Hosea 10-14: Rules without Relationship equals Rebellion

We read Hosea 10–14 and trace the arc from idolatry and injustice to a fierce, fatherly mercy that refuses to abandon a wayward people. We wrestle with judgment, exile, and a God who says, I am God and not man, and calls us to return and be healed.

• idols, injustice, and the collapse of false security
• God’s father-heart withholding wrath and summoning return
• covenant lawsuit against deceit and hollow wealth
• repentance defined as love, justice, and waiting on God
• death taunted, mercy promised, restoration pictured as dew and roots
• wisdom call: the ways of the Lord are right
• takeaway: rules without relationship results in rebellion

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Chapters

• 0:00 Setting The Stage For Hosea’s Finale
• 2:25 Idols, Injustice, And Assyrian Exile
• 5:15 A Father’s Heart And Withheld Wrath
• 7:12 Covenant Lawsuit And Hollow Wealth
• 9:13 Death Taunted, Mercy Promised
• 11:54 Return And Restoration Imagery
• 13:23 Takeaways: Fear, Relationship, And Hope

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:11

Hey, welcome back to the Out Loud Bible Project Podcast. This is Mike, and we are in the book of Hosea. We actually get to conclude the book today. We're going to be reading chapters 10 through 14. The chapters are fairly short, so we'll be able to conclude the whole book today. In this book, we've seen uh Hosea be a bit of an object lesson in his uh marriage to a prostitute, and God's saying, This is exactly how I feel. I feel like you, Israel, are my wife, but you're acting like a prostitute, and my patience is running out. There are going to be consequences. And then the rest of the book really outlines those consequences, but it's always peppered with a little bit of hope of what God plans to do in the future. Not just hope, like maybe it'll happen. It's like prophetic hope of like, yes, all this bad stuff's gonna happen, but also God will restore you. That's very common throughout the book, uh, throughout the throughout the whole Old Testament, is just this idea of like, yeah, here are the rules, and I will I desperately want you to grasp this relationship I want to have with you. And if you rebel, then there are consequences. So we'll see that today as we conclude the book of Hosea. As I mentioned last time, the word that Hosea is using to indicate the northern kingdom of Israel uh is often Ephraim, that's kind of the major tribe in the northern kingdom that kind of represents Israel. Uh, Samaria is the capital that also represents the northern kingdom of Israel. And Judah is the southern kingdom. So he references Judah, um, which generally is better, but Judah has not looked good in this line of prophecy either. So um just some terms there. Ultimately, whether it's Ephraim or Samaria or Israel, that's all referring to Israel, specifically the northern kingdom and the very evil kings that they had. Um, so we'll see uh how this pans out here in the rest of the book of Hosea 10 through 14 in the New English translation. Israel was a fertile vine that yielded fruit. As his fruit multiplied, he multiplied altars to Baal. As his land prospered, they adorned the fertility pillars. Their hearts are slipping. Soon they'll be punished for their guilt. The Lord will break their altars, he'll completely destroy their fertility pillars. Very soon they'll say, We have no king since we didn't fear the Lord, but what can a king do for us anyway? They utter empty words, taking false oaths and making empty agreements, and therefore legal disputes sprout up like poisonous weeds in the furrows of a ploughed field. The inhabitants of Samaria will lament over the calf idol of Beth Aven. Its people will mourn over it, its idolatrous priests will wail over it because its splendor will be taken from them into exile. Even the calf idol will be carried to Assyria as tribute for the great king. Ephraim will be disgraced, Israel will be put to shame because of its wooden idol. Samaria and its king will be carried off like a twig on the surface of the waters. The high places of the house of wickedness will be destroyed. It's the place where Israel sins. Thorns and thistles will grow up over its altars, and then they'll say to the mountains, cover us, and to the hills, fall on us. O Israel, you have sinned since the time of Gibeah, and there you've remained. Did not war overtake the evildoers in Gibeah? When I please I will discipline them. I will gather nations together to attack them, to bind them in chains for their two sins. Ephraim was a well-trained heifer who loved to thresh grain. I myself will put a fine yoke on her neck. I'll harness Ephraim. Let Judah plough, let Jacob break up the unplowed ground for himself. Sow righteousness for yourselves, reap unfailing love. Break up the unplowed ground for yourselves, for it's time to seek the Lord, until he comes and showers deliverance on you. But you've ploughed wickedness, you've reaped injustice, you've eaten the fruit of deception because you have depended on your chariots, because you've relied on your many warriors. The roar of battle will rise against your people, all your fortresses will be devastated, just as Shalman devastated Beth Arbal on the day of battle, when mothers were dashed to the ground with their children. So it will happen to you, O Bethel, because of your great wickedness. When that day dawns, the king of Israel will be destroyed. When I was a young man, I loved him like a son, and I summoned my son out of Egypt. But the more I summoned them, the farther they departed from me. They sacrificed to the Baal idols and burned incense to images. Yet it was I who led Ephraim. I took them by the arm, but they didn't acknowledge that I had healed them. I drew them with leather cords, with straps of hide, I lifted the yoke from their neck and gently fed them. They will return to Egypt. Assyria will rule over them because they refuse to repent. A sword will flash in their cities, it'll destroy the bars of their city gates, and will devour them in their fortresses. My people are obsessed with turning away from me. They call to Baal, but he'll never exalt them. How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I surrender you, O Israel? How can I treat you like Adma? How can I make you like Zeboim? I I've had a change of heart. All my tender compassions are aroused. I can't carry out my fierce anger. I can't totally destroy Ephraim. Because I am God and not man, the holy one among you, I will not come in wrath. He'll roar like a lion, and they'll follow the Lord. When he roars, his children will come trembling from the west. They'll return in fear and trembling like birds from Egypt, like doves from Assyria, and I will settle them in their homes, declares the Lord. Ephraim has surrounded me with lies. The house of Israel has surrounded me with deceit. But Judah still roams about with God. He remains faithful to the Holy One. Ephraim continually feeds on the wind. He chases the east wind all day. He multiplies lies and violence. They make treaties with Assyria and send olive oil as tribute to Egypt. The Lord also has a covenant lawsuit against Judah. He will punish Jacob according to his ways and repay him according to his deeds. In the womb he attacked his brother. In his manly vigor he struggled with God. He struggled with an angel and prevailed. He wept and begged for his favor, and he found God at Bethel. And there he spoke with him. As for the Lord God Almighty, the Lord is the name by which he's remembered. But you must return to your God by maintaining love and justice and by waiting for your God to return to you. The businessmen love to cheat. They use dishonest scales. Ephraim boasts, Oh, I'm very rich, I've become wealthy. In all that I've done to gain my wealth, no one can accuse me of any offense that's actually sinful. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt. I will make you live in tents again as in the days of old. I spoke to the prophets. I myself revealed many visions. I spoke in parables through the prophets. Is there idolatry in Gilead? Certainly its inhabitants will come to nothing. Do they sacrifice bulls in Gilgal? Surely their altars will be like stones heaped up on a ploughed field. Jacob fled to the country of Aram. Then Israel worked to acquire a wife. He tended sheep to pay for her. The Lord brought Israel out of Egypt by a prophet, and due to a prophet Israel was preserved alive. But Ephraim bitterly provoked him to anger, so he'll hold him accountable for the blood he shed. His Lord will repay him for the contempt he's shown. When Ephraim spoke, there was terror. He was exalted in Israel, but he became guilty by worshipping Baal and died. Even now they persist in sin. They make metal images for themselves, idols that they skillfully fashion from their own silver. All of them are nothing but the work of craftsmen. There's a saying about them those who sacrifice to the calf idol are calf kissers. Therefore they will disappear like the morning mist, like early morning dew that evaporates, like chaff that's blown away from a threshing floor, like smoke that disappears through an open window. But I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt. Therefore you must not acknowledge any God but me, except for me there is no Savior. I cared for you in the wilderness, in the dry desert where no water was. When they were fed they became satisfied. When they were satisfied, they became proud. As a result, they forgot me. So I will pounce on them like a lion, like a leopard, I will lurk by the path, I will attack them like a bear robbed of her cubs, I'll rip open their chests, I will devour them there like a lion, like a wild animal would tear them apart. I will destroy you, O Israel. Who's there to help you? Where then is your king that he may save you in all your cities? Where are your rulers for whom you ask, saying, Oh give me a king and princes? I granted you a king in my anger, and I'll take him away in my wrath. The punishment of Ephraim has been decreed. His punishment is being stored up for the future. The labor pains of a woman will overtake him, but the baby will lack wisdom. When the time arrives, he won't come out of the womb. Will I deliver them from the power of Sheol? Hm? No, I won't. Will I redeem them from death? No, I will not. O death, bring on your plagues. O Sheol, bring on your destruction, my eyes will not show any compassion. Even though he flourishes like a reed plant, a scorching east wind will come, a wind from the Lord rising up from the desert. As a result his spring will dry up, his well will become dry, that wind will spoil all his delightful foods in the containers in his storehouse. Samaria will be held guilty because she rebelled against her God. They'll fall by the sword, their infants will be dashed to the ground, their pregnant women will be ripped open. Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for your sin has been your downfall. Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for your sin has been your downfall. Return to the Lord and repent. Say to him, Completely forgive our iniquity. Accept our penitential prayer that we may offer the praise of our lips as sacrificial bulls. Assyria can't save us. We will not ride war horses, we will never again say our gods to what our own hands have made, for only you will show compassion to orphan Israel. I will heal their waywardness and love them freely. For my anger will turn away from them. I'll be like the dew to Israel. He'll blossom like a lily, he'll send down his roots like a cedar of Lebanon. His young shoots will grow. His splendor will be like an olive tree, his fragrance like the cedar of Lebanon. People will reside again in his shade, and they'll plant and harvest grain in abundance. They'll blossom like a vine, and his fame will be like the wine from Lebanon. Oh Ephraim, I don't want to have anything to do with idols anymore. I'll answer him and care for him. I'm like a luxuriant cypress tree. Your fruitfulness comes from me. Who's wise? Let him discern these things. Who's discerning? Let him understand them. For the ways of the Lord are right. The godly walk in them, but in them the rebellious stumble. Throughout this section of Hosea, there's very much that apparent threat of I brought you into this world and I'll take you out. And I think the fear of the Lord starts there. Not a fear of, oh no, is he going to do that to me? But a fear of I need to understand my place before God and understand what he is worthy of and live like that. A lot of people seem to think that the Old Testament is a lot about rules and wrath. What we find though is rules without relationship results in rebellion. We can visualize that today. If there's, say, a dad who doesn't have a relationship with his kids, but he shows up from, you know, every once in a while to be with the kids and he tries to lay down some rules. Well, no, don't do that, don't do that. What do they do? They don't respond to that. They don't submit to his rules because there's not a relationship there. And so they rebel. We know what that's like. We see that. And throughout the Bible, that's what we see. We see God had given them a list of rules. Now, he is not some absent father that's trying to enforce rules without a relationship. He's desperately trying to show them the relationship that he has for them. That's what the whole of the Old Testament is about. Certainly the book of Exodus is all about. Hey, I'm going to give you some rules because that's what's healthy for you and that's what's going to protect you and keep you safe. I'm also going to spend this entire time in the wilderness teaching you about who I am and building this relationship with your God so that you can be my people, I can be your God. But if they don't want the relationship, if they're not pursuing the relationship, then the rules provide simply an opportunity to rebel. And this rebellion kept happening over and over and over again. God does not let sin go unaccounted for forever. He is patient. He will let it go on longer than it deserves, but it does not go on forever. And that's when we do see his wrath. But don't think of the Old Testament God as a God of wrath. Did you catch that in uh chapter 11, verse 9? I cannot carry out all my fierce anger. I can't totally destroy Ephraim. Because I am God and not man, I will not come in wrath. God attributes wrath to man. That's such a man thing to do. It's such such a human thing to just come in with wrath. He's like, I'm God, I'm not a man. I'm the holy one among you. I'm not going to come in wrath. To know God is to know that God desires reconciliation more than wrath. He desires restoring this relationship. Even among rebellion, even at our most rebellious, God still desires peace and reconciliation. Some interesting and powerful lessons here in the book of Hosea. We're going to continue reading some more of the minor prophet books in the Old Testament. Thanks for joining me on the Out Loud Bible Project Podcast. We'll see you next time.