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Scripture Reading: Hosea 11; Hosea 12; Hosea 13; Hosea 14
In this message we will begin to consider chapters eleven through fourteen. These chapters are concerned with Jehovah’s unchanging love versus Israel’s stubborn unchastity.
The highest virtue of a proper wife is chastity. A wife may be very good in every respect, but if she is not chaste, she is still not a proper wife. Israel was stubborn in her unchastity toward Jehovah her Husband.
God sent the prophets to call Israel again and again, but the more the prophets called them, the farther they went away from the prophets. “As they called them, / So they went from them; / To the Baals they sacrificed, / And to the idols they burned incense” (11:2). They served the Baals with their offerings of sacrifices.
From the time Titus destroyed Jerusalem and the temple in A.D. 70 until now, God has not raised up any prophets among the Jews. This is God’s doing. In Matthew 21:43 the Lord Jesus told the Jews that “the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and shall be given to a nation producing its fruit.” This nation is the church. In the church God has raised up many prophets. Furthermore, in the church every reborn one is a priest (1 Pet. 2:5, 9; Rev. 1:6). As long as we are children of God, we are priests. In addition to being God’s priests serving Him in the gospel (Rom. 15:16), we all need to endeavor to prophesy. In 1 Corinthians 14 Paul charged us to desire earnestly to prophesy (vv. 1, 39) and said that we all can prophesy one by one (v. 31). The Lord has shown us that, in His recovery today, He wants to recover 1 Corinthians 14, that is, to recover the prophesying of every believer. Every Lord’s Day, after remembering the Lord and worshipping the Father at the Lord’s table, all the members of the church should prophesy. This means that they all should speak for the Lord and speak forth the Lord. If we all, the young ones and the old ones, prophesy one by one, how rich, how high, how fresh, how living, and how powerful that would be! We all must honor God’s ordained way in 1 Corinthians 14. We were regenerated to be priests. Now we need to endeavor to prophesy.
They would not return to the land of Egypt, but the Assyrian would be their king, for they refused to return to Jehovah. The sword would whirl about in their cities, consume their bars, and devour them because of their own counsels. They were bent upon turning away from Jehovah. Though the prophets called them to Him who is on high, none at all exalted Him (Hosea 11:5-7).
Ephraim encompassed Jehovah with lies, and the house of Israel, with deceit (v. 12). When they came to God, they lied. Judah was yet unsteadfast with God and with the Holy One, the Faithful One.
Hosea 12:1 says that Ephraim fed on wind (on vanity and in vain) and followed the east wind continually (in emptiness). He multiplied lies and violence. They made a covenant with Assyria (not with Jehovah), and oil was carried to Egypt (not into the temple of God). This was their situation in their stubborn unchastity.
Verse 2 tells us that Jehovah had also a controversy with Judah. This means that He was contending, arguing, with Judah. Jehovah would punish Jacob according to his ways. According to his doings He would recompense him. In the womb he grasped his brother by the heel (v. 3a; Gen. 25:26). “Jacob fled into the country of Aram; / And Israel served for a wife, / And for a wife he kept sheep” (Hosea 12:12; Gen. 29:20, 30; 31:38-41). In his full strength he contended with God (Hosea 12:3b). “Indeed he contended with the Angel [Christ] and prevailed; / He wept and made supplication to Him” (v. 4a; Gen. 32:24-32).
Ephraim was a merchant. In his hand were balances of deceit, and he loved to extort (v. 7). Ephraim said, “I have surely become rich; / I have found wealth for myself. / In all my labors / They will find with me / No iniquity, which would be sin” (v. 8). In Ephraim’s hands were two kinds of balances: one that weighed light for buying and one that weighed heavy for selling.
Gilead was iniquity (6:8). They were altogether vanity. In Gilgal (the focus of idolatry) they sacrificed bullocks. Indeed their altars were like heaps in the furrows of a field (12:11). This was a figure of speech to describe Israel’s stubborn unchastity.
Ephraim provoked Jehovah to bitter anger. Therefore, his Lord would leave his bloodshed upon him and would recompense him with his own reproach (v. 14).
When Ephraim spoke, there was trembling. He exalted himself in Israel, but he trespassed through Baal and died. Now they sinned more and more and made molten images for themselves out of their silver, idols according to their own understanding, all of it the work of craftsmen. They asked those who sacrificed to kiss the calves (idols). Therefore, they would be like a morning cloud and like dew that departs early, like chaff driven by a storm wind from the threshing floor, and like smoke from a window vent (13:1-3). These too are figures used by Hosea to describe the vanity of the sinful life of Israel.
After they became full, their heart was exalted. Therefore, they forgot Jehovah (v. 6). Thus Jehovah would be to them like a lion; like a leopard Jehovah would watch them along the way. Jehovah would meet them like a bear robbed of her cubs, He would tear away the covering of their heart, and He would devour them there like a lioness. The beast of the field would tear them to pieces (vv. 7-8). This is Hosea’s poetic writing.
It was their destruction that Israel was against Jehovah, against their help. Their king could not save them in all their cities. Jehovah gave them a king in His anger and took away the king in His overflowing wrath (vv. 9-11). The king given by Jehovah in His anger might have been Saul, who was eventually taken away by Jehovah in His overflowing wrath.
The iniquity of Ephraim was bound up; his sin was laid up in store. The pains of a woman giving birth would come upon him. He was an unwise son; for he should not have delayed at the time the children broke forth (vv. 12-13).
Verses 15 and 16 say that even if Samaria should be fruitful among his brothers, an east wind would come, a wind of Jehovah coming up from the wilderness, and his spring would become dry, and his fountain would be dried up. The enemy would plunder the treasure of every desirable vessel. Samaria would be guilty, for she rebelled against her God. They would fall by the sword. Their children would be dashed in pieces, and their pregnant women would be ripped up.
Finally, 14:1b says that Israel had fallen by his iniquity.
