Hosea 9:10-17

REPROVINGISRAEL FOLLOWED BAAL

TEXT: Hosea 9:10-17

10

I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the first-figs in the fig-tree at its first season: but they came to Baal-peor, and consecrated unto the shameful thing, and become abominable like that which they loved.

11

As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird: there shall be no birth, and none with child, and no conception.

12

Though they bring up their children, yet will I bereave them, so that not a man shall be left: yea, woe also to them when I depart from them!

13

Ephraim, like as I have seen Type, is planted in a pleasant place: but Ephraim shall bring out his children to the slayer.

14

Give them, O Jehovah: what wilt thou give? give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts,

15

All their wickedness is in Gilgal; for there I hated them: because of the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of my house; I will love them no more; all their princes are revolters.

16

Ephraim is smitten, their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit; yea, though they bring forth, yet will I slay the beloved fruit of their womb.

17

My God will cast them away, because they did not hearken unto him; and they shall be wanderers among the nations.

QUERIES

a.

What does Hosea portray by the figure grapes in the wilderness?

b.

Does Hosea mean in Hosea 9:11 that not a single child would ever again be born to a woman of Israel?

c.

Why did Hosea say (Hosea 9:15) that all their wickedness is in Gilgal?

PARAPHRASE

Oh Israel, how well I remember those first delightful days when I found you so helpless and dependent upon Me. Your love was as refreshing to Me as juicy grapes would be to a thirsty desert traveler or as satisfying as the early fruit on the fig-tree. But then you deserted Me for Baal, the god of Peor, and so thoroughly devoted yourselves to this shameful thing you became as foul and abominable as it was. Ephraim, your glorious fruitfulness will fly away like a bird. Whereas you previously produced many bright and prosperous offspring, your licentious worship of luxury will be punished by childlessness and destruction of any youths who might be born through wars, famine and pestilence. I chose Ephraim to be like Tyre, planted in a fertile, pleasant place, to grow to become a strong, rich and powerful nation. But now, for Ephraim's apostacy, I will give it up to desolation and its sons to death by the sword. Yes, indeed, give them, Oh Lordgive them wombs that miscarry and breasts that cannot nourish. Gilgal is the major source of all their wickedness, and I hate what goes on there. Because of their wickedness I will expel them from the fellowship of covenant relationship with Me. My love and blessings I withdraw from them. All their governing-men are government-destroyers! Israel is doomed. Her roots are dried up and she can no longer furnish nourishment to the tree. She shall bear no more fruit. Even if they bear children, I will cause these beloved children to die. My God will destroy the people of Israel because they will not listen or obey. They will be homeless vagabonds wandering among the nations.

SUMMARY

Israel, so pleasing to God when He delivered her from Egypt, became as abominable as the licentious, pagan religions she adopted. God will dispossess her and make her to become a vagabond people.

COMMENT

Hosea 9:10 I FOUND ISRAEL LIKE GRAPES IN THE WILDERNESS. BUT THEY CAME TO BAAL-PEOR. AND BECAME ABOMINABLE LIKE THAT WHICH THEY LOVED. Israel's faith and obedience and love to Jehovah when He first chose them while they were still in Egypt was refreshing to God. Their love to Him was as pleasing as juicy grapes or fresh figs would be to a tired, thirsty, hungry traveler in the desert. Other prophets speak of God's pleasure with early Israel (cf. Exodus 19:8; Exodus 24:3-7; Deuteronomy 5:27-29; Jeremiah 2:2-3).

But, alas, what a change came over this people! They allowed themselves to be deceived by sin (Hebrews 3:12-14). They had devoted themselves, heart and soul to Jehovah at Horeb; but the allurement of sensuality and materialism had led them to devote themselves heart and soul to Baalism (for a description of Baal worship see our comments on Hosea 2:8; Hosea 2:13; Hosea 2:17; and Hosea 4:12-13). The lasciviousness and abominable excesses that accompanied Baalism must have been great to deserve the extreme treatment sanctioned by God in Numbers 25:1-18. Israel kept flirting with Baalism from then on (cf. Judges 2:11; 1 Kings 16:31; 2 Kings 10:19; 2 Kings 21:3; Jeremiah 2:8; Jeremiah 19:5; Jeremiah 23:13; Jeremiah 23:27).

When people consecrate themselves to any person, thing or idea, it is a moral law that they become like that which they love. One cannot love without imitating (cf. Ephesians 5:1-2 in RSV; Philippians 2:5-8; Colossians 3:1-13; Hebrews 12:1-8; 1 Peter 2:21; 1 John 3:1-24; 2 Corinthians 3:18). When men worship idols and animals, they behave like dumb images and sensual animals (cf. Romans 1:18 ff). It is undeniably correct that Adolph Hitler's infatuation with and adoration of Friedrich Nietzsche's evolutionary philosophy transformed the little corporal into the insane, savage executioner of Europe. Karl Marx's religion of materialism and humanism has given the world the Kremlin criminals and the Peking pirates. As one ancient has put it, The object which the will desires and loves, transfuses its own goodness or badness into it (cf. Psalms 115:4-8). Man, without God, makes a god in his own image and likeness, the essence and concentration of his own bad passions, and then conforms himself to the likeness of what was most evil in himself. Thus the heathen made gods of lust, cruelty, thirst for war. Then, fooling themselves, they deliberately forgot that these gods were the work of their own hands, the conception of their own minds, and fearfully and passionately imitated and obeyed them; Augustine wrote, ... what a man's love is, that he is. Naught else maketh good or evil actions, save good affections. Love has a transforming power over the soul, which the intellect has not. Tell me what a man loves with all his heart and I will tell you about the man. There is a Jewish proverb which says, He who serveth an abomination is himself an abomination. One of the early church fathers wrote, The intellect brings home to the soul the knowledge on which it worketh, impresses it on itself, incorporates it with itself. Love is an impulse whereby he who loves is borne forth towards that which he loves, is united with it, and is transformed into it.

Hosea 9:11 AS FOR EPHRAIM, THEIR GLORY SHALL FLY AWAY LIKE A BIRD. Israel had gloried in her continued existence when empire after empire, race after race, nation after nation had long since disappeared. God had protected, sustained and increased Israel's economy, her territory and, most important of all, her youth. Israel was proud of all this and boasted that all this was due to her progressive, liberal attitude. She probably attributed all her prosperity, like America today, to her own human goodness and intelligence in breaking away from all the old, outdated, irrelevant mores of her ancestors. What an awakening Israel was soon to have! All that she gloried in would soon fly away like a bird.

Hosea very evidently did not mean that God would bring about absolute execution of every single baby born to any Israelite mother, for in Hosea 9:17 he prophesies that they shall become wanderers among the nations. What he means is that since they took great pride in their numbers, they would be reduced in every stage from conception to ripened manhood, (cf. Deuteronomy 28:58; Deuteronomy 28:62).

Hosea 9:12. YET WILL I BEREAVE THEM, SO THAT NOT A MAN SHALL BE LEFT. The populace of Israel shall be decimated in all stages, even those in the prime of manhood would be taken away by death, war, epidemic, etc.

Hosea 9:13 EPHRAIM, LIKE AS I HAVE SEEN TYRE. God blessed Israel and gave her a favored place in which to dwell and prospered her so that she became rich and powerful, like Tyre (cf. Ezekiel 27:32 -Ezekiel 28:19). But, like Tyre, she also became self-sufficient, proud, boastful, and so God's justice must fall (cf. Isaiah 28:1-4). How often those with the advantages and privileges graciously provided by God misuse and pervert those privileges! Israel was privileged for a purpose. She was planted in a pleasant place in order to be salt unto the nations, and light to the pagan darkness. But she turned her pleasant place into the abode of the selfish and sensual. So now God decrees that she shall bring her children out to the slayer.

Hosea 9:14 GIVE THEM, O JEHOVAH: WHAT WILT THOU GIVE?. This is an expression of the agony in the soul of Hosea (like the lamentations of Jeremiah) over the impending doom of his countrymen. However, he surrenders, interrupting his wail of mourning with agreement to the pronouncement of God.

Hosea 9:15 ALL THEIR WICKEDNESS IS IN GILGAL. This may have been a different Gilgal than the one two miles from Jericho where Joshua's army first camped, Some think the Gilgal mentioned in this verse was near Shechem. Gilgal was certainly not the first place Israel sinned, therefore we cannot interpret this verse to mean that God began His hate for Israel's sin at this place. Gilgal simply became another source for His terrible hate because it was another place where Israel's sin was flagrantly and blatantly practiced. The phrase I will drive them out of my house. is simply another way of saying I will cut them off from covenant relationship with Me. Israel is no longer an heir, a son in the house of God. The covenant-love of God is no longer their privilege for they have withdrawn themselves from His covenant by rejecting and disobeying it. They do not want God's lovethey shall not have it! They can do without God's lovethey shall have the opportunity to try! They are like the prodigal son (Luke 15). God never really stopped loving themthey stopped loving God and preferred that He stop loving them. They are left to the only other alternative in this morally-governed existenceself, sin, separation from good (cf. Jeremiah 16:5).

The phrase all their princes are revolters. is a pun! The men who claimed to be governors and for government were really responsible for all the anarchy and injustice then prevalent! What irony!

Hosea 9:16 EPHRAIM. IS DRIED UP. THEY SHALL BEAR NO FRUIT. The very roots of Israel are dried up and since there is no nourishment being furnished the tree it is good for nothing but to be cut down (cf. Luke 13:7). Even if Israel should bear fruit it would be as worthless as the tree and would be plucked off and thrown away. Only the people whose roots are drawing from the word of God will produce a tree planted by the rivers of water. bringing forth his fruit in his season. (Psalms 1:1-6).

Hosea 9:17. THEY SHALL BE WANDERERS AMONG THE NATIONS. According to the warning God had given their ancestors centuries ago by Moses (Deuteronomy 28:65), Israel would be cast into the midst of the nations, forever after to be a race of homeless vagabonds. And it is true to this day! There are more Jews in New York City than in all of Palestine! They have wandered all over the world. There are Jews in Russia, Germany, Italy, America, Canada, France and practically every other country under the sun today!

QUIZ

1.

How and why do people become like the person or thing they love?

2.

In what did Ephraim glory? and how did God take it away?

3.

How was Israel like Tyre?

4.

What happens when men reject the love of God?

5.

Does the new nation of Israel established by the U.N. mean the wanderings of the Jews are over?