Hosea 5:8-15
by
Rev. Mark Perkins, Pastor
Denver Bible Church
326 E. Colorado Ave.
Denver, Colorado 80210
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Hosea 5:8
"Blow a horn in Gibeah, a trumpet in Ramah. Sound an
alarm at Beth-aven: 'Behind you, Benjamin.'"
1. The first part of this verse has to do with geography. The
place names here are all inside the border between Israel and
Judah.
2. In previous verses the place names have been across the border
inside Israel (Gilgal, Beth-Aven), or right on the border (Mizpah).
Now they are in Judah, and coming ever closer to Jerusalem. Gibeah
is only five miles to the North of Judah's capital.
3. All of these have in common that they are hills, and places
of demon worship. They were also signal hills, so that in sequence
the alarm goes from south to north. It makes the picture of a
warning going from Judah to Israel. Hey! Wake up! You are degenerate!
4. Gibeah had quite a history for the Jews, even before the separation
of the kingdoms.
a. Gibeah came to characterize the degeneracy of Israel under the Judges, and their need for greater restraint under a king. Judges 19-21 recounts a event that was paramount in degeneracy.
(1). At that time, a traveler came to Gibeah and was spending the night. And certain demon-possessed homosexual men came to the house where he was staying, and demanded that he come out to the town square and have a homosexual orgy with them.
(2). Instead the traveler and his host threw their women out to the homos in order to appease them.
(3). The traveler's concubine (mistress) was raped and tortured all night by the demon homos, and she died as she tried to claw her way back into the house.
(4). The man then cut this woman's body into twelve pieces and sent them to the twelve tribes of Israel. He lied and exonerated his guilt, and as a result 400,000 soldiers mustered at nearby Mizpah. They came from all the tribes.
(5). What followed was a great battle, in which the people of Gibeah were destroyed.
(6). But the people of Israel continued to make terrible misapplications and commit great acts of injustice against the people of the region of Benjamin. Benjamin suffered terribly because of the acts of a few and the lies of one. The mob ruled, and there was no king. 19:1 and 21:25.b. Gibeah became the headquarters of Saul, the first king of Israel. Israel needed a king, but they needed one who had his sin nature under control. Saul was not that man, and so Israel learned a hard lesson with their first king.
c. Gibeah was also the route for the invasion of the Assyrians. Isa 10:29.
d. Hosea would mention Gibeah twice more.1. 9:9, "They have gone deep in depravity as in the days of Bibeah; He will remember their iniquity, He will punish their sins."
2. 10:9, "From the days of Gibeah you have sinned, O Israel; there they stand! Will not the battle against the sons of iniquity overtake them in Gibeah?"
5. Ramah and Beth-aven are less perspicuous places in Israel.
They are high places and signal hills, so Israel and Judah would
recognize the need for warning.
Hosea 5:10
"Ephraim will become a desolation in the day of rebuke;
among the tribes of Israel I make known what has been made certain."
1. The devastation here brings to mind both the desolate nature
of the country after its destruction, and the emotional impact
of that on the people. Those who are left will be horror-struck;
incapable of human function due to their shocked emotional state.
Writers of Hebrew utilized SHAMMAH to describe the emotional
state of a rape victim.
2. The rebuke here is one from the legal context of Israel. It
is the rebuke of a lawful judge, a judge who stands with the
righteous law behind him. The desolation will be a just one indeed.
3. God will make this judgment known. It is the hiphil causative
of YADHA. God will make Israel intimately know the cause of the
judgment. This done through the devastation.
4. The judgment itself is now set in the decree. The destruction
of Israel will come to pass, and apparently soon. With the niphal
participle of the verb NE'EMANAH, God says that the judgment
is set in the divine decree.
a. Indeed it has been since the day the decree was set in motion.
b. But God does something significant here: He reveals the decree to the condemned. The point now is Judah.
5. To this point, Hosea has described the fifth cycle of discipline
in seventeen different ways.
Hosea 5:10
"Are the princes of Judah like those who move a boundary?
On them I will pour out my wrath like water."
1. Eighteenth description of the fifth cycle of discipline, but
for the first time the message moves to Judah.
2. Now see the clever nature of this verse.
a. Moving a boundary stone was a heinous crime. It was tantamount to stealing land. When the people set boundary stones they would sacrifice to God and worship Him to commemorate the sacred nature of private property, and its source.
b. Now Hosea has just described a number of places that are border towns between Israel and Judah. And the most recent bunch are actually inside of Judah. God is moving the boundary stone of discipline, because Judah has crossed the border with their idol worship.
c. This is placed in the form of a question. "Do you really want to do this?"
d. The picture of God's wrath is interesting as well. Water pours swiftly and drenches all with impunity. So it will be with Israel. They are all going to get wet.
Hosea 5:11
"Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment, because he
was determined to follow a drunken command."
1. Nineteen, and back to the Northern Kingdom.
2. Ephraim was the first to go. Assyria attacked that portion
of the Northern kingdom and subdued it first. There was then
a long pause while the rest of the nation waited to see what
would happen next.
3. This verse was apparently produced at that time after the
fall of Ephraim. The destruction of that region is clearly portrayed
as having already occurred.
4. But the real star of this verse is the final sentence: "Because
he determined to follow a drunken command."
a. There is somewhat of a mystery word here. It is TSAW. It is an undeclined, almost nonsense form of TSAWAH, 'to command'. It is used in only two other verses in the Bible: Isaiah 28:10 and 13. It is worthwhile to see it there.
b. In verse ten, it goes like this: QITSAW LATSAW TSAW LATSAW QAW LAQAW QAW LAQAW ZIR SHAM ZIR SHAM
"For it is precept upon precept; precept upon precept; line upon line; line upon line; a little here a little there."
c. The context is the drunken nation of Judah, and the way that they speak. So Isaiah tells them what they need, and mocks them by speaking with a drunken slur. The same goes for verse 13.
d. But TSAW here in Hosea is not mockery. It literally portrays the command of a drunk. It calls into question the moral authority of those who command and yet are also alcoholics.
e. Worse yet, if you determine to follow the command of a drunk, what does that make you? If you are a slave to a slave of alcohol, you are low indeed.
f. So this is the reason for the discipline of Israel.
Hosea 5:12
"And I am as the moth to Ephraim and as the rottenness
to the house of Judah."
1. So God is the principle of entropy to the region of Ephraim,
and to Judah. Hosea describes this principle of decay in two
ways.
2. First, with the moth. The moth got into the fabric, especially
wool, and ate it. This is the decay of clothes.
3. Second with the rottenness. This described tooth decay, and
worms eating the supporting beams of buildings. It describes
the decay of any man-made structure.
4. But these are metaphors that in each case portray the downfall
of regions and nations, not just the inanimate, but the political
and social as well. God is behind it.
Hosea 5:13
"When Ephraim will see his sickness, and Judah his wound,
and then Ephraim will go to Assyria and will send to King Jareb.
But he will be unable to heal you, and the wound will not depart
from you."
1. Hosea summarizes two historical events here.
a. The attempt of Menahem of Israel to win over Tiglath-Pileser in 738 B.C., as recorded in 2 Kings 15:19. Here, Menahem exacted a special tax on the wealthy to bring a treasure trove of silver to Assyria.
b. The attempt of Ahaz of Judah to win over Tiglath-Pileser in 734 B.C., as recorded in 2 Kings 16:7.
2. King Jareb is Israel's mocking nickname of Tiglath-Pileser.
It means literally, 'king combat'. It was right in one sense.
The Assyrian army was tough, and way tougher than either Israel
or Judah.
3. Well, ultimately these bribes did not work. They delayed the
destruction for a season, or a few years, but that was it.
4. The sickness here refers to the military weakness. Of course,
an idol-worshipping nation of drunks and fornicators is going
to be exceptionally weak on the field of combat. So it is with
Israel and Judah.
5. The bribery itself is blasphemy before the Lord. It compensates
weakness with weakness. It was a human viewpoint attempt to stave
off the justice of God, and it could not possible work.
Hosea 5:14
"For I will be like a lion to Ephraim, and like a young
lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will tear to pieces and
go away, I will carry away and there will be none to deliver."
1. Twentieth description of the 5th cycle of discipline.
2. The discipline will be like the attack of a lion. The lion
comes at night and hauls away its victim to a safe and quiet
place where it can devour it.
3. First there is the roar, then the plaintive screams of the
victim, then deafening, shocked silence. This is the attack of
the lion, and the discipline of the Lord will be much the same,
and note that there will be none to deliver. The peace and quiet
of desolation is quite different from the prosperous peace of
the God-blessed nation.
Hosea 5:15
"I will go away and return to My place until they acknowledge
their guilt and seek My face; In their affliction they will earnestly
seek Me."
1. Being shattered by the discipline of the Lord will bring desire
to know Him. There is helplessness before Him, and so it will
be with Judah, and the survivors of Israel who live in Judah.
2. Such violence and oppression and devastation tends to bring
on true humility.
3. Now this transitions to Chapter Six, which is Hosea's plea
to his countrymen to change their minds, to repent.
4. Remember, the fifth chapter concentrates on what God predicts
in the fifth and final cycle of discipline. The sixth chapter
contains Hosea's pleas to his country to respond before it is
too late. Where there is life, there is hope.
End of Lesson 18
Grace Notes
Warren Doud, Editor
1705 Aggie Lane, Austin, Texas 78757
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