Reflections on Hosea 5

Hosea 05 (Contemporary English Version)


1. Listen, you priests! Pay attention, Israel! Listen, you members of the royal family. Justice was your duty. But at Mizpah and Mount Tabor you trapped the people.
   
2. At the place of worship you were a treacherous pit, and I will punish you.
   
3. Israel, I know all about you, and because of your unfaithfulness, I find you unacceptable.
   
4. Your evil deeds are the reason you won't return to me, your LORD God. And your constant craving for sex keeps you from knowing me.
   
5. Israel, your pride testifies to your guilt; it makes you stumble, and Judah stumbles too.
   
6. You offer sheep and cattle as sacrifices to me, but I have turned away and refuse to be found.
   
7. You have been unfaithful to me, your LORD; you have had children by prostitutes. So at the New Moon Festival, you and your crops will be destroyed.
   
8. Give a warning on the trumpet! Let it be heard in Gibeah, Ramah, and sinful Bethel. Benjamin, watch out!
   
9. I, the LORD, will punish and wipe out Israel. This is my solemn promise to every tribe of Israel.
   
10. Judah's leaders are like crooks who move boundary markers; that's why I will flood them with my anger.
    
11. Israel was brutally crushed. They got what they deserved for worshiping useless idols.
    
12. Now I, the LORD, will fill Israel with maggots and make Judah rot.
    
13. When Israel and Judah saw their sickness and wounds, Israel asked help from Assyria and its mighty king. But the king cannot cure them or heal their wounds.
    
14. So I'll become a fierce lion attacking Israel and Judah. I'll snatch and carry off what I want, and no one can stop me.
    
15. Then I'll return to my temple until they confess their guilt and worship me, until they are desperate and beg for my help.
    

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The party is over for Israel. Judgment is announced for the whole nation including the priests and the royal family. No one is exempt nor is there any escape. Again, the charge against them is promiscuity or prostitution. Though Hosea and his wife Gomer are not mentioned at all in this chapter, Gomer's unfaithfulness to her husband by chasing after other men and offering herself for sex is the picture of what Israel has done with God. This picture of God's desired relationship with His people cannot be described as "religion," at least as it is typically viewed. An American Heritage Dictionary definition of religion typifies our view of religion. It is "A personal or institutionalized system grounded in such belief and worship." This is the typical view and practice of religion. It does not refer to a relationship with God but rather to a 'system' of belief and worship.

But God calls us to a relationship with Him that is not unlike a marriage relationship. When we turn our devotion and worship to other gods and praise them for what God Himself has provided, God considers us to be unfaithful to the relationship - and we are. In this chapter of Hosea, the punishment God speaks of is not so much a divorce, or dissolution of the relationship, as an estrangement of the relationship. Israel will not enjoy the benefits of the 'marriage' for a time. God's desire is that they will reunite with Him and the relationship will be reconciled. As it stands at this point in time, though, Israel is incapable of returning to God, as stated in verse 4. Their momentum down the road they have chosen to take is so strong, they cannot, of their own power, reverse the course. Nor do they have the will to do it. They no longer even "know the Lord."

Israel went her own way, and now even if she tried to seek the Lord, she would not find Him for "He has withdrawn from them." (verse 6) Though Israel may not be able at this point to reverse her course, God is about to intervene. He will not force her to return to Him but He will stop her momentum down the road she is on. In verses 8-9 God announces impending invasion by an enemy force. Israel's whole way of life is about to be upset. She will have opportunity to get away from her lifestyle and the influences that have drawn her away from God. Then she can consider what her future will be concerning her relationship with God.

We see in verses 13-14 Israel's inability to fix her situation. We are told that when she saw her situation (her sickness), she didn't turn to the Lord. Instead, she turned to Assyria. She was aware of the enemy on her doorstep so she went to Assyria for help. But Assyria will not be able to rescue her. Israel had chosen her course and it would play out to its inevitable conclusion. But the chapter closes on a note of hope. God will depart from Israel for a time with the desire that she will eventually recognize her guilt and come to "seek My face." In her distress, she will search for God.