The Loss Of Home

Text: Hosea 9:1-17

Children’s Bible Page: 964

Introduction: Home and Holidays

I wonder what kinds of images and ideas come to mind when you think of the word “home.”

For most of us, we enjoy being at home.

Home is a place of belonging, safety, and rest.

Some of my favorite days at home are holidays.

With a holiday at home, you get to add to the benefits of belonging, safety, and rest the fun of good food, family, games, and movies.

In the story of the Bible, we understand that God made us to be at home with Him.

In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve enjoyed and spent time with God in unhindered relationship.

They were at home with Him.

Yet, when they sinned, God sent them away from the garden.

They could no longer be in His presence because of their sin.

They were no longer home.

Years later, when God’s people were now in slavery and bondage in Egypt, God came and miraculously delivered his people out of slavery and bondage and toward a land He promised.

It seems that finally, God was bringing His people home.

Yet, by the book of Hosea, God’s people have lived in the land of God’s promise, and they have violated God’s law and covenant for generation after generation.

God’s people are like an unfaithful wife who have abandoned him to run after other lovers.

So, in our Hosea passage today, we are going to see where the constant sin and unfaithfulness has finally led them in relation to God.

And while it is an ancient text, it is also a present day warning and encouragement to us to cling to God and find our home in Him alone.

Hosea 9:1–17 (ESV)

1 Rejoice not, O Israel!

Exult not like the peoples;

for you have played the whore, forsaking your God.

You have loved a prostitute’s wages

on all threshing floors.

2 Threshing floor and wine vat shall not feed them,

and the new wine shall fail them.

3 They shall not remain in the land of the Lord,

but Ephraim shall return to Egypt,

and they shall eat unclean food in Assyria.

4 They shall not pour drink offerings of wine to the Lord,

and their sacrifices shall not please him.

It shall be like mourners’ bread to them;

all who eat of it shall be defiled;

for their bread shall be for their hunger only;

it shall not come to the house of the Lord.

5 What will you do on the day of the appointed festival,

and on the day of the feast of the Lord?

6 For behold, they are going away from destruction;

but Egypt shall gather them;

Memphis shall bury them.

Nettles shall possess their precious things of silver;

thorns shall be in their tents.

7 The days of punishment have come;

the days of recompense have come;

Israel shall know it.

The prophet is a fool;

the man of the spirit is mad,

because of your great iniquity

and great hatred.

8 The prophet is the watchman of Ephraim with my God;

yet a fowler’s snare is on all his ways,

and hatred in the house of his God.

9 They have deeply corrupted themselves

as in the days of Gibeah:

he will remember their iniquity;

he will punish their sins.

10 Like grapes in the wilderness,

I found Israel.

Like the first fruit on the fig tree

in its first season,

I saw your fathers.

But they came to Baal-peor

and consecrated themselves to the thing of shame,

and became detestable like the thing they loved.

11 Ephraim’s glory shall fly away like a bird—

no birth, no pregnancy, no conception!

12 Even if they bring up children,

I will bereave them till none is left.

Woe to them

when I depart from them!

13 Ephraim, as I have seen, was like a young palm planted in a meadow;

but Ephraim must lead his children out to slaughter.

14 Give them, O Lord—

what will you give?

Give them a miscarrying womb

and dry breasts.

15 Every evil of theirs is in Gilgal;

there I began to hate them.

Because of the wickedness of their deeds

I will drive them out of my house.

I will love them no more;

all their princes are rebels.

16 Ephraim is stricken;

their root is dried up;

they shall bear no fruit.

Even though they give birth,

I will put their beloved children to death.

17 My God will reject them

because they have not listened to him;

they shall be wanderers among the nations.

1. Sin and Unfaithfulness Leads To A Loss Of Rejoicing

The first six verses set up the scene of Hosea crashing a party in Israel in order to give them a sober warning of God’s judgment.

The verses place the setting at a threshing floor, which was a communal place on an elevated piece of land in town in order to catch wind needed for threshing wheat.

They were ideal places for parties and festivals.

No doubt there were people eating food and drinking wine.

Imagine in the middle of an enjoyable party, the prophet of God walks in and gets everyone’s attention and says,

“Rejoice not, O Israel!”

Stop partying and having fun!

Don’t you know you have been unfaithful by forsaking your God?

You have loved a prostitutes wages on all threshing floors.

It’s a vivid picture of unfaithfulness, offering money and being unfaithful to God in the process.

This practice of paying these women was a religious practice connected to the worship of the pagan god Baal.

One of the main ways the people were unfaithful was by combining practices for worshipping Yahweh as God and practices for worshipping Baal as God.

But, as Jesus said, you cannot serve two masters.

Because of this, Hosea says a time is coming soon when the threshing floor will not give food and the wine vat will not hold drink.

The party will end.

How? Verse 3 - They shall not remain in the land of the Lord.

Instead, some will return to Egypt. Others will go to Assyria.

We are hearing that once again, God’s people will lose their home.

We should not be surprised.

This is exactly what God promised would happen if God’s people were unfaithful to Him:

Deuteronomy 28:33 (ESV)

33 A nation that you have not known shall eat up the fruit of your ground and of all your labors, and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually,

Deuteronomy 28:51 (ESV)

51 It shall eat the offspring of your cattle and the fruit of your ground, until you are destroyed; it also shall not leave you grain, wine, or oil, the increase of your herds or the young of your flock, until they have caused you to perish.

Notice in verse 4, when they lose their home, they will also lose the opportunity to celebrate their holidays and festivals.

There was no divide between sacred and secular then.

All the festivals and holidays were created and commanded by the Lord for His people to enjoy in worship to Him.

But because their practice of religion had become so heartless, compromised, and corrupted, God was going to put a stop to it altogether.

Notice, they will not be able to pour out drink offerings or make sacrifices pleasing to God.

Anything associated with grieving and mourning was considered ritually unclean because it had to do with death, so all their food would be considered ritually unclean as they grieved in exile.

Verse 5, what will you do on the day of the festival and on the day of the feast of the Lord?

Imagine if God were to send us into exile where we could no longer gather for worship on Sundays.

We could no longer celebrate Christmas and Easter as worship to the Lord.

For slaves in exile, every day is the same. No rest. No parties. No holidays.

Verse 6 essentially says that some people from Israel will try to escape the coming judgment, but they won’t get very far, and whatever they try to take with them will be destroyed with thorns and thistles.

Listen, living in sin and unfaithfulness to God is guaranteed to end up in destruction and loss.

There is no joy to be found in sin.

There may be a temporary happiness, but no joy.

Consider the very first time a person experienced the high of a drug, the drunkenness of alcohol, the pleasure of a physical encounter, and it seems so eye opening, so exciting, so happy, the problem is, the high wears off and you’re miserable, and next time you need just a little bit more to get the same effect.

And you need a little more and a little more until you are drowning.

You see, at first, you feel in control.

You are choosing sin, but beware, if you continue to choose sin, sin will soon be choosing you.

And just like if you live in unfaithfulness to your spouse, you grow less and less able to relate with them well,

As you live in unfaithfulness to God, you grow less and less able to relate with Him.

The simple joy of knowing His love, trusting His promises, and obeying His word begins to fade away.

You feel numb and cold toward the things of the Lord.

You can even start to forget what rejoicing in the Lord feels like.

2. Sin and Unfaithfulness Leads To Foolish Corruption

In verses 7-9, Hosea declares that the days of punishment have come.

What other option is there when the prophet is considered a fool and the man of the spirit is considered a madman?

You see, when Hosea proclaimed God’s word in the midst of the people, their sin and unfaithfulness had led them to consider God’s word as foolish and anyone filled with the spirit of God as mad.

The prophet of God was supposed to be like a watchmen who overlooked the city and warn the people of God with the word of God in order to keep them safe and on the right path,

But nobody wanted to hear it anymore.

Remember last week:

Hosea 8:12 (ESV)

12 Were I to write for him my laws by the ten thousands,

they would be regarded as a strange thing.

You see, on a surface level, we might see someone who you thought loved Jesus finally turn away and reject God, and they will say that they intellectually can’t believe in God for this or that reason,

But, it’s never truly simply intellectual, it’s either that they desire to cling to something that God calls sin or they become angry with God for not doing what they thought He should do.

Trusting in God’s sovereignty, God’s word, God’s goodness, and God’s wisdom becomes a strange thing because of continual sin and unfaithfulness in a person’s life.

Verse 9 - They have deeply corrupted themselves as in the days of Gibeah.

The final three chapters of the book of Judges records for us the horrific sins and unfaithfulness to God displayed by the people of Gibeah.

It is a clear picture of what the apostle Paul explains is the nature of all sin and unfaithfulness:

Romans 1:28–32 (ESV)

28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

And be careful, a continual life of sin and unfaithfulness leads some people to write off God, His word, and His people as foolish,

But other people don’t outright reject God, instead, they change God to align with their own sinful and unfaithful passions and desires.

We saw this week the United Methodist Church vote to change their policies so that they can now affirm LGBTQ+ clergy for church leadership.

God’s word says in that same passage:

Romans 1:26–27 (ESV)

26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.

God has not changed, but in sin and unfaithfulness, some seek to change God and teach a god in their image, aligning with their desires.

The great tragedy is that the loving embrace of God is not found in declaring His laws and His ways foolish, and changing Him to fit our own image.

The loving embrace of God is found in agreeing with God that we all sin.

We all have broken and sinful desires within us leading us to sinful actions, and we have all fallen so far short of God’s perfect character displayed in God’s perfect commands,

And the path of God’s loving embrace is found not in changing God, but in trusting His son who died in our place for our sin on the cross.

Jesus was broken and His blood was poured out to cover all of our sinful desires, thoughts, words, and actions.

It is not the declaring of God’s law foolish that brings freedom and life.

It is in declaring and trusting in Jesus’ death on the cross for every time we have fallen so far short of God’s perfect standard.

If you have sinful desires, which we all have, calling God’s law foolish and changing God into your image will not bring freedom and life,

Only embracing God’s radical love for you through the cross and resurrection will bring you freedom and life.

If God’s word is listened to, heeded, and honored, there is hope for every sinner in the cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and when you repent of your sin and believe on the Lord Jesus, He forgives you fully and remembers your sin no more.

But, if God’s word is declared foolish and rejected out of hand, we have corrupted ourselves with no hope for salvation, and the second half of verse 9 says, “He will remember their iniquity; he will punish their sins.”

You see, rejecting God’s law and God’s standard is not loving and inclusive toward others, instead, it is robbing them of most loving and inclusive thing they could ever experience: conviction of sin, leading to trusting in Christ work in the cross and resurrection to free them from all sin and unrighteousness and to adopt them into the family of the perfectly loving and holy God.

Sin and unfaithfulness leads to foolish corruption.

3. Sin and Unfaithfulness Causes God’s Glory To Depart

In verse 10, God reflects on the beautiful way His relationship with Israel began.

Like grapes in the wilderness, I found Israel.

It would have been such an exciting and refreshing experience to come upon ripe and juicy grapes in the midst of a dry desert wilderness.

And in the midst of the dry wasteland of sin and pagan nations, God began a beautiful and intimate relationship with the people who are now in Hosea’s time the people of Israel.

They were like the first fruit on the fig tree.

Because remember, God’s plan was to bless all nations through them, so they were the firstfruits in experiencing God’s glory but it was then to spread to the other nations.

But notice, they came to Baal-peor and consecrated themselves to the thing of shame.

The book of Numbers 25 tells the story of Israel and Baal-peor.

King Balak of Moab had heard how Israel was defeating other kings, so he sent for a prophet to come and speak a curse against Israel.

Well, God didn’t allow the prophet to speak against Israel, He actually caused him to speak only blessing.

Well, King Balak didn’t like that so he changed his strategy.

So, he sent about the young women of Moab to go out and meet the Israelites and offer intimacy to the men and invite them into their Baal worship, which was all too effective of a plan.

You see, walking faithfully with God leads you to love God’s ways and God’s words, and to passionately pursue the values and priorities of the Kingdom of God, not the kingdom of this world.

But as too oftentimes has happened to me and I’m sure to you, the world presents such an inviting offer to our flesh, we choose not to refuse.

And notice at the end of verse 10, they became detestable like the thing they loved.

The pagan false god Baal was the god of a fertility cult.

What that means is the belief was: you would sacrifice to Baal by doing unfaithful practices, and in return, Baal would grant fertility/children.

Can you think of a clearer picture of how false gods feed the sinful desires of the flesh?

But notice, those who give themselves to worship false gods become like the false gods.

Baal couldn’t give anyone children. Only the one true God does that.

So, verse 11, Ephraim’s glory (remember Ephraim is another name for Israel) shall fly away like a bird.

No birth, no pregnancy, no conception.

Even if they bring up children, I will bereave them until none is left.

Woe to them when I depart from them.

Ephraim was like a young palm tree planted in a meadow, but they lead their children to slaughter.

In the midst of all this, Hosea seems to begin to pray for the people in verse 14, notice:

Give them, O Lord -

what will you give?

Give them a miscarrying womb and dryness.

We see all throughout the Scripture pleads for God’s mercy and grace to be extended, but there is always only one circumstance in Scripture where God’s mercy and grace is not pleaded for but instead judgment is the plea.

And that is when and only when God’s word and God’s Spirit have been utterly rejected as foolish.

For faith comes by hearing the word of God by the internal work of the Spirit of God.

But, if you reject the Word of God by the Spirit of God as foolish, what hope is left for you?

No all that’s left is the curse of judgment.

A false god could not make good on its promise of fertility so Israel became infertile when they started worshipping Baal.

“They have worshipped fertility through the sex-rites of Baal, and they have sold their souls for peace: their judgment will be infertility and war.” -Derek Kidner

What is it that you are seeking and desiring most?

How are you going about seeking to obtain that thing?

If it is something other than the glory of God through the love of God, and how you are seeking to obtain it is not the grace of God, you are becoming as useless as whatever it is you think is going to ultimately give you what you are ultimately wanting.

And God departs from them.

Remember, the true God is mankind’s only true home.

He is the only true source of glory, love, security, protection, provision, intimacy, joy, and fulfillment.

But, that glory departs because of sin and unfaithfulness.

4. Sin and Unfaithfulness Finally Leads To God’s Rejection

Verse 15 - Every evil of theirs is in Gilgal.

It’s interesting because some really good things in Israel’s history happened in Gilgal.

But Gilgal was also the place where the people appointed Saul as king.

And because they demanded to have a king like every other nation, God said they have rejected Him as being their king.

Every other evil that Israel had done since that time points back to one evil, the evil of rejecting God as king.

It would be correct for us to say of all humanity: every evil of ours is in the garden of Eden.

Why? Because when mankind first sinned by rejecting God and disobeying His word, every other sin of humankind points back to that sin.

What does God say next? There I began to hate them.

In other words, it was when they rejected me as king that our covenant relationship began to break down.

The word hate here is expressing rejection more than it is raw emotion.

We see that as we continue in verse 15:

I will drive them out of my house

I will love them no more.

It’s the same language we read back in chapter 2 when Hosea’s wife refused to come home.

Ephraim is stricken

There root is dried up

They shall bear no fruit.

Even though they give birth, I will put their beloved children to death.

It’s a jarring statement, but may we be clear, God is not passive in fulfilling judgment against sinners.

He is the very one who causes the covenant curses to be meted out to there final ends.

Verse 17: My God will reject them because they have not listened to him; they shall be wanderers among the nations.

A complete and utter loss of their home.

Not just their physical home, but more importantly, their home in relationship to God.

How do you respond to the warnings of God’s judgments?

Do you take them seriously?

Or do you consider them foolish and those who warn as foolish?

Listen, responding to warnings of God’s judgment is not just on Old Testament reality:

2 Peter 3:1–7 (ESV)

1 This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved. In both of them I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder, 2 that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, 3 knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires. 4 They will say, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.” 5 For they deliberately overlook this fact, that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, 6 and that by means of these the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. 7 But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.

Have you convinced yourself that a loving God would never judge anyone?

You must remember, God’s love is in direct and utter agreement with God’s holiness, righteousness, and justice.

Hosea 9 is a bleak portion of the story of God in the Scripture, but praise God, it is not the end of the story.

Hosea presents Israel with two contrary realities. On the one side is God’s rejection of them as an apostate people as well as their certain doom, and on the other side is his covenant faithfulness.

Duane A. Garrett

And the rejection of an apostate people and the covenant faithfulness of God came together in full when God sent another man who was to go and love a people who would reject him,

Yet, unlike Hosea who could only pray in agreement with God’s justice,

This man held the power and authority to pray for God’s complete forgiveness, complete healing, complete reconciliation, and restored relationship for His people.

For this man was Jesus Christ, the Son of God, fully God and fully man, sent to love those who would reject Him.

And as you read the gospels, you are able to read of Jesus walking in obedience and faithfulness in every way that Israel had sinned and disobeyed.

Israel aligned themselves with false gods and gave into worldly temptations,

At Jesus’ baptism, Jesus was identified as the beloved son of God in whom God was well pleased, and then he was driven in the wilderness and was able to resist every worldly temptation thrown at him as he entrusted himself to the word of God.

In a day where the religious leaders were forcing rules and regulations on the people without any power to bear true spiritual fruit, Jesus amassed a following of sinners who were experiencing true help and healing by the authoritative teaching and miraclulous healings of Jesus.

You see, Jesus left his home to come down to us.

But just like Israel, Jesus did not only leave his physical home, but even his very home with His father God was stripped from him when He was mocked and scoffed at, made a fool at false trials, and whipped, beaten, and nailed to a splintered cross where He cried out, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?”

But whereas Hosea could only pray, “what can you give them, oh Lord?”

Jesus had the rite as the perfect son of God taking the place of sinners on the cross to pray, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

Galatians 3:13–14 (ESV)

13 Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree”— 14 so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.

God has promised Abraham that He would make him a blessing to all the nations, and where Abraham’s decedents failed, Jesus succeeded in making the blessing of forgiveness and a reconciled relationship with God possible through His death and resurrection.

Have you repented of your sin and believed on the Lord Jesus?

If not, the wrath of God is still on you.

But God has done everything to save you through the death and resurrection of Jesus.

And when you place your faith in Jesus, the Holy Spirit of God gives you new life.

Apart from Jesus, you can do nothing, but with Him by the Spirit you can be fruitful by going and making disciples of others, teaching them how they can know and follow Jesus.

By the Spirit of God, you can entrust God’s word to your mind and heart that you might not sin against him.

When you do sin, you can confess your sin to God who is faithful and just to forgive you and cleanse you from all unrighteousness.

For when you have been saved in Christ, you are home.

You are at peace with God, and you are looking forward to your heavenly home where you will see Him face to face, where all the things of this world have passed away,

And you will experience the never ending intimacy of God’s faithfulness as a perfect groom to His spotless bride.

Let’s pray.