Loyal Week 6 Day 1
Hosea 8:1–3
[1] Set the trumpet to your lips!
One like a vulture is over the house of the LORD,
because they have transgressed my covenant
and rebelled against my law.
[2] To me they cry,
“My God, we—Israel—know you.”
[3] Israel has spurned the good;
the enemy shall pursue him. (ESV)
This portion of scripture starts by an announcement…..actually more like an alert. What is the alert? “One like a vulture is over the house of the LORD.” What do vultures do?
Is this the same thing that our enemy does? Satan looks for the spiritually dead and feeds on them. Looking also for the spiritually wounded and sick? Always perched, watching and waiting to devour.
Why is GOD allowing satan to be nestled above? (Look back at verse 1)
In verse 2, we see Israel telling the LORD that they know him. Can you think of a situation like this? Maybe someone trying to convince a celebrity that they know each other and are friends because they once stood in line next to each other. Or possibly someone in trouble with the law, trying to convince the enforcer that they are known to each other and that the enforcer knows the motivations and character of the offender.
Matthew 7:21–22
[21] “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. [22] On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ (ESV)
Do we have to convince someone that we have a relationship with, that we know them? An acquaintance, maybe, but someone who you have a relationship with, no. Israel claims that they have a relationship with GOD even though they reject GOD by chasing after their false gods. Why would Israel chase after these false gods instead of the One True GOD?
A false god does not require a change of heart and the work of avoiding sin by walking a narrow path that few are willing to choose. A false god will validate and encourage your sin. Maybe false gods were so ingrained in their society and worship that many Israelites believed that they were worshipping the OneTrue God through these false gods.
Hosea 8:4–6
[4] They made kings, but not through me.
They set up princes, but I knew it not.
With their silver and gold they made idols
for their own destruction.
[5] I have spurned your calf, O Samaria.
My anger burns against them.
How long will they be incapable of innocence?
[6] For it is from Israel;
a craftsman made it;
it is not God.
The calf of Samaria
shall be broken to pieces. (ESV)
Israel has allowed kings that were not installed by the LORD to lead them. Did they not inquire the LORD who should guide them?
GOD shifts to talking about the silver and gold, that GOD so graciously gave. What did Israel do with the silver and gold?
Is it shocking to hear that Hosea has to explain that the gold calf of Samaria is not GOD?
Surely the Israelites knew that this thing was made by human hands and actually held no power. Had worshipping this golden statue become such a tradition in Israel that the people believed that they were worshipping the One True GOD when they worshipped this hunk of gold? Had every generation let a little more idol worship seep into their worship of the LORD, eventually leaving the Israelites at a point that the future generations could not decipher between true worship of the LORD and false worship of this idol?
GOD asked the Israelites “How long will they be incapable of innocence?”
Do we, as a society, have idols that accept our sin as good with which we have meshed with our worship of the LORD? Have we, like Israel, accepted more and more false worship with every generation, equating and adding it to the worship of the LORD our GOD? Tell GOD that you want to only worship Him. Ask Him to reveal any false worship that you may have. Pray also for your city and your nation to throw off false worship and worship the One True GOD only. GOD loves you!. Let us press on to be right with GOD, even if that means not being right in our society.
Works Cited
Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), Copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. May not copy or download more than 500 consecutive verses of the ESV Bible or more than one half of any book of the ESV Bible.
“Dictionary by Merriam-Webster: America's Most-Trusted Online Dictionary.” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/.
Green, Jay P. “Hosea.” The Interlinear Hebrew-Aramaic Old Testament: With Strong's Concordance Numbers above Each Word, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, MA, MA, 1985, pp. 2075–2092.
Publishing, Rose. Rose Book of Bible Charts, Maps, and Time Lines. Rose Publishing, 2015.
Strong, James. The Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible: Showing Every Word of the Text of the Common English Version of the Canonical Books, and Every Occurrence of Each Word in Regular Order, Together with Dictionaries of the Hebrew and Greek Words of Th. Hendrickson Publishers, 1990.