Hosea 5–9: The Danger of Moving Boundaries

We read Hosea 5–9, tracing how judgment and mercy meet in a call to return. We reflect on moving boundary stones and mixing with the nations, and ask where compromise is blurring our witness today.

• bonus schedule update to five episodes weekly
• recap of Hosea’s marriage as living parable
• reading Hosea 5–9 with key images and warnings
• God’s justice as mercy aimed at repentance
• Hosea 6’s call to return and be healed
• moving boundary stones as moral compromise
• flour mixed among nations as lost distinctness
• outrage ovens and leaders consumed by heat
• desire for covenant loyalty over ritual
• personal challenge to hold God’s lines

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Transcript

Bonus Episodes And New Schedule

SPEAKER_00 0:11

Hey, welcome back to the Out Loud Bible Project Podcast. And if you're used to listening to these episodes as they come out twice a week, well you may have noticed we had a bonus episode just previous to this, and in that episode, if you did not listen to it, I'd go recommend listening to it. But I will say, as part of that episode, I announced that we're going to be starting five episodes per week. And so if this is part of your normal routine, well, let's ramp it up and let's see uh what more engagement with the Word of God throughout the week will actually do and change in our lives. Well, last time we were in the Bible together, we opened up the book of Hosea, and Hosea is a prophet that God requested to go be a living illustration of God's relationship with Israel, and it was not a good one, because, well, frankly, Israel had been unfaithful, and God saw them like a prostitute that should be married to him, and yet goes off and just worships other gods and and gives their best energy to other cultures and nations and gods, and well, Hosea lived that out and married a prostitute and had kids whose names were prophetically looking forward to what God had done and what he was going to do. So that's what we found in the first part of Hosea today. We're going to continue with Hosea chapter 5. We're going to read all the way through chapter 9, and it's a little bit less of the living sermon illustration than Hosea's life and marriage is, and more of maybe kind of more typical prophetic words that we would hear in the Old Testament, uh, just announcing the sin, bringing attention to Israel's sin and the judgment that would that would follow. And we gotta remember that this is not all like, oh no, I this is scary. God's angry, and and if I mess up, no, that's not the point of this. This is don't lose the heart, don't lose God's heart here. God's heart for repentance, God's heart for reconciliation, and the fact that there are prophets saying these things at all is not because God is like angry. If God wanted to just wipe out his people, he would have done a long time ago. But the fact that we know anything at all, though, that we have the Old Testament prophets saying what they're saying at all is because God doesn't want to just slam them with his wrath. God's patient, he desires people to turn back, to repent, and to be reconciled and be at peace with him. And we see that stated very clearly here in today's reading as well. So let's get into it. Hosea 5 through 9 in the New English Translation. Hear this, you priests. Pay attention, you Israelites. Listen closely, O king. Basically, Hosea is saying, Hey, everybody, listen up. Whether you're leaders in the religious sector or you're leaders in the government sector, or you're just a common person who lives here, listen. Judgment is about to overtake you, for you are like a trap to Mizpah, like a net spread out to catch Tabor. Those who revolt are knee deep in slaughter, but I will discipline them all. I know Ephraim all too well. The evil of Israel is not hidden from me. Again, Ephraim is one of the tribes, then this case kind of representing the northern kingdom here. You have engaged in prostitution, O Ephraim. Israel has defiled itself. Their wicked deeds don't allow them to return to their God, for a spirit of idolatry is in them. They don't acknowledge the Lord. The arrogance of Israel testifies against it. Israel and Ephraim will be overthrown because of their iniquity. Even Judah will be brought down with them. Although they bring their flocks and herds to seek the favor of the Lord, they won't find him. He's withdrawn himself from them. They've committed treason against the Lord because they bore illegitimate children, and soon the new moon festival will devour them and their fields. Blow the ram's horn in Gibeah, sound the trumpet in Rama, sound the alarm in Beth Aven, tremble in fear, O Benjamin. Ephraim will be ruined in the day of judgment. What I'm declaring to the tribes of Israel will certainly take place. The princes of Judah are like those who move boundary markers. I'll pour out my rage on them like a torrential flood. Ephraim will be oppressed, crushed under judgment because he was determined to pursue worthless idols. I'll be like a moth to Ephraim, like wood rot to the house of Judah. When Ephraim saw his sickness and Judah saw his wound, then Ephraim turned to Assyria and begged its great king for help. But he won't be able to heal you, he can't cure your wound. I'll be like a lion to Ephraim, like a young lion to the house of Judah. I myself will tear them to pieces, and then I'll carry them off, and no one will be able to rescue them. Then I'll return again to my lair until they've suffered their punishment. Then they'll seek me. In their distress they will earnestly seek me. Okay, check out, this is the start of chapter six. I think it's one of the most beautiful parts of this whole book. Come on, let's return to the Lord. He himself has torn us to pieces, but he will heal us. He's injured us, but he will bandage our wounds. He'll restore us in a very short time. He'll heal us in a little while so that we may live in his presence. So let's search for him. Let's seek to know the Lord. He will come to our rescue as certainly as the appearance of the dawn, as certainly as the winter rain comes, as certainly as the spring rain that waters the land. What am I going to do with you, O Ephraim? What am I going to do with you, O Judah? Again, Ephraim representing the northern kingdom, Judah representing the southern kingdom. For your faithfulness is as fleeting as the morning mist. It disappears as quickly as dawns dew. Therefore I will certainly cut you into pieces at the hands of the prophets. I will certainly kill you in fulfillment of my oracles of judgment, for my judgment will come forth like the light of the dawn. For I delight in faithfulness, not simply in sacrifice. I delight in acknowledging God, not simply in whole burnt offerings. At Adam they broke the covenant. Oh, how they were unfaithful to me. Gilead is a city full of evildoers. Its streets are stained with bloody footprints. The company of priests is like a gang of robbers lying in ambush to pounce on a victim. They commit murder on the road to Shechem. They've done heinous crimes. I have seen a disgusting thing in the house of Israel. There Ephraim commits prostitution with other gods, and Israel defiles itself. I have appointed a time to reap judgment for you also, Judah. Whenever I want to restore the fortunes of my people, whenever I want to heal Israel, the sin of Ephraim is revealed, and the evil deeds of Samaria are exposed, for they do what's wrong. Thieves break into houses and gangs rob people out in the streets. They don't realize that I remember all their wicked deeds. Their evil deeds have now surrounded them. Their sinful deeds are always before me. The royal advisors delight the king with their evil schemes. The princes make him glad with their lies. They're all like bakers, they're like a smoldering oven. They're like a baker who doesn't stoke the fire until the needed dough is ready for baking. At the celebration of their king, his princes become inflamed with wine, they conspire with evildoers. They approach him all the while plotting against him. Their hearts are like an oven, their anger smolders all night long, but in the morning it bursts into a flame. All of them are blazing like an oven, they devour their rulers. All their kings fall, and none of them call on me. Ephraim has mixed itself like flour among the nations. Ephraim's like a ruined cake of bread that's scorched on one side. Foreigners are consuming what his strenuous labor produced, but he doesn't recognize it. His head is filled with grey hair, but he doesn't realize it. The arrogance of Israel testifies against him, and yet they refuse to return to the Lord their God. In spite of all this, they refuse to seek him. Ephraim's been like a dove, easily deceived, lacking discernment. They called to Egypt for help. They turned to Assyria for protection. I will throw my burden net over them while they're flying. I will bring them down like birds in the sky. I will discipline them when I hear them flocking together. Woe to them, for they've fled from me. Destruction to them, for they've rebelled against me. I want to deliver them, but they've lied to me. They don't pray to me, but howl in distress on their beds. They slash themselves for grain and new wine, but turn away from me. Though I trained and strengthened them, they plot evil against me. They turn to Baal. They're like an unreliable bow. Their leaders will fall by the sword because their prayers to Baal have made me angry, so people will disdain them in the land of Egypt. Sound the alarm, an eagle looms over the temple of the Lord, for they've broken their covenant with me and have rebelled against my law. Israel cries out to me, My God, we acknowledge you, but Israel has rejected what is morally good. So an enemy will pursue him. They enthroned kings without my consent. They appointed princes without my approval. They made idols out of their silver and gold, but they will be destroyed. O Samaria, he has rejected your calf idol. My anger burns against them. They will not survive much longer without being punished, even though they are Israelites. That idol was made by a workman. It's not God. The calf idol of Samaria will be broken to bits. They sow the wind, and so they will reap the whirlwind. The stock does not have any standing grain, it will not produce any flour. Even if it were to yield grain, foreigners would swallow it up. Israel will be swallowed up among the nations. They'll be like a worthless piece of pottery. They've gone up to Assyria, like a wild donkey that wanders off. Ephraim has hired prostitutes as lovers, and even though they've hired lovers among the nations, I will soon gather them together for judgment. Then they'll begin to waste away under the oppression of a mighty king. Though Ephraim has built many altars for sin offerings, these have become altars for sinning. I spelled out my law for him in great detail, but they regard it as something totally unknown to them. They offer up sacrificial gifts to me and eat the meat, but the Lord does not accept their sacrifices. Soon he will remember their wrongdoing, and he'll punish their sins, and they will return to Egypt. Israel has forgotten his maker and built royal palaces, and Judah has built many fortified cities, but I'll send fire on their cities. It'll consume their royal citadels. O Israel, do not rejoice jubilantly like the nations, for you are unfaithful to your God. You love to receive a prostitute's wage on the floors where you thresh your grain, threshing floors, and wine vats will not feed the people, and new wine only deceives them. They will not remain in the Lord's land. Ephraim will return to Egypt. They'll eat ritually unclean food in Assyria. They'll not pour out drink offerings of wine to the Lord. They will not please him with their sacrifices. Their sacrifices will be like bread eaten while in mourning. All those who eat them will make themselves ritually unclean, for their bread will be only to satisfy their appetite, it will not come into the temple of the Lord. So what will you do on the festival day? On the festival days of the Lord? Look, even if they flee from the destruction, Egypt will take hold of them, and Memphis will bury them. The weeds will inherit the silver they treasure, thorn bushes will occupy their homes. The time of judgment's about to arrive, the time of retribution is eminent. Israel will be humbled. The prophet is considered a fool. The inspired man is viewed as a madman because of the multitude of your sins and your intense animosity. The prophet is a watchman over Ephraim on behalf of God, and yet traps are laid for him along all his paths. Animosity rages against him in the land of his God. They've sunk deep into corruption as in the days of Gibeah. He'll remember their wrongdoings. He will repay them for their sins. When I found Israel, it was like finding grapes in the wilderness. I viewed your ancestors like an early fig on a fig tree in its first season. Then they came to Baal Peor and they dedicated themselves to shame. They became as detestable as what they loved. Ephraim will be like a bird. What they value will fly away. They will not bear children, they will not enjoy pregnancy, they won't even conceive. Even if they raise children, I will take every last one of them. Woe to them. For I will turn away from them. Ephraim, as I've seen, has given their children for prey. Ephraim will bear his sons for slaughter. Give them O Lord, what will you give them? Give them wounds that miscarry, and breasts that cannot nurse, because of all their evil in Gilgal, I hate them there. On account of their evil deeds I will drive them out of my land, I will no longer love them. All their rulers are rebels. Ephraim will be struck down, their root will be dried up, they will not yield any fruit. Even if they do bear children, I will kill their precious offspring. My God will reject them, for they have not obeyed him, so they will be fugitives among the nations. Well, sometimes in there was it a little bit confusing of wait, who's talking, Hosea or God? And I I think that's kind of intentional. I think that's uh just a sign of Hosea is speaking on behalf of God and sharing his heart that sometimes his words of of talking about God and talking about the people represent God's heart. And sometimes it comes from his perspective, sometimes it comes from God's perspective. But uh Hosea is never speaking out of line here. He's not speaking anything that God wouldn't say. And sometimes he is speaking what God is specifically saying. And uh wouldn't that be fascinating if if we were able to speak in such a way that anything we say is something that God would say? I think that's the goal. Not necessarily as confrontational and dire as Hosea's situation here, but it would be amazing if we were able to speak in such a way that who's talking here, you or God? And it's tough to tell, wouldn't that be great? Well, that's not even the thinking out loud thought for the day. For that, I want to bring attention to a couple verses, a pair of verses that really stuck out to me here. In 5.10, it said, Judah is like princes who move boundary stones. And then in chapter 7, verse 8, it says, Ephraim has mixed itself like flower among the nations. I think what we see here is two illustrations of what it looks like to make compromises with the culture around you. I think when we make compromises away from what the Word of God says, and we try to make allowances, we try to say, well, uh, you see things that way. I think I I mean, yeah, I can see that, and I can see how we can we can get the Bible, we can kind of interpret the Bible that way to include what you believe too. And that that Bible verse could apply to this as well. This is moving the boundary stones, where God has said, hey, here is my line of what is true and what is acceptable in my eyes, what righteousness looks like and what sin looks like. If we move those boundary stones out a little bit, then we are encompassing other things, saying that God is allowing of this when really his word is not, or that God is not allowing of this when really his word says it is. And then what happens today is we have Christians who are kind of mixed like flour among the nations. Not sent out to the nations like Jesus sent his disciples to go make more disciples among the nations, not like go be a light set on a hill that can't be hidden, not like spread salt to bring about healing and increase the flavor and the taste and a thirst for the gospel. No, spread out just kind of like eh, we just kind of blend in with whatever their culture's whipping up. Whatever the culture is baking in their ovens, whatever they got cooking in the kitchen. The ovens, by the way, also came into play here in this section of Hosea, representing just the anger. Are you caught up in just the what the culture is whipping up out of anger and frustration? Are we bending the boundaries a little bit to try to help them feel better, feel less bad about what they believe? We have a responsibility to abide in the boundary stones that God has already set and has been true for generations. We have a responsibility to be the flower that God wants to use to bake living bread, to share with the world, to actually satisfy them. Where might you have compromised in your own beliefs, in your own lives, among your own friends in the culture? That's the thinking out loud thought for the day.