Reflections on Hosea 9

Hosea 09 (Contemporary English Version)


1. Israel, don't celebrate or make noisy shouts like other nations. You have been unfaithful to your God. Wherever grain is threshed, you behave like prostitutes because you enjoy the money you receive.
   
2. But you will run short of grain and wine,
   
3. and you will have to leave the land of the LORD. Some of you will go to Egypt; others will go to Assyria and eat unclean food.
   
4. You won't be able to offer sacrifices of wine to the LORD. None of your sacrifices will please him-- they will be unclean like food offered to the dead. Your food will only be used to satisfy your hunger; none of it will be brought to the LORD's temple.
   
5. You will no longer be able to celebrate the festival of the LORD.
   
6. Even if you escape alive, you will end up in Egypt and be buried in Memphis. Your silver treasures will be lost among weeds; thorns will sprout in your tents.
   
7. Israel, the time has come. You will get what you deserve, and you will know it. "Prophets are fools," you say. "And God's messengers are crazy." Your terrible guilt has filled you with hatred.
   
8. Israel, the LORD sent me to look after you. But you trap his prophets and flood his temple with your hatred.
   
9. You are brutal and corrupt, as were the men of Gibeah. But God remembers your sin, and you will be punished.
   
10. Israel, when I, the LORD, found you long ago it was like finding grapes in a barren desert or tender young figs. Then you worshiped Baal Peor, that disgusting idol, and you became as disgusting as the idol you loved.
    
11. And so, Israel, your glory will fly away like birds-- your women will no longer be able to give birth.
    
12. Even if you do have children, I will take them all and leave you to mourn. I will turn away, and you will sink down in deep trouble.
    
13. Israel, when I first met you, I thought of you as palm trees growing in fertile ground. Now you lead your people out, only to be slaughtered.
    
14. Our LORD, do just one thing for your people-- make their women unable to have children or to nurse their babies.
    
15. Israel, I first began to hate you because you did evil at Gilgal. Now I will chase you out of my house. No longer will I love you; your leaders betrayed me.
    
16. Israel, you are a vine with dried-up roots and fruitless branches. Even if you had more children and loved them dearly, I would slaughter them all.
    
17. Israel, you disobeyed my God. Now he will force you to roam from nation to nation.
    

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The previous chapter charged Israel with two primary sins: installing kings without consulting God, and making idols that they then worshiped. They had completely left God out of the picture. The result was that Israel would have what she wanted. She would live in one of these other nations fully immersed in the life they had pursued apart from God. Chapter 9 continues to discuss Israel's sin and punishment which are no longer future but is now upon them. They are not to rejoice in anticipation of an abundant harvest even then because there would be no harvest. God had removed His blessing. Israel had prostituted herself on the grain-threshing floors, attributing her abundant harvests to Baal rather than to God who had provided them. She had even practiced the fertility rites of that religion to supposedly insure good harvests, expansion of her herds, and multiplication of her own children. These involved sexual orgies as a part of worship. God had had enough. Israel would no longer enjoy the blessings God had provided her in this land of Promise He had provided her. She would be heading off to Egypt to return to the exile she had experienced there before God freed her and brought her to this land. There the people would eat the bread of mourners and would have no opportunity to worship the Lord.

As verse 7 points out, the day of retribution had come and Israel needed to recognize it. She had harassed all the prophets God had sent to warn her but she could no longer avoid or ignore what was about to happen. God reminisces a bit in remembering how He found Israel "like grapes in the wilderness," but even then they were quick to involve themselves in shameful behavior. As punishment for Israel's involvement in the Baal fertility rites she would now experience infertility. Israel's (Ephraim's) glory mentioned in verse 11 was associated with many offspring, but this would be taken from them. Israel will have nothing left. God was preparing to reject her and leave her to "become wanderers among the nations." She would have no home, no children, no harvest, nothing. Instead, she would serve her conqueror but would have nothing of her own.

Who can handle God's blessings? We desire it and seek it, but when it comes we are so prone to claim it as our own as if we brought it about. And we try to use it for selfish purposes, and begin leaving God behind. Israel had been blessed by God more than any other people, but she couldn't handle it. God was patient and merciful for generations, but He could no longer put up with her unfaithfulness. He could no longer bless her only to have her credit it to other gods. God's blessing is a wonderful thing, but it requires a heart that is faithful to God and continually focused on Him. That is why I reflect on God's word day after day. To keep myself focused on God and not be turned aside by the noise of the world around me that would try to convince me that God had nothing to do with this world we live in and the life that I enjoy.