HOSEA 8:8

The Bible says in Hosea 8:8-10, “Israel is swallowed up: now shall they be among the Gentiles as a vessel wherein is no pleasure.[9] For they are gone up to Assyria, a wild ass alone by himself: Ephraim hath hired lovers.[10] Yea, though they have hired among the nations, now will I gather them, and they shall sorrow a little for the burden of the king of princes.” Once a person gets saved through faith in Jesus, that person is not taken to heaven immediately, obviously, but is left here on the earth for several reasons. One of those reasons is to be a testimony to the lost people of the world. Jesus said in Matthew 5:13-16, “Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.[14] Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.[15] Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.[16] Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” It is a privilege to be used of God in this world because we follow Jesus. And we will be rewarded in heaven for what is done in our lives on earth. It is a terrible thing if a Christian loses his testimony. It is a terrible thing if a Christian can no longer have an impact. That is exactly what happened to the Israelites. It says about them in Hosea 8:8, “now shall they be among the Gentiles as a vessel wherein is no pleasure.”

Hosea 8:10 is a great verse to demonstrate the love, mercy, and long-suffering of God in spite of the failures of man. It also demonstrates the truth of eternal security. It says, “Yea, though they have hired among the nations, now will I gather them, and they shall sorrow a little for the burden of the king of princes.” No matter how bad the Israelites had become, and they had become very bad as the adulterous wife of Jehovah, yet God looked forward to His plans for them and the good things He would do for them. Even though the Israelites were in the midst of their great failures and sins, the Lord said, “now will I gather them.” Of course, Israel was and is destined to suffer many things before the re-gathering takes place, including the times that Jerusalem was conquered by the Babylonians, the Romans, and others; and of course, the terrible sufferings from Nazi Germany and Adolf Hitler. But eternity is so long and the happiness there is so great that God says about the sufferings of Israel, “and they shall sorrow a little.” But perhaps the sorrow that God is talking about is the sorrow that they will have concerning their own sins when Jesus returns to deliver Israel from the nations of the world and to crush the armies of the world at the Battle of Armageddon. This is “the burden of the king of princes.” The king of princes is the King of kings: the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Bible says in Hosea 8:11-14, “Because Ephraim hath made many altars to sin, altars shall be unto him to sin.[12] I have written to him the great things of my law, but they were counted as a strange thing.[13] They sacrifice flesh for the sacrifices of mine offerings, and eat it; but the LORD accepteth them not; now will he remember their iniquity, and visit their sins: they shall return to Egypt.[14] For Israel hath forgotten his Maker, and buildeth temples; and Judah hath multiplied fenced cities: but I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour the palaces thereof.” When we think of Israel in the Old Testament, a question to ask is this: how does a nation that is blessed of God and that is chosen of God end up going away from God? One of the primary reasons is found in Hosea 8:12 that says, “I have written to him the great things of my law, but they were counted as a strange thing.” Who wrote the Bible? God said, “I have written.” Yes, he used prophets and holy men to write it, but the words are God’s words. It says in Second Peter 1:20-21, “Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.[21] For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.” What makes the Bible so unique is that of all the books that have ever been written, all are from man except for this one book: the Bible. One of the great gifts that God has given to the world is the written Word of God. We need the Word of God to have spiritual vitality and to grow in the knowledge of the Lord. We need to read, study, and think about the words of the Bible because it is God’s Word. Jesus quoted the Old Testament in Luke 4:4 and said, “It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.” Once the Word of God is neglected or out aside for any reason the same thing will happen to any people that happened to Israel, and it says about them in Hosea 8:14, “Israel hath forgotten his Maker.”

The Bible says in Hosea 9:1-7, “Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, as other people: for thou hast gone a whoring from thy God, thou hast loved a reward upon every cornfloor.[2] The floor and the winepress shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail in her.[3] They shall not dwell in the LORD's land; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean things in Assyria.[4] They shall not offer wine offerings to the LORD, neither shall they be pleasing unto him: their sacrifices shall be unto them as the bread of mourners; all that eat thereof shall be polluted: for their bread for their soul shall not come into the house of the LORD.[5] What will ye do in the solemn day, and in the day of the feast of the LORD?[6] For, lo, they are gone because of destruction: Egypt shall gather them up, Memphis shall bury them: the pleasant places for their silver, nettles shall possess them: thorns shall be in their tabernacles.[7] The days of visitation are come, the days of recompence are come; Israel shall know it: the prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad, for the multitude of thine iniquity, and the great hatred.” In the book of Hosea we see the Lord constantly calling Israel to repent, but they do not. And as it is with everyone who refuses to repent and turn to the Lord Jesus, the judgments must eventually come. These verses list many of the things that will happen to Israel. Strange that people think they will lose by turning to the Lord, when actually the opposite is true. In verse 1 we see that the Israelites would lose their “joy.” In verse two we see that they would lose their prosperity. In verse three we see that they would lose their land and would come under the control of unbelievers. In verses four, five, and six we are told that the Israelites will lose the meaningfulness of their religion. And in verse seven we are told that the leaders of the people will lose their wisdom, and as a matter of fact will be fools and will be “mad” men.

Hosea 8:7 states clearly why these terrible consequences happened to the Israelites. It says, “for the multitude of thine iniquity, and the great hatred.” One of the reasons that we need to repent of our sins and turn to Jesus is because there are terrible consequences to sin, and Jesus is our only escape. But notice that the Israelites not only had great “iniquity,” but they also had “great hatred.” That is a very revealing way to describe people who have gone away from God. God is love, and so if you go away from God, you are going away from love. The opposite of love is hatred. What should characterize human beings is great love. Jesus said that the greatest commandments are love for God and love for one’s fellow man. Jesus said in Mark 12:30-31, “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 Bible says in Hosea 9:8-9, “The watchman of Ephraim was with my God: but the prophet is a snare of a fowler in all his ways, and hatred in the house of his God.[9] They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah: therefore he will remember their iniquity, he will visit their sins.” Verse 8 mentions a “watchman,” a “prophet,” and the “house” of God. In the Old Testament the “house” of God is the temple. Because of the way the law of Moses was set up, there was a place and a building that symbolized the presence of God. The priests would enter into the holiest of holies inside the temple, which would symbolize them entering into the presence of God on behalf of the people. Because of Jesus in the age of grace in which we live, there is no longer a temple or a priesthood. Now every believer can go into the presence of God wherever they are at through faith in Christ. There is no place and no building that symbolizes the presence of God. God dwells within each believer. The Bible says to Christians in First Corinthians 6:19, “What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?”

You know that your society has really gone downhill when many of the preachers have become corrupt people. That is what happened to the Israelites. Thankfully, there were always a few good prophets, but evidently most of them went away from the Lord and became corrupt. The prophets were described as being a “snare.” In other words instead of helping people by giving them the Word of God, the things that the prophets taught and the things that the prophets did entrapped people and made their lives worse, and caused the people to also go farther away from the Lord instead of closer to Him. Hosea 9:9 says, “They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah.” In order to understand this, we have to go back and look at what happened in the city of Gibeah. Remember that the first king, Saul, came from Gibeah. Saul had serious spiritual lacking himself, but an event happened in Gibeah very early in the history of the Israelites after they entered back into the land of Canaan and even before Saul was born that showed what kind of crimes and sins the people of Israel were capable of whenever they departed from God. That event and its effects are described in the last three chapters of Judges, Judges chapters 19, 20, and 21.

The incident has to do with two people, a man and his concubine, who were on a trip and decided to take lodging in the town of Gibeah, which was part of the tribe of Benjamin. The two did find lodging for the night, but while they were inside, men from Gibeah demanded that the traveler be turned over to them so they could abuse him sexually. They turned the concubine over to the men of Gibeah. They raped and abused her all night, and in the morning she was found dead on the doorstep. The traveler wanted all of Israel to share in the horror of that incident, and so he cut her body into twelve pieces and sent the pieces into all the land to all twelve of the tribes of Israel. The result was civil war with all the other tribes attacking the tribe of Benjamin, and almost wiping out all of the men of Benjamin. This entire horrific event was a terrible conclusion to the book of Judges, a sad commentary on what human beings are capable of doing, and a warning to what would be the national destiny of Israel. Knowing what human beings are capable of doing, this is a reminder of the importance of getting saved by Jesus and serving Him. It is also a reminder of the patience and mercy of God. God still has not fully cast off Israel and He never will. But God did not forget what happened at Gibeah. God spoke through Hosea and reminded the children of Israel of what happened at Gibeah. Justice must be served, and God is the Judge. He knows all, sees all, and He must be true to His responsibility as Judge of the earth, even with His own people. “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord.”

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