Hosea 4:1-19

Hosea was a prophet whose ministry was primarily to the ten northern tribes of Israel.  Though he also had words of warning for the two southern trips of Judah; the majority of his work was in the north.  The first three chapters described the illustration of God using Hosea’s own marriage to depict God’s grace and forgiveness in spite of Israel’s constant idolatry.  With this section Hosea begins to charge Israel with unfaithfulness much like a lawyer would condemn the actions of a criminal.  God wants all of His children to love and worship Him.  When they reject Him and prefer to worship false gods of their own making; He will send messages of warning followed by harsh judgment in hopes that His people will return to Him.

THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL ARE STUMBLING IN IGNORANCE: Hosea starts by describing the rampant disobedience of the general population of Israel.  God is angry with the people because they are unfaithful, have no love for God and are basically ignorant of God.  They blaspheme God, kill and seal from one another.  They are sexual immoral and physically violent.  This brings about great sorrow for all of the people and even the very creation suffers because of man’s sin.  God has revealed Himself to these men but they have not responded to that revelation and remain largely ignorant of God and God’s requirements for them.  This is the reality of a great portion of the world today that lives in ignorance of who God is and have no fear of the Lord because they do not know Him as they should.

THE PRIESTS OF ISRAEL ARE SINNING IN ARROGANCE: God holds the priests largely responsible for the condition of the people.  He has a much harsher judgment of the priests because they had much more knowledge of God and yet they refused to act upon this knowledge.  They have not done their job of warning the people as they were called to do.  Instead they have set an example of arrogance of sinning without restraint.  Leaders always bare a larger responsibility because they have the greatest opportunity as well as influence.  God rejects the priests of Israel because they have rejected Him.  He will bring shame down on them and the people they had failed to warn.  The entire nation is living in idolatry and rebellion against God and they are about to pay a very steep price for this sinfulness.  They seek to learn from pieces of wood when they have shut their ears to the very voice of God.  God will now call them to account just like He will call all men to an accounting on that final day when all of mankind will stand before Him and He judges us based on our works or our faith in Christ.


THE PEOPLE OF JUDAH ARE SEARCHING FOR CONFIDENCE: Hosea has a word of warning for the nation of Judah to not be swept away by the sinfulness of their brothers.  They are told to keep away from the sins of Israel.  Their immorality and idolatry will be punished severely so Judah is encouraged to learn from the mistakes of their neighbor.  Israel will stand before God in shame so Judah is encouraged to stay away from her and place their confidence solely in the Lord. We can all see how God has judged sinfulness throughout history.  We would be very wise to learn from God’s judgment of others instead of living in a way that will bring His wrath down upon us.

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