STUDY THEME: GOD’S TOUGH LOVE. 2-13-05.
“HOW MUCH DOES SIN COST?” HOSEA 4: 1-9; 5: 13-15.
HOSEA 4: 1-3, 4-6, 7-9; 5: 13-15.
PLEASE OPEN YOUR BIBLE TO HOSEA 4.
In a culture that practices circumstantial morality, sin and its consequences seem like old-fashioned and outdated ideas to many adults. Without giving much thought to the end results of their actions, people engage in all sorts of behaviors that are self-destructive.
Then they ask, “If I am forgiven of my sins, why does it matter what I do?” Although we seldom hear it expressed so bluntly, I have encountered many Baptists who have this attitude. Apparently they believe that salvation from sin and eternal security mean they can do whatever they desire without thought for the consequences. In today’s lesson we learn that violating one of God’s commands is a sin, and sin---even though forgiven---still has temporal consequences. We will also learn that God expects us as His children to live as He has instructed us in His Word. Conduct that violates God’s commands will bring about His discipline in our lives.
The Bible teaches that sin is a reality that has many undesirable consequences; therefore, Christians should not take forgiveness for granted. Being forgiven of sins by God should take priority, and forgiveness should motivate people toward righteous living. Presuming on God’s forgiveness as an excuse for further sinning is not wise. We reap what we sow.
PLEASE READ HOSEA 4: 1-3.
As a prophet of the Lord, Hosea was charged to deliver the Word of the Lord.
Using the language of a court of law, God accused Israel because there was no truth, mercy, or knowledge of God in the land. He also listed a number of the Ten Commandments they had broken.
The impact of their sins had blighted all living things and the land itself. The people’s lack of knowledge of God was the fault of the priests who had failed to teach them by precept, and, example. Too many Priests were greedy. They were glad when the people sinned because this meant more money for them. In times of trouble both Israel and Judah turned to the Assyrian king instead of to God. The Lord was going to withdraw His presence from them until they returned to Him.
After listing Israel’s three serious sins of omission in vs. 1, the Lord commanded the people of Israel to hear His case against the inhabitants of the land. Idolatry was the characteristic condition and from it, sprang all the other evils from which the prophet was obliged to rebuke them.
These people were supposed to have been His people, but they were not living as God’s people should. According to vs. 1 the jury in this case was the Israelites since they were the ones enjoined to hear the testimony. So the defendant also constituted the jury in this case. The courtroom analogy, therefore, must not be pushed too far.
In this situation the Lord had a case against His own people, and He called on them to pay attention to His complaint against them. Initially, the Lord presented a three-fold indictment against the people of Israel concerning what was lacking in the land.
Because truth had departed, and with it Mercy and all knowledge of God, Jehovah had a controversy with the inhabitants of the land. His holy eye beheld only swearing, lying, murder, theft, and adultery, in place of holiness and fidelity to Himself.
The covenant entered into at Sinai had been broken in every particular. Not one of the Ten Words remained inviolate on their part. For all this He must set His face against them in His righteous government, as He had warned them He would, through the lips of the lawgiver Himself.
In vs. 1 the Lord stated that there was no truth, no faithful love, and no knowledge of God in the land. The Hebrew word for truth could also be translated ‘faithfulness.” This term often refers to certainty and dependability. The term was used to describe the dependable faithfulness of God’s character. It could also mean “integrity.” It is not merely loyalty, although it often includes that, but it is instead the wholesomeness of soul that comes from a life that follows principle rather than expediency. It is a determination to know the truth and live by it.
For there to have been no truth in the land meant that the Israelites lived on the basis of expediency instead of truth and ethics. Contemporary American culture could also be described as a land that has no truth in the minds of many people. Our society is afflicted with postmodernism. One of the characteristics of postmodernism is the denial of absolute truth. All truth, according to postmodernism, is relative and should be based on the culture. Consequently no one has the right to declare any belief true and another false. We live in a culture of moral and ethical confusion.
The Hebrew word translated faithful love can also be translated “loving-kindness,” “mercy,” or “kindness.” This important term refers to loving faithfulness to covenant obligations, but it involves more than just a dutiful commitment to them: “It is going beyond legal obligations to give kindness freely to those with whom one relates.”
Faithful love is also a characteristic of God Himself, and His love never ends. But for the Israelites to be without mercy indicated that their religious service was performed out of a sense of duty. Their relationships with one another were motivated by self-interest instead of love and faithfulness.
The third term mentioned in vs. 1 suggests that the Israelites had no knowledge about God at all. Their spiritual unfaithfulness demonstrated that they did not fear the Lord. Consequently they were lacking in personal experiential knowledge of God. They were also deficient in understanding God and His covenant stipulations. The fact that the Israelites worshiped pagan idols indicated that they did not really know the God of the covenant whom they claimed to worship.
In vs. 2 the Lord continued setting forth His case against the Israelites by asserting that cursing, lying, murder, stealing, and adultery were rampant. The absence of truth….faithful love…and knowledge of God had produced dreadful conditions in Israelite society. How could it be otherwise? Once God’s people no longer live on the basis of His Word, their behavior will become more like the pagan culture in which they live. This principle is as true for America today as it was for Israel in Hosea’s day.
The parallels between the vices mentioned in vs. 2 and the Ten Commandments are striking. For example, cursing might be associated with the Third Commandment, which forbids taking God’s name in vain. If so, then cursing refers not to profanity but to involving the name of the deity to pronounce a curse upon someone. Lying refers to a violation of the Ninth Commandment, which forbids bearing false witness against a neighbor.
Murder violates the Sixth Commandment. Stealing violates the Eighth Commandment, and Adultery violates the Seventh commandment. These vices were not merely present in the land: they were rampant. Once there was no knowledge of God in the land and the people had lost interest in God’s Word, it would be only a matter of time before morality would plummet.
There are disturbingly close parallels between Israel in Hosea’s day and modern America. Many Americans regard themselves to be religious and are involved in religious observances. But many do not base their values or their understanding of truth upon the absolute dependability of God’s Word. The Bible remains a closed book for many religious people today. Biblical illiteracy is at an all time high. Survey after survey indicates that we are not passing biblical values on to the following generation. We should not be surprised to learn that many of these vices are common in the Christian community.
Since murder is mentioned in vs. 2, “one act of bloodshed follows another” is likely a general summary of the moral condition of the Israelites. They were a people who had lost respect for human life. Injustice and persecution exploited the poor and helpless. Violence was commonplace and instilled fear in many. Once again, the similarities with modern American society are disturbing. Many communities live in fear of violence inflicted by gangs of young people. The abortion industry, inequalities in the justice system, euthanasia for the elderly, and a culture in which bloodshed is escalating.
Vs. 3 shows how sins against God and one another have terrible consequences on the rest of God’s good creation. The land itself mourns and all living things shall languish or “waste away.” This includes animal life, birds, and fish. The Bible teaches that all creation suffers when human beings sin. The O.T. shows how God sometimes sent drought, famine, and pestilence as punishment for human sin. When the curse of sin fell on Adam, it also fell on the land.
When the great flood came, it wiped out not only most human life but also most animal life. The environmental problems of our day are often the harvest seeds of sin that were sown long ago (and some are still being sown today). God made humans trustees of His good creation. Our failures as stewards have dire consequences.
In Young’s book “Healing the Earth:” he wrote, “The O.T. clearly teaches that nature is one of the channels through which God blesses or judges His people. God has the power and prerogative to sustain the created order, enabling it to produce an abundance of produce, or to withhold His hand, allowing nature to languish. When we obey God, nature rejoices, and when we disobey God, nature mourns. This mourning of nature is due to God’s chastening us by controlling the forces of nature, or indirectly by letting the consequences of our ways affect natural processes, such as sickness and disease resulting from toxic pollution.
Judgment is not a stroke of God inflicted upon a man as apart from a man’s sin. It is the outworking of the sin itself. The pathway of infidelity can lead nowhere save to the unutterable darkness of pollution. The penalties of apostasy are as irrevocable as are the laws of purity.
PLEASE READ HOSEA 4: 4-6.
The phrase, “let no one dispute; let no one argue” in vs. 4, means that the Lord would not let the people deny His righteous charges against them. So utterly fallen and wretched were they that none was fit to reprove another. All were alike sharers in the common guilt. The leaven of idolatry openly introduced in the wilderness, though secretly carried from Egypt and even from beyond the Euphrates, had been working unjudged until they were utterly perverted; so true is it that “evil communications corrupt good manners.” They had become like those who “strive with the priest;” that is, they persistently refused to subject themselves when the mind of God was made known.
The lesson for us is a solemn one. Another has well said that, “evil never dies of old age.” Sin unjudged among the people of God becomes like a fretting leprosy or a cancerous sore, every working and extending its ramifications till the whole mass becomes defiled.
With Israel it was not ignorance that led to their downfall in the first place; though, necessarily, light refused resulted in darkness. They were like those who fall in the day, even their prophets doing likewise. Hence they must be cut off.
God’s warning that He would destroy your mother likely is another reference to the nation as a whole. The metaphor of stumbling inevitably led on to harsher terms: destroyed, rejected, and forgotten. Each word embraced a different aspect of God’s judgment: the destruction of the Israelites, the rejection of their serving as His priests, and the dissolution of their posterity. Here we see the consequences of sin.
“My people are destroyed through lack of knowledge.” Such was Jehovah’s lament. But the lack of knowledge was the certain result of their own refusal to hearken. He had pressed His truth upon them, but they would have none of it. Light rejected results in deeper darkness than ever, and involves the offender in sore trouble, and rejection from God.
Just as Israel’s priest of old, church leaders, whether they are professional staff members, deacons, or teachers, have a high calling. That calling includes a sacred trust to ensure that God’s people hear the truth. The people must also “hear the truth” in the examples they see.
When a leader says, ‘I am an exception to the rules,” he forfeits his leadership. Leaders must lead by example.
According to Scripture, a leader must live in such a way that he or she can say, “Follow me. Go where I go. Live as I live.” We all need people who hold us accountable in even small matters. When we keep the minor matters in line, we don’t stumble over the larger ones. Just when we start to think, “I’m an exception,” hopefully somebody will care enough to say, ”Don’t do it, not even in one small area.” In 1 Sam. 15: 22 God said “To obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.”
PLEASE READ HOSEA 4: 7-9.
In vs. 7 the Lord charged that, “the more the priests multiplied the more they sinned against Me.” The word priest may have a double reference. One was to the priests as religious leaders; the other was to Israel, who was called in Ex. 19: 6 to be a “kingdom of priests.” The nation as a whole had failed in their priestly role. Thus vs. 7 could refers to the priests and the priestly nation. Both had increased in numbers and also in sinning against God.
What a tragic
commentary! One might wonder whether or not the increasing number of
churches in America correlates to more or less sin in the nation. Has
the Christian community as a whole exercised the beneficial influence
upon the life of the nation that would seem warranted by their
numbers?
God warned that He
would change the glory of Israel into shame. Glory
could refer to the wonderful calling they were rejecting. God could
change what should have been their glory into their shame.
Or God may have been speaking sarcastically about their attraction to
Baal. What they had made their glory; God would make their
shame.
If we take vs. 8 literally when it states, “they eat up the sin of my people,” then God was condemning priests for going through the motions of serving in order to receive the sacrifices from the people. The priests ate some of these sacrifices. The priests also received fees for their services in offering sacrifices for sins. Further, “they set their heart on their iniquity, or relish their wickedness.” The Contemporary English Version renders it: “You encourage others to sin, so you can stuff yourselves on their sin offerings.” In their greed the priests fed on the sins of the people, encouraging them to multiply their hypocritical sacrifices, which the Lord hated.
How so? The degenerate priesthood encouraged sin because the more the people sinned the better. That meant more fresh meat. Instead of being a means of confession, the sacrifices had become a means of sin for the people and for the priests!
In vs. 9 if any of the priests believed God would exempt them from judgment, Hosea made clear that no privilege would shelter their supposed elite status. God would repay them for their evil deeds. God would punish both the unfaithful priests and the unfaithful people of Israel.
Does sin bring consequences? Hosea would say yes. The people of Israel would say yes. The priests of Israel would say yes. And God says yes. Sin will give the sinner a bill to pay one day, and he or she will find it hard to pay. Was God harsh and cruel with Israel when he threatened to chastise them because of their sins? No. He was loving; although with a tough love. His means to blessing was through discipline. God acts no differently today when His people walk the pathway of sin. There is always a “Payday some day!”
PLEASE TURN TO HOSEA 5.
PLEASE READ HOSEA 5: 13-15.
In Hosea 4: 12-5:12 the Lord continued to present His case against Israel. Because of Israel’s spiritual unfaithfulness, judgment was certain and unavoidable.
Ephraim was the leading tribe among the ten tribes constituting the Northern Kingdom of Israel and was often used as a synonym for the kingdom of Israel. In vs. 13 God described the reaction of Ephraim when he experienced God’s judgment. God had already described Ephraim in vs. 11 as “oppressed, crushed in judgment.” Now he used the imagery of sickness to portray His people.
The Southern Kingdom of Judah, who would follow the spiritual adultery of Israel and receive God’s judgment, saw his wound. What did Israel do when the calamity of God’s judgment struck? Israel sought human assistance. Ephraim went to Assyria and sought help from the great king of the Assyrian empire. The Lord warned Ephraim or Israel that the king of Assyria would prove a futile hope, for God informed His people that “he cannot cure you or heal your wound.” For Israel to turn to Assyria and not to the Lord was another act of spiritual adultery.
Once His judgment was unleashed, even the Lord would not be a source of comfort to Israel. He described Himself as like a lion, who would tear Israel and Judah to pieces. This pictures great violence for the assault of Assyria upon Israel---and later the Babylonian invasion of Judah---would be brutally destructive. Although the Assyrians would disperse the inhabitants of Israel in 721 B.C. God’s sovereign control of events was depicted when He declared, “I will carry them off, and no one can rescue them.”
God’s people are not at the mercy of blind luck or coincidence. Their loving Father surrounds the with His care and protection. When His children spurn His love and are “determined to follow what is worthless”, then God may permit painful circumstances to occur in order to get His people’s attention and cause them to seek Him and His comfort. Disobedience always has painful consequences for God’s people.
Since Israel had betrayed God and committed spiritual adultery by embracing idols, God would depart and return to His place. This is one way God expresses His wrath. Hosea 5: 6 says, God had “withdrawn Himself from them.” When Israel experienced the crushing oppression of the Assyrians, God would seem absent and indifferent. He was actually neither, for He awaited their genuine repentance when they would recognize their guilt and seek His face.
God had mercifully and graciously sent prophets to Israel. He had repeatedly denounced their promiscuity, but Israel persisted. Now only the stern rod of suffering would bring them to their senses. God knew that His people would search for Him in their distress. Because He loved His people, God would do what was necessary, painful though it might be, to cause His people to return to Him for healing and forgiveness.
Similarly, when we disobey God and insist upon our way instead of His will, God often allows us to experience the consequences of our sins. This is an indication of God’s loving mercy toward us. Painful or unpleasant circumstances have a way of making us pay attention and seek God’s face in our distress, which surely is for our benefit.
People who do not know the Lord do not miss Him. Those whose faith is real are devastated by the prospect of losing the presence of God. During the time when King David was failing to confess his sins, he felt in Ps. 32: 3-4 as if he were in a drought. When he confessed his sins, he pleaded in Ps. 51:11 with God not to cast him away or take His Holy Spirit from him.
Sin separates us from God for two reasons. First, sin by its very nature is turning away from God. Second, God’s holiness cannot endure sin. These facts need to be placed alongside of the fact that the Bible’s theme is God seeking sinners. We see this in the Lord’s telling Hosea to go and bring home his unfaithful wife. Persistent sin and rejection of God’s love leads to permanent separation from God. When He withdraws His presence from His own people, He does so in order to call them back to Himself. Thus God withdrew from Israel so the people might seek His face. God’s Ultimate purpose was redemptive. God chastises His own for their good. Isa. 55: 6-7 says, “Those who sincerely seek the Lord will find Him.”
NEXT SUNDAY FROM HOSEA 11 WE ASK, “SINCE I’VE FAILED GOD IN THE PAST, DOES HE WANT ME NOW? A.V. DAUGHERTY altav@swbell.net
THE ONLY SOURCE OF TRUE SECURITY IS IN THE LORD, BUT MANY PEOPLE PERSIST IN TRUSTING OTHER THINGS.
SIN IS LIKE A DEADLY SICKNESS THAT ONLY GOD CAN HEAL.
SIN SEPARATES US FROM GOD BECAUSE SIN IS TURNING FROM GOD AND BECAUSE GOD CANNOT ALLOW SIN IN HIS HOLY PRESENCE.
LOSING THE SENSE OF GOD’S PRESENCE IS PAINFUL FOR TRUE BELIEVERS: GOD’S PURPOSE IN WITHDRAWING IS TO CALL PEOPLE TO SEEK HIM.
THOSE WHO TRULY SEEK THE LORD WILL FIND HIM BECAUSE HE IS SEEKING SINNERS.