Hosea Chapter Nine

Written By: Timothy Fish Published: 10/13/2008

In the beginning of Hosea 9 is the instruction “rejoice not for joy, O Israel.” The Lord would take away the joy from those things they thought would give them joy. Hosea warns of a day when they will be taken captive because of their sin.

Verse six declares that Egypt will gather them up and they will die in Memphis. Their homes will be uninhabited, allowing nettles and thorns to grow up where their possessions has been.

Israel had things backwards. They saw the prophet of God as a fool. They considered him mad, but the watchman of Ephraim they saw as coming from God. We see some of that today. People who hold true to the word of God are treated as fools for not being more respectful of other people’s beliefs, but they will listen to self-serving sinful men without question.

Because of their sin, Ephraim would lose its glory. They would lose it like a bird flying away from birth. After a bird is born, it may sit in the nest for a long time, but then a day will come when something scars the bird and it flies away very quickly. It never returns to the nest.

Israel was supposed to be the first fruits of something better. They are compared to grapes in the wilderness or the first ripe of the fig tree. They were to produce more, but they sinned against God. (Hosea 9:10)

God turned against Israel because they turned against him. Because they did not listen, they would become wanderers among the nations and even today, we see the Jews wandering among the nations.

For the Love
of a
Devil

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