Category: Exile Stream

Posted on

May 4

 

Hosea 8:1-9:9

We are in the Exile Stream reading from The Living Bible.

 

Commentary by Dr. Drake Travis

Lord Jesus, make our lives significant like yours and the prophets were meaningful and still are as what was spoken still speaks today.  None of us want to come to the end of our lives only to hear that we have inherited a whirlwind. Help us live lives that count for the kingdom and for good for your Kingdom. Amen.

 
8 – We are back in the north and Hosea is speaking to a nation that is going to fall in 722 B.C. It’s about 130-135 years earlier than what was read yesterday in Jeremiah.  Hosea reminds them that they have set up their entire government apart from God’s leading. These are the people who erected a golden calf exactly like in Exodus 32 (500 years prior) just to make sure the people were deliberately disobedient and not going to Jerusalem to worship properly. This establishing of this idol is described as it happened in I Kings 12-13.  And Hosea is hitting the issue right between the eyes almost two centuries later.  They have been worshiping this calf so long that they may not even be hearing Hosea as he rebukes them.  The reference, “… sown to the wind and reap a whirlwind” is a motif in literature.  Well  Hosea said it first!  Israel has “boxed herself in”. She thinks Assyria is a friend.  But they’ll be the ones who “turn them into mince meat!”.  The reference of “returning to Egypt”, Hos. 8:13 is a metaphor for returning to slavery.  The nation is on the verge of being burnt to the ground and any survivors hauled away.
 
9 – For running from God and sacrificing to others, their idolatry will even affect the land and their crops.  At this point, every offering they bring to God is a stench to him; it’s polluted. The bondage and poverty they have “earned” is upon them.  Hosea has been speaking to them, trying to avert ‘judgment day’ but he is labeled a crazy man.  Israel is NOT listening. The “depraved as in Gibeah…” verse is in reference to the horrid rape situation in Judges 19 and the hideous aftermath of it all.  Hosea reminds them that Israel is just as bad as this now.  For this, their children will be hauled away, their sons are doomed, pregnant women will be treated in ways that are too disturbing to describe.  Why is all this going to happen? because Israel will not listen or obey.  I would say “God help them” but they don’t want his help.
Posted on

April 27

 

Hosea 6-7

We are sailing through choppy water in the Exile Stream. We are using the International Standard Version this week.

 

Commentary by Dr. Drake Travis

Dear Lord God: we live in times like this.  We ask for your wisdom as our culture is going headlong into wrong doing and ignoring you.  We want to hear from you Lord so we may understand the times, understand your mind and respond accordingly.  Amen.

The opening of this passage has a hint of Christ in there that certainly people perceived a variety of ways since it was spoken 700+ plus years before Christ arrived.  Hosea does give a pleading invitation to the people of Israel. I guess it warrants a comment at this point: it must be making Hosea crazy somewhere along the line to be among these people; so wretched, and yet God is so patient in waiting – giving chances for them to return to Him and they simply keep “daring God” if we can use the phrase.  It’s as if they were as twisted as possible….like the rascal kid in school that is practically begging to be punished.  Israel has willfully lost her mind and soul at this point in her history. Yes, they were bringing their sacrifices to the Lord, but plenty of the earnings were via prostitution! Disgusting scenario. Gilead and Shechem are mentioned by name.  These two cities made Las Vegas look tame and proper by comparison.

 

7 – Israel is embroiled in wrong doing and is guilty and dark as ever.  Adultery is as normal as a trip to the market. The “oven” motif is interesting. It is a mis-managed oven – that is for certain.  Four of Israel’s kings are assassinated after very short reigns.  Life is that cheap in Israel because love is that cheap and God a thing to mock for these people. Interesting illustration of a half baked cake.  One translation articulates Israel to be a pancake that is raw goo on one side and burnt on the other; something that no one will eat/want/enjoy anymore.  The gray hair comment is meaning that Israel is getting old and time is running out.  They are a senseless nation, due for a whipping and correction, they are runaways headed for ruin, they talk senselessly and murder awaits them.  It’s not a pretty sight!

This is Israel in the 700’s B.C.   Hosea is talking to them, encouraging them, warning them and they are ebullient in their zany sinning.
Posted on

April 13

 

Hosea 3-4

We are reading from the Exile Stream today while using the Lexham English Bible.

 

Commentary by Dr. Drake Travis

God wants to love His people and to bring them back.  He asserted that come chapter two of Hosea. But all they seem to want to do is run in another direction.

Someone called Hosea’s writing the throbbing of a broken heart.  It certainly is.  The passage today is filled with the words that clearly indicate that the horrible behavior of the people that once inhabited Canaan is reigning again. They ARE now fully behaving like the people they were to drive out.  What is God supposed to do for, pity sake? This symbolic marriage that Hosea is ordered to walk through is making God’s pain [that we are inflicting on Him] all too personal to us.  If God could have gotten to Israel another way perhaps He would have.  But what works anymore with these “moral hyenas” ?
 
3 – Israel is completely behaving like pagans and Judah is too to a point. So God is buying them back and He will chasten and discipline them. After this they will fear and follow God … yes? maybe? soon? ever? when?
 
4 – reads like a guilty verdict – because it is. Israel is so bad in its sinning that the land itself is suffering, and so are the animals.  This is a subtle theme that is still seen today. We’ve seen a land that is blessed turn thorny and repugnant, Gen. 3. Then Gen. 6 brings on a cleansing flood because of sin; nothing else brought on such weather.  There are vast deserts in the world today that were productive and fruitful farms back when they were a Christian majority. But violence and paganism and false religion came in and since Living Water (Jesus) was expelled, H2O / water left too.   Don’t get mad at God for this!.  No mystery here! It’s obvious. Read v. 3 again and there’s the testimony. Sin left undealt with ends up punishing the whole place. From top to bottom, Israel has gone amok. They act like they don’t know God; —-> and it’s NOT God’s fault!  They told Him to “get out!”
v. 8 says “they feed on the sin of my people…” This may sound puzzling, but it’s a billboard in all of our faces that there’s a terrible amount of money made off of wrong doing. It’s been going on so long in so many realms that the people can’t see it any other way.  Think of all the occupations that would be out of business today if all sin would stop.  Plenty of leaders and politicians worldwide perceive sin as something that must be massaged to keep employment numbers up.  A sinless world is very frightening to the analytical type and especially to the political type. I’ll leave this alone.
The list is bad in ch. 4: the whoring, prostitution, drunkeness and contests that exist to keep the people this way are astonishing in their lewdness. (God’s love on the other end of the scale is equally astonishing, btw) .  Symbolically the land is going to spit these people out at the rate they are going.  God’s main contention is with the Priests who are steering this nation into darkness and doing so aggressively.  The Priests are making sure of this.

v. 14 may seem strange, “I will not punish…” Sometimes a rascal of a kid in a classroom is so unteachable, that it becomes a waste of time and energy to even try anymore. So they are dismissed and the teacher needs to stop even caring where the kid ends up just to save sanity.  That’s the case here in Israel.  Disaster is on the whore-izon

 
God, keep us in your Word, for what we have read today is the “Way of all Flesh”. The song says that we are prone to wander (Lord, I feel it).  Thank you God for hanging on to us even when we haven’t the strength to hang on at all. More than being astonished by the sin, may we be amazed by Your Grace; Your Amazing Grace.  Amen.