REBUKING DESTRUCTIVE BEHAVIOR

DECEMBER 9, 2012

·         Beginning with the two closing verses of the previous chapter, the private life of Hosea fades into the background, and the emphasis shifts to the Lord and the faithless nation of Israel.

·         Everything that has been said up to this point has been in the way of generalization.

·         God has said, "They have sinned. They have played the harlot and been unfaithful to Me."

·         Now God is going to spell-out certain charges against them and prove those charges.

·         Hosea proceeds to deliver a series of discourses on the sins of the nation Israel.

1.     SPIRITUAL DECAY (HOSEA 4:1)

Listen to the word of the LORD, O sons of Israel, For the LORD has a case against the inhabitants of the land, Because there is no faithfulness or kindness Or knowledge of God in the land.

NASB

·         They had broken covenant with God.

·         They did not acknowledge, or were grateful, for the favors that God was bestowing upon them.

·         They brought a reproach upon God.

2.     LAWLESS SOCIETY (HOSEA 4:2-3)

2 There is swearing, deception, murder, stealing, and adultery. They employ violence, so that bloodshed follows bloodshed.

·         In each of these sins they were breaking the Ten Commandments.

·         The five sins here refer to the 3rd, 9th, 6th, 8th & 7th commandments.

·         The murders even included the blood of kings of Israel!

o       Shallum killed Zechariah 

o       Menahem killed Shallum 

o       Pekah killed Pekahiah

o       Hoshea killed Pekah

…they suffer their corruptions to break out; they themselves break over, and break through, all that stands in their way and would stop them in their sinful career, as water overflows the banks.

-Mathew Henry’s Commentary

The sins of omission which led to the sins of commission are that there were no truth, no goodness, and no knowledge of God in the land. These omissions led to the gravest sins of commission, viz: profanity, covenant-breaking, murder, stealing, and adultery. The evidence in this case was so strong that there was no plea of "not guilty" entered, and Jehovah proceeded at once, after making the indictment, to announce the sentence: Destruction!

-B H Carroll, An Interpretation of the English Bible

3 Therefore the land mourns, And everyone who lives in it languishes Along with the beasts of the field and the birds of the sky; And also the fish of the sea disappear.

NASB

·         When God judges a nation, the land itself is involved and even the beasts, fowls and fish suffer because of the sin of man.

Genesis 3:17

17 Then to Adam He said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, 'You shall not eat from it'; Cursed is the ground because of you;  In toil you shall eat of it All the days of your life.

NASB

The whole land is infected with sin, and therefore the whole land shall mourn under God's sore judgments, shall sit in mourning, being stripped of all its wealth and beauty. As the valleys are said to shout for joy, and sing, when there are plenty and peace, so here they are said to mourn when by war and famine they are made desolate.

-Matthew Henry’s Commentary

3.     FAILED LEADERSHIP (HOSEA 4:4-6)

4 Yet let no one find fault, and let none offer reproof; For your people are like those who contend with the priest. 5 So you will stumble by day, And the prophet also will stumble with you by night; And I will destroy your mother. 6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being My priest. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.

NASB

·         The priest in that day was not doing his duty; he was not warning the people. Therefore, God raised up the prophets.

·         There were false prophets and false priests in Israel.

·         The Book of Hosea makes it crystal clear that we live the Christian life by a personal knowledge of the Word of God.

·         The background for their sin was a lack of knowledge of the Word of God.

Sometimes there is need to rebuke sharply, not only to reprove, but to strive, so loth are men to part with their sins. But it is a sign that persons and people are abandoned to ruin when God says, Let them not be reproved.

-Matthew Henry’s Commentary

The people and the priests hardened one another in sin; therefore justly shall they share in the punishment. Sharers in sin must expect to share in ruin. Any lust harboured in the heart, in time will eat out all its strength and vigour. That is the reason why many professors grow so heavy, so dull, so dead in the way of religion. They have a liking for some secret lust, which takes away their hearts.

-Matthew Henry’s Commentary

4.     SICK RELIGION (HOSEA 4:12-14)

12 My people consult their wooden idol, and their diviner's wand informs them; For a spirit of harlotry has led them astray, And they have played the harlot, departing from their God.

“…a violent inclination and bias of mind to idolatry, which is spiritual adultery, and a strong affection for it, stirred up by an evil spirit, the devil; which so wrought upon them, and influenced them, as to cause them to wander from the true God, and his worship,…:

-John Gill’s Commentary

·         They were so obsessed with the fertility rituals that they lost all sense of moral judgment.

·         Today, people are going off into all types of things, including the worship of Satan.

·         In Israel, idolatry simply led them into gross immorality.

13 They offer sacrifices on the tops of the mountains And burn incense on the hills, Under oak, poplar, and terebinth, Because their shade is pleasant. Therefore your daughters play the harlot, And your brides commit adultery.

·         The center of this idolatrous worship was in these groves; it was cool there and a nice place to go. 

·         Because of the false teaching of the priests, or lack of teaching by the priests, the people probably thought they were worshipping the Lord, when in reality they were only yielding to sensual pleasure

 14 I will not punish your daughters when they play the harlot Or your brides when they commit adultery, For the men themselves go apart with harlots And offer sacrifices with temple prostitutes; So the people without understanding are ruined.

NASB

·         Here the Lord says that He will not punish the daughters or brides for their immorality, because the blame for their acts lies somewhere else.

·         The men themselves, the fathers and teachers of their families, were guilty.

·         God says that ignorance excuses no one. 

·         Israel was not judged because they had become harlots, but because they had turned from the living and true God.