Today you should read: Hosea 9
Hosea 9 without the context of Hosea 1-8 and 10-14 would be an awfully discouraging, depressing and hopeless chapter of Scripture. It’s just as true as the rest of Scripture and shows the God’s character concerning wrath and justice. It also reveals what we deserve when we treat our salvific covenant with God with the contempt of an adulterous prostitute instead of a beautiful, submissive bride. In fact, this chapter alone reminds me of the haunting interview with a prostitute that went viral about 9-10 months ago.
She sounded as hopeless as one could get while not excusing or justifying her actions and lifestyle. At the same time, one can’t read passages in Hosea 9 like
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.
Hosea 9:1
10 Like grapes in the wilderness,
I found Israel.
Like the first fruit on the fig tree
in its first season,
I saw your fathers.
But they came to Baal-peor
and consecrated themselves to the thing of shame,
and became detestable like the thing they loved.
11 Ephraim’s glory shall fly away like a bird—
no birth, no pregnancy, no conception!
12 Even if they bring up children,
I will bereave them till none is left.
Woe to them
when I depart from them!
13 Ephraim, as I have seen, was like a young palm[a] planted in a meadow;
but Ephraim must lead his children out to slaughter.[b]
14 Give them, O Lord—
what will you give?
Give them a miscarrying womb
and dry breasts.
Hosea 9:10-14
Without thinking about this own prostitute’s confessions of being an unfit mother with similar consequences to Hosea 9:10-14 where children will not be able to grow and be nurtured under the God given gift of parenthood. We can’t forget the other chapters in Hosea and Jumpstart commentary from CPC staff of the overall tough (yet beautiful) purpose of Hosea. Christ wins the adulterous prostitute back. He wins us back when we go after other lovers. But as this chapter reveals, Oh the consequences that come in play with our spiritual adultery. How it effects family, friends and what God wants to do with us in the first place with those relationships. Let this chapter be a great lesson and warning for us all anytime we are tempted with idolatry.
By: Erik Koliser — West Campus Pastor
JumpstartCPC.com 