Chapter 10

God was blessing Israel, and the more blessed they were the more altars they built, and further prosperity led to improved altars.  They never recognized that the God who was blessing them was different than the one they worshiped.  How stubbornly blind would you have to be???  How arrogant?

2022 - This verse:

"Their heart is false; now they must bear their guilt. The LORD will break down their altars and destroy their pillars." [Hos 10:2 ESV]

These are not saved people being punished.  Saved people do not have false hearts.

This verse:

3 For now they will say: "We have no king, for we do not fear the LORD; and a king--what could he do for us?" [Hos 10:3 ESV]

MSB notes says that Israel's last five kings have been usurpers, corrupt, and so inept they couldn't even maintain law and order.  They neither had nor deserved the respect of the populace.  So the nation of Israel no longer sees the government as authority.  These kings have denigrated the office of king.  And when government is no longer to be feared - because it is inept and unworthy of respect - the worst of the people revolt, and do as they will, and have no fear of reprisal.  We are right here.

This is a FB post that I don't really want to post. 

The calf idols will be taken to Assyria as tribute to its King.  Israel will be dismayed that their "gods" are gone.  They will tremble.  Ultimately, because their idols do not protect them, they will be ashamed of those idols.

vs 8 has some interesting language.  This is the first time on this pass that I recall seeing this phrase, which is repeated many times in many places in the Bible:

8 The high places of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed. Thorn and thistle shall grow up on their altars, and they shall say to the mountains, "Cover us," and to the hills, "Fall on us." [Hos 10:8 ESV]

Cover us, fall on us.  One would have to be pretty afraid, pretty hopeless to wish this on themselves.

2024 - Here are the other verses:

30 Then they will begin to say to the mountains, 'Fall on us,' and to the hills, 'Cover us.' [Luk 23:30 ESV].  These words were spoken by Jesus on his way to Golgotha.  He spoke them to the women crying for him.  So...was Hosea's prophecy fulfilled when Assyria came to take Samaria away?  The King himself was captured and taken to Samaria, and foreigners were sent to settle that land.  Was it then they wanted to be killed by nature rather than by the invaders?  Or is this yet unfulfilled, and Jesus makes it very clear that it is still to come.  Then this next verse:

16 calling to the mountains and rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, [Rev 6:16 ESV].  This verse is the aftermath of the opening of the Sixth Seal.  I believe this is right after the rapture, and not a saved soul will remain on earth.  The signs that accompany this seal will be unmistakably supernatural.  The lost will try to hide from the God in whom they can no longer disbelieve.

Hosea said it was coming.  Jesus said it wasn't here yet - it is still going to get worse.  John tells us when exactly it will occur.

This verse:

9 From the days of Gibeah, you have sinned, O Israel; there they have continued. Shall not the war against the unjust overtake them in Gibeah? [Hos 10:9 ESV]

That horror story back in Judges about the raped concubine, cut in pieces, and mailed to each of Israel's tribes.  That was the beginning of this.  No...that was the indication that these people were already beyond salvage.  How many generations were there between the second generation from Egypt actually entering the land of Canaan, and the atrocity of Gibeah?  How long did that really take?  Was it just that the worst of them congregated together in Gibeah, and none were held accountable?  Perhaps they competed to be the worst of the worst?  They were God-fearing people when they crossed the Jordan - though there were bad people among them.  How did it change?  What went wrong?  Who were the slackers?  Once Joshua died, they had not central, God-appointed leader.  They were each left to themselves.  Most of them went straight to hell.  How hard was it to find David?  One man in the whole country who truly followed God and was capable of leading them, of keeping evil at bay...and look at even David's great failure!

Any nation that abandons God, and is left to itself - to make its own rules, to go its own way, to make its own declarations about good and evil or right and wrong exclusive of God's teaching - will turn into this kind of place.  Bad people, injustice, horror. 

Oh my...2020...I spotted this verse.  I believe this is the first time I have seen the phrase used - and by first I mean in this chronological reading.  This:

10 When I please, I will discipline them, and nations shall be gathered against them when they are bound up for their double iniquity. [Hos 10:10 ESV]

These next verses are "agricultural", sort of.  About plowing, breaking up the fallow ground, sowing righteousness.  Perhaps Hosea is speaking in terms he is familiar with?

vs 12, quoted the first time through, is a bit different in ESV:

12 Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is the time to seek the LORD, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you. [Hos 10:12 ESV]

I think I like NKJV better.