Hosea 7-8
Solomon died. And when he died, his son, Rehoboam, could not hold the nation together. Almost as soon as the Ten Northern Tribes (Israel) split away from the Two Southern Tribes (Judah), Jeroboam, the king of Israel, set up idols for the people to worship. He didn’t, of course, want them to travel to Jerusalem anymore, as the law of the Lord had instructed, for Jerusalem was in Judah, which was now another country. These idols would have to do.
So, what did these idols look like? Believe it or not, they were reproductions of the “golden calf” Aaron had allowed them to make at the foot of Mount Sinai, the same “golden calf” that caused Moses to break the tablets of the Ten Commandments, the same “golden calf” that led to some of God’s strictest judgments.
God put up with this idolatry for over 200 years. Finally, enough was enough!
The sins and judgments Hosea proclaims in Hosea 7-8 are related to this first and ongoing idolatry, and to Israel’s continuous sinning and their stubborn refusal to repent. “None of them calls on me,” says the Lord (7:7). [They] do not return to the Lord...or search for Him (7:10). “Throw out your calf idol!” Hosea says (8:5); for “it will be broken in pieces!” (8:6)
Sadly, this would not happen. “Israel sowed the wind, and reaped the whirlwind” (8:7)
How long will the Lord put up with the idols of our nation and our culture? It’s high time for the kind of repentance that will bring revival!
Your fellow pilgrim through the Prophets,
Pastor Gary
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