Hosea 8:1-9:9
We are in the Exile Stream reading from The Living Bible.
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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.