HOSEA CHAPTER FOUR
Hosea has two major divisions. The first three chapters deal with the events of Hosea’s marriage to Gomer and resulting home life with the parallel relationship between God and Israel.
The second division of Hosea begins in chapter four and continues to the end of the book. It focuses on the harlotry of Hosea’s homeland. This section deals with the issues of rampant idolatry and unfaithfulness in both Israel and Judah, the resulting judgment, and the Lord’s unfailing love for His own.
Chapter four opens as a kind of courtroom scene in which God presents His case against His people. Hosea is writing, but he makes it clear that these are not his words, but God’s. “Listen to the word of the Lord.” The same courtroom language is used in Micah 6:2.
Who does God call to listen to His complaint in Hosea 4:1?
2) Who/what does God call to listen to His complaint in Micah 6:2?
Hosea lived and prophesied, mostly to Israel, between 755 B.C. to 714 BC. The Northern ten tribes (Israel) were taken into captivity by Assyrian King Shalmaneser V in 722 B.C.
Micah lived and ministered as a prophet to the nation of Judah between 733 B.C. and 701 B.C. His and Isaiah’s ministries were concurrent. (Isaiah 739 B.C. to 681 B.C.)
3) What likely explains the difference in wording between the two passages in Hosea and Micah?
In Hosea, God states His case against three major defendants. We’ll consider each one separately.
4) If God is the plaintiff in the case He is stating, who is the defendant listed in Hosea 4:1? (Against whom is He stating his case?)
5) God’s case is based on the absence of three things. What are they?
a.
b.
c.
A visit to Blue Letter Bible will give us a deeper understanding of these three words.
Here’s the link:
In NASB, the three missing “items” are faithfulness, kindness, and knowledge. There is much more to each of these words than meets the eye, so be sure to look in BLB for each one.
6) How is the word translated (in NASB) as “faithfulness” most often translated as in KJV? _________________
7) How is the word translated (in NASB) as “kindness” most often translated in KJV? ____________________
8) The word translated as knowledge (in NASB) indicates more than a series of facts. Look at the Biblical Usage outline. How is the meaning of “knowledge” expanded here? ____________
9) How does this verse compare with what God requires of us? See Micah 6:8 (This was my Mother’s favorite Bible verse.)
10) What evidence do you see for the absence of faithfulness, kindness, and knowledge in our own country? in your life?
11) In a nation filled with darkness, who is supposed to provide the LIGHT? (Matthew 6:14-16) This question may be repeated more than once because it is critical that we understand this particular piece of truth.
12) In what ways have you been the light in a dark place?
13) In what ways have you failed to be light in the darkness?
In Hosea 4:2a, God gives a list of behaviors (sins) for which He is charging Israel.
14) List them here.
Hosea 2b lists another kind of sin that was rampant in the land. Take a look at Blue Letter Bible to find a bit more about “employ violence”: https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=H6555&t=NASB
Look specifically at the Outline of Biblical Usage. (First under Qal)
Then look here to find out more about the bloodshed that follows bloodshed: https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=H1818&t=NASB)
15) To what could this refer? What kind of violence spills innocent blood?
16) From our study of Hosea thus far, in what ways were the people “spilling innocent blood”?
Hosea 4:3
This verse begins with “Therefore”. In this sentence, it means, “as a result of all the above-mentioned complaints”. The absence of faithfulness, kindness, and knowledge, in addition to the presence of swearing, deception, murder, stealing, adultery, and violent shedding of innocent blood have caused a stunning change in the land.
17) How would the land change?
18) How might this appear?
19) How might this be happening in our own nation?
20) What has happened to the people?
See BLB for a further description of the word translated as “languishes”.
https://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=H535&t=NASB
21) What kind of symptoms might you expect from a person who is “languishing”?
The seldom-mentioned truth is that sin makes us sick. It has more physical consequences and greater impact on our health than we can possibly imagine.
22) Read Amos 5:16-17. How does the scene described here compare to that in Hosea 4:3?
23) What happens to the animals, birds, and fish because of the sin the land?
24) Read this article from CBS News to see what is happening in our nation and our world. Write your thoughts below.
Prayer Pause:
Sin sickness can affect more than people. It can affect both the land and the animals, as well. We’ve prayed 2 Chronicles 7:14 before, but we would do well to pray this Scripture again. Humility. Prayer. Seeking God’s face. True repentance. There is a four-fold requirement in order for God to heal the land. Pause to pray again that the body of Christ will respond to our Lord in such a way that He will heal our sin-sick nation and our sin-sick land.
Hosea 4:4-10
This section of Hosea 4 is painful to me. In these verses, God addresses the sin of the priests and prophets, the spiritual leaders of their time. It was their job to know the law and communicate it to God’s people, but these priests were not “real” priests.
The problem dates back to the time of Jeroboam. (We studied this at the beginning of Hosea Chapter 1.) When he became king of the Northern Kingdom, he was desperate to protect his new position.
The temple and Jerusalem were in the Southern Kingdom (Judah). God’s people were supposed to travel to the temple for sacrifices and times of worship. Jeroboam feared that, when they did, they would become nostalgic for the united kingdom and want to reunite Israel and Judah. If that happened, he would lose his kingship.
In a foolish attempt to retain the people and his kingdom, Jeroboam set up two golden calves, one in Bethel and one in Dan, on the high places. He built houses for worship and made priests of men who were not from the tribe of Levi. We can assume that the men who agreed to be priests for this clearly pagan religion were not from the faithful of Israel.
In effect, Jeroboam created a new religion. These priests were not true priests to Jehovah. They were priests of the new religion that blended worship of God with worship of the golden calves.
Because he was trying to retain the people who would worship in Jerusalem, he weaved part of the law into the worship of the calves. Instead of going to the temple to offer sacrifices, the people in Israel could go to Bethel or Dan and offer sacrifices to the golden calves there.
Jeroboam was not the only leader in Israel. Every tribe had princes and leaders. Every town and village had men who accepted a leadership role. It appears that the good men of the time stood by and did nothing to stop Jeroboam. They watched as their nation became apostate and did nothing to bring the people back to the Lord.
Scripture is replete with stories of one man or one woman who stood for righteousness and helped to save the nation. This time, no one came to Israel’s rescue.
Following in his footsteps, Ahab and Jezebel introduced even more idolatry into the kingdom, with more corrupt practices.
Hosea makes it clear that the “priests” in Israel were completely corrupt, and emphasizes the effect the unfaithfulness of the priests have had on the people.
25) Read James 3:1. What does it say about the responsibility and accountability of teachers?
Prayer Pause:
The job of teacher is a frightening one, or should be, because of the great accountability. Think about those who have taught you about faith in Jesus and about Scripture. Pause now to thank God for them and pray that their teaching and their witness would be pleasing to God and that their faithfulness would endure to the end of their days. (Especially pray that for me.)
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Verse 4 begins this section as God continues His case. In a way, He is saying, (Leanna Paraphrase) “Do not complain to me or argue with me about this. I’m not listening to it.” He says the people are “like those who argue with the priest”. This phrase refers to decisions of the (true) priest in matters of sin and judgment and suggests that some people would argue with the priest about their decision. God makes it clear that there will be no arguing with Him.
Verse 5 speaks of the calamity that is to come. Both the people and their false prophets and unfaithful false priests will stumble and encounter calamity.
Like most parents, I gave my son a curfew, before which he needed to be home. Why? Because there are many ways for a teenaged boy to get in trouble after dark.
We are not as surprised by trouble that happens “in the dark”, but we generally consider ourselves “safe” by the light of day. Hosea writes that the people will “stumble by day”, when they consider themselves the least likely to fall, but they will also stumble “by night”, and their false prophets along with them.
When God says He will “destroy your mother”, He is not speaking of their literal birth mother. See Blue Letter Bible/Gesenius’ Lexicon to find out what the word means in this verse:
26) What “mother” will God destroy?
According to Hosea 5:5, no one will escape the trouble that is to come, and it will arrive when they least expect it.
My favorite theologian is Matthew Henry (1662-1714). Some people consider him outdated because he lived and wrote more than three hundred years ago, but I’ve found him to be particularly insightful. Some of his commentary on Hosea is especially enlightening.
“When all are involved in guilt nothing less can be expected than that all should be involved in ruin.”
(https://www.blueletterbible.org/Comm/mhc/Hsa/Hsa_004.cfm) accessed 5/10/16
Hosea 4:6
27) Why are the people destroyed?
28) The word used here in the same one used in 4:1d. What did we learn about that word? (See above)
29) What has caused their lack of knowledge?
30) What will God do to the priests?
The priests have not only disobeyed the law of God, they have forgotten it all together. How could priests forget the law of God? They stopped reading the law. They stopped teaching the law. They stopped studying the law.
During the time of Jeroboam, these new, false priests were given positions of authority and the people followed them without complaint. The priests during Hosea’s time likely never studied God’s law at all. They were priests on the high places, where Jeroboam had instituted worship of the calves, and in the places of pagan idol worship.
There was nothing authentic about their worship. Their was nothing of truth in their teaching. It appears that they mingled some of the law with their idolatry and created something that resembled true worship, but was not.
Unless we diligently study Scripture, we cannot expect to handle it correctly. Unless we know God’s Word, we cannot expect to understand it. If we don’t understand it, we can’t obey it. If we don’t obey it, we’ll reap a harvest, and it’s not likely we’ll enjoy the harvest we reap.
There’s an important point in this verse that we need to note. The people were destroyed for lack of knowledge. Their lack of knowledge was because they had rejected knowledge. Even with evil priests and a pagan religion rampant in the land, they could have retained knowledge of the law. Every young Jewish boy went to synagogue and memorized the Pentateuch. (First five books of the Bible) Every young girl memorized the Psalms. If the parents had continued to teach their children as they were supposed to do, knowledge would not have disappeared from the land.
They lacked knowledge because it was too much trouble to recall what they had learned as children. As adults, it was too much effort to pass it to their offspring.
The last section of this verse offers a terrifying judgment as a consequence of their “forgetting the law”. “I will forget your children.” This word has a double meaning here.
31) Check BLB to find the two meanings and write them here.
One might read this verse and wonder why God would forget innocent children, however this is not the case. When priests and parents abandon the Word of God and a lifestyle of obedience to live like the world, they do not teach truth to their children. Those children learn to live like the world from the example of their elders and, as a result, miss the blessings of following God. In a way, it is not God who abandons the children but the parents who “remove” their children from God’s care by their example of unfaithfulness.
Prayer Pause:
We’ve previously considered the impact our sin has had on our children. Now is the time to consider the impact on our children of those who do not follow God’s teachings. When those in the public eye preach anything less than following Jesus, who died and rose again for our sins, they put our children at risk. When they preach a kind of prosperity gospel, rather than a sacrificial gospel, they may draw crowds, but at great expense to those who listen.
Pray now that God will surround our children with godly examples of righteousness who preach only truth.
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Hosea 4:7
Hosea continues to write about the sins of the priests. This is a difficult passage to interpret because of the idolatry that had begun from the time of Jeroboam.
“The more they multiplied, the more they sinned.” Over the years, the idolatry increased, with a resulting increase in priests. The more priests there were, the more ways they found to sin. As a result, Hosea writes, God will change their glory into shame.
32) See Blue Letter Bible to see what is included in this “glory” the
priests are in danger of losing. (You know how to find this for yourself, now, right?)
The priests will not only lose their glory, they will gain shame.
Verse 8 explains why. What else have the priests done that is so heinous to God?
Feeding on the sin of the people is a reference to the way the sin offering was handled. Read Leviticus 4:1-12.
33) What portion of the sin offering was given to God?
34) What was to be done with the remainder of the sin offering?
35) See Leviticus 6:26. Which priest was to consume the sin offering? Under what conditions?
The priests had apparently grown fond of the meat of the sin offering. The more the people sinned, the more sin offerings they gave, and the more the priest had to eat. Although it is hard to believe, the priests wanted the people to sin so that they could enjoy the meat of the sin offering. (They probably even ate some of the meat that was supposed to be burned outside the camp.)
There was profit in sin, even in Hosea’s time.
Before we leave the issue of “feeding on the sin of the people”, we need to take note of the part of the sin offering that belonged to God. The blood, fat, liver, and kidneys were God’s portion. The rest was to be burned outside the camp.
One of the reasons this particular portion of offering was so sacred was that the “life of the flesh is in the blood” (Leviticus 17:11-12). The liver and kidneys act as filters for the blood. All the impurities are filtered out by these two organs.
By symbolically giving those “impurity filters” to God, the person giving the sin offering symbolically gave God their own impurity/iniquity. This act was precious to God, but the priests in Israel treated it as nothing more than a tasty meal.
The priests had directed “their desire toward iniquity”.
(It would be worth reading through the BLB Lexicon for this verse but, in the interest of reaching a point, I’m leaving that for you to do if time permits.)
(It would be worth reading through the BLB Lexicon for this verse but, in the interest of reaching a point, I’m leaving that for you to do if time permits.)
The word translated as “directed” is nasa’ and suggests carrying or lifting and moving something.
The word translated as “desire” is nephesh and is most often used to indicate the soul, or the living, breathing substance of a person, the breath of God placed in us.
Putting that all together, the priests had used the very breath of God within them to pursue their sin. (See Genesis 2:7) They made a choice and carried their own souls into iniquity.
When we choose to pursue a sinful lifestyle, although we know better, we are like these priests, and we, too, can expect to pay a severe price for our choice.
Genesis 2:7 tells us that our very first breath comes straight from God Himself. The knowledge that He entrusts us with the breath of life from within Himself is almost too incredible to comprehend. This is a beautiful picture of a divine resuscitation that occurs at birth and continues through every breath we take for all of our lives.
Our breath is not our own. It is a divine gift from God and entrusted to us so that we might praise and honor Him.
36) In what ways have we used that gift to honor him? To deny Him?
Prayer Pause:
Pause to pray that we might use the life breath from God in ways that bring honor and glory, instead of shame, to Him.
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Hosea 4:9-10
These two verses speak directly to the priests. It makes me so, so sad, because this terrible sequence of events doesn’t just happen in the lives of priests. It happens in all our lives, if we choose this path of sin.
Priests did not immerse themselves in the Word of God. They didn’t know His law, so they didn’t obey it. The less they knew, the more they sinned.
Their job was to communicate God’s truth to the people by both word and deed. They, in a way, stood as a bridge between God and His people, but, when sin consumed them, they couldn’t serve God or the people.
Like it or not, we, the body of Christ, serve as a kind of bridge to God for those who do not know Him. We live out our faith in front of them and they draw inferences about God by the way we chose to behave. The way we chose to love. The way we chose to condemn. When we allow sin into our lives, we can’t be the conduit to God that He intended us to be.
God was, in essence, saying to the priests (and to us), “The people have immersed themselves in immorality and heinous sin. You should be better, but you are not. Immoral. Unfaithful. Judged. Condemned.” The priests were no more faithful, no more moral than the people they were supposed to lead.
The priests, however, were the leaders and they had the greater burden for faithfulness. As the leaders, they empowered people to become as wicked and faithless as they.
We have seen examples of this over and over again. A nation becomes like the leaders they choose. Consider the outcome of the leadership of Hitler and Marx in the last century and the leadership of Ben Laden and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi (founder of ISIS) in this century.
Leaders are accountable for the leadership they give. The priests in the time of Hosea were indulging in unbelievable sin and leading a nation down the same path. God was calling them to account.
37) What will their punishment include? (verse 10)
No matter what they do, they will not be satisfied. It will never be “enough”. It’s a terrible judgment because the longing for more will never give them peace or contentment. There will be no hope because nothing can satisfy.
38) Have you ever experienced the feeling of never being satisfied? Never content?
39) How might God use that feeling to draw you away from the world and back to Himself?
40) When judgment begins, where does it start? (1 Peter 4:17)
This will be a hard word, I know, but we need to read Ezekiel 9:1-11. Before you read it, let me explain that this is a portion of Ezekiel’s vision. God jerked him up by the hair of his head (Ez. 8:3) and took him to Jerusalem. He saw the glory of God as well as the sin of the elders.
God said to Ezekiel, “Do you see what the elders of the house of Israel are committing in the dark?… You will see even worse than this…” (LP)
They consoled themselves by thinking that God wasn’t watching, but God made
it clear that HE SEES IT ALL and He will deal with it. In the passage you are about to read, the days of playing at religion have come to an end. God’s judgment has been issued and destruction is about to fall. It’s the end point to which the people in Hosea’s time have propelled themselves by their sin.
I think this is going to break your heart, because it has mine, but it will be worth it, so press on. As you read Ezekiel 9, be assured that I have prayed for you as you study this passage.
Ezekiel makes it clear that there is only one thing God respects. There is only one thing that causes people to have the mark by which they are spared.
41) What is it that earns the mark? (See Ezekiel 9:4)
42) Where were abominations being committed?
It’s important to realize that the abominations were being committed by the people of God. This judgment is not about the pagans. It’s about God’s people.
Here’s a blog post that speaks to the issue of abominations. I hope you’ll take a few minutes to read and consider it.
Prayer Pause:
Here’s the place for us to ask if our heads would be marked. Do we groan over our own sin? Do we groan over the sin and abominations in the body of Christ? Pray that God will break our hearts over our own sin and make us willing to live as He intended, in humility and righteousness, worshipping only Him.
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Hosea 4:11-14
These verses are an indictment against the harlotry of God’s people. Verse 11 says that harlotry, wine, and new wine have taken away the “understanding”. Look at Blue Letter Bible to get a better grasp of all that “understanding” entails.
43) How might loss of “understanding” affect us?
Verse 12 speaks of a “spirit of harlotry”. Compare this with Ephesians 6:12.
44) How should this spirit be combated?
The spirit of harlotry has led the people so far astray from truth that they consult wooden idols for guidance and allow the “diviner’s wand” to give them advice. They have begun to believe in magical pieces of wood.
I read this and wonder how they went so far astray, yet I consider our world and see that we are no better. Even when it is done as a “game”, it seems very like Hosea 4:12
45) What do people consult as “diviner’s wands” for guidance today?
46) When we need guidance, where should we turn?
Hosea 4:13-14
God never misses a thing we do, and He did not overlook the sin of Israel. They
enjoyed the idol worship because their sacrifices took place on the “high places” and they didn’t have to travel to Jerusalem.
Visualize this in your mind’s eye for a moment. High hill or low mountain. Trees all around. Oak, poplar, terebinth. Nice shade. Pretty day.
A trip to the high places was a fun outing for the people of Israel. It was a pleasant setting and they enjoyed it. While they were there, they offered a few offerings and thought nothing of it. They’d ask the idol for a special blessing.
Just in case they got lucky.
(Does this remind you of anything happening today?)
The people told themselves it didn’t matter, because they were still worshipping God. In a manner of speaking.
What did it matter? It mattered a lot, because it was a form of spiritual adultery toward God.
To make matters worse, this was not just a picnic under the trees with a few offerings given to a stone idol.
47) What did the men do in the name of worship? (verse 14)
It was worship. Worship of self. Of desire. Of sexuality. There was no worship of God involved.
48) How did the daughters follow their fathers’ example?
49) God had already dealt with this issue in advance. What did the law say about harlotry and about the punishment for harlotry? See Leviticus 19:29, Leviticus 21:9, Deuteronomy 22:20-21, Deuteronomy 23:17,18
50) The penalty for harlotry was severe, but what did God say about the punishment this time? (See Hosea 4:14)
The people of God worshipped at the altars of idols made of stone and wood rather than obey the Lord God Almighty, Creator and Sustainer of the Universe. They exchanged the truth for a lie. They exchanged the power of God for the chance that a piece of wood might have mystical power.
Why? Because they wanted what they wanted. They did what they desired. They went their own way.
They were the masters of their fate and they carried themselves straight to destruction.
51) Here’s a little extra reading on this topic.
Scroll down the page to the heading “A National Duty” for more information on how Israel ended up in this terrible state.
Prayer Pause:
Let’s stop now to pray that God will plant an understanding of His Might and His glory so deep in us that we will never stray from Him. Pray the same for our children. Our families. Pray that our churches will get serious about obedience to His Word. Pray that the desire for righteousness will transcend all other desires.
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Hosea 4:15
This verse is a warning to Judah not to indulge in the idolatry of Israel. He warns them against even going to Gilgal or Beth-aven. Both of these cities were centers of idol worship. One of Jeroboam’s golden calves was placed in Beth-el (House of God). The name was later changed to Beth-aven (House of wickedness).
Curiosity seekers are not a modern phenomenon. There was likely a temptation to “go and see”, even in Hosea’s time, but God was clear. Do not even go to look. The temptation to indulge in the excesses being committed at the shrines of idols was great, but there was one way to protect themselves from temptation. Stay away.
We, too, would do well to heed this admonition. If we avoid temptation, we will not fall prey to its seductive draw.
Verse 15 includes another warning to Judah. They were not to swear using the Lord’s name.
52) Review Exodus 20 and record the ways Israel had directly disobeyed the Ten Commandments, the most basic portion of the law.
How do we, like Israel, disobey the Ten Commandments? (I am talking about “we” the body of Christ, and not the lost people of our land.)
Verse 16 offers a visual that would have been readily understandable in the agrarian society of Hosea’s time. God described Israel as a “stubborn heifer” and, as result, He could not “pasture them like a lamb in a large field.”
After a quarter-century of raising cattle, I’m very familiar with the problem of a “stubborn heifer”. In general, my cattle knew that, when I whistled for them, they should come right away if they wanted to be the first cow at the feed trough.
When a heifer is stubborn and cranky, however, she will not come when called, even for mealtime. The result of pasturing her in a large field would be less feed and less care because of her refusal to cooperate. Instead, a “stubborn” heifer would be confined to a smaller area until she learned to come when called.
So, too, when we are obedient and faithful, God can bless us with a larger area of influence and pasture us “in a large field”. When we refuse to obey Him, when we are like a “stubborn heifer”, we lose the generous blessings God has prepared for us.
53) Read Psalm 23 and note the ways the Good Shepherd cares for his lambs.
Hosea 4:17
God warns Judah to stay away from Ephraim.
54) What were the sins of Ephraim? See Psalm 78:9-11 and Hosea 4:17
Hosea 4:18
In an earlier verse (Hosea 4:11), we saw that wine robbed the people of understanding and insight. Verse 18 indicates that, even when all their strong drink was gone, and there was no longer drink to dull their minds, the people continued to play the harlot.
Idolatry may have begun as a drunken excess but it had become a compulsion that they could not stop.
55) What do the rulers love?
56) What does the word translated as “rulers” mean literally?
The word translated as “shame” can also be translated as “disgrace” or “dishonor”.
In Israel, the very ones who were supposed to protect the people (shields) were so enamored of sin, even with the disgrace it brought, that they not only failed to protect the people, they led them into depravity and destruction.
At last, the rulers will come face to face with a terrifying consequence.
57) Read Hosea 4:19 and check Blue Letter Bible for the meaning of the word translated as “wind”. (most common usage)
Now read that verse again, inserting “Spirit” for the word “wind”.
58) How might it relate to Hebrews 10:31?
Prayer Pause:
Let’s pause now and pray we would not become a “stubborn heifer” toward the Lord, but will willingly follow. Pray, too, that we will not be tempted by the immorality so rampant around us.
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Congratulations! You’ve been in Hosea for a full month (or more) and I’m so proud of you. This is not an easy study or a fast study, but the in-depth examination of Scripture is worth the effort.
The story of Israel’s sin and destruction always makes me more aware of my own sin and it breaks my heart. I want to be the one who loves most but, all too often, I am the one most in need of forgiveness. Perhaps you’ve experienced this, too.
When we see our sin as God sees it, we have a choice. We can continue in sin and face judgment or repent and be restored to the relationship He desires.
God is working in us already. He is drawing us to a deeper, sweeter relationship that will come after our work of repentance is done.
We will see more about the sin of Israel and Judah and the judgment God sends, but we will also see how very much our God loves His children, how He pleads with us, how He redeems us. It’s worth the journey, so don’t stop now. The best is yet to come. Here's the link to Chapter Five.
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Photo above is of the Western Wall on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem
#Hosea #Biblestudy
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Photo above is of the Western Wall on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem
#Hosea #Biblestudy
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