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August 16, Sunday
Reading B228 — Hosea 9 — Playing the Whore Audio: Hosea 9 (ESV)
An audio recording of the following comments is available below:
Results of Unfaithfulness — This is another chapter of doom for Israel. Like Hosea’s wife, they had “played the whore, forsaking your God” (v. 1), so the consequences of judgment would fall on them. As in yesterday’s reading, God gives three additional reasons why His judgment was to come. Three times, the word “because” is used to show reasons for God’s approaching punishment. It also shows three results of their actions. First, it was “because of your great iniquity” (v. 7), thinking that God’s prophet was a fool. What the sinful mind thinks is right is so different from God’s ways, that divine messages seem to be foolish. That impression is still prevalent in our world today: God’s words seem wrong to them. Second, God said that “because of the wickedness of their deeds … I will love them no more” (v. 15). Twice in verses 7-8, it mentions the “hatred” of the people toward God’s prophet; now, God would remove His love from the largest group of His people. As it shows elsewhere in Hosea, this removal of love would not be permanent, but it would introduce a very long, painful period for Israel. Third, it was “because they have not listened to him; they shall be wanderers among the nations” (v. 17). Most of them would be taken by Assyrian forces and scattered in many places throughout their kingdom. The result was that “My God will reject them” (v. 17). This, too, was not a permanent action. Like it was for Gomer, Israel would be bought back.
August 17, Monday
Reading B229 — Hosea 10 — Time to Seek God Audio: Hosea 10 (ESV)
An audio recording of the following comments is available below:
Handling Prosperity — This chapter continues the prediction of judgment for Israel, showing how they had such a good start and yet ended up so poorly. Israel was “a luxuriant vine” (v. 1), but the more they grew, the more they turned away from God because “their heart is false” (v. 2). Prosperity provides a strong temptation toward an attitude that depends on self instead of on the God who brought the abundance. There came a point when Israel said, “we do not fear the LORD” (v. 3). The result was that the calf they worshiped “shall be carried to Assyria as tribute” (v. 6), and their “high places … the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed” (v. 8). Despite their sin, God’s call of grace still went out to them: “Sow … righteousness; reap steadfast love … it is time to seek the LORD” (v. 12). Their judgment was shown to be near with this final statement by God: “At dawn the king of Israel shall be utterly cut off” (v. 15). They went from prosperity to punishment because of their selfish hearts and their deviant worship. Prosperity presents the same temptation to us today. We must maintain our recognition and expression of our gratitude to God for all the good things that come to us. Worship Him in praise!
August 18, Tuesday
Reading B230 — Hosea 11 — Tender-hearted Father Audio: Hosea 11 (ESV)
An audio recording of the following comments is available below:
Painful Discipline — God gives us a brief history in this chapter of how He deals with His people, starting from their slavery in Egypt: “out of Egypt I called my son” (v. 1). It began with the 12 sons of Jacob (Israel) going to Egypt by Joseph’s invitation to escape a famine in the land promised to Abraham. Those initial 70 people grew to over two million in about 400 years before they were led out through the Red Sea by Moses. Israel was just a toddler, being taught by God to walk in His ways (v. 3). In the Promised Land, however, God said that they were “bent on turning away from me” (v. 7), and they would eventually suffer judgment when “Assyria shall be their king” (v. 5). With feelings like those of us who are parents, God struggled with punishing the child He loved, crying, “How can I hand you over, O Israel?” (v. 8). In His love, however, He provided a future restoration when “his children shall come trembling … [and] I will return them to their homes, declares the LORD” (v. 11).
August 19, Wednesday
Reading B231 — Hosea 12 — Ephraim’s Sins Audio: Hosea 12 (ESV)
An audio recording of the following comments is available below:
Refusing Obedience — That Jacob was given a second name is clear in verse 12: “Jacob fled to the land of Aram; there Israel served for a wife.” He is also often called “Ephraim” in this book (here in vv. 1, 8, and 14), which was one of the significant tribes of Israel that broke away from Judah and Benjamin. In this chapter, God reveals these sins: depending on Assyria and Egypt for help (v. 1), declaring their innocence while cheating with false balances (vv. 7-8), ignoring God speaking to them through prophets (vv. 10, 13), and sacrificing on altars in the middle of their fields instead of at Jerusalem (v. 11). God had called out to them tenderly, “So you, by the help of your God, return, hold fast to love and justice, and wait continually for your God” (v. 6), but they had refused to be obedient and would be punished “according to his ways … according to his deeds” (v. 2). God is gracious and merciful, but He demands obedience from us as much as He did from Israel. We, too, should be careful about claiming to be innocent when we know that we are doing something that God’s Word clearly forbids. We are not fooling God.
August 20, Thursday
Reading B232 — Hosea 13 — Stubborn Israel Audio: Hosea 13 (ESV)
An audio recording of the following comments is available below:
Mercy with Justice — Israel had become so strong that “there was trembling” (v. 1) from others around them, but God would cause their greatness to crumble because of their false worship of Baal through images, and human sacrifice (vv. 1-2). God had been with them since their deliverance from Egypt (v. 4), but He said that when “they became full … they forgot me” (v. 6). Here is another example of how having an abundance of material things is a strong temptation to depend on oneself instead of on God. It often produces a subtle erosion of spiritual vitality. Therefore, God promised to destroy them, “for you are against me, against your helper” (v. 9). In the middle of the description of their judgment, however, God seems to provide a peek into future hope for them: “I shall ransom them from the power of Sheol” (v. 14). Paul quotes from part of this verse in speaking of the yet future resurrection, when he asks, “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” (1 Cor. 15:55). There often seems to be a struggle between God’s justice and His mercy: He must punish sin, but He longs to save.
August 21, Friday
Reading B233 — Hosea 14 — God’s Final Call Audio: Hosea 14 (ESV)
An audio recording of the following comments is available below:
Appeals and Promises — The book of Hosea closes with an appeal and a promise from God. What Israel should do was to “return,” which is mentioned three times in this chapter. Israel was then told how they were to return. The four steps were to ask God for forgiveness (“Take away all iniquity”—v. 2a), to keep their promises to God (“we will pay with bulls the vows of our lips”—v. 2b), to stop depending on human strength (“Assyria shall not save us”—v. 3a), and to stop worshiping idols (“we will say no more, ‘Our God,’ to the work of our hands”—v. 3b). Those same steps can apply to any of us today who stray away from God: confession, obedience, dependance on God, and genuine worship. The chapter then ends with God’s promises to Israel. He would heal and love them (v. 4); He would water and nourish them (v. 5); He would cause them to spread out (v. 6); and He would accept them back to dwell with Him in their land (v. 7). God continues today to appeal to those outside His kingdom and to those who have strayed away, and He continues to promise eternal benefits to those who are wise and respond in understanding (v. 9).
August 22, Saturday
Reading B234 — Isaiah 28 — Warning Israel and Judah Audio: Isaiah 28 (ESV)
An audio recording of the following comments is available below:
Pride and Straying — In this chapter, God warns both Israel (Ephraim) and Judah that disaster awaits their continued disobedience. The first four verses focus on Samaria, “the proud crown of … Ephraim” (v. 1), that does not recognize that they are a “fading flower … [of their former] glorious beauty” (v. 1b). As Solomon had earlier warned, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Prov. 16:18). At the end of that warning, God revealed a promised future hope: “In that day the LORD of hosts will be a crown of glory … to the remnant of his people” (Isa. 28:5). In most of the rest of the chapter, Judah is in view with its priests and prophets who have strayed from the “precepts” of God’s Word (vv. 10, 13), “stumble in giving judgment” (v. 7), and have lost the ability to “teach knowledge, and … explain the message” (v. 9). Whenever we stray away from the sure footing of the foundation of God’s truth, we enter the quicksand of human reason. In the future, God would bring His message through people “with a foreign tongue” (v. 11) and “give rest to the weary” (v. 12) after the Messiah would come as “a precious cornerstone … a sure foundation” (v. 16). Judah had “made a covenant with death” (v. 15a), asking Egypt to protect them from the “overwhelming whip” (v. 15b) of Assyria. Conscious attention on God and His Word will also keep us from pride and dependence on purely human solutions.
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