind of judgment. 

²⁹He who troubles his own house will inherit the wind,

And the fool will be servant to the wise of heart  (Proverbs 11:29)

Israel sold itself among the nations seeking political allies when all they needed was to be right with God.  They sought a solution to their problem among other nations, so God made this sin their punishment.  He would gather the nations against Israel, and it would bring sorrow and a tremendous burden on them.  This speaks of the tribute they paid to these nations to keep them at bay.  They paid tribute and surrendered their independence to the very nations they sought in partnership.

Hosea 8:11-14

The altars they built increased sin.  Altars were for worship and the removal of sin.  However, they chose to sacrifice at the places, in the way, and at the times that they determined, rather than at the places, in the way, and at the times that Yahweh established.  The sacrifices offered didn’t please the Lord and cover their sin, they increased their sin.  Their eyes weren’t on the Lord with a desire to please Him, but were on themselves.  They sought God only to satisfy their own desires.

These people viewed the law as if it were foreign.  The very word of God, which was the means of knowing and understanding Him, had been set aside.  God’s word is like a foreign language to the wicked and corrupt.  It’s a language they can’t understand and choose not to pursue.  It’s as though deep down, man knows that God’s word will set us off the throne and put God at the center of life.  The excuses are likely to remain unchanged.  Maybe they thought it was outdated, a little behind the times, archaic, and irrelevant.  They probably thought it was offensive, and they had grown in wisdom to the point of no longer needing God’s word.  Pride told them they no longer needed it.  They were religious, but they didn’t serve God, and the religious things they did were done as ritual and not with a heart for God. 

The indictments of chapter 8:

1. In verse 2 they acknowledge him only when they feel pain.
2. In verse 3 they reject what is good.
3. In verse 4 they set up kings without God’s consent.
4. In verse 5 with their wealth they set up idols to worship.
5. In verse 8 they make alliance with ungodly nations.
6. In verse 11 they worship to false altars (also false worship). 
7. In verse 11 they consider God’s law a strange thing

God remembered their iniquity, and the fire of judgment was about to come upon them.

The Big Idea

Over and over again, arrogant man watches others sow to the wind and reap the whirlwind, and yet they sow to the wind as well, thinking it won’t happen to them.  God’s word is true and faithful.  We set it aside for its inconvenience.  It’s burdensome for those who want life on their own terms.  They sow to the wind, thinking their outcome will be different.

©2006 Doug Ford; Further Study and Revision 2016, 2025