Ephraim once had moments of faithfulness. Joshua was an Ephraimite; Samuel ministered in Ephraim; Ephraim helped oppose wickedness in Judges. Yet Ephraim later exalted itself and fell into Baal worship.

This fall is seen most clearly in Jeroboam, who was also from Ephraim and was the northern kingdom’s first king.

Jeroboam began well, serving Solomon faithfully. Because of Solomon’s idolatry, God gave Jeroboam the ten northern tribes, and we see this in 1 Kings 11. Jeroboam didn’t seize the kingdom; God handed it to him. But after receiving it, Jeroboam created a false religion—golden calves, new altars, new feasts—and led Israel into deeper sin. Thus Hosea’s words apply: Ephraim trembled, Ephraim rose, but Ephraim died in Baal worship.

Hosea 13:2-3 describes their idolatry:

And now they sin more and more, and have made them molten images of their silver, and idols according to their own understanding, all of it the work of the craftsmen: they say of them, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves.

Therefore they shall be as the morning cloud, and as the early dew that passeth away, as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney.

Let the men who pretend to worship God go ahead and kiss their golden calves — that’s the kind of worship they’ve chosen.

These molten images made“according to their own understanding” are examples of man‑made religion—people inventing gods from their imagination. Because of this, Israel will vanish like morning cloud, early dew, chaff in the wind, and smoke from a chimney—images of emptiness and disappearance.

Since God never revealed an image of Himself, any attempt to represent Him becomes man‑made religion—people inventing a god from their imagination and shaping it with their hands. This pattern appears throughout history: human wisdom replacing divine revelation.

Hosea 13:2 describes Israel’s idolatry: molten images “according to their own understanding.” Paul contrasts this in 1 Corinthians 1, where man’s wisdom stands against God’s wisdom.

Idolatry always reflects its makers. Whether carved statues or philosophical ideas, gods formed by human understanding mirror human values and desires. True worship requires God revealing Himself, not man imagining Him.

Therefore, Hosea says Israel will vanish like morning cloud, early dew, chaff in the wind, and smoke from a chimney—images of emptiness and disappearance. Their man‑made religion has no substance, and their nation will blow away under judgment.

Yet even here God declares hope. Hosea 13:4 declares that hope:

Yet I am the LORD thy God from the land of Egypt, and thou shalt know no god but me: for there is no saviour beside me.

God recalls their history—He brought them out of Egypt, sustained them in the wilderness, and revealed Himself as their only Saviour. Though judgment’s certain, God promises future restoration. Israel will one day know only Him, and He’ll be their King and Saviour when He returns.

God taught Israel His identity through His names:

– Jehovah — I AM, the eternal One in Exodus 3.

– Jehovah‑Jireh — The Lord who provides in Genesis 22.

– Jehovah‑Rapha — The Lord who heals in Exodus 15.

– Jehovah‑Nissi —The Lord our banner, giving victory only when they obeyed in Exodus 17.

– Jehovah‑M’Kaddesh — The Lord who sanctifies in Exodus 31.

– Jehovah‑Rohi — The Lord my shepherd in Psalm 23, leading Israel from the wilderness to green pastures, to Canaan.

– Jehovah‑Shalom — The Lord who sends peace in Judges 6.

– Jehovah‑Sabaoth — The Lord of hosts in Isaiah 1.

– Jehovah‑Yasha — The Lord who saves in Isaiah 49 and Hosea 13:4. This is the root of the names Joshua, Yeshua, and Jesus—all meaning salvation.

These names show God’s character: Provider, Healer, Victor, Sanctifier, Shepherd, Peace‑giver, Commander, and Saviour. Hosea 13 uses them to remind Israel of who God has always been.

When Hosea 13:4 declares, “Thou shalt know no God but Me; for there is no Saviour beside Me,” this’s Israel’s future salvation. Jeremiah 31 says that under the new covenant all Israel shall know the Lord. Hosea says the same: Israel will know only Jehovah, who is Jesus Christ in the flesh.

When Israel is saved, salvation flows to the nations, Isaiah 45 says. That’s prophecy. The mystery revealed later to the apostle Paul is how salvation goes to the nations while Israel’s still unsaved.

Now it may be that you’re thinking, “Come on, you’ve told us about this rejection, judgment and restoration over and over again.” Well, that’s true, but we need to see that this message consumes the prophetic books of the Bible and runs like a drumbeat through Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Amos, Micah, and the rest of the prophets.

Multiple independent studies estimate that between 27% and one third of the Bible is prophecy and that prophecy is about this very subject, Israel’s rejection of God, His judgment, and His restoration.

This includes:

The 17 Old Testament prophetic books, prophetic sections in historical books such as Deuteronomy 28–30, and 1st and 2nd Samuel, Kings and Chronicles. It includes prophetic Psalms, Jesus’ prophetic teaching (Matthew 24–25) and Revelation.

So, roughly, a staggering one in every four verses of the Bible is prophetic.

Now, how much of that prophecy deals with Israel’s rejection, judgment, and restoration?

Well, the vast majority of Old Testament prophecy follows this pattern:

Israel forsakes God (and falls into idolatry, injustice and false worship). God announces covenant judgment, like the Assyrian and Babylonian exiles, then God remembers His promises to Abraham & David and promises future restoration – return to the land, a new covenant, Messiah and kingdom.

This pattern dominates: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Micah, Zephaniah, Zechariah and Malachi.

These books are almost entirely structured around Israel’s rejection, judgment and restoration.

Even the historical books (Samuel, Kings, Chronicles) contain large prophetic sections built on the same pattern.

If we include prophetic sections in non‑prophetic books, the theme appears in well over one‑third of the Bible.

This is not an exaggeration — it’s the central foundation of the Old Testament prophets and a major framework of the New Testament.

The prophets are covenant enforcers.

Their job was to expose Israel’s sin, announce covenant curses, remind Israel of God’s promises and foretell the future restoration under the Messiah.

Israel repeatedly broke the covenant, and that’s why the prophetic books are largely devoted to explaining why judgment is coming and how restoration will follow.

So yes, we do labour over that theme because God does.

That theme is central to understanding life on planet Earth in the past, today and in the future.

Sadly, the majority of Christians today are ignorant of this.

If we don’t understand at least the basics of God and His dealings with Israel, we can never properly understand our own salvation and redemption in this dispensation of grace we live in today.

This is why we want to communicate these facts and, in so doing, be able to offer a much clearer picture of the Book of Romans that’s so essential for us to know as Christians.

So let’s put this into perspective.

We have this enormous weight of prophecy over 35% of the Bible, relating to the nation of Israel, and that weight of prophecy surrounds another period of the Bible that was never prophesied.

God always knew that this period would be a reality, but it was hidden in Him, hidden from all mankind, since before the foundation of the world.

That period, although made up of 2000 years, is tiny compared to the weight of prophecy that surrounds it. That period is the mystery that was revealed to the apostle Paul by the risen Christ Himself. It’s the now-revealed mystery of the Church, the Body of Christ, the New Creature, salvation to all men, Jew and Gentile, through grace by faith alone, without Israel, without covenants and without the law.

That mystery, now revealed, is the dispensation of grace that you and I live in today, and the one and only reason we can enjoy what that dispensation offers, salvation through faith alone, is because Israel failed to recognise the Messiah when He came.

They rejected their promised kingdom that was then at hand and ready for them to walk into. They did the same thing they’d always done, turned from God to their own understanding.

And before we start to develop a holier-than-thou attitude towards the Jewish people for their continual rejection of God, we need to take a look in a mirror because not one person on this planet could or would have done anything different to the Jews. That’s why salvation only comes by God’s grace through faith, because human works fall far short of God’s required standard.

The prophets taught plainly that Israel must be saved, and that God Himself will save them. When Israel is restored, God’s glory fills the earth, He dwells with them, and the nations are blessed. Yet Israel today is not saved and has rejected the Messiah.

Still, God sent Paul to preach salvation to all the nations. This is the mystery of Christ—salvation going to both Jews and Gentiles while national Israel remains in unbelief.

Now back to Hosea 13, but first, Joshua 24 records a formal covenant made in Shechem, near Ephraim, where Israel vowed to serve the Lord alone.

Joshua commands them: “Fear the Lord, serve Him in sincerity and truth, and put away the gods your fathers served.”

He challenges them to choose whom they’ll serve, declaring, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

The people agree, remembering God’s deliverance from Egypt and His preservation in the wilderness. Joshua warns them that God is holy and jealous; if they forsake Him for strange gods, He will judge them. They insist, “We will serve the Lord,” and Joshua makes them witnesses to their own promise.

He establishes statutes and ordinances, sealing the covenant in Shechem.

This covenant is crucial to Hosea 13.

Hosea 13:5 recalls Israel’s beginning:

I did know thee in the wilderness, in the land of great drought.

In Exodus, Israel had nothing—no food, no water, no idols—and God revealed Himself through miracles.

He fed them with manna, as Exodus 16:15 reveals. Moses said, “This is the bread which the Lord hath given you.” God told them He’d do it, then He did it. That is how Israel learned who He was.

Hosea shows that Israel will again be scattered, again be in a “wilderness” before the kingdom, and God will again reveal Himself. This is why future prophecy includes miracles before Christ returns—God repeats what He did at Israel’s first birth.

In Hosea 13:6, God says,

According to their pasture, so were they filled; they were filled, and their heart was exalted; therefore have they forgotten me.

Once Israel entered the pasture—the promised land—and was filled, “their heart was exalted; therefore have they forgotten me.” This repeats the warning of Deuteronomy 6:10–12: when God gives abundance and says Beware lest you forget Him.

Proverbs 30:8–9 echoes the danger of both poverty and riches—either can lead a person away from God.

Because Israel forgot Him, God says He will meet them “as a lion… a leopard… a bear”.

Hosea 13:7–8 reads,

Therefore I will be unto them as a lion: as a leopard by the way will I observe them:

I will meet them as a bear that is bereaved of her whelps, and will rend the caul of their heart, and there will I devour them like a lion: the wild beast shall tear them.

The “caul” refers to the membrane or covering around the heart — the inner layer that protects vital organs.

Here, it represents the innermost affections, emotions, and self‑confidence of a person.

When God says He’ll “rend” the caul of their heart, He’s saying He’ll tear open their inner security, exposing their deepest thoughts and destroying the false confidence that kept them from repentance.

These images reflect covenant curses in Leviticus 26:22, where God promised to send wild beasts as judgment.

Israel’s suffering is not random; it’s covenant reckoning.

Hosea 13:9 summarises the tragedy:

O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; but in me is thine help.

God was their helper. Psalm 121 says the Lord keeps Israel and never slumbers. Hosea’s marriage picture shows the same truth: Israel left the One who helped her.

Yet God continually promises hope in Hosea 13:10-11,

I will be thy king: where is any other that may save thee in all thy cities? and thy judges of whom thou saidst, Give me a king and princes?

I gave thee a king in mine anger, and took him away in my wrath.

Israel’s earthly kings failed, especially Jeroboam, whom God gave in anger and later removed in wrath, as 1 Kings 11–14 shows. God Himself will be their King when He returns.

Hosea 13:12 says,

The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up; his sin is hid.

Israel’s sin is “bound up”—like evidence sealed in a bag. Job said the exact same thing in  Job 14:17,

My transgression is sealed up in a bag, and thou sewest up mine iniquity.

God has preserved Israel’s guilt as evidence for judgment — not forgotten, not forgiven yet — but waiting for the day when He’ll expose it, punish it, and ultimately cleanse it through His mercy. Judgment must come.

Hosea 13:13 describes the “sorrows of a travailing woman,” pointing to the future “time of Jacob’s trouble” that Jeremiah 30:7 talks about. It reads,

The sorrows of a travailing woman shall come upon him: he is an unwise son; for he should not stay long in the place of the breaking forth of children.

In that tribulation, Israel will cry out like a woman in labour, says Isaiah 26:16–18, confessing they’ve failed and seeking deliverance. God promises resurrection in Isaiah 26:19,

Thy dead men shall live… with my dead body shall they arise.

Isaiah 26:20 promises,

Those who trust Him will be hidden until indignation [the tribulation] passes.

Then Hosea 13:14 declares:

I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.

Hosea 13:14 contains one of the most remarkable promises of God’s love and future grace toward Israel.

After chapters of judgment on the northern tribes—idolatry, exile, loss of king, and removal from the land—God suddenly speaks hope:

“I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death.”

This is astonishing because the nation’s been condemned, yet God remembers His covenant with their fathers and His promise to restore them to their land.

Hosea 13:14 reveals the voice of the Lord Jesus, the One who defeats death. God says, “O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction.”

This anticipates Christ’s death and resurrection, the only way God can destroy death and redeem Israel. The verse doesn’t explain how this will happen, but hindsight shows it required the cross.

Ezekiel 37 expands this promise. The dry bones prophecy represents “the whole house of Israel.” They confess, “Our bones are dried, our hope is lost.”

God answers: “I will open your graves and bring you into the land of Israel.”

This is a national resurrection, resurrection of the nation of Israel. When God raises them and puts His Spirit in them, as Ezekiel 37:14 states, then they will know Him.

This is new‑covenant language, matching Ezekiel 36 where God gives Israel a new heart and Spirit. Resurrection and restoration to the land occur together.

Hosea 6:1–2 gives the same pattern: Israel says, “He hath torn, and He will heal us… after two days will He revive us; in the third day He will raise us up.” Again, resurrection is tied to national healing and future life in God’s presence.

Paul explains the mechanics of resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15. Christ is “the firstfruits” of resurrection. Since death came by man, resurrection must also come by man—this is why God became flesh. Christ’s resurrection is the basis for all future resurrection, including Israel’s.

Paul says, “As in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” Every resurrection—yours, Israel’s, and the final resurrection—is possible only because Christ conquered death.

Paul also gives the order of resurrection: Christ first, then “they that are Christ’s at His coming.”

Christ’s coming for Israel occurs at the end of the tribulation, when He returns to establish the kingdom. At that moment, Israel is raised, restored, and placed in their land. After the kingdom, “then cometh the end,” when the dead are raised for final judgment, as stated in Revelation 20.

Hosea 13:14 fits perfectly into this timeline.

God promises to ransom Israel from the grave and redeem them from death. Their resurrection happens when Christ returns, just as Ezekiel and Hosea foretold.

Paul shows how Christ’s resurrection makes this possible. And God seals the promise with the words: “Repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.” He’ll not change His mind. Israel will be raised, restored, and redeemed exactly as He declared.

In 1 Corinthians 15, some believers questioned resurrection because Christians were dying and remaining dead.

Paul explains that resurrection has a timing: Christ rose first, then “they that are Christ’s at His coming,” and “then cometh the end.”

Resurrection doesn’t happen immediately when believers die; it happens when Christ returns. When we die as believers we will be with the Lord but the redemption of our bodies to immortality will occur at Christ’s return in the air to catch up the church that has both died before and is living at that time. That’s not His second coming. He doesn’t touch the earth at His next appearance. That’s the rapture.

Paul shows that Christ must reign until all enemies are under His feet, and the last enemy destroyed is death, as 1 Corinthians 15:24–26 states. Christ defeated death at the cross, but death will only be destroyed in the future kingdom.

Isaiah 25 describes that kingdom.

On Mount Zion, the Lord prepares a feast for all people – Isaiah 25:6. This mountain is identified in Isaiah 24:23 as Jerusalem, where the Lord reigns. In that kingdom, God removes the veil over the nations and swallows up death in victory – Isaiah 25:7–8.

He wipes away tears and removes Israel’s reproach. The people say, “This is our God; we have waited for Him.”

This is Christ reigning on earth, defeating His enemies, and bringing salvation to Israel.

Revelation 20–21 shows the final sequence.

Christ reigns for 1,000 years with Israel. At the end of that period, the Great White Throne judgment occurs, where the dead are raised and judged. Then death and hell are cast into the lake of fire – Revelation 20:14. Only after this destruction of death does Revelation 21 describe the new heaven, new earth, and New Jerusalem descending.

God dwells with His people, wipes away all tears, and declares, “there shall be no more death” – Revelation 21:4.

This can’t happen earlier, because death still exists during the kingdom. Only after the second death is destroyed can death be gone forever.

Israel’s resurrection occurs when Christ returns to establish the kingdom, just as Ezekiel 37 and Hosea 6 describe.

Ezekiel 37 says God will open Israel’s graves, raise them, give them His Spirit, and place them in their land.

Hosea 6 says He’ll heal and revive them on the “third day.” Paul explains how this is possible: Christ is the firstfruits of resurrection, and all resurrection—ours, Israel’s, and the final resurrection—comes through Him – 1 Corinthians 15:20–23.

Paul’s order is clear: Christ first, then His people at His coming, then the end, when death is destroyed. Only then does the promise of “no more death” become reality.

Hosea’s prophecy fits this timeline: God will redeem Israel from death when Christ returns, and He’ll not change His mind—“repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.”

Many Christians assume sin and death were eliminated at the cross, but Paul teaches that Christ’s work began the solution, not its completion.

Sin still exists, and people still die. The end—when death is destroyed—comes only after Christ returns and reigns – 1 Corinthians 15:24–26. He defeated death at the cross, but He’ll destroy it in the kingdom.

Hosea condemns the northern tribes for rebellion; their removal by Assyria has already happened. But Hosea also promises their future salvation, which has not yet happened. Christ has come once, but He’s not yet raised Israel from their graves or brought them into their land. Paul says, “All Israel shall be saved” in Rom. 11:26, but only after this present time.

Hosea 13:15  then prophesies the dreadful destruction of Israel and Samaria by the cruel Assyrians (“an east wind”). It reads,

Though he be fruitful among his brethren, an east wind shall come, the wind of the LORD shall come up from the wilderness, and his spring shall become dry, and his fountain shall be dried up: he shall spoil the treasure of all pleasant vessels.

Ephraim—“fruitful”—will be struck by an east wind, the wind of the Lord, drying up their springs and their riches. This east wind appears throughout Scripture as God’s action: dividing the Red Sea in Exodus 14, withering Jonah’s plant in Jonah 4. It symbolises God’s judgment and His coming from the east.

Hosea 13:16 says,

Samaria shall become desolate; for she hath rebelled against her God: they shall fall by the sword: their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and their women with child shall be ripped up.

This declares that Samaria will become desolate for rebelling against God.

The northern tribes will fall by the sword of Assyria. Even though God promises future resurrection, the covenant requires judgment first. Faithful Israelites in Ephraim would have to flee and trust God as their refuge, knowing He would save the remnant.

This verse contains disturbing language: infants dashed to pieces and pregnant women ripped up.

Passages like this, and Psalm 137:9, are often used to accuse God of cruelty.

But Scripture shows these acts were committed by wicked men, not commanded or performed by God.

Psalm 137 describes Babylon’s violence against Israel and asks God to repay Babylon as they did to Israel. It’s an appeal to covenant justice, not a divine instruction to kill children.

Hosea 13:16 predicts what Assyria will do to Samaria.

God’s not wielding the sword; He’s withdrawing protection because Israel rejected Him.

Hosea 10:14–15 recalls Shalman, an Assyrian commander, who “dashed the mother upon the children.”

Amos 1:13 condemns the Ammonites for ripping open pregnant women. God judges these nations for such cruelty; He doesn’t endorse their actions.

Even Israel’s own king, Menahem, committed these atrocities, as 2 Kings 15:16 states. God calls him evil and later removes Israel’s kings entirely. The question is not “Why does God do this?” but “Why does God allow wicked men to act?”

Hosea’s message is that Israel’s covenant rebellion caused God to step back, allowing enemies to do what they naturally do.

Judgment comes because Israel refused repentance and rejected God’s protection.

God’s justice is righteous and impartial.

Human judgment is flawed because we’re sinners ourselves. Scripture teaches that none are righteous. God doesn’t judge based on personal status—He judges deeds.

When He allows judgment, it’s because a nation has continually rejected His long‑suffering.

And yet God’s justice is never the final word.

Jeremiah writes in Lamentations 3:31–33, “The Lord will not cast off forever… yet will He have compassion”.

Paul says in Romans 11:2, “God hath not cast away His people”.

Israel’s suffering under Assyria was real, but temporary. God promises future restoration, resurrection, and salvation. Hosea’s harsh imagery reflects the reality of human evil and the seriousness of covenant judgment—but also the certainty that God’s mercy will prevail after justice is fulfilled.

Hosea ends with both justice and hope.

The northern kingdom will fall, but God will keep His promise to redeem them, raise them, and restore them, after judgment, in His future kingdom, when Christ destroys death itself.

May God bless you with the knowledge of the sure and certain hope of Resurrection and the glorification of these sin-affected human bodies.

Hosea 11 begins a new emphasis: God’s love for Israel and His plan to restore them.

Though He must judge them according to the covenant, He will, by grace, bring them back to the land.

Chapters 11–14 look forward to Israel’s future salvation and the New Covenant, where God Himself repairs what their sin has ruined.

Hosea 11:1 says,

WHEN Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.

Matthew 2:15 quotes this when describing Jesus’ flight to and His return from Egypt: “Out of Egypt have I called my son.”

In the Old Testament, Israel as a nation was brought out of Egypt under Moses. In Matthew, the same language is applied to Jesus, who as a child is taken to Egypt and later brought back. Both Israel and Christ are called “my son” and both are brought out of Egypt, showing a pattern: God’s chosen one is delivered from bondage to serve Him.

Matthew’s wording is not an exact quotation of Hosea’s Hebrew text, and that’s not a problem. Matthew’s not trying to reproduce Hosea word‑for‑word; he’s showing that the event in Jesus’ life fits the prophetic pattern revealed in Hosea.

God inspired both Hosea and Matthew; Matthew had the Scriptures , he had the book of Hosea, and he freely referenced Hosea’s meaning. We often do the same when we summarise a verse’s teaching without quoting it exactly. The point is that God’s Son—Israel in type, Christ in fullness—is loved, called out of Egypt, and central to God’s plan to judge, then restore, His people.

Hosea reminds Israel that their story began with God’s love. “When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.” This refers first to the nation. God brought them out of Egypt, called them His firstborn son in Exodus 4:22, and gave them His law: “I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt.”

The commandments were given to Israel because God had redeemed them.

Israel was often refreed to by God as one man—Jacob, the nation—God’s son, God’s servant.

Israel is God’s son by covenant; Jesus is God’s Son by nature, the only begotten as John 3:16 descibes. Both are chosen, both are anointed, both descend from Abraham, and both will return in glory.

The prophets often link Israel and its Messiah. Isaiah 49 calls the Servant “Israel,” yet clearly speaks of Christ. Jesus is the true Israel in the sense that He embodies what Israel was meant to be.

Hosea 11 begins the section where God reveals His heart toward His people. After chapters of accusation and judgment, God speaks as a grieving Father. Israel has departed from Him, but He remembers the early days—the wilderness, the deliverance, the love He showed them. Hosea is often called the book of the Lord’s passion because here God expresses sorrow over His lost son.

Hosea 11:2 shows the problem:

As they called them, so they went from them: they sacrificed unto Baalim, and burned incense to graven images.

God called Israel out of Egypt not only physically but spiritually—to leave idolatry and serve Him alone. Yet from the beginning they turned away. While Moses was on the mountain, they made a golden calf. Now, in Hosea’s day, they repeat the same sins.

The prophets call them back, but Israel moves farther away. They sacrifice to Baalim and burn incense to graven images, breaking the first two commandments: no other gods, no carved images.

God’s love is unreturned. He calls; they flee. He delivers; they worship idols. He sends prophets; they reject them.

Hosea shows God as a Father watching His son walk away, not merely leaving the house but abandoning His ways, His truth, and His covenant.

Israel’s departure is not ignorance—it is rebellion.

They’ve forgotten the God who loved them as a child and brought them out of bondage.

Hosea 11 marks the turning point: judgment is deserved, but God’s love remains. He’ll discipline them; He has to, yet He’ll also restore them. The chapter opens with the memory of Egypt to show that the same God who once redeemed Israel will redeem them again. The Father who called His son out of Egypt will call him home once more.

God pictures Himself as a Father who loved Israel from the beginning.

Hosea 11:3 says, God speaking,

I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms; but they knew not that I healed them.

God’s describing Israel as a small child learning to walk. He held them up, steadied them, protected them, and healed them. Yet the child never understood who was helping him.

This is Israel in the wilderness: God healed their diseases in Exodus 15:26, sweetened bitter water, fed them with manna, and protected them from enemies. But each time He blessed them, they complained or turned to sin.

The Old Testament shows God’s long‑suffering love again and again.

In Hosea 11:4, God says,

I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love: and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them.

God led Israel gently, not as a harsh master.

His law was meant for their good, like a parent giving rules to protect a child. Exodus 19:4 says He bore them “on eagles’ wings.”

Deuteronomy 1:31 says He carried them “as a man doth bear his son.” Deuteronomy 32 describes Him guarding Israel as “the apple of his eye,” like an eagle caring for its young.

Isaiah 63 recalls His lovingkindness, mercy, and pity as He redeemed and carried them. God, through Hosea, reminds Israel of this history: God removed their yoke, fed them, protected them, and treated them with tenderness.

But Israel has forgotten.

They now serve idols, trust in themselves, and give God only lip service. The same people God carried through the wilderness now reject Him in prosperity. Hosea shows the contrast: God’s faithful love versus Israel’s unfaithfulness.

In Hosea 11:5, God then says,

He shall not return into the land of Egypt, but the Assyrian shall be his king, because they refused to return.

Israel longed for Egypt in the wilderness, wanting to go back to bondage.

Now, in Hosea’s day, they again refuse to return to God.

So God says they won’t go back to Egypt, but they’ll fall under Assyria. Assyria is called “the rod of mine anger” in Isaiah 10:5.

If Israel rejects the loving Father who freed them, they’ll serve a cruel king instead. Egypt enslaved them; Assyria will destroy them. God’s saying, “If you refuse My care, you’ll face the ruler you’ve chosen.”

Hosea 11:6 says,

And the sword shall abide on his cities, and shall consume his branches, and devour them, because of their own counsels.

Israel refused to return to God.

Prophets called, and God Himself called, but they chose their own way. Their downfall is not fate—it’s the fruit of their decisions.

Hosea 11:7 says,

And my people are bent to backsliding from me: though they [the prophets] called them to the most High, none at all would exalt him.

Backsliding means moving away from God after being set on the right path.

Israel was called out of Egypt and placed on the road to the kingdom God promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

When God said “return,” they went the opposite direction. Backsliding’s not simply sin; it’s refusing God’s call to come back. It’s a relapse into old ways, walking after the imagination of their own heart instead of God’s revealed will.

This term, backsliding, belongs to Israel under the covenant.

They had a destination—the promised land, the kingdom—and they had to walk the straight path God laid out.

When they turned aside, God called them back. When they refused, they were “backsliding.”

The church, the Body of Christ today, however, is placed in Christ by grace. We don’t walk into our position; God puts us there. We may sin, fail, or wander, but we can’t “backslide” out of Christ.

Israel could lose their kingdom; we can’t lose our standing in Him. We did nothing ourselves to get us into that position in the first place!

Hosea 11:2 already pictured this: “They called them, so they went from them.” That’s backsliding—moving away when God calls them to draw near to Him.

Jeremiah gives the clearest definition.

Jeremiah 3:6–7 says Israel went to every high place to worship idols. God said, “Turn unto me,” but she did not return. Jeremiah 3:17 says backsliding is Israel walking after the imagination of their own evil heart.

Under Israel’s covenant, backsliding meant failing to reach the promised destination.

Jesus warned Israel in Matthew 7:14 that the way to life is narrow—if they turn aside, they’ll not find it.

Jeremiah 3:21 says they “perverted their way” and “forgot the Lord.” Jeremiah 3:22 shows God’s heart: “Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings.” Hosea 14 will echo this promise.

Jeremiah 8:5–6 describes perpetual backsliding: they hold fast deceit, refuse to return, never asking, “What have I done?” and they rush ahead on their own course. They do not consider God’s will.

This is Israel’s condition in Hosea’s day—they’re not merely sinning; they’re rejecting God’s call to repent.

There’s a parallel here for today: many believers pursue their own plans and call them God’s will, without knowing Scripture. God’s will for the church is clear—thankfulness, holiness, evangelism, truth, and making all men see the fellowship of the mystery.

But people often want a private message for their personal situation rather than the revealed will of God.

Jude 5 reminds Israel that God saved the people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not continue with Him. They were redeemed from Egypt, yet never entered the land because they turned back. This is why preachers sometimes use these passages to teach loss of salvation.

It’s true for Israel under the covenant, but it is not true for the church. Believers today are placed into Christ by grace, not by walking a path. We can’t “backslide” out of Christ, even though we can certainly sin and wander away from God’s word.

Revelation 2:16 shows the seriousness of Israel’s position:

Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth.

If Israel refuses to return, they lose the kingdom and every covenant promise. This is very different from the body of Christ, which is not under a covenant of land, kingdom, or national restoration.

God still calls Israel “my people.”

Hosea 11:8 shows God’s own inner struggle:

How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee, Israel? how shall I make thee as Admah? how shall I set thee as Zeboim? mine heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together.

These were cities destroyed with Sodom and Gomorrah.

God’s asking, “How can I treat you like those places? How can I hand you over to destruction?”

Hosea 11:9 continues to display God’s struggle,

 I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man; the Holy One in the midst of thee: and I will not enter into the city.

Hosea 11:8–9 reaches the emotional centre of the book.

God recalls the destruction of Admah and Zeboiim, two cities wiped out alongside Sodom and Gomorrah, and we see that in Genesis 14:2 and Genesis 19:17–25.

The whole valley was once lush, like “the garden of the Lord”, as Genesis 13:10 says, yet four of its five cities were completely destroyed.

Only Zoar survived because Lot pleaded for it. When God says, “How shall I make thee as Admah? How shall I set thee as Zeboiim?” He’s saying, “How can I treat you like those cities that vanished forever?”

Israel deserves that level of judgment, but God can’t do it because He made promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

This is the heart‑cry of God spoken through Hosea: God’s justice demands judgment, but His covenant love restrains Him. “Mine heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together.”

God’s not repenting of sin—He has none. He’s changing His course of action because His love and His promises compel Him.

Repentance in Scripture means a change of mind or heart, often with deep feeling. If repentance meant “stop sinning,” God could never repent. Instead, He’s turning from total destruction to future restoration.

Israel’s heart’s hard, but God’s heart is always toward restoration and His desire to bless.

They refuse to return; He refuses to abandon them. Their backsliding is stubborn, but His faithfulness is stronger. This contrast is the point: Israel’s heart doesn’t move, but God’s heart does.

This tension appears throughout Scripture.

Hosea 11 shows God wrestling with His own attributes: His holiness demands judgment, His love demands mercy, and His faithfulness demands future restoration. He remembers Israel as His son, remembers carrying them, feeding them, healing them, teaching them to walk.

Now He sees their rebellion, yet he still calls them “my people.” Judgment must come, but annihilation can’t. He can’t make them like Admah and Zeboiim.

Hosea 11 echoes the tenderness of verses 1–4:

God loved Israel as a child, taught them to walk, carried them, fed them, and healed them. Now He says, “My people are bent to backsliding,” but they’re still His. This reveals His grief and compassion. He remembers the love He had for them in the wilderness.

Repentance for humans is also inward—a change of mind and heart.

It’s not stopping sin to earn salvation. Salvation today is by trusting Christ’s finished work. We must know we’re a sinner and believe Christ died for our sins; that change of mind is repentance. After salvation, believers still repent as their understanding grows and their mind is changed and conformed to Christ.

In Hosea, God’s repentance is His inward turning from total destruction toward mercy.

Israel’s repentance would be their turning back to Him. God’s heart burns with grief because they’ll not return, yet He won’t cast them off forever. Judgment will come, but restoration’ll follow, because He’s faithful to His promises and His love for His son, Israel, endures.

But Israel refused to return, choosing their own counsels, idols, and the imagination of their own hearts. Their backsliding means they’re going the wrong way when God calls them to come back.

Because they won’t return, the Assyrian will be their king. God will judge, but not with total destruction.

Scripture shows God repenting in this sense: Genesis 6:6 before the flood; Exodus 32 when Moses intercedes; 1 Samuel 15 when Saul is rejected. God never repents of His promises, as we see in Numbers 23:19, which says,

God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?

Romans 11:29 echoes this,

For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.

He may change His dealings with people, giving mercy or withholding it, but He never lies or breaks covenant.

Hosea 11:10 goes on to say,

They shall walk after the LORD: he shall roar like a lion: when he shall roar, then the children shall tremble from the west.

Israel will “walk after the Lord” instead of backsliding. He’ll “roar like a lion,” a picture of Christ’s second coming from Joel 3:16 which says,

The LORD also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the LORD will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.

Revelation 5:5 also depicts this,

And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.

His roar brings justice for the nations but hope and strength for Israel. The trembling of the children is not terror but awe at the Holy One who finally comes to save them, like Habakkuk’s trembling with joy in Habakkuk 3:16–19.

Hosea 11:11 promises,

They shall tremble as a bird out of Egypt, and as a dove out of the land of Assyria: and I will place them in their houses, saith the LORD.

Verse 11 promises God will gather His people from Egypt, Assyria, and every direction, placing them back in their own houses in the land. This is earthly restoration, not heaven.

Isaiah 11:11 says the Lord will recover Israel “the second time,” bringing home the remnant. Even if men lose track of the tribes, God has not. He knows where His people are, and He will call them back.

Hosea 11:12 says,

Ephraim compasseth me about with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit: but Judah yet ruleth with God, and is faithful with the saints.

Verse 12 describes the present condition: Ephraim surrounds God with lies and deceit, yet Judah still “rules with God”. This is most likely referring to Hezekiah’s faithfulness.

Judah still had a few good kings in the southern kingdom, but there were none in the northern kingdom. Some of the northern kings made an outward profession of following God, but they were using lies and deceit. Though Judah was in a better place than Israel, God still made the promises with full knowledge of their present state, and even Judah would soon fall, as Jeremiah later shows.

Hosea 11 reveals God’s heart: despite Israel’s sin and backsliding, He’ll not abandon His covenant. He’ll judge, but He’ll also save, restore, and dwell among them as their Holy One.

God bless you all until we open up Hosea 12 in the next episode.

Hosea 9:2 says

The floor and the winepress shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail in her.

Their prosperity, gained through wickedness, will vanish.

Just like people today who mistake material success for God’s approval, Israel did not know Scripture well enough to see judgment coming.

Hosea 9:3 then states,

They shall not dwell in the LORD’s land; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean things in Assyria.

The land God promised through Joshua will be lost.

Because of their adultery, the people would go into captivity—not literally to Egypt, but to captivity in Assyria similar to their bondage in Egypt. God’s reminding them of their early days — when they rejoiced entering the land, receiving their inheritance, and worshipping according to His covenant. Now they’ll be expelled, just as their fathers once desired to return to Egypt when they were in the wilderness, in sight of the promised land. Their love for the unclean leads them to an unclean land.

Hosea 9:4 says,

They shall not offer wine offerings to the LORD, neither shall they be pleasing unto him: their sacrifices shall be unto them as the bread of mourners; all that eat thereof shall be polluted: for their bread for their soul shall not come into the house of the LORD.

They’ll no longer offer wine offerings to the Lord.

Proverbs 21:27 says the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination. Israel can’t worship correctly outside the land, because their covenant required worship in the place God chose — Jerusalem and the temple. Unlike the church today, which can worship anywhere, Israel’s covenant worship was tied to the land. Any offering outside that place becomes sin. Even a perfectly built temple in another country would be an abomination. God’s judgment removes their ability to worship because He removes the place where worship must occur.

Daily temple worship included bread and wine offerings. Bread was set before the Lord in the place He chose. But if Israel offered bread anywhere else, it was no longer for God. Outside the covenant and outside the land, it became ordinary food. Hosea calls it “the bread of mourners” — funeral bread — because the whole house of Israel was spiritually dead.

Bread of mourners means food made unclean by contact with death, food that can’t be offered to God. It’s a symbol of spiritual death and rejected worship.

Hosea uses it to show that Israel’s sacrifices are worthless because the nation itself is unclean and dying. Their worship has become funeral food.

Their offerings were polluted since they couldn’t come into the Lord’s house. Bread offered “for their soul” was supposed to make them right with God, but outside the land it became unclean.

Hosea 9:5 asks the natural question:

What will ye do in the solemn day, and in the day of the feast of the LORD?

This is a carry-over from the last verse.

Israel’s feasts required being in the land. Leviticus 23:10 says, “When ye be come into the land… then ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits.”

Every feast depended on the fruit of the land. Without the land, there’s no harvest, and without the harvest, there’s no feast. Attempts to imitate or spiritualise these feasts outside the land break the law. Israel had no land, no temple, and therefore no holy days. Even their false northern shrines were destroyed. Any attempt to keep the feasts outside the land was polluted.

Hosea 9:6 explains why:

For, lo, they are gone because of destruction: Egypt shall gather them up, Memphis shall bury them: the pleasant places for their silver, nettles shall possess them: thorns shall be in their tabernacles.

Destruction removed everything. The land was ruined, the places of worship gone, and the people carried away. Egypt would gather them; Memphis would bury them, which means Israel will be taken away into foreign captivity, just like Egypt once held them.

Their nation will be buried in ruin, like the dead buried in Memphis. Memphis was a major Egyptian city famous for its necropolis, its massive burial grounds and its association with death, tombs, and funerals.

Their land, temples, and homes will become overgrown, abandoned, and lifeless.

It’s Hosea’s vivid way of saying: Your nation will be uprooted and destroyed.

Their pleasant houses and silver‑adorned temples would be overtaken by nettles and thorns, like an abandoned farmhouse that gets swallowed by the earth. Israel’s sacred places would decay because no one remained to worship.

Deuteronomy 16 reinforces this truth.

Israel’s feasts required the right calendar, the right land, and the right temple. Passover itself could only be kept in the land God brought them to. They had to sacrifice the Passover lamb in the temple — the place the Lord chose, not a place they chose. Jews today acknowledge this, saying “next year in Jerusalem,” because they know they can’t keep Passover according to the law without the temple.

Deuteronomy also shows that the feasts involved the whole community — sons, daughters, servants, Levites, strangers, widows — all gathered in the place God chose. The coastlines of the land were part of the command.

Outside the land, the feasts can’t be kept. Israel’s covenant worship was tied to the land, and leaving the land meant leaving worship according to the covenant.

The law says the flesh of the Passover sacrifice may not remain overnight, and then adds, “Thou mayest not sacrifice the Passover within any of thy gates… but at the place which the Lord thy God shall choose to place his name.”

Twice God stresses the place. This means no Jew — even one zealous for tradition — can keep Passover according to the law unless he’s in the land and at the temple.

The same is true for the Feast of Weeks.

Deuteronomy 16 says Israel must bring offerings to the priesthood. Without priests and without the temple, the feast can’t be kept. These feasts were times of rejoicing, commanded celebrations. But Hosea 9 says, “Rejoice not, O Israel,” because they’re being removed from the land. God ends their false worship by taking away the only place where true worship can occur.

God cares about places.

In this dispensation of grace that we live in today, He works differently, but He’s the same God, and His covenant with Israel tied worship to the land He sanctified. They were to remember their deliverance from Egypt in the land, not outside of it.

Three times a year, all males had to appear before the Lord in Jerusalem for the feasts of Unleavened Bread, Weeks, and Tabernacles. They can’t do this today.

Solomon’s prayer in 2 Chronicles 6–7 confirms God chose Jerusalem and the temple as His dwelling. He says, “My name shall be there… my eyes and my heart shall be there perpetually.” This was not about churches or nations today — it was spoken about Israel.

The northern tribes rejected this.

They built their own places of worship in direct defiance of God, even trying to keep people from going to Jerusalem, but even those places became centres of idolatry.

Zechariah 14 shows that in Israel’s future kingdom, even Gentiles must go to Jerusalem to worship the King and keep the Feast of Tabernacles. No nation will keep these feasts in its own land; they must go to the place God chose.

Psalm 137 shows the sorrow of exile.

Psalm 137:1 begins by showing that it’s referring to the Babylonian captivity of the Southern nation,

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.

Then, in verse 4, it demonstrates the point,

“How shall we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?”

Israel could not rejoice because they were removed from the place God blessed. Their songs belonged to Zion, not Babylon or Assyria. Losing the land meant losing worship, joy, and identity.

Hosea 9:7 declares,

The days of visitation are come, the days of recompence are come; Israel shall know it: the prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad, for the multitude of thine iniquity, and the great hatred.

This is the moment when God finally visits the sins Israel assumed He’d forgotten. Isaiah 10:3 asks, “What will ye do in the day of visitation?” — the day when desolation arrives from afar, and no one can flee for help.

God had waited for repentance, but Israel refused, so now He remembers their iniquity and judges it. Hosea 9:9 repeats the warning:

They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah: therefore he will remember their iniquity, he will visit their sins.

The prophets consistently describe this visitation as God returning to Israel the fruit of their deeds.

Micah describes the same crisis. In Micah 7:4 we see,

The day of thy watchmen and thy visitation cometh; now shall be their perplexity.

The nation is so morally ruined that even family bonds collapse — sons dishonour fathers, daughters rise against mothers, and a man’s enemies are in his own house. It mirrors the days before the flood when imaginations were evil continually. Micah paints a picture of a society where trust is gone, relationships are broken, and wickedness fills the land.

Yet Micah shows the heart of the faithful remnant.

In verse 7, he says, “I will look unto the Lord; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me.”

Though judgment’s coming on the land he lives in, Micah trusts God’s righteousness. He accepts God’s indignation because he too has sinned, but he knows the Lord will plead his cause and bring him to the light. This humble posture reflects the spirit of Christ, who entered a wicked world, bore indignation, and was brought forth in righteousness.

Micah 7:8–9 shows this hope: “When I fall, I shall arise… I will bear the indignation of the Lord… he will bring me forth to the light.”

Micah knows God’s just yet merciful to those who trust Him. His attitude shows how a believer responds when judgment falls on the nation around him — by waiting on the Lord, not resisting His righteous dealings.

Micah 7:12–13 continues, saying,

In that day also he shall come even to thee from Assyria, and from the fortified cities, and from the fortress even to the river, and from sea to sea, and from mountain to mountain.

Notwithstanding the land shall be desolate because of them that dwell therein, for the fruit of their doings.

Assyria will come from fortified cities, from sea to sea, and the land will be desolate because of Israel’s deeds.

Hosea and Micah agree — their sin brings removal from the land. The “day of recompense” is simply the harvest of what they’ve sown.

Isaiah 34:8 calls it “the day of the Lord’s vengeance, and the year of recompense for the controversy of Zion.”

Isaiah 35 tells the faithful not to fear, for God’s vengeance will save them from wicked men. When He comes, the blind see, the deaf hear, and the lame leap — signs Jesus performed at His first coming.

His miracles were foretastes of the visitation Isaiah promised. Jesus said He came first to save, not to condemn, but He also said the Father has given Him all judgment, and when He returns, He’ll execute it.

Isaiah foresaw both salvation and vengeance.

The prophets warn that when God visits sin, the wicked fall, but the faithful — like Micah — look to the Lord and find light in the midst of darkness.

In Luke 21:22, Jesus says, “These be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.”

He’s foretelling the destruction of Jerusalem.

He warns that there’ll be great distress in the land and wrath upon this people. Many will fall by the sword, many will be led captive into all nations, and Jerusalem will be trodden down by Gentiles until their time is finished.

This destruction came exactly as He said, and just as Hosea foretold the fall of the northern tribes, and Jeremiah and Isaiah foretold the Babylonian captivity. When prophecy repeatedly comes to pass, it teaches us to trust everything else God has spoken.

Hebrews 10 speaks of vengeance and restitution even under the New Covenant.

Hebrews 10:28–29 warns that rejecting Christ brings sorer punishment than despising Moses’ law. The passage says, “Vengeance belongs unto me; I will recompense.”

God’s vengeance is never impulsive. He warns, waits, calls for repentance, and only then judges.

Peter says Christ remains in heaven “until the times of restitution of all things.”

Restitution means restoration, but restoration requires judgment. Like clearing an overgrown property, God will cut down what’s corrupt before He renews.

Men strike before anything has actually happened. We decide someone may do wrong later, so we harm them now, but God judges only after long patience.

Hebrews 10:30–31 adds, “The Lord shall judge his people… It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

This is New Covenant truth.

Peter, in 1 Peter 2:12,  likewise urges believers to live honestly so that Gentiles may glorify God “in the day of visitation”. God will come and judge; therefore, they must live with that day in view.

So, when Hosea 9:7 says, “The days of visitation are come… Israel shall know it,” it means judgment will be unmistakable. It won’t be some sort of vague or symbolic thing. Israel will be removed from the land, and their worship places destroyed. To the people hearing Hosea’s prophecy, it would be as if today a prophet declared that Australia would be emptied out — towns abandoned, families shipped back to Britain, and the familiar life of the nation wiped away. Everyone would recognise that something catastrophic had happened. That is the scale of what fell on the northern tribes.

Now, we need to pull ourselves back into the true picture of what Hosea’s talking about here. It’s prophecy at the time Hosea’s preaching this, not history and yet we can’t help but notice that each prophecy sounds like it has already happened, and that’s because in God’s mind it already has!

History will prove that everything happened as Hosea prophesied it would, but at this time it hadn’t happened yet; in fact, the opposite was happening. Everything was happy and prosperous, and this fact makes it easier to see Israel’s reaction to Hosea’s words. He would have been seen as a fanatic, a doomer and gloomer, and against everything good in their society.

Hosea says, “The prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad,” Not because true prophets were foolish, but because false prophets mocked the warnings.

This is what the people of Israel said about Hosea. When things prospered and everyone was happy, Hosea announced coming judgment and called for repentance. They thought he was a fool and crazy. They basically said, “Who in his right mind would prophesy a judgment like this when we’re in the midst of such a bountiful, prosperous time? Isn’t that in itself proof that God’s blessing us?”

Ezekiel 13 describes these false prophets who followed their own spirit, saw absolutely nothing, yet falsely claimed, “The Lord saith.”

They gave the people false hope and opposed the true prophets. God says, “I am against you.”

He declares they’ll not be in Israel’s assembly, won’t be written among God’s people, and won’t enter the land again. Their lies kept Israel blind, and their removal is part of God’s righteous judgment.

The “days of vengeance” and “day of visitation” describe God finally acting on sins long ignored.

The prophets warn, the people refuse, and God judges — yet always with the purpose of restoring righteousness after corruption has been removed.

This pattern appears throughout Scripture.

In Mark 3:21, when Jesus began His ministry, His own friends tried to restrain Him, saying He was “beside himself.”

Agrippa said the same to Paul in Acts, accusing him of madness because he preached what others refused to hear. When someone speaks God’s words into a corrupt culture, they sound “mad” to those who reject the truth. As Romans 3 says, “Let God be true, but every man a liar.”

Jeremiah 29 shows this clearly.

Shemaiah sent letters urging officials to imprison Jeremiah because he “made himself a prophet” and was “mad.” He accused Jeremiah of spreading dangerous ideas by saying Jerusalem would be destroyed. God revealed the letter to Jeremiah and declared judgment on Shemaiah for opposing the true prophet. This is the same culture Hosea addressed: wickedness everywhere, and hatred toward those who spoke God’s word.

Hosea 9:8 says,

The watchman of Ephraim was with my God: but the prophet is a snare of a fowler in all his ways, and hatred in the house of his God.

True prophets like Samuel, Elijah, Amos, Micah, and Hosea stood with God, but the people hated them. Jesus said the same in Matthew 23: Israel killed the prophets and persecuted those God sent.

Hosea 9:9 compares Israel’s corruption to Gibeah, saying,

They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah: therefore he will remember their iniquity, he will visit their sins.

Judges 19 to 21 records extreme wickedness in Gibeah, so vile that the northern tribes demanded the guilty be delivered for death to purge evil. Hosea now says Israel has become like Gibeah itself. They once judged that wickedness; now they are the wickedness. Therefore God will “remember their iniquity” and “visit their sins.” He will come, as Israel once did at Gibeah, demanding the guilty be delivered for judgment.

Hosea 9:10 recalls how God first found Israel,

I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers as the first ripe in the fig tree at her first time: but they went to Baal-peor, and separated themselves unto that shame; and their abominations were according as they loved.

These images describe Israel’s early sweetness and faithfulness when God formed them as a nation, but they turned to Baal‑peor, committing spiritual whoredom even before entering the land, which we see in Numbers 25. Their early fruitfulness was replaced by corruption.

Scripture often pictures Israel as three fruitful plants: the vine (national Israel), the fig tree (religious Israel), and the olive tree (spiritual privilege and blessing).

When these trees bear fruit, Israel is faithful; when they fail, Israel becomes like thorns and briars. In the early days, Israel was sweet fruit. They sang as they left Egypt and entered the land. God had given them a religion, and at first they kept it.

Jesus used the same imagery.

When He came to Israel, He approached the fig tree expecting fruit. Finding none, He cursed it. He wasn’t condemning a plant but Israel’s empty religion. The fig tree matches Hosea’s fig tree: God expected fruit, but found none.

Hosea says Israel turned from early faithfulness to Baal‑peor. Numbers 25 records this.

Before they even entered the land, Israel committed whoredom with the daughters of Moab, bowed to their gods, and joined themselves to Baal‑peor. God commanded judgment, and 24,000 died. Paul warns the church in 1 Corinthians 10 not to repeat this pattern when he says, “Neither commit fornication… neither be idolaters.”

Hosea’s warning is the same: idolatry destroys.

Hosea 9:11 says,

As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird, from the birth, and from the womb, and from the conception.

Their increase would vanish.

This echoes the days of Ichabod in 1 Samuel 4, where Israel went out to fight the Philistines and was badly defeated, losing four thousand men. Instead of seeking God, the elders decided to bring the ark of the covenant into battle, thinking its presence would guarantee victory. But Israel treated the ark like a lucky charm rather than honouring the God whose presence it represented.

The Philistines fought fiercely, and Israel was crushed. Thirty thousand soldiers died, and the ark was captured. Eli’s two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, were killed.

Eli was the high priest and a judge in Israel. He ministered at the tabernacle in Shiloh, where the ark of the covenant was kept.

When news of the death of his sons reached Eli, he fell backward and died. His pregnant daughter‑in‑law went into labour from the shock, and as she died she named her son Ichabod, saying, “The glory is departed from Israel,” because the ark had been taken.

The chapter shows the collapse of Israel’s spiritual life: their sin, their misplaced confidence, their defeat, and the departure of God’s glory.

Under the covenant, God gave increase in land, fruit, and children when Israel obeyed. But Deuteronomy 28 warns that disobedience brings the opposite: barrenness, loss, and death. Hosea applies that curse directly.

Hosea 9:12 now says,

Though they bring up their children, yet will I bereave them, that there shall not be a man left: yea, woe also to them when I depart from them!

Even the children they raise will be taken, leaving parents bereaved. This happened historically: Assyria and Babylon carried parents away, leaving children to die in the devastation.

Jesus uses similar language in Matthew 24 when describing the coming tribulation: “One shall be taken, and the other left.” He warns, “Woe unto them that are with child,” because judgment makes family life unbearable. In days of wrath, increase becomes loss.

Hosea’s point is that children — normally a sign of glory as Proverbs 17:6 shows — will become a sign of judgment.

From conception to adulthood, their fruit will fail. Israel’s covenant blessings depended on obedience, but when they abandoned God, He withdrew the increase He once gave.

Even miraculous births in Israel’s history — Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, Hannah, and finally Mary — were signs of covenant favour. Hosea shows the opposite: covenant curses falling on a nation that refused to repent.

The point’s not that God delights in suffering, but that when He withdraws His protection, enemies rush in.

Israel rejected God, so He left them, and the Assyrians came with violence. Without God’s shield, war sweeps through homes, families, and unborn children. Hosea explains judgment and says, in effect, “Think of your children; this won’t be good for them.”

Jesus made the same warning in Luke 23: women wept for Him as He went to the cross, but He said, “Weep not for me, but for yourselves and for your children.”

His death was not Jerusalem’s end, but He foresaw the coming days of vengeance when the city would fall. In those days, barren women would be considered blessed because raising children in judgment is unbearable. Hosea’s warning matches Jesus’ words: when God judges a nation, family life collapses.

Now to Hosea 9:13, which says.

Ephraim, as I saw Tyrus, is planted in a pleasant place: but Ephraim shall bring forth his children to the murderer.

The murderer is not God here. It’s the invading nations — Assyria and later Babylon — who were more wicked than Israel.

Habakkuk wrestles with this: God uses wicked nations to judge His people, then judges those nations for their cruelty. God’s law protected pregnant women, but Israel’s enemies did not.

When God withdrew His protection, the enemies committed atrocities: children dashed on stones, pregnant women slain. Scripture records these horrors so that when God later judges those nations, His justice is understood.

Amos 1:13 shows this clearly. Because the Ammonites ripped open pregnant women, God promised to destroy them. Hosea’s point is that Israel’s sin exposed them to the same cruelty. When God departs, enemies do what enemies do.

Hosea 9:14 says,

Give them, O LORD: what wilt thou give? give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts.

This echoes Deuteronomy 28:18 — the covenant curse on the fruit of the body.

Israel agreed to this covenant. When they broke it, the promised increase became barrenness. Yet even in judgment, God preserved small remnants, showing mercy in dark days.

Then Hosea 9:15 says,

All their wickedness is in Gilgal: for there I hated them: for the wickedness of their doings I will drive them out of mine house, I will love them no more: all their princes are revolters.

Gilgal was once a place of blessing — the first Passover in the land, the memorial of entering Canaan, and the place where Saul was anointed. But it had become a centre of idolatry. God says, “There I hated them.” The place once associated with covenant joy had become a symbol of rebellion. God would drive them from His house because they’d overturned everything He gave them.

Scripture teaches that God hates wickedness because He loves righteousness.

Proverbs 6 lists things the Lord hates, and Psalm 45 says those who love righteousness must hate evil. Hate in the Bible is not spite; it’s the passionate defence of what’s good.

If we truly love something, we hate what destroys it. The New Testament shows the same truth. John 3:36 says God’s wrath remains on unbelievers. In Revelation 2, Jesus says twice, “I hate the Nicolaitans.” Romans 9 says, “Esau have I hated.” God hates because wickedness opposes what’s right.

Hosea 9:16 goes on to say,

Ephraim is smitten, their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit: yea, though they bring forth, yet will I slay even the beloved fruit of their womb.

This is total collapse.

A tree with a dead root can’t bear fruit.

Hosea’s Ephraim has no root left at all. Their fruit — including their children — will perish.

Hosea says God will “slay even the beloved fruit of their womb.” This is not God delighting in harm; it’s the covenant curse falling on a nation that rejected Him, a curse they agreed to.

Ezekiel 24 illustrates this judgment.

God told Ezekiel not to mourn when his wife died. Ezekiel obeyed, and the people asked why. God explained that Ezekiel’s behaviour was a sign: Israel would lose the temple. The temple was described as “the desire of your eyes”. Their sons and daughters would fall by the sword. Their hearts were so hardened they would not mourn.

Mourning in ancient Israel involved torn garments, wearing sackcloth, which was a rough, scratchy fabric made from goat hair, sitting in ashes, fasting, loud lamentation, ceremonial uncleanness, and separation from worship.

Hosea uses this imagery to show that Israel’s spiritual condition is one of death, uncleanness, and rejected worship — their offerings have become “bread of mourners.”

Ezekiel’s unmourned grief pictured Israel’s spiritual condition. They’d become people who couldn’t even grieve their own losses.

Scripture records these tragedies to show why God’s judgment is righteous. Israel’s refusal to mourn revealed how deeply sin had shaped them.

Isaiah 9:17 says, “My God will cast them away… they shall be wanderers among the nations.” Cast out of His house, they lose their land, their home, and their joy.

Hosea says the same: Ephraim will bear no fruit, and their children will be taken by enemies.

Judgment truly is a terrible thing, as Hebrews 10:31 says:

It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. God is not in judgment mode today in this dispensation of grace, but his terrible judgment will be poured out on an unbelieving, god-creating multitude after this dispensation ends, which it will. Of all the false gods man has created throughout history, can there be any more insulting to God than the false god of evolution?

Hosea 9’s closing warning exposes the false claims of modern groups who call themselves “Ephraim.” Hosea says Ephraim’s root is dried up, their fruit gone, and their people wander until God restores them in their own land. Anyone claiming to be Ephraim while living in England, America, or anywhere else is in the wrong land and outside the prophecy’s framework. Hosea’s message is clear: only when Israel returns to the land will mourning turn to joy — but Hosea 9 is the chapter of loss, not restoration.

In the next episode, we’ll open up Hosea chapter 10 and until then, may you see and understand God’s righteousness, His justice and His mercy.

Now, we continue the theme running through Hosea chapters 4–6: Israel lacks truth, mercy, and knowledge of God.

These three failures form the controversy God brings against the northern tribes. God had given Israel three great privileges—a law, special mercy, and a king—yet they abandoned all three.

Hosea 4 reveals the first charge of no knowledge.

God says in Hosea 4:6,

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.

They forgot His commands and neglected His law. Though God had given them His Word, they no longer knew Him or obeyed Him. They lacked knowledge of Him even with their special privileges of the law and the prophets.

Hosea 5 shows the second charge: no mercy.

Israel had no repentance and did not seek God’s forgiveness. Hosea 5:4–6 says they would not “frame their doings to turn unto their God.”

Pride kept them from acknowledging their sin and turning to God for mercy. They even brought sacrifices to seek the Lord. They were religious, but they were insincere and turned to other gods and other nations while rejecting the true God, and so He withdrew from them because their hearts were unchanged and unrepentant. Without repentance, they could neither receive mercy nor give it.

Hosea 6 introduces the third charge: no truth.

As we saw last episode, verses 1–3 describe Israel’s future cry to return to the Lord: “He hath torn, and he will heal.”

This looks ahead to the day when Israel finally acknowledges their offence as Hosea 5:15 speaks of, and they receive resurrection life and covenant blessing. But, at this point in Hosea, this repentance has not happened yet for the northern tribes, and it’s the northern tribes Hosea’s ministering to.

In Hosea 6:4, the tone shifts.

God speaks again, saying,

O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away.

Their goodness is like a morning cloud or early dew—meaning brief, shallow, and quickly gone.

They show a moment of obedience, then they fall away again. God’s sent prophets, warnings, and mercy, yet their faithfulness evaporates.

They were religious, but their goodness was like “a morning cloud”—just form, ritual and ceremony, looking good but empty. Religion’s like this: man’s attempt to reach God through his own efforts, which is impossible.

This pattern appears throughout Scripture.

Jesus describes it in the parable of the sower: some receive the word with joy but wither away. He also confronts the Pharisees in Matthew 21:28-32 with the question of the two sons—one who says he’ll obey but does not, and one who refuses at first but later obeys. The true obedience is the one that endures.

The book of Hosea’s structure reinforces the controversy God has with Israel.

Chapters 1–3 picture Israel through Hosea’s marriage and children. Chapters 4–6 lay out the charges: no knowledge, no mercy, no truth. Chapters 8–10 describe the judgments that match those charges. Even Hosea’s children’s names—Lo‑Ammi, Lo‑Ruhamah, and Jezreel—symbolise these judgments. The final chapters of Hosea show how God Himself becomes the mercy, truth, and knowledge Israel lacks, restoring them by His grace.

Hosea 6 is a turning point: Israel’s failure of truthfulness and God’s appeal that their goodness must be more than morning dew. Jesus’ ministry echoes this same prophetic message, showing that the kingdom comes to those who receive God’s word in truth and endure in faith.

We read Hosea 6:5,

Therefore have I hewed them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth: and thy judgments are as the light that goeth forth.

Remember, throughout our studies we’ve seen how verses starting with the words “For” and Therefore” tie the subject of the verse back to the previous ones.

Hosea 6:5 continues the theme of Hosea 6:4, and it’s God answering His own question: O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee?.

Therefore, because their goodness is like a morning cloud and an early dew that evaporates very quickly, like a wisp, God deals with Israel through His words, spoken by the prophets. Jesus Himself said, “Search the Scriptures… they speak of me,” showing that His ministry echoed what the prophets had already declared.

Hosea says, “I have hewed them by the prophets.” To hew is to cut down. God cuts Israel down by sending prophets who speak His warnings: repent or lose the land, the mercy, and the hope He gave them. Their words are God’s instrument of judgment.

We see that they weren’t sinning because of ignorance—there was no lack of information. God had sent the prophets to them, but they’d turned their backs on Him and His Word.

God adds, “I have slain them by the words of my mouth.” This theme appears throughout Scripture. Isaiah 11:4 says the Messiah will “smite the earth with the rod of his mouth” and “slay the wicked” with His lips. Revelation 1:16 pictures Christ with a sharp two‑edged sword coming from His mouth- His words. Paul teaches in Ephesians 6 that believers wield “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” God’s weapon is truth. Truth saves when received, but it condemns when resisted.

Acts 5 gives a New Covenant example.

Ananias and Sapphira lied about their offering. Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, declared the truth: “Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.” Hearing these words, Ananias fell down dead. Peter didn’t strike him; the Spirit’s words judged him. This foreshadows the future kingdom, where God’s perfect knowledge means His spoken word alone will condemn the wicked and justify the righteous. Human courts need evidence because judges lack full knowledge; God doesn’t. His judgments are perfect because His truth is perfect.

Hosea 6:5 concludes with, “Thy judgments are as the light that goeth forth.” God’s words shine like light, exposing everything.

Jesus taught the same in John 12:48: “He that rejects me… the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.” God has already spoken; His words stand as the testimony by which all will be judged.

This also shows how inspiration works.

When God says He hewed Israel by the prophets and slew them by “the words of my mouth,” it means the prophets’ words were God’s words. Hosea’s not speaking his own opinion; God’s speaking through him. Scripture repeatedly claims this divine origin, and it’s one of the evidences that the Bible truly is the Word of God.

Hosea 6:6 then explains why God judges them by His word:

For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

God wanted their hearts, not empty ritual.

This truth appears throughout Scripture. Deuteronomy 10 teaches that God desires obedience more than sacrifice. Samuel told Saul in 1 Samuel 15:22, “To obey is better than sacrifice”.

Hosea has already shown that Israel lacked mercy in chapter 5 and, in chapter 4, that they lacked knowledge. Jesus repeats the same principle in Matthew 5:7: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.”

Hosea’s message is consistent: Israel has no mercy, no knowledge, and no truth, and God’s word—spoken through His prophets—now stands as the light that judges them.

Jesus repeatedly quotes Hosea to expose Israel’s failure to understand mercy, truth, and the heart knowledge of the law.

In Matthew 9:10–13, He eats with publicans and sinners, provoking the Pharisees. Jesus explains that He’s not simply “accepting people as they are,” but calling sinners to repentance. “They that be whole need not a physician.” He said. He’s saying His ministry is to sinners, to people who know who they really are, not to them, the Pharisees, to those who believe they’re already righteous by their own works. Then He quotes Hosea 6:6: “I will have mercy, and not sacrifice.” He tells the Pharisees to go and learn what Hosea meant; go and gain knowledge of this.

Matthew 12 repeats the same lesson.

The Pharisees accuse Jesus’ disciples of breaking Sabbath law by plucking grain. Jesus responds by pointing to David eating the shewbread in 1 Samuel 21:6 and to the priests who “profane the Sabbath and are blameless”. Jesus is reminding the Pharisees that the priests themselves profane the Sabbath by killing and sacrificing animals and by performing many of the other temple duties required in Numbers 28:9-10, yet they’re blameless because they’re engaged in the service of God.

Jesus is not discarding the law; He’s revealing its intent. Mercy governs how the law’s applied. If they’d understood the word in Hosea—“I will have mercy, not sacrifice”—they wouldn’t have condemned those who had no guilt. Jesus, the Lord of the Sabbath, shows that God values mercy over ritual when there’s human need.

The controversy in Hosea was not merely that Israel broke the law.

It was that they forgot the law, lacked repentance, and had no truth. If they’d broken the law but had repentance, knowledge, and honesty, they could’ve sought mercy through sacrifice. Instead, they were treacherous, indifferent, and spiritually blind. Jesus confronts the Pharisees with the same problem: they keep the letter of the law but ignore its meaning. In Matthew 23:23, He rebukes the Pharisees again for omitting, quote, “the weightier matters of the law: judgment, mercy, and faith.”

Paul warns of similar hypocrisy in 1 Timothy 4:1–2—people who depart from the faith, speak lies, and have seared consciences. They quote Scripture but don’t know the truth. This mirrors Hosea’s charge: Israel had no mercy, no knowledge, and no truth.

Hosea 6:7 says,

But they, like men, have transgressed the covenant; there have they dealt treacherously against me.

God exposes the unreliability of man.

Scripture states this repeatedly. Numbers 23:19 declares, “God is not a man, that he should lie,” which means that all men are liars; only God is faithful. Hosea’s point is that Israel’s promises are like morning dew—brief and unreliable. Their repentance is shallow, their obedience temporary, and their covenant loyalty is nonexistent.

God, however, is not like man.

1 Samuel 15:29 says,

…the Strength of Israel [that’s God] will not lie nor repent: for he is not a man, that he should repent.

When God speaks, He performs it. When Scripture says God “repented,” it doesn’t refer to His faithfulness changing but to His response to man’s corruption—such as in Genesis 6, where He judged the world because mankind ruined what He’d given.

Hosea’s message, which was echoed by Jesus, is clear: God desires mercy, truth, and knowledge of Him,  not empty ritual. Israel’s failure in these areas explains both Hosea’s controversy and Jesus’ confrontations with the Pharisees. Those confrontations with Israel’s leaders show the same problem Hosea described: no truth, treachery, and a refusal to receive God’s words. In John 8, Jesus tells men who are highly respected and religious, “Ye are of your father the devil.”

He wasn’t accusing them of outward evil; He was exposing their inner spirit. The devil “abode not in the truth,” and Jesus says these men, in the same way, reject truth. “Because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not,” He says in John 8:45.

Once someone embraces a lie, truth becomes their enemy. This’s exactly Hosea’s point in Hosea 6:7: “They, like men, have transgressed the covenant”. Man naturally betrays truth.

Treachery means violating an allegiance or betraying a trust. It’s treason.

Israel formally agreed to God’s covenant.

In Exodus 24:3 we read,

And Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD , and all the judgments: and all the people answered with one voice, and said, All the words which the LORD hath said will we do.

Then further on in Exodus 24:7-8 we read,

And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the LORD hath said will we do, and be obedient.

And Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the LORD hath made with you concerning all these words.

Hosea’s accusations that “they have transgressed the covenant” refer back to this moment. Exodus 24 is the point where Israel said “I do” to God —hence the marriage covenant imagery the prophets later use.

God kept His part; Israel broke theirs. Treachery is not a mistake or misunderstanding—it is a failure to be true.

Isaiah 59:13–15 describes this treachery vividly: lying against the Lord, departing from God, speaking oppression and uttering falsehood. “Truth is fallen in the street,” meaning truth is not merely neglected—it’s completely discarded.

Justice can’t enter because truth’s no longer the standard. When truth fails, those who depart from evil become prey, just like today, where good is seen as bad and bad as good. God sees this and is displeased because there’s no judgment. Paul later says in 1 Corinthians 2:15,

the spiritual man “judges all things” because he knows God’s truth. Israel had the law and prophets; they were fully exposed to truth, and yet truth had collapsed among them.

Hosea 6:8–10 gives concrete examples of this treachery.

Gilead is a city of them that work iniquity, and is polluted with blood.

And as troops of robbers wait for a man, so the company of priests murder in the way by consent: for they commit lewdness.

I have seen an horrible thing in the house of Israel: there is the whoredom of Ephraim, Israel is defiled.

Gilead is a region east of the Jordan belonging to the tribes of Manasseh, Reuben and Gad. This area included Ramoth‑Gilead, one of Israel’s six cities of refuge—places meant to protect the innocent and ensure righteous judgment. Instead, Hosea says, “Gilead is a city of them that work iniquity, and is polluted with blood.”

A place designed for justice had become a centre of violence. Truth had fallen in the streets; now there was no protection for the innocent, no righteous judgment, only bloodshed and iniquity.

We have a map showing the region of Gilead below this recording.

In Joshua 22, Reuben, Gad, and half‑Manasseh built a false altar near the Jordan, provoking Israel to confront them for rebellion. Their unfaithfulness began early.

Later, Ezra, who inspired the writing of 1 Chronicles 5:25–26 after the exile, confirms that these same tribes “transgressed” and “went a‑whoring” after foreign gods, so God stirred up the kings of Assyria to carry them away. They were taken in the first wave of Assyrian captivity.

Hosea 6:9–11 gives vivid examples of Israel’s treachery, and we read, and it’s God speaking through Hosea.

And as troops of robbers wait for a man, so the company of priests murder in the way by consent: for they commit lewdness.

I have seen an horrible thing in the house of Israel: there is the whoredom of Ephraim, Israel is defiled.

Also, O Judah, he hath set an harvest for thee, when I returned the captivity of my people.

God exposes their corruption to show why judgment’s coming.

Verse 9 (Hosea 6:9) says the priests behave like “troops of robbers,” murdering travellers “in the way.”

These northern priests killed people heading south toward Jerusalem because they feared losing control of their false religion. Instead of protecting life and teaching truth, they committed murder and lewdness.

The words in Hosea 6:8–10- iniquity, pollution, robbers, murder, lewdness, horrible thing- all show how far they’d fallen. God shines His judgment like light, exposing their sin and proving His right to remove them according to the covenant.

Hosea 6:11 then warns Judah, saying:

Also, O Judah, he hath set an harvest for thee, when I returned the captivity of my people.

Judah is not exempt.

A harvest can be good—rain, blessing, restoration—or bad, when God comes like a reaper to cut down the wicked. Judah too will face judgment.

Hosea’s message is clear: treachery, false worship, violence, and forgotten truth have brought Israel to the point of covenant judgment. God exposes their sin not to be cruel, but to uphold truth and prepare the way for eventual restoration.

Jesus’ words and Hosea’s prophecy match perfectly.

Both expose the same condition: when truth is rejected, treachery follows; when treachery reigns, justice collapses; and when justice collapses, God brings His controversy against His people.

Israel’s leaders in Jesus’ day, like the northern tribes in Hosea’s day, claimed loyalty to God while betraying His truth. The covenant was broken—not by God, but by man, whose promises evaporate like morning dew.

2 Chronicles 28 shows how God used the northern tribes to judge Judah.

Israel attacked the south and took captives, but when they tried to keep those captives as slaves, which was forbidden under the law, God sent the prophet Oded to rebuke them.

He warned that Israel had sins of its own and that enslaving Judah would bring greater judgment on them. Israel obeyed, returned the captives, and avoided further wrath. This illustrates God’s righteous balance: He uses nations as instruments of judgment, yet restrains them when they exceed His purpose. Judah received a “harvest” of judgment, but also a return—foreshadowing their later Babylonian captivity and restoration.

Hosea 7 continues the theme of treachery and falsehood in Hosea 7:1, where God says,

WHEN I would have healed Israel, then the iniquity of Ephraim was discovered, and the wickedness of Samaria: for they commit falsehood; and the thief cometh in, and the troop of robbers spoileth without.

Hosea chapter 6 opened with Israel’s cry for healing, but here God reveals why healing can’t come: their wickedness is exposed.

They commit falsehood, and both thieves within and robbers without corrupt the nation.

Now might be a good time to reaffirm what’s meant by these three names of Israel, Ephraim and Samaria.

In Hosea, “Israel” is the broad national name for the ten northern tribes. It is the covenant name, the corporate identity, and the term God uses when speaking of the nation as a whole.

“Ephraim” is used 37 times in Hosea and is used for one part representing the whole. Ephraim was the largest and most influential tribe and the tribe of Jeroboam I, the first northern king and the tribe where Shiloh and early worship centres were located.

Because Ephraim led the north politically and spiritually, Hosea uses its name to target the leadership, highlight covenant responsibility, and personalise God’s grief.

“Samaria” is the capital city of the northern kingdom. Hosea uses it as a sort of shorthand for the government, the royal house, the centre of idolatry and the national identity in a political sense.

Samaria represents the seat of power and the public face of Israel’s rebellion.

Jeremiah 3:10 describes Judah’s condition as well. They also did not turn to God “with their whole heart, but feignedly.” Feignedly means by lies, falsehood and deception.

The law required loving God with all the heart, mind, and strength. Judah offered only lip service—outward obedience without inward devotion. They obeyed when it was convenient, but withheld their hearts. God calls this treachery, a betrayal of covenant loyalty.

Yet God’s character remains merciful.

Jeremiah 3:12–13 shows Him pleading yet again with backsliding Israel, this time through yet another prophet, Jeremiah: “Return… for I am merciful.”

He delays judgment, sends prophets, and seeks repentance. But their hardened hearts resisted reproof. When people lack knowledge of their sin and refuse repentance, truth becomes offensive to them, especially the truth about their real nature. It becomes easy to justify yourself, compare yourself to others and judge yourself more righteous than “the other bloke” who’s much worse than you, so you’ll be ok with God. Wrong!

Hosea 7:2 says,

And they [Israel] consider not in their hearts that I remember all their wickedness: now their own doings have beset them about; they are before my face.

They deceive themselves, pretending God doesn’t see or remember. But God knows every thought, intent, imagination, and secret sin, as Psalm 139 points out.

His long‑suffering proves His mercy—if He sees all and hasn’t destroyed them, it’s because He’s giving space for repentance. The same applies to you and me today in the dispensation of grace: if He sees all and hasn’t destroyed us, it’s because He’s giving space for grace.

Romans 2 teaches that God’s long‑suffering is meant to lead to repentance. The law exposes sin and reveals God’s patience.

However, Israel lies about their sin and ignores God’s remembrance of it. They perform religious rituals while refusing inward repentance. Hosea 8:13 warns that God will “remember their iniquity” and visit their sins. Jeremiah 14:10 says the same: God will “now remember” their sins—not because He forgot, but because the time for judgment has arrived.

Revelation 18 shows that this principle continues even after the cross: God remembers iniquities and pours out wrath when the appointed time comes.

In this present dispensation, He’s withholding judgment so that grace may be received, but His justice remains, and His judgment is certain.

Hosea’s message anticipates the New Covenant.

Jeremiah 31:34 promises a future day when God will “forgive their iniquity” and “remember their sin no more.”

The timing is crucial.

In Hosea’s day, God must remember their sins to judge; in the New Covenant, He’ll remember them no more because He’ll heal, restore, and write His law in their hearts.

Hosea 7 exposes Israel’s falsehood, self‑deception, and refusal to repent—yet it also highlights God’s mercy, patience, and His future promise to forgive completely.

So, the New Covenant promises that God will “remember their sin no more” in Jeremiah 31:34. That means no future judgment on Israel. But for that to be possible, Israel must be changed. If God simply forgave them once and they sinned again, judgment would return.

The New Covenant transforms Israel’s inner man—their heart, mind, and spirit—so they won’t sin in their kingdom.

This is why 1 John speaks of not sinning, and Hebrews warns that if someone sins willfully after receiving the heavenly gift, “there remains no more sacrifice for sins.”

The New Covenant was not offered in Hosea’s day, nor is it fulfilled yet, as of today. Even now, though God forgives the world through grace, Revelation shows a future time when He will again “remember sins” for those who reject Him.

The difference between Jeremiah 14 (judgment) and Jeremiah 31 (forgiveness) is dispensational timing.

Hosea 7:3–8 then describes Israel’s corruption using the imagery of a baker and an oven. Let’s read that passage,

They make the king glad with their wickedness, and the princes with their lies.

They are all adulterers, as an oven heated by the baker, who ceaseth from raising after he hath kneaded the dough, until it be leavened.

In the day of our king the princes have made him sick with bottles of wine; he stretched out his hand with scorners.

For they have made ready their heart like an oven, whiles they lie in wait: their baker sleepeth all the night; in the morning it burneth as a flaming fire.

They are all hot as an oven, and have devoured their judges; all their kings are fallen: there is none among them that calleth unto me.

Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people; Ephraim is a cake not turned.

The passage seems confusing, but verse 7 gives the point: “All their kings are fallen.” The kings are drunk, deceived, and destroyed because truth has collapsed.

Israel’s rulers rejoice in wickedness (v.3), drink heavily (v.5), and fail to uphold justice. The nation burns with sin like an overheated oven.

To understand the imagery, step back: the king is the baker.

He’s supposed to “prepare the bread”—that is, uphold truth, mercy, and righteous judgment. According to the law, in Deuteronomy 17, Israel’s king must write his own copy of the law, study it, avoid multiplying wives, wealth, or armies, and rule with mercy and truth. Proverbs 20:28 teaches that “mercy and truth preserve the king”, and Proverbs 29:4  teaches, “by judgment the king establishes the land”. When the king is corrupted—by wine, bribes, or flattery—the whole nation collapses.

The oven represents the wicked people, the princes, and priests who inflame the king with lies, corruption, and treachery. They pretend to serve him, like an oven serving a baker, but in reality they burn him. Their hearts are “like an oven”, says verse 6, heated with adultery, idolatry, and deceit. The baker sleeps—neglecting his duty—and the oven consumes everything. Thus “their judges are devoured” and “all their kings are fallen.”

This picture matches Hosea’s larger theme: truth has fallen in the streets, mercy is gone, and knowledge of God is forgotten. The king, who should uphold truth, is instead led by wicked men. When rulers abandon truth, justice collapses, and Hosea shows how corruption at the top destroys the entire nation.

Though this passage concerns Israel, it teaches a timeless principle: when leaders reject truth, accept bribes, or indulge in sin, the people suffer. Israel’s kings were meant to reflect God’s justice, but instead they became drunk, deceived, and destroyed. Hosea’s imagery of the baker and oven exposes the nation’s treachery and prepares the way for God’s judgment—and ultimately for the future restoration under the New Covenant, when truth, mercy, and righteousness will finally be established.

Then Proverbs 31:3–5 warns kings not to give their strength to women or drink wine, “lest they forget the law and pervert judgment.”

A king must think clearly, know truth, and judge righteously. Wine clouds judgment, and corrupted judgment destroys nations.

Paul echoes this spiritually: “Be not drunk… but be filled with the Spirit,” because God’s words result in correct thinking.

Israel’s kings ignored this.

They drank, partied, and behaved like common men, though their office required sobriety, wisdom, and separation. The people encouraged their corruption by urging the kings to “be like us”, but a ruler who behaves like everyone else can’t rule well. God’s law required kings to be set apart.

Israel’s history confirms this pattern. In 2 Kings 15, the northern kings fall one after another through conspiracy. Zechariah reigns six months before Shallum murders him. Shallum reigns one month before Menahem kills him. This cycle repeats throughout the northern kingdom: wicked kings, wicked conspirators, and constant treachery. None of Israel’s northern kings “called upon the Lord,” as we just read in Hosea 7:7. They ignored the law, rejected truth, and were devoured by the very people they were supposed to govern.

This pattern continues into the New Testament. In Mark 14 and Matthew 26, the chief priests and scribes conspire to kill Jesus. They keep the feast days outwardly, all very nicely in accordance with the law, yet secretly plot murder—just like the conspirators in Israel’s history.

Their concern is political power and outward appearances, not truth. “Not on the feast day,” they say, best not murder Him on a feast day lest the people be upset. Wicked rulers fear public opinion more than God’s law. This is the same treachery Hosea condemned, and it seems just like the picture we see of rulers today.

Hosea 7:7-8 concludes: “All their kings are fallen; there is none among them that calls upon me.” Without truth, without righteous rulers, and without repentance, Israel becomes “a cake not turned”—burned on one side, raw on the other, spoiled and unusable. The baker is asleep, the oven is uncontrolled, and the nation is ruined.

Hosea’s message here is very clear: when leaders abandon truth and people embrace treachery, judgment follows. Only God’s truth, upheld by righteous rulers, preserves a nation. Ephraim has “joined himself to strangers”, violating the law and committing spiritual whoredom. Instead of seeking God, they seek alliances with foreign nations.

Hosea continues describing Ephraim’s downfall.

Hosea 7:9 says,

Strangers have devoured his strength, and he knoweth it not: yea, gray hairs are here and there upon him, yet he knoweth not.

Strangers have devoured his strength, and he doesn’t know it.

Ephraim is like an old man with grey hairs who refuses to admit he’s aging. His strength is gone, but he can’t see it. His pride blinds him.

For all God’s warnings, reproofs, and prophets, Hosea 7:19 says, “they did not return to the Lord their God, nor seek him for all this”.

Hosea 7:11-16 piles on the imagery.

Ephraim is “a silly dove without a heart.”

A dove can symbolise purity, but also naïve simplicity. Ephraim flutters between Egypt and Assyria, seeking help from powerful nations instead of turning to the God who made them. They’re simple‑minded, unaware of danger, and ignorant of their own condition. Hosea calls them silly because they trust foreign powers rather than the Lord.

In Hosea 7:12, God says He’ll “spread my net upon them”. As they fly toward Egypt or Assyria, He’ll catch them and bring them down. Their captivity will come exactly as their congregation has already heard. God gave Israel ample warning.

2 Kings 17 recounts how God testified against Israel and Judah, quote, “by all the prophets and all the seers,” urging them to turn from evil and keep His commandments, yet they hardened their necks, rejected His statutes, and embraced idolatry, turning to molten images, calves, groves and Baal worship. Hosea’s “whoredom” language perfectly describes this spiritual adultery.

So, God says in Hosea 13,

Woe unto them! for they have fled from me: destruction unto them! because they have transgressed against me: though I have redeemed them, yet they have spoken lies against me.

Though He redeemed them, they “spoke lies” against Him. This matches Jesus’ warnings when he told the Pharisees: “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,” because they had no truth, mercy, or knowledge.

Jeremiah 7:28 says Israel “obeys not the voice of the Lord… truth is perished.”

Romans 1:18 says God’s wrath is revealed against those who “hold the truth in unrighteousness.” God gave Israel truth, a law, a king, a land—and they lied about Him.

Hosea 7:14 says they “have not cried unto me with their heart.” They howl on their beds, assemble for corn and wine, perform rituals, but rebel inwardly.

Their religion is outward only. Their hearts are untouched.

To Hosea 7:15 now,

Though I have bound and strengthened their arms, yet do they imagine mischief against me.

Even when God hedged their path with thorns, as we saw in Hosea 2, trying to stop them from pursuing idols, they kept pushing through the thorns. His warnings hurt, but they refused to turn.

The chapter ends with Hosea 7:16 saying,

They return, but not to the most High: they are like a deceitful bow: their princes shall fall by the sword for the rage of their tongue: this shall be their derision in the land of Egypt.

Israel’s stubbornness fully exposed. They reject God’s truth, seek foreign help, lie about their sin, ignore His prophets, and refuse heartfelt repentance. God, however,  remains faithful. He warned them, restrained them and strengthened them, but they continually resisted.

Hosea shows that judgment’s not sudden or unfair; it’s the inevitable result of a people who refuse truth, mercy, and knowledge, even when God repeatedly calls them back.

This stubbornness mirrors our apostle for today, Paul, when he was Saul of Tarsus, who “kicked against the pricks” in Acts 9. God had sent Christ, John the Baptist, the Spirit, and the apostles, yet Saul persecuted them. The difference is that Saul received grace, not judgment. Hosea’s Israel receives judgment because they persistently reject God’s mercy.

Their own words condemn them. Throughout Scripture, God’s words slay by truth, but Israel’s words are lies, and those lies bring judgment.

Psalm 12 describes this same condition: flattering lips, double‑hearted speech, proud tongues. God promises to cut off such lips and preserve His pure words forever. Lies are temporary; truth endures. Those who cling to truth will be vindicated when God arises to judge. Hosea’s audience should have sought God’s pure words instead of trusting the lies of their leaders.

Psalm 73 also shows the arrogance of wicked men—pride like a chain, violence like a garment, mocking God with their mouths. This is not unique to Israel; it’s the pattern of sinful humanity.

Hosea 7:16 says Israel’s proud speech will become “their derision in the land of Egypt.” Historically, this happened when King Hoshea tried to bribe Egypt for protection from Assyria. Egypt mocked him and offered no help, but they took the money anyway. Assyria captured him, ending the northern kingdom, and we see the account of that in 2 Kings 17. Their proud words had no substance; their alliances failed because they refused to seek God.

Hosea chapters 6–7 reveal a consistent theme: Israel has no truth. They lie about God, lie about their condition, lie about their repentance, and lie about their strength. They seek foreign nations instead of the Lord. They ignore His prophets, resist His warnings, and reject His mercy. Their kings are corrupt, their priests treacherous, and their people deceived.

God’s response is righteous: He hedges their path, warns them, strengthens them, and calls them to return, but when they refuse, He remembers their iniquity and brings judgment.

Hosea Chapter 8, which we’ll open in the next episode’s going to show the next step—removal from the land and God’s declaration that they’re “not my people.”

Until then, may God bless you with the knowledge of His wonderful Word.