Choices Have Consequences
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Introduction
Introduction
Every choice and action in life has consequences. Not all consequences are negative as a consequence is the result or effect of an action or condition. Choices we make in life have consequences.
God speaking through the prophecy of Hosea tells Israel (and Judah) the consequences of their choices. The emphasis is on their choice - God’s choice is to bless them and have them be a holy righteous nation and people. These consequences aren’t because God chose it for them but because Israel chose it for themselves. Lets read and understand what choices Israel made and then see what the consequences for them were. My prayer is by doing this we can evaluate our choices and understand that we are choosing consequences for ourselves
1 Put the ram’s horn to your mouth! One like an eagle comes against the house of the Lord, because they transgress my covenant and rebel against my law. 2 Israel cries out to me, “My God, we know you!” 3 Israel has rejected what is good; an enemy will pursue him.
4 They have installed kings, but not through me. They have appointed leaders, but without my approval. They make their silver and gold into idols for themselves for their own destruction. 5 Your calf-idol is rejected, Samaria. My anger burns against them. How long will they be incapable of innocence?
6 For this thing is from Israel— a craftsman made it, and it is not God. The calf of Samaria will be smashed to bits! 7 Indeed, they sow the wind and reap the whirlwind. There is no standing grain; what sprouts fails to yield flour. Even if they did, foreigners would swallow it up.
8 Israel is swallowed up! Now they are among the nations like discarded pottery. 9 For they have gone up to Assyria like a wild donkey going off on its own. Ephraim has paid for love.
10 Even though they hire lovers among the nations, I will now round them up, and they will begin to decrease in number under the burden of the king and leaders. 11 When Ephraim multiplied his altars for sin, they became his altars for sinning.
12 Though I were to write out for him ten thousand points of my instruction, they would be regarded as something strange. 13 Though they offer sacrificial gifts and eat the flesh, the Lord does not accept them. Now he will remember their guilt and punish their sins; they will return to Egypt.
14 Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces; Judah has also multiplied fortified cities. I will send fire on their cities, and it will consume their citadels.
Choosing to Reject What is Good
Choosing to Reject What is Good
Hosea 8:1–3 (CSB)
1 Put the ram’s horn to your mouth! One like an eagle comes against the house of the Lord, because they transgress my covenant and rebel against my law. 2 Israel cries out to me, “My God, we know you!” 3 Israel has rejected what is good;
The ram’s horn was the trumpet of the day and an instrument used in a variety of ways, depending on how many sounded and how long the blasts were. They would be used to announce special occasions, sound alarms, to gather people for assemblies or worship and to proclaim war. The Lord says the enemy is hovering over and it is time to sound the alarm. I believe the Lord is saying blow the trumpet as a call to prepare - for they are being given an opportunity to repent yet again.
It describes the scene as one like an eagle comes against the house of the Lord. No this is not America. The eagle was also the national symbol for the Assyrians. The Lord describes and identifies the group that would devour them. The eagle also describes the swiftness of this defeat as well.
Israel cries out - My God we know you. Literally we experience you. They claim a devotion to God but that devotion is nothing more than a pretense based on their own choice. They transgress My - God’s covenant. They literally act in disregard to it. Also God says Israel has rejected what is good. Rejected - refused - to either accept or acknowledge and practice what is good. Now today the word good has many different meanings but here the context is that which is of moral excellence. Israel has chosen to transgress God’s covenant (law) by rejecting that which is of moral excellence. The choice to reject God’s moral and ethical requirements in the law reveals a pretense of devotion. Jesus spoke of this type of pretended devotion as well - there will be those who say they know God and Jesus but the trouble is God and Jesus dont know them!
22 On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, drive out demons in your name, and do many miracles in your name?’ 23 Then I will announce to them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from me, you lawbreakers!’
Choosing Leaders Apart From God
Choosing Leaders Apart From God
Hosea 8:4 (CSB)
4 They have installed kings, but not through me. They have appointed leaders, but without my approval.
God continues on revealing choices that Israel has made, saying they have installed kings, but not through me. They have made or anointed people to the position of king and they have done this without the direction or even approval from God. The leaders over Israel are not God’s choice, but they are Israel’s choice. Honestly God didnt even approve of the division in the nation as far as God was concerned since Jeroboam I Israel has been a kingdom He didnt want or choose and their kings were none that He rose up or put into place.
5 They said to him, “Look, you are old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Therefore, appoint a king to judge us the same as all the other nations have.” 6 When they said, “Give us a king to judge us,” Samuel considered their demand wrong, so he prayed to the Lord. 7 But the Lord told him, “Listen to the people and everything they say to you. They have not rejected you; they have rejected me as their king.
9 Listen to them, but solemnly warn them and tell them about the customary rights of the king who will reign over them.”
After listing the customary rights that the king would have and enjoy - then the prophet Samuel said this
18 When that day comes, you will cry out because of the king you’ve chosen for yourselves, but the Lord won’t answer you on that day.”
Many years later when Saul was rejected as king - the Lord came to Samuel and told him to anoint another
3 Then invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will let you know what you are to do. You are to anoint for me the one I indicate to you.”
7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or his stature because I have rejected him. Humans do not see what the Lord sees, for humans see what is visible, but the Lord sees the heart.”
Men always must choose based on inferior methods and practices, for they cannot see the hearts of men and are susceptible to deception - men are deceived by their own hearts.
9 The heart is more deceitful than anything else, and incurable—who can understand it?
This is why God was to be sought in anointing kings and those whom He has chosen as leaders. God is the only discerner of hearts. Even in the church care must be given to allowing God to reveal men’s true hearts.
22 Don’t be too quick to appoint anyone as an elder, and don’t share in the sins of others. Keep yourself pure.
What a foolish and dangerous thing it is to choose kings and leaders without God’s direction and leading.
Choosing Idolatry
Choosing Idolatry
Hosea 8:4 (CSB)
They make their silver and gold into idols for themselves for their own destruction.
Hosea 8:6 (CSB)
6 For this thing is from Israel— a craftsman made it, and it is not God.
They take their wealth and blessing their gold and silver and they turn it into idols for themselves. For their own destruction. Israel has rejected what is good and instead has turned towards and chosen to pursue idolatry.
This thing from Israel a craftsmen made it and it is not God. Israel has rejected God through the choice of idolatry. How could the things their own hands crafted possibly be God?
18 With whom will you compare God? What likeness will you set up for comparison with him? 19 An idol?—something that a smelter casts and a metalworker plates with gold and makes silver chains for? 20 A poor person contributes wood for a pedestal that will not rot. He looks for a skilled craftsman to set up an idol that will not fall over.
28 So the king sought advice. Then he made two golden calves, and he said to the people, “Going to Jerusalem is too difficult for you. Israel, here are your gods who brought you up from the land of Egypt.” 29 He set up one in Bethel, and put the other in Dan.
To craft a thing into an idol is a deliberate choice to actively reject the true God for a false god - it does not become God because one simply chooses.
Choosing Wrong Security
Choosing Wrong Security
8 Israel is swallowed up! Now they are among the nations like discarded pottery. 9 For they have gone up to Assyria like a wild donkey going off on its own. Ephraim has paid for love.
God describes Israel as being swallowed up. Now this has two meanings the first is an obvious judgment against them in that they will be conquered and assimilated into Assyria. The second meaning how ever is about Israel’s choice of security in that they chose Assyria to be their security and they in return have been swallowed up in identity with them. Ephraim has paid for love they have paid a hefty price for the security of Assyria. They in fact chose to pay so much for the security that they are now among the nations like discarded pottery - once fashioned as useful and now determined to be of no more use. A worthless pot a thing in which no one delights. The money paid was likened to one paying for love - illicit and illegitimate love.
To choose to pay a fee for security is like one who pays for love it only lasts with the money.
They chose to go to Assyria for security against the Southern kingdom and the Lord describes this as being like a wild donkey. A donkey is a stubborn animal that desires its own thing independent of any restraints or restrictions. This donkey of a nation has gone off on its own without God. Its foreign policy absent of God has taken her strength. They choose to procure self-preservation apart from God
Only God provides true security to choose security elsewhere is to choose wrong
Choosing To Worship Their Own Way
Choosing To Worship Their Own Way
11 When Ephraim multiplied his altars for sin, they became his altars for sinning. 12 Though I were to write out for him ten thousand points of my instruction, they would be regarded as something strange.
Ephraim multiplied his altars for sin - or increased the numbers places to make sin offerings, sacrifices to cover their sins. Instead of covering their sins the altars became places where they offered sin - by choice. They decided they would worship in their own way apart from the Lord’s prescribed way to worship them.
God commanded Israel to make sacrifices on the altar in Jerusalem - that was the only identified altar.
By increasing the places of offering sacrifices for sin Israel chose foolishly to increase their opportunity to sin in ignoring the worship commanded by God. They offered more and more sin increasingly with every altar and became a place of hypocrisy instead of worship.
God says that though I were to write out for him ten thousand points of my instruction they would be regarded as something strange. God did write it out for them - His word and His law. They disregard and choose their own way and therefore that makes God’s ways strange unexpected and out of the ordinary. When we worship our own way and not the way God prescribes though God calls that strange fire
1 Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu each took his own firepan, put fire in it, placed incense on it, and presented unauthorized fire before the Lord, which he had not commanded them to do.
Whatever it was the men did to render the offering profane, it was a sign of their disregard for the utter holiness of God and the need to honor and obey Him in solemn and holy fear. Their carelessness and irreverence were their downfall.
They choose to erect many altars to make offerings but the words and commands of God were foreign and strange to consider.
They chose to worship their way by rejecting and ignoring the word of God which instructs them to worship God His way.
“If this be the Word of God, what will become of some of you who have not read it for the last month? Most people treat the Bible very politely … When they get home, they lay it up in a drawer till next Sunday morning; then it comes out again for a little bit of a treat and goes to chapel; that is all the poor Bible gets in the way of an airing. That is your style of entertaining this heavenly messenger. There is dust enough on some of your Bibles to write “damnation” with your fingers.”
--Spurgeon--
Consequences of their Choices
Consequences of their Choices
7 Indeed, they sow the wind and reap the whirlwind. There is no standing grain; what sprouts fails to yield flour. Even if they did, foreigners would swallow it up.
Israel has made their choices and done things the way they want to. God likens it to sowing the wind. Wind lacks substance and is of no assistance.
29 The one who brings ruin on his household will inherit the wind, and a fool will be a slave to someone whose heart is wise.
16 This too is a sickening tragedy: exactly as he comes, so he will go. What does the one gain who struggles for the wind?
They sow the wind yet they will reap the whirlwind. Sow something small yet reap something bigger and more destructive. Now this may seem to Israel and others that the judgment is worse than the sin committed. This isnt true - it may be how it feels but feelings dont dictate reality. Sin is sown over a long period of time, but often reaped in a contracted period of time.
7 Don’t be deceived: God is not mocked. For whatever a person sows he will also reap,
There are some truths that coincide with this law
You reap what you sow
You reap more than you sow
You reap longer than you sow
Sow futility like the wind and yield a crop of destruction - whirlwind. All efforts of self-preservation are self-destructive because they would not seek the Lord
3 Israel has rejected what is good; an enemy will pursue him.
Israel chose to reject what is good - if you reject what is good there will be no good for you and thus an enemy will pursue you - literally persecute and cause to suffer.
15 “But if you do not obey the Lord your God by carefully following all his commands and statutes I am giving you today, all these curses will come and overtake you:
49 The Lord will bring a nation from far away, from the ends of the earth, to swoop down on you like an eagle, a nation whose language you won’t understand,
5 Your calf-idol is rejected, Samaria. My anger burns against them. How long will they be incapable of innocence? 6 For this thing is from Israel— a craftsman made it, and it is not God. The calf of Samaria will be smashed to bits!
Israel chose to reject God by serving idols made by their own hands and God has in turn rejected their idol and the calf of Samaria will be smashed to bits. God will prove their idols impotent
10 Even though they hire lovers among the nations, I will now round them up, and they will begin to decrease in number under the burden of the king and leaders.
They chose for themselves leaders without consulting God or acquiring His direction and anointing and so they raised up leaders that would be their downfall. God says I will decrease their number under the burden of the kings and leaders - that they themselves chose
Those who follow their own wisdom in the choice of leaders inevitably get what they deserve. We see this today dont we?
No matter what foreign policy or treaties and alliances we seek God’s judgment remains. Look how God even used the very alliances of Israel to bring judgment to Israel.
13 Though they offer sacrificial gifts and eat the flesh, the Lord does not accept them. Now he will remember their guilt and punish their sins; they will return to Egypt.
14 Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces; Judah has also multiplied fortified cities. I will send fire on their cities, and it will consume their citadels.
They offer their sacrifices choosing to do it their way and the result is the Lord does not accept them. The Lord not accepting their sin offerings means that they are still under their sin and they are not covered. God then says some of the most fateful and scary words to be uttered - He will remember their guilt and punish their sins. They will return to Egypt - the place of bondage and slavery
Conclusion
Conclusion
Israel by her choices to follow the wrong leaders and kings has consequently forgotten her Maker. Too busy building palaces to woo men they forgot to serve their God.
Judah also has forgotten her security in the Lord and has instead fortified her cities
Because of their choices the consequence is God’s judgment coming upon them.
What choices are we making? Is God the one directing them? Is God in them, is He even a consideration? If our decisions are apart from God and what He has and desires for us we are not trusting in God but trusting in other things and those things as we trust in them become idols for us. Idols by which we reject the good things and ultimately reject God.
The choices and actions are making are the seeds that we are sowing and the plants from which we will be reaping. If we sow apart from God we cannot expect to reap in what God has promised for those who are in Him.
Who do we look to for salvation? God or men or things of men?
God has put a choice before us all
16 For I am commanding you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, statutes, and ordinances, so that you may live and multiply, and the Lord your God may bless you in the land you are entering to possess. 17 But if your heart turns away and you do not listen and you are led astray to bow in worship to other gods and serve them,
18 I tell you today that you will certainly perish and will not prolong your days in the land you are entering to possess across the Jordan. 19 I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live,
God sees what choices you make
You are the one who makes the choices
Your consequences come from the choices you make