For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Hosea 13:1-8

1 When Ephraim spoke, people trembled;
    he was exalted in Israel.
    But he became guilty of Baal worship and died.
2 Now they sin more and more;
    they make idols for themselves from their silver,
cleverly fashioned images,
    all of them the work of craftsmen.
It is said of these people,
    “They offer human sacrifices!
    They kiss calf-idols!”
3 Therefore they will be like the morning mist,
    like the early dew that disappears,
    like chaff swirling from a threshing floor,
    like smoke escaping through a window.

4 “But I have been the Lord your God
    ever since you came out of Egypt.
You shall acknowledge no God but me,
    no Savior except me.
5 I cared for you in the wilderness,
    in the land of burning heat.
6 When I fed them, they were satisfied;
    when they were satisfied, they became proud;
    then they forgot me.
7 So I will be like a lion to them,
    like a leopard I will lurk by the path.
8 Like a bear robbed of her cubs,
    I will attack them and rip them open;
like a lion I will devour them—
    a wild animal will tear them apart.

A. Find Out:

1. What had Ephraim been like and had done what? v.1
2. What extent had they gone to? v.2
3. So what will happen to them? v.3
4. What does the Lord command them? v.4
5. What had he done but how had they responded? v.5,6
6. So what will the Lord do? v.7,8

B. Think:

1. Read 1 Kings 11:26 & 12:25-30 How does that fit this passage?
2. What was Israel’s sin seen in this passage?
3. How was cause and effect of judgement shown?

C. Comment:

We see in this passage why the Lord refers again and again to Israel as Ephraim. Ephraim had been a strong tribe and out of it came Jeroboam who rebelled against Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, and led the ten northern tribes out from under his reign. In that Ephraim was exalted (v.1) but then he set up the two calves at Bethel and Dan and that led the northern kingdom into idol worship from which they never escaped. In fact it got worse and worse until they were charged with even offering child sacrifices like some of their pagan neighbours.

The Lord thunders against them with the first of the ten commandments (see Exo 20:2,3) and reminds them that He it was who had saved them from Egypt and in the desert and established them as a strong nation, yet they turned away in their pride.

Very well, says the Lord, you will be like the morning mist, or the morning dew, or chaff from a threshing floor, or smoke from a fire; you will be wafted away, you will exist no more! Indeed I will be seen to come at them like an angry, wild animal and destroy them. In this we see the two aspects of the Lord’s heart. One part cries out in compassion for them and refuses to totally destroy them (11:8-11) while the other part cries out in righteous anger against the sin that is there.

D. Application:

1. God can be compassionate and angry at the same time.
2. His anger comes against the sin, His compassion provides hope.

Passage: Hosea 13:9-16

9 “You are destroyed, Israel,
    because you are against me, against your helper.
10 Where is your king, that he may save you?
    Where are your rulers in all your towns,
of whom you said,
    ‘Give me a king and princes’?
11 So in my anger I gave you a king,
    and in my wrath I took him away.
12 The guilt of Ephraim is stored up,
    his sins are kept on record.
13 Pains as of a woman in childbirth come to him,
    but he is a child without wisdom;
when the time arrives,
    he doesn’t have the sense to come out of the womb.

14 “I will deliver this people from the power of the grave;
    I will redeem them from death.
Where, O death, are your plagues?
    Where, O grave, is your destruction?

“I will have no compassion,
15     even though he thrives among his brothers.
An east wind from the Lord will come,
    blowing in from the desert;
his spring will fail
    and his well dry up.
His storehouse will be plundered
    of all its treasures.
16 The people of Samaria must bear their guilt,
    because they have rebelled against their God.
They will fall by the sword;
    their little ones will be dashed to the ground,
    their pregnant women ripped open.”

A. Find Out:

1. Why will Israel be destroyed? v.9
2. At whom does the Lord scoff? v.10a
3. What had they asked and what had the Lord done? v.10b,11
4. What does the prophet say Israel is like? v.13
5. Yet what does God say He will do? v.14
6. Yet what will still happen? v.15,16

B. Think:

1. How had Israel’s reliance on kings been wrong and failed?
2. What do you think the picture of a child being born says?
3. How can there be destruction without it being the end?

C. Comment:

Not an easy passage! First of all explanation (v.9-11): you will be destroyed because you didn’t turn to God for help. You had asked for a king early in your history as if he would be able to help you in times of trouble but now you see that that isn’t so. You broke away from the Davidic kings and now you are in trouble that is beyond you!

Next a condemnation (12,13): Your guilt has been piling up and all your wrongs noted. You deserve judgement. Pains have come to you as a nation, pains of suffering under the enemy and in internal social turmoil, pains that are meant to call you out into the open to face your God in repentance. Instead, like a child in the womb refusing to be born, you refuse to come to God.

Third, is warning of destruction, without it meaning the end. First here, a promise that God will redeem them as a nation from total death,  i.e. as a nation this will not be their end. Yes destruction will come and many will be killed by the invading enemy, but it will not be the end of the nation. We must see here the difference between destruction of the individual and destruction of the nation. Israel will go into captivity but it will not be the end of the nation for God still has plans for its future, but sinful individuals will die, now.

D. Application:

1. God’s long term plans will not be put off by individual sin.
2. God distinguishes between individuals and their sin or lack of it.