By Woodrow Kroll
Part 7 - Sin Permeates The Human Experience
We have been studying Hosea for some time now. And today I want us to give a kind of case study of the human condition. Let us use Hosea and Gomer and their lives together again, starting here in the first three chapters because, as you know, the whole of the story is encompassed in the first three chapters. The rest is a commentary on it, to give us clear examples of how God loves His people.
I want us to think today about having a case study in the human condition looking at the life of Hosea and Gomer.
By the way, do you remember Abbie Hoffman? That is a name probably familiar to you. I haven't seen Abbie in a long time. In fact he is not alive anymore. But that may be why you haven't seen him. Abby Hoffman was arrested 53 times, during the sixties. He lived in the Underground for six years, on the run from the police. He is a man who never ran out of causes, and he was always in there in the thick of things for one cause or another. Well, in one unpublished interview, speaking about his youngest son, whom he named America, Hoffman said that his son had been kicked out of class seven times that year all ready. Then he said this: "I am so proud of him."
Now you see, I think that is some kind of microcosm of the world at large. The more we can do to upset God's plans in our lives, to upset the normal flow of things in our lives, sometimes the happier we are. And Israel was like that.
I mean these are the chosen people of God. These people had significant benefits because they were God's people. And yet time after time after time, they slapped God in the face. They forgot God. They did not want to recognize God in their lives.
The end result of that was that they sinned against God. They went after the other gods of this world. We are going to see something about that today in our study. And in going after the other gods of the world, time after time after time, God stretched out His hand and brought them back to Himself because the love of God is greater far than tongue or pen can ever tell.
This whole Book of Hosea, remarkable book, is a book about man's rebellion, God's response to man's rebellion and God's resolution to bring man back to Himself. Now here we are in chapter two of Hosea. I want to begin at verse 8, chapter 2 verse 8. Now listen to this: "She has not acknowledged that I was the one who gave her the grain, the new wine and oil, who lavished on her the silver and gold--which they used for Baal."
Now Baal here, literary it is pronounced B-all, we pronounce it Baal. But it probably shouldn't be pronounced that way. B-all was the god of the god of both the Canaanites and the Phoenicians. It was the god of grain. This was the god of fertility, the god of sexuality. This was the god of nature. And you encounter Baal frequently in the Bible, don't you? Baal was the chief male deity of the Canaanites and the Phoenicians. When it is used in the plurals, the Baals for example, and often we encounter that as well, this is a series of fertility and nature gods that were worshipped by the pagan nations around Israel. Now think about that.
The Baals in the Bible, the B-alls in the Bible were a series of nature and sexual gods, fertility gods, worshipped by pagan people. Interesting isn't it that the gods of choice of the last number of years of the twentieth century are exactly the same gods--nature and sexuality.
The story of Hosea is up-to-date, friends, as if it came out of USA Today. Now here He says, "You have not paid any attention to the fact that I am the One who has blessed you, and you have gone after the Baals." Does any of this sound familiar? It sounds just like what happens in our world today. Look down at verse 13.
"I will punish her for the days she burned incense to the Baals (these pagan gods); she decked herself with rings and jewelry, and went after her lovers, but Me she forgot, declares the Lord."
Now what we are seeing here in chapter two of the Book of Hosea is bad attitudes, bad attitudes on the part of God's people, Israel. Bad attitudes start with a failure to recognize the presence of God in our lives. We want to run our own life. We want to do our own thing. We don't care what God says. We don't care what His Word says. In fact we don't know what His Word says because we have never read it. So we just follow life the best we can, and we have bad attitudes.
And here in verse 13 He talks about three specific bad attitudes, three bad attitudes of the people of the people of Israel.
Notice, first of all, there is the attitude of false worship. She burned incense to Baals--false worship, went after other gods, claimed other gods were her god, that other gods gave her all the benefits she had. God revealed Himself to them, and they chose to seek other gods, rather than to know the one true God.
Secondly, notice there is the attitude of seduction of evil. It talks about going after lovers. Same thing is true back there in verse 5, of chapter two. She went after other lovers. Basically, this simply means that Israel seductively chased the other gods of the pagans around them. It wasn't that she was trapped. It wasn't that these gods led her astray. She went out after them. She coveted them. She seductively went after the pagan gods of nature and of sexuality, much like we have done in the twentieth century and now on to the twenty-first.
And thirdly notice here it says, "But you forgot Me declares the Lord." See, she had the attitude of false worship. Then she had the attitude of seducing evil, going out and looking for evil. And then thirdly, and probably worst, she forgot God. This whole concept, friends, about forgetting God was something that was true again and again and again in the life of Israel. You remember in the song of Moses, after Moses and the Children of Israel crossed the Red Sea; they sang a great song of praise to the Lord God of Israel. But in the song of Moses, Deuteronomy chapter 32 verse 18, the song of Moses it says, "You deserted the rock who fathered you; you forgot the God who gave you birth."
Now one of the great sins that Israel has again and again and again been guilty of is the sin of forgetting God. It doesn't seem possible that one could forget God, does it? That one could receive a blessing at the hand of God and not recognize that it came from God's hand? Does it seem possible that a nation or an individual or a group of people could get so much from God and thank Him so little? It hardly seems likely does it, unless of course you are living and breathing because it happens all the time today? It happens in the church today. God has blessed us so significantly, especially in the Western World. And yet forgetting about God, going after these other deities, it's a very common thing in the world today.
Well, let's go to the commentary on this. Skip ahead to chapter 7 of Hosea, verse 10. Let's look at some more bad attitudes of these people. Hosea chapter 7 and verse 10 talks about "Israel's arrogance testifies against him, but despite all this he does not return to the Lord his God or search for Him." Notice again, what is there. It is the attitude of arrogance. See, the deeper Israel would slide into sin, the more arrogant they would become. That's true today, isn't it? The deeper people slide into sin, the less apt they are to say to God, "I was wrong," and the more apt they are to cover their tracks. The deeper we fall into sin, the more arrogant we become about our sin. That happened to Israel, and that's a bad attitude.
And then notice "does not return to the Lord." No repentance here. Remember the three themes. Sin brings judgment. Repentance brings salvation. But there can be no salvation without repentance. So here is Israel slipping down into arrogance because their sin is deepening, there is no repentance and thirdly in this verse it says, "They do not search for God." There is no need for God in their lives. They are getting in deeper. They are slipping off the edge of the slippery slope. And they don't even recognize it. And still they don't see their need for God. "God says when I fed them they were satisfied, when they were satisfied they became proud, and then they forgot Me."
Interesting isn't it, folks, how often, when we are in the faith awhile, and we are prospering economically, prospering socially, isn't it interesting how easy it is for us to forget time with God. We get so busy with business, we get so busy with family, we get so busy with enjoying life, we forget about God. And the same kind of thing that happened to Israel happens daily in the church. And we just look at Israel and say, "That can't happen to us." And it already has. Bad attitudes.
Now the problem is, rarely do bad attitudes exist by themselves. Bad attitudes usually lead to bad behavior. And it did for Israel. I want you to notice with me some of the bad behaviors of Israel. Go back to chapter 4 beginning with verse 2.
Before I get there, let me tell you about a person I encountered when I was writing a book recently. Her name is Dr. Gertrude Himmelfarb. I quote Dr. Gertrude Himmelfarb just to get her name out. But she is the Professor of History at the University of City College in New York City. Gertrude Himmelfarb has written a book entitled 'The Demoralization of Society, Taking Morals out of Society'. Listen to what she says: "As long as morality was couched in the language of virtue, it had a firm, resolute character. Values do not have to be virtues. They can be beliefs or opinions, feelings, preferences, even idiosyncrasies, whatever an individual group or society happens to value at any time for any reason. One cannot say that virtues, that anyone's virtues are as good as anyone else's, or that everyone has a right to his own virtues."
Now I think that is very insightful. You see, because what we are dealing with today, friends, we don't know anything about virtue because virtue is always linked to something concrete.
In the Old Testament virtue was linked to the Ten Commandments. God said, "These are the things that are right and wrong." And that is where virtue came for the Old Testament Israel. In the Greek society virtue was linked to the teachings of Socrates and Plato.
Virtues were honesty, and justice and fair play. And in the New Testament, virtue was linked to the teachings of Jesus. It came right out of the words of Jesus. That's where we get the virtue of love, and hope and faith. Virtue is tied to something. Value is not. So in a world that doesn't know anything about virtue, all we are left with is value. So what do the presidential candidates talk about? Values. The White House talks about family values. It can't define family or values. And why? Because we don't know anything about virtue.
Now see, Israel had lost contact with God's virtue and all Israel had left was what they valued. I think America has done the same thing. Canada has done the same thing. The Western European nations have done the same thing. Good behavior is rooted in virtue not in value because what you value you will do. And if it's valuable to you, it is okay for you to do it. That's why one guy can act one way and another guy can act another way and it is okay for both of them. But look at this. Chapter 4 verse 2 says: "There is only cursing, lying and murder, stealing and adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed." See, those are a virtue that has gone bad. Now look at Chapter 4 verse 17. "Ephriam (that's a word for Israel) is joined to idols; leave him alone! Even when their drinks are gone, they continue their prostitution; their rulers dearly love shameful ways."
I wish I could spend the next hour on this verse because there are three things here. Number one, notice that they joined to idols. That's breaking commandments one and two of God's Law of the Ten Commandments. Then it talks about their carousing. "Their drinks are gone," not that their drinks have become sour. It's that they have finished drinking; they are carousing. And number three; it says they continue their prostitution, their immorality. You see bad attitudes concerning God constantly lead to bad behavior concerning God. And Israel, who had bad attitudes about God, is now expressing bad behavior.
And I want to tell you something else. I learned this right from the Book of Hosea. Bad attitudes lead to bad behavior. Bad behavior leads to bad leadership. Somebody has said and I think they are right, "You get the kind of leadership you want because, especially in a democracy, if you don't get that kind of leadership, if enough society doesn't want that kind of leadership, they can get rid of that leadership." So if leadership is bad leadership, we don't blame the leadership, we blame the society because the society has now given into values as opposed to virtues because they have bad attitudes about God. And that's exactly what happened here in Israel.
Now there was no Papa Doc here in Israel. You remember Papa Doc. He was the man who had a private army. His Tontons Macoutes massacred people. They burned babies in their cribs. They carried off their parents to torture and mutilation. Perhaps 40,000 people died during Papa Doc's reign. And a million or more may have fled Haiti during that time. We're not talking about Papa Doc here in Hosea.
We're not talking about Idi Amin. You remember him. He's that tyrant from Uganda. He seized power in a bloody coup in January 1971. His eight-year reign of terror in that African nation put him in the same category as Adolf Hitler. He killed an estimated 300,000 people of his own people during his reign. We're not talking about Idi Amin.
We're not taking about Pol Pot. Pol Pot was the fugitive leader of Khmer Rouge in Cambodia. He's blamed for the slaughter of about 2 million Cambodians.
What we are talking about here are leaders who reflect the society that they lead. Now look with me at verse 18 of chapter 4: "Even when their drinks are gone, they continue their prostitution; their rulers dearly love shameful ways."
Now I want to dissect that verse. "Their rulers," the word that is used here in Hebrew for rulers is the word magen. Now I think that is important because the word magen is the word not for someone who gets up and stands up in front of people. The word magen is the Hebrew word for shield, for buckler, it is a word for a defense system. In Genesis chapter 15, in verse 1, God said to Abraham do not be afraid, I am your shield, and your very great award. That is the word magen.
Now I think the fact that Hosea chose that word for rulers here means that he saw leaders as ones who were to defend the people from all the things that were outside the nation of Israel. This was God's chosen people. The leadership of Israel was designed by God to keep out pagan idols, to keep out pagan practices, in fact, to keep out pagan people. They were a shield, but they didn't become a shield because it says in this verse that the rulers dearly loved shameful ways.
Now Paul had the same thing in mind, I'm sure, in Romans chapter 13 because in Romans 13, especially the first three verses, it talks about the authorities that exist have been established by God. "Rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do evil." See, those that are elected are supposed to be for our good, not for our evil. That's their job.
But when you have leaders who indulge in shameful ways, that's the second part of this verse. The word shameful ways here means dishonor or disgrace. Leaders brought disgrace to the people because not only did they indulge in shameful ways, but they dearly loved shameful ways.
Now you got to put these three things together. Here are leaders who are supposed to be a shield for God, against all the outside influences for God's people. Instead of being a shield they dearly loved the shameful ways of the people about them. You put these together, and those who were supposed to be a shield, to shield Israel from the consequences of sin, actually helped Israel engage in that sin. Now, what is the end result of that, friends? Well, the end result of that is a leadership that has failed God and failed God miserably.
You know, the leadership that fails God is not always civil. It is not always elected officials. Sometimes the leadership that fails God is religious as well. The leadership that fails God can be, as we see in chapter 5 verse 1: "Hear this, you priests! Pay attention, you Israelites! Listen, O royal house! This judgment is against you."
You see, sometimes those who fail God are those who have bad attitudes and from that bad behavior and from that bad leadership, those that engage in bad leadership sometimes are in the church, not in the legislature.
And Hosea is telling us that there are more than ample references in the Bible to those shepherds who would lead God's people astray. Hosea is a wonderful prophet because in the midst of this love story, in the midst of a story of a love that will not let me go, Hosea gives us this warning about how it is, in humanity. That humanity is constantly digressing, is constantly falling away from God, and in the process of doing that, the bad attitudes that people have lead to bad behavior. And the bad behavior leads to bad leadership. And that leads to God's judgment.
But listen, don't forget the three themes of the book. Sin leads to judgment, repentance leads to salvation. And underneath it all is the love of God. God even loves these people in the Jesus seminar. I don't think He loves what they are doing, but He loves them. And they have the opportunity to come home to God's love, just like the rest of us do.
Just like Gomer did in the story of Hosea, just like Israel did in the story of the Old Testament. God's love is always there for us, even when we have bad attitudes, even when we have bad actions and even when we have bad leadership. All we have to do, friends, is get Back to the Bible and find out what a relationship with a God who loves us is all about. And when we learn of that relationship, we know that God will resolve our differences with His love because He has already sent His Son to die for us.
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