Hosea 9

CHAPTER 9THEME: Israel turns to land productivityAt this time Israel was beginning to look to prosperity as the indication that everything was all right in the nation. In other words, they were trying to increase the value of their money, and they were attempting to increase the production of the land. But God said that they were nothing but a backsliding heifer. He had blessed them with prosperity, and that had blinded them to the reality of their spiritual condition. In fact, they are right on the verge of captivity, which was the judgment of God.

Hosea 9:1

“Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, as other people"they were sinning more and enjoying it less. “For thou hast gone a-whoring from thy God.” God says, “You have played the harlot.” “Thou hast loved a reward upon every cornfloor.” In other words, Israel was trying to increase their production, but instead it became a judgment upon them. The stock market was up, and there was abundance. The shelves of the supermarket were groaning with food; there was plenty of liquor to be bought, plenty of wine, all of which deceived Israel. Our nation today has also been deceived by prosperity. We are finding out that these great big combines, these large corporations, are probably not the blessing that we thought at one time they would be. Even farming is often done by large corporations. However, the important thing today is the stock market. Certainly the stock market is more important to our nation than are the Scriptures. That was what was happening in Israelthere was a false prosperity in the land, and they were far from dependent upon God. I believe that one of the methods God has used to judge the United States is that He has judged us with prosperity. After World War II, I predicted that we were going to have to suffer as the other nations had suffered during the war. We did not have any bombing as did England, France, Germany, and Japan. We escaped all that, but I felt at the time that God would judge us somehow. After the war we became the most prosperous nation in the world, and it seemed a contradiction of the statements I was making. It took me about ten years to see what God was doing.

God judged us with prosperity, and that is what He did to Israel. He said, “I have provided everything for you, and you’re giving credit to your own ingenuity and your own ability. You’re a proud people, and you’re not looking to Me nor giving Me credit at all.” That is the picture of Israel and, my friend, that just happens to be a picture of my nation since World War II.

Hosea 9:2

In other words, there is going to be scarcity rather than abundance.

Hosea 9:3

“They shall not dwell in the LORD’S land.” God makes it clear that He is going to put them out of the land. Although He said He would never forget His covenants with Abraham, Moses, and David, Israel’s tenure in the land always depended on their obedience to God. Now He is going to put them out of the land. “And they shall eat unclean things in Assyria.” The people had been turning from God and breaking His law. Now God says, “I’m really going to give you a diet of unclean things.” They are not going to have any more funthey were sinning more, but enjoying it less. I am of the opinion that that is true of a great many people today. I talked once with a man in some meetings in the East, who said to me, “The reason I came tonight, Dr. McGee, is that I’ve tried everything in this world, and I am so sick of sin, just sick of it.” He was sinning more, but enjoying it less, and that was what finally brought that man to Christ.

Hosea 9:4

Many of them went down into the land of Egypt following the captivity. Out of the land, they could not worship God as He intended them to.

Hosea 9:7

Israel had lost its way spiritually. Why? Because of the leadership. When I started out to study for the ministry, the big debate in the church in this country was between what was then known as fundamentalism and modernism. Modernism espoused the social gospel. They were the do-gooders, and they claimed they had a high ethical standard. Frankly, I was inclined to agree with them because I found that many fundamentalists didn’t operate on high ethics. It disturbed me a great deal to think that the liberals had one strike on us in that connection. But I watched them carefully and found that they didn’t really have a high ethical standard. Hosea said it, and you can blame it on him; he said, “The prophet is a fool.” For example, there was a young man who attended Yale and had there an outstanding liberal preacher who taught ethics. This preacher taught young men to burn their draft cardsand that’s against the law. In certain protest meetings he taught and espoused that there is a higher law than the law of the land. The young man heard these things and thought, Well, if that’s ethics, then I will follow that. He was led into very serious trouble because of such teaching. May I say to you, liberalism has lost even its moral standard today. I was in Portland, Oregon, at the time it was discovered through the testimony of a policewoman that the place where the young people were getting narcotics was run by the liberal churches. Hosea said, “The prophet is a fool"he has led the nation astray. Liberalism is also responsible for the policy this nation followed after World War II, and the trouble we are in today is a trouble that has been produced by liberalism. I will say this, fundamentalism may act fanatically at times, but the fact of the matter is that fundamentalism did not lead this country into the trouble we are in today. Before I even entered seminary I listened to men like Dr. Harry Ironside, Dr. Harry Rimmer, and Dr. Arthur Brown, and I heard my liberal professors and preachers call them fanatics. But what those men said and preached is true today, and the things I was taught by those liberal professors are not true at allit just didn’t work out the way they said. Israel had turned their backs on God, and judgment was coming because of it. They had no spiritual discernment. It is the ignorance of the Word of God that disturbs me about our nation today. We receive many letters from people who are coming out of various cults and “isms"and we rejoice in thatbut how did they get trapped in all of these groups? There is only one explanation: ignorance of the Word of God and lack of spiritual discernment. God said that He intended to judge Israel, and that should be an illustration to any nation which makes a pretense of being a Christian nation.

Hosea 9:8

“The watchman of Ephraim was with my God"evidently there were a few fanatical fundamentalists around in that day warning the people of the coming judgment. “But the prophet is a snare of a fowler.” That is harsh language, and I would never use that kind of language to speak of the liberal today. However, I do believe that liberalism is in control in my day, especially over the news media. They have sacred cows known as freedom of the press and freedom of speech, but they allow the fundamentalists very little freedom, I can assure you of that. Liberalismwhether it is in politics, the news media, or in the pulpitis a snare; it is like a trap, and it brainwashes people. As a result, this nation has been in trouble ever since World War II. It is time someone made the diagnosis and gave the prognosis of the case: the problem is that we have turned from God as a nation.

God has become a big swear word in Washington, D.C. His name is often used in the form of blasphemy but seldom in the form of prayer or in worship of Him.

Hosea 9:9

There are no ifs, ands, or buts about itGod intends to judge sin. Maybe you don’t like it, but that is what He says: He intends to judge sin.

Hosea 9:10

The vine and the fig tree are symbols of the nation Israel which are used throughout the Word of God. Israel not only established calf worship in both Samaria and Beth-el, but, under Ahab and Jezebel, they also brought in the prophets of Baal.

Hosea 9:11

Have you ever been duck hunting and spent the cold hours of the morning in a duck trap or in a boat out on the lake? Then right before the sun comes up and you can finally start shooting, someone else out there fires a gun, and every duck on the lake and anywhere nearby takes off! You just sit there and watch them fly away. That is the picture of the glory of Ephraimit was departing. This nation had made a tremendous impact upon the ancient world, but its glory was flying away like a bird.

Hosea 9:12

This is another judgment which God was going to bring upon them. God had promised Abraham not only to give him the land but also to multiply his seed. God had said that Abraham’s seed would be like the sand on the seashore and like the stars in the heavens. God made good that promise, but now the people have sinned and He says, “You’re going to have a real decline in your birthrate as part of My judgment upon you.” “Not be a man left” is not a declaration that God would completely wipe out the population, but that there would be no man left who would stand for God.

Hosea 9:13

“Tyrus” is Tyre. God had not yet judged Tyre, and it was at that time a great commercial center. Its prosperity was like a fever, and it had caught on in the northern kingdom which also became a commercial center. There was a false prosperity in the land, and the people were deceived by it.

Hosea 9:14

Their women were barren. It was the judgment of God upon them.

Hosea 9:15

In other words, God says to them, “Their sin in Gilgal brought My judgment upon them, although I loved them. This should be a warning to you. I will judge you again, and you will come to the conclusion that I do not love you anymore.”

Hosea 9:16

God’s judgment was to come not only upon the fruit of the ground, but also on the birth of children.

Hosea 9:17

God says that He intends to cast them out and that they would be “wanderers among the nations.” The ten tribes as such did not return after the captivity. It is true that they came back with Judah as a mixture, and they spread throughout the land. In fact, we find Joseph and Mary who were members of the tribe of Judah living way up in Galilee. There was a tremendous scattering even in the land when they returned after the Babylonian captivity, so that today most Jews could not tell you to which tribe they belong.