Bible Version: New International Version (NIV)
Application Notes: Life Application Study Bible (NIV)
HOSEA 4
The Charge Against Israel
1 Hear the word of the Lord, you Israelites,
because the Lord has a charge to bring
against you who live in the land:
“There is no faithfulness, no love,
no acknowledgment of God in the land.
2 There is only cursing, lying and murder,
stealing and adultery;
they break all bounds,
and bloodshed follows bloodshed.
3 Because of this the land dries up,
and all who live in it waste away;
the beasts of the field, the birds in the sky
and the fish in the sea are swept away.
4 “But let no one bring a charge,
let no one accuse another,
for your people are like those
who bring charges against a priest.
5 You stumble day and night,
and the prophets stumble with you.
So I will destroy your mother—
6 my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.
“Because you have rejected knowledge,
I also reject you as my priests;
because you have ignored the law of your God,
I also will ignore your children.
7 The more priests there were,
the more they sinned against me;
they exchanged their glorious God for something disgraceful.
8 They feed on the sins of my people
and relish their wickedness.
9 And it will be: Like people, like priests.
I will punish both of them for their ways
and repay them for their deeds.
10 “They will eat but not have enough;
they will engage in prostitution but not flourish,
because they have deserted the Lord
to give themselves 11to prostitution;
old wine and new wine
take away their understanding.
12 My people consult a wooden idol,
and a diviner’s rod speaks to them.
A spirit of prostitution leads them astray;
they are unfaithful to their God.
13 They sacrifice on the mountaintops
and burn offerings on the hills,
under oak, poplar and terebinth,
where the shade is pleasant.
Therefore your daughters turn to prostitution
and your daughters-in-law to adultery.
14 “I will not punish your daughters
when they turn to prostitution,
nor your daughters-in-law
when they commit adultery,
because the men themselves consort with harlots
and sacrifice with shrine prostitutes—
a people without understanding will come to ruin!
15 “Though you, Israel, commit adultery,
do not let 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 their prostitution;
their rulers dearly love shameful ways.
19 A whirlwind will sweep them away,
and their sacrifices will bring them shame.
Application Notes
4:1-19 In this chapter, God brings charges of unfaithfulness and disobedience against Israel. The religious leaders had failed to turn the people to God, and ritual prostitution had replaced right worship. The nation had declined spiritually and morally, breaking the laws that God had given them. The people found it easy to condemn Hosea's wife for her adultery. They were not so quick to see that they had been unfaithful to God.
4:1-3 God explained the reasons for Israel's suffering. Their lawless behavior had brought the twin judgments of increased violence and ecological crisis. There is not always a direct cause-and-effect relationship between our actions and the problems we face. Nevertheless, when we are surrounded with difficulties, we should seriously ask, Have I done anything sinful or irresponsible that has caused my suffering? If we discover we are at fault, even partially, we must ask for God's forgiveness and change our ways with his help.
4:1-3 Israel's sin affected the land itself, as well as all the animals. When people sin and do not repent, there are far-reaching consequences that we don't always anticipate. Preoccupation with our own needs leads to disregard of God's creation. When we sin, the world around us suffers. From the beginning, when God created the world and declared it to be good, he gave people the task of caring for it and, in turn, receiving blessings from it (Genesis 1:28-31). The bond between us and the rest of God's creation still applies. Look around you and appreciate God's creation. How can you participate in the task he has given you to take care of his creation? Do you recognize and enjoy creation's benefits?
4:2 This verse may allude to the assassinations of kings during Hosea's lifetime. Shallum killed King Zechariah and took the throne. Then Menahem killed Shallum and destroyed an entire city because the people refused to accept him as king (2 Kings 15:8-16). God pointed out that even murder was being taken casually in Israel.
4:4-9 Hosea leveled God's charges against the religious leaders. Who were these religious leaders? When Jeroboam I rebelled against Solomon's son Rehoboam, he set up a rival kingdom in the north. He also set up his own parallel religious system similar to the one in Jerusalem (see 1 Kings 12:25-33). In violation of God's law, he made two calves of gold and told the people to worship them. He also appointed his own priests, who were not descendants of Aaron, which also violated God's instructions in his law. At first the residents of the northern kingdom continued to worship God, even though they were doing it in the wrong way, but soon they also began to worship Canaanite gods. Before long they had substituted Baal for God and no longer worshiped God at all. Not surprisingly, Jeroboam's false priests were unable to preserve the true worship of God.
4:4 There is a tendency to blame others for our faults when we fear punishment for wrongdoing. Hosea warned the priests not to blame anyone else; the nation's sins were largely their fault. Israel's priests pointed out the people's sins, but God would not allow them to overlook their own irresponsible actions. Instead of instructing the nation in proper faith and morality, they had led the way toward idolatry and immorality. Their failure to lead the people in God's ways placed most of the blame for Israel's destruction on them. We are the only ones responsible for our own sinful actions. Blaming others will keep us from recognizing our need to repent.
4:6-9 God accused the religious leaders of keeping the people from knowing him. Knowing God means more than having knowledge about him. It is about the personal relationship he wants to have with his people. They were supposed to be spiritual leaders, but they had become leaders in wrongdoing. The people may have said to one another, “It must be okay if the priests do it.” Spiritual leaders carry a heavy responsibility. Whether you teach a class at church, hold a church office, or lead a Bible study, don't take your leadership responsibilities lightly. Be a leader who leads others to God, not away from him.
4:8 The priests were glad when the people sinned. Every time a person brought a sin offering, the priest received a portion of it. The more the people sinned, the more the priests received. Because they couldn't eat all the offerings themselves, they sold some and gave some to their relatives. The priests profited when sin increased; it gave them wealth, power, and prestige in the community. So instead of trying to lead the people out of sin, they encouraged sin—or, at the least, didn't speak out against it—in order to increase their own profits.
4:10-14 The chief Canaanite gods, Baal and Asherah, represented the power of fertility and sexual reproduction. Not surprisingly, their worship included rituals with explicit sexual practices. Male worshipers had sex with female temple prostitutes (or priestesses), and young women wishing to bear children had sex with male priests. But God said their efforts to increase fertility would not succeed.
4:12 The “diviner's rod” was something used in a pagan practice to attempt to tell the future. By divorcing themselves from God's authoritative religion centered in Jerusalem, inhabitants of the northern kingdom had effectively cut themselves off from God's word and from his way of life. The drive to be free from all restrictions can move us completely out of God's will and enslave us further with our own selfish desires.
4:15 God warned the southern kingdom of Judah that its priests should not become like those in Israel. Israel's priests who remained in the north had forgotten their spiritual heritage and had sold out to Baal. They were promoting idol worship and ritual prostitution. Israel would not escape punishment, but Judah could if they refused to follow Israel's example.
4:19 The whirlwind that would sweep Israel away referred to the Assyrian invasion that would destroy the nation about 20 years later.
Taken from Life Application Study Bible - Third Edition - (NIV)