Hosea 5

God will continue to highlight Israel’s sin of lack of knowledge of Him.  But Hosea 5-10 emphasizes the judgment that will come because of this sin.  

·        5:1-3: Hosea singles out Israel’s leadership who set traps for the people.  This is what Jeroboam did in establishing false worship.  The leaders told the people these are your gods; you don’t need to go to Jerusalem.

o   Again two locations are noted.  Mizpah was east of the Jordan, in the area of the eastern 2½ tribes, and was noted as where Jacob made a treaty with his father-in-law Laban (Gen. 31:43-50).  That’s the kind of “famous” place where you would build a shrine.  And Tabor was also such a place, being the mountain on the north side of the Valley of Jezreel that stands by itself.  Today there is a church on that mountain that can be seen from all directions, just as a shrine in Hosea’s time would have been seen.  

o   The key thought in today’s passage is in v3 where God says I know Ephraim.  It is like our Lord Jesus in Rev. 2-3 in the seven letters to the churches where in each one He says, I know your deeds.  We can hide nothing from God, not even our inmost thoughts and desires (Hb.4:12-13).  

·        5:4-5: What does God know about Ephraim?  He knows their deeds are misdirected, not towards Him as God, no matter what terminology they use or what sacrifices they carry out.  And He knows their pride, that the spirit of harlotry is seen in their stubborn faces. 

·        5:6-7:  God also knows that when they go to seek Him they will not find Him.  They are not seeking the LORD as He has commanded and thus He is nowhere around their shrines and altars.  

·        5:8-9: God’s judgment is certain, so much so that He calls for the trumpet (alarm) to be sounded.  Trumpets were used in Israel to announce an approaching enemy as well as to call a meeting and for other reasons.  So God is saying here: sound the alarm!  It is imminent!  Gibeah and Ramah were cities of Benjamin that bordered Ephraim.  It other words it is an alarm to Judah as Benjamin was generally aligned with the Southern Kingdom.

o   5:10-12: Through a series of similes God condemns both kingdoms.  Princes like those who remove a landmark were those who took away the spiritual marker for the people by requiring worship away from Jerusalem.  God’s wrath, like water, will soak every life and every aspect of life in the sinful kingdom.  He will be like a moth to Ephraim and rottenness to Judah, both pictures of His destructive judgment.

·        5:13-16: Both peoples knew they were sick and wounded with sin but they refused to confess it to the LORD.  Thus He will judge them fiercely, like a lion and young lion, until they acknowledge their offense.

We should not be surprised by sin in our lives; God is not surprised.  But the problem is when we refuse to acknowledge it.  And especially when our sin has caused us to worship the gods of our own making.  God knows us, thoroughly.  Let us allow His word to reveal our sin and let us confess and repent.