Hosea 5

CHAPTER 5THEME: Israel turns from God and God turns from IsraelThis chapter continues to deal with the sin of the northern kingdom and the fact that judgment is coming upon them; therefore it is not a very happy or pleasant section of the Word of God. We must keep in mind the personal background of the prophet Hosea. As a young man, he fell in love with a very lovely, beautiful young lady who became a prostitute. I imagine that she was attracted to prostitution by the money, by the fact that she would be able to get the luxuries that she otherwise could not have had. God sent Hosea to marry her in spite of this. He loved her and married her. After she had borne three children, again she played the harlot.

And again Hosea went after herhe bought her and brought her back to himself. Hosea had a broken heart and a broken home. With that background, he said to the northern kingdom of Israel, “God says that you are playing the harlot, that you have been unfaithful to Him. I know exactly how He feels. He loves you and will never let you go, but He is going to judge you because of your sin.”

Hosea 5:1

ISRAEL TURNS FROM GOD AND GOD TURNS FROM ISRAELGod begins by condemning the leadership in the nationthe priests and the king. “Mizpah” was in the southwest section of the kingdom, and “Tabor” is Mount Tabor which was way up in the northeast section of the kingdom. In other words, the people were worshiping idols under every green tree they could findthere were idols all over the land. He speaks to the priests and to the king as representing the leadership of the nation. We saw in chapter 4 that God said, “Like people, like priest.” The priests who should have been setting an example were unable to rise above the level of the lowest man in society; that was true of the king also. Unfortunately, we are living in a day in which our spiritual and political leadership is certainly not worthy of emulation. Liberalism is predominant in theology; liberalism is predominant in politics; and our news media are altogether liberal. Spiritual deterioration and decline in a nation will eventually bring it to destruction. That is what happened to Israel, and that nation furnishes a pattern for what can happen to us today.

Hosea 5:2

God rebuked Israel for their brutalitythere was murder, there was violence, and there was warfare. It is my conviction that the United States is today feeling the effects of God’s judgment upon us. In Vietnam we fought perhaps the most disgraceful war that was ever fought, and we did so against the warnings of generals who said that we should never fight a land war in Asia. We made a terrible blunder by getting involved in that, and what has happened in that land is tragic. Did we help them? I think not, and the judgment of God is upon us and, actually, upon the white man.

This has been called “the white man’s day,” and it certainly has been that. Earlier in history it was the sons of Ham who headed up the great pagan civilizations of Egypt, Babylon, and Assyria. However, it is the sons of Japheth, the white man, who has made the greatest blunder of all, and that is this: We have had the Word of God, the Bible, and we have not sent missionaries as we should have done. We did too little in getting the Word of God out to China, and God closed the doorI say God, not communism, closed the door. We did not send Bibles to Vietnam; we sent bullets and bombs over there. Because we did not send men to give out the Word of God, we had to send boys to die on the battlefield.

We ought to wake up today to the fact that we cannot take God to the end of His universe and dismiss Him and tell Him we do not need Him anymore. We are feeling the effects of His judgment upon us, just as Israel did.

Hosea 5:3

I have said previously that I think “Ephraim” is a pet name that God chose for the nation Israel. Although it was the name of just one of the tribes, He used it to represent all ten of the northern tribes. But I think there is a second reason that God chose Ephraim to represent all of the northern kingdom: Ephraim was the very center of idolatry in Israel. The first golden calf was set up by Jeroboam in Bethel; later on, a second one was set up in Samaria. Both of these places were in the tribe of EphraimBethel was probably in the tribe of Benjamin, but that area revolted with Ephraim and the rest of the northern kingdom. Ephraim was the very heart of idolatry, and idolatry was the great sin of the nation Israel. “I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me: for now, O Ephraim, thou committest whoredom, and Israel is defiled.” God knows what He is talking about. Although the calf worship, or the worship of Baal, had been set up in the tribe of Ephraim, it had defiled all ten of the tribes and even had had its effect upon the southern kingdom. Their sin was the sin of a people who had the Word of God and who knew God but had turned from Him and no longer knew Him or worshiped Him. As a result, gross immorality and deterioration set in throughout every part of the nation, affecting even the ecology of the nation. God said that even the land and the animals were affected, and I think the curse of God is still upon that land today. What little irrigation has been done has not yet made the “…desert …blossom as the rose” (Isa_35:1).

Hosea 5:5

God is saying that all ten tribes will be conquered, and “Judah also shall fall with them,” but He does not say, “at the same time.” However, Judah was finally brought down, and both of these kingdoms were carried away into captivity. The northern kingdom was carried into captivity by Assyria; about a century later, the southern kingdom was taken to Babylon. From that captivity there has never actually been the return to the land which the Word of God speaks about. This Book of Hosea makes it abundantly clear that when God brings them back, the world will know it, and there will be peace in the land.

Hosea 5:6

In other words, the people have deserted God, but when trouble comes upon them and after they have tried every other resource, they will turn to God. God is their last resource, but they will not find Him because He has withdrawn Himself from them. For many people, turning to God is the last resort. There is told the story of a ship which was crossing the Atlantic years ago, and the ship hit an iceberg. The captain sent out the order all over the ship. “To prayers, to prayers!” One woman on board the ship came rushing up to the captain and said, “Captain, has it come to this?” She was implying that if they were going to pray, they had come to the last resort. That is the way many people treat God. To them He is like a spare tire which they have on hand but are always hoping they won’t have to use. Or He is like a life insurance policy or a fire extinguisheryou hope you never have to use them but they are there just in case the emergency arises.

Hosea 5:7

“For they have begotten strange children"that is, they are strange to God. The people did not bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, in the discipline and instruction of the Lord. Back in the Book of Deuteronomy God told His people that they were to be continually teaching His Word to their children. They were to put it on the doorposts and teach it as they sat in their homes and as they walked together and even when they were going to bed at night. But now He says, “You have begotten strange childrenthey don’t even know Me.”

Hosea 5:8

“Beth-aven” is Bethel. That part of the tribe of Benjamin had apparently revolted with the northern kingdom. God is saying here that the word of warning is to go out over all the land and to all the people.

Hosea 5:9

In other words, God had not failed to warn the people. He had warned them, He had rebuked them, and they still would not hear.

Hosea 5:10

The southern kingdom had apparently attempted to move its boundaries as far north as it possibly could, and there evidently was a real division caused by the fact that the two nations could not agree on the boundary. God had a message through Hosea for the southern kingdom as well, although he primarily was a prophet to the northern kingdom.

Hosea 5:11

Ephraim willingly followed the idols and the worship of idolshe went with the crowd.

Hosea 5:12

The prophets use figures of speech which are quite interesting. There is great profit in studying the prophets, if I may make a play on words, because they reach out into nature and use certain figures of speech which are helpful to us in understanding the Word of God. “Therefore will I be unto Ephraim as a moth.” What does a moth do? A moth can get into your closet, and if you do not have mothballs in there, it can ruin a suit of clothes. The story is told about the man who had bought some mothballs at a drugstore but brought them back, saying they didn’t work. When the druggist asked him what he meant, the man said, “I stayed up half the night throwing these balls at the moths, but I never hit one of them!” My friend, moths are something you do not want in your closet, because in just one night they can ruin a very valuable wool garment. God says, “I am going to be to Ephraim like a moth; I will judge him in a hurry.” “And to the house of Judah as rottenness.” It takes a wooden board or a wooden foundation of a house a long time to become rotten. God has said to Ephraim, the northern kingdom, “I’m going to judge you now. However, in the southern kingdom rottenness is also setting in, and, finally, it will collapsebut it will take longer for that to take place.” Our foundations are being removed in every way imaginable in our nation today, and rottenness has already begun in that which is left. It may take a while, my friend, but we cannot continue in sin like we are and expect to escape God’s judgment. The situation is enough to make us weep today.

Hosea 5:13

“When Ephraim saw his sickness"Ephraim was sick, sick nigh unto death. “And Judah saw his wound"Judah was hurt at this time also, because Assyria had come against them but did not take them into captivity. “Then went Ephraim to the Assyrian, and sent to king Jareb: yet could he not heal you, nor cure you of your wound.” Ephraim went to a quack doctor. They thought that the king of Assyria would help them, but he is the one who took them into captivitythey appealed for help to the wrong one.

Hosea 5:14

Here is another marvelous figure of speech. God says, “To Ephraim I am going to be as a lion, but to the southern kingdom I am going to be a young lion, a lion cub.” The other evening I was watching on television a nature picture about lions. It showed how the mother lion protects her cubs. One of those little fellows looked just like a great big roly-poly catI wished I could have one as a pet. But that mother lion was vicious, especially when another animal would come near her cubs. She would really go after that animal, and the little cubs would just keep on playing.

God said to the northern kingdom that He was going to be a lionHe intended to destroy them. To the southern kingdom He was going to be just a lion cub. But what happens to a lion cub? He grows up and some day is just as vicious as his mama. This was a warning to the southern kingdom that some day judgment was coming to them also. “I, even I, will tear and go away; I will take away, and none shall rescue him.” God was going to let Ephraim go into captivity, and they could whine and cry all they wanted to, but He would not rescue them. God judged their sin. God judges sin even todayno one is really getting by with it. We have failed our young people today. Venereal disease is in epidemic stages, and we say, “What in the world is happening?” I’ll tell you what is happening: God says you do not get by with sinHe is judging sin, and He will continue to judge sin, my friend.

Hosea 5:15

Although this has been a doleful chapter entirely about judgment, it closes here with a note of hope. The time will come when Israel will again seek God, but He will not deliver them until they turn to Him.