Judgment against an Unclean people

Introduction

One of the unique things about the American government is that there is a separation between church and state. At the surface level many Christians don’t like this because we like to see our Christian values being incorporated in key decisions made by the local and national government. Many Christians that I have talked with say that they wish that this separation would not exist and that the government would promote Scripture and force people to read the Bible in the schools and do things by our rules. While that sounds really nice, the problem lies in that there is a huge difference in being forced to do things and doing them voluntary. In the Roman empire, worshipping God was essentially forced by the Pope and religious officials. If you did not worship then you were an outcast and suffered the consequences. If you did worship God then you experienced a lot of the normal things of being a part of a family or something bigger than yourself. The problem in the middle ages was that Christianity was an everyday way of life and almost traditional in a sense. Everyone was a Christian. People didn’t know what the Bible said, they simply took the priests word for themselves. Because the church sort of controlled the government, they held the majority of the power. That might sound nice to us, but the problem is that many Popes became power hungry and the fact that there was no separation between church and state meant that many “Christians” in the Roman empire were simply following the way of these corrupt leaders rather than seeking the Lord for themselves.

Much has changed in the time since Hosea and much has changed since the time of the early Popes, however we know that leaders unfortunately can be corrupted with power. The separation between church and state in our world today is not a “bad” thing in the sense that it allows Christians to practice our religion and have positions different than that of governmental officials. We can remain true to Scripture as we are called to do while also obeying our government officials. Kids can bring their Bibles to school whenever they want. Kids can pray in their schools whenever they want. Just because the school does not force kids to do things like this, children who desire to share Jesus with their friends can certainly do that!

Our text tonight focuses on God’s judgment against an unclean people. Last week we were in and looked at the fact that the priests had led the people astray. They did not lead them closer to the Lord, in fact they had corrupted the people and they would be punished accordingly. Our text tonight is similar in that God will punish the people because the leadership of the country has been corrupted. The covenant is shattered and there are several warning listed in .

Hosea 5:1–7 NASB95

1 Hear this, O priests! Give heed, O house of Israel! Listen, O house of the king! For the judgment applies to you, For you have been a snare at Mizpah And a net spread out on Tabor. 2 The revolters have gone deep in depravity, But I will chastise all of them. 3 I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from Me; For now, O Ephraim, you have played the harlot, Israel has defiled itself. 4 Their deeds will not allow them To return to their God. For a spirit of harlotry is within them, And they do not know the Lord. 5 Moreover, the pride of Israel testifies against him, And Israel and Ephraim stumble in their iniquity; Judah also has stumbled with them. 6 They will go with their flocks and herds To seek the Lord, but they will not find Him; He has withdrawn from them. 7 They have dealt treacherously against the Lord, For they have borne illegitimate children. Now the new moon will devour them with their land.

Message to the Leaders (1)

Again, this message is similar to what we looked at in in the sense that we see God’s coming judgment coming to the people. Instead of the fault laying directly on the priests, says that this message is directed to all of Israel’s leadership - the priests, the family/people of Israel, and the king. The beginning of verse 1 could be read like this: “Hear this, priests. Pay attention people of Israel! Listen, family of the king! Because this judgment is yours.”

This message is direct and they are imperatives. These are commands from the Lord: Hear, Pay attention and Listen. None of these groups, the priests, the leadership people or the king himself will escape the coming judgment. There are some questions regarding who these “people” are. Some say that it could be the royal family or the “elders”. is a great parallel text that helps us figure this question out.

Jeremiah 2:26 NASB95

26 “As the thief is shamed when he is discovered, So the house of Israel is shamed; They, their kings, their princes And their priests and their prophets,

We see that after “house of Israel” there are terms like they, their kings and princes - this idea seems to indicate that this term is not talking about the king/leader but also not the peasants. These people were likely land owners and had some power.

The fact of the matter is that these powerful individuals have judgment coming their way. We’re not told specifically what the judgment will be. As the last couple of chapters have showed us the people of Israel have gone astray. They have been worshipping these false gods and idols and still saying that they can worship God as well. The reason that they have gotten to this point is because of the leaders. These leaders have shown the people the way. Think of some of the ways that our culture tells us that things are permissible or acceptable. Some leaders (government or social) say that things like abortion are ok. In fact, many politicians make a career by jumping on that bandwagon. Others say that things like adultery and blasphemy are ok. We know that these things are not ok, as children of God, but we also know that millions of Americans are deceived by these people. They are following right along. We know that leaders will be judged harsher than an average person and we know that our modern leaders will certainly be held accountable for their actions as well! As Christians, we should support our Christian leaders and lift them up in prayer because they are facing many different issues on a daily basis. With that said, even our Christian leaders will fall short. The hope for Christians today is that our hope and confidence is not in a Christian leader or even a congressman or the president. Our hope is in Christ. We must not forget that because the moment that we place our hope in a sinful person, we are treading on dangerous ground and can be led astray just as the Israelites were in Hosea’s time.

Evidence against the country (1b-5)

There were several cities in ancient Israel named Mizpah. This might be difficult for us to understand because Israel was such a small country, but we know that the same thing exists in our nation today. Do you know what the most popular city names are in the United States? There are 88 cities in the United States with the word “Washington” in them. Granted some are Washington _____ such as Washington D.C. but the fact remains that this name is very commonly used throughout the nation. Coming in at #2 is “Springfield” as there are 41 different cities/towns called Springfield.

There are several different Mizpah’s in Scripture and the most well known one is Mizpah in Benjamin, where Samuel was the judge and where Saul was anointed as king. We do not know specifically which Mizpah is being mentioned by Hosea here, but we do know that it likely served as a cultic center. Not only this, though, but the leadership had corrupted the people everywhere in the kingdom. The net in verse 1 has been spread out through the whole land.

Verse 2 shows that the people are deep in their depravity. They had violated the covenant and they would be punished accordingly. The idea at the end of verse 2 is that God will place these revolters in shackles. This is not a good place to be in, friends! Even though the leadership led the people astray, they have all revolted and would all be placed in shackles because (as verse 3 shows) the people have defiled themselves. They have been unfaithful. God was not fooled by what was going on. The priests were supposed to help the people out just as leaders in our world are supposed to help one another out, however they did not do their job. They had failed and Israel was going to pay the price. Guess what? There are leaders and churches that are teaching and preying on weak minded individuals and believers today and they are selling them lie after lie. Whether it be about the divinity of Jesus, the exclusivity of the Gospel or the sinfulness of mankind, there are leaders in our world teaching a different Gospel than what Scripture declares and they will be judged accordingly. They are not hidden from God. In fact, verse 4 should serve as a reminder to us and caution us.

The people misbehaved and went astray and verse 4 states that their deeds will not allow them to return to God. The people have removed themselves from the covenant. They do evil deeds both in this new cult and in their daily life and they forsake Yahweh in doing so. Friends, are there consequences for actions? There’d better be! There is tension in this verse. Scripture holds 2 truths that seem to run at odds with one another. One says that Repentance is always possible - no one is too far gone for God. We know that to be true. But there is another truth that says that corruption can enslave a soul that repentance becomes practically impossible. Verse 4 affirms the latter truth (not the the first truth is irrelevant, it is still true). The people no longer knew God. They lacked knowledge of God. They could not return to Yahweh God because they were so far removed from Him. God knows about them, but they do not know Him. They were unclean and could not enter His presence. This is not a good situation to be in!

This should serve as a reminder to us today. We should pray that we remain in our Word and that the global church would remain faithful to Scripture. These people had been led astray generation after generation and before they knew it, they simply did not know God anymore. Back to the separation between church and state theme. We cannot expect the government to help us out in this regard. This is the responsibility of the church! We must remain faithful. We must stay in tune with the Spirit. If the government says that it is illegal to be a Christian, great. We will join dozens of other countries who worship God in underground churches. Christians have been doing that for centuries. Our government will not have the final say: God’s Word will. We must do our job in reading it and applying it to our lives on a daily basis.

The final evidence against the people is their pride or arrogance. It is said that pride is the most deadly sin and we know that pride is the root of many sins. Idolatry is essentially pride. We want to create our own god to worship because it is created by us rather than us worshipping the Creator, God. We must think of this verse in a courtroom context of sorts. Israel condemns itself with its pride. If we were on trial, would our pride testify against us? The pride of Israel refers to their rebellion against God and His law.

Did you know that whenever you sin, there are not only consequences for yourself but for people around you? Whenever I sin with pride, not only am harming my relationship with God (vertically), but I also harm my relationship with my wife or brother/sister in Christ (horizontally). Sin always has a paper trail. Whenever we fail to rely completely on God there are consequences. As individuals and as a church, let us be known as a people who rely completely on God.

Coming Judgment (5b-7)

Unfortunately, whenever you place your confidence in your own knowledge and actions, you will fall short every single time. That is the situation that these Israelites find themselves in at the end of this section of Scripture. At the end of verse 5, we see that Judah has stumbled with pride as has Israel/Ephraim has. The meaning of this is that just as Israel is going to be judged for their failure, Judah can fall by pride just as easily as Israel has. Hosea uses the word “stumble” 6 times and each time it indicates a judgment for sin. Just as Judah could easily stumble into sin as Israel did, we can stumble into sin whenever we take our eyes off of God. We have all struggled with sin and we probably have all struggled with pride and putting ourselves first in our lives, it is a natural human thing to do! The important thing to realize is that whenever this happens, we must confess and repent of it. We turn to God and we follow after His plan. The people of Israel never repented and they will face divine judgment as verses 6-7 tell us.

Verse 6 states that God has withdrawn from them. The people of Israel ave been incorporating other things into their worship of God. They had other places to go and offer sacrifices (outside of the temple). They went to these false shrines and they participated in these cultic festivals while saying that they were doing what they were supposed to do in order to serve God. They thought that in doing this that they were seeking after God, but they were so far removed that they could not find God in these false shrines. God’s withdrawal is not impulsive. The people have withdrawn from Him for a long time as verse 4 shows. His rejection of the people is similar to what we find in and 32:20

Deuteronomy 31:18 NASB95

18 “But I will surely hide My face in that day because of all the evil which they will do, for they will turn to other gods.

Deuteronomy 32:20 NASB95

20 “Then He said, ‘I will hide My face from them, I will see what their end shall be; For they are a perverse generation, Sons in whom is no faithfulness.

the result of their wickedness and faithlessness is found in as the people declare that God is not with us. Whenever people go about doing things their own way and thinking that they are worshipping God obediently, they should not be surprised whenever they look around and realize that they are completely lost. I think that many people in our society find themselves in this exact situation. They think that you can get to heaven by being a good person and by having your good outweigh your bad whenever you stand before God on judgment day. The fact of the matter is that whenever we live our life how we best see fit and according to our hearts desire, we are in fact lost. We need help and saving, but many people don’t realize that until they stand before the Father after it is too late and He says, “Depart from me, I never knew you.” Friends, we must seek the kingdom of God. We must not do what verse 7 shows the people of Hosea’s day did.

They betrayed Yahweh. They dealt treacherously against the Lord. They had illegitimate children. In the context of Hosea’s letter and with Hosea’s history with Gomer, this idea could either mean literally that the people of Israel had children out of wedlock or this could mean that they were unfaithful to God and they worshipped false gods and idols which led to unfaithfulness in the generations to follow. Either way, we know the slippery slope that exists whenever we put something before God. Whenever we do something against the Word of God.

The conclusion of verse 7 shows that the people will be devoured. The “new moon” is likely a reference to a foreign country that will lead the people into exile. Even though exile is coming, though, God still is in control and His plan will certainly still be accomplished one way or another! Our prayer should be that we are obedient to His Word and that we are able to play a small role in His plan being done.

Conclusion

We know from that the ultimate plan of God is to create a new people who are restored to Him in a new covenant. We know from Jeremiah that this covenant will be written on the hearts of the people rather than on tablets of stone! We know that this new covenant has warnings about idolatry and illegitimacy as shows us

Hebrews 12:8 NASB95

8 But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

shows us that human beings can be come so entrapped in our sin and sinful practices that it can be exceedingly difficult to be reconciled to God. Israel was so far gone that they had forgotten what it even was to know Yahweh. Their depravity/sin caused His withdrawal from them. Paul talks about this idea in as he shows that we were once slaves to sin. The hope comes in verse 18 of as we are now slaves of righteousness. As followers of God we should seek His kingdom first. We should encourage one another as we worship Him in our daily lives. We should understand that we will fall short, but there is forgiveness for us whenever we repent of our sin. We know that there is a darkness that is taking over our world, we see it whenever we turn on the news and whenever we talk with non-Christians, but we know that Christ is greater than that darkness. He is greater than our short-comings and our failures. Rest in that peace today and thank Him for bringing about the new covenant that is written on our hearts rather than on tablets of stone.