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Hosea 9 (ESV)
1 Rejoice not, O Israel!
Exult not like the peoples;
for you have played the whore, forsaking your God.
You have loved a prostitute’s wages
on all threshing floors.
2 Threshing floor and wine vat shall not feed them,
and the new wine shall fail them.
3 They shall not remain in the land of the Lord,
but Ephraim shall return to Egypt,
and they shall eat unclean food in Assyria.
4 They shall not pour drink offerings of wine to the Lord,
and their sacrifices shall not please him.
It shall be like mourners’ bread to them;
all who eat of it shall be defiled;
for their bread shall be for their hunger only;
it shall not come to the house of the Lord.
5 What will you do on the day of the appointed festival,
and on the day of the feast of the Lord?
6 For behold, they are going away from destruction;
but Egypt shall gather them;
Memphis shall bury them.
Nettles shall possess their precious things of silver;
thorns shall be in their tents.
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.
8 The prophet is the watchman of Ephraim with my God;
yet a fowler’s snare is on all his ways,
and hatred in the house of his God.
9 They have deeply corrupted themselves
as in the days of Gibeah:
he will remember their iniquity;
he will punish their sins.
REFLECTION:
- The background of verses 1-9 of this chapter is the festival of the Israelites. The scripture mentions “threshing floor” and “new wine” (2), so it is very likely that it is the Feast of Tabernacles at the end of summer when the Israelites gather to celebrate the harvest of grapes. This was originally a time full of joy and thanksgiving to God; the prophet Hosea took this opportunity to preach to the crowded people, accusing them of their adultery and sin (1, 7). The joy of the people will cease, and the yield of the fields is scarce, because the day of punishment is approaching. The people have to face: 1. the shortage of food (2); 2. the Lord does not accept their sacrifices (4); and 3. the exiles to the Gentiles (3).
- How pitiful it is to fall in the grace of God: joy becomes sorrow, richness becomes lacking. How did the people of Israel react? Instead of repenting, they mocked the prophet as “a fool” and “mad” (7). But they don’t know that God raised up the prophets to be the watchmen of Israel (the Chinese translation of verse 8 is not proper, and it should refer to the prophet as the watchman of Ephraim). Today’s church also has the mission of a prophet, according to God’s standards, to issue reproaches and warnings to the adulterous, sinful, and evil generations. If you cringe with scruples, you will be disloyal to God’s trust.
- In the era of the Judges, a Levite took his concubine to Gibeah for the night. The residence was surrounded by a group of villains. The villains asked the man to come out and commit adultery with them, and the man surrendered his concubine. The bandits gang raped the woman all night, and abandoned the corpse at the door (see Judges 19:14-30). This terrible act exposed the extent of the Israelites’ depravity. Gibeah was destroyed for its evil deeds (cf. Judges 20:8-48), Hosea accused the whole Israel of being as evil as Gibeah and will not escape punishment (9).
PRAYER:
Pray for the Lord to keep you in the His grace so that you will not fall. Where there is weakness, you must confess your sins to God and repent, and ask the Lord for forgiveness. In the face of immorality and injustice, don’t cringe with scruples, and issue rebuke and warning in accordance with God’s standards.
HYMN:
