Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior

In Hosea chapter one, we saw the indictment God brought against Israel. Remember that the nation had split in two and the prophecies of this book focus on the northern kingdom. God took the marriage between Hosea and Gomer to illustrate the crimes Israel was committing against Him. The imagery of the adulterous woman helps us understand the gravity of Israel’s rebellion.

Between chapters two and three, God calls Israel to abandon following their leadership down this treacherous path and we see how Gomer left Hosea for other lovers, yet he bought her back, depicting God’s love for his people.

In chapter four, the charges against Israel continue and grow in detail.

Hosea 4:1–6 NASB95

Listen to the word of the Lord, O sons of Israel, For the Lord has a case against the inhabitants of the land, Because there is no faithfulness or kindness Or knowledge of God in the land. There is swearing, deception, murder, stealing and adultery. They employ violence, so that bloodshed follows bloodshed. Therefore the land mourns, And everyone who lives in it languishes Along with the beasts of the field and the birds of the sky, And also the fish of the sea disappear. Yet let no one find fault, and let none offer reproof; For your people are like those who contend with the priest. So you will stumble by day, And the prophet also will stumble with you by night; And I will destroy your mother. My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being My priest. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.

A call to listen to the Lord (v. 1)

These are not the words of Hosea, but the words of God. He has brought charges against the sons of Israel. There is no faithfulness or kindness in the land. These words can also be translated as truth and loyalty. There is no truth in the land, nor loyalty. The word for kindness is the same word that is often translated as loving kindness, which spoken of God, refers to His covenantal love toward His people. In this case, there is no covenantal love of the people toward God.

The situation is made worse when we see there is no knowledge of God in the land. No knowledge of God in the land is a result of abandoning God in pursuit of Israel’s worship of false gods. This is what God is referring to repeatedly through this book when He accuses Israel of playing the harlot. The metaphor of sexual infidelity helps the reader understand how grave the offenses are that Israel has committed against God. Generation after generation has abandoned God and the nation is reaping the consequences. A nation formed through a covenant relationship with the supreme being of the universe has forgotten how and why it was brought into existence.

Yet God has not abandoned Israel completely. As we saw in the first chapter, He intends to abandon them to suffer the consequences of their actions, yet He is still using His prophet to call the people to listen to Him. Even when we are at our worst, God’s love never ceases.

The consequences of a lack of knowledge (v. 2-3)

The Lord goes on to list the symptoms of the land’s lack of knowledge of Him. Since they abandoned Him, they have forgotten His commandments. Here they are guilty of swearing, which is better understood uttering curses. We ought not think of swearing in the sense that the people are using cuss words, but uttering curses on one another, possibly by invoking the Lord’s name, violating the third commandment. Also on the list is deception, murder, and adultery, commandments nine, six, and seven.

What we must understand when we read the prophets or any other literature that deals with the judgment of God, we have to remember that the charge brought forth is one that has been developing for a long time. A people or a culture do not make such drastic changes overnight or even within a single generation. The moral fabric of Israel’s society had been decaying for nearly 200 years. Because we are reading history, we know Israel did not heed the word of the Lord. Therefore, they faced rejection and exile.

The Lord is a patient God. He is more patient than any human being. He has been tolerating Israel’s rebellion for a very long time. 2 Peter 3:9 reminds us:

2 Peter 3:9 NASB95

The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.

This is exactly what God is doing in the days of Hosea. He is working through Hosea to call the people of Israel to reject their leadership and follow the one true God once more. He has been patient with them, waiting for them to come to repentance, but His patience is not without limits. His plans will come to pass.

Isaiah 46:10–11 NASB95

Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, ‘My purpose will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure’; Calling a bird of prey from the east, The man of My purpose from a far country. Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it, surely I will do it.

God is patient, and will make every attempt to bring about the repentance and redemption of His people, but in His foreknowledge, He also knows when enough is enough. Verse two is pointing out that Israel is out of control.

In verse three, we see the entire land feels the effects of Israel’s abandonment of God. As God has removed His hedge of protection around Israel as a consequence for their rejection of Him, the land suffers. It would seem the land was experiencing a drought, which might have led to food shortages as the wildlife began to disappear. Interestingly enough, the word disappear in verse three means to be taken away. The people and the land are impoverished as a result of rebellion.

When you and I abandon the Lord, we can expect Him to withhold His blessings. One cannot expect the blessings of God while simultaneously shaking his fist at Him.

Enough is enough (v. 4-6)

At this point, God is saying, “No more excuses.” The words find fault and contend in verse four are the same Hebrew word. It carries the meaning of pleading one’s case. Similarly, the word translated as offer reproof means to be found to be right. What God is saying is that the time has come for Israel to stop defending themselves against God’s charge against them. He doesn’t want to hear it anymore, like a parent who doesn’t want to hear their child’s excuses for not following instructions. He’s been patient and He sent numerous people to speak on His behalf only to be killed by the leaders who were supposed to be following God in the first place.

When the light has completely faded, people will stumble over what they cannot see. This is the fate of Israel if they do not heed the words of God. He adds that He will destroy their mother. There is a wordplay that is taking place here that began in chapter two. God calls on Israel to reject her leadership and walk in the right way by using the wordplay associated with Hosea’s marriage to Gomer. We said last week Gomer is the representation of unfaithful Israel. God is calling the people to reject their “mother” who is the leadership. The monarchy of Israel is crumbling, but the people are still being called to faithfulness to their God.

Verse six is perhaps the most sobering. The true price to be paid for rejection of the of the knowledge of God in the land is that the people are destroyed. The rejection of God has led to the rejection of the leadership and the generation to follow. It’s interesting how the sins of the parent often have a way of visiting the child. The generation in Israel at this moment will lose everything and their children will not know what it is like to grow up in their own homeland.

The degradation of Israel is unfolding right before their eyes, and if we take an honest look at ourselves, we are not much different. I started paying attention to politics the best I could in 2008 during the presidential election. Things were different back then. I don’t always know how to put words to it, but things were different. The country has been polarized for a long time. Many felt a reprieve as Trump took office and enacted some good economic and foreign policies, but it did not seem to help unite the country. The gulf between the two sides feels like it has only grown larger. In March of 2020, COVID brought the globe to a screeching halt and the polarization continued. You were the enemy for not wearing a mask and you were the enemy if you did. You were the enemy if you took the vaccine and you were the enemy if you didn’t. While we were told to stay home, the divide grew larger and larger.

The 2016 election was horrendous. The 2020 election was even worse. The supposed insurrection at the capitol, the shutting down of the keystone pipeline, the Afghanistan debacle, the border crisis, rapid inflation, the war in the Ukraine, and even the current catastrophe that is the possible overturn of Roe vs. Wade are all symptoms of a far greater problem: we are spiritually sick.

The leadership has abandoned her God and the effects are being felt all over the place. But even now, God is calling on us not to follow the leadership, but rather follow Him. If God sent a prophet to us today, what charges would he bring against us? He already has. He sent forth His Son.

The only hope Israel had to turn the ship was to look themselves in the mirror and agree with God on what they had become. The bottom line is this:

Because God is holy and cannot tolerate sin forever, we must confess our guilt before Him.

Romans 3:23 says,

Romans 3:23 NASB95

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

Earlier in the chapter Paul quotes from Psalm 14 saying,

Romans 3:10–12 NASB95

as it is written, “There is none righteous, not even one; There is none who understands, There is none who seeks for God; All have turned aside, together they have become useless; There is none who does good, There is not even one.”

But as we discussed last week, the greatest news of all time is:

Romans 5:8 NASB95

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

God’s law demands justice and the penalty for our crimes is death. But Jesus came and paid the death we owed so we could be pardoned. If we hope to see the blessings of the Lord, we must be willing to see ourselves for what we are. We are a broken people who are spiritually starving.

When God makes us aware of this fact, the only response can be repentance. Confession means to say the same thing. It means to agree with God. God has brought a charge against His people. They have forsaken Him. This is a call to return.

The only proper response when we are made known of our sin is repentance.