Hosea 5

Hosea continues here a general condemnation of the people—and the priests (v. 1). Again, if the leaders are corrupt, it’s very rare that the masses will be righteous. They were “revolters…deeply involved in slaughter” (v. 2), in other words, very violent. Again Jehovah compares their actions to harlotry (vs. 3-4), and announces that pride is a source of this sin (v. 5). Unfortunately Ephraim is dragging Judah, the southern kingdom, down with it (v. 5). They’ll come a time when they will seek the Lord, but they won’t find Him because He has withdrawn from them (v. 6). Part of the problem, and it will come up more than once in Hosea’s prophecy, is that they mixed themselves with the people of the land—“they have begotten pagan children” (v. 7). The Lord wants Judah to know what’s happening before it’s too late—“Blow the ram's horn in Gibeah, The trumpet in Ramah!” (v. 8). Gilead and Ramah are cities in Judah. It doesn’t appear, however, that the southern kingdom is going to listen. Ephraim will be “desolate in the day of rebuke,” (v. 9), but Judah’s princes—the leaders—“are like those who remove a landmark” (v. 10). In effect, there are no boundaries any more to their actions. And God thus will “pour out his wrath on them like water.” Rather than listening to God, Ephraim “willingly walked by human precept” (v. 11), and when the two countries saw that they were in trouble, rather than turn back to God, they tried to make an alliance with Assyria (v. 13). This is a real serious accusation by Jehovah. Both kingdom’s punishment, of course, would be captivity by foreign powers; the northern kingdom will be taken into Assyria in the late 8th century B.C., and then in the late 7th-early 6th century, Judah will suffer Babylonian captivity. Ancient powers often did this—haul the people of a conquered territory into slavery and captivity. They didn’t want to leave anybody behind to foment rebellion. Well, as Assyria was gaining strength in the 8th century, and expanding its empire southward towards Palestine, instead of looking to their Almighty God for help, the kings of Israel tried to make an alliance with Assyria. When that doesn’t appear that it’s going to work, they will turn to Egypt (Isaiah 30). In other words, they just didn’t trust the Lord. Thus, “I will take them away, and no one shall rescue” (v. 14). When things get bad enough, Israel will turn back to God: “I will return again to My place till they acknowledge their offense. Then they will seek My face; in their affliction they will earnestly seek Me" (v. 15). It’s a shame that, too often, we have to wait for some crisis to develop in our lives before we seek the Lord.