Project 119: Hosea 13
| Project 119 | Hayden Walker
“You shall have no other gods before me.” This was the first commandment God gave to Moses (Exodus 20:2). Perhaps God listed this commandment as the first of the ten because he was so well acquainted with the human heart. We are “prone to wander,” as the old hymn says. We have learned through our study of Hosea that the Israelites’ hearts wandered after idols (Hosea 13:2-3).
Unlike the fleeting fate of idols and their worshippers (Hosea 13:3), God is eternal. He reminds Israel of His authority, saying, “besides me there is no savior” (Hosea 13:4, ESV). Perhaps the people did not always like God’s rules and ways, but there was (and is) no other path to salvation apart from Him. Forgetting God is tantamount to death. Thus, we could all use the reminder of the first commandment on a daily basis as we allow other things, agendas, and people to usurp God’s throne.
As the text continues, it appears that the nation of Israel will be annihilated because of God’s wrath (Hosea 13:7-13). However, like other passages in Hosea, God’s mercy shines through just when things look the darkest. The poetic declaration of verse 14 in God’s taunt against destruction. Though the nation may appear to be dead as the people are carried into exile, God will redeem them from this national death (Hosea 13:14). He will bring a remnant back from exile and His people shall not be destroyed. This post-exilic flourishing will be a resurrection of the nation.
In 1 Corinthians 15, the apostle Paul draws upon this imagery of death and life in the culmination to his argument about the hope of the resurrection. Paul quotes Hosea 13:14 as the victory cry which will be for all believers on the day of our resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:55). Just as exile felt permanent and desolate for the people of Israel, death feels grim to us. But like the nation of Israel would be “resurrected” as they returned from exile, we who put our hope in Christ will be resurrected upon His return from heaven. If you have a bit of extra time today, flip over to 1 Corinthians 15 and be encouraged by Paul’s joyous application of Hosea 13 to the bodily resurrection.
Hosea 13 (ESV):
The LORD’s Relentless Judgment on Israel
1 When Ephraim spoke, there was trembling;
he was exalted in Israel,
but he incurred guilt through Baal and died.
2 And now they sin more and more,
and make for themselves metal images,
idols skillfully made of their silver,
all of them the work of craftsmen.
It is said of them,
“Those who offer human sacrifice kiss calves!”
3 Therefore they shall be like the morning mist
or like the dew that goes early away,
like the chaff that swirls from the threshing floor
or like smoke from a window.
4 But I am the LORD your God
from the land of Egypt;
you know no God but me,
and besides me there is no savior.
5 It was I who knew you in the wilderness,
in the land of drought;
6 but when they had grazed, they became full,
they were filled, and their heart was lifted up;
therefore they forgot me.
7 So I am to them like a lion;
like a leopard I will lurk beside the way.
8 I will fall upon them like a bear robbed of her cubs;
I will tear open their breast,
and there I will devour them like a lion,
as a wild beast would rip them open.
9 He destroys you, O Israel,
for you are against me, against your helper.
10 Where now is your king, to save you in all your cities?
Where are all your rulers—
those of whom you said,
“Give me a king and princes”?
11 I gave you a king in my anger,
and I took him away in my wrath.
12 The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up;
his sin is kept in store.
13 The pangs of childbirth come for him,
but he is an unwise son,
for at the right time he does not present himself
at the opening of the womb.
14 I shall ransom them from the power of Sheol;
I shall redeem them from Death.
O Death, where are your plagues?
O Sheol, where is your sting?
Compassion is hidden from my eyes.
15 Though he may flourish among his brothers,
the east wind, the wind of the LORD, shall come,
rising from the wilderness,
and his fountain shall dry up;
his spring shall be parched;
it shall strip his treasury
of every precious thing.
16 Samaria shall bear her guilt,
because she has rebelled against her God;
they shall fall by the sword;
their little ones shall be dashed in pieces,
and their pregnant women ripped open.