“Israel Reaped What She Sowed”

Series: “God Speaks”

Text: Hos 8:7-14

Introduction: (What?)

Many times we want to demonstrate our love for God, but we want to do it our way. It is kind of like a husband buying his wife a vacuum cleaner for their anniversary. He may expect her to be excited and rave about the gift only to find her extremely disappointed. Rather than giving God what He wanted in worship, the Israelites devised their own plans and the result was less than pleasant. In 1 Sam 15:22-23 When Saul had disobeyed God; “Then Samuel said: Does the Lord take pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the Lord? Look: to obey is better than sacrifice, to pay attention is better than the fat of rams. For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and defiance is like wickedness and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has rejected you as king.”

Examination: (Why??)

1. You reap What you sow, More than you sow and Later than you sow. (v 7)

Hos 8:7 “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 had sown disobedience and idolatry and mixed it with some of their traditional sacrificial worship. Like the tares (weeds) that were sown in a field of wheat, their mix of idolatry and supposed worship of God created a crop that they did not expect. Paul addressed this issue in Gal 6:7-8 “Don’t be deceived: God is not mocked. For whatever a person sows he will also reap, because the one who sows to his flesh will reap destruction from the flesh, but the one who sows to the Spirit will reap eternal life from the Spirit.”

John McArthur referred to this as “the escalating uselessness of all their false religion.”

Sometimes when there is not immediate results from our sin, we fall into the belief that we’ve escaped judgment. Any farmer knows that they don’t plant watermelons and get potatoes. They also realize that they don’t plant one day and harvest the next. They realize that they will always reap what they sowed and later than they sowed. The thing that might surprise them is that from every seed that is sown, many plants may appear, consequently they reap MORE than they sowed.

We must realize that God knows exactly what we have sown in our lives. Unless we repent and turn from our sins, there will be consequences even if it is much later and even if it occurs in the lives of our children or grandchildren. Sometimes, as with the Hatfields and McCoys, the feud goes on long after anyone remembers how it started. The writer of Hebrews noted in Heb 12:15 “Make sure that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no root of bitterness springs up, causing trouble and defiling many.” The consequences of your unconfessed sins do not just fall on you, but also on many others.

2. Looking for love in all the wrong places. (vv8-10)

Hos 8:8-10 “Israel is swallowed up! Now they are among the nations like discarded pottery. For they have gone up to Assyria like a wild donkey going off on its own. Ephraim has paid for love. 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.”

There is a country song with the title I used for this point. Part of the lyrics go...

Well, I spent a lifetime lookin' for you Single bars and good time lovers were never true Playing a fools game, hopin' to win And tellin' those sweet lies and losin' again

I was lookin' for love in all the wrong places Lookin' for love in too many faces Searchin' their eyes Lookin' for traces of what I'm dreaming of Hoping to find a friend and a lover I'll bless the day I discover another heart Lookin' for love

The Israelites had been looking for love in the Fertility Cults of Baalism. In this passage God used three examples to highlight the futility of their search. They had “gone up to Assyria”, meaning that they sought protection from a pagan nation. They are like the wandering donkeys that Saul was pursuing when he met Samuel and was anointed as king of Israel. And they had squandered their wealth on prostitutes; quite likely the temple prostitutes of Baal.

Today we look for love in our pets, our possessions and our production. It is sad that people will weep over the death of a dog or cat, and never shed a tear over a human being who is lost and headed for hell. Also people look for fulfillment in “things” they have acquired and in their accomplishments.

What we must remember is that our God is a jealous God. Ex 20:5 “Do not bow in worship to them, (idols) and do not serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, bringing the consequences of the fathers’ iniquity on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me,” We must learn from God’s interaction with Israel that if we look anywhere except to Him for our fulfillment, there will be consequences.

3. Beware the jilted lover (vv11-14)

Hos 8:11-14 “When Ephraim multiplied his altars for sin, they became his altars for sinning. Though I were to write out for him ten thousand points of my instruction, they would be regarded as something strange. 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. 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.”

Israel built pagan altars to cleanse them from sin. However, these altars had the opposite effect. Instead of cleansing them, they just multiplied their sins. Even though God gave them clear instruction as to what He required of them, they considered what He said through the writings of the prophets as “something strange”. For the unbeliever, or the one who is out of fellowship with God because of sin, His instructions (Word, Bible) are garbled and unclear. They read but don’t understand. Also, even though they offer choice sacrifices to God, He will not accept them so long as they persist in their sin by worshiping idols such as Baal. Trying to mix the worship of God with the worship of idols is like trying to mix oil and water. Rather than pleasing God, these sacrifices just remind Him of their guilt, and He will punish them for their sins. God says about them, “They will return to Egypt.” This is not a literal return to Egypt, but is a reminder that Assyria will be their “new Egypt”. Perhaps you have heard the phrase, “those who do not learn from history are prone to repeat it.” That is what is happening here. Israel evidently had not learned from the experiences of their ancestors, and therefore would have to experience their own bondage.

In Ro 15:4 Paul wrote, “For whatever was written in the past was written for our instruction, so that we may have hope through endurance and through the encouragement from the Scriptures.”

In Hos 8:14 God said through Hosea, “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.”

Instead of trusting God to protect them, the people of Judah tried building “fortified cities” (cities with high and wide walls all the way around) and citadels (watch towers where the watchmen could spot the enemy a long way off and warn the people to be prepared. God said, “No problem; I will burn down their ways and their watch towers.

Application: (How should I respond to this message?)

We must recognize that our idolatry will be punished just as Israel’s was, unless we repent.

We must stop trying to worship God while at the same time worshiping idols such as wealth or fame.

We must realize that there is no place to hide from God. David wrote; Ps 139:7-12 “Where can I go to escape your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence? If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there. If I live at the eastern horizon, or settle in the western limits, even there your hand will lead me; your right hand will hold on to me. If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will hide me, and the light around me will be night---even the darkness is not dark to you. The night shines like the day; darkness and light are alike to you.”