Israel empties his vine;
He brings forth fruit for himself.
According to the multitude of his fruit
He has increased the altars;
According to the bounty of his land
They have embellished his sacred pillars.
2 Their heart is divided;
Now they are held guilty.
He will break down their altars;
He will ruin their sacred pillars.
3 For now they say,
“We have no king,
Because we did not fear the Lord.
And as for a king, what would he do for us?”
4 They have spoken words,
Swearing falsely in making a covenant.
Thus judgment springs up like hemlock in the furrows of the field.
5 The inhabitants of Samaria fear
Because of the calf of Beth Aven.
For its people mourn for it,
And its priests shriek for it—
Because its glory has departed from it.
6 The idol also shall be carried to Assyria
As a present for King Jareb.
Ephraim shall receive shame,
And Israel shall be ashamed of his own counsel.
7 As for Samaria, her king is cut off
Like a twig on the water.
8 Also the high places of Aven, the sin of Israel,
Shall be destroyed.
The thorn and thistle shall grow on their altars;
They shall say to the mountains, “Cover us!”
And to the hills, “Fall on us!”
9 “O Israel, you have sinned from the days of Gibeah;
There they stood.
The battle in Gibeah against the children of iniquity
Did not overtake them.
10 When it is My desire, I will chasten them.
Peoples shall be gathered against them
When I bind them for their two transgressions.
11 Ephraim is a trained heifer
That loves to thresh grain;
But I harnessed her fair neck,
I will make Ephraim pull a plow.
Judah shall plow;
Jacob shall break his clods.”
12 Sow for yourselves righteousness;
Reap in mercy;
Break up your fallow ground,
For it is time to seek the Lord,
Till He comes and rains righteousness on you.
13 You have plowed wickedness;
You have reaped iniquity.
You have eaten the fruit of lies,
Because you trusted in your own way,
In the multitude of your mighty men.
14 Therefore tumult shall arise among your people,
And all your fortresses shall be plundered
As Shalman plundered Beth Arbel in the day of battle—
A mother dashed in pieces upon her children.
15 Thus it shall be done to you, O Bethel,
Because of your great wickedness.
At dawn the king of Israel
Shall be cut off utterly. Hosea 10 NKJV
Hosea 10 Plenty
He brings forth fruit for himself - There is an exercise I make myself do over and over again, that is to walk something backwards, to acknowledge the steps to here, and to then go beneath, peel back the veil, the skin of each step. You are eating your fruit, drinking your wine, did I invent the grape, and what caused it to grow, where did the soil come from, the ground beneath my feet, the mind that knows to till? The further you go the grander the scale, the smaller you become, or am I still too big, what will tomorrow find but a spec, a finite grain, invisible from not much distance at all. God still sees me, even the hidden me, in the most guarded and darkest reaches of my heart, and so I thank Him for His grapes, they are far more than I deserved. Oh forgive me for forgetting to look past the plenty.
…20They exchanged their Glory for the image of a grass-eating ox. 21They forgot God their Savior, who did great things in Egypt, 22wondrous works in the land of Ham, and awesome deeds by the Red Sea.… Psalm 106: 20-22
…17They sacrificed to demons, not to God, to gods they had not known, to newly arrived gods, which your fathers did not fear. 18You ignored the Rock who brought you forth; you forgot the God who gave you birth. 19When the LORD saw this, He rejected them, provoked to anger by His sons and daughters.… Deuteronomy 32: 17-19
According to the bounty of his land - They saw the harvest and paid tribute to gods that cannot provide, cannot create, they entered and drove their children toward a dark age.
…9In that day their strong cities will be like forsaken thickets and summits, abandoned to the Israelites and to utter desolation. 10For you have forgotten the God of your salvation and failed to remember the Rock of your refuge. Therefore, though you cultivate delightful plots and set out cuttings from exotic vines— 11though on the day you plant you make them grow, and on that morning you help your seed sprout—yet the harvest will vanish on the day of disease and incurable pain.… Isaiah 17: 9-11
Their heart is divided - Like Gomer's heart, she makes the vows of faithfulness, but she belongs to many.
i. Their heart is divided: The word divided is halaq, which has the ideas of “divided” (Genesis 14:15, 49:7), of “smooth” (Genesis 27:11, Psalm 55:21) or of “flattering” (Psalm 5:9, 36:2). So, it may be accurate to translate this phrase as their heart is divided, but it may also be that God meant to say that Ephraim has a “smooth, flattering,” insincere heart. - Enduring Word
We have no king - Not of your own, not from your own people, but you have no God because you refuse the only one there really is, and now you will have foreign kings to match your foreign gods.
As a present for King Jareb - Your idol, your golden calf is now the present of a foreign king. What a light you are to the lost, now he thinks this is somehow tied to the God of Abraham and Isaac, that he and his gods have trampled the Creator of the Universe, because you twist true worship, and teach apostasy. You mourn for the very calf that is part of the reason you are bound for Assyria, and returning to Egypt, slaves of your own doing, forever protecting the lie upon the pedestal.
Cover us, fall on us - So bad will be these days, the sieges, the famine, the malnourished babies, mothers eating their own flesh and blood, complete devastation. As bad as this is, cry out, for maybe you will be heard, beg for a different heart, ears to hear, sincerity to repent, a desire to know God for Who He is, rather than the calf you want Him to be. You say this religion was a disappointment to you, that you tried it out but it didn't deliver, well then, I say, quit trying religion and come to God through Christ, bringing Him the offering of your sin, that's all you have, be the beggar that you are, a broken and contrite heart He will not turn away. Come while you still can, for holiness is a dreadful thing, you will not stand on your own two feet, you will not question God like you think.
…15Then the kings of the earth, the nobles, the commanders, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and free man hid in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains. 16And they said to the mountains and the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of the One seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb. 17For the great day of Their wrath has come, and who is able to withstand it?”… Revelation 6: 15-17
12See to it, brothers, that none of you has a wicked heart of unbelief that turns away from the living God. 13But exhort one another daily, as long as it is called today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. 14We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly to the end the assurance we had at first.…
…15As it has been said: “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as you did in the rebellion.” 16For who were the ones who heard and rebelled? Were they not all those Moses led out of Egypt? 17And with whom was God angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?… Hebrews 3: 12-17
The battle in Gibeah against the children of iniquity - So we talked some of this before in Hosea, but will include a link to both chapters surrounding this incident.
Break up your fallow ground - Like the publican, pound your chest, see your sin as the rightful cause of all this, beg to hate it. What good is it to waste wisdom upon deaf ears, who can teach a man that knows everything, that is right even when he is wrong? Tell me again how great an investment it will be to sow seed upon this field that you have every day neglected to till. It has not been cut by the Word of God, turned by honest meditation before the mirror of the law, there is not so much as a scratch, far less than a tear; it is like planting the pavement in a parking lot. The seed will go nowhere, be eaten by the crows.
…7But when John saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his place of baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8Produce fruit, then, in keeping with repentance. 9And do not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.… Matthew 3: 7-9
You plowed wickedness - You reap what you sow, they did surface plowing, used God's name, but blended Him in with their sin, their idolatry. He was not special to them, for they loved those that were not their husband, who did not bring the rain, did not make the seed or the soil. They said, "God", but their definition did not match, their description was an idol, and that they preferred for the idol would not confront their sin.
Because you trusted in your own way - You are more like Nebuchadnezzar, the earth is filled with men and women who think more highly of themselves than they ought to think. The world is billions of narcissist thick, who can't stand the thought of a God above their feelings and notions. Who sees themselves the way they really are, who could stand the sight of that all at once? I beat my chest, Oh God, have mercy on me, a sinner.
1The king’s heart is a waterway in the hand of the LORD; He directs it where He pleases. 2All a man’s ways seem right to him, but the LORD weighs the heart. 3To do righteousness and justice is more desirable to the LORD than sacrifice.… Proverbs 21: 1-3
14The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all of this and were scoffing at Jesus. 15So He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is prized among men is detestable before God. Luke 16: 14-15
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