Hosea 4:15-19
by
Rev. Mark Perkins, Pastor
Denver Bible Church
326 E. Colorado Ave.
Denver, Colorado 80210
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Hosea 4:15
"If you Israel are committing fornication let not Judah
be guilty. And don't you come to Gilgal, and don't go up to Beth
Aven and don't swear 'as Yahweh lives'."
1. The word GILGAL was onomatapoetic, reciting the sound that a sqeaky wheel made when it went around and around: gilgalgilgalgilgalgilgal. Its verb form meant to 'roll', or 'roll away'. It could also denote anything that was round.
2. Gilgal was a town in Israel down near the Jordan River, just a short ways northeast from Jericho.a. It was the first military encampment of the Children of Israel in the promised land.
b. It was the terminus of a great victory procession that began in Shittim, 14 miles east of the Jordan, Joshua 3:1.
c. It was here that the twelve stones were set as a memorial to the crossing of the Jordan.
Joshua 4:1-7. "Now it came about when all the nation had
finished crossing the Jordan, that the Lord spoke to Joshua,
saying, 'Take for yourselves twelve men from the people, one
man from each trive, and command them, saying, 'Take up for yourselves
twelve stones from here out of the middle of the jordan, from
the place where the priests' feet are standing firm, and carry
them over with you, and lay them down in the lodging place where
you will lodge tonight.''
"So Joshua called the twelve men whom he had appointed from
the sons of Israel, one man from each tribe; and Joshua said
to them, 'Cross again to the ark of the Lord your God into the
middle of the Jordan, and each of you take up a stone on his
shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of
Israel.
"'Let this be a sign among you, so that when your children
ask later, saying, 'What do these stones mean to you?' then you
shall say to them, 'Because the waters of the Jordan were cut
off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord; when it crossed
the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off.' So these
stones shall become a memorial to the sons of Israel forever.'"
d. It was here that the Angel of the Lord, the preincarnate Christ, led the army of the angels, and revealed himself to Joshua on the night before the battle of Jericho.
Joshua 5:10-15, "While the sons of israel camped at Gilgal,
they observed the Passover on the evening of the fourteenth day
of the month on the desrt plains of Jericho. And on the day after
the passover, on that very day, they ate some of the produce
of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain.
"And the manna ceased on the day after they had eaten some
of the produce of the land, so that the sons of Israel no longer
had manna, but they ate some of the yield of the land of Canaan
during that year. Now it came about when Joshua was by Jericho,
that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was
standing opposite him with his sword drawn in his hand, and Joshua
went to him and said to him, ' Are you for us or for our adversaries.?'
"And he said, 'No, rather I indeed come now as captain of
the host of the Lord,' And Joshua fell on his face to the earth,
and bowed down, and said to him, 'What has my lord to say to
his servant?' And the captain of the Lord's host said to Joshua,
'Remove your sandals from your feet, for the place where you
are standing is holy.' And Joshua did so.
e. So, it was an important place of national heritage, their Plymouth Rock. Their Smithsonian Institution. People would often go to worship there, and it was even used as a seat of judgment by Saul. There was instituted a celebration of Gilgal, the thanksgiving holiday of the nation of Israel. This was held as a part of the feasts of passover and weeks.
3. In later years, Gilgal became a place of demon worship, a center of specific idolatry. It was a double perversion to worship Satan at this place, as it is a double perversion to praise the Japanese of World War Two at our own Smithsonian. Oh! Travesty of Justice!
4. Back to the verse: Hosea exhorts the southern kingdom of Judah to stay away from Gilgal, and their worship of the devil there. He uses the negative cohortative TABO'U, 'don't come'.a. Hosea knows that the destruction of his own nation, the Northern Kingdom, is all but certain.
b. So he looks south. He exhorts Isaiah and those of his generation to worship the true and living God.
5. BETH AVEN translates, 'house of nothingness'. It was a place near Ai, the site of Israel's defeat due to the wickedness of Achan. It too was a place of specific idolatry, demon worship. House of nothingness is a joke against idolatry, which is the worship of nothing. BETH AVEN stood against BETH EL, the house of God. Again, Hosea exhorts Judah to refrain from ascent to the house of nothingness.
6. The final exhortation of Hosea to Judah is to refrain from making the oath, 'As Yahweh lives'.a. What a great falsehood this was on the lips of idol worshippers. They worshipped dead idols in the house of nothingness and on a holy ground of national heritage, and yet they swore, 'as Yahweh lives'. Of course this would be a ground for any lie, because the hypocrites did not believe in the living God, and acted like He did not exist at all.
b. The exhortation from the ten commandments is to never take the Lord's name in vain; never use His name out of context of relationship with Him. And yet this is exactly what this oath does when it comes from the lips of unbelievers.
Hosea 4:16
"Since Israel rebelled as a heifer who is rebelling,
Yahweh will now graze them as a lamb in the pasture."
1. This is a difficult verse to translate, and to interpret.
2. It begins with the conjunction of conclusion, KI. KI begins a conclusion by pointing to the evidence for the conclusion. It is translated, 'since'.
3. The subject of the sentence is Israel, and Israel is further identified by the qal perfect verb SARAR. This should be translated, 'Israel rebelled'. There is a contrast between Israel in this verse and Judah in the previous verse. In the previous verse, God warns Judah about becoming a harlot like Israel. Now the narrative shifts back to Israel.
4. God now compares Israel to a heifer, and the point of comparison is rebellion.a. The heifer in the Old Testament can represent one of two things: the ritual sacrifice of the red heifer, as proscribed in Numbers 19, or just an animal with certain mannerisms. In our verse it is the latter.
b. The heifer was a young cow that had yet to give birth. This was a spoiled animal. It seldom did any hard work, and was often given an inordinate amount of feed. Because these animals were spoiled the farmers and ranchers of the day often noted their rebellious nature. They are not animals beaten down by service to their masters. They still have much spirit left, and are very difficult to domesticate.5. The result of all this is that God will now graze them like a lamb in the pasture. But here God fattens the lamb for slaughter.
6. The temporary prosperity of the time is simply a time of fattening for the slaughter. The discipline contrasts the prosperity, and therefore stings a lot more.
7. Since this is the slaughter, the final discipline of Israel, God is not using this as a wake-up call for them. Instead, this slaughter will stand as a wake-up call for Judah, the southern kingdom.
8. Judah will witness the destruction of Israel in the middle of a fairly prosperous era, and get the idea that prosperity does not matter, but relationship with God does. The pain of Israel's going from riches to rags will make a great lesson for Judah.
9. Do not assume that because of the great prosperity of this nation that we are enjoying Divine blessings. God fattens us for the slaughter!
Hosea 4:17
"Ephraim is united to idols, you let him alone!"
1. This verse addresses the Southern Kingdom with a command: "leave the Northern Kingdom alone."
2. The reason is their dedication to idols. The participle HABHUR relates a special kind of bond. It is the binding of spells and magic charms. This binding often included elaborate rituals designed to unite the target and the spell; things and actions which would supposedly make the spell 'stick' to the person.
3. Here, Israel has bound herself to the idols. Through rituals and sacrifices and various commitments Israel is now bound.
4. This binding applies to both general and specific idolatry. The binding of general idolatry is the addiction cycle. The binding of specific idolatry is the worship ritual involved.
5. God commands Judah to leave Ephraim alone. He uses the hiphil causative stem in the command. He does so to make this really personal. A verbose translate would be 'cause yourself to let him alone'.
6. You cause yourself to do so by concentration on God through the word.
Hosea 4:18
"Their liquor expended, they really fornicate. Her shield
dearly loved ignominy."
1. The qal perfect verb SAR describes the using up of a commodity so that it is cast aside. It is the wino throwing away his bottle after he has completely consumed the contents.
2. The commodity expended is identified as liquor, and in fact is hard liquor, high-alcoholic content.
3. So they drink until they are out of liquor, and then they fornicate.
4. The verb for fornicate is in the hiphil stem. This is the causal stem, and it shows the personal involvement of the one producing the action of the verb. The infinitive absolute denotes an extreme intensity of action. So the fornication is personal and intense.
5. Next is the noun MAHINEAH, translated shield. This is a metaphor for the leadership of Israel. The shield protects. God designed national leadership to protect us from self-destruction.
6. The leaders dearly love dishonor. The kind of love is AHABH, the base, human, attraction based love. This love is strengthened by the adverbial expression HEBU. It is translated 'dearly'.
7. QALON is dishonor. It is the object of the leadership of Israel's love. QALON is the strongest word in the Hebrew for the concept - ignominy is a good translation.
8. The people drink until the drink is exhausted, and then intensely participate in fornication. The leadership has a love affair with dishonor. They are all fattened for the slaughter.
9. This then is a confirmation of the necessity for the final cycle of discipline.
Hosea 4:19
"A spirit bound her in its wings, and they will be ashamed
because of their sacrifices."
1. The first part of this verse is another description of discipline; the second half a prediction of the results of that discipline.
2. This binding described here is one that is spiritual, not natural. The noun RUAH can be translated wind or spirit. Spirit works better in the context of the second half of the verse, which is specific idolatry. The picture is of helplessness, of being caught up in the wind like a leaf, and blown along. This is a double entendre.
3. Israel will be caught up in the future events of destruction, just as she is now caught up in the specific idolatry, and completely unable to guide herself. The picture is one of loss of control over one's destiny. When the discipline begins, the control ends.
4. God through Hosea portrays the natural result of the loss of control, which is shame. The shame of Israel is directed toward her participation in idol worship.
5. Israel will finally wake up when she loses control in the wake of the Assyrian destruction, but at that time it will be too late.
6. Hosea describes this spirit as having wings. Wings represent the appendages used for flight, and so describe what is attractive about that spirit. Since this is a fallen angel, there is nothing really attractive about the angel itself, but it promises soaring flight, and that promise is attractive.
End of Lesson 16
Grace Notes
Warren Doud, Editor
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