Tag Archives: Hosea 4

Daily Bible Study

September 20, 2023 Bible Study — Let No One Accuse Another

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Hosea 1-7.

Hosea warns that God will punish Israel for the sins of her people, but He will call them back to Him again.  When He is ready, God will pour out His love upon His people and entice them to turn to Him.  He will save His people, but He will not do so with weapons and armies.  He will do so by His own power.  I think the contrast given by Hosea between what we humans see as power with what God will do foreshadows the way in which He brought His salvation through the death of Jesus.  Hosea then returns to prophesying against the sins of Israel which led to her destruction.  It sounds like a description of our society today.  He writes that there is no faithfulness or love, because there is no acknowledgement of God.  When he writes that there is no faithfulness or love, he is not talking just about faithfulness to God, and/or love of God.  No, he means that there is no faithfulness between the people.  Rather than faithfulness and love, there is only cursing, lying, murder, stealing, and adultery.  However, he also tells us not to look at others and accuse them of sin, we need to acknowledge our own sin and turn to God ourselves for forgiveness.  God does not seek a legalistic approach to obeying Him.  He does not want abortion to be outlawed.  He does not seek laws against homosexual behavior, or those who distort gender.  No, He wants us to acknowledge Him, and to show mercy to each other.  I am not saying that those things are OK, but that God desires that we surrender our hearts to Him and invite those who seek to find happiness through self-destructive behavior to know the joy of serving God.  God does not want us to change our laws, rather He wants us to accept His love and to honor Him.

 

 

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

September 20, 2022 Bible Study — God Does Not Condemn The Sins Of Some While Giving The Sins Of Others A Pass

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Hosea 1-7.

My lovely wife married me 22 years ago on the 23rd of this month.  So I am going to wish her Happy Anniversary every day from now until then.

Happy Anniversary, Darling!

Hosea prophesies that the people of Israel had sought gods other than God to worship and had credited those gods as providing the blessings which came from God.  He then said that God would cut them off from both those gods and the blessings He had given them so that they would turn back to Him.  While Hosea’s prophecy is for Israel as a group, as a people, it has relevance for us today as individuals, because we tend to similarly turn to other “gods” when we receive God’s blessings.  And God similarly seeks to turn us back to Him.  Hosea goes on to say that God will not support a double standard: we cannot expect God to punish the prostitutes while asking Him to give the “Johns” a pass.  God will not punish the sins of the oppressed while overlooking the sins of the oppressors.  Further, Hosea warns us not to follow the forms of worshiping God, while giving ourselves a pass for our own sin, not to call out the sins we do not commit, while ignoring our own sins.  God does not overlook some sins, while punishing others.

 

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

September 20,2021 Bible Study — Failure To Acknowledge God Leads To Lawlessness

Today, I am reading and commenting on  Hosea 1-7.

I was struggling with what I wanted to write about today’s passage when I re-read chapter 4 verses 1 and 2

There is no faithfulness, no love,
no acknowledgment of God in the land.
There is only cursing,lying and murder,
stealing and adultery;

I realized this so sums up how things work.  When people fail to acknowledge God, they become faithless and unloving.  It does not necessarily happen right away, and you may see exceptions.  However, over time, as fewer and fewer people acknowledge God the fewer people there are who show love to others or exhibit faithfulness in anything.  Conversely, cursing, lying, murder, stealing, and adultery become ever more prevalent.  As lying, stealing, adultery, and murder become bigger problems in our society, we will not solve it with stricter laws, or more vigorous law enforcement.  We will only solve that problem by acknowledging God and seeking to serve Him.  Which brings me understanding of the names which Hosea gave his wife’s younger two children: “Unloved” and “Not My People”.  When there is an explicit refusal to acknowledge God everyone becomes unloved and no one considers anyone else “my people”.  But in Hosea’s exposition on his children’s names he reveals that God will call people to Him so that they become children of the living God.  When people accept this calling they will come to realize that those who have also accepted God’s call are their people and they will love them.  When people love each other and consider them “my people” lying, cheating, adultery, and murder do not enter their minds.

I use the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Daily Bible Study

September 20, 2020 Bible Study Loving Others Is More Important Than Rituals

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

In the year 2000, on the 23rd day of this month, my wife married me.  So here we are on day 17 of the 20 days that I am going to wish her Happy Anniversary for 20 years of marriage.  Happy Anniversary Darling!

Today, I am reading and commenting on Hosea 1-7.

When I read Hosea I feel sorry for both Hosea and for his children; Hosea because God commanded him to marry a prostitute, his children because of the names he gave them.  That was the point of this.  We should feel sorry for God, and we should feel shame.  God has offered us faithful love and we have been unfaithful.  Yet despite our unfaithfulness, God has redeemed us, has bought us back from the slavery into which we sold ourselves, just as Hosea bought his wife back from wherever it was that she had sold herself.

However, the place where Hosea’s prophecy truly strikes home comes in Chapter 4.  Hosea starts the chapter by speaking about the violence, dishonesty, and lack of knowledge of God in the land, and its consequences.  As a result of those evil behaviors people are wasting away, but not just the people, the animals and plants are disappearing (sound familiar?).  The important point he makes is that we don’t get to blame others for this state of affairs.  People do not know God because those of us who have been called into what my faith tradition calls the priesthood of believers has refused to know Him, and thus teach others about Him.  We need to recognize how we may benefit when others sin.  Are we like the priests whom Hosea mentions here who profit from the sin offerings people make to gain forgiveness for their sins?  Or, do we gain a sense that we are better than those “wicked sinners”?

Whatever our answers to those questions, we need to look address our own failings rather than point out the failings of others.  God would rather we show love to our fellows than offer Him sacrifices.  It is more important to know God than to follow religious rituals.  Rather than pointing fingers at others for what is wrong in this world, let us strive to know God and show His love to those around us.

Daily Bible Study

September 20, 2019 Bible Study — Don’t Point The Finger At Someone Else

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Hosea 1-7.

There are two ways to read the account of Hosea marrying a prostitute.  One way is to believe that God told Hosea to find a prostitute who would marry him.  The other is to believe that Hosea sought God’s guidance in choosing a wife and the woman he thus chose became a prostitute (or, maybe was a prostitute but Hosea was unaware of it when he married her).  The second makes more sense to me, and fits with the way I have seen God communicate his message to people.  Hosea’s experience in his marriage thus influenced his ministry.  Hosea separated from his wife because of her infidelity.  Then at some time later, he bought her back and made her his wife once more.  But he did not just buy her back, he won her back, just as God wishes to do with us. This suggests that she had fallen on hard times and been sold into slavery.  I believe that Hosea truly loved his wife and God used the pain he felt over her unfaithfulness to show people how God felt about their unfaithfulness.

 

The whole of today’s passage is a condemnation of society.  Hosea condemns a society where people break their vows, kill, steal, and commit adultery.  Instead of leading the people to do what is right and good, the leaders, both religious and secular, encourage them to be selfish and do wrong because they, the leaders, profit from the wrongdoing of the people.  This reminds me of today where most, if not all, of our political and religious leaders encourage people to focus their attention on their own desires rather than on the good of all, dividing people rather than uniting.  However, the most important part of Hosea’s lesson in today’s passage is in chapter four, verse four: 

Don’t point your finger at someone else and try to pass the blame!

All too many of us try to blame what we see as wrong with society as someone else’s fault.  Don’t blame someone else for what is wrong in your life, not your parents, not your pastor, not the governor, not the president, nor anyone else.  Recognize that what is wrong in your life is a result of your sins and turn to God for forgiveness and change.

Daily Bible Study

September 20, 2018 Bible Study — Our Infidelity Towards God

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Hosea 1-7.

    Every time I read this I feel bad for Hosea’s daughter and second son. Can you imagine growing up with those names, Not Loved and Not My People? One can only hope that Hosea called them by the names which God said would one day apply to the people of Israel, “My People” and “The One I Love”. My inclination is to believe that God did not literally order Hosea to marry a prostitute. Instead, I believe that Hosea truly loved Gomer and chose to marry her despite indications that she would be unfaithful. God then used her behavior to illustrate His anger at the people of Israel and the reasons for it. I would not, however, try to convince someone who interpreted the passage more literally that they were mistaken.

    In light of my above opinion and reading between the lines of what Hosea writes in chapter 2, I think we see something of how Hosea’s relationship with Gomer went. And that gives us insight into God’s message for Israel (and to a degree for us). Gomer ran off after other men, leaving Hosea for those men. Perhaps Hosea took actions to keep other men from being with Hosea, or perhaps those men abandoned Gomer once they had taken their pleasure. Gomer then returned to Hosea, knowing that he would provide for her needs, but no sooner did he do so then she went after other men again. Then, when once more she had fallen on hard times, Hosea courted her once more. This time when he won her back she recognized the mistake she had made in pursuing other men and realized that her true happiness was being with Hosea.
    For me, seeing God’s charges against Israel as a metaphor drawn from Hosea’s personal experiences with his wife give the passage much more meaning. I can understand the hurt which Hosea felt, and thus the hurt which God feels when we are unfaithful. It also helps me understand the dynamics of God bringing us back to Himself.

    Hosea goes on to condemn the people of Israel because none of them follow God’s commands, none of them truly know Him. He calls out the religious leaders who preach against the sins of others, but refuse to repent of their own sins. We do not get to blame others for what is wrong around us. We need to look at our own lives and root out the sin within us. This message goes back to the one which God gave Ezekiel when He told Ezekiel to let His words sink into his own heart before he spoke them to the people. We need to hold ourselves accountable for our sins and seek to do God’s will. While I believe that we should take this passage to heart for ourselves, those who are leaders need to take it even closer to heart. Hosea calls out religious leaders who profit from the attempts people make at reparation for their sins. All too often, religious leaders encourage people to make reparations for their sins rather than encouraging them to stop sinning.

    Hosea goes on to reprimand us for our tendency to turn to God when things go bad, then go back to our sins when things get better. He even points out how we get it wrong when we do turn to God. We put our emphasis on offerings and sacrifices, but God wants us to love others and seek to know Him. The example I think of comes from the way we tend to do charity. Rather than seeking to find out what people in need actually need and want, we give them what we think they need and want (or what we think they should need and want). There is a place for not giving people what they tell us they need and want, but the sort of thing I am thinking of is summed up like this: we give people money when what they need is a job, or we give them food when what they need is a grocery store. Those two examples have one thing in common. What we give is something that requires little long term effort on our part, and fails to give the person the dignity of providing for themselves through their own effort. There is more to it than just giving the person dignity. Our solutions to people’s problems should not make them dependent on us or on others. Instead, we should strive to build them up so that they are no longer dependent on others.

Daily Bible Study

September 20, 2017 Bible Study — Which Will We Choose? The Long Term Good Things of God? Or the Short Term Pleasures of Sin?

I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on Hosea 1-7.

    I always feel bad for the prophet Hosea because God had him marry a woman (Gomer) who would not be faithful to him. Of course, my next thought is that perhaps God chose Hosea as a prophet because of his poor choice in a wife. Then I feel bad for Gomer’s daughter and second son because of the names God had Hosea give them. I want to note that before the end of the first chapter, Hosea foreshadows changing their names from negative names to positive names. Gomer left Hosea to pursue sexual relations with other men, which Hosea uses as a metaphor for the people of Israel worshiping other gods. Rather than acknowledge the good things in her life that came from her husband, Gomer pursued gifts from other men. This reflects how we so often overlook the good things which God has given us and commit sin in pursuit of pleasure. When we turn from God to pursue the pleasures of sin there is a very real risk that God will stop giving us the good things which He had previously given us. If that happens God will attempt to woo us back to Him and show us how much His love can truly mean to us.

    Hosea tells us that no one should accuse others. We are all sinners. Men who visit prostitutes have no moral authority to condemn women for being prostitutes. Men who are having adulterous affair are in no position to condemn women for adultery. It goes further than that. Christians today find themselves in a society which wallows in sexual sins. Yet, that is partly a result of those very same Christians getting caught up in the desire for wealth and comfort. We failed to discipline ourselves when we found ourselves worshiping material things, so we lost our ability to provide a moral compass to the society around us.