Faithful God (Part Nine): In Judgment and in Hope

Transcript

JROT 9
2/5/2023
Faithful God (Part Nine): In Judgment and in Hope
Hosea 6:1-11
Jesse Randolph

Well, last Sunday evening after many weeks off we resumed our series “Faithful God,” this study of the book of Hosea. And Hosea, as we’ve seen is a prophetic work which the God of Israel, Yahweh, gave to his servant, the prophet Hosea, to give to the northern tribes of Israel, also known as Ephraim, in the middle of the 8th century B.C. And because it had been some time, last week, since we had prior been in this book -- last week I gave you the really extensive overview at the front end of where we had been in the first four chapters of our study. And then we went through Hosea 5 last week.

Well, tonight as we come upon Hosea 6 I’m not going to give you the same full five-chapter onramp leading up to our text for this evening. But so that we will have some context for where we’re going to go tonight in Hosea 6 I do want to go through a very brief review of at least Hosea 5, the text we studied last week, as a lead-in to where we will be tonight in Hosea 6.

So, in Hosea 5 which we looked at last week we saw that it was this continuation of the courtroom scene that was first initiated by God all the way back in Hosea 4. In Hosea 4, we saw that the Lord was stating his case against His original covenant people, Israel. Hosea 4:1, you can look at it with me, says “Listen to the word of the Lord, O sons of Israel, for the Lord has a case against the inhabitants of the land, because there is no faithfulness or kindness or knowledge of God in the land.” Now when we get to Hosea 5, where we were last week, we’re still in the courtroom scene. We’re still, so to speak, listening in at the bar of God’s justice.

But in Hosea 5, rather than stating His case and issuing His charges, God is now rendering His verdict. He’s announcing His judgment on faithless Israel as she prepares to face the smiting rod of her Assyrian invaders. As she prepares to be defeated and captured and taken into captivity for her unfaithful and wayward ways. And how I broke up the fifteen verses of Hosea 5 last week in our sermon titled “The Lord Announces His Verdict,” I broke it up this way. First, verses 1-3 were “Yahweh’s Firm Verdict.” And in those verses you might remember, God is referring to Israel as “revolters” who had “gone deep in depravity.” The nation of Israel, He said, had “played the harlot.” She “defiled itself” and as a result, God says, “I will chastise all of them.”

Then when we got to verses 4-6 the heading there was “Israel’s Futile Response.” In those verses we saw that rather than returning to Yahweh in humble and contrite and repentant faith, Israel offered God her “deeds,” her “sacrifices.” And Yahweh replied firmly saying, “Their deeds will not allow them to return to their God. For a spirit of harlotry is within them, and they do not know the Lord.” He went on to say, “They will go with their flocks and herds to seek the Lord, but they will not find Him; He has withdrawn from them.”

Then still in chapter 5, verses 7-11, then we saw our third heading which was Israel’s Future Judgment. On account of their spiritual harlotry, on account of their empty response to being found out for their sin, Yahweh was now bringing judgment on Israel in the form of these external invaders, the Assyrians, who had been appointed by, and would cause, God’s perfect justice to be meted out. We saw that judgment that was coming on the land and through this judgment the land would be devoured and the cities of the land would be destroyed. It is in this section that we see these words, “Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgment, because he was determined to follow man’s command.” But the judgment was not going to be reserved only for the northern tribes of Israel. The sin and the wickedness of the land was so prevalent and profound that we saw that judgment would sweep south to Judah as well.

Then in verses 12-14 we saw “Yahweh’s Fury Unveiled” where Yahweh’s judgment on Israel is first described as more slow-moving and invasive where He calls Himself a moth. “I am like a moth to Ephraim,” He says, “and like rottenness to the house of Judah.” But then it would worsen, the judgment would, the judgment would worsen and accelerate. Which we see pictured in these very violent terms where Yahweh is pictured as a lion going after its prey. “For I will be like a lion to Ephraim and like a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will tear to pieces and go away, I will carry away, and there will be none to deliver.”

And then last, in verse 15, we saw our fifth heading, Israel’s Faith Predicted. And continuing on with His lion comparison, God in this last verse of chapter 5 said, “I will go away and return to My place until they acknowledge their guilt and seek My face; in their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.”

So, quite the series of events recorded here in last week’s chapter, Hosea 5. And as you read it, and as we went through it, you sense the push and the pull and the ups and the downs of this relationship between Israel and her God. He’s given this nation chance after chance but at some point enough is enough and the divine hammer of justice needs to fall. This nation has been unfaithful and she’s teetering on being taken into exile. But even with that, with all that happening, there’s still this ray of hope poking through the dark, gathering clouds of God’s imminent judgment. That’s the end of verse 15. This is the ray of hope. “In their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.” Now that day didn’t yet happen in Hosea’s day, that day of earnestly seeking Him. And I don’t believe that day has happened right up to the present day. Rather, that day, the day on which Israel will “earnestly seek” her God is, from where we sit, a yet-future day, a day that is coming, meaning a prophecy which has yet to be fulfilled.

Which brings us to our text for this evening, Hosea 6. The title of this evening’s message is “In Judgment and in Hope.” “In Judgment and in Hope.” As His people, His covenant people, God was not done with them. He wasn’t done with Israel. And even today, God is not done with His people, Israel, based on the promises He made to Abraham all the way back in the book of Genesis. And based on His character as an ever-faithful covenant-keeping God, God is going to follow through on each and every one of His original promises to Israel, the “apple of His eye.” Just as Hosea was going to remain faithful to his bride, wayward Gomer, in sickness and in health, Yahweh was going to, and is going to, remain faithful to Israel in judgment and in hope.
And that’s what we’re going to see in our text for this evening, judgment and hope. It will actually be the other way around though. First we’re going to encounter words of hope and then we’re encounter words of judgment which is very consistent with what we see in the book of Hosea as a whole, where there are these repeated cycles of judgment and hope, and judgment and hope, happening all the way really, through Hosea 11.

So let’s read the text as a whole first before we work through it line-upon-line, verse-upon verse. Hosea 6, God’s Word reads. “Come, let us return to the Lord. For He has torn us, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bandage us. He will revive us after two days; He will raise us up on the third day, that we may live before Him. So let us know, let us press on to know the Lord. His going forth is as certain as the dawn; and He will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain watering the earth.”

“What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? For your loyalty is like a morning cloud and like the dew which goes away early. Therefore, I have hewn them in pieces by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of My mouth; and the judgments on you are like the light that goes forth. For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, and in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. But like Adam they have transgressed the covenant; there they have dealt treacherously against Me. Gilead is a city of wrongdoers, tracked with bloody footprints. And as raiders wait for a man, so a band of priests murder on the way to Shechem; surely they have committed crime. In the house of Israel, I have seen a horrible thing; Ephraim’s harlotry is there, Israel has defiled itself. Also, O Judah, there is a harvest appointed for you, when I restore the fortunes of My people.”

Now, there are two major divisions in this text which are really marked out by the two parties speaking here. In verses 1-3, it’s Israel personified and speaking here as a nation. And then in verses 4-11, God now is speaking to Israel, who He calls Ephraim, and by extension He’s addressing Judah. And our two points for tonight are going to follow along with who is doing the speaking. So for point one, in Hosea 6:1-3, we’re going to see “Israel’s Future Return to the Lord.” And then in point two, verses 4-11 we’re going to see “Yahweh’s Present Hostility Toward Israel.” Now that may seem at first glance, to be somewhat backward. You’d expect maybe that God would be angry and resentful first and then you’d expect to hear of Israel being remorseful and repentant as she returns to her God. Sort of like in the days of the judges, but we have to remember that Hosea is a prophetic work. It’s not prose. It’s not narrative. Hosea’s writings don’t always progress in a very straight line from beginning to end. But like many of the prophets of the Old Testament, Hosea was writing here as he was given revelation directly from God. And God was sometimes giving Hosea revelation about something that was happening then in present-day Israel. And the He was sometimes giving Hosea revelation about things that would happen in the next decade or two. And then He would sometimes give revelation to Hosea about things that would happen thousands of years from Hosea’s time.

The best way I’ve heard Old Testament prophecy described is to think of the prophet, the Old Testament prophet, as being this person who is looking out at a range of mountain peaks in the distance. (Great illustration in California and in Colorado. Maybe not a great illustration in Nebraska.) But from a distance to the naked eye the mountain peaks look like they are in this straight line. And maybe they have some ridges like this [hands move up and down], but otherwise they look like this large and contiguous mass. But upon further observation and the closer you get, you see that the mountain peaks are bit offset. Some are actually closer than others and some are further than others and there aren’t just ridges but actually entire valleys which separate the various mountain peaks. That’s what we have here in Hosea. He is taking down here what is being revealed to Him by Yahweh and some of it is near in time to Hosea, some of it is far in time,
and some of it is very far out in time. And it’s our job as diligent students of God’s Word to sift through it all, as we seek to understand which time frame Hosea is referring to in any specific verse so that we can mine out from the text something about the character of God and the promises of God which will always benefit us today as Christians. So with that we get back to our text and work through it verse by verse now.

And again, the first heading for this evening’s sermon is “Israel’s Future Return to the Lord.” Look at verse 1, he says, “Come let us return to the Lord. For He has torn us, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bandage us.” Now, this call to return to the Lord is one of the central messages of the book of Hosea. You could jot down Hosea 2:7 where he says “She will pursue her lovers, but she will not overtake them; and she will seek them, but will not find them. Then she will say, ‘I will go back to my first husband,” speaking of Gomer there. Or Hosea 3:5 “Afterward the sons of Israel will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king; and they will come trembling to the Lord and to His goodness in the last days.” And then we have here our passage Hosea 6:1, “Come let us return to the Lord. For He has torn us, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bandage us.” Now, we can’t ignore what Hosea 6:1 immediately follows. It immediately follows Hosea 5:15, which says that Yahweh was going to depart and even hide His face and He was going to hide His face until when? Look at the second part of Hosea 5:15, “Until they acknowledge their guilt and seek My face; in their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.” When is that day? When is that day on which Israel acknowledges their guilt and seeks God’s face? When is that day on which in their affliction they will earnestly seek Him? When is that day upon which Israel says “Come, let us return to the Lord”? Has that day already happened? Most definitely not. Read deeper into the Old Testament. Read deeper into the New Testament. Read deeper into the intertestamental literature. Read the news today. And you’ll find very quickly that Israel most certainly has not acknowledged her guilt and sought His face. No, the time referent here in Hosea 6:1 is future and a specific point in the future. After the Rapture. After the Tribulation period and when the Lord returns to earth at His Second Coming and ushers in His Millennial Reign. This is the day on which Israel, Zechariah 12:10 will “look upon Him [Me] whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him.” This is the day on which Yahweh, Isaiah 43:6 will “bring His [My] sons from afar and His daughters from the ends of the earth.” This is the day that Hosea mentioned earlier in Hosea 3:5 on which Israel “will come trembling to the Lord and to His goodness.”

In other words, millennia separate what Yahweh says at the beginning of Hosea 5:15 where He says, “I will go away and return to My place” and what He says next, “until they acknowledge their guilt and seek My face; in their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.” And millennia between what He says at the beginning of 5:15, “I will go away and return to My place” and what Israel says in Hosea 6:1 “Come let us return to the Lord.”

Now surely Hosea would have loved to see the Israel of his day cry out in repentance as they returned to the Lord. But he didn’t live to see it. That day won’t come. And those words won’t be uttered by Israel until the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, the One that they would later reject, the One they would later pierce, sets His foot on the Mount of Olives at His second coming, Zechariah 14:4, and ushers in His 1,000-year reign here on earth. In those days, as the end of verse 1 indicates, those who have been torn will be healed. And those who have been wounded will be bandaged.

Alright, well, we’ve established that the orientation of these first few verses is future. In other words, Hosea, as he is taking down these words, this prophetic word from God, as he is looking at this mountain range in front of him, is actually looking at mountain peaks that are still quite a way off. And as he does so he gives us these words next in verse 2. It says, “He will revive us after two days; He will raise us up on the third day, that we may live before Him.” Now, Sunday evening crowd, I’m sure you can imagine the temptation and the trap that many have fallen into. Particularly those who are more fast and loose and allegorical with their hermeneutics in suggesting that Hosea here writing around 750 B.C. is speaking of the resurrection of Jesus Christ when he mentions us being “raised up on the third day.” And if you’re worried about that type of hermeneutic, you are right to be worried about that type of hermeneutic because many have fallen into this trap. Several church fathers including Tertullian, Origen, and Cyprian were open in their beliefs that Hosea was writing about the resurrection of Christ here. Well-known commentators like Matthew Henry took the same position.

Now as brilliant as those men were in various respects, they were wrong on that one. The language of Hosea 6:2, “He will revive us after two days; He will raise us up on the third day,” that is not referring to the resurrection of Christ. It says “He,” meaning God, “He will revive us after two days.” And then it says “He,” meaning God “will raise us up on the third day.” Who is “us” there? Is the “us” Christ? No, the “us” isn’t Christ. Christ isn’t an “us.” Christ is a “He.” He is the Second Person of the Trinity, the eternal God the Son, the God-Man. So He can’t, Christ can’t be “us.” Christ is He. So if the “us” isn’t Christ, who is it? Is it “us” as Christians? Is Hosea writing to the church? No! Hosea was a prophet to Israel. He wouldn’t have known what the church is or what a church is. What He knew and who He knew as being “the people of God” was Israel.

So the “us” here is Israel. “He will revive us,” Israel, after two days. “He will raise us up,” Israel, on the third day. These references to “two days” and “the third day” are referring to the quickness and the healing and restoration that would come to Israel on a future day. Though torn, though wounded, they would one day be revived and raised up. And there is a future day coming, is there not, on which all of Israel will be saved? That’s Romans 11:25-27 where Paul says, “For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery—so that you will not be wise in your own estimation—that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in;” still yet future, “and so all Israel will be saved” at that point. That didn’t happen in the past. That hasn’t happened in our day. This again, comes at the end of the Tribulation in connection with Christ’s ushering in of His millennial reign following His return to this earth. But we also know that in the future, there is going to be this national regathering. This gathering, regathering, of dispersed Israel and this national resurrection of Israel as they’re brought back together spiritually and restored as national Israel as we all move forward into the eschaton.

Turn with me to Ezekiel 37. Ezekiel 37, right around the middle of your bibles you’ll find Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel. Ezekiel 37, I’m going to read starting in verse 1 and hopefully you’re going to see where I am headed with this as I’m trying to put the pieces together here for you from Hosea. Ezekiel 37:1 says, “The hand of the LORD was upon me, and He brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of the valley, and it was full of bones. He caused me to pass among them round about, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley; and lo, they were very dry. He said to me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’ And I answered, ‘O Lord God, You know.’ Again, He said to me, ‘Prophesy over these bones and say to them, “O dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.” Thus says the Lord God to these bones, ‘Behold, I will cause breath to enter you that you may come to life. I will put sinews on you, make flesh grow back on you, cover you with skin and put breath in you that you may come alive; and you will know that I am the Lord.’ ” So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a rattling; and the bones came together bone to its bone. And I looked, and behold, sinews were on them, and flesh grew and skin covered them; but there was no breath in them. Then He said to me, ‘Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, “Thus says the Lord God, ‘Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may come to life”.’ So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they came to life and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army.”

Now this is the vision the prophet Ezekiel receives from Yahweh and what we have described here is these bones reattaching and flesh reattaching and life restarting. And, of course, in our day, we read this and immediately think this is something out of a sci-fi movie or horror film, some bizarre zombie graveyard. But as we read on in Ezekiel’s prophecy we see that the words he received from Yahweh had specific meaning. And I believe they are of specific relevance to Hosea.

Look at verses 11-14, “Then He said to me, ‘Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel; behold, they say, “Our bones are dried up and our hope has perished. We are completely cut off.” Therefore prophesy and say to them, “Thus says the Lord God, ‘Behold, I will open your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves, My people; and I will bring you into the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves and caused you to come up out of your graves, My people. I will put My Spirit within you and you will come to life, and I will place you on your own land. Then you will know that I, the LORD, have spoken and done it,’ declares the Lord.” ’ ” The event described here in Ezekiel’s prophecy -- that the raising up of these dry bones is what I take to be what’s being described here in Hosea 6:2, this future day of healing and restoration, this future day of national resurrection and regathering which Israel is going to experience after the return of her Messiah to this earth. Hosea 6:2 says “He will revive us… He will raise us up.” Though torn and wounded, though dead and lifeless, though dusty and dry bones, Ezekiel’s prophecy and Hosea’s prophecy are going to come to literal fulfillment as Israel experiences this resurrection and this spiritual regeneration. Is not that the context of Ezekiel 36:26 in the first place where He says, “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh,” talking to Israel. “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. You will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers;” try to spiritualize that one, “so you will be My people, and I will be your God.” And bringing it back to Hosea 6:2 here, look at the last few words of that verse. All of this will occur, it says “that we may live before Him.” Israel had departed from Him through their wayward ways, and He had withdrawn from them, as we saw last week in Hosea 5. But on this future day, it says, they would “live before Him.” Which brings to mind Psalm 16:11, “In your presence there is fullness of joy.”

Now, the bright and optimistic outlook for Israel’s future continues on into verse 3. It says, “So let us know, let us press on to know the Lord. His going forth is as certain as the dawn; and He will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain watering the earth.” You see the emphasis there on knowing God. It’s picked up in the repeated use of the word “know.” “So let us know, let us press on to know the Lord.” You know, as is true of this idea of returning to Yahweh being a theme in Hosea, there’s also this theme of pursuing true knowledge of Yahweh. It’s central to Hosea’s message. Hosea 2:20, “And I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness, then you will know the Lord.” Hosea 4:1, “Listen to the word of the Lord, O sons of Israel, for the Lord has a case against the inhabitants of the land, because there is no faithfulness or kindness or knowledge of God in the land.” Or Hosea 4:6, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being My priest.” Or Hosea 5:4, “Their deeds will not allow them to return to their God. For a spirit of harlotry is within them, and they do not know the Lord.”

So what do we learn from verse 3? That in this future day Israel will be resolved in acknowledging the Lord’s authority. The word there for “press on” where it says “let us press on to know the Lord” literally means to pursue or chase, which describes the seriousness and the diligence and the zeal with which they will one day pursue the Lord. This is describing the intensity of future Israel’s newfound devotion and Israel’s new spiritual vitality and earnestness as she seeks after her God. And look at the rest of verse 3. It says, “His going forth is as certain as the dawn.” Meaning the Lord’s future revival of Israel is as certain as the divine decree back in Genesis 8, back in the beginning, that the day would follow the night. And then this, “and He will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain watering the earth.” That’s quite the shift because back in Hosea 5:10 last week you might recall, Yahweh said “On them I will pour out My wrath like water.” He was going to pour out His wrath in Hosea’s day. But here, in Hosea 6:3, as He looks toward the future, it says, “He will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain watering the earth.” Same God, same actor, behind the precipitation falling on the earth. But speaking to different eras and different groups of Israelites and for different purposes. Now here in Hosea 6:3, what is being described are the future blessings which Yahweh will pour out on His people. As the winter and spring rains water the earth and assure agricultural prosperity, so God will bless and prosper His people, Israel, on the day they return to Him and seek to know Him.

Well, the first three verses of Hosea 6 here, they paint this very rosy and futuristic picture. There’s this returning and healing and reviving and knowing and blessing but this is where context and carefully tracking what’s happening here is so important. Not only when we’re reading through a prophetic work like Hosea but when we’re reading through any book of the Bible. See, there’s a very real tendency among modern churches, and the modern Christians who make up those modern churches, to so breezily read through the Scriptures and do their daily devotions that they can fail to pick up on the distinctions and the nuances that are right here in the text. For instance, the fact that the church is not Israel, and vice versa. Or for instance, the fact that we are to read the Scriptures progressively forward, consistently, and historically, not backwards, through our 21st century Christian goggles. Or the fact that Jesus is actually not on every page of Scripture. Or the fact that the eschatological promises made either to Israel or to the church are just that – eschatological. Meaning they aren’t going to necessarily be fulfilled in our day, in our lives. So it is, with what we’ve just covered in these first few verses of Hosea 6. Are there aspects of the character of God that we can glean from these passages today about Israel’s future hope? Sure. But are we Israel, and can we, as Christians, claim to be heirs of Israel’s future hope? No. I’ll save my series on the perils of replacement theology for another day.

We need to move on and move into our second heading, “Yahweh’s Present Hostility Toward Israel.” So in verses 1-3 we’ve heard how bright the hope of Israel is and then all of a sudden, we’re jolted right back into Hosea’s present day. We’re back in the era of apostasy and spiritual adultery and religious whoredom. We’re back to being in the midst of this stiff-necked and rebellious people who were about to be conquered and taken into exile. And we’re back to encountering Yahweh’s words of divine displeasure toward Israel. Look at verse 4, he says, “What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? For your loyalty is like a morning cloud and like the dew which goes away early.” Let’s start with those first two questions. “What shall I do with you, Ephraim? What shall I do with you, Judah?” You know, every parent that’s had a disobedient child or a wayward child or just boneheaded child knows exactly what is being expressed here. What am I supposed to do with you? You know, you can sense the exasperation in the tone here. I’ve given you opportunity after opportunity, Israel. I’ve given you warning after warning, I’ve been patient with you, I’ve been longsuffering with you. I’ve not wiped you off the face of the earth, though I could. But you continue to drift and you continue to forget and you fail to heed. And you’ve forgotten Me. And you’ve disobeyed and you’ve outright sinned against the living God. And then we have Him ask the questions “What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah?” Now, this is not God here asking, when He says, “What shall I do with you,” if Israel would like to prescribe its own punishment. You know, just as a parent, when they’re asking their child something like this, “what shall I do with you so and so” is not asking their child to weigh in on the consequence. No, what’s being brought out here is Yahweh’s despair and frustration and righteous anger toward Israel. This is a frustration and an anger that had been brought about by Israel’s chronic pattern of resisting God and His commands. And this is a frustration and an anger that had been brought about by Israel’s guilt and ingratitude.

And to highlight just how disloyal Israel had been Hosea brings in this imagery in verse 4 of the morning cloud and dew. He says, “For your loyalty is like a morning cloud and like the dew which goes away early.” Both of these pictures express something that has fleeting beauty when it’s there only to prove later that it has no substance, like a morning cloud. Like the California marine layer. It provides a bit of coolness and protection on an early summer morning but after a few hours it’s burned off and its gone. It’s no longer providing shelter or relief to anybody. Or dew, dew provides a thin veneer of moisture on a plot of grass or in a plant bed but it doesn’t last. A few warm sunrays beat down on it and it eventually evaporates or goes away. So it was with the loyalty of the people of Israel toward Yahweh. While He was, and continued to be, persistently faithful toward them, whatever faithfulness they returned to Him was always fleeting. Whatever faithfulness Israel did muster up would always gradually evaporate and dissolve like the morning cloud” or like dew, proving that Israel was not faithful at all.

And we see these patterns over and over in the Old Testament. Israel’s grumbling during their years of wilderness wandering. The patterns they demonstrated during the days of the Judges. The patterns of the people in the days of the unified kingdom with Saul, David, and Solomon. The patterns of the people during the divided kingdom when Hosea lived. Throughout the centuries leading up to Hosea’s day Israel had proven itself to be a hard-hearted, stiff-necked, and rebellious people. And it showed whenever they were put to the test. Whatever faith they said they had, up to this point, was temporary and transitory. It was fleeting like a morning cloud, like the dew.

And because of that, because of Israel’s commitment, or lack of commitment, because her commitment was so fleeting and superficial God had to send to them many prophets who over the centuries delivered many words of warning and threats of judgment to the people. That’s what is being said here in verse 5. He says, “Therefore I have hewn them in pieces by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of My mouth; and the judgments on you are like the light that goes forth.” Now we know, as Christians, that the written Scriptures, revealed to us in both the Old and New Testaments, are “living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword,” Hebrews 4:12. Well, long before we had a full, 66-book, canonical Scripture, the prophets of the Old Testament were carving up their audiences with their words and slaying them with their prophecies. I don’t have time to go through a bunch I was going to read off to you but you just do a little survey of the minor prophets some time this week and you’ll see the prophets absolutely filleting the people that they were called to minister to. And they not only heard from certain minor prophets, they heard from Hosea himself.

So turning to verse 6 He says, “For I delight in loyalty rather than sacrifice, and in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” This is almost a direct refutation of Hosea 5:6. You might recall back in Hosea 5:6 after having the verdict of judgment read against them it was recorded there that the people would go with their flocks and their herds to seek the Lord. And in that context what follows next were these words “but they will not find Him; He has withdrawn from them.” Here in Hosea 6:6 we’re given direct color commentary on how God viewed their sacrifices. Again, look at verse 6, 6:6. “For I delight tin loyalty rather than sacrifice, and in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” See, God has always desired from His people heart-level faith, like Abraham, like we saw this morning, and heart-level devotion and loyalty to Him. Which shows that we truly know Him or as verse 6 here says, that we really have “knowledge of God.”

The people of Hosea’s day failed to understand this. They failed to understand that what God was really after was the heart and that the sacrifices they were offering if not done with heart-level obedience were worthless and meaningless and even offensive. 1 Samuel 15:22, the words of Samuel here, “Has the LORD as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice.” Or Isaiah 1:11 says, “ ‘What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me,’ says the LORD. ‘I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle; and I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs or goats.” What an important and timely reminder this is for us. That God, the unchanging God, demands of His people heart-level obedience, not routine compliance. He wants us to gather here for worship not because it’s what we’re supposed to do but because it’s what we need to do. It’s where we need to be on a Sunday, worshiping Him, the living God, with His people. He wants us to open our mouths to sing during the musical portion of our worship service not out of duty, we’re not puppets, but out of delight. He wants us to read His Word, not as a box we check on a Bible reading plan, but instead to truly commune with Him and to hear from Him as He speaks to us through His Word. It’s not that we don’t have routines. And it’s not that we don’t sometimes need routines as useful checkpoints to do the things we know we ought to do. But like the Israelites of Hosea’s day we can’t allow routines to replace the most important thing which is genuine, heart-level worship of the living God.

Well, as we turn the corner into our next three verses we’re coming upon a new mini-section within this section of Hosea 6. What we’re going to see in verses 7-9 are this catalogue of crimes that are associated with some specific cities and places of renown during Hosea’s day. Let’s read verses 7-9. It says, “But like Adam they have transgressed the covenant; there they have dealt treacherously against Me. Gilead is a city of wrongdoers, tracked with bloody footprints. And as raiders wait for a man, so a band of priests’ murder on the way to Shechem; surely they have committed crime.” Now there are three cities mentioned in those verses, Shechem, Gilead, and yes, Adam.

We’re going to address Adam first because there are many, especially in our day, who see the word “Adam” and “covenant” in the same sentence here in verse 7. And they say, ah-hah, that gives us biblical support for our covenant of works. Which is one of the three theological covenants that undergird the whole system of covenant theology, that I know many of you know much about. The covenant of works according to covenant theologians is that covenant between God and Adam, as the representative of all people who descend from him physically, under the terms of which, God promised to give Adam eternal life if Adam were to obey Him perfectly. It’s a theological covenant. It’s not a biblical covenant. There’s a difference. I’ll get into it in a second. The only problem is there is no clear record in the Scriptures of such a pre-fall covenant ever having been made. Just as there is no clear record in Scripture of the so-called covenant of redemption, the other theological covenant, and the so-called covenant of grace, the third theological covenant of Covenant Theology.

“Well,” says the covenant theologian, “we’ve gotcha, because Hosea 6:7 mentions Adam and a covenant. So there it is. We at least have the covenant of works, says the covenant theologian. Except you don’t. Because a better reading of Hosea 6:7, both in the grammar of the verse itself and in the context of the other verses in which it sits, is that Adam here is referring not to a person, the Adam of Genesis 1-3, our original human ancestor, the first man. But instead, this is referring to a place, namely the city of Adam which is mentioned in Joshua 3:16 as being a city near the Jordan River. In fact, a city where the Jordan River divided.

Now guys can get up here and say anything about anything and if we’re not careful here and we don’t anchor what we’re saying to the scriptures, right? Here are my reasons for arriving at the conclusion I do that Adam here in Hosea 6:7 is not a person but rather a place. First, the text says, “like Adam they have transgressed the covenant.” This language on its face is neutral. It in no way compels the conclusion that that is referring to Adam the man. Now granted it also doesn’t compel right away the conclusion that that’s referring to Adam the city. But it doesn’t, as the covenant theologian would say, immediately means Adam as in Adam from Genesis 1-3. Second, we have to consider the placement of the word “there.” Right after saying “like Adam they have transgressed the covenant,” note it says “there they have dealt treacherously against Me.” “There” could not and would make no sense as a reference to a person, Adam. When we see a person we say “he” or “she,” we don’t say “there.” Right? “There” only makes sense when we’re talking about a place. And the only other reference to “Adam” in Scripture that would fit this description is the city of Adam mentioned in Joshua 3:16. Third reason, verse 7 here is part of a sequential description of cities who had committed various heinous acts against the Lord during Hosea’s day. And they are being singled out here, one by one here, Shechem, Gilead, Adam. Actually the other way around, Adam, Gilead, Shechem. And as one commentator puts it, these three verses are “a sort of miniature guidebook to the geography of sin in Israel; going from one place to another it catalogues the famous crimes of various localities as an indictment of the whole nation.”

So, to summarize, I do not take Hosea 6:7 as referring to Adam the person. I take Hosea 6:7 instead to be referring to Adam the place. And I certainly do not see Hosea 6:7 any supporting notion of a so called “covenant of works.” Now, I am a covenantalist. I believe in the biblical covenants. Right? Abrahamic, Mosaic, Davidic, we are that kind of covenantalist, right? Run me out of town if I say that too loud. No, but there is no covenant of works. And it would take some awfully shoddy exegesis of Hosea 6:7 to find such a covenant of works there.

So if Hosea 6:7 is referring to the city of Adam, what did they do there in Adam that was so bad that drew God’s ire here? The verse tells us. There “they have dealt treacherously against Me.” And He mentions of course, transgressing the covenant. We have to ask, which covenant? That’s a reference to the Mosaic Covenant. In short, they have broken the Law and we see a similar reference. By the way you can turn over to Hosea 8:1, probably just a page or two over for you. Look at Hosea 8:1. Similar reference to the covenant and the Law, Mosaic, we’re talking here. It says, “Put the trumpet to your lips! Like an eagle the enemy comes against the house of the LORD, because they have transgressed My covenant and rebelled against My Law.” How had the people of Adam broken God’s Law? We don’t know. What specific offense have they committed? We don’t know. The historical record is otherwise silent. All we know is that they did, in fact, break God’s Law. And then they get this assessment, at the end of verse 7, “There,” in Adam, “they have dealt treacherously against Me.”

Moving onto verse 8, we see another people, from another place, called to the carpet by Yahweh and that place is Gilead. Look at what it says, “Gilead is a city of wrongdoers, tracked with bloody footprints.” Now, most agree this is not a reference to the district of Gilead but rather is a reference to the city of Ramoth Gilead, which was a former sanctuary city. But by Hosea’s day this city was a “city of wrongdoers” it says. The Hebrew there literally means workers of iniquity. In other words, Ramoth Gilead had become this den of unrestrained sin and ungodliness. It was populated with the worst type of men, murderers here, as the city’s streets are pictured as blood being tracked from their sandals in the street. We don’t have much more detail to go on here with Ramoth Gilead. Just to note that it had gone through this steep moral decline from once being this sanctuary city to now in the days of Hosea of facing the divine displeasure of God.

And then we get to verse 9 and we see the last, the third of these three places mentioned. First Adam, second Gilead, and now Shechem. Here is what we see in verse 9 about Shechem. “As raiders wait for a man, so a band of priests murder on the way to Shechem; surely they have committed crime.” Now we don’t have explicit city-wide condemnation of Shechem here. Rather, who are being singled out is this band of priests who apparently were terrorizing and murdering those who were trying to enter this city. I don’t think a darker picture could be painted of the depravity of this region than that. A murdering band of priests! Kind of creepy. Kind of crazy. I mean, it tells you how deep into immorality and wickedness and sin not only these priests, but this city and this entire nation had slid. And then in what sounds like the understatement of understatements, it says, “surely they have committed crime.” These priests near Shechem symbolized the entire depravity of this whole people who had forgotten God and as a result, this whole nation is indicted, from Adam, to Gilead, to Shechem. The people had broken the covenant, the Mosaic Covenant. They were unfaithful, they were apostate, and now they faced God’s impending judgment and wrath.

And that now brings us to the final two verses for tonight, verses 10 and 11, which read, “In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing; Ephraim’s harlotry is there, Israel has defiled itself. Also, O Judah, there is a harvest appointed for you.” Israel and Ephraim we have already established, are synonymous. Together, they are describing the northern kingdom, the northern tribes. And then “Judah” of course is describing the southern kingdom, the southern tribes. And both halves of the divided kingdom are mentioned in a single breath here referencing “Israel,” and “Ephraim,” and “Judah.” We see a similar sweeping description of Israel and Judah in Hosea 5:5 where he mentions Israel and Ephraim stumbling in their iniquity; and Judah also was stumbling with them.

And then look at what it says here in verse 10. He says, “In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing.” This appears to be referring specifically to priests, the wrongdoing of priests. We get that from a cross-reference to Jeremiah 5 and Jeremiah 23. In both instances you see the same verbiage, this reference to “I’ve seen a horrible thing” and in both cases it’s referring to priestly misconduct. And the thought continues 6:10, he says, “Ephraim’s harlotry is there, Israel has defiled itself.” And again this is an ongoing theme in Hosea, harlotry -- spiritual harlotry, spiritual defilement. We see this in the earliest words of this prophecy where Gomer was the harlot who had defiled herself in many ways and on multiple occasions. Now we’re being told, once again that Israel as a people were playing the harlot, a spiritual harlot, by chasing after these various false gods. Engaging in all sorts of wicked and abominable practices and turning their back on God.

And lest Judah be tempted to experience any feelings of pride or comfort, in verse 11 we see God telling Judah, the southern tribes, that they weren’t about to escape. He says “Also, O Judah, there is a harvest appointed for you.” Now, there are instances in Scripture where a harvest is described in positive terms, like a blessing. But there are also places in Scripture where a harvest is described in terms of judgment like in Joel 3:13. It says, “Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, tread, for the wine press is full; the vats overflow, for their wickedness is great.” Here in Hosea 6:11, this is a warning and a threat of judgment against Judah. Judah like her neighbors to the north had nothing to be proud of. The sickle was about to go in and she was about to reap judgment, God’s judgment.

Now you might be thinking, what about that last part of verse 11? I thought you were going to take us through Hosea line by line and verse by verse. Well, kind of. I think I’ve already done it because I actually believe that this second part of verse 11 goes with the first part of Hosea 7:1. We have a couplet there. We have two verses that are describing a future restoration of the people of God even while in Hosea’s day their sin was being exposed and statements of judgment were being leveled against them. So we’re actually going to cover 6:11b next week when we get into Hosea 7.

So there we have it. We have these twin themes of Israel’s future hope and also the judgment that she sat under during Hosea’s day. How it would all turn out time would tell. And indeed, as it relates to the future of Israel, even today, time still will tell. But thankfully we have the roadmap here in the Word. And we find comfort and hope and we find joy as Christians living here today in knowing that the God who was so patient with and the God who is so faithful toward Israel is the same God who has shown His people today incredible patience and incredible faithfulness. We’ll close with these words, from Hosea 11:12. We will get there in a few weeks. Hosea 11:12 “Ephraim surrounds me with lies and the house of Israel with deceit; Judah is also unruly against God, even against the Holy One who is faithful.” Amen. Notwithstanding our faithlessness He remains faithful.

Let’s pray. Gracious God, I thank You so much again for the time in Your word tonight. I know and I understand from the time in the study and the time delivering the messages that in some ways we can feel distant from what’s happening in these prophecies written by Hosea, given to him by Your Spirit. But I do pray that we would remember what these prophecies aim at, which is ultimately Your covenant-keeping faithfulness to Israel which in turn we are the beneficiaries of because You are that same covenant-keeping God and faithful God who we worship. And just as Your promises to Israel are sure and surely will be fulfilled, the promises that You make to us in our day are sure and will surely be fulfilled. So may we not lose sight or grasp on that important thread of this book, the book of Hosea, that You are a faithful God, an eternally faithful God, an unchangeably faithful God. We say thank You for this day, for this Lord’s Day where we’ve had the privilege to worship You with Your people through prayer and song and the word. We ask that You would go before us this week and strengthen our hands to do the work that You have prepared for us and that we would be faithful ambassadors of Your Son and our Lord, Jesus Christ. It’s in His name we pray, amen.