Hosea 10 CUT OFF There was no difficulty for Hosea to see evidence of idolatry everywhere in the northern tribes of Israel. The more prosperity they had, the greater their attraction was to idols. The Baals they had erected were sex symbols that were visible to everyone. Idolatry has attractions that are never satisfied, and they constantly demand more and more of those who submit to the appeal of whatever idol a person has. Some today worship fame. Others live for money. Still others pursue pleasure of every kind, and yet no one ever finds true satisfaction until they come to the Lord.
Hosea told them the golden calves the northern Israelites had looked to for so long were of no value and they soon would be carried away in pieces from Beth-Aven (house of wickedness), that had one time been called Bethel (house of God0. When the people of God turn from the revealed will of God given to us in the scriptures of truth to religious practices of their own making, it is gross wickedness. "You cannot serve two masters." It is either the worship of God or the worship of Baal that we choose. There is no way to mix the two because they are extreme opposites. There is nothing in common between the worship of the Father "in spirit and in truth," and the worship of mans making and choosing.
It is our responsibility to control everything we allow our minds to think about, because "As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he." Guilt has a way of seeking to cover itself with activity and insincere promises like the Israelites made. God knew their promises were not real even though God is always true to His promises. If we make a promise, we are to keep it. If one is pressured to make a promise to do something, do not make that promise if you are not sure you can fulfill its terms.
The guilt and willful idolatry of Israel must be punished because God is a righteous God. He is merciful in withholding His just judgment in His desire to give time and place for repentance. But one way or another sin and guilt because of sin must be faced and dealt with in righteousness. The substitute of a sinless innocent victim for a sinful person was provided for when done in the right way, but it was not dealt with in front of golden calves and other idols. So, the idols will be destroyed and the guilty will be punished. Israel had rejected God as the One who reigned over them. So now their king was being taken away, their idols destroyed and they were to be taken into captivity.
But in their arrogance, they will say, "We have no king," which in essence meant, "So what. We don't need one." Consequently, there was no hope of deliverance from captivity and no hope of a deliverer. The land of Israel became desolate. Thorns and thistles grew up on the crumbling altars they had erected to their false gods on their threshing floors. When sinful men are confronted with the judgment of God, their great fear of God makes them long for a place to hide from Him. They call on the mountains to cover them and the hills to fall on them. "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."
Hosea's message referenced Gibeah again where rape and murder ultimately brought about the death of thousands of people. The Jews should have learned that sin will be punished. There are always "wages" to sin, but instead they continued in the course of their deliberate willful wickedness. Israel had been like a heifer trained to thresh the harvest of grain by walking on it and when desired, the animal could eat some of the straw and grain because it was not to be muzzled.
Because of their sin and wicked choices, a yoke would be put on them by those who would conquer them, and they would be like animals who had to strain to plow ground that had not been used. Their days of ease and prosperity were past. Now there would be the hard times of breaking up hard ground and hard clods of dirt. Without a doubt there had been many times opportunity was given to them to repent and return to the Lord. "It is time to seek the Lord" is a call we all need to heed when we realize we are unable to do what needs to be done, or we are unsure of which way to turn to fulfill the will of God. To Israel that will be in a coming day when the Lord comes and there will be "rain of righteousness" upon people who had lived in wickedness and rebellion.
Israel had lived a lie and as a result of the vileness of their idolatry and their vice of trusting in their own rulers and military power instead of trusting God, they would suffer severe consequences for a long time. The coming army of Assyria would do the same to Israel and Shalman did when he invaded Gilead around 740 BC and destroyed Beth-Arbel. The scenes of brutality against the women and children, and the viciousness of the attackers who have been well known by the Jews of the northern ten tribes. They were told that same thing would happen to them because of their choice to abandon God's way and choose their own wicked ways. There never were good leaders in the northern tribes of Israel, and there never will be until our Lord Jesus Christ comes to reign. Hoshea was the last king of those ten tribes then the darkness of separation from God would settle on those captives who were taken to all parts of the Assyrian empire and dispersed among the people so they would not unite with other Jews and rebel against the Assyrians.