Chs. 4 & 5

4:1-3

4:4-9

4:10-19

5:1-7

5:8-12

5:13-15

Recap

A. Find Out:

1. Why were they to listen? v.1a

2. What charge did God bring against them? v.1b

3. What specific things were happening? v.2

4. What effect did that have on the land? v.3a

5. What effect did that have on the people of the land? v.3b

6. What effect did that have on wild creatures of the land? v.3c

B. Think:

1. How would you summarise the people's attitude towards God?

2. How was that reflected by their behaviour?

3. How did that have practical outworking in the land?

C. Comment:

     The order is quite clear: godlessness, unrighteousness, destruction. Let's take them in that order.

     First, there was godlessness: no acknowledgement of God in the land. The people had turned away from God and there was no love for God in the people, they had become unfaithful, and everything else then follows that. If there is sin in a nation it is first that the people have turned away from God. All else follows.

     Second, there was unrighteousness, wrong behaviour. When relationship with God is abandoned then there is no form of restraint and the behaviour of the people deteriorates. Here it was first in words and then in total disregard for others: murder, stealing, adultery are all abuses of other people and that always happens after God has been rejected.

     Finally there was destruction and this is always inevitable. Already there was breakdown in society by the unrighteous things we've noted so far bringing destruction to individuals and to families, but it also brings a breakdown in morale and a weariness and health breakdown follows. More than that, all living creatures in such a land are under a curse and destruction follows.

D. Application:

1. The order is set in concrete: ungodliness, unrighteousness, death.

2. Pray for our own country as you see these things.

Chapter: Hosea 4

Passage: Hosea 4:4-9

A. Find Out:    

1. What are the people not to do and why? v.4

2. What were they doing and who was doing it with them? v.5

3. What was happening? v.6a

4. What had they done so what had God done? v.6b,c

5. What had the priests done? v.7,8

6. So what will be said and what will God do? v.9

B. Think:

1. Why had the people no grounds to complain about the priests?

2. What was the sin revealed here?

3. What was going to be the consequence?

C. Comment:

     A great temptation is always to blame others for our own sins. God warns the people against this, and specifically against blaming the priests. Why, because the priests had not sinned? No, far from it, but the people were as bad as the priests, and the prophets! They were all as bad as each other. What was their sin? It is spelled out.

     It was very clear: they had rejected the knowledge of the law of God that had been given to them through Moses. The Law was the heart of God for His people and now they had rejected that and in so doing they had rejected God Himself. As a consequence, as we saw in the previous verses, unrighteousness followed ungodliness, as sure as night follows day.

     What will follow is equally clear: God rejects the priests (v.6b), He will ignore their descendants (v.6c) and He will punish all of them (v.9) for all they have done.

     There is a sense here that these verses simply expand on what was said in the first 3 verses of this chapter. When God speaks through His prophets He leaves no room for anyone to say it wasn't clear and they couldn't understand. This condemnation is spelled out again and again. Your sins of godlessness and unrighteousness will be punished!

D. Application:

1. The first sin is always ungodliness.

2. It is always followed by unrighteousness.

  

Chapter: Hosea 4

Passage: Hosea 4:10-19  

A. Find Out:

1. How is Israel 's action generally described? v.10,11

2. What is then specifically mentioned? v.12

3. And what specifically did they do? v.13

4. What had the men done? v.14

5. What appeal did the Lord then make? v.15

6. What will be the outcome? v.19

B. Think:

1. How does this passage continue on from the previous verses?

2. Why do you think the Lord uses the picture of prostitution?

3. How were Israel and Judah differentiated?

C. Comment:

     In verse 7 it said they exchanged God's glory for “something disgraceful”. Now that something is described. Israel had not merely turned from God and then proceeded to be unpleasant to each other, they had turned from God to idols!

     Hosea uses the powerful picture of prostitution to describe this. The picture is of Israel having been married to the Lord, now having gone to get pleasure from some other “spiritual” source, having consorted with idols and false worship. They sacrificed to these idols and even had sex with cult prostitutes; they were whole hearted in their abandoning the truth and going after the dominion of darkness.

     In all this the men are picked out for particular condemnation. They are responsible for their families and yet they go with real prostitutes, so it is no wonder their women go after spiritual prostitution.

     Note that Judah in the south has not yet gone the same way as Israel in the north. Israel are held up as an example for Judah not to follow. Almost from its inception Israel, as a separate people in the north, followed the way of idolatry (see 1 Kings 12:26 -30) and that false spirit continued on getting worse and worse.

D. Application:

1. Anything that replaces the Lord is an idol.

2. Idolatry is utterly condemned by the Lord.

Chapter: Hosea 5

Passage: Hosea 5:1-7  

A. Find Out:

1. What 3 groups are spoken against? v.1a

2. What had obviously happened? v.2

3. What had the nation done? v.3

4. How did that now affect them? v.4

5. What will they do but what will happen? v.6

6. What was Israel 's state and what was happening? v.7

B. Think:

1. Look back over the last chapter.  How often is prostitution mentioned?

2. What was this prostitution that the prophets speaks about?

3. How far had it gone?

C. Comment:

     The word comes against the priests, the people generally and the royal household. No one in Israel is excluded. They should all have known better, the priests and the royal family had particular responsibilities and the people all had the law. Particular things had been happening at Mizpah and on Mount Tabor (which we are aren't told about) that had involved rebellion against God and destruction of people. Whether that was physical, spiritual or economic destruction we don't know, but it was sufficient for God to speak against it.

     It is probable that it involved spiritual destruction because the charge returns to that of prostitution which has taken them away from God, and there is reference to their New Moon festivals which would have been idol worship times. This was not a casual, occasional thing, this was something that had gone deep into them in such a way that they were incapable of genuinely coming back to God. There are various references in the Bible to the impossibility of being able to turn back after having gone so far away, see Jer 13:23, Heb 6:4-6, 2 Pet 2:19-22.

     The warning is very strong: we should never let ourselves get anywhere near a position where there is a question mark over our salvation. If there is any doubt, do something about it now!

D. Application:

1. Spiritual prostitution is going after other gods.

2. Never let anything in that draws you away from God in any way.

Chapter: Hosea 5

Passage: Hosea 5:8-12

A. Find Out:

1. What is being sounded? v.8a

2. What actually is it and by whom? v.8b

3. What is going to happen? v.9

4. What is God's complaint against Judah ? v.10

5. What is happening in Ephraim? v.11

6. How does the Lord describe Himself? v.12

B. Think:

1. Understand the geography. Look up the names on a map.

2. What does the southern kingdom seem to be doing?

3. What is the Lord's feeling about this.

C. Comment:

     Remember this is the time of the divided kingdom, Israel in the north and Judah in the south. In fact it was Judah and Benjamin in the south so the boundary was between the areas allotted to the tribes of Benjamin and Ephraim. That is why the Lord refers again and again to the northern kingdom as Ephraim, for it was there that the religious activity was focused following the setting up of one the golden calves at Bethel (1 Kings 12:28,29).

     This passage is not clear but it appears that the south are rising up in battle against the north (v.8). Judah was taking the opportunity, while the northern kingdom were suffering with other invaders, of reclaiming parts of Benjamin that had been over run in the past (e.g. 2 Kings 14:11-14).  While some might have considered this legitimate, the Lord did not think so and spoke against both Judah and Israel.  Both moth and rot eat away and this is a picture of the Lord gradually bringing judgement that eats away at both nations. It is slow because He wants them to hear, understand and come to their senses and repent and return to Him.

     From condemnation of spiritual adultery, the condemnation through the prophet comes against the two nations who are squabbling like two small children. This is against political disagreements.

D. Application:

1. God is against all unrighteous incursions!

2. God watches over all the affairs of politics.

Chapter: Hosea 5

Passage: Hosea 5:13-15

A. Find Out:

1. To whom did Ephraim turn? v.13b

2. Yet what does the Lord say about that? v.13c

3. What does the Lord say He will be like? v.14a

4. What will He do to them? v.14b

5. Then what will He wait for? v.15

B. Think:

1. Of what were the two nations aware?

2. So what did Israel do?

3. What did the Lord say about that and what would happen?

C. Comment:

     We find here a clear sequence of events spelled out. First there is the effect of the ungodliness of the two nations and their civil warring. They both realise they need help, they are in a mess, they are sick, they show signs of sickness. Awareness of plight is the first phase.

   The second phase is the turning to wrong help. They should at that point, have turned to God and sought His help, but instead they turned to human resources in the hope that human strength would help. How often we do that! How foolish we are!

   The third phase is the condemnation of the Lord for their foolish behaviour: He will tear the two nations to pieces and carry them off - a reference to exile. He will not let them just get worse and worse but will take positive action to bring this to and end and bring them to their senses.

    Yes, that is the fourth phase that the Lord is working for, the RETURN to the Lord by the nation. Eventually they will return to Him in their plight. We may look in the short term and consider the Lord's words harsh, but they are intended to shake the nation to repentance and, if that doesn't happen, to actually bring it about so that repentance does come and the nation does come back to God. It is only when the nation is in relationship with God can they receive all of God's goodness, that's why it's vital they come back.

D. Application:

1. Humans in sin work for their self-centred destruction.

2. God through grace constantly works to bring man back to Himself.

RECAP - "Indictments of Unfaithfulness" -  Hosea 4 & 5

SUMMARY :  

- Israel 's unfaithfulness (4:1-3)

- people, priests & prophets, all the same (4:4-6)

- the idolatry they had turned to (4:6-13)

- the men consorting with shrine prostitutes ( 4:14 )

- Judah, warning of Israel 's unfaithfulness ( 4:15 -19)

- their corruption which extends to the royal family (5:1-3)

- the spirit of prostitution preventing them returning (5:4-12)

- having turned to foreigners for help ( 5:13 -15)

COMMENT :

LESSONS?

PRAY :

PART 3 : "Punishment Decreed"