HOSEA - CHAPTER 9
A
Bible Study - Commentary by Jim Melough
Copyright
2001 James Melough
9:1.
“Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, as other people: for thou hast gone a whoring
from they God, thou hast loved a reward upon every cornfloor.”
The days when Israel rejoiced
because of abundant harvests were gone, because instead of recognizing Jehovah
as the gracious Giver of that bounty, they in their folly had credited Baal,
and had rendered to him the worship that belonged to God. They believed that
the abundance was Baal’s recompense of the worship they so willingly offered
him, all the while failing to realize that their departure from God was
spiritual harlotry, which He must punish, for to ignore it would be to impugn
His own holy character. The days of His blessing had ended. Idolatrous
Israel must now suffer His chastisement.
9:2.
“The floor and the winepress shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail
in her.”
Blight would replace
blessing. The grain harvests would be so small as to result in insufficient
bread, while scarcity of wine would be the result of diminished grape
harvests.
Remembering, however, that,
“Whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning,” Ro
15:4, we are reading wrongly the record of Israel’s folly if we fail to
perceive the application to ourselves. Christendom too, coveting temporal
rather than spiritual blessings, and reveling in luxury, has turned, as noted
already, from God to worship Mammon, Education, and Pleasure, crediting these
“gods” with all their abundance, while forgetting God, or at best relegating
Him to a place of minor importance. But eyes not blinded by the glitter of
the world’s gold, and minds not befuddled by the imagined worth of the world’s
wisdom, realize that the evidences of God’s displeasure are to be clearly seen
in the lack of spiritual bread, and spiritual wine amongst believers. How few
there are with the ability to see the abundance of spiritual bread lying like
manna on top of the literal language of Scripture, their spiritual
understanding so dull that even when that bread is set before them, they can’t
see it, and charge the expounder with having an over active imagination! The
truth is that the things of this present evil world have dulled their appetite
for spiritual bread, so that if they were honest, they would, like Israel in
the desert say, “our soul loatheth this light bread,” Nu 21:5.
Nor is it any different with
Scripture as spiritual “wine.” The senses of all too many professing
Christians have become so cloyed by the vain pleasures of the world that God’s
Word no longer cheers and refreshes them.
9:3.
“They shall not dwell in the Lord’s land; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt,
and they shall eat unclean things in Assyria.”
It was the Canaanites’
defilement of the land that had led God to take it from them and give it to
Israel, but she had long since forgotten that fact, so that the circle had
come full, and now it was Israel’s defilement of the land that compelled
Jehovah to expel them.
One has but to survey the
sorry state of Christendom today to realize that the circle has again come
full. Two thousand years ago the Gentiles had been brought into the enjoyment
of the blessings forfeited by Israel’s unbelief, but they have walked in her
foolish footsteps, and are now about to become the objects of God’s wrath in
the form of the terrible Tribulation judgments, while He turns again and takes
up a believing remnant of a new generation of Israel, which will culminate in
their entering into the enjoyment of millennial blessing so long delayed by
Jewish unbelief.
Relative to the return of
Ephraim to Egypt, and to their eating unclean things in Assyria, this word was
fulfilled when some did flee into Egypt in hope of escaping the sword of the
Assyrian, but multitudes of them were carried captive into Assyria where they
not only literally ate food that was unclean to a Jew, but where they were
denied the right to abstain from practices that were ceremonially defiling.
They did indeed reap what they had sown. They had had no compunction about
doing evil in Canaan and thus offending God, and now they were to be compelled
to do in Egypt and Assyria what offended them.
9:4.
“They shall not offer wine offerings unto the Lord, neither shall they be
pleasing unto him: their sacrifices shall be unto them as the bread of
mourners; all that eat thereof shall be polluted: for their bread for their
soul shall not come into the house of the Lord.”
The wine (drink) offerings
would be no more acceptable to Jehovah when offered in the land of their
captivity than they had been when offered hypocritically in conjunction with
the sacrifices they presented to the Baalim in Canaan. Even though Israel,
mourning in captivity, would cease to worship the Baalim, what they would
offer Jehovah would still be unacceptable to Him because it would still be
hypocritical, being impelled, not by love, but by a desire to escape the
consequences of their spiritual harlotry. Their attitude is expressed
precisely in the words of the hymn None But Christ Can Satisfy, which
describe the attitude of the sinner before conversion:
The pleasures lost, I sadly mourned,
But never wept for Thee.
The mourners mentioned here
are presumably those who had touched the body of the one whose death they
lamented, so that they were defiled, and therefore transmitted defilement to
everything they touched. Such would Israel be in captivity. They would be
mourning the loss of the sinful pleasures associated with their idolatry -
touching, clinging to, as it were, the “dead body” of that from which they
would then be reluctantly separated.
“... their bread for their
soul shall not come into the house of the Lord,” presents another reason why
their sacrifices would be unacceptable to Jehovah. “... their bread” here
refers to their offerings; and its not coming into the house of the Lord is
simply declaring that in Egypt and Assyria there would be no temple to
Jehovah, hence the impossibility of their offering any acceptable sacrifices.
God had declared that Israel’s sacrifices were to be offered only in the
temple in Jerusalem, but part of Israel’s sin had been that they, at the
urging of Jeroboam, had gone instead to Bethel and Dan where he had set up the
golden calves, thus taking the first step towards the idolatry which had
brought God’s wrath upon them.
The practical lesson to be
learned from all of this is that God must be worshiped exactly according to
the manner which He Himself has prescribed, and not according to a form
devised by man’s corrupt mind, no matter how plausible that form may seem to
be. The sin-blinded eyes, and spiritually darkened minds of Christendom,
however, prevent their perceiving how unscriptural, and therefore how corrupt,
is the travesty which they call worship, and which is about to be visited with
God’s judgment in the form of the impending Tribulation judgments. What
passes for worship in Christendom is as far from the Divinely prescribed order
as is darkness from light, or sin from righteousness.
9:5.
“What will ye do in the solemn day, and in the day of the feast of the Lord?”
The question being addressed
here to Israel about to go into Assyrian captivity is what they will do on the
days of the great national feasts appointed by Jehovah for the celebration of
His goodness. Having, through their idolatry, deliberately chosen judgment
rather than blessing, they would have nothing to celebrate, nor would they
have any opportunity to carry out even the hypocritical form of worship with
which they had insulted Him while at the same time worshiping the Baalim.
9:6.
“For, lo, they are gone because of destruction: Egypt shall gather them up,
Memphis shall bury them: the pleasant places for their silver, nettles shall
possess them: thorns shall be in their tabernacles.”
Having made themselves the
objects of Jehovah’s destructive judgment rather than of His blessing, they
were about to be cast out of the land which He had given them to enjoy,
obedience being the only thing He asked in exchange.
Egypt, the land to which some
of them would flee to escape the Assyrians, would prove to be their burying
place, as is declared in the words, “Memphis (a principal Egyptian city
renowned as a burying place) shall bury them.”
The announcement that nettles
would grow over “the pleasant places for their silver,” is the assurance that
the places where they had set up their idolatrous altars and silver images of
Baal, would become deserted and waste, weeds obscuring every trace of the
places that had been the scenes of their brazen rebellion against Jehovah.
“... thorns shall be in their
tabernacles” is another way of saying that following their removal from the
land, their former homes would become derelict ruins soon to be overgrown by
thorns, which incidentally, are the Scriptural symbol of God’s curse, see Ge
3:17-18.
This picture of the judgment,
ruin, and death which would result from Israel’s rebellion against God even
while going through the hypocritical charade of offering Him worship, is His
warning that the same fate awaits apostate Christendom.
9:7.
“The days of visitation are come, the days of recompense are come; Israel
shall know it: the prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad, for the
multitude of thine iniquity, and the great hatred.”
Israel’s continued great sin
had finally exhausted God’s patience, He Himself having given warning that
while His patience is great it also has a limit, “My Spirit shall not always
strive with man,” Ge 6:3, and again, “He that being often reproved hardeneth
his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy,” Pr 29:1. For
idolatrous Israel the days of His blessing were to be exchanged for His just
requittal of their iniquity. Nor would she be in any doubt as to the cause of
her punishment, He Himself giving the assurance, “Israel shall know it.”
“... the prophet is a fool,
the spiritual man is mad” is more a rhetorical question than a statement,
according to some translators, e.g., Phillips, “The prophet is a fool, is he,
and the inspired is a man insane?” The AAT translation, however, is, “The
prophet is distracted, the man of the spirit is crazed, because of your great
guilt.” The interpretation, however, which attributes wisdom to the prophet,
and spirituality to the spiritual man, appears to be correct.
“... the great hatred” is
generally understood to refer to Israel’s great hatred of God’s commands.
9:8.
“The watchman of Ephraim was with my God: but the prophet is a snare of a
fowler in all his ways, and hatred in the house of his God.”
Commentators are agreed that
interpretation of this verse is difficult, some taking Israel in the beginning
to be a watchman with God, but then through her sin, becoming a snare to the
nations, i.e., leading them into disobedience against God; but the
interpretation which seems most in harmony with the book in general is that
which takes Hosea himself to be God’s watchman in the midst of apostate
Israel. His being “a snare of a fowler in all his ways” is therefore
understood to mean that the only message he has for idolatrous Israel is that
they are about to be taken in God’s net and delivered into captivity in
Assyria.
“... and hatred in the house
of his God” is understood to mean that Israel’s response was to hate not only
the messenger and the message, but also the God Who sent them.
All of this is being
duplicated today in Christendom. As God, His message and His messenger were
hated and rejected by Israel, so is it with professing but apostate
Christendom. She too rejects and hates the God Who denounces her sin and
warns of coming judgment, as she does also His faithful servants who deliver
His message. The only “god” she acknowledges is like the Baal worshiped by
apostate Israel. He is the product of her own corrupt imagination, and he
smiles on her sin, is too loving to send anyone to hell, but will, on the
contrary receive everyone into heaven!
The same sudden dreadful
awakening as came to Israel, however, awaits today’s equally iniquitous
Christendom.
9:9.
“They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah: therefore he
will remember their iniquity, he will visit their sins.”
Commentators are virtually
unanimous in understanding “the days of Gibeah” to refer to the gang rape and
murder of the Levite’s concubine described in Judges 19, the ensuing
internecine slaughter resulting in the deaths of forty thousand Israelites,
and the virtual extermination of the Benjamites, twenty-five thousand of whom
were slain, and only six hundred escaping.
The sin of those addressed by
Hosea was no less abhorrent to Jehovah than was that of their forefathers in
connection with the atrocity committed at Gibeah, and it would be visited with
equally drastic punishment, as will that of apostate Christendom whose sin is
equally great.
Consideration of the national
picture, however, should not distract from contemplation of what is
individual, for ultimately national sin can be traced back to individuals.
Every man who dies without having trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ as his
Savior faces certain punishment, first in hell, and following the judgment of
the great white throne, eternal torment in the unquenchable flame of the
terrible lake of fire.
9:10.
“I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the
firstripe in the fig tree at her first time: but they went to Baal-peor, and
separated themselves unto that shame; and their abominations were according as
they loved.”
The joy which Jehovah had
found in Israel when He had redeemed her out of Egyptian bondage and brought
her into the wilderness to be the object of His love and care is here likened
to the joy a man would experience upon finding grapes in the desert. In those
early days He found in her the same pleasure as would one who eats the
firstripe figs of the first crop (the choicest) borne by the fig tree.
But sadly those halcyon days
had lasted only for a little while. Numbers 25 records Moab’s enticement of
the Israelites into marriages with Moabitish women, and the worship of Baal-peor,
a Moabite deity. Since worship is essentially the expression of reverential
love, their worship of Baal-peor was nothing less than the expression of their
love for this so-called god, and their rejection of Jehovah, which made them
as loathsome in His sight as was this idol to which they bowed themselves.
Christendom’s worship of
Mammon, Education, and Pleasure, and her rejection of God, have made her
equally loathsome in His eyes, and the object of His judgment.
9:11.
“As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird, from the birth, and
from the womb, and from the conception.”
Significantly Ephraim means
double ash-heap: I shall be doubly fruitful. Nor is their contradiction
in these seemingly disparate meanings, for the truth is that in proportion as
we are willing to throw on the “ash-heap” the worthless things that hinder us
in running the heavenly race, so will our spiritual fruitfulness increase.
Paul, for example, was one in whose life this principle was exemplified, as
expressed in his own words recorded in Php 3:7-8 “But what things were gain to
me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things
but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom
I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may
win Christ.”
Today’s counterpart of
Israel’s literal fruitfulness is the number of men and women we have led to
Christ. They are our spiritual sons and daughters. The diminished numbers of
our spiritual offspring, as compared with years gone by, is for the same
reason as caused diminished families in Israel in the days of Hosea - sin!
Literally God would cause the
birthrate to fall; and the death rate to be high amongst those that were
born. Today’s counterpart of the high death rate amongst the children that
were born in Israel in the days of Hosea, is the number of professions that
prove very quickly to have been false.
As a bird flies away leaving
no trace of its presence, so would Israel’s glory also depart; and the removal
of her glory would be complete, as disclosed under the figure of the steps
involved in birth. “... from the birth,” means that there would be no birth
(no visible evidence of glory); nor would there be the equivalent of the fetus
in the womb (no evidence of even coming glory); nor would there be that which
corresponds to conception (there would be no hope of glory). For that evil
generation there was no hope. She had sinned away her day of grace, having
crossed that invisible line which separates God’s mercy from His wrath. Her
destruction would be complete. So will it be also for Christendom, and for
every man who exhausts God’s patience.
9:12.
“Though they bring up their children, yet will I bereave them, that there
shall not be a man left: yea, woe also to them when I depart from them!”
Even when they bore children,
God would take those same children away before they grew to adulthood, so that
there would “not be a man left.” That evil generation was to be utterly
destroyed, a fact which seems to imply that those who did eventually return
from captivity were the descendants of the believing remnant within the
apostate mass of the nation.
Some take this to refer to
Israel’s sacrificing of their infants to the Baalim, but the context doesn’t
appear to support this view, though there can be little question that they
did, in fact, engage in this evil practice.
“... woe also to them when I
depart from them.” Man lightly departs from God, but what a dreadful thing it
is when God departs from a man or a nation!
9:13.
“Ephraim, as I saw Tyrus (Tyre), is planted in a pleasant place: but Ephraim
shall bring forth his children to the murderer.”
As noted already, when the
name Israel is used the focus seems to be on the nation as a corporate body,
but when Ephraim is used the focus appears to be on the individuals comprising
the nation, the truth being that the character of a nation reflects the
character of its people, and the lesson to be remembered is that ultimately
each individual must render account to God.
Many of the scriptural
references to Tyre indicate that it had been built on a particularly pleasant
location, this advantage being enhanced by the riches brought to it through
its maritime trade, see e.g., Ez 26 and 27. Chapter 28:12-19 of that same
book, however, makes it clear that the king of Tyre is a type of Satan, and in
God’s destruction of the man, He is showing us the ultimate end of the Devil.
But why should there be this mention of Tyre when Hosea is writing concerning
the destruction of idolatrous Israel? The answer seems to be that God is
taking us behind the stage of earthly activity to show us that the ultimate
source of the world’s evil is Satan, and to assure us that one day that evil
spirit will himself become the object of the Divine destructive wrath and
judgment.
Ephraim’s bringing forth his
children to the murderer is simply another way of saying that they will fall
by the sword of the enemy; but inasmuch as Satan is described as a murderer,
see Jn 8:44, it seems that God is emphasizing that all who serve Satan must
share his fate, i.e., perish with him.
9:14.
“Give them, O Lord: what wilt thou give? give them a miscarrying womb and dry
breasts.”
What a contrast is expressed
here! One of God’s greatest blessings to an obedient Israel had been to
multiply her children, but her disobedience had cut her off from blessing. In
view of what awaited her children, the greatest blessing He could now bestow
would be to make her childless, and thus spare her the agony of having her
children slain before her eyes.
That this judgment went beyond
the Assyrian captivity, and pointed also to the Diaspora of AD 70, is made
clear by the Lord’s similar words as He was led out to Calvary, “Daughters of
Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children.
For, behold, the days are coming, in the which they shall say, Blessed are the
barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck.
Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills,
Cover us,” Lk 23:28-30
9:15.
“All their wickedness is in Gilgal: for there I hated them: for the wickedness
of their doings I will drive them out of mine house, I will love them no more:
all their princes are revolters.”
Gilgal was the place where
Israel first camped on the Canaan side of Jordan, and where they set up the
memorial cairn of the twelve stones taken out of the bed of Jordan when God
miraculously divided the waters to permit them to cross over into Canaan, see
Jos 4. It was there too that the rite of circumcision was renewed, and there
they kept the first passover after leaving the wilderness, see Jos 5. What
changes the years had brought! This place which had been associated with
their obedience and the resultant Divine blessing, had now become one of the
principal centers of the vile Canaanite fertility cult and all the associated
licentiousness in which Israel delighted in connection with the worship of
Baal. Small wonder that Jehovah Who had delighted in them, and Who had
showered them with every blessing that love could bestow, should now be
compelled to act towards them as though He hated them, for He could no longer
bestow blessing without impugning His own holiness.
Israel’s wickedness (spiritual
adultery) compelled Him to treat her as an adulterous wife, and to put her out
of His house, i.e., out of His land. He could no longer act toward her in
love, for she, represented by all her leaders, had refused to submit to His
authority as her Husband.
9:16.
“Ephraim is smitten, their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit: yea,
though they bring forth, yet will I slay even the beloved fruit of their
womb.”
That generation of Israel had
passed beyond the pale of mercy. God was about to cut them off. He would
make their wombs unfruitful, and even where children were born, He would
deliver them up to the sword of the enemy.
9:17.
“My God will cast them away, because they did not hearken unto him: and they
shall be wanderers among the nations.”
In the final analysis it was
their disobedience that had cut them off from blessing, and that had made them
the objects of Jehovah’s wrath; and so is it with all men. There is no sin
that can’t be forgiven except refusal to trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as
Savior.
As to their being “wanderers
among the nations,” the immediate reference is to Israel’s being carried
captive into Assyria; and Judah, into Babylon; but the ultimate application is
to the Diaspora of AD 70, a world wide scattering which has lasted for two
thousand years, and from which the majority of them have not yet returned,
though it is clear that those presently settled in Palestine since 1948 are
but the first trickle of the great river of Jews who will return to the land
in the seven-year Tribulation era, and in the days immediately following the
Lord’s return to inaugurate His millennial kingdom.
[Hosea 10]