by
Rev. Mark Perkins, Pastor
Denver Bible Church
326 E. Colorado Ave.
Denver, Colorado 80210
To: Hosea
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"He has rejected your calf, O Samaria, saying, "My
anger burns against them!" How long will they be incapable
of innocence? For from Israel is even this! A craftsman made
it, so it is not God; surely the calf of Samaria will be broken
to smithereens. For they sow the wind, and they reap the storm
wind. The standing grain has no growth; it yields no grain. Should
it yield, strangers would swallow it up."
1. The calf is a recurrant theme in the history of Israel. Unfortunately
it is mostly a theme of idolatry and evil.
A. The Bible proscribes the sacrifice of a young bull for the sin and guilt offerings, but this differs completely from a female or male calf. A bull is a sexually adult animal. Lev 4:1-5:13.
1. The people of the ancient world had a habit of worshipping calves. In fact, Israel developed her own system of calf worship, that had actually developed within the Israelite religion.
2. To the idolatrous Gentiles, calves represented fertility in the female and virility in the male. In other words their cult was sexual.B. The golden calf - ex 32; 1 Ki 12:28; 2 Ki 10:29.
1. The Golden calf represents the failure of the children of Israel at the Holy Mountain of God.
2. It was there that they made an idol because of their impatience with Moses, who had been on the mountain with God for what they considered as too long.
Ex 32:1-4, "Now when thepeople saw that Moses delayed
to come down from the mountain, the people assembled about Aaron,
and said to him, 'Come, make us a god who will go before us;
as for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of
Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.' And Aaron said
to them, 'Tear off the gold rings which are in the ears of your
wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.'
Then all the people tore off the gold rings which were in their
ears, and brought them to Aaron. And he took this from their
hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, and made it into
a molten calf; and they said, 'This is your god, O Israel, who
brought you up from the land of Egypt.'"
a. Notice that the people have yet to receive the tablets, but they have already received the commandment against idolatry, and so they are sinning in cognizance against God, Ex 20:23.
b. Notice also Aaron's direct involvement in this caper. He fashioned it with his own hands.
c. The people recognize that without Moses they would have died in the desert, and they fear being without him.
d. It is their desire to replace Moses because they had made him into a god. Their idolatry was directed toward a man, and not the one true god at all.
e. It is ludicrous for them to think that a calf was the God who brought them up from Egypt. Their reversionism has taken them to irrationality.3. In Ex 32, verses 7-14, Moses beseeches God to withold from destroying the nation of Israel for their idolatry, and the Lord assents.
4. Moses then descended from the mountain with the tablets of the Law in his arms, he first hears and then sees the idolatrous feast. He is so angry that he dashes the tablets on the rocks at the foot of the mountain. They are utterly shattered. Next he melted down the golden calf, ground it into powder, and scattered the powder over the surface of the water. He made the people drink that water. All this from verses Ex 32:15-20.
5. Moses then turns to Aaron, whom he left in command before he went up on the mountain. Aaron's reply is one for the books.
Ex 32:21-24, "Then Moses said to Aaron, 'What did this people
do to you, that you have brought such great sin upon them?' And
Aaron said, 'Do not let the anger of my lord burn - you know
the people yourself, that they are prone to evil. For they said
to me, 'Make a god for us who will go before us; for this Moses,
the man who brought us up from Egypt, we do not know what has
become of him.' And I said to them, 'Whoever has any gold, let
them tear it off.' So they gave it to me, and I threw it into
the fire, ahd out came this calf.'"
a. Aaron first attempts the blame the people for his failure in leadership.
b. Second, he fibricates the story of the manufacture of the calf. He implies that the calf is from God Himself by telling of its miraculous production.6. As a memorial, the broken tablets of the law were placed inside of the ark of the covenant. In spite of this failure, the covenant would continue, covered by the mercy seat of God.
C. There was calf worship in the time of Jeroboam the first, 1 Kings 12.
1. This chapter describes the split of Israel into two kingdoms, Judah in the South and the rest of the tribes in the North. The split came about because of the hard core attitude of Rehoboam, king over all the land. The North revolted because of him.
2. When the North split off, Jeroboam was faced with a very difficult problem: Jerusalem was the center of worship for all of Israel, and due to the rebellion of his tribes there was little chance for his people to go there.
3. His solution was to manufacture two golden calves - one to place at Dan and the other at Bethel. They were designed to be just like the one calf that the children of Israel worshipped in the wilderness. Obviously, this was an evil policy, and the result was horrible.D. Between Jeroboam and Hosea's time, the worship of calves evolved more into the pagan paradigm. It had become a thoroughgoing pagan ritual, with no basis at all in relationship with Yahweh.
2. God has rejected the calf of Israel - it is an idol, and He
never tolerates idolatry.
3. The calf of Israel was made by human hands - how could it
now be an object of worship? The worship of created things is
really quite ridiculous. "I made it, and now I will worship
it." It would be the exact equivalent if God decided to
bow down and worship any human being. Idolatry often seems neat,
and even rational - but it is not - not at all, not ever. The
rationality is only a veneer, and this is true for all forms
of idolatry.
4. The calf of Samaria will surely be broken to smithereens.
A. The Hebrew noun SHABAB is quite difficult to research. It has little to go on but the context of a couple of verses, Hosea 8:4 and Job 18:5. From what scholars can gather, it comes from an older word, which means to hew, or chop, as with an axe.
1. In our context, smithereens works because it denotes the utter destruction of something to the point where it is atomized.
2. In Job, the frame of reference is fire, and so 'spark' would be the working translation there.B. This is identical to what happened with the golden calf in the wilderness. It was reduced to powder by the decree of Moses.
5. Sowing the wind and reaping the storm wind (it is not literally
a whirlwind) are references to the law of volitional responsibility.
It means that if you sow evil you will reap divine discipline.
A. The Law of Volitional Responsibility. People who choose for God are blessed; those who choose against Him suffer.
1. The Law of Volitional responsibility is well documented by Scripture.
a. Job 4:8-9, "As I have observed, those who plow evil and those who sow trouble reap it. At the breath of God they are destroyed; at the blast of his anger they perish."
b. Prov 11:18, "The wicked man earns deceptive wages, but he who sows righteousness reaps a sure reward."1. The deceptive wages are the result of bad decisions.
2. The deceptive wages shortchange the work of sin, making sin never worth it.c. Prov 22:8, "He who sows wickedness reaps trouble, and the rod of his fury will be destroyed."
d. Hosea 8:7, ""They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind. The stalk has no head; it will produce no flour. Were it to yield grain, foreigners would swallow it up."
e. Hosea 10:12, "Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the LORD, until he comes and showers righteousness on you."f. 2 Cor 9:6, "Remember this: Whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows generously will also reap generously."
g. Gal 6:7-8, "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life."h. James 3:18 "Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness."
2. The law of volitional responsibility is a built in function of divine discipline (see below). It is a law as universal as gravity, and no less impressive in its effects.
3. The law of volitional responsibility can be summed up in the phrase, "You will reap what you sow." This means that the seeds that you plant in bad decisions will grow up to cause suffering in your life.
4. In the law of volitional responsibility, the suffering is always appropriate to the original bad decision.a. If the decision is in the realm of finance, then you will suffer financially.
b. If the decision is in the realm of romance, then you will suffer romantically.
c. If the decision is in the realm of social life, then you will suffer socially.
d. If the decision is in the realm of your chosen profession, then you will suffer professionally.5. In the law of volitional responsibility, bad decisions, like crime, never pay.
a. You never 'get away' with a bad decision.
b. You never slip a fast one by God, even on a small scale.6. In the law of volitional responsibility, good decisions never go unnoticed by the omnipresence of God.
7. There will always be a difference between right and wrong. Always to eternity.
8. Choosing right over wrong will always be important.
6. "The standing grain has no growth; it yields no grain.
Should it yield, strangers would swallow it up."
A. There is no growth to the standing grain. The grain stalks have stopped growing. This is a description of famine, and is described in the first cycle of discipline, Lev 26:19.
B. If the grain does yield, the enemy comes and wolfs it down. This is a description of the first cycle of discipline, Lev 26:16. These two cycles are inverted by God, and it shows that they are happening all at once.1. The qal imperfect verb YIBHLA`UHU describes a swallowing that is a wolfing or gulping down. It is the ingestion equivalent to vomiting.
2. The imperfect tense of this verb describes something that happens repetitively over time. If the grain grows up, it is then always swallowed by the enemy. It makes planting a crop a really hopeless endeavor. C. Both of these cycles of discipline are signs of displeasure from God. If they happen, the nation should accept the warning.
Grace Notes
Warren Doud, Editor
1705 Aggie Lane, Austin, Texas 78757
Phone: 512-458-8923