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HOSEA 13:1-16
(Reading: 1 Corinthians 15:35-58)
The God Who Will Triumph
Congregation in our Loes Jesus Christ...
It may seem the most incongruous of titles I have chosen for this thirteenth chapter of Hosea’s prophetic book.
The idea of God triumphing, or being victorious in any way at all, seems the furtherest thing from what’s happening here.
Isn’t this really God punishing here?
Surely that’s what this is all about!
God winning here just doesn’t seem to gel.
If anything, isn’t He rather upset at what He’s lost because of these Israelites?
Considering the previous two chapters, though, this theme of God’s triumph makes a lot of sense.
With realising that most amazing picture of God’s love in chapter 11, and His clear direction through what is happening in chapter 12, the flow is unstoppable as Hosea draws out the way towards the most glorious end.
Looking carefully we can see this theme even when so many of these verses appear to tell of the Lord’s loss.
There is here the thought of the most decisive conquest in this.
And it’s all there in verse 14.
That’s the one verse that says it all.
And while it’s the verse that seems so out of line with all the other verses around it in this chapter, they are the words that tie it all together!
So let’s see, congregation, that this is the God who will triumph.
Though the battle is bitter and the war is long, He is drawing out through human history the purpose He always planned for His own.
We note this first of all this afternoon in the verses 1 till 3.
For it is here THE LORD DESCRIBES THE WAY ISRAEL’S GONE.
Now at first this might seem a recap of what’s come up before.
We are more than aware through what Hosea’s previously said of the devastating vortex that worshipping the Canaanite gods brought the northern kingdom into.
They had such a brilliant start.
The nations around them feared them when they came to the promised land.
Under the anointed leaders the Lord gave them they became a great empire.
But already during the reign of the mighty and wise King Solomon the seeds of destruction were planted.
He allowed the worship of these pagan religions.
That only got a lot worse under the first king of the Northern Kingdom, Jeroboam I.
While they had had the odd good patch, you certainly couldn’t say no one was scared of them now.
And you couldn’t blame this on power changes internationally or divisions within the nation.
This was not yet another change in the political tide.
It wasn’t a change on the outside at all – it was a change on the inside!
For in their hearts the people had gone from the Lord to Baal.
Verse 1 clearly identifies this point as the time the northern kingdom, Ephraim, died.
And in so doing Hosea confirms what was already stated back in verse 8 of chapter 8.
For there he declared, “Israel is swallowed up; now she is among the nations as a worthless thing.”
This change in the people continued despite the ongoing punishment of the Lord.
There was no way they could say they weren’t warned about the wrong they were doing.
But they kept right on in their idiocy – and then some more.
For not only do they put that much more effort into the design and construction of these idols they even have human sacrifices!
The human sacrifice most likely refers to the offering up of babies in the worship of Moloch, as King Manasseh of Judah was later to do.
But whatever the case it’s a disgusting picture.
A scene Hosea paints in its darkest possible shade with ending verse 2 stating they kiss the calf-idols!
There can only be one possible response from the Lord for such outright and persistent disobedience.
He who had called and set apart these people to be His very own, and had given them everything to be His witness amongst the nations, would now clearly punish them.
Verse 3 by starting with “Therefore” has the typical introduction for a judgment section of a prophet.
And the similes used couldn’t have made it clearer what that punishment would be.
The morning mist, the early dew, the swirling chaff, and the smoke are all gone in an instant!
Just like will happen to Israel!
You see, a nation is nothing apart from its morals and its character.
They have no roots, it’s all only skin deep.
No matter what they might have regretted over the years, it brought no abiding change.
It was all about me, and mine.
Selfishness was enthroned.
They were hell-bent alright!
Rings a bell, congregation?
We are in such an age now.
And how soon won’t the views and news of this era be consigned to the sands of history?
In just a few years global warming will be as much of a joke as communism is now!
Because just like communism it is all about what mankind can do to save itself.
And it simply cannot do any such thing!
It’s interesting that the judgment spoken elsewhere in Scripture in regards to individual sinners and the enemies of God here is applied to God’s people.
Because they are here definitely not His people!
And so it is we come to a second aspect in connection with the text this afternoon.
For in the verses 4 till 8 we see THE LORD TURNS FROM DELIVERER TO DESTROYER.
Well, we can definitely see the reference to the Lord as the deliverer in the verses 4 till 6.
Again the preface to the Decalogue is quoted.
So God’s purpose for them that He proclaimed through Moses in the wilderness is proclaimed here.
“I am the LORD your God who brought you out of Egypt.”
And there appears an explanatory note to this.
For the rest of verse 4 says, “You shall acknowledge no God but me, no Saviour except me.”
The prophet tries to hammer home to Israel the exclusive and saving nature of their God.
It was He who rescued them out of Egypt.
No other god was involved in that – in fact no other god could do anything like that, because they were not gods anyway!
The Lord God did that – the God of the Covenant.
He who is also the jealous God.
And let’s understand this jealousy the right way.
This is the most passionate concern for what’s precious to Him.
A love not coloured by envy, hatred and nastiness.
And neither is there anything irrational or despotic about what He does.
He is not a divine kill-joy eager to jump on the least indiscretion from His people.
In fact, you only need to read the rest of this book to see how He only comes to this point after so much pleading and patience and time has passed.
Chapter 11 expressed His love for them in the deepest possible way.
He always desired that His judgment on Israel would bring them to their senses.
We see this further as not only does He deliver them, He has also continued to look after them.
Verses 5 and 6 bring this out.
There the Lord says, “I cared for you in the desert, in the land of the burning heat.
“When I fed them they were satisfied…”
But then the rot sets in.
In the midst of the Lord’s most patent blessing there was a cursing.
The evil one has his way with them.
As verse 6 continues, “when they were satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me.”
Now, I’m sure none of you husbands would want to forget your anniversary – and certainly not the wife’s birthday!
And for good reason too!
Because it’s by remembering those events that you affirm the value of your relationship to them.
No excuses, gentlemen!
And neither had Israel any excuse for their forgetting the Lord.
Thus it is that verses 7 and 8 describe the only way out.
“So I will come upon them like a lion, like a leopard I will lurk by the path.
“Like a bear robbed of her cubs, I will attack them and rip them open.
“Like a lion I will devour them; a wild animal will tear them apart.”
THE LORD TURNS FROM DELIVERER TO DESTROYER alright!
And there could be no better description of how dire this judgment is.
A lion or a leopard attacking makes for a gory end.
A bear robbed of her cubs is no joy!
And it’s this punishment which exposes how helpless Israel now is.
If God comes to destroy His people there’s no one to protect them.
The most terrible end is inevitable!
And so we come to verse 9.
This is clear about this: “You are destroyed, O Israel, because you are against me, against your helper.”
Congregation, we have come to the third aspect in this text.
For now we come to see THE LORD EXPOSES THE FOOLISHNESS WITHIN.
This takes in the verses 9 till 13.
Because here it’s brought out whom they had put their hope in.
And even more than that, why they had put their hope in those men.
Because that’s all their kings were – only men.
But they had never acknowledged that.
While having kings over them had never been outside of God’s plan for them they had turned to those kings for a different reason than God’s.
Do you remember the story about when the Israelites were all clamouring for a king?
They were unhappy with Samuel’s sons; they wanted to be just like the other nations; and they wanted a hero they could call their own.
So while the Lord had set down guidelines for kingship in Deuteronomy, first up he gave them a king after their own hearts.
Saul was strong and tall and, at first, a hero.
But he proved to be just like the rest of them.
He ended up seeking out the gods of the land.
And so that was the end of him.
An end Israel had seen with many more kings since then.
They were nothing like they wanted them to be.
And that was all because they didn’t become the kings the Lord had laid down for them to be.
For Deuteronomy 17 had made it clear the godly king would be the one who doesn’t depend on horse and chariots or on deals with worldly powers.
And that king certainly wouldn’t be the one to have many wives, because that would lead his heart astray.
Not would he accumulate much wealth.
But he would know God’s Law, because he would have written it out in full himself!
And he would continuously be reading the Law so that he would revere the Lord his God and follow those decrees.
How far this was from the vast majority of the kings Israel had had!
There were only one or two amongst them who came anywhere near to that standard!
If the time Hosea is speaking these words is at the end of the northern kingdom’s existence, the kings showed the truth of verses 10 and 11.
Of the last seven kings of Israel one was afflicted with leprosy, four were assassinated, and the last taken into exile with many of his countrymen.
Only one died in his own bed.
So a very unimpressive bunch.
But in this they were only showing the true condition and judgment of the whole nation.
As verse 12 says, “The guilt of Ephraim is stored up, and in my wrath I took him away.”
The description of the foolishness within is expressed even more vividly in verse 13.
There the picture is drawn of a woman in childbirth.
In this scene, though, the natural process doesn’t work.
While the baby goes full-term when it comes time for delivery it doesn’t go right!
In fact, the most important stage of all goes terrible wrong!
It’s a devastating metaphor.
And it’s one that is used not long after this by the king of the southern kingdom.
His name was Hezekiah.
He says it in 2nd Kings 19 verse 3 when the same Assyrian king who wiped out Israel looks like he’ll do the same to Judah.
There he says, “This day is a day of distress and rebuke and disgrace, as when children come to the point of birth and there is no strength to deliver them.”
But Hezekiah did not say this in a situation of utter despair.
Rather, he was looking pleadingly to the Lord.
He was praying that he might be answered by a miracle.
And how much different that was than the kings up north.
They had no leader with character like that and definitely not with faith like that!
And this brings us to the fourth aspect of the text this afternoon.
For now we hear that THE LORD APPLIES THE INEVITABLE END.
We are going to see that there can be no quarter spared now for Samaria.
She has doomed herself long ago to complete destruction and now the sword must fall.
The last two verses make that devastatingly clear.
It is here obvious what is about to happen.
But first there is verse 14.
You will remember how I raised those words earlier on.
Because it’s those words that make it clear this chapter is not ultimately about God’s punishment but about His triumph.
There’s a great victory here.
Yet reading many commentators you would think it’s the opposite!
One of them translates this verse this way: “Shall I redeem them from the power of Sheol?
“Shall I redeem them from Death?
“O Death, where are your plagues?
“O Sheol, where is your destruction?
“Compassion is hid from my eyes.”
Quite different, isn’t it?
For they say that Sheol and Death are the foreign forces and plagues and destruction are its weapons.
They take it to mean the end of Israel being stated in the clearest terms.
But is this about the last nail in Israel’s coffin?
That’s definitely not how the apostle Paul understands these words.
In fact, 1st Corinthians 15 and the older versions as far back as the pre-Christian Septuagint, takes this as a great affirmation – one of the greatest in the whole Bible.
Grammatically this hinges on whether or not there are questions marks in the original Hebrew.
And there isn’t.
It’s simply a plain statement.
That’s not to say the context may tell us that there should be a question mark there when otherwise it’s not indicated.
But the fact that this statement suddenly pops out the way it does actually agrees with a number of other occasions we’ve already seen in the book of Hosea.
Derek Kidner notes, “one of the outstanding features of this book is its sudden changes of tone from the sternest of threats to the warmest of resolves.”
He gives examples of this from chapter 11 verse 8 and chapter 1 verses 9 and 10.
So verse 14 has every justification for being as it is in our Bibles.
Well might we think that this situation reflects badly on God, what with His people turning against Him and about to be utterly destroyed for it, but it doesn’t change one iota what the Lord is going to do for His true people.
Paul’s words in 1st Corinthians 15:55 ring this out.
For he quotes this verse, saying, “Where, O death, is your victory?
“Where, O death, is your sting?”
Then the apostle declares the great victory through Jesus Christ.
And wasn’t it Jesus Himself who declares in Mark 10:45 that his life was given as a ransom for many?
But that mercy of the Lord’s isn’t for the people of Israel then.
Verses 15 and 16 speak of the sudden and violent destruction that will come upon them.
So sudden the picture of the east wind is used.
While the nation of Israel was more fertile than Judah to her south, it took only one severe natural disaster to take that all away.
And such a disaster was the east wind which was the powerful wind that blew in from the desert region.
Like a northerly in Victoria, or a westerly in New South Wales, this is the dry and hot wind that drives everyone into air-conditioned comfort!
And it’s also the powerful blast that rips up crops and spreads fires.
It’s a terrible disaster because especially for Israel then it took away their harvest.
That’s the storehouse being plundered at the end of verse 15.
Then there’s the violent destruction.
Verse 16 throws up the devastation that will come through Assyria.
The Assyria infamously known for its cruelty in war.
Its greatness meant it also carried out worse atrocities.
The butchery of verse 16 has been referred to before in Hosea.
Chapter 10 verse 14 spoke of it.
And it’s certainly mentioned by the other prophets.
While Hosea is in a section in his prophecy when there’s the most positive work of the Lord being conveyed he’s not going to turn down the severity of what’s about to happen.
The people must know what they’re bringing upon themselves!
And it was all their own fault!
And, yet, while this meant the end of all their hopes and dreams, it isn’t the last word from the Lord.
He’s still working out everything for His people.
It’s just that His people aren’t always from a certain ethnic group or are known by a certain name.
One lady in a church struggling with liberalism said to a conservative minister, “Oh, the Lord will keep the Reformed Churches.”
To which that minister replied, “Oh, I have no doubts the Lord will keep His Church.
“It might not always be called Reformed though!”
Congregation, this is THE GOD WHO WILL TRIUMPH.
He does it in His time and in His way.
And to that what can we say?
Amen.
PRAYER:
Let’s pray…
Lord God, You remind us again that in Your hands are all things.
You are working out everything.
And especially you are delivering and guiding the Church of Jesus Christ.
The ones Your Son has died for are the ones you planned this time for.
So we thank You that however desperate human history at times may have appeared, You were always there.
And now we are here, worshipping and serving You.
May we be even more stirred to do what You love us to do.
In Jesus’ saving and sanctifying Name 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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