Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

“Hear this, you priests!
    Pay attention, you Israelites!
Listen, royal house!
    This judgment is against you:
You have been a snare at Mizpah,
    a net spread out on Tabor.
The rebels are knee-deep in slaughter.
    I will discipline all of them.
I know all about Ephraim;
    Israel is not hidden from me.
Ephraim, you have now turned to prostitution;
    Israel is corrupt.
“Their deeds do not permit them
    to return to their God.
A spirit of prostitution is in their heart;
    they do not acknowledge the Lord.
Israel’s arrogance testifies against them;
    the Israelites, even Ephraim, stumble in their sin;
    Judah also stumbles with them.
When they go with their flocks and herds
    to seek the Lord,
they will not find him;
    he has withdrawn himself from them.
They are unfaithful to the Lord;
    they give birth to illegitimate children.
When they celebrate their New Moon feasts,
    he will devour their fields.
“Sound the trumpet in Gibeah,
    the horn in Ramah.
Raise the battle cry in Beth Aven;
    lead on, Benjamin.
Ephraim will be laid waste
    on the day of reckoning.
Among the tribes of Israel
    I proclaim what is certain.
Judah’s leaders are like those
    who move boundary stones.
I will pour out my wrath on them
    like a flood of water.
Ephraim is oppressed,
    trampled in judgment,
    intent on pursuing idols.
I am like a moth to Ephraim,
    like rot to the people of Judah.
“When Ephraim saw his sickness,
    and Judah his sores,
then Ephraim turned to Assyria,
    and sent to the great king for help.
But he is not able to cure you,
    not able to heal your sores.
For I will be like a lion to Ephraim,
    like a great lion to Judah.
I will tear them to pieces and go away;
    I will carry them off, with no one to rescue them.
Then I will return to my lair
    until they have borne their guilt
    and seek my face—
in their misery
    they will earnestly seek me.”

• Hosea 5:1-15

Noted Biblical Scholars, Teachers, and Preachers Comments

Hosea 4:1-5:7 ‘Dates in Hosea’s Ministry’: “The names of five kings indicate the historical period during which Hosea prophesied. According to Hos. 1:1, his ministry is dated by the reign of Israel’s Jeroboam II (793–753 B.C.), and by Judah’s kings Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. The total period of the Judahite kings was from about 792 to 686 B.C., although there is no reason to believe Hosea’s ministry extended past the fall of Israel in 722 B.C.
“The words of Hosea are not arranged in the book chronologically, but rather by thematic and poetic connections. Moreover, it is almost impossible to suggest a chronology for Hosea’s oracles, since they are vague concerning their historical context. Most could apply to any of a number of historical situations. Knowing some details about the last years of the northern kingdom, however, does help to illuminate a few of Hosea’s many obscure passages.
“The account of Hosea’s unhappy marriage (Hos. 1–3) traces Israel’s apostasy from Yahweh, and serves as an introduction to the themes and language of the book. This section is followed by a statement of God’s charges against Israel (4:1–5:7), which possibly reflects the political stability and prosperity of the last years of Jeroboam’s rule up to 753 B.C. As already indicated by Hosea’s contemporary Amos (see Amos 1:1), the people had become complacent and comfortable with the social inequality and religious apostasy of their time (Hos. 2:8; 4:11–13).”

• Timothy B. Cargal, et al., The Chronological Study Bible

Hosea 5:1 ‘starting with Israel’s leaders’: “Israel’s impending judgment would start with the priests and the king, the two primary entities of covenant leadership. The failure of Israel’s leaders negatively affected the people. Hosea referred to Mizpah (a site on Samuel’s circuit of judging; see 1Sa 7:5–11) and Tabor (a famous mountain in north central Palestine, south of the Lebanese border) as two places where evil was perpetrated.”

• Dorothy Kelley Patterson, General Editor, NIV Woman’s Study Bible (Karen H. Jobes, Minor Prophets contributor)

Hosea 5:2 ‘rebuking brutality’: “God rebuked Israel for their brutality—there 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 door—I 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.”

• J. Vernon McGee, Thru the Bible, Vol III, Proverbs to Malachi

Hosea 5:3-4 ‘I know Ephraim, they cannot hide’: “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 Beth-el; later on, a second one was set up in Samaria. Both of these places were in the tribe of Ephraim—Beth-el 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).”

• J. Vernon McGee, Thru the Bible, Vol III, Proverbs to Malachi

Hosea 5:5 ‘pride of Israel testifies to his face’: “Israel’s pride in idolatry provided self-incrimination (cf. 7:10).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Hosea 5:6 ‘The Lord withdrew – losing the hedge of protection’: “The Lord withdrew from his people. The judgment here was complete. In vain Israel would seek the Lord; he would withdraw from them. The futility of their idolatrous devotion with all its sacrifices was profound. The people sought God’s favor through sacrifices, here symbolized in the two words ‘flocks’ (small cattle like sheep and goats) and ‘herds’ (larger cattle such as cows and oxen). However, true faith involved the heart’s devotion and not just outward ritual.”

• Dorothy Kelley Patterson, General Editor, NIV Woman’s Study Bible (Karen H. Jobes, Minor Prophets contributor)

Hosea 5:7 ‘begotten strange children’: “’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 children—they don’t even know Me.’”

• J. Vernon McGee, Thru the Bible, Vol III, Proverbs to Malachi

Hosea 5:8-6:11 ‘Hosea and Assyria’: “During the 30 years from the end of Jeroboam’s reign in 753 B.C. to Samaria’s fall in 722, the situation in northern Israel changed drastically. Political life suffered a rapid change of rulers occasioned by intrigue and assassinations. A resurgent Assyria, in successive attacks, succeeded in stripping away more and more of Israel’s territory.
“Some of Hosea’s oracles may reflect the confusion of this time. In 743 B.C. Tiglath-Pileser III of Assyria campaigned against the Syro-Palestinian states. Israel under King Pekah (752–732 B.C.) joined Aram (Syria), hoping to stop the Assyrian advance. Pekah and Aram also pressured Judah to join them, prompting the Syro-Ephraimite War from 735 to 732 B.C. (see Is. 7:1). Both Judah and Israel (called ‘Ephraim’) suffer, fighting each other (Hos. 5:10–14).”

• Timothy B. Cargal, et al., The Chronological Study Bible

Hosea 5:8 ‘ram’s horn’: ”The soundings of the ram’s horn and trumpet were standard warning systems that alerted the people working in the fields to take protection behind the city walls and get ready for battle. Hosea furnished his audience with a glimpse of the doom about to overtake them in the form of an attack from Assyria.”

• Dorothy Kelley Patterson, General Editor, NIV Woman’s Study Bible (Karen H. Jobes, Minor Prophets contributor)

Hosea 5:10 ‘remove a landmark’: “Boundaries, marked by stones, could be easily moved at night. Moving them was tantamount to stealing land from a neighbor (cf. Deut. 19:14; 27:17; Prov. 22:28; 23:10). Worse, Israel’s leaders were moving spiritual lines established by God (cf. v. 11).”

• John MacArthur, John MacArthur Commentary (quoted Scripture without bold/italics)

Hosea 5:11 ‘willful sin’: “Ephraim willingly followed the idols and the worship of idols—he went with the crowd.”

• J. Vernon McGee, Thru the Bible, Vol III, Proverbs to Malachi

Hosea 5:12 ‘Quote – Jill Briscoe’: “God promises to make the vale of trouble a door of hope.”

• Dorothy Kelley Patterson, General Editor, NIV Woman’s Study Bible (Karen H. Jobes, Minor Prophets contributor)

Hosea 5:13 ‘picture of a sinner’: “Here we have a picture of the sinner when he has partially discovered his lost estate. But it is only a partial discovery.
“Many people have got just far enough to know something is the matter with them. They don’t know they are totally ruined, though they do feel all is not right with them. They are conscious that they are not perfect, not even up to their own low standard of decency-hence they begin to be uneasy. They still seem to think they can make themselves better and that by degrees of reformation and daily prayer they will become superior to what they are. They have not yet learned the doctrine of the fall, the deep depravity of mankind, the total perversion of the human heart. They have only gotten so far as some modern ministers who speak of man as being a little marred but not entirely broken-as having had a fall and become somewhat damaged, and rather spoiled as to outward beauty, though not altogether ruined or incapable of raising himself up and recovering his strength. They still cling with some hope to their own devices.”

• Charles H. Spurgeon, from sermon notes

Hosea 5:13 ‘day of judgment’: “In the day of judgment, Ephraim’s immediate response was to seek aid not from God but from the king of Assyria. King Jareb (lit. ‘great king’) is a reference to the king of Assyria, possibly Tiglath-Pileser III…”

• Dorothy Kelley Patterson, General Editor, NIV Woman’s Study Bible (Karen H. Jobes, Minor Prophets contributor)

Hosea 5:13, 14:3 ‘Israel’s Kings’: “Hoshea (732–722 B.C.) was the last king of northern Israel. He led a pro-Assyrian conspiracy against Israel’s king Pekah, assassinating him and seizing the throne himself (2 Kin. 15:30). At first Israel, under Hoshea, became a vassal of Assyria (Hos. 5:13; 14:3). Sometime after the death of the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser III in 727 B.C., Hoshea stopped paying tribute and turned to Egypt for help (2 Kin. 17:4). The prophet Hosea warns that an alliance with Egypt will be of no avail (Hos. 7:11, 16).”

• Timothy B. Cargal, et al., The Chronological Study Bible

Hosea 5:14 ‘protecting or attacking like a lion’: “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 cat—I 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 lion—He 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 today—no 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 sin—He is judging sin, and He will continue to judge sin, my friend.”

• J. Vernon McGee, Thru the Bible, Vol III, Proverbs to Malachi

Hosea 5:15-6:3 ‘Prerequisite of the Second Coming’: “In 5:1-14, Hosea spells out a broad sweep of prophecy that has now been fulfilled. In this prophecy, sometimes the focus is on Judah, sometimes it is on Israel, and sometimes it is on both. This overview includes what was fulfilled through the Assyrian captivity, the Babylonian captivity, and the events of A.D. 70.
“God, who does all the speaking throughout chapter 5 of Hosea, concludes by saying in verse 15, ‘I will go away and return to My place until they acknowledge their guilt and seek My face; in their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.’
“There are certain presuppositions behind the understanding of this verse. Before anyone can return to a place, he must first leave it. In this passage, God states that He is going to go back to “my place,” which is heaven. Before God can go back to heaven, He must first leave it. The question is, When did God ever leave heaven? At the incarnation, in the Person of Jesus of Nazareth. Then, because of one specific offense (the word is singular) committed against Him, God returned to heaven at the ascension from the Mount of Olives. Hosea 5:15 further states that God will not come back to the earth until the offense that caused Him to return to heaven is acknowledged or confessed.
“What is that Jewish national offense com-mitted against the Person of Jesus? This does not refer to killing Him, for the actual killing of Jesus was done by Gentile, not Jewish, hands. He was condemned and sentenced by a Gentile judge. He was crucified by Gentile soldiers. But all this is ultimately irrelevant, for regardless of Jewish acceptance or Jewish rejection, Jesus would have had to die anyway to become the sacrifice for sin. The national offense of Israel was the rejection of His messiahship. According to Hosea 5:15, only when this offense is acknowledged or confessed will Messiah return to the earth.
“Note that Hosea 5:15 concludes with a warning: ‘In their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.’ The term ‘affliction’ is one of the common Old Testament names for the Tribulation in general and Armageddon in particular. Indeed, in the context of Armageddon, the Jewish people will begin to search for the Messiah earnestly. There are two prerequisites, then, to the second coming: First, there must be the confession of Israel’s national sin (Leviticus 26:40-42; Jeremiah 3:11-18); and second, there must be a pleading for the Messiah to return (Zechariah 12:10; Matthew 23:37-39).
“This will take place when the armies of the Antichrist are at the city of Bozrah, in the last three days of the campaign of Armageddon.
“The first three verses of Hosea 6 are actually a continuation of Hosea 5 and contain the acknowledgment of sin that is demanded in p5. Verses 1-3 are a call issued by the Jewish leaders exhorting the nation to repent of their national sin. Only then will the physical blessings Israel once enjoyed be restored to her, and the leaders of Israel will finally recognize the reason why the Tribulation has fallen on them. Whether this will happen through the study of the Scriptures, or by the preaching of the 144,000, or through the testimony of the two witnesses of Revelation 11, or by the future ministry of Elijah is not clearly stated. Most likely, it will be a combination of these things. But the leaders will come to a realization of the nation’s sin in some way.
“In the three days mentioned in Hosea 6:1-3, the confession of Israel’s national sin will take place during the first two days. This confession appears in Isaiah 53:1-9 and admits that the nation had looked upon Jesus as nothing more than another man, a criminal who had died for His own sins. However, on this occasion they will recognize that Jesus was no ordinary man, but the perfect Lamb of God, the Messiah Himself Then on the third of the three days, the people as a nation will be saved, fulfilling the prophecy of Romans 11:25-27.”

• Tim LaHaye and Ed Hindson, Exploring Bible Prophecy

My Thoughts

In the first three verses, Hosea calls out the priests specifically and the people.  He makes two accusations.  They were knee-deep in slaughter, probably in human blood sacrificed to false gods.  And they were guilty of prostitution in that most false god worship involved sexually immoral acts.

And within those three verses, the people are called Israelites and Ephraim.  Israel is often the common name for the northern tribes, although Judah is one of those tribes and Judah also contained Benjamin for the most part.  But in poetic literature of the Old Testament, we see Israel, northern tribes, Ephraim (the most influential tribe of the north), and Samaria (the most influential city, and often the capitol of Israel, a city in Ephraim).

Prostitution, and the heart of prostitution leads off the next section of this poem.  We know from Jesus that blasphemy of the Holy Spirit is the only unpardonable sin, but it states they cannot return to God from this state of having prostitution in their hearts.  I think this means that when ever they see a problem, they ignore God talking to them (thus ignoring the Holy Spirit) and they commit prostitution to consult the false god.  When we ignore the Holy Spirit, not allowing God to penetrate our consciousness, we are blaspheming the Holy Spirit.  And since the Holy Spirit required us to willingly keep the lines of communication open, there is no hope, since the Holy spirit is being blocked out.  We say that while there is breath, there is hope, but only God knows when that line of communication has been severed with no hope of repair.

And the sad thing is that when Israel (Ephraim) does something stupid, Judah looks and sees that might be fun.  Israel is leading Judah astray, even though Hosea is saying Ephraim has no hope of survival.  They will be destroyed says the Lord.

In the USA, we see this a lot.  Europe does something stupid, and some USA government officials do not want to be left out and they do it too.  Then Europe realizes how stupid their idea was, and they tried to draw in the reins on this run-away bad idea, but the USA government officials think they are smarter than Europe and we can make an unwinnable situation turn into gold.

Judah outlasted Ephraim, but not by a significant amount, even with a couple good kings (Hezekiah and Josiah) doing major advances in revival during that extra time.

Ephraim turns to Assyria for help, the people who would eventually destroy them.  Many times in the two books of Kings, the prophets went to the northern tribes and condemned them for seeking outside help when all they had to do was seek God.  Seeking help from the Assyrians ensured them that the Assyrians knew all their weaknesses.

Some Serendipitous Reflections

Hosea 5 1. How do you picture the God of Hosea:(a) Angry bully? (b) Jealous husband? (c) Frustrated father? (d) Jilted lover? (e) Determined ‘dad’?
“2. What people in your life are close enough for you to influence by example? What consequences for them might your disloyalty to God have?
“3. Have you ever ‘taken your flocks and herds to seek the Lord,’ only to pursue other ‘lovers’ at the same time? Could you be doing this now and be blind to it?
“4. God’s discipline here is patient, progressive and purposeful (vv. 2,6-7,9-10,14-15)’. How did Israel experience his discipline at each point?
“5. With the Lord’s discipline, what are some of the early warning signals? What are the consequences of failing to heed these? When has that been true for you?
“6. Why must we hit bottom, like Israel, before we begin to look up? When have you ‘in your misery earnestly sought the Lord’? What did God have to take you through to restore you? Did you sense his love in that?”

• Lyman Coleman, et al, The NIV Serendipity Bible for Study Groups

Hosea 5 has one set of questions.

Substitute whatever group for any reference to a small group or ask who could come to your aid.

If you like these Thursday morning Bible studies, but you think you missed a few, you can use this LINK. I have set up a page off the home page for links to these Thursday morning posts. I will continue to modify the page as I add more.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.