Hosea 4:12-14
by
Rev. Mark Perkins, Pastor
Denver Bible Church
326 E. Colorado Ave.
Denver, Colorado 80210
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Hosea 4:12
"My people consult his tree and his staff declares to
him. For a spirit of fornication misled [them], so they committed
fornication from beneath their God."
1. This verse is about guidance. These people who have participated in general idolatry have now reached the point of chronic unhappiness. At this point, they want guidance to the objects of their desire. Guidance in romance, because their romantic lives are tremendous failures due to the absence of virtue. Guidance in business, because their financial lives are tremendous failures due to the absence of virtue. Guidance, guidance, guidance!
2. But the thing is, they are trying to fill a God sized emptiness, and only God will do.
3. So they consult trees and wooden staves make declarations of guidance.
4. But the thing is, it is a piece of wood, living or dead, a piece of wood. They have so destroyed their intellects that they consider a tree or a dead piece of wood as more wise.
Principle: people usually worship the person or thing which they consider more wise than themselves. When they come to worship trees and pieces of wood and stone, they have commit intellectual suicide!
5. The spirit of fornication is an abstraction of the act. This is the germ of the idea that is planted in the mind by the old sin nature. They are 'dragged away and enticed' as James so aptly put it in the first chapter of his epistle.
6. The use of the personal pronouns 'his' and 'him' makes this non-specific. What this does is add insult to injury. Not only do they consult trees and dead pieces of wood, but it also does not matter at all which one.
7. This is the new age movement. Substitute 'crystal' for 'tree', and you have it.
8. The acts of fornication are mentioned as being 'beneath Yahweh'. This is a good point that brings the omnipresence of God into the picture. Now, the children of Israel may be oblivious to their own sin, but God is not. The godless never negate God through their denial.
Hosea 4:13
"They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains and upon
the hills. They offer incense beneath an oak and a poplar and
a terebinth because her shadow is good. Therefore your daughters
commit fornication and your young wives commit adultery."
1. Specific idolatry destroys guidance. True guidance comes through the application of virtue.
a. In the virtue of dependence on God.
b. In the virtue of justice, related to character.
c. Related to motivation, the virtue of mercy.
d. Related to approach, the virtue of proficiency.
e. Related to planning, the virtue of organization.
f. Related to willpower, the virtue of self-control.
g. Related to temperament, the virtue of faithfulness.
h. Related to communication, the virtue of integrity.
Topic: THE ESSENCE OF GOD
2. This verse and the one previous reveal not only an absence of guidance, but the specific consultation of demons for guidance.
3. This verse also continues the idea of non-specific consultation. The kind of place chosen for the guidance session is chosen for the reason of confort alone. They go to nice places. They love the outdoors, creation, but they hate the creator.
4. An interesting result of all this specific idolatry is the general idolatry of their children. The preposition AL plus the adverb KEN is the Hebrew conjunction 'therefore'. It is literally 'unto thus', kind of a 'one thing leads to another' statement.
5. A pattern is clearly set: the daughters commit fornication. Their young wives commit adultery. One leads inevitably to the other. Both verbs are in the imperfect tense, showing that the activity is an ongoing thing. The first is the qal stem, which describes the ongoing acts of fornication in the young women. The second is the piel intensive stem, which shows the criminal act of adultery, one which is punishable by death.
Hosea 4:14
"I shall not pass in review upon [punish] your daughters
when they commit fornication, or upon your young wives when they
commit adultery. For the men go aside with the harlots and they
'sacrifice' with the temple prostitutes. And a people that does
not discern will be thrust down."
1. The verb PAQADH means to visit, but it is more technically here a military term that means to 'pass in review.' The idea here is that God is going to have the history of Israel pass in review before Him, to determine their fitness as His priest nation. The other military analogy that comes from this verb is the idea of muster. The nation of Israel had a great number of men in a system of reserves. To muster them would be an act of preparation for war, or to check on military readiness. Here God is checking on the spiritual readiness of His nation by calling them to muster.
2. The doctrine of fairness. God's disapproval extends to the men. They are hardly blameless in this evil society. The conjunction KI is explanatory here, and thus translated 'for'. It points to God's reasoning behind his restraint of punishment for the women.
3. Two verbs make the fornication and adultery of the men almost comical. They 'go aside' with the harlots. This verb is YEPHARED and it is a piel intensive verb. It shows the urgent nature of their separation. Their lust is so built up that they cannot wait to get a moment's privacy. They 'sacrifice' with temple prostitutes. Not only do they make a religion out of sex, but their sacrifice is in the piel intensive as well. It is an urgent sacrifice indeed.
4. The end of this verse speaks of the collective discipline of the nation. God does not call to muster the women for their fornication and adultery, because the men do the same thing. By way of fairness, neither could God punish the men for their 'sacrifices' because of the activity of the women. But He does discipline Israel, and they are call to muster for one sin: the refusal to know God.a. The verb bin means to discern, or understand a thing. This concentrates on perception in the right lobe of the soul, not just perceptive comprehension, but more than that; application-type knowledge. The verb is in the imperfect tense showing the persistence of the negative volition of Israel. It is imperfect, the action is incomplete, it continues without stopping.
b. God desires for His people to have an application knowledge of Him. Not just an academic comprehension, but a comprehension that is oriented to a relationship with Him.
c. The result of this lack of knowledge is YILABHET. The niphal passive of this verb points out that Israel will receive, not produce the action of the verb. God is the producer. The imperfect tense shows that this is a forthtelling, that it still depends on the volition of Israel, and the time is not up when that volition can function. The verb itself means to 'throw down, so that the object thrown makes hard contact with the ground.' You would use this word to denote the spiking of a football after a touchdown. You would use it to denote the throwing of something [like a tomato] in order to cause its destruction.5. So God will throw down Israel to cause her destruction, and for the reason that she does not know Him.
End of Lesson 15
Grace Notes
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