HOSEA 4:17

The Bible says in Hosea 4:17-19, “Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone.[18] Their drink is sour: they have committed whoredom continually: her rulers with shame do love, Give ye.[19] The wind hath bound her up in her wings, and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices.” Notice carefully what God says in verse 17. In the first part of the verse we are told what Ephraim has decided to do: to join to idols. In the second part of the verse God is telling everyone else what to do about Ephraim: nothing. What is going on? It is very clear. God gives everyone in this world a free choice. If God gives them a free choice, then we should also. Liberty. Freedom. These come from God. God gives freedom even when people make the wrong decisions. Human beings will always want freedom because they were endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, and among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Do not try to take away someone’s liberty.

People have liberty and freedom from God to make their own choices, but of course, there will be consequences to the choices that they make. That is why it says in Hosea 4:19, “The wind hath bound her up in her wings.” They have made their choices and now they are being driven like the wind drives a cloud or a kite to their destiny. An unseen force drives them now to their future. What does the future hold for those who have made the wrong choices? It says in the last half of Hosea 4:19, “they shall be ashamed.” When will they be ashamed? They will be ashamed at the judgment. That is where they are headed. They may not be ashamed now for their actions, but they will be ashamed when they stand before Jesus and se His holy face and hear His loving words. It says in Philippians 2:10-11, “That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;[11] And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

The Bible says in Hosea 5:1-2, “Hear ye this, O priests; and hearken, ye house of Israel; and give ye ear, O house of the king; for judgment is toward you, because ye have been a snare on Mizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor.[2] And the revolters are profound to make slaughter, though I have been a rebuker of them all.” God speaks, and He says in verse one, “Hear,” “hearken,” and “give ye ear.” We can call these commandments, because they are. God commands all people everywhere to repent and turn to Jesus. But we can also call these statements from God invitations. Since God has given everyone a free will, and since God does not force His will on anyone, the Lord does invite us to come to Him and start following Him. If anyone becomes a true Christian, it is because they have made a choice from their own free will.

But obviously the Israelites did not choose to hear God’s Word, and therefore, God said to them, “judgment is toward you.” To demonstrate how despicable the Israelites had become God said two things about them at the end of Hosea 5:1. God said that they were “a snare on Mizpah,” and that they had “a net spread upon Tabor.” In the past something good had happened at Mizpah, and something good had happened at Mount Tabor. If we look at what those good things were, then we will know what the Israelites were not. The word “Mizpah” means “watchtower,” and it is so-named because of what took place between Jacob and Laban, Jacob’s father-in-law, at that location. It says in Genesis 31:48-49, “And Laban said, This heap is a witness between me and thee this day. Therefore was the name of it called Galeed;[49] And Mizpah; for he said, The LORD watch between me and thee, when we are absent one from another.” Laban and Jacob made an agreement with each other that they would not do each other harm. The Israelites were no longer people of their word. They could not be trusted in their personal relationships, nor in their relationship with God. Marriage is based upon a promise. Salvation is based upon a promise. All contracts are based upon promises between two parties. If your word cannot be trusted, what good are you? At Mount Tabor a great victory had been won with the help of God when Deborah was the Judge in Israel. It says in Judges 4:14, “And Deborah said unto Barak, Up; for this is the day in which the LORD hath delivered Sisera into thine hand: is not the LORD gone out before thee? So Barak went down from mount Tabor, and ten thousand men after him.” Mount Tabor symbolizes the victory that God can give when people put their trust in Jesus for the battles of life that are before them. There would be no more victories for Israel because they no longer were trusting in the Lord. I hope you realize how much you need the Lord Jesus by your side each day. Do not try to face the day without Him.

God describes the Israelites in Hosea 5:2 and says, “And the revolters are profound to make slaughter.” The word that is translated “revolters” means literally “these who deviate.” They deviate from the Word of God. They do not listen to the Word of God, and they do not put the Word of God into their own lives. One sure result of such spiritual failure is that they go profoundly into “slaughter.” They become a violent people. Just think of the Word of God and what it teaches. Jesus summarized the Word of God into two great commandments. Jesus said in Mark 12:29-31, “And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:[30] And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.[31] And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.” The second of these two great commandments has to do with our dealings with one another. To serve Jesus, our dealings with one another must be based upon love. The more that we understand God’s Word, the more that we will understand that this is God’s will for us, and we will learn to love our neighbors more. But the opposite is also true: the less that feed upon God’s Word, the less love that we will have for all of our neighbors. If we go away from God, we will be going away from love, and walking further and further towards lack of love. The end of such a path is violence. Godless people ultimately become violent people, and they will justify their use of violence against their neighbors. That is what happened to Israel.

The Bible says in Hosea 5:3-4, “I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me: for now, O Ephraim, thou committest whoredom, and Israel is defiled.[4] They will not frame their doings to turn unto their God: for the spirit of whoredoms is in the midst of them, and they have not known the LORD.” In these verses that describe once again the ungodliness of the people of the northern kingdom of Israel, an interesting phrase is used in verse 4, “They will not frame their doings to turn unto their God.” The word that is translated “frame” is the basic word that means literally “to give.” They were wicked because they would not “give their doings” to God. What doings are we talking about? We are talking about anything that they do. There is not a special list of actions that you must do in order to serve Jesus Christ. Some people think that there are certain geographical locations that you must go to in order to be closer to God, and they make pilgrimages to those places. Some people think that there are other special actions that must be performed such as giving to the poor or saying long prayers, or climbing stairs on their knees and praying at each stair step. But what really must be done is that whatever you do, you do it for God’s glory.

This spiritual principle is stated very clearly to Christians. It says in First Corinthians 10:31, “Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.” What this means is that what is going on inside of you is a critically important part of leading a spiritual life and of truly serving God. It is not so much what you do, but why you do it. Of course, the things that you do must be consistent with God’s principles. For example, you cannot steal or lie and claim that you are doing it for God’s glory. This spiritual principle has at least two important ramifications. First, it means that even if you do the right things, you may not be serving God if you are doing them for the wrong reasons. That was the problem with the Pharisees, and Jesus said about them in Matthew 23:27, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye are like unto whited sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.” That is one of the reasons that sometimes members of the clergy or others involved in religion do horrible deeds. Outwardly they might seem ok, but inwardly they are like the Israelites in the time of Hosea. They do not know the Lord Jesus, and they do not give their deeds and actions to Him.

The second ramification of First Corinthians 10:31 is that you must realize that you can fully serve God in the mundane activities of your life, if you dedicate to His glory each little action of your life. God sees what is in your heart, and that is what He wants to see. The idea that you can only serve God if you spend all of your time in a church building is not true, is it? Of course, you can only serve God in your heart in this way by giving each of your actions to Him if you know Jesus as Savior. That is why the Lord said in Hosea 5:4, “and they have not known the LORD.”

The Bible says in Hosea 5:5-6, “And the pride of Israel doth testify to his face: therefore shall Israel and Ephraim fall in their iniquity; Judah also shall fall with them.[6] They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek the LORD; but they shall not find him; he hath withdrawn himself from them.” First we see the word “pride,” and then the word “fall.” Mark it down. It will always happen in this order. It says in Proverbs 16:18, “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.” The problem with this is that human beings can be very prideful. Therefore, destruction is on the horizon for many people unless they learn to humble themselves. One of the many side benefits to coming to Jesus for salvation is that a saved person has leaned to be humble by repenting of sin and asking for forgiveness. A person who has never repented of their own sins will likely be a person afflicted with pride, thinking they are something when they are nothing.

A very important truth about God’s way of dealing with people is found in Hosea 5:6. It says, “but they shall not find him; he hath withdrawn himself from them.” When someone comes to the Lord Jesus and believes on Him, it is because God has drawn that person to Jesus. God made an invitation, and then they responded to that invitation. No one can come to Jesus unless they are drawn in that manner. But what happens when God makes an invitation to someone, but that person makes a final decision to refuse to come to Jesus? What can happen is exactly what it says in Hosea 5:6, “he hath withdrawn himself from them.” That would be a terrible fate for anyone. There is an old saying that goes like this, “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.” That is because she does not like to be rejected. God does not like being rejected either. How much fury do you think God has when He is scorned. It says in Proverbs 1:24-31, “Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded;[25] But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof:[26] I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh;[27] When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you.[28] Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me:[29] For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD:[30] They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof.[31] Therefore shall they eat of the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.” If the Lord is calling you, respond to Jesus while you have time.

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