A Study of Hosea
Yet let no one find fault, and let none offer reproof; for your people are like those who contend with the priest. So you will stumble by day, and the prophet also will stumble with you by night; and I will destroy your mother. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being My priest. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. Hosea 4:4-6
They refused to listen to those finding fault with their leadership and would not allow anyone to correct them. The word translated “rejected” here also means “drained.” They had “drained away the knowledge” that the Lord had given them. They made the Law “of non-account.” This is the very same thing that Yeshua (Jesus) said of the Pharisees of the first century.
It is easy to be led astray when you don’t know the Torah. It’s even easier when you were led to believe that the Torah is for the Jews only. What we are studying clearly indicates that this is not true. You see, many people today do not understand that “Judah” and “Israel” are NOT interchangeable. You can be an Israelite and not be from the tribe of Judah, Benjamin or Levi. Jews are the people who were left from the Southern Kingdom, Judah. When the Lord speaks of His people, the Israelites, He is not limiting that description to Jews alone. He is also not excluding them from His definition. All of His people went astray and were scattered into the nations at one time or another. Many of the Jews are lost (to us, not God) as well, due to the constant pressure from the “Christian church” to conform to their way of worship or suffer the pain of death as an “infidel.”
If we reject His knowledge, as revealed in the Torah, then He rejects us as His priests. Because we continue to ignore the Torah, He will ignore our children. This is what happened to the children of Israel; this is what will happen to us.
“All who are native shall do these things in this manner, in presenting an offering by fire, as a soothing aroma to the LORD. If an alien sojourns with you, or one who may be among you throughout your generations, and he wishes to make an offering by fire, as a soothing aroma to the LORD, just as you do so he shall do. As for the assembly, there shall be one statute for you and for the alien who sojourns with you, a perpetual statute throughout your generations; as you are, so shall the alien be before the LORD. There is to be one law and one ordinance for you and for the alien who sojourns with you.” Numbers 15:13-16
Everyone is to worship the Lord in the manner He has set before us. It doesn’t matter if we can trace our genealogy back to David, or if we have no idea who our father was, the same Law applies to us all. Nothing has happened to change this fact. This was what the “sheet vision” of Peter’s was all about. The Jews had been calling all Gentiles “unclean” when the Lord reminded them that the Gentiles can be “clean” also. In order to more fully understand the “clean/unclean” issue, one must study the Torah and the sacrificial system, which they (and we) were not doing.
You see, because they stopped learning what Moses taught, they didn’t even realize they had been led astray. The Lord, in His eternal mercy, sent a prophet to tell them what they had done was wrong. Did they listen to the prophet?
Though you, Israel, play the harlot, do not let Judah become guilty; also do not go to Gilgal, or go up to Beth-aven and take the oath: “As the LORD lives!” Since Israel is stubborn like a stubborn heifer, can the LORD now pasture them like a lamb in a large field? Ephraim is joined to idols; let him alone. Their liquor gone, they play the harlot continually; their rulers dearly love shame. The wind wraps them in its wings, and they will be ashamed because of their sacrifices. Hosea 4:15-19
They were stubborn, unwilling to listen to correction. Their love of the false ways had a tight hold on them.
Their deeds will not allow them to return to their God. For a spirit of harlotry is within them, and they do not know the LORD. Moreover, the pride of Israel testifies against him, and Israel and Ephraim stumble in their iniquity; Judah also has stumbled with them. Hosea 5:4-5
The prophet came and told them, but because they enjoyed celebrating the Lord in the manner they had chosen, they would not turn away from it. Their “mode of thinking and action” was so wrapped up in their own celebrations and traditions that they didn’t see that in doing so, they said, “we know better then you” to the Lord. Now that’s arrogance! And to make matters worse, the people of Judah were watching all of this and beginning to think, “that looks fun!” Not good, not good.
“Come, let us return to the LORD. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will restore us, that we may live in his presence. Let us acknowledge the LORD; let us press on to acknowledge him.
As surely as the sun rises, he will appear; he will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.” Hosea 6:1-3
Even in the midst of all of this, the Lord still reaches His hand out to His people. This is the same call to repentance we heard from John at the Jordan River. This is the same call we will continue to hear until “that day.”
“Put the trumpet to your lips! An eagle is over the house of the LORD because the people have broken my covenant and rebelled against my law. Israel cries out to me, `O our God, we acknowledge you!’ But Israel has rejected what is good; an enemy will pursue him. They set up kings without my consent; they choose princes without my approval. With their silver and gold they make idols for themselves to their own destruction.” Hosea 8:1-4
In scripture we often find the eagle. This is usually referring to a world government to something “of the world.” (Although the Lord is often equated with the eagle, in this instance the study shows us this is out of the question.) Notice His people swear that they are acknowledging the Lord when, in fact, they are refusing to follow His Torah. They are setting up their own king without consulting the Lord. They have replaced His Levites with other priests not of His choosing. This clearly shows the Lord that they do not know Him. They have rejected what was good (the Lord) so the enemy will pursue them. They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind. (v. 7)
Since Ephraim has multiplied altars for sin, they have become altars of sinning for him. Though I wrote for him ten thousand precepts of My law, They are regarded as a strange thing. As for My sacrificial gifts, they sacrifice the flesh and eat it, but the LORD has taken no delight in them. Now He will remember their iniquity, and punish them for their sins; they will return to Egypt. Hosea 8:11-13