Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Evening Sermon Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/ev/ev20080224.htm

THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION
Hosea: God's BALANCE Of Judging And Blessing His People
Part XIII: God's Need To Judge A Materialistic Value System
(Hosea 10:1-15)
  1. Introduction
    1. Materialism, the belief that welfare exists solely in owning material goods, is not only a common view in the highly industrialized nations, but is claiming worldwide adherents due to the globalization of trade.
    2. However, materialism is a great spiritual vice, a plague on the moral fiber of any people, and Hosea 10:1-15 reveals this truth, and shows God's need to judge it (as follows):
  2. God's Need To Judge A Materialistic Value System, Hosea 10:1-15.
    1. In Hosea 10:1-4, the prophet, Hosea traced a series of cause-and-effect developments, showing how the plague of materialism had led the nation Israel into social anarchy and moral deterioration (as follows):
      1. Israel as a spreading (NIV) or luxuriant (ESV) grapevine yielded material fruits for herself, Hos. 10:1a.
      2. However, the more produce the nation gained, the more she ceased trusting God as the Source of that gain, so Israel increased in idolatry in direct proportion to her increase in material goods, Hosea 10:1b.
      3. This evident falsehood of heart would be judged of the Lord, Hosea 10:2-3:
        1. God promised to destroy Israel's false altars and pillars to which the nation had turned, Hosea 10:2.
        2. In the process, they would lose even their king due to the invasion of Gentiles, coming to realize it as God's judgment for failing to revere the Lord, Hosea 10:3; Bible Know. Com., O. T. , p. 1400.
      4. However, in addition to turning from God to idols due to her growing materialism, there was a breakdown in Israel's social order due to a lack of personal accountability to God, Hosea 10:4:
        1. Hosea noted individuals in Israel uttered empty oaths as they lied in business transactions to gain the advantage of one another in their quest for gain, Hosea 10:4a. Such deceit arose out of a lack of a sense of accountability to the Lord from Whom they had departed (cf. Deuteronomy 17:19-20 where a reverence for God in a king preserves law and order in his realm).
        2. Consequently, due to the resulting lack of trust that sprang from this, lawsuits abounded, poisoning the social structure, Hosea 10:4b: (1) Due to the false oaths many had made to gain personal advantage (10:4a), lawsuits had sprung up "like poisonous weeds in a plowed field," 10:4b NIV. (2) Poisonous weeds render a field bad for good crops, requiring a field to be re-plowed; thus, the social structure was poisoned against edifying living due to the distrust that was rampant in society!
    2. Accordingly, God had no choice but to judge (re-plow) the nation Israel, Hosea 10:5-15:
      1. Since Israel had turned notably to the false golden calves of Jeroboam in her apostasy (1 Kings 12:26-33), God would judge those idols to be taken from Israel in the Assyrian invasion, making it evident that these gods could not save, and that they were false gods much to Israel's shame, 10:5-6.
      2. Israel's king would perish like a little twig on the water is washed away by the flood of Assyrian invaders (10:7), and "Aven", meaning "iniquity" God's mock-name for Bethel, initially "house of God" the place of idolatry, would see its altars grown over with thorns and thistles, and even the people of Israel would call for the mountains and hills to cover them from trouble, Hosea 10:8. [This latter prediction will be fulfilled in its fullest sense in the coming Great Tribulation, cf. Revelation 6:16.]
      3. As Israel had badly sinned since the Gibeah atrocity that had led to civil war (cf. Judges 19-20), God would judge the nation by invading nations like Gibeah had been punished in that war, Hos. 10:9-10.
      4. God desired to make life difficult for Israel in judgment unlike the ease she had enjoyed in blessing (Hosea 10:11), so Hosea called the nation to repent to see God return to blessing her, Hosea 10:12.
      5. However, the nation would not repent, but continue in her deceitful, self-supportive ways of sin, so God would judge Israel to be invaded opposite her false trust in her soldiers, and Israel would experience atrocities against its people and king in an Assyrian invasion, Hosea 10:13-15.
Lesson: A rising trust in material goods had led Israel to depart from trusting the Lord; that had produced a lack of personal accountability to God, and that in turn had released the depravity of the human heart to express itself in selfish deceit to the ruin of social order and resulting divine judgment.

Application: May we NEVER HOPE in MATERIAL GAIN, but REVERE and CLEAVE unto GOD!