August 13, Hosea 4
Ephraim is joined to idols; leave him alone. - Hosea 4:17
God had used the events of Hosea's sad marriage to illustrate his long-suffering, faithful love. He also used the drama of Gomer's disgusting unfaithfulness to her prophet husband to depict Israel's inexcusable guilt for their serial idolatries and immorality.
In Chapter 4, God transitioned to a courtroom scene and used language of the justice system to plainly accuse Israel, name their crimes and state the punishment they were due.
After the nation split into the northern kingdom called Israel and the southern kingdom called Judah, Jeroboam made idolatry legal and easy for the people in Israel with idols in two locations in the north so the people wouldn't cross the border to go worship in Jerusalem. He had no legitimate Levitical priests, so he set up his own priesthood that was itself as counterfeit as the idols he erected. The tragedy of idolatry is not limited to corrupt worship. Ignoring what God said about the central facts and commands of their lives led to moral breakdown and complete disregard for God's law in everyday conduct.
God called them out and named their flagrant disobedience to the basic commandments of the law. The swearing, lying, murder, stealing, adultery and bloodshed that characterized their lives testified against them. They had completely forsaken God and turned to lawless immorality and idolatry.
God was not unkind or unloving to name their sins and hold them accountable for them. Just as Jesus saw the rich young ruler and told him what he lacked because he loved him, so God had been loving and patient with Israel. He had warned and urged them to turn back to him. Now the time had passed for tender pleading and solemn warning. God indicted them, convicted them and sentenced them to the punishment their sins and crimes deserved.
God said they were destroyed for a lack of knowledge. They lacked knowledge because they had rejected it. They showed their rejection by their idolatry and immorality. They had forsaken God and cherished whoredom and wine. And the punishment was on its way. In less than thirty years, the Assyrians would demolish the north and take the people away into captivity never to return home again.
The text verse I chose for this essay is a concise statement of Israel's guilt and the awful consequences they suffered for their sin: "Ephraim is joined to idols; leave him alone." The people of Israel were so entrenched in their idolatry and the sins associated with it that God who knew their hearts said they were "joined" in an unholy union. He knew that the people were not going to let their idols go, so he let the people go. That did not mean he was indifferent toward them; he loved them and had tried to reach their distracted hearts for centuries. Letting them go their way to destruction was not his first resort; it was his last one.
The easiest way to read and think about this chapter is to shake our heads and say, "They should have known better. They had it coming." But let's challenge ourselves to read it with a heart and spirit of self-examination. Would God who knows our hearts see in us a sin to which we are "joined?" Despite knowing better and being warned and encouraged, do we still stubbornly cling to some entrenched sin? Do we have an "idol" that we cherish more than we love God? Despite the conviction by God's word and our own conscience, are we clinging so tightly to some sin, not realizing that rejecting the warnings only intensifies our guilt?
Dear friend, surely we do not want God to look at us and say, "Leave him alone." We can save ourselves from that awful fate. We should heed, not ignore warnings when they come from God's word, a faithful preacher or a friend who loves us enough to tell us unpleasant truth. When we are rebuked, we should not brand it as hate speech and persist in our sin. Instead, we ought to respond in tearful repentance and restore our first love for the Lord who wants to save us.
Copyright © 2024 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Today in God's Word—August 2024
East Tallassee Church of Christ
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