Project 119: Hosea 9
| Project 119
“Punishment Is Coming”
Have you ever had regrets for past actions that brought tough (and even tragic) consequences? Have you ever thought how different life might have gone if only you had taken a different course, one that was marked by faithfulness to God? Such reflection is crucial for coming to the penitent spirit God desires from us.
As Hosea looked back upon the people’s past, he saw how their covenant relationship had gone bad, like bad fruit. They had engaged in idolatrous worship (Hosea 9:1-3). They had participated in sacrifices that were empty of heartfelt praise toward God (Hosea 9:4). They had observed festivals out of routine than deep thanksgiving (Hosea 9:5-6). Such acts of faithlessness would lead to the nation’s downfall at the hands of the Assyrians, the very people with whom their leaders had made political alliances to stave off destruction.
At one time, God had looked upon the people as choice fruit, as “fresh grapes in the desert” (Hosea 9:10). Now, the situation had soured as the people had turned away from God and refused to make Him a priority in life.
This situation was a recurring one for the nation, going all the way back to their days at Gilgal, where they embraced Canaanite worship at Baal-Peor (Numbers 22). Just as those who had engaged in such sin were unable to make it into the promised land under Joshua’s direction, so would those who had turned away from God in Hosea’s day be unable to remain in the land God had given them.
Hosea hoped that his message would lead the people to turn back to God. He predicted that the coming day of destruction would be a most terrible day, even to the point that he asked God not to grant families any more offspring so that they might not have to bear the pain and agony of God’s judgment.
These words are difficult ones. Their difficulty lies in how they challenge us to consider the implications of our actions, both faithful and faithless. They call us to listen to the “whole counsel of God” and not just to what we desire to hear. Most of all, they invite us to identify ways that are contrary to the ways of God and then to change them before we too find ourselves on the receiving end of despair that we have brought upon ourselves.
Listening to such prophetic words as the ones Hosea proclaimed to his people are hard because they afflict us in our comfort. But when we consider the alternative of not hearing them and remaining stuck in our ignorance and obliviousness, what else can we do? Our reflection upon what we deserve makes us more grateful for God’s mercy and grace in Jesus Christ and for a love that accepts us not just as we are, but accepts us ultimately in spite of who we are.
Hosea 9 (ESV):
The LORD Will Punish Israel
1 Rejoice not, O Israel!
Exult not like the peoples;
for you have played the whore, forsaking your God.
You have loved a prostitute’s wages
on all threshing floors.
2 Threshing floor and wine vat shall not feed them,
and the new wine shall fail them.
3 They shall not remain in the land of the LORD,
but Ephraim shall return to Egypt,
and they shall eat unclean food in Assyria.
4 They shall not pour drink offerings of wine to the LORD,
and their sacrifices shall not please him.
It shall be like mourners’ bread to them;
all who eat of it shall be defiled;
for their bread shall be for their hunger only;
it shall not come to the house of the LORD.
5 What will you do on the day of the appointed festival,
and on the day of the feast of the LORD?
6 For behold, they are going away from destruction;
but Egypt shall gather them;
Memphis shall bury them.
Nettles shall possess their precious things of silver;
thorns shall be in their tents.
7 The days of punishment have come;
the days of recompense have come;
Israel shall know it.
The prophet is a fool;
the man of the spirit is mad,
because of your great iniquity
and great hatred.
8 The prophet is the watchman of Ephraim with my God;
yet a fowler’s snare is on all his ways,
and hatred in the house of his God.
9 They have deeply corrupted themselves
as in the days of Gibeah:
he will remember their iniquity;
he will punish their sins.
10 Like grapes in the wilderness,
I found Israel.
Like the first fruit on the fig tree
in its first season,
I saw your fathers.
But they came to Baal-peor
and consecrated themselves to the thing of shame,
and became detestable like the thing they loved.
11 Ephraim’s glory shall fly away like a bird—
no birth, no pregnancy, no conception!
12 Even if they bring up children,
I will bereave them till none is left.
Woe to them
when I depart from them!
13 Ephraim, as I have seen, was like a young palm planted in a meadow;
but Ephraim must lead his children out to slaughter.
14 Give them, O LORD—
what will you give?
Give them a miscarrying womb
and dry breasts.
15 Every evil of theirs is in Gilgal;
there I began to hate them.
Because of the wickedness of their deeds
I will drive them out of my house.
I will love them no more;
all their princes are rebels.
16 Ephraim is stricken;
their root is dried up;
they shall bear no fruit.
Even though they give birth,
I will put their beloved children to death.
17 My God will reject them
because they have not listened to him;
they shall be wanderers among the nations.