III. Israel’s Wickedness and God’s Call to Repentance (Hosea 6:1–7:16)

III. Israel’s Wickedness and God’s Call to Repentance (6:1–7:16)

6:1-3 In these verses, Hosea reminds the people that God is always ready to receive and forgive. If you return to the Lord and submit yourself to his program, he will intervene in your situation (6:1). He will revive. . . after two days, and on the third day he will raise us up (6:2). Sometimes, the prophets provided more insight into spiritual matters than they could’ve realized. Though Hosea was saying this to Israel, it is supremely true of Jesus Christ, whom God “raised on the third day according to the Scriptures” (1 Cor 15:4).

6:4-6 What am I going to do with you, Ephraim? What am I going to do with you, Judah? (6:4). God sounds like an exasperated parent who loves his children but is grieved by their behavior. He had sent his prophets to chastise them and urge them to repent (6:5).

I desire faithful love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings (6:6) sounds like God’s words to faithless King Saul (see 1 Sam 15:22). This is not a rejection of the sacrificial system. After all, God instituted it. Rather, God is telling Israel, “Don’t think you can live as you please, reject my word, and then come offer a sacrifice to make everything OK.”

Do we sin and need God’s forgiveness? Of course. But, that doesn’t grant us freedom to do whatever we choose. To quote the apostle Paul, “Should we continue in sin so that grace may multiply? Absolutely not!” (Rom 6:1-2).

6:7–7:2 Israel wasn’t merely naughty. They had been wicked and violated God’s gracious covenant with them (6:7). Even the priests were guilty of murder (6:9)! What God saw is horrible: promiscuity, fraud, theft, and pillaging (6:10; 7:1). Nothing can be hidden from an omniscient (all-knowing) and omnipresent (everywhere-present) God. Whatever they did was done right in front of [his] face (7:2).

7:3-7 The wickedness of the nation went all the way to the top. The king and the princes were pleased with evil (7:3). They were guilty of adultery, drunkenness, and anger (7:4-6). Our sin affects other people, but the sin of rulers can be even more devastating than that of most because their unrighteous actions distress and influence the people of the nation: “When the wicked rule, people groan” (Prov 29:2). Yet, no matter how many kings fell as a result of their foolishness, not one of them called on God (7:7).

7:8-12 Have you ever had food on your plate that looked wonderful only to find that the bottom was burnt to a crisp? That’s the idea behind, Ephraim is unturned bread baked on a griddle. They had gotten mixed up with foreign nations and didn’t realize they were getting burned (7:8-9), and their people refused to return to God (7:10). Ephraim, therefore, is also pictured as a silly, senseless dove. They flit over to Egypt and then flutter over to Assyria, looking for a safe place to land. But, the Lord will bring them down (7:11-12).

7:13-16 You can sense the anguish God experienced from his people’s rejection of him: they fled from me . . . they rebelled against me . . . they do not cry to me from their hearts . . . they plot evil against me (7:13-15). Though he trained and strengthened them, they slashed themselves (7:14-15)—probably in a pagan ritual pleading for divine help (see 1 Kgs 18:27-29). And while the people turned to idols and other nations, they didn’t turn to what is above (7:16). If you look for counsel or aid from anywhere other than the heavenly realm, you’re wasting your time. You will only fall and be ridiculed (7:16).