Hosea Chapter Four

Written By: Timothy Fish Published: 10/16/2008

p>Hosea earned his right to speak by loving Gomer and buying her back in chapter three of Hosea. In chapter four, Hosea begins to proclaim the message the Lord gave him for Israel. The Lord had a problem with the people because they had forsaken the truth and had no knowledge of God (verse 1).

The people were lying, stealing, killing and committing adultery. There were doing the same things we see in our world today. As a result, the Lord promised that it would be difficult for the people.

In verse four, they were told not to strive with or reprove each other. The reason was that they were like those that strive with the priest. Imagine taking a sacrifice to the temple and the priest tells you that it isn’t good enough. “It’s just a little spot,” you say. The people were sinning and then attempting to justify what they were doing. We see that today. Men and women live together and justify it by saying that it is better that they do that than get married and find out they aren’t compatible. Homosexuals paint themselves to be upstanding member of the community while hiding the little boys in the back room. It is a dangerous thing to ignore the truth or call it outdated. It is the natural order of things that sinful people will reject knowledge of the truth and it will destroy them.

“As they were increased, so they sinned against me; there for will I change their glory into shame.” (Hosea 4:7) Israel had been well blessed, but they didn’t give God the glory for what he had done for them. They had some degree of wealth and it grew, but God would take away the things they gloried in and give them shame. I can’t help but think about he current financial crisis the world is in. Many people have been wealthy and while that should be reason to phrase God, people have instead said, “Where is God?” Perhaps we have entered another time in history when God will once again show us that without him we have nothing.

Hosea talks about the people’s worship. God prescribed specific instructions for worship, but the people were not following these instructions. They sacrificed on the tops of mountains, when they should have been going to the temple. They burned incense under trees because the shade was good there.

The result of this illegal worship was that their daughters would sleep with men to whom they were not married and their spouses would commit adultery. (Verse 13) That should get your attention. Men, if you want your marriage to last and you want your daughters to date young men who aren’t just looking for sex, take them to church. Worship the Lord and learn from his word and your family will be in a much better situation. Otherwise, the Lord may not steer them away from that sin. (Verse 14)

For the Love
of a
Devil

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