The Harvest of Unfaithfulness

Intro

We live in an age obsessed with productivity. We track everything from calories and heart rate to hours on the job or time on a project, all to maximize every minute. Sometimes this is to make more money or be more successful in other ways, like popularity or influence, or help us to be healthy. We buy apps and programs that claim to make us more productive, but how often do we stop and ask what kind of fruit all this “productivity” is producing. Everyone desires to live an abundant and fruitful life reaping a harvest of something, but of what? What kind of fruit is your life producing? Israel had also searched for ways to be more “fruitful.” But when the Lord examines Israel, he finds barrenness instead. That is the true harvest of unfaithfulness.

Hosea 9:1-17

Summary of the Text

Hosea’s message in chapter nine can be divided into two parts: vv. 1-9 & vv. 10-16, with the Prophet’s conclusion in v. 17. Let me summarize his overall message before we examine the works, fruit, and judgment, of Israel’s unfaithfulness.

The context for the first section is a harvest, but instead of celebration it is a cause for mourning for instead of an abundant harvest Israel is barren. It turns out being a prostitute is not the way to be a fruitful bride. She will not have enough of a harvest to celebrate before the Lord, instead she will depart from the Lord because of her uncleanness. Having not listened to the prophet (Hosea) God will punish her sins. The second section 10-16 Yahweh compares Israel now to some high point in her past, and finds her wanting. Then will come upon Israel all the curses God promised for those who broke covenant with him. Like an unfaithful bride, he will send Israel out of his house for a period of time until she is purified and will return to Him with her whole heart.

Because the prophet's message is not really linear from point A-C, I am going to ransack this text, going up and down in it to show what Israel did that produced a harvest of unfaithfulness and what God’s judgment for this harvest was, before examining the fruits of repentance and the harvest of faithfulness. If it’s helpful to you (as it was to me), I am reading Hosea 9 through the grid of Paul’s question in Romans 6:21-23.

Romans 6:21–23 (ESV)—21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The Wages of Sin is Death

The Works of Unfaithfulness

It's interesting how one word can bring a whole host of images to your mind. If I say BLM, many of you will think of 2020, and riots, and race relations. The prophet uses a series of phrases that do the same thing. These were low points in Israel’s history which he marshals to paint a vivid picture of Israel today, without saying much. Words like Gibeah and Baal-peor both describe high-handed sins, with hardness of heart, refusal to repent, and ending in God’s judgment.

Gibeah is probably one of the most gruesome scenes in scripture. Instead of engaging in hospitality and treating a brother with kindness, the men of Gibeah, in a Sodom and Gomorrah redux, want to have relations with the Levite, but the master of the house offered to the rabble his concubine instead. They ravaged her all night until the morning, and when the Levite finds her in the morning, she is dead on the threshold of the door. He takes her home and then cuts her into twelve pieces and sends a piece to each tribe in Israel with a message of what the men of Gibeah, of the tribe of Benjamin, have done. Israel gathers as one, but foolishly the tribe of Benjamin shelters the men of Gibeah, and so Israel turns and fights against them. What ensues is a bloody civil war with many, many casualties. In the end, the tribe of Benjamin is nearly wiped out. They’ve not been long in the land, but already they are acting more like Canaanites than like the people of God. For what characterized Israel is abominable practices and a stiff-necked refusal to repent despite warnings of judgment.

Baal-peor is another low point in Israel's history. As they lived in the wilderness alongside the Moabites, the Moabite women were sent to seduce the men of Israel. They not only committed sexual immorality but began to worship the Moabite god, which in Num. 25 is called Baal-peor, but is later called Chemosh. This particular instance of Baal worship was very licentious, and the women, using sex, seemed to be excellent apologists for their god. One particular tribal chief of the Simeonites was so brazen in his sin, that in the sight of Moses and the whole congregation, he brought one of these women back to his tent for sexual relations. While in the act, Phineas the grandson of Aaron took a spear and ran through both of them, out of zeal for the Lord. That also stopped the plague that the Lord had spread through Israel, but not before 24,000 were killed.

Again, another instance of brazen, high-handed sins. Of false worship, and sexual immorality, committed with absolutely no shame. This has been the theme running throughout Hosea. Israel has provoked the Lord to jealousy by whoring after other gods, forsaking her covenant with her husband, corrupting herself and her offspring.

You're thinking Phew, I am so glad we are not like Israel. Man, how on earth did she get so bad. I am preparing a Sunday school series through the Revelation this fall. It is sobering to consider the testimony of the seven churches of Asia Minor, none of which are blameless. Remember these are first century churches freshly planted within that generation. Take the church in Ephesus as an example, Jesus says,

Revelation 2:3–5 (ESV)—3 I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name’s sake, and you have not grown weary. 4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. 5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent.

It took the church in Ephesus under 40 years to “forget their first love.” The siren call of the world is strong, persuasive, and terribly tempting, and the church can’t seem to resist drifting towards worldliness. As the Confession states:

The purest Churches under heaven are subject both to mixture and error; and some have so degenerated as to become no Churches of Christ, but synagogues of Satan. Nevertheless, there shall be always a Church on earth to worship God according to His will. (WCF. 25.5)

If Jesus were to send a personal message to me to deliver to Hope Church, Moosic PA, what would he say? No doubt there would be much to commend as there was at Ephesus, but also things to correct. If he examined our works, what would he find? I want you to sit with that question for a moment, and we will circle back around to it in a moment.

Work produces fruit; fruit is a testimony of the work. By examining the fruit you can discern whether the work is pleasing to God, and keeping with repentance, or not.

The Fruit of Unfaithfulness

The parable of the Lord and His vineyard is a favorite trope of the prophets. The Lord planted a vineyard (Israel), He tended it and cultivated it so that it would be fruitful, but when He came to inspect the fruit, what did He find? Notice v. 10 & 13. Initially, the Lord found Israel fruitful, but then when she began to whore after other gods, she became detestable.

Remember the principle in Scripture is you become like what you worship, for good or ill. Worship the Lord, and you move from one degree of glory to another; worship idols and you become as they are, deaf, dumb, blind, and often very, very immoral. Notice the language the Lord uses to describe Israel’s fruit. A “prostitute's wages” in v. 1, defiled bread in v. 4, “they have deeply corrupted themselves” in v. 9, having become “detestable like the thing they loved” v. 10. Their glory is gone, as their whoredom leaves them barren, both physically and spiritually. Since all that sexual immorality around Baal's altars was meant to seduce him into having sex with his consort, Asherah, since it was his semen, the rain, which made their crops fertile. But where’s the harvest? There’s not enough food to eat, nor is there anything to offer to the Lord (v. 1-7).

“But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed?” (Rom. 6:21), the Apostle Paul asks in Romans 6:21. If a tree is known by its fruit, what kind of tree are you? While we are saved by grace through faith, and not just our justification is by faith alone, but also our sanctification, this does not mean that there will be no evidence of saving faith in the life of a believer. As James put it, “For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so also faith apart from works is dead” (Jas. 2:26).In other words, sons of God must not look like children of hell.

The church in the West needs to examine the fruit it is producing. When you can no longer tell believers apart from unbelievers, then it is time to go back and examine works, to ensure that they produce the right fruit—fruit that is in keeping with repentance. As John the Baptist declared to the hypocritical Pharisees, who were jealous of his ministry, and suffered from FOMO (a fear of missing out), “Even now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire” (Mt. 3:10).

The Judgment of Unfaithfulness

Israel has been weighed and found wanting, and must now face the judgment of the Lord. We must always keep in mind that discipline/punishment for the people of God is always restorative. God disciplines every son. So, because Israel has forsaken the Lord by whoring after other gods, and she has done so knowing that she is in sin, she has sinned “high-handedly.” To reclaim her from her apostasy, she will be disciplined. Keep in mind the context of Hosea. Ch. 4-14 unpacks the enacted message of Hosea and his unfaithful wife Gomer. In Chapter 3 we were told:

Hosea 3:2–5 (ESV): 2 So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley. 3 And I said to her, “You must dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore, or belong to another man; so will I also be to you.” 4 For the children of Israel shall dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or household gods. 5 Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and they shall come in fear to the Lord and to his goodness in the latter days.

Now, for her unfaithfulness to the Lord, Israel must remain for a time in exile, which would be a time of purification, where the fires of affliction would burn away the dross of her impurity. Notice v. 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.” Now it is true that some in Judah found refuge in Egypt when the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem, Jeremiah being one of them. But Hosea’s reference to Egypt is meant to draw attention to the fact that Israel's sin has caused a reversal of the exodus. Since remaining in the land was always contingent upon their relationship with Yahweh, if they failed to keep covenant with Him, as we read from Deuteronomy in the curses, they would be expelled from the land. The judgment of the Lord consists of a reversal of His blessings; for Israel, that meant He would drive them out of the promised land. But only for a time.

When God is showing favor to a people, it is because He is extending His grace and mercy to remember not their iniquity, and to forgive their sins. And when He is said to judge them, He does so by remembering their iniquity, and punishing their sins (9:9). It was not because of Israel’s goodness that the Lord loved them and saved them by redeeming them from Egypt and bringing them out and giving them the promised land. They were a stiff-necked people from the beginning, giving ample reasons for the Lord to wish otherwise. But the Lord has saved Israel because of election, because of promises He made to the patriarchs, and for reasons known only to Himself. Israel’s election was unconditional. But that did not mean that she could take advantage of her privilege and trample upon the grace of God by whoring after other gods. Election does not give permission to be licentious. Israel thought otherwise, and so took advantage of her relationship with the Lord. She wanted the promises, but not the conditions that came attached. She loved the indicatives but refused the imperatives.

Keep in mind that when we hear the Lord speaking in harsh language, such as “even if they bring up children I will bereave them until none is left” (v. 12). Or, “Ephraim must lead his children out to slaughter” (v. 13). Or, “there I began to hate them,” and “I will drive them out of my house. I will love them no more” (v. 15). We must not hear that God has turned back on His promises, or that He somehow failed to accomplish what He hoped for Israel. Rather, it was in exile that Israel would finally realize how good things were when she was faithful to keep covenant with the Lord. “Then she will say, ‘I will go and return to my first husband, for it was better for me then than now’” (Hos. 2:7). Exile is for the purpose of bringing the people of God to repentance when every other measure had failed.

The confession teaches:

The most wise, righteous, and gracious God doth oftentimes leave, for a season, His own children to manifold temptations, and the corruption of their own hearts, to chastise them for their former sins, or to discover unto them the hidden strength of corruption and deceitfulness of their hearts, that they may be humbled; and, to raise them to a more close and constant dependence for their support upon Himself, and to make them more watchful against all future occasions of sin, and for sundry other just and holy ends.

The Lord disciplines you for the purpose of drawing you back to Him in repentance.

But the Free Gift is Eternal Life

So the unfruitful works of Israel’s unfaithfulness have led them into exile, the Lord’s judgment designed to bring them to repentance. The great discovery of Luther at the start of the Reformation was a recovery of the biblical doctrine of repentance. Repentance was a lifelong process, where a sinner “out of the sight and sense not only of the danger, but also of the filthiness and odiousness of his sins, as contrary to the holy nature, and righteous law of God; and upon the apprehension of His mercy in Christ to such as are penitent, so grieves for, and hates his sins, as to turn from them all unto God, purposing and endeavoring to walk with Him in all the ways of His commandments.”

If we were once like Israel, exiled in sin and death. But as Paul continues in Romans 6:22, which we began with: “But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life” (Rom. 6:22). So now, we have been set free from slavery to sin, whose work brought us the fruit of death. Now we are slaves of righteousness, called to bear fruit in keeping with repentance.

We have had multiple occasions in our walk through Hosea to see Israel’s refusal to repent, they may at times have been sorry for their sin, but not the kind of sorrow that led them to actual repentance, which must include a holy resolve to forsake sin, returning to the Lord and remaining faithful.

I had asked the question earlier, that if Jesus came to us here at Hope to inspect our fruit and the work which produced it, what would he say? The reformers believed the marks of the church are three: the faithful preaching of the Word, the right administration of the Sacraments, and Church discipline. Are these marks evident in Hope church? These are questions the elders should regularly be asking.

But the church is made up of individual members. What are the marks of a believer; what are the marks of a repentant sinner, following Christ? If the works of the flesh are evident, you can be sure the works of the Spirit are just as evident. Are you growing in the fruit of the Spirit, the evidence of the Spirit’s work within you?

Galatians 5:22–23 (ESV): 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

Do these things characterize you? If someone you were close with was asked, is so and so loving, are they joyful, do they show patience and kindness, is there a goodness to them, are they faithful, gentle, and do they exercise self-control?

We are certainly all works-in-progress. Each one of you, if you are honest can think of areas where you need work in each one of these characteristics. To be a follower of Christ is to be someone who is on a journey. Someone making progress towards some destination, which is maturity in Christ. Are you every day one step closer?

Conclusion

While this is a sobering reminder that works of unfaithfulness produce corrupt and detestable fruit that is repulsive to the Lord. But he is determined to make something of His stubborn people, meaning he does not take sin lightly, nor does he allow us to continue in it forever. He will turn us in repentance through His judgment of sin.

But the story of Israel’s redemption from sin in the exodus, would be reversed when the Lord disciplined her with exile. But that was only to prepare her to receive the one who would come and save her from her sin. Not by giving her more laws to keep, but by writing his law on her heart. Not by giving her new promises, but bringing those promises to their original goal. For since man, weakened by sin and the law, could never be faithful on His own, God sent His Son to come and take on flesh, so that he could be faithful for us. He went to the cross to face the judgment of exile in death, and in His resurrection brought his people out of slavery to sin in a new exodus.

Now all those who have trusted in Christ, and look to Him alone for their salvation, have been born-again, setting them free from the dominion of sin, giving them His Spirit, so that they may bear fruit in keeping with repentance—the daily dying to sin, and living to righteousness. Paul says that, “for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.” It’s ok to count calories and steps in an effort to be more healthy, to be more productive. But make sure that in all your efforts to be more productive, to bear better fruit on the job, in your home, or on the ball field, don’t forget that those things will all perish, the fruit that matters most, is the fruit that will remain. That is the fruit of repentance. Israel lost sight of that and worked the works of the flesh bearing rotten fruit that was detestable to the Lord. Somewhere along the way they stopped examining the fruit of their ways, and so reaped the judgment reserved for those who don’t love the Lord their God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love their neighbor as themselves, the purging fires of exile. But let us examine ourselves, and the church which is our mother, to make sure that we are bearing fruit in keeping with repentance. Amen. I’ll conclude with a prayer of Calvin on this text.

Grant, Almighty God, that inasmuch as thou hast freely embraced us in thy only-begotten Son, and made us, from being the sons and race of Adam, a holy and blessed seed, and as we have not hitherto ceased to alienate ourselves from the grace thou hast offered to us,—O grant, that we may hereafter so return to a sound mind, as to cleave faithfully and with sincere affection of heart to thy Son, and so retain by this bond thy love, and be also retained in the grace of adoption, that thy name may be glorified by us as long as we sojourn in this world, until thou at length gatherest us into thy celestial kingdom, which has been purchased for us by the blood of thy Son.

Lord’s Supper Meditation

We come now to a table prepared by our Lord for weary travelers on our sojourn, as we make progress towards the holiness without which no one will see God. These simple elements, wedded as they must be to preaching of the Word, provide all those who trust in Christ, have been baptized, and are members of a church bearing the true marks, with a sign that you have been transferred from death to life. As a sign of your participation in his death and resurrection the Lord Jesus gives us bread and wine, so that those who eat and drink by faith, are assured and strengthened in their faith. These elements are reminders that Jesus is your life, as he said: “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst” (Jn. 6:35). Only Jesus can satisfy the desires of your heart, for only Jesus can bring you from death to life, only He can bring you out of exile with the promise of eternal life. So come, and welcome to Jesus Christ.

Charge

Because the Lord will judge the unfruitful works of unfaithfulness, we must bear fruit in keeping with repentance. So examine your hearts, look at the fruit of your life, even as your elders look at the fruit of our congregation, and let us put to death what remains of the works of the flesh, and walk according to the Spirit, bearing the fruits of repentance. Amen.

Benediction

1 Thessalonians 5:23–24 (ESV) — 23 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 24 He who calls you is faithful; he will surely do it. 28 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.