1“Listen to this, you priests!
Listen, house of Israel,
and give ear, house of the king!
For the judgment is against you;
for you have been a snare at Mizpah,
and a net spread on Tabor.
2The rebels are deep in slaughter,
but I discipline all of them.
3I know Ephraim,
and Israel is not hidden from me;
for now, Ephraim, you have played the prostitute.
Israel is defiled.
4Their deeds won’t allow them to turn to their God,
for the spirit of prostitution is within them,
and they don’t know Yahweh.
5The pride of Israel testifies to his face.
Therefore Israel and Ephraim will stumble in their iniquity.
Judah also will stumble with them.
6They will go with their flocks and with their herds to seek Yahweh,
but they won’t find him.
He has withdrawn himself from them.
7They are unfaithful to Yahweh;
for they have borne illegitimate children.
Now the new moon will devour them with their fields.
8“Blow the cornet in Gibeah,
and the trumpet in Ramah!
Sound a battle cry at Beth Aven, behind you, Benjamin!
9Ephraim will become a desolation in the day of rebuke.
Among the tribes of Israel, I have made known that which will surely be.
10The princes of Judah are like those who remove a landmark.
I will pour out my wrath on them like water.
11Ephraim is oppressed,
he is crushed in judgment,
because he is intent in his pursuit of idols.
12Therefore I am to Ephraim like a moth,
and to the house of Judah like rottenness.
13“When Ephraim saw his sickness,
and Judah his wound,
then Ephraim went to Assyria,
and sent to King Jareb:
but he is not able to heal you,
neither will he cure you of your wound.
14For I will be to Ephraim like a lion,
and like a young lion to the house of Judah.
I myself will tear in pieces and go away.
I will carry off, and there will be no one to deliver.
15I will go and return to my place,
until they acknowledge their offense,
and seek my face.
In their affliction they will seek me earnestly.”
Hosea lives in a time when Israel had absolutely abandoned God. Prostitution and depravity were common place no one batted an eye at wrong doing. At first, they followed God remembering all he had done, then the call of the world around them seemed easier and more appealing. Was God was holding back on them, preventing them from fun and pleasure? It certainly didn’t start out as an adulterous affair with other gods, as the relationship between God and his people began to crumble. It started with looking outside of what God had given, a conversation that probed too far, a longing for something else, and a failure to appreciate all that they had. In spite of God’s continued faithfulness, they still refused to address their behaviour and they even rationalised their sin. That’s not just an Israelite skill, it’s what we do too isn’t? We too make excuses and give ourselves reasons when we want to sin and not be challenged about it. The problem is that sin has an insatiable appetite. ‘Sin multiplies it always does…one compromise leads to another … it leaves us with a horrible sense of boredom and a desperate lack of satisfaction.”
There were times in Israel’s history that they were the faithful people of God, but they were far from this right now. Yet, God remained faithful, his voice was clear, stop and return to me. As we honestly search our hearts today before God together let’s ask these important questions:
Have we wondered further from God than we should have?
Are we looking outside of what God has for us and finding ourselves in compromise?
Is it time to stop a behaviour or attitude and return to God?