Day 259, Hosea 6-10

Israel and Judah Are Repentant

“Come let us return to the Lord;
for he has torn us, that he may heal us;
he has struck us down, and he will bind us up.
After two days he will revive us;
on the third day he will raise us up,
that we may live before him.
Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord;
his going out is sure as the dawn;
he will come to us as the showers,
as the spring rains that water the earth.”
-Hosea 6:1-3

Here the people offer a sad and shallow proposal of repentance where they acknowledge the Lord, but only for a brief time assuming that the Lord’s wrath would only be temporary. “Israel believe that, as surely as seasonal rains fell, reviving the earth, God’s favor would return and restore her. But, God saw through Israel’s superficial repentance.”

“What shall I do with you, O Ephraim?
What shall I do with you, O Judah?
Your love is like a morning cloud,
like the dew that goes early away.
Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets;
I have slain them by the words of my mouth,
and my judgment goes forth as the light.
For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice,
the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
But like Adam they transgressed the covenant;
there they dealt faithlessly with me.
Gilead is a city of evildoers, tracked with blood.”
-Hosea 6:4-8

God requires people to conduct themselves in a way that is both loyal to Him and decent to others. Sacrifice without faithfulness to the Lord is worth nothing. All is open to the Lord; what we do, how we act, what we say, what’s in our hearts. Everything. But the wicked like to pretend and believe, or convince themselves, that God does not see.

“But they do not consider
that I remember all their evil.
Now their deeds surround them;
they are before my face.”
-Hosea 7:2

“Woe to them, for they have strayed from me!
Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against me!
I would redeem them,
but they speak lies against me.
They do not cry to me from the heart,
but they wail upon their beds.”
-Hosea 7:13-14

Israel Will Reap the Whirlwind

Still, Israel was corrupt and went against the Lord. Instead they continued to practice pagan notions and set up golden calves of idolatry. “Israel sowed the wind of idolatry and reaped the whirlwind of Assyria.”

“Set the trumpet to your lips!
One like a vulture is over the house of the Lord,
because they have transgressed my covenant
and rebelled against my law.
To me they cry,
‘My God, we–Israel–know you.’
Israel has spurned the good;
the enemy shall pursue him.
They made kings, but not through me.
They set up princes, but I knew it not.
With their silver and gold they made idols
for their own destruction…

For they sow the wind,
and they shall reap the whirlwind.
-Hosea 8:1-7

“Israel was chosen to be God’s own people, but since she had conformed to the other nations, she lost her special identity and became worthless to God.”

“Israel is swallowed up;
already they are among the nations as a useless vessel.”
-Hosea 8:8

The Lord Will Punish Israel

The days of punishment have come;
the days of recompense have come;
Israel shall know it.”
-Hosea 9:7

The people were corrupt and the Lord remembered their iniquities and would punish their sins. “Hosea did not pray out of hateful vengeance against Israel, but because he shared God’s holy wrath against her sins.”

“If Israel would only do what was right, she would be blessed by God. Be no longer unproductive, but repentant, making a radical new beginning and becoming productive and fruitful. God’s covenant blessings that in righteousness he would shower on his people if they in righteousness were loyal to him, their covenant Lord.”

“Sow for yourselves righteousness;
reap steadfast love;
break up your fallow ground,
for it is time to seek the Lord,
that he may come and rain righteousness upon you,”
-Hosea 10:12