by
Rev. Mark Perkins, Pastor
Denver Bible Church
326 E. Colorado Ave.
Denver, Colorado 80210
To: Hosea
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"From the days of Gibeah you have sinned, O Israel; there
they stand! Will not the war upon the sons of violent injustice
overtake them in Gibeah? When it is My desire, I will chastise
them; and the nations will be gathered against them when they
are bound to two of their violent injustices."
1. Again there is reference to Gibeah. This is obviously a key
theme in the discipline of Israel. This is the time like that
other time. This degeneracy is much like that degeneracy.
2. The war against the sons of violent injustice will overtake
them in Gibeah. Not only is there historical similarity in the
behavior, but there will also be geographical similarity in the
discipline.
3. Gibeah is some ten or twenty miles due north of Jerusalem,
right along the invasion route of Tiglath-Pileser. It would be
the final destination that is actually in Israel, and just north
of the border with Judah. Just before the first destination inside
the Southern Kingdom.
4. The exclamation "There they stand" refers to present
day Judah as standing in the same moral place as the inhabitants
of Gibeah during the time of the judges.
5. Violent injustice is from `AYLAH. It describes exactly the
conditions of Gibeah, and now, of Israel.
6. The war upon the sons of violent injustice is a circumlocution
for divine discipline. A circumlocution is another way of saying
something in order to avoid monotony.
7. When war overtakes you, you are defeated!
8. God refers to the timing of His discipline, mentioning that
He does it at the time of His desire. Although this makes the
discipline sound arbitrary and possibly unfair, recall that God
never has a desire that is out of line with His perfect integrity.
9. Their binding is also another word for divine discipline.
The act of binding someone to their sins is a description of
the connection between sin and discipline. If you imagine that
there is an invisible and unbreakable bond between every sin
and its component discipline, then you are quite close to the
truth.
10. They are bound to two of their violent acts. The nature of
those violent acts is left unsaid, but the number simply indicates
an excess of them.
"And Ephraim is a well-trained heifer that loves to thresh,
but I will pass [a yoke] over the fairness of her neck; I will
personally "ride" Ephraim, Judah will plow, Jacob will
really harrow for himself. Sow righteousness for yourselves,
reap according to virtue love; Break up your fallow ground, for
it is time to seek the Lord until He comes and rains righteousness
on you."
1. Verse eleven contains a threefold agricultural analogy that
forms a word of warning and admonition for both kingdoms.
2. Ephraim is a well-trained heifer... well trained comes from
the Pual stem MELUMADAH. The Pual is intensive, and so this comes
out as well-trained, with a hyphen. Even well-trained may be
a little weak for the translation.
A. The heifer in the Old Testament can represent one of two things: the ritual sacrifice of the red heifer, as proscribed in Numbers 19, or just an animal with certain mannerisms. In our verse it is the latter.
B. The heifer was a young cow that had yet to give birth. This was a spoiled animal. It seldom did any hard work, and was often given an inordinate amount of feed. Because these animals were spoiled the farmers and ranchers of the day often noted their rebellious nature. They are not animals beaten down by service to their masters. They still have much spirit left, and are very difficult to domesticate.
C. So, our well-trained heifer is not one that would be well-trained at the yoke. Instead, it is well-trained in the sense that a pet is well-trained. This animal does stupid pet tricks. The modern Bible translation should be, "Ephraim is like a well-trained poodle."
3. This animal loves to thresh, because it is work that includes
a free meal, and all you do is walk in a circle. So the animal
walks, and eats, and eats and walks. It is not hard work at all!
A. This comes to describe Israel as a lazy, fat, spoiled nation. In the time of prosperity that they are experiencing, there is very little hardship for any of them.
B. This too describes our own nation - spoiled, unused to hardship, lazy.
4. But, the day of hard work has arrived. God will pass a yoke
over the fairness of her neck. Oh! Look what a beautiful, smooth
neck this heifer has.
A. "Fairness" comes from the word TOBH. It is the word that describes intrinsic good, or here, the unsullied nature of this heifer's neck. This neck is still virginal - it has never been touched by a yoke.
B. The yoke grinds against the neck of the pulling animal. Callouses and scar tissue grow and multiply. Pulling the plow is far more work than threshing.
5. God will "ride" Ephraim. This word is literally
ride, but it is flexible in the Hebrew as in the English. Here
it means to really get after someone. "Ride hard" as
in galloping a horse over a long distance. With a yoke, it would
depict the long and arduous labor of plowing. Of course, this
is a metaphor for divine discipline.
6. Judah will plow. So, Hosea includes the Southern Kingdom in
this metaphor. They too are heifers, and they too will aquire
a yoke.
7. And Jacob will harrow for himself.
A. Jacob is a metaphor for the whole nation of Israel.
B. Harrowing was done after the harvest. It was designed to break up the soil for the next years' planting. A harrow is usually a wide, comb-like implement that is hitched to the plow. It breaks up the clods and root balls of the old crops, so that the soil is nice and loose for next years' planting. It is the hardest work of the whole year on the farm, because there is so much resistance to the harrow.
8. The verb for harrow is YESHADED, and it is in the Piel intensive
stem. There is great intensity in this work.
9. "Sow righteousness for yourselves, reap according to
virtue love; Break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek
the Lord until He comes and rains righteousness on you."
A. Now, God says, it is time to plant a new crop.
B. Formerly, Hosea employed the sowing metaphor to teach the principle of divine disciple. Now, he uses it to teach the principle of divine blessing.
C. Hosea 8:7: "For they sow the wind, and they reap the storm wind."
D. The seed of righteousness is the Word of God; its crop is righteousness.1. 1 Cor 9:11, "If we sowed spiritual things in you, is it too much if we should reap material things from you?
2. Mark 4:14, "The sower sows the Word."
3. Gal 6:7-8, "Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh shall from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit shall from the Spirit reap eternal life."E. The people are commanded to break up their fallow ground. The fallow ground is that which is left unused through a planting season. The people have left their spiritual lives in a state of disuse, and instead sow the seed of idolatry, both general and specific.
F. It is always time to seek the Lord.
G. The coming of the Lord is the first and second advents.
H. The rain of righteousness is the pouring forth of spiritual assets for a future dispensation. The rain of righteousness is the doctrinal teaching of Christ during the incarnation, and His millennial rule.
"You have plowed evil, you have reaped injustice, you
have eaten the fruit of lies - for you have trusted in your way,
in your numerous warriors. And the crash of battle will arise
among your people, and all your fortresses will be destroyed,
like the devastation of Shalman on the day of the battle of Beth-arbel,
mother upon children dashed in pieces. Thus he will do to you,
Bethel, because of your great evil. At dawn the king of Israel
will be completely cut off."
1. Hosea now concentrates on the culmination of the degeneracy
of his country. They plowed, they reaped, and they ate the fruit.
A. Plowing wickedness is the same as initial involvement in the cosmic system. Notice that this time in the system is hard work.
B. Reaping injustice requires work as well, and represents the later stages of the devil's deception.
C. Eating the fruit of lies means taking the deception wholly and completely.
D. All three of these verbs are qal perfect, which describes here a completed past event. The action is complete.
2. And Hosea focuses this cosmic complex on Israel's wrong trust
in the might of men. The way of Israel is human power - the power
of the alliance, and the power of the sword.
3. Human viewpoint leads to human dependence. Trusting in human
power is tantamount to the rejection of divine power.
4. The crash of battle will arise among them. This is the assault
of Assyria. These are verbs in the perfect tense, showing the
certain futurity of these events. They are the future prophetic
perfect.
5. The reason we know of the shift to the future is the presence
of one verb that is in the imperfect, and that is the Hophal
imperfect of SHADAD, which means to devastate.
6. The crash of battle is SHA'ON. This is the roar of the waterfall
or cascade. Battle in the ancient world had a crashing sound
as thousands of shields and swords crashed together at once.
The crash of battle is a terrible thing to the ears of the civilian
populace. There is no defense, only hiding. And yet they will
hear it again in Israel.
7. All of the fortresses will be devastated. Many of these fortresses
were built under Jotham, king of Judah. They were in the border
regions near Bethel.
A. Jotham took over from his father in 750 B.C., and ruled until 732 B.C.
B. He was a man who feared God, and he subdued the uprising of the Ammonites and supervised the building of the high gate of the temple.
2 Chr 27:3-6, "Jotham rebuilt the Upper Gate of the temple
of the LORD and did extensive work on the wall at the hill of
Ophel. {4} He built towns in the Judean hills and forts and towers
in the wooded areas. {5} Jotham made war on the king of the Ammonites
and conquered them. That year the Ammonites paid him a hundred
talents of silver, ten thousand cors of wheat and ten thousand
cors of barley. The Ammonites brought him the same amount also
in the second and third years. {6} Jotham grew powerful because
he walked steadfastly before the LORD his God."
8. Now the fortresses of Jotham will come crashing down.
9. Hosea compares the coming destruction to one past - the one
which occurred as Shalmaneser the third assaulted Judah from
the East.
A. The use of Shalman is difficult, because up to that time there had been five Shalmanesers of Assyria. It was very confusing.
B. However, locating the reference from this one is somewhat easier, for a similar turn of the phrase appears in:
2 Kings 8:7-15: "Then Elisha came to Damascus. Now Ben-hadad
king of Aram was sick, and it was told him, saying, "The
man of God has come here." And the king said to Hazael,
"Take a gift in your hand and go to meet the man of God,
and inquire of the Lord by him, saying, "Will I recover
from this sickness?" Then Elisha said to him, "Go,
say to him, "You shall surely recover," but the Lord
has shown me that he will certainly die." And he fixed his
gaze steadily on him until he was ashamed, and the man of God
wept. And Hazael said, "Why does my lord weep?" Then
he answered, "Because I know the evil that you will do to
the sons of Israel: their strongholds you will set on fire, and
their young men you will kill with the sword, and their little
ones you will dash in pieces, and their women with child you
will rip up." Then Hazael said, "But what is your servant,
who is but a dog, that he should do this great thing?" And
Elisha answered, "The Lord has shown me that you will be
king over Aram." So he departed from Elisha and returned
to his master, who said to him, "What did Elisha say to
you" And he answered, "He told me that you would surely
recover." And it came about on the morrow, that he took
the cover and dipped it in water and spread it on his face, so
that he died. And Hazel became king in his place."
1. These events occurred in 841 B.C. Ben-hadad and Hazael are not Assyrians, but Arameans.
2. That same year that Elisha resided in Damascus, Shalmaneser the third campaigned west against the Arameans, seeking and demanding tribute and allies.
3. Aram became allied to Shalmaneser under both Ben-hadad and Hazael. Their united armies moved further west together, until they came against Beth-arbel.C. Beth-arbel was a town in the Transjordan that was destroyed by the allied army. It was an ugly thing indeed.
D. "mother upon children dashed in pieces." paints the picture of a pile of bodies at the top of a cliff. The area near Beth-arbel has many such cliffs - it is rugged terrain.
Grace Notes
Warren Doud, Editor
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Phone: 512-458-8923