Hosea 9:7-12
Hosea 9:7
(KJB)
The days of visitation are come, the days of recompence
are come; Israel shall know it: the prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad,
for the multitude of thine iniquity, and the great hatred.
The word in the Hebrew for visitation may also be
understood as “intervention or account.”
Their day of account has come for their whoring away from the LORD.
The word in Hebrew for recompence may also be understood as “reward or
retribution.” There will be no
second guessing as to the fact that Israel will definitely know that they are
being judged for their sins. Their
prophets which rose up from among them were not of the LORD and therefore were
perverse fools in their supposed prophecies.
Just like those on TV who make ridiculous prophecies today.
Benny Hinn stated on December 31, 1989 that God was going to destroy all
homosexuals by fire in 1995. It’s
2019 and they are still here. The
spiritual man is also one who brings prophecies of the future who told Israel
that all things will be well and that no judgment on them is coming.
Israel had left the LORD and started believing the lies of the false
religions and therefore their people piled iniquity upon iniquity and there was
no spiritual sanity in them at all.
The great hatred they had amassed was against the LORD and there was no reason
for them to hate God since he was kind to them and protected them and even gave
them a land.
Hosea 9:8
(KJB)
The watchman of Ephraim was with my God: but the prophet
is a snare of a fowler in all his ways, and hatred in the house of his God.
There was a time when the watchmen who were the true
prophets and priests of God had brought the message of God to Israel and were
walking with the LORD and not against him.
He compares them to the prophets which walk among Ephraim and brings
false prophecies and people believe them and begin to follow their pernicious
ways and it becomes a snare to them by sending them deeper into rebellion.
God detests false teachers and their pernicious ways especially when they
bring it to his people. The house
of God here would not be the temple in Jerusalem but is once again referring to
the people of God in the ten tribes.
Their false prophecies have led them to hate the true God and therefore
the true God has hatred for them.
Leviticus 26:30 (KJV) And I will destroy
your high places, and cut down your images, and cast your carcases upon the
carcases of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you.
Hosea 9:9
(KJB)
They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of
Gibeah: therefore he will remember their iniquity, he will visit their sins.
The people of the ten tribes had deeply corrupted
themselves and that included not just the people but also the leaders such as
the prophets, priests, magistrates, all the way up to the king.
The story of Gibeah is found in Judges 19 where there was a large
sodomite population which acted in the same manner as they did in Sodom when the
sodomites surrounded the house of Lot.
Israel was no doubt experiencing an increase in sodomy among their people
which just added to their sins of rebellion.
Therefore because of their increased depravity God will take note of
their iniquity and will visit their sins, that is, they will receive the reward
for their rebellion.
Ezekiel 11:21 (KJV) But as for them whose
heart walketh after the heart of their detestable things and their abominations,
I will recompense their way upon their own heads, saith the Lord GOD.
Hosea 9:10
(KJB)
I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your
fathers as the firstripe in the fig tree at her first time: but they went to
Baal-peor, and separated themselves unto that shame; and their abominations were
according as they loved.
The LORD speaks in terms of a traveler as he saw Israel
like grapes in the wilderness. As a
traveler who would be tired and hungry they refreshed him and he had a very
hearty love for them. He saw
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as the first ripe figs that is the progenitors of the
nation of Israel which was the apple of God’s eye.
Then they became like rotten apples when they prostituted themselves to
the false god Baal-peor which was the false gods of the Moabites.
Numbers 25:3 (KJV) And Israel
joined himself unto Baal-peor: and the anger of the LORD was kindled against
Israel. Then they separated
themselves unto Baal-peor which means they became totally dedicated to that
false Moabite deity. Since they
were now attached to Baal-peor and detached from the LORD, they had now adopted
customs which were abominations according to the things they loved.
If they loved prostitution, they would engage in that as much as they
wanted till they thought they were satisfied.
Whatever sin they would partake in, they would engage in it till they
were filled up with it.
Hosea 9:11
(KJB)
As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird,
from the birth, and from the womb, and from the conception.
Their glory was the fact that they were once in God’s
great favor and had favored status among the nations.
Many nations feared them because they knew the LORD had protected them
and was their God having heard what he did to Egypt.
Their glory was also children and posterity which every father took joy
in but no longer since the children they brought into the world would now be
subject to the same lifestyle that their parents were living in.
Now if they adopted the same living standard as their parents, then they
too would face the judgment of God upon them and there will be no escape.
The glory they once had will be like a bird who takes flight and in a few
seconds you will not see them. The
judgment of God will come just as swiftly upon any posterity that commits the
same whoredoms as their fathers did.
Hosea 9:12
(KJB)
Though they bring up their children, yet will I bereave
them, that there shall not be a man left: yea, woe also to them when I depart
from them!