Hosea 8

The gist of this chapter is God’s complaint against the idolatry of Ephraim (Israel, the northern kingdom). In verse 1, “He shall come like an eagle against the house of the Lord,” i.e., swiftly. Israel’s feigned cry in verse 2 will not help them because they rejected “the good” (v. 3). The north, of course, broke off from the house of David, the dynasty God established, so the Lord complains in verse 4, “They set up kings, but not by Me.” And then “From their silver and gold they made idols for themselves.” Israel had been well-blessed—“silver and gold”—but used that to build false gods. God, of course, is not going to accept this: “Your calf is rejected, O Samaria [the capital city of the North].” How long will it be, Jehovah asks, “until they attain to innocence?”

The shocking nature of all this is expressed in verse 6: “For from Israel is even this.” This is going on among God’s people! “A workman made it, and it is not God.” And “the calf of Samaria shall be broken up.”

Verse 7 starts out with a well-known statement: “They sow the wind, and reap the whirlwind.” There is no mocking of God (Galatians 6:7). Hosea, as he has done often, speaks in what is called the “prophetic past” in verse 8: “Israel is swallowed up. Now they are among the Gentiles like a vessel in which is no pleasure.” This hasn’t happened yet. Hosea is writing perhaps two or three decades before captivity. But the punishment of Israel is so sure that he writes as if it had already happened. How certain are the ways of God!

Once again, the Lord mentions the “adultery” with Assyria (v. 9). “Ephraim has hired lovers,” and it won’t help them (v. 10). A great tragedy is expressed in verse 12: “I have written for him the great things of My law, but they were considered a strange thing.” Ignorance of God’s word is again condemned. What a sad state the people of God get to when their own law becomes a “strange thing” to them. “We’ve never heard this before.” I wonder in how many churches today the teaching of the Bible is a “strange thing.” I know of quite a few because I’ve preached at some and wondered if I was going to get out alive.

Because of their ignorance of Jehovah’s ways, they sacrificed to their idols, but, of course, the Lord did not accept it (v. 13). “Now He will remember their iniquity and punish their sins. They shall return to Egypt.” Again, the Assyrian captivity is represented as “Egypt.” None of the Israelites had forgotten the horrible bondage and slavery in Egypt, so to refer to the Assyrian captivity as “Egypt” conjured up horrible images in their minds. Or at least it should have.

“For Israel has forgotten his Maker,” (v. 14), and all the temples and fortified cities, even in Judah, will not help them when God comes in judgment.