Chapter 9
God pronounces his plan for Israel. They will be removed from the land. They will return to Egypt, and eat "unclean food" in Assyria. (vs 3) There is this reference to the state of things:
9 They have deeply corrupted themselves as in the days of Gibeah: he will remember their iniquity; he will punish their sins. [Hos 9:9 ESV]
Another reference to Gibeah, Saul's home town, and the place where the traveler's concubine was abused, almost resulting in the annihilation of the tribe of Benjamin. An awful and evil place. All Israel has become like this. Sort of a miniature of "the days of Noah".
This verse, which could be applied to many nations down through history:
7 The days of punishment have come; the days of recompense have come; Israel shall know it. The prophet is a fool; the man of the spirit is mad, because of your great iniquity and great hatred. [Hos 9:7 ESV]
This says that when those who proclaim God, His power, and preach His commandments are equated with crazy people, and denigrated as fools - because only fools would believe what they are saying - that is a sign of the end. That is a sign that "the days of recompense have come". You know, here again, this prophecy is about the nation of Israel in 700 BC, and is NOT about the US in 2020. It just isn't. So the question that must be answered is whether or not this progression that we are seeing in Israel - from God's chosen entering Canaan, to the splitting of the kingdom under Jeroboam I, to turning more and more to idols instead of God, the increasing corruption of its leaders and increasingly the corruption of all who live there such that life becomes a struggle not just for survival, but against the next door neighbors and so on who are more than willing to cheat and steal from you to increase their own resources, and ultimately beyond the rejection of God to the ridicule of God and those who still believe in him. I saw a news article this week about some demonstration that changed "xxxx Jesus" over and over. They don't realize that every single time they said it they turned up the eternal temperature they will experience in hell by 10 degrees. I believe they will know, they will understand that they are suffering more than some others in hell BECAUSE of what they said. Anything else would not be justice. It boggles my mind how anyone could chant such a thing.
2024 - This verse: 11 Ephraim's glory shall fly away like a bird-- no birth, no pregnancy, no conception! [Hos 9:11 ESV]. Note the reverse order of the departing glory...There'll be no children born...miscarriage. See vs 14. No pregnancy at all...infertility. No conception...because their masters will forbid it when they are slaves. Even in this they'll not make their own choices. This is pretty dire.
15 Every evil of theirs is in Gilgal; there I began to hate them. Because of the wickedness of their deeds I will drive them out of my house. I will love them no more; all their princes are rebels. [Hos 9:15 ESV]
What happened in Gilgal? MSB just says it was a center of idol worship. But it seems like there should be more to it...but then, John MacArthur would surely recall it...
2024 - This verse: 9 And the LORD said to Joshua, "Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you." And so the name of that place is called Gilgal to this day. [Jos 5:9 ESV]. This is where they set up the 12 stones when they crossed the Jordan on dry land into Canaan. Why would God begin hating them there? Joshua and the people were deceived at Gilgal by the men of Gibeon. These were the first of those that should have been destroyed with the rest but got out of it...though they became slaves of Israel.
2024 - Perhaps it is this...At the end of Judges 1 there is a long list of all the places where Israel failed to drive out the previous inhabitants of Canaan, instead entering into peace agreements with them...and eventual adopting their ways and their gods. So...these verses:
1 Now the angel of the LORD went up from Gilgal to Bochim. And he said, "I brought you up from Egypt and brought you into the land that I swore to give to your fathers. I said, 'I will never break my covenant with you, 2 and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall break down their altars.' But you have not obeyed my voice. What is this you have done? 3 So now I say, I will not drive them out before you, but they shall become thorns in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you." [Jdg 2:1-3 ESV]
The beginning of God's reproach of Israel. This was the start of it.
There are some very devastating prophecies in this chapter, some horrible things to contemplate. God is not mincing words at all with them. I expect the warnings were less severe to start with, and have grown progressively more direct, and now there is no doubt. For instance:
16 Ephraim is stricken; their root is dried up; they shall bear no fruit. Even though they give birth, I will put their beloved children to death. 17 My God will reject them because they have not listened to him; they shall be wanderers among the nations. [Hos 9:16-17 ESV]
Prophecy of dead children should be taken seriously. Wanderers among the nations...It's not just that times are going to get hard, it is that there will be no home to return to. No hope of eventual return. There will no longer be an Israel.
2024 - Will we see a promise of eventual return, after the "wanderers among the nations" reference in vs. 17? Is Israel still under this curse from so very long ago? It certainly got worse when Assyria finally came, and then Judah also fell. The came back, but only stayed until 70 AD, and then there was 136 AD. The curse surely reached its peak about there. But the Jews did begin drifting back, and in 1948 Israel was re-established as a nation. But they still wander in nations all over the world.
2022 - Note also, quite unmistakably in vs 17, that wrath is against them "because they have not listened". These are not his children, these are not saved people.
https://crossroadsbible.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Forest-of-Ephraim-ESV-Bible-Atlas2.png
From this map, we see that the prophecies of Hosea in this chapter are about Israel. Ephraim was in Israel, as was Manasseh. Note that Judah has no border with Ephraim.