Israel Rejects The Lord

Hosea 8:1–14
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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.