Israel Rejects The Lord
November 10, 2020
Commentary
The people of Israel had intermarried with foreign people and had picked up their evil ways. When we spend a lot of time with people, we can easily pick up their attitudes and begin to imitate their actions. In this chapter we find five reasons for God’s judgment on Israel:
1. Because of her transgressions against God’s covenant (vv. 1-3). This seems to refer to Assyria coming to attack Israel and take her people into captivity (II Kings 15:28, 29). The trumpet indicates the severity of the attack. The eagle indicates its swiftness.
2. Because of her setting up kings and princes without God’s direction (v. 4). None of the kings of the Northern Kingdom were God’s appointed rulers of the land.
3. Because of her idolatrous practices (vv. 5-7). The heart of their idol worship was Samaria, and the specific form was that of a golden calf. God was angry with them because they worshiped a product of their own hands, rather than worshiping the God who made them.
4. Because of her alliance with Assyria (vv. 8-10). God’s plan for Israel was that they should be a peculiar people for Him and that they would worship Him. Instead, they forsook God and adopted the ways of the Gentiles. They turned to Assyria in rebellion against God.
5. Because of her multiplication of sacrificial altars (vv. 11-14). Throughout Israel many sacrificial altars were built. Despite God’s clear revelation (v. 12) they went off into the practice of idolatry and judgment had to fall (v. 13).
Application
God’s judgment came upon Israel by mean of the Assyrians. In seeking self-preservation apart from God, it brought about its own destruction. When I seek security in anything except God, I expose myself to great judgment. Without God there will be no lasting security for me.
Hosea 8:1– 14 (NET)
1 Sound the alarm! An eagle looms over the temple of the Lord! For they have broken their covenant with me and have rebelled against my law.
2 Israel cries out to me, “My God, we acknowledge you!”
3 But Israel has rejected what is morally good; so an enemy will pursue him.
4 They enthroned kings without my consent. They appointed princes without my approval. They made idols out of their silver and gold, but they will be destroyed!
5 O Samaria, he has rejected your calf idol. My anger burns against them! They will not survive much longer without being punished, even though they are Israelites!
6 That idol was made by a workman—it is not God! The calf idol of Samaria will be broken to bits.
7 They sow the wind, and so they will reap the whirlwind! The stalk does not have any standing grain; it will not produce any flour. Even if it were to yield grain, foreigners would swallow it all up.
8 Israel will be swallowed up among the nations; they will be like a worthless piece of pottery.
9 They have gone up to Assyria, like a wild donkey that wanders off. Ephraim has hired prostitutes as lovers.
10 Even though they have hired lovers among the nations, I will soon gather them together for judgment. Then they will begin to waste away under the oppression of a mighty king.
11 Although Ephraim has built many altars for sin offerings, these have become altars for sinning.
12 I spelled out my law for him in great detail, but they regard it as something totally unknown to them.
13 They offer up sacrificial gifts to me and eat the meat, but the Lord does not accept their sacrifices. Soon he will remember their wrongdoing, he will punish their sins, and they will return to Egypt.
14 Israel has forgotten his Maker and built royal palaces, and Judah has built many fortified cities. But I will send fire on their cities; it will consume their royal citadels.