The Book of Hosea
The Book of Hosea
By Richard St.James
Bible 1611.Com / Old Paths Baptist Mission © 2023
Hosea, chapter thirteen:
Verse one:
“When Ephraim spake trembling, he exalted himself
in Israel; but when he offended in Baal, he died.”
The children of Israel
began well [in Moses’ and Joshua’s day] in
having within themselves a spirit of humility
to seek the LORD. Now, this spirit
of humility came from the fear of the LORD
that was in them. This fear of the
LORD is what propelled them to riches, and
honour, and life.
Here is a very basic
truth of life:
“By humility and
the fear of the LORD are riches, and honour,
and life.” [Proverbs 22:4]
Now, many times one
begins well but often in the end does not end well.
What was the case
concerning the children of Israel?
In their youth
as a nation, they began well, but with the
passing of time, they left off from
their first love for the LORD, because of the
distractions and allurements offered to them
by the other nations surrounding them. They died!
Offending in Baal
The downward descent
of a person, or a people, or of
nations, consists of a very slippery slope
to a very tragic and bad end.
Unchecked sin always destroys!
Verse two:
“And now they sin more and more, and have made
them molten images of their silver, and idols
according to their own understanding, all of it the
work of the craftsmen: they say of them, Let the men
that sacrifice kiss the calves.”
These are the
golden calves that were
in Bethel, and that were also, in Dan.
Kiss the idols!
They sin more and
more.
Jeroboam’s sin caused
a nation to sin:
“Whereupon the king
took counsel, and made two calves of gold,
and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up
to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which
brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.”
[1 Kings 12:28]
Sin
spreads like a disease, it kills.
Verse three:
“Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud,
and as the early dew that passeth away, as the chaff
that is driven with the whirlwind out of the
floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney.”
People are like grass.
The have a short time to live, and then they are
gone. Life is brief! Turn in the
Bible, and read the book of Isaiah, chapter forty,
verses seven and eight:
“The grass withereth,
the flower fadeth: because the spirit of the LORD
bloweth upon it: surely the people is grass.
The grass withereth,
the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall
stand for ever.” [Isaiah 40:7-8]
Our sin hammers us
into a six-foot hole in the ground in a very
short time. Blink, and we are gone!!!
The Spirit of God says as much as this in
the word of God in Psalm one-hundred and
forty-four, verse four:
“Man is like to
vanity: his days are as a shadow that passeth
away.” [Psalms 144:4]
This is called the
brevity of life.
The brevity of our
life ought to sober us up to our desperate need
for a savior.
Verse four:
“Yet I am the LORD thy God from the land
of Egypt, and thou shalt know no god but me: for
there is no saviour beside me.”
This is the lesson
we all need to learn. Only God can save us.
David, in the Second book of Samuel, in chapter
twenty-two, verse three, had this testimony
through the Spirit of God:
“The God of my rock;
in him will I trust: he is my shield, and the
horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge,
my saviour; thou savest me from violence.”
[2 Samuel 22:3]
A savior saves.
The problem was
that Israel had forgotten their savior:
“They forgat God their saviour,
which had done great things in Egypt;”
[Psalm 106:21].
They needed to recall to
remembrance through the preaching of the prophets
and in hearing the word of God over and over
again to bring them around to faith in their
savior. Hear O Israel:
“I, even I,
am the LORD; and beside me there is no
saviour.” [Isaiah 43:11]
This lesson is learned
through faith.
Remember what the word
says in the book of the Romans, chapter ten, in
verse thirteen:
“So then faith
cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of
God.” [Romans 10:17]
So, God is wooing
them, He is reminding them: I am the LORD thy
God.
Verse five:
“I did know thee in the wilderness, in the land
of great drought.”
The LORD is gently
recounting to them of His supernatural
preservation of them in their wilderness journey
to the Promised Land. Read for
this account in the Fifth book of Moses called
Deuteronomy, chapter eight, verse fifteen:
“Who led thee through
that great and terrible wilderness, wherein were
fiery serpents, and scorpions, and drought, where
there was no water; who brought thee forth water
out of the rock of flint;”
[Deuteronomy 8:15]
I did know thee.
This knowledge of
them was based on an intensely intimate and
personal relationship analogous to the
marriage relationship between a man and a
woman.
Further, this
knowledge is analogous to knowing
Jesus Christ as your personal savior. This
kind of knowledge puts you IN Christ Jesus
according to the BOOK. See this truth for
yourself in the First Epistle to the
Corinthians, in chapter one, verse thirty:
“But of him are ye in
Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and
righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:
[1 Corinthians 1:30].
Knowing Jesus Christ
is to be In Jesus Christ
Verse six:
“According to their pasture, so were they filled;
they were filled, and their heart was exalted;
therefore have they forgotten me.”
There pasture is a
Promised Land. The Promised Land
was given by God as a LAND GRANT to
Israel.
Now here is the LAND
GRANT given by promise [called a covenant]:
“In the same day the
Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy
seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt
unto the great river, the river Euphrates:
[Genesis 15:18].
And their heart was
exalted.
Men have a natural
tendency to forget God, when they are
exalted. When prosperity comes to us,
we often forget it was the goodness of God
that brought this prosperity.
“Wherefore let him
that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.”
[1 Corinthians 10:12]
Verse seven:
“Therefore I will be unto them as a lion: as a
leopard by the way will I observe them:”
This is the same lion
we saw earlier [in chapter five] of this commentary.
Note: The LORD here is
not a literal lion, He is as a lion,
which points to the use of similitude.
As a literal lion carefully observes
his prey before the kill, the LORD intently
analyzes the hearts of men before He moves in
with the surgical judgment.
Then once He
begins to move in judgment, nobody can stop
Him:
“I, even I,
will tear and go away; I will take away, and none
shall rescue him.” [Hosea
5:14b]
Verse eight:
“I will meet them as a bear that is
bereaved of her whelps, and will rend the
caul of their heart, and there will I devour them
like a lion: the wild beast shall tear them.”
Now hear this:
“It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands
of the living God.” [Hebrews 10:31]
Now, here also, is a
word to the wise. To avoid falling into
the hands of the living God: FEAR THE LORD!
“The fear of the LORD
is the beginning of knowledge: but
fools despise wisdom and instruction.”
[Proverbs 1:7]
It is healthy for
you:
“The fear of the LORD
is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of
the LORD are true and righteous
altogether.” [Psalm 19:9]
Lesson to be learned:
If one wants the blessings of the LORD, then one
needs to fear the LORD.
Verse nine:
“O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me
is thine help.”
The nation of Israel
destroyed themselves.
When a people do not fear
the LORD, then, the end result is the
destruction of the very same people.
When will we ever learn?
Sometimes our worst enemy is our own self.
Men need to learn from history what it is
that is destroying them, and then men need to
learn to turn to the God of heaven and earth for
help.
In me is thine help.
In the New Testament book
to the Hebrews, chapter four, verse sixteen, there
is this offer to us for help:
Help in time of need:
“Let us therefore come
boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain
mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.”
[Hebrews 4:16]
Verse ten:
“I will be thy king: where is any other
that may save thee in all thy cities? and thy judges
of whom thou saidst, Give me a king and princes?”
Sin
stings, sin maims, and sin destroys:
SIN brings Death! Who can save
you O Israel?
Now, salvation
involves the very act of God saving or
preserving from a certain destruction or
from a great calamity … a person, a people, a
nation, or nations, or even the whole creation.
We see here in Hosea the
promise of salvation coming to the apple
of His eye. It is a KING Who will save
Israel. Israel is being supernaturally being
prepared in their hearts to cry out:
“I have waited for thy
salvation, O LORD.” [Genesis 49:18]
Now, see this
marvelous thing here in the book of Isaiah the
Prophet, chapter sixty-two, verse eleven:
“Behold, the LORD hath
proclaimed unto the end of the world, Say ye to the
daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh;
behold, his reward is with him, and his work
before him.” [Isaiah 62:11]
This is the same
salvation spoken of in the First Epistle of
Peter, chapter one, verse ten:
“Of which salvation
the prophets have inquired and searched diligently,
who prophesied of the grace that should come
unto you:” [1 Peter 1:10]
We read from the Gospel
according to Matthew:
“And she shall bring
forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for
he shall save his people from their sins.”
[Matthew 1:21]
From all the foregoing,
we see God has been working out a sure SALVATION
amidst the earth over all the millennia
of time.
Verse eleven:
“I gave thee a king in mine anger, and took
him away in my wrath.”
“In those days there
was no king in Israel.” This
statement is made in several places in the book of
Judges. From the days of Abraham to Samuel,
the prophet, Israel had no king. There
was no king in Israel until Saul.
[Judges 17:6, 18:1, 19:1, 21:25]
Now, why did they
not have a man as their king like all
the other nations did on the face the earth at that
time?
Now, here is the answer.
Israel had the LORD God
as their King!
Israel had God as
their King until Israel rejected
the LORD as their King!
God: is the rejected
King:
This is recorded in the
BOOK in the First book of Samuel, chapter eight,
verses four through seven:
I gave thee a king in
mine anger.
“Then all the elders
of Israel gathered themselves together, and came to
Samuel unto Ramah,
And said unto him,
Behold, thou art old, and thy sons walk not in thy
ways: now make us a king to judge us like all the
nations.
But the thing
displeased Samuel, when they said, Give us a king to
judge us. And Samuel prayed unto the LORD.
And the LORD said unto
Samuel, Hearken unto the voice of the people in all
that they say unto thee: for they have not rejected
thee, but they have rejected me, that I should not
reign over them.” [1 Samuel 8:4-8]
“And took
him away in my wrath.”
The sad, and tragic end,
to Saul is for all to read, and to consider, which
is found in the First book of Samuel, chapter
thirty-one. The wrath of God took him
out.
Verse twelve:
“The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; his
sin is hid.”
Ephraim, or Israel, is at the end of the line. He is bound up. His sin is hidden under the veneer of self-righteousness. It needs to be exposed.
Now, note this: A man
that is bound up is in a prison.
So it is with all men, they cannot help but sin.
They are in prison! And they are this
way from their birth, because of Adam’s
sin nearly six thousand years ago. It is
for us all, as the psalmist says, in Psalm
fifty-eight, verse three:
“The wicked are
estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as
they be born, speaking lies.”
[Psalm 58:3]
In the end
the sins that are hidden will be brought out into
the light.
“For nothing is
secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither
any thing hid, that shall not be known and come
abroad.” [Luke 8:17]
There is a solution.
Now, see for this
solution in the Second Epistle of Paul to the
Corinthians, chapter four, in verse six:
“For God, who
commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath
shined in our hearts, to give the light of
the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of
Jesus Christ.” [2 Corinthians 4:6]
Now men can get out of
this prison if they have the light of
Jesus Christ shine into their hearts.
See this operation with me in Psalm ninety,
verse eight:
“Thou hast set our
iniquities before thee, our secret sins in
the light of thy countenance.”
[Psalm 90:8]
Men everywhere need to
repent and believe on the LORD Jesus Christ in
order to be set free from the bondage to sin.
“And ye shall know the
truth, and the truth shall make you free.”
[John 8:32]
Next, in verse thirteen,
we will see how the LORD will operate
on him [that is Ephraim] through sorrows
[as like a travailing
woman in the time of giving birth] in
order to bring him to repentance.
Verse thirteen:
“The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come
upon him: he is an unwise son; for he should
not stay long in the place of the breaking
forth of children.”
A time of sorrows in
our life can be for our good.
It may be necessary for us to go through a
deep trial [with troubles all around us] in
order to come through the other side to the land of
safety.
Break through to the
other side!
See for this
phenomenon in the book of Jeremiah thirty, verse
seven:
“Alas! for that day
is great, so that none is like it: it
is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he
shall be saved out of it.”
[Jeremiah 30:7]
Salvation
is coming through their Messiah Jesus Christ.
For this prophecy open
the BOOK to Isaiah, chapter forty-six, verse
thirteen:
“I bring near my
righteousness; it shall not be far off, and my
salvation shall not tarry: and I will place
salvation in Zion for Israel my glory.”
[Isaiah 46:13]
Trouble first, then it is glory!
Verse fourteen:
“I will ransom them from the power of the grave;
I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be
thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction:
repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.”
What we see here
matches supernaturally to a beautiful
precision, to what is seen in the New Testament five
hundred years later in the First letter to
the Corinthians, in chapter fifteen:
“O death, where is
thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
The sting of death
is sin; and the strength of sin is the
law.
But thanks be
to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord
Jesus Christ.” [1 Corinthians
15:55-57]
Death is conquered.
The power of the grave
is broken.
This is the victory
foretold that we have through Jesus Christ.
This is the same solution that is for us in
the church, [which is the body of Christ]
today, as well as for them [that is Israel] in the
coming millennial Kingdom of Heaven.
Verse fifteen:
“Though he be fruitful among his brethren,
an east wind shall come, the wind of the LORD shall
come up from the wilderness, and his spring shall
become dry, and his fountain shall be dried up: he
shall spoil the treasure of all pleasant vessels.”
This east wind is
the wind of the LORD. When the east
wind blows, and takes the life out of them, then
the people of Israel will be brought to the end
of themselves. It will leave them as
like dry bones.
Lesson: When the best
that a man can do is not good enough to deliver
him, he will be more apt to turn to God.
What is beyond man’s
extremity is in the reach of God. A
man needs to turn to God to obtain what he
cannot obtain by himself.
Verse sixteen:
“Samaria shall become desolate; for she hath
rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the
sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and
their women with child shall be ripped up.”
And so, it happened.
I … will cause to
cease the kingdom of the house of Israel.
As noted earlier [in
chapter one, verse four], this prophecy was
fulfilled in the year of B.C. 721. The
Kingdom of Israel ceased.
Friend
If you
know the Bible Is True,
And you
never received
Jesus
Christ as your personal Lord and Savior...
And you
want to come to Him for Salvation now ... Then:
1. Admit
... To God that you are a Sinner...
Deserving Hell Fire...
2. Believe ... that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God...
Who died on the Cross for
You! ...
3. Repent! ... Ask
Him to Forgive You of Your Sin...
4. Receive Him... By
Asking Him to come into Your Heart...
And You
Will Receive the Gift of Eternal Life!
Born of God! You
Are in The Narrow Way ... To HEAVEN!