God on Our Terms

(Hosea 4:15-19)

I. Hosea’s Context. 

A. The people had gained prosperity.

“By this time there had been peace for many years, and with it had come economic prosperity.  The land was again producing abundantly (2 Chron 26:10), and many people were becoming wealthy.  Luxuries had once more become common.  Building activity was flourishing on every hand (Hos 8:14), and this led to a widespread feeling of pride (Amos 3:15; 5:11; Isa 9:10).  Though people are pleased with conditions of this kind, seldom does prosperity lead to behavior that pleases God.” (Leon J. Wood, Ph.D.) 

B. The people had lost morality.

“Social and moral conditions developed that were wrong and degrading.  Side by side with wealth, extreme poverty existed.  Through dishonest gain and false balances, the strong took advantage of the weak (Hos 12:7; Isa 5:8; Amos 8:5-6).  Those who had wealth felt free to oppress the orphans and widows, and even to buy and sell the destitute on the public markets (Amos 8:4, 8).” (Wood) 

C. The people had idols.

“Religious conditions were no better.  Though the pagan cult of Baal. . . had been largely brought to an end (2 Kings 10:19-28), many of its offensive features continued under the guise of the calf worship at Bethel and Dan. . . . sacred prostitution, common in the fertility rites of the Baal cult, was still practiced (4:10-18).  Also, the people still built ‘high places’ and set up images and Asherah poles” (Wood)  

II. Unfaithful to God (Hosea 4:15-19).  

“Though you commit adultery, O Israel, let not Judah become guilty. Do not go to Gilgal; do not go up to Beth Aven.  And do not swear, ‘As surely as the Lord lives!’ ¹⁶ The Israelites are stubborn, like a stubborn heifer.  How then can the Lord pasture them like lambs in a meadow? ¹⁷ Ephraim is joined to idols; leave him alone! ¹⁸ Even when their drinks are gone, they continue in their prostitution; their rulers dearly love shameful ways. ¹⁹ A whirlwind will sweep them away, and their sacrifices will bring them to shame.” (Hosea 4:15-19)  

A. Spiritual adultery.  

1. Compromise: romancing other “gods.”

Israel, while in a covenant relationship with the one true God, was committing spiritual “adultery” by getting involved with other religions.  Instead of being faithful to Jehovah, who alone is truly God, Israel was consorting with false gods.  Israel had broken its vows and was adulterous.  There was an actual golden calf idol, which Israelites constructed, displayed and worshiped (8:4-6) in the city of Bethel, and one in the city of Dan.  

2. Having it all: mixing religions.

This does not mean that Israel intended to replace Jehovah God.  No, Israel wanted to keep God around, and have their new lovers too.  To have the best of all worlds, they thought they could carry on with pagan idolatry, and still acknowledge the true God (compare 8:2-3).  They thought that as long as they continued to bring sacrifice to Jehovah, He would be satisfied. But He is not.  Their affairs are no secret to God; He knows what they are doing.  As long as this is going on, whatever sacrifices they bring Him will be worthless in His sight (compare 8:13.)  

3. Missing the point: wickedness in worship.

The point of worship is to acknowledge God’s holiness and experience His glory.  One of the main elements of God’s holiness is His uniqueness: there is none like Him.  The true God is not merely another deity among many gods.  But that is what Israel is treating Him like; as if He can be worshiped alongside so-called gods in a collection of religions.  No, this is not worship, it is insult!  It makes the place of such so-called worship a house of deceit instead of a house of God.   

Thus God tells that kind of worshiper not to bother going up to Bethel.  You see the reference in 4:15 to “Beth Aven.”  This is God’s sarcasm at work.  The name “Bethel” is a compound of two words: Beth (house of) and El (Elohim, God); “house of God.”  But it is no longer accepted as such by God, who has sarcastically nicknamed it Beth (house of) Aven (wickedness or deceit).  The place no longer houses God’s presence; it is a place of religious deceit because the people’s hearts were compromised.  They treated God as less than holy.  

B. Physical adultery.  

1. Gomer and Hosea. 

In the opening of the book, God tells Hosea to marry a woman named Gomer, even though she will be unfaithful to Hosea.  This will picture God’s long-suffering love for unfaithful Israel.  Indeed, Gomer runs off and cheats on Hosea time and time again; each time, Hosea takes her back.  Thus when Hosea proclaimed to the nation God’s pain and displeasure over Israel’s unfaithfulness to God, Hosea spoke from the heart.  Although God had taken wandering Israel back time and again – as Hosea had taken back Gomer – there would be consequences for their unfaithfulness.  

2. The people’s compromise led to greater and greater sins. 

After the men and women were drunk, they were more easily seduced into sexual sin.  This is still true, of course.  Their adultery took the form of prostitution.  Possibly they crossed the border to Assyria (compare Hosea 8:9-10) to engage in pagan temple sex rituals; husbands committing adultery with temple prostitutes, and wives serving as prostitutes.  Both men and women were guilty.  Eventually, the people’s inhibitions against gross sexual sin was broken down, so that they didn’t need to be drunk before indulging themselves.  Sin works like that: what we would not have tolerated at first, gradually becomes more and more acceptable with practice.   

3. The rulers delighted in this evil. 

Instead of warning against it, they led the people in this sexual immorality, in the name of pagan gods and goddesses.  The spiritual compromise of the rulers resulted in a land filled with sin.  

C. The Consequences.  

1. They will miss God’s guidance (4:16). 

Hosea reveals the stubbornness of the people, who have been given so much and yet care so little for God’s holiness.  The lesson to everyone, then and now, is that if you want to be led to pasture – shepherded – then you must submit to God’s leadership.  The key word there is submit.  

2. They will lose God’s protection (4:17). 

God is letting them go in the dangerous direction they have stubbornly chosen.  The addition of their idols has not improved their religion, it has been their spiritual and moral downfall.  The lesson is that there is no help for one who insists on getting it from idols.  To put it another way, as long as one will not turn to the true God, there is no help for him.  Another truth that is illustrated here is that persistent sin can make repentance impossible (compare 5:4).  

3. They will suffer God’s judgment (4:19).  

It will be a hard discipline; a sudden violence which will send them into exile.  Though they have prosperity, it will end; though they have many gods, they will be useless when the trouble comes.  They will find they made worthless sacrifices: both to idols (8:5-6), and to God (5:6; 8:13). 

III. Lessons for us.  

A. Just going through the motions won’t cut it. 

Where your heart is, there your treasure is also.   The Israelites were going through the motions of worshiping God, but their heart was with their idols.  Why was their sacrifice to the true God worthless?  Because it was without true heart repentance.  And because it was treating God like He was merely one among many equals.  

B. We must never trust in prosperity. 

The Israelites were doing well economically, militarily, and socially.  Just a generation before, times were hard; but now they have forgotten the help God gave them back then.  And they have forgotten it is the one true God who was holding them up moment by moment.  In their ease, comfort and ingratitude, they felt they had the luxury of indulging themselves in the feel-good religion popular in the surrounding countries.  But their sense of security was ill-founded.  Had they kept their trust in God, they would not have had to bear the discipline to come.  

C. Are we keeping ourselves holy? 

The Christian’s life of holiness means choosing between compromise and commitment.  

1. Compromise will take you farther than you want to go. 

What sort of things are you allowing to entertain you, control you, distract you, or own you?  Are you compromising your faith?  This is where it began with the Israelites; it always begins with compromise.  

2. Commitment to living for God’s glory. 

When things were going easy, going their way, the Israelites pursued their own glory.  But we were made for the glory of God.  Whether we accept it or not, that’s our highest purpose; the only question is, is that our highest commitment?  

[Background information drawn largely from Leon J. Wood, “Hosea,” in The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, vol. 7 (Zondervan).]