HOSEA 8 – 10
Bible Study Notes Rev. Betsy Perkins
God Pronounces Israel’s Sentence
- What happens in the sentencing portion of a trial? How can judges try to make the punishment fit the crime? Give some examples.
Israel’s Crimes and Consequences (8:1-14):
- For the second time, Hosea has called for the trumpet to be blown (8:1, 5:8). Why should the trumpet be sounded? What does this tell us about God?
“According to Number 10, the Jews used trumpets to announce special occasions, to sound alarms, to gather the people for assemblies, and to proclaim war. This call was a trumpet of alarm because the enemy was coming and God was giving his people opportunity to repent.” ~ Warren Wiersbe
- What might sound the alarm for us personally? For us as a church? As a nation?
- What are the crimes God finds them guilty of in verses 1-6? What will the consequence be for those crimes?
- How do the farming image in verses 7-10 illustrate what is happening in Israel and what is about to happen?
- What are the crimes named in verses 11-14? What will the consequences be?
Crime and Punishment (9:1-9):
- What will the consequence be to Israel’s crops and harvests? How is the image of the harvest appropriate for this moment in Israel’s history?
“Instead of trusting the Lord to protect her from Assyria, Israel fortified her towns and sought help from foreign nations, and from a spiritual point of view, this was like prostitution. (During the harvest season, prostitutes frequented the threshing floors where the men slept to guard the grain.) The harvest season was a time of great joy, but there would be no joy in Israel. And when the people ended up in a foreign land, everything would be unclean for them, but they were an unclean people anyway, so what difference would it make?” ~ Warren Wiersbe
- What does Egypt represent in the story of the Israelites? What does it mean that they “will return to Egypt” (verses 3 and 6, also 8:13)?
- What will happen to their annual celebrations of Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles?
- What is going to happen to the prophets who speak the true messages from God?
The Cost of Israel’s Sin (9:10-17):
- What do we learn about God’s heart for Israel in verse 10a? Imagine God feeling that way for us and for our church.
- Baal Peor was the site of an idolatrous orgy when Israel was wandering in the wilderness (see Numbers 25) that cost the lives of 24,000 people. How will this punishment for Israel also come with a cost to life (verses 11-14)?
Israel’s Destruction and Disgrace (10:1-8):
- What does the farming image in 9:16 – 10:2 tells us about Israel’s behavior?
“God planted His people in a special land (9:13), but they polluted the land with their idols. The more prosperous they became, the more they turned away from God. Now they must suffer a bitter harvest for their sins, they and their children. The nation is blighted, having no roots and bearing no fruits. These agricultural images remind us that we reap what we sow.” ~ Warren Wiersbe
- What is the plant in verse 4 that is springing up in Israel? Why was this happening?
“People couldn’t trust one another, and few were keeping their promises; therefore, they had to sue one another to get what they deserved. The multiplying of laws and lawsuits is one piece of evidence that integrity and credibility are vanishing from society.” ~ Warren Wiersbe
- What does the proliferation of lawsuits in this nation tell us about our society?
- What do the images from nature in verses 7 and 8 tell us about what will happen to Israel?
Israel’s Planting and Reaping (10:9-15):
- In verse 10:9, Hosea twice mentions Gibeah (also in 9:9). It is a reference to a horrific incident in Gibeah, recorded in Judges 19-21, that started a civil war in Israel several hundred years earlier. What does that story have to do with the situation in Hosea’s time? With holding evildoers accountable? With reaping the consequences of your actions?
- Verses 11-13 again use images of farming. What is the soil like on land that has not been plowed? What must be done with it to prepare it for a healthy crop? What does this image teach God’s people about what is going to happen?
The chapter closes by comparing Israel to a young heifer that enjoys treading out the grain because she can eat and work at the same time. But then she is yoked to another beast and forced to do the hard work of plowing. Israel’s ‘salad days’ were over and she would feel the Assyrian yoke.” ~ Warren Wiersbe
- What is Israel reaping as a result of what they have sown? In what ways have you reaped what you have sown in your life?
- What are you hoping to reap in the future? What do you need to sow now?
- Does this imagery have anything to say to us today? What images might be more relevant in our current culture and setting?
In light of this passage and our discussion, what one truth about God and about yourself stand out as something to “take to heart” this week?
Are there steps you will take, by God’s grace, to more fully apply it to your life?
Resources: NIV Zondervan Study Bible, 2015
J. Gordon McConville, Exploring the Old Testament: A Guide to the Prophets, Volume 4, 2002
Warren W. Wiersbe, BE Amazed: Restoring an Attitude of Wonder and Worship, 2010
Tim Mackie, The Bible Project, How to Read Hosea (RightNowMedia)
Add Your Comment