Hosea 13

There is a way to greatness—humble yourself before God, and when Ephraim did that (v. 1), God exalted her. But then the people turned to Baal and “died.” Their sin increased more and more—idol worship: ”Let the men who sacrifice kiss the calves!” (v. 2) And, as a result, “they shall be like the morning cloud and like the early dew that passes away” (v. 3). Greatness is fleeting when we turn from God.

But, eventually, the Israelites would turn from their idols: “Yet I am the Lord your God ever since the land the Egypt, and you shall know no God but me” (v. 4). Indeed, after the Jews came back from Babylonian captivity, they never worshipped false gods again. So here we have a prophetic statement regarding Israel’s future. God had taken care of them, but, over time, “they were filled and their heart was exalted; therefore they forgot me” (v. 6). We must be extremely cautious that we do not let “the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word” (Matt. 13:22). Meeting God in that condition is not favorable: “I will be to them like a lion” (v. 7); “I will meet them like a bear deprived of her cubs, I will tear open their rib cage, and there I will devour them like a lion” (v. 8). Destruction was inevitable (v. 9), but any help they would get would come from God. “I will be your King; where is any other that he may save you in all your cities?” (v. 10). If they had only trusted Jehovah. As we read in I Samuel 8, God never wanted them to have an earthly king and warned them openly about it. And now the fruit had been born: “I gave you a king in My anger, and took him away in my wrath” (v. 11). Ephraim’s sin had been “stored up” for centuries (v. 12), and now, “the sorrows of a woman in childbirth shall come upon him” (v. 13). But, as noted several times in the book, God will bring them back. Their captivity is pictured as death and the grave, so in verse 14, the Lord says, “I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. O Death, I will be your plagues! O Grave, I will be your destruction!” The apostle Paul quotes this in I Corinthians 15 in reference to our final victory over death. So Israel’s “resurrection” from the “grave” of captivity is a type of our resurrection over physical death in the last day. Ezekiel 37 is another marvelous picture of this.

Yet, before that time, “An east wind shall come; the wind of the LORD shall come up from the wilderness. Then his spring shall become dry, and his fountain shall be dried up” (v. 15). The east wind is the hot, dry one; look at a map and see what is directly east of Israel--nothing but desert.  And verse 16 presents a horrid picture of the consequences of sin: “They shall fall by the sword, their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child ripped open.” All of this because “Samaria is held guilty; for she has rebelled against her God.” As we saw in chapter 11, it was only because of the higher purpose of a merciful God that He did not completely destroy these wicked people. That, and there were a remnant that remained faithful to Jehovah: “Unless the LORD of hosts had left to us a very small remnant, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been made like Gomorrah” (Isaiah 1:9).  That "remnant," of course, is the one through whom the Messiah would come.  But notice, it was the "LORD of hosts" that had allowed it to remain.