As we have established, the two big sections of Hosea are chapters 1-3 and 4-14. The first three chapters give us the summary and the picture of Hosea and Gomer. Hosea 2 is the summary of Yahweh’s plan of Israel. He will discipline them severely but ultimately bring them back to Himself. Chapter 1 and 3 tell us of Hosea’s marriage and redemption of his wayward wife, Gomer. Together, those opening chapters supply the interpretive grid for understanding the remainder of the book, which is a series of poetic oracles from Yahweh to the kingdom of Israel.
Chapter 4 was the first oracle, and I argued that it is essentially Yahweh’s legal case against Israel. Since Israel’s idolatry is explicitly compared to Gomer’s adultery, Yahweh would be as justified as Hosea if He were to divorce or even execute His bride for breaking their covenant. Thus, in Hosea 4, the LORD presented His evidence against Israel.
If Hosea 4 is the evidence of Yahweh against His people, Hosea 5 is the verdict and the judgment. Our text has four natural divisions:
1. Verses 1-2 are Yahweh summoning His people to hear His verdict.
2. Verses 3-7 are Yahweh’s verdict.
3. Verses 8-12 describe Yahweh’s judgment.
4. Verses 13-15 tell us both Israel and Yahweh’s response.
THE SUMMONS // VERSES 1-2
Hear this, O priests! Pay attention, O house of Israel! Give ear, O house of the king! For the judgment is for you; for you have been a snare at Mizpah and a net spread upon Tabor. And the revolters have gone deep into slaughter, but I will discipline them.
These opening two verses are the summons to hear the LORD’s verdict. Notice the threefold call to attention: Hear this, pay attention, give ear! And they are addressed to the priests, the people, and the king. The religious leaders, the political leader, and the people in general are all addressed. In other words, this is a word for everyone in Israel.
The judgment is for you. Yahweh, Maker of heaven and earth is rendering His verdict. Mizpah and Tabor were both sites associated with the time of the judges, and Tabor was mountain in the valley of Jezreel. Very likely, these had become notable places of idolatry in Hosea’s time.
And the revolters have gone into deep slaughter. This is a difficult verse to translate, but it likely means that the rebels keep piling up their false sacrifices. Yet even so, Yahweh proclaims that He will discipline them. While His discipline will certainly be painful, He will not ultimately hand them over to the sins forever.
THE VERDICT // VERSES 3-6
Now that God has summoned His people to hear His verdict and judgment, verses 3-6 give His conclusion after considering the evidence of their sin.
I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from me. Remember that Ephraim was the most prominent of the northern tribes; therefore, it is often used as synonym for Israel, as it is here and throughout the remainder of the book.
In Scripture, God’s knowledge of His people is often comforting. Jesus’ words to the church of Ephesus reflect that: “I know your works, your toil and your patience endurance…” God’s people find great comfort knowing that the LORD sees each and every one of their struggles and that He keeps the tears of His people in His bottle.
But for the sinful and wayward, the omniscience of God is not a comfort; it is a terror. The people of Israel think that they can hide their sin from God, but as Hebrews says, all are naked and exposed in His sight. Indeed, Jesus also says that nothing is hidden now that will not be exposed on the day of judgment. God knows, and He sees all things.
Verse 4 introduces us to one of the most important words in Hosea: Their deeds do not permit them to return to me. Return will be repeatedly strategically throughout the remainder of this book, and chapter 14 will be the great climatic plea to return to the LORD. In fact, I’ve titled our study The Heart of God because Hosea certainly does give us one of the most vivid displays of God’s heart for His people, but the great message of the book for us is very simply to return to the LORD.
But they cannot. Their deeds do not permit them. For a spirit of whoredom is within them, and they do not know the LORD. They think that they know Yahweh. The houses of worship in Bethel and Dan were erected for the worship of Yahweh. But it was conducted with golden calves and priests that were not even Levites. Their so-called worship was active disobedience to the LORD’s explicit commands in His law. They do not know the LORD; thus, they are only worshiping a false caricature of Him. Their whoredom has blinded them and prevented them from true worship.
This is still true. Unrepentant sin and a rejection of God’s Word always obstructs a person from the LORD. This is certainly true for nonbelievers, but it can also be true of a believer for a time. Of course, there are times whenever the LORD mysteriously hides His face from us in order to deepen our dependence upon Him. I certainly do not want to suggest that every feeling of being distant from God is directly caused by some sin. However, unrepentant or simply unacknowledged sin may very well be the cause. It is always worth asking ourselves whether or not there are deeds in our life that are hindering our walk with the LORD. Those deeds may be blatantly sinful, but they also may only be unhelpful. Social media and video games are examples of the latter. They are not inherently sinful, but they can very easily consume an unhealthy and even sinful amount of our time.
The pride of Israel testifies to his face; Israel and Ephraim shall stumble in his guilt; Judah also shall stumble with them.
In verse 3, Yahweh established that He knew their hidden sins, but now He says that their own pride testifies against them. In essence, God is saying that their guilt is obvious. No omniscience is needed to observe that they are guilty of the charges laid before them in chapter 4.
Again, the same is still true. We do not need to the supreme knowledge of God in order to see that a nation is under His judgment. Pride testifies to its face. Pride always reveals itself. That is its very nature. It cannot stand to be hidden. And pride is, as Lewis called it, the great sin. Pride is the exaltation of self into the place of God. Tragically, we live in a society that elevates pride from being a vice to a virtue. How can a nation not be under judgment whenever it blatantly calls evil good and good evil?
While reading Psalm 18 this week, I was struck by the fact that David is the exact opposite of the proud. He wrote Psalm 18 in celebration of finally being crowned king and having his enemies placed under his feet. But in the psalm, David openly admits that his enemies were mightier than himself and that God alone established him over them. And as a result, his lips overflow with honor and praise to Yahweh. Despite his many sins and failures, David’s constant humility in honoring God as God and giving thanks to Him is what made Him a man after God’s own heart. David knew Yahweh. And whenever he sinned, he confessed his sin, believing that the LORD really is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.
May we imitate David rather than Israel.
With their flocks and herds, they shall go to seek the LORD. This sounds promising at first. They are clearly bringing their sacrifices and offerings to the houses of worship, thinking that Yahweh will hear them. But they will not find him; he has withdrawn from them. Why is that? Because their worship is one of presumption. They think that the LORD must receive whatever they bring to Him and in whatever manner they bring it.
Is that not how many still treat God? Our culture, if there is any acceptance of God at all, believes that we can each worship God in our own way. Even many who call themselves Christians believe that God can be better worshiped on a fishing boat on Sunday than with the gathered body of believers. Indeed, the general belief that is that God ought to be happy that we are worshiping Him at all. Many don’t worship Him, so He should just be thankful that we do.
Scripture is clear that God is needy for worship. We worship by His grace and at His permission. We have no right to presume that God will meet with us apart from being obedient to His Word. Communion with God is a grace. We do not deserve to experience the blessing of His shining face.
But the Israelites thought as we do today. God has to accept my gifts. But God says, in effect, “I don’t care. Your offerings mean nothing to me. You aren’t really seeking me. You’ve forgotten my law. You don’t know me.” The marital picture established through Hosea and Gomer can help us better understand this spiritual reality. Israel’s offerings to Yahweh are something like a wife baking her husband a chocolate cake, even though he is allergic to chocolate. When the husband rightly asks whether his wife even knows him, she responds that he should be thankful that she baked anything for him at all, since most wives don’t bake anymore. The chocolate cake merely reveals that she doesn’t actually know her husband.
That is Yahweh’s accusation against Israel. Because their sacrifices break His law, they reveal that they don’t know the LORD.
Verse 7 then concludes the verdict: They have dealt faithlessly with the LORD, for they have borne alien children. Now the new moon shall devour them with their fields.
THE JUDGMENT // VERSES 8-12
Verse 8 begins the judgment with another summons: Blow the horn in Gibeah, the trumpet in Ramah! Sound the alarm at Beth-avan; we follow you, O Benjamin!
These are all cities on the border between Judah and Israel. Recall from Numbers 10 that the silver trumpets were used in Israel for worship and for war. This very much appears to be war language. Israel and Judah are at war with one another rather than being allies against the greater threat: the Assyrians.
Ephraim shall become a desolation in the day of punishment. Among the tribes of Israel, I make known what is sure. God’s judgment for Israel is desolation and destruction.
In verse 10, as in verse 5, we learn that Judah will not heed Yahweh’s command from 4:15 and 4:17. They will stumble into destruction after Israel, and they will be like one who moves a landmark. Moving a landmark was a wicked sin in ancient Israel. When the people entered the Promised Land, God Himself gave the tribes and families their allotments of land. It was a sacred part of God’s covenant to His people. To move the landmarks was to rob a fellow Israelite from their covenantal inheritance. It was a serious offense. This, evidently, is what Judah was doing.
Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment because he was determine to go after filth. This is a disturbing picture. We can imagine the filth of Israel’s sin as if they were playing in sewage. No matter how many hedges of thorns or walls the LORD puts up to block their path, they are determined to swim in the sewage.
But I am like a moth to Ephraim, and like dry rot to the house of Judah. Both moths and dry rot cause things to waste away. We can take this in two ways. First, this is who the people see Yahweh, as though He is only wearing them away. But there is truth to that thought. In Psalm 18, David says,
With the merciful, you show yourself merciful; with the blameless man you show yourself blameless; with the purified you show yourself pure; and with the crooked you make yourself seem tortuous.
To those who do not know the LORD, His ways seem designed to frustrate them because they are. All they see are the thorns and walls that He uses to hem them in, the moths and the dry rot that break down their clothes and the homes. They never truly see that Yahweh is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. They are like a spoiled child who thinks that his parents hate him because they will not allow him to play on the highway. Again, we remember the lament: “my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.”
THE RESPONSE // VERSES 13-15
In the final verses, we find the immediate responses to Yahweh’s verdict and judgment. First, we find Israel’s response: When Ephraim saw his sickness and Judah his wound, then Ephraim went to Assyria and sent to the great king.
Their sin is described as a sickness and a wound. We should probably think of a festering wound that is becoming infected. Do they ask the LORD to heal them? No, they turn to Assyria, to the great king. Both Israel and Judah were located between two great powers: Egypt and Mesopotamia. Throughout their history, they repeatedly make alliances with whichever seems more powerful at the moment. In this case, it was Assyria. But the irony was that Assyria would not save them; the Assyrians would utterly destroy Israel and pose plenty of problems for Judah. Thus, the LORD declares, But He is not able to cure you or heal your wound.
Even as followers of Christ, how often do we do the same? In our sorrow or pain, we so often run to things that cannot help us. Perhaps even things that will destroy us. Or maybe it is simply looking for rest in the chaos of this world, and we refuse to come to Christ.
Next, we have Yahweh’s response: I will be like a lion to Ephraim and a young lion to Judah. I, even I, will tear and go away. I will carry off and none shall rescue. Again, it will be the Assyrians themselves to actually carry the Israelites off into exile. Historically, Assyrian kings depicted themselves as being stronger than a lion. Notice, therefore, the LORD’s claim. He Himself is the one who is giving Israel into Assyria’s hand. He is also the great lion that the Assyrian kings cannot conquer.
I will return again to my place, until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face, and in their distress earnestly seek me.
This parallels the end of chapter 4, where the LORD warned Judah to leave Ephraim alone, lest they join in their sin. But they would refuse. They would commit the same sins. Now, the LORD says that He will leave both of them to their judgments. He will appear to abandon them and leave them in their sin. But it will only be until they seek Him in earnest. Indeed, that will be the great question of the next two chapters and through the remainder of the book. Will their return and seeking of the LORD being in earnest?
Indeed, that is the question that the chapter lays before us as well. We are no better than ancient Israel nor than those who revolt against Yahweh still today. Before being rescued by Christ, each of us had our own form of filth that we were determined to pursue, regardless of whatever thorns or walls that the LORD established to keep us from it. And the more God kept us from our sinful desires the more we viewed Him as moths and dry rot to us. And even when we thought to pursue the LORD, we did so on our own terms, thinking that the LORD should be satisfied that we thought to come to Him at all. None of us truly sought the LORD. None of us truly knew Him.
And that leaves us with a terrifying question: if Yahweh Himself is the lion, who can rescue us from His judgment? No one can rescue us from God. Our only hope is that God rescues us from Himself. And praise Yahweh, because when John is told to behold the Lion of the tribe of Judah, he looks and sees a Lamb standing as though slain.
Just as the LORD would use the Assyrians but ultimately bring them down, so Christ did with the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places. He used the very cross, where the bloodthirsty believed themselves to be victorious, and worked eternal salvation for His people. Though the love of our sin kept us from seeking the LORD, Christ now gives His people a new heart and a new spirit. He has carried away our sin and, by His Spirit, turns our wandering hearts back to the LORD.
Of course, Christ’s defeat of our sin is final and definitive, but as long as we are in this life, we still war against our sin. We must continue to repent and return to the LORD, for our hearts are still very much prone to wander. Christ’s kingdom is already but also not yet. Jesus enacted the judgment upon our sin, but we must now leave it alone. We must turn from what we once were and embrace who we are now in Christ.
As we come to the Table before us, let us each consider the judgment of God in Christ. If you have never confessed your need to Christ and have never been baptized, refrain from coming to the Lord’s Supper and use this time instead to return to the LORD in prayer. If you do confess Christ and have been baptized, this bread and cup are a proclamation of our continual dependence upon the grace of God. We were not saved by any good that we have done, nor can we continue our salvation in our own good works. Christ is our redeemer from beginning to end. He has torn us away from our sin, He continues to lead us in this life, and He alone will see us safely home.
