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HOSEA 7:3-16
(Reading: 2 Kings 17:1-23)
The People Beyond All Hope
Congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ…
The war trials after the Second World War were an involved and extensive process.
They began in November 1945 and went on for more than ten months, involving the prosecution of 21 major Nazi leaders and hundreds of others.
Through those court proceedings much was revealed about what had happened during the time of such an open and calculated reign of evil.
What perhaps completely surprised the onlookers and those reading the daily accounts about the trials was the extent to which the German people were complicit in what had been happening.
Many officers and officials had carried out orders involving some of the terrible crimes against humanity ever done.
You only need to mention the word ‘Holocaust’ and that wickedness is blatantly obvious!
There was something much more stunning, however, that came out of those Nuremberg trials.
Do you remember it?
Because if you have you definitely don’t forget it!
For what was the almost universal answer that came from the lips of those on trial there?
Who but a few of the very top leaders uttered these immortal words: “It is not my fault: I was only following orders”?
In other words, their excuse for completely abrogating any sense of responsibility for the care and welfare of their fellow human being was that they had to follow their orders.
Now, we must understand why they did that.
There was the most awful culture of fear in Nazi Germany.
Everyone spied on everyone else.
And also lurking in the shadows was the dreaded Gestapo.
To not obey commands would no doubt have put them in the same position as those they were oppressing in carrying out their orders.
But, still, we are utterly shocked at how it could ever come to people being involved in such despicable acts.
If more had raised their protest surely it would have stopped – or at least have been somewhat lessened?
The vast majority, though, were so caught up in what was happening they either were benefiting greatly from it or too oppressed to speak out.
And, yet, congregation, why should any of us honestly be surprised about this?
Do we think that Nazi Germany is such an aberration in human history?
Haven’t there in fact been countless times and places where the same has happened?
Right now there are large chunks of this world where there is absolutely no freedom to express your Christian faith!
They are the same places where the basic human rights for women and certain ethnic groups are completely trampled to the ground!
It is exactly such a situation as the one we find in Israelite society in the early 7th Century.
The corruption had completely infiltrated every possible fibre in their nation.
So much so that it will catch them out.
In the words of the first aspect to the text this afternoon, THEY HAVE COOKED THEIR OWN GOOSE.
Perhaps you’re thinking, ‘I’ve heard this phrase before.’
And you may well have.
Because this is an expression we use when someone has got himself quite obviously into trouble.
And he certainly cannot blame anyone else!
We see this in verse 3 as the prophet describes how much the people are in this altogether.
From the outback to the very centre of government, everyone is involved in this.
Chapter 6 brought out how bad the situation was in the countryside.
Now we go into the palace of the king.
Now we see those who should have been upholding the law to be those at the forefront of breaking that law!
The simile used here vividly exposes this.
For what is this situation compared to so as to show how bad it is?
Well, verse 4 speaks about how they are “like an oven whose fire the baker need not stir from the kneading of the dough till it rises.”
When the fire has become hot enough and the oven warm, the baker doesn’t need to stoke the fire.
He only needs to knead the bread and wait for it to rise, while the oven keeps on burning.
You see, the Lord is telling us the fire in this baker’s oven is sin.
And just like that fire keeps on burning so sin works through and it works on.
It doesn’t stop or slow down because the devil keeps busy with his destructive evil.
We see this quite clearly in the next verse.
The princes allow themselves to lose all possible inhibition with much alcohol.
And it’s really a day which should have had dignity written all over it.
For “the day of the festival of the king” is the anniversary day of when he began to reign.
It’s equivalent today to the Queen’s Birthday.
Then we honour in a special way the one God has placed over us.
But they’re absolutely sloshed!
Like some misbehaving football players they lose all control.
The passions in verse 6 which turn that night into an orgy bites the king in the next verse with a violent overthrow of his regime.
There are no limits or loyalties here.
As Derek Kidner notes, “With such a fever running at every level of society, it was no coincidence that Israel’s last three decades were a turmoil of intrigue, as one conspirator after another hacked his way to the throne, only to be murdered in his turn.
“Of the six men who reigned in those thirty years, four were assassins, and only one died in his own bed.”
It’s the saddest state of affairs.
But the most devastating thing of all is how verse 7 ends.
Because there the Lord declares, “All the kings fall, and none of them calls on me.”
The adulterous woman is completely under the devil’s spell.
The Lord’s complaint back in chapter 2 verse 13 that she had forgotten Him is so true!
And now the cooking simile develops another turn.
Verse 8 describes Israel next as being half-baked!
“Ephraim mixes with the nations; Ephraim is a flat cake not turn over.”
From the bread you can leave alone to bake perfectly to the cake completely burned one side and raw on the other.
It’s totally inedible!
Take a bite of that and you spew it up.
And doesn’t that ring a bell?
Wasn’t there a church in Revelation 3 described very much the same?
Ah, that was Laodicea!
They too had become completely taken in by the world around them.
The Lord is clear what their judgment will be.
But He also exposes the ungodliness in them.
He points out the pride they have in themselves and in what they have.
And yet all along they are the most wretched and pitiful of people.
Verse 9 develops this further with the image of a man who still thinks he’s in his prime.
And yet he’s failed to realise what power he had has already drained away.
It’s like Samson who, after he’s had his hair cut off, still thinks he can get up and slay the Philistines.
This is what sin does.
It blinds you.
Having come in and completely enwrapped you, you become so darkened you don’t realise the extent of your depravity.
I mean, you would think that what was going on in the nation would make it plain how bad it is.
But how many are really alert to that today, congregation?
We have the square box blaring its blasphemy and immorality every day!
The papers are full of the most ungodly laws being proposed and even passed.
Governmental corruption is endemic.
Modern business practice often avoids focusing on any principles!
Yet you have the spin doctors twisting the truth into perception.
You have the religion which declares war against every other religion and lifestyle given a special status.
Thousands are slaughtered in the womb and now that will happen to even more of society’s weak and dispossessed with euthanasia.
Truly it can only be a genuine revival which turns this nation and this world around.
Only people coming to repentance because of the preaching of God’s Word can burst the bubble of today’s arrogance.
So for this society there is still hope.
But not so for Israel in Hosea’s day.
They had gone beyond the point of no return.
In fact, they were now being tried for all their wrong.
And there would be no mercy in this!
How could there be?
They weren’t even sorry!
Congregation THEY HAVE COOKED THEIR OWN GOOSE.
But the similes haven’t finished yet.
For now we consider, secondly, how THEY HAVE BEEN BIRDS OF A FEATHER.
I’m sure you know where this phrase comes from.
‘Birds of a feather flock together’ is a well-known expression pointing out how much a particular group of people have in common.
And it fits in well with the description of Israel as a dove in verse 11.
In this case it refers to their diplomatic stupidity.
They of little old insignificant Israel thought they could play off the big powers of Assyria and Egypt against each other.
We read of that in 2nd Kings.
Israel ruler’s thought they could do deals.
They felt they didn’t have to keep faith with anyone – least of all with their covenant God.
King Menahem bought Assyria’s patronage, as 2nd Kings 15:19 tells us.
Then his son’s assassin, Pekah, went back on that when it didn’t suit him.
He lost half his kingdom for that, as 2nd King 15:29 states.
It was his son Hoshea we read about in 2nd Kings 17.
He followed his father and lost the rest.
Not only did he renew the alliance with Assyria, he then broke it through plotting with Egypt, and that forfeited the lot!
We naturally wonder at how silly you could be.
But the worst thing is not the political desertion and rebellion but the spiritual ramifications.
While the major powers of that age won’t let Israel go neither will the greatest power of all ages!
In the description of verse 12, God pictures how He’ll certainly catch up with them.
Because they are birds of a feather He will catch them in a net altogether!
For He knows where they are and what they’re doing.
Verse 13 puts the charges clearly.
Not only are they being prosecuted because they have strayed from God, they have gone so far as to rebel against Him!
The extent of this rebellion is shown at the end of verse 13.
For like the father He is God longs for them to be saved, to come back to Him, but they won’t.
As the spiteful child she is, Israel twists the truth right around.
They speak lies against God.
Congregation, we need to remember that this is part of the devil’s continual battle with the Lord.
While the Israelites had no excuse for the course they were following, it was the devil who was working in them to frustrate God’s purposes.
If Satan could he would stop what God’s doing through the Church.
Our Lord spoke of this in John chapter 8.
There he addressed those opposing him this same way.
For there in verse 44 he declares, “You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire.
“He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him.
“When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”
Verse 14 can only show next how much they are set against the Lord.
Here the arrogance of Israel we saw in verse 10 is again brought out.
In this instance, it is especially tied to the Canaanite context.
For they have deserted their God and are worshipping the gods of the land.
It’s a clear criticism by Hosea of the worship life of Israel.
By wailing upon their beds and gathering together for the pagan worship ceremonies, they think they can get the gods on their side.
This is exactly what they tried to do on Mt Carmel in the famous incident of Elijah confronting the Baal paganism.
There they wailed and slashed themselves.
Indeed, an alternate reading for the word “gather together” of verse 14 is “they slash themselves”.
Wasn’t that what those hundreds of priests did in 1 Kings 18 to try to stir up their god?
Obviously the situation described in verse 14 is one where there is a desperate shortage of grain and wine.
But rather than go to the One who created and sustains all things they go to a god of man’s own making.
It’s no surprise that while verse 15 is short it is also very sharp.
The Lord is hurt.
He who had done everything He could to bring up His people, training and strengthening them, found that was used against Him.
God has been the best Dad.
He has been the most loving, caring, and proud father any child could possibly have.
He worked hard to make a man of his son Israel.
Congregation, let’s put ourselves in God’s shoes.
You have a child that has legally become an adult.
You brought him up in the way of the covenant, praying with him, reading God’s Word to Him, and living the Christ-like life before him.
Your family went to church together.
You heard the Word proclaimed each Lord’s Day.
Not that you did that perfectly.
But you were honest about that.
He saw you constantly seeking the Lord’s forgiveness.
Now he goes another way.
The anguish is terrible, isn’t it?
We so much pray for those who have left the Lord’s way.
We know how much that’s the wrong way!
But now you must let them go that way.
It serves no purpose to try to cover over their direction.
It doesn’t help them, or you, to try and excuse what they are and what they do.
You have to let them go.
When a person’s will is set that way, to not do that would mean you start living that lie too.
Dear friend, no one likes to do this.
That’s why the way our text ends is so dismal.
The Lord doesn’t take delight in this.
But as they lived by the sword so they will die by the sword.
And as they belittled the Word so that same Word will hold them to account.
The judgment specified in God’s Word that they be taken into exile will come true.
The last of this chapter’s vivid similes paints it well.
Because these people are like a faulty bow.
And the last thing you would want then is a faulty bow!
For you used a bow in death-and-life situations.
It had to work – or else you were dead!
And yet this was even worse than a bow suddenly not working.
Because that bow had always been faulty.
Psalm 78 verse 57 describes this scene well: “Like their fathers they were disloyal and faithless, as unreliable as a faulty bow.”
Going to exile is the most appropriate judgment for someone who has turned his back on God.
Because they thought by chasing after the nations around them they could have acceptance.
And of course they only received rejection.
Any idea this world has peace in itself is only a lie from its father.
For, as we have heard, the devil is the father of lies.
The last sentence describes how the world around Israel laughed at what she tried to do.
How could this kingdom think she was greater than what she was?
She is only a mouse that tries to roar!
Congregation, how much hasn’t this been shown throughout church history?
At those times THEY HAVE BEEN BIRDS OF A FEATHER.
Yet at those times didn’t they get caught out together?
Oh, may it not be so for us today!
Let’s pray and let’s work that we will always be found in the Lord together!
Amen.
PRAYER:
Let’s pray…
O Great & Glorious & Gracious God,
We grieved to hear the words of the text this night.
For they could not be words of grace.
There is no hope for those people of Israel any more.
They were cast out into the darkness.
And yet there is still the light shining today.
Men and women might ye come to faith.
O Lord, do so move Your Spirit through us.
And may You also so move Your Spirit through many in this land and in this world.
Bring many to faith and so join us in praising and honouring Your Name.
For Christ’s sake we pray, Amen.
* As a matter of courtesy please advise Rev. Sjirk Bajema, if you plan to use this sermon in a worship service. Thank-you.
(c) Copyright 2008, Rev. Sjirk Bajema
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