Hosea Chapters 3 through 5 - Christogenea on Talkshoe 02-03-2012


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Hosea Chapter 3 - Christogenea on Talkshoe 02-03-2012

Last week, discussing Hosea chapters 1 and 2, I think that the primary lesson was summed up in the idea that the children of Israel are a nation of whores, and a whore as a nation, because they sought intercourse in commerce with all of the other nations, which they had been commanded to remain separate from. This is seen near the beginning of Hosea chapter 2, where it says “2 Plead with your mother, plead: for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband: let her therefore put away her whoredoms out of her sight, and her adulteries from between her breasts; 3 Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst. 4 And I will not have mercy upon her children; for they be the children of whoredoms. 5 For their mother hath played the harlot: she that conceived them hath done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink.” Today, chasing after the produce of China, Mexico, and every other race on the earth, we are whores once again. That is why, speaking of the then-future Mystery Babylon, the Revelation again depicts the nation of Israel as a whore: and that is where we are now, awaiting Babylon's fall. For her intercourse with other nations, the nation of Israel was punished and carried away by the Assyrians and later Babylonians, as a judgement from Yahweh. This message continues throughout Hosea.

KJV Hosea 3:1 Then said the LORD unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the LORD toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love flagons of wine.

The chapter's opening phrase may be read “go again”. This is the second time that Hosea has been told to take a whore for a wife, in order to illustrate the relationship between Yahweh and Israel. Rather than “flagons of wine”, the older Septuagint Greek and Dead Sea Scrolls versions have “raisin cakes” at the end of the verse.

The Greek is a lot clearer than the King James Version which is from the Masoretic Text and here is Hosea 3:1 from the Septuagint: “And the Lord said to me, Go yet, and love a woman that loves evil things, an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, and they have respect to strange gods, and love cakes of dried grapes.” The translation of this verse found in the Dead Sea Scrolls Bible by Abegg, Flint and Ulrich, has the Hebrew thus: “And [the Lord said to me, 'Go again, love a woman who has a lover and is an adulteress, even as the Lord loves] t[he] c[hildren of Israel, though they turn unto other gods, and love raisin cakes...'”

Cakes of dried grapes? Raisin cakes? That might seem odd, but is it really? If one thinks about it, it precisely reflects the mentality behind many of the arguments found in favor of jewish-inspired multiculturalism today. I would talk in front of people concerning the flood of Asians into New York, and they would say to me, “Don't you like the food?” Even if I did, I would much rather prefer to cook it myself. Here we see once again that there is nothing new under the sun.

2 So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an homer of barley, and an half homer of barley: [whores were cheap in those days] 3 And I said unto her, Thou shalt abide for me many days; thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be for another man: so will I also be for thee. 4 For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim:

As the whore would be without her lovers, which is what makes her a whore, then Israel would be without those symbols and institutions which are the substance of nationhood. And if the lovers are what made the woman a whore, then it is the offices of the kingdom that are the vehicle by which Israel the nation became a whore!

8655 תרפים teraphiym {ter-aw-feme'}

Meaning: 1) idolatry, idols, image(s), teraphim, family idol 1a) a kind of idol used in household shrine or worship

Usage: AV - image 7, teraphim 6, idol 1, idolatry 1; 15

The teraphim were the “household gods” found among the ancient Syrians, and also among the Romans and other branches of our race. In Rome they were called lares and penates, and the idols came to be seen as guardians of the household. Genesis chapter 31 gives us insight into the importance of the teraphim. Here is Genesis 31:19, where the King James Version translates that very word as images: "And Laban went to shear his sheep: and Rachel had stolen the images [teraphim] that were her father's." Clifton Emahiser once illustrated what was going on here, in his early Watchman's Teaching Letters. The teraphim were important to Rachel, because they were the symbols of the family inheritance. The child who possessed them evidently had a right to claim the family estate. Departing from the household of her father, Rachel took them for herself. Laban noticed they were missing in a short time. To Laban, it was important that his own sons - and not the children of his daughters – should have the inheritance. For this reason he had to have the teraphim. Therefore, after he had caught up with Jacob and Rachel, as Jacob and his wives and children departed Laban's house, and he searched Rachel's tent for them and could not find them, he was quite exasperated. When Jacob became disturbed at Laban's continued insistence, Laban begged that Jacob take an oath.

Therefore at Genesis 31:51-53 we read: “51 And Laban said to Jacob, Behold this heap, and behold this pillar, which I have cast betwixt me and thee; 52 This heap be witness, and this pillar be witness, that I will not pass over this heap to thee, and that thou shalt not pass over this heap and this pillar unto me, for harm. 53 The God of Abraham, and the God of Nahor, the God of their father, judge betwixt us. And Jacob sware by the fear of his father Isaac.” Here it is evident, that if Jacob indeed possessed the teraphim, he was bound by the oath not to cross the pillar to take the inheritance away from Laban's sons. So the teraphim were the household symbols of inheritance.

0646 אפוד 'ephowd {ay-fode'} rarely אפד 'ephod {ay-fode'}

Meaning: 1) ephod 1a) priestly garment, shoulder-cape or mantle, outer garment 1a1) worn by an ordinary priest and made of white stuff 1a2) worn by the high priest - more costly, woven of gold, blue, purple, scarlet, and linen threads provided with shoulder-pieces and a breast piece of like material, ornamented with gems and gold

Usage: AV - ephod 49; 49

The ephod was the garment of the priesthood. It was not only associated with the Levitical priesthood, as we see throughout the Old Testament, but also with pagan priesthoods, as it is evident in Judges chapters 17 and 18. Mentioned here with kings, princes, and teraphim-images, it is only representative of the religious aspect of nationhood. Discussing Hosea chapter 1, it became evident that while Israel as a people would always be preserved on the earth, Israel the nation was to be broken.

Hosea 1:4: “And the LORD said unto him, Call his name Jezreel; for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will cause to cease the kingdom of the house of Israel. “

Isaiah said at 7:8: “within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken, that it be not a people.”

The kings, the princes, the ephod which is a symbol of the priesthood, and the teraphim which are idol images, but were also used as symbols of familial inheritance, all of these things were symbols of Israel's nationhood, and the prophets had warned that the kingdom was to be broken. Furthermore, verse 5 reinforces the idea that these had to do with the dissolution of the kingdom.

Because the rulers and leaders of the people had caused the nation to sin, the people would be without the trappings and status of the kingdom as a part of their punishment. The children of Israel were for a long time in the dispersion without any of these things. While of course they had many men who fulfilled particular roles, they did not have the organized institutions which these symbols represent. After the great migrations from Mesopotamia into Asia and eventually Europe, it took them quite some time to again develop into a recognizably civil society.

5 Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God, and David their king; and shall fear the LORD and his goodness in the latter days.

But what were the children of Israel to return to? Through Jeremiah the prophet Yahweh said of the old city of Jerusalem that “Even so will I break this people and this city, as one breaketh a potter's vessel, that cannot be made whole again” (Jeremiah 19:11). At 2 Samuel 7:10, a scripture repeated in 1 Chronicles. Yahweh said “Moreover I will appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own, and move no more; neither shall the children of wickedness afflict them any more, as beforetime.” Therefore, returning to Palestine is out of the question. Isaiah chapter 55 explains the return of Israel to Yahweh their God:

Isaiah 55:1-8: “1 Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. 2 Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness. [Christ repeated these ideas often in reference to Himself, notably as it is recorded in John chapters 4 and 6.] 3 Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. [As Hosea says here, “5 Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God, and David their king...”] 4 Behold, I have given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people. 5 Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not, and nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the LORD thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for he hath glorified thee. 6 Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: 7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. 8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.”

The children of Israel were not to return to some 9000-square-mile patch of sand in the desert. The children of Israel were to return to Yahweh their God, through David their King. Christ is the prophetic David. Ezekiel 37:24 states that “David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them.” Yahweh is the God of the whole earth, as we see it proclaimed in Zechariah 4:10 and Micah 4:13. The idea of limiting the domain or the efficacy of a god to a certain land is an ancient pagan idea which has no place in Christianity. It is much more important that the children of Israel return to their God, than to some patch of desert.

KJV Hosea 4:1 Hear the word of the LORD, ye children of Israel: for the LORD hath a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, because there is no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land.

The situation which we have today is an ancient one. Right from the beginning, from the time of the division of the original kingdom of David and Solomon, was religion manipulated for political purposes. The national consciousness is manipulated when “truth” becomes whatever is politically expedient and therefore it is not really truth at all. This is why the apostle James warned us to despise the rich men of the world, who only sought to use their wealth so that they could rule over us and enslave us even further. One means of captivating us today is to use their wealth in order to purchase our academic and religious institutions and corrupt them so that they now teach what is politically expedient for the wealthy, rather than what is true and beneficial for the people.

Jeroboam was the first king of the House of Israel after the ten tribes had broken away from the rule of the House of Judah. The first thing he did was change religious “truth” for reason of political expedience, as described at 1 Kings 12:26-33: “26 And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David: 27 If this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their lord, even unto Rehoboam king of Judah, and they shall kill me, and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah. 28 Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. 29 And he set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan. 30 And this thing became a sin: for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan. 31 And he made an house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi. 32 And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the feast that is in Judah, and he offered upon the altar. So did he in Bethel, sacrificing unto the calves that he had made: and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made. 33 So he offered upon the altar which he had made in Bethel the fifteenth day of the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised of his own heart; and ordained a feast unto the children of Israel: and he offered upon the altar, and burnt incense.”

Jeroboam perverted the whole nation, so that he could maintain political control. Here in America, in 1913 with the Federal Reserve Act and related legislation, we handed over control of the economy of our nation to the international bankers, nearly all of whom happen to be jewish. Today, a hundred years later, all so-called “Christian” churches are really peddling the political desires of their jewish masters, and packaging them as truths in support of the false gods of Judaism. It was quite obvious and direct in Jeroboam's time, while today it is much more sophisticated and subtle. Rather than change the Christian religion overtly, they have infiltrated it through vehicles such as Bullinger and Scofield and a legion of Bible-school graduates who have learned from them.

2 By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood.

These are the sins of the land which resulted from a departure from the commandments of Yahweh, and a turn to immoral paganism. The change of religion results in a change in the moral codices of the nation, and then a change in the behaviour of the people themselves.

The Masoretic text here, at the end of the verse, has the phrase “and blood toucheth blood”. And in the Hebrew, the word blood here appears in the plural. Many times in Hebrew, the word for blood appears in the plural, and it is an idiomatic use of the word representing the idea of bloodshed. The context wherever the word for blood appears in the plural in the Old Testament is quite clear in that regard, that it refers to bloodshed, except here in this one verse. In this verse, it is clear from the context that the phrase “and blood toucheth blood” is related not to the sin of murder mentioned earlier in the passage, but rather to the sin of adultery which it follows. The Septuagint agrees with this assessment, and translates the passage a little more clearly, where Brenton somewhat accurately renders the Greek: “Cursing, and lying, and murder, and theft, and adultery abound in the land, and they mingle blood with blood.”

The mingling of blood with blood is not bloodshed here, as the more modern translators insist – at least not bloodshed in the traditional sense. Rather, it is a reference to adultery: the mingling of blood with blood is the result of race-mixing, and that too is tantamount to bloodshed because it destroys a race. Race-mixing is what happens when the children of Israel forsake the commandment of their God to be a separate people, and go following after the strange gods and the intercourse in trade and culture with the other nations and races. In the case of ancient Israel, it was mostly the Canaanites which were the focus of concern. Today it is expanded to include all of the world's non-White races as well.

3 Therefore shall the land mourn, and every one that dwelleth therein shall languish, with the beasts of the field, and with the fowls of heaven; yea, the fishes of the sea also shall be taken away. 4 Yet let no man strive, nor reprove another: for thy people are as they that strive with the priest. 5 Therefore shalt thou fall in the day, and the prophet also shall fall with thee in the night, and I will destroy thy mother.

The phrase “I will destroy thy mother” is, again, another way of saying that the kingdom will be broken. Each of us as individuals sins at diverse times. However when we as a nation generally depart form the commandments of God, we suffer depressions, and famines, and plagues, and various other trials. We become overrun with aliens and they steal our wealth. All of these things are among the ancient curses of disobedience described in Deuteronomy and Leviticus. It is not an evil God who persecutes us from the clouds of heaven. Rather, it is the inevitable result of our departure from His ways. It is plain cause and effect: our immoral behaviour naturally leads to our suffering these terrible things. The only way we can seek to be healed as a people, is to return to morality and to the commandments of our God, and things shall improve themselves naturally. Just as things have become what they are today as the natural result of our sin, we can have peace and prosperity only as a natural result of our goodness and obedience to our God.

6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children. 7 As they were increased, so they sinned against me: therefore will I change their glory into shame. 8 They eat up the sin of my people, and they set their heart on their iniquity. 9 And there shall be, like people, like priest: and I will punish them for their ways, and reward them their doings.

They did not pursue the truth. They had the ability to do so, and they followed their political leaders and priests instead. So for their punishment, they lost their kingdom, and their descendants were put away from the polity of God. Now they have reconciliation in Christ, and so do we, however once again today we as a people have neglected to pursue the truth. Rather than read their Bibles, our people worship the jews, because that is what is politically expedient – in order that the jews maintain the world hegemony which they have acquired through their assumption of a false identity and their imposition of the usury banking system upon all Christendom. If our people would read their Bibles, they may realize that the jews are really the antichrist, and they are the eternal enemies of God who today are posing themselves to be gods. For this reason, under jewish control, the world has been plunged into all sorts of corruption and perversion. Thus is the essence of Mystery Babylon, and we empower it when we fail to pursue the will of our God, and instead we follow the political desires of men. That alone is what destroys us, because it naturally leads us into all sorts of sin.

10 For they shall eat, and not have enough: they shall commit whoredom, and shall not increase: because they have left off to take heed to the LORD.

There is no fruit, and no satisfaction, in the lives of those who crave continually for the things of the flesh: they can never be satiated.

11 Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the heart.

There is also no longer any love for one's fellow man in this materialistic society in which we live. So it was in the paganized, materialistic society of ancient Israel.

12 My people ask counsel at their stocks, and their staff declareth unto them: for the spirit of whoredoms hath caused them to err, and they have gone a whoring from under their God.

As I elucidated from the pages of the classical historian Herodotus last week, we see this very practice described among the Scythians, who were indeed descended from the dispersed of ancient Israel. Our people today look for answers in all the wrong places. So rather than read the plain words of the Bible, and absorb the more austere moral lessons which it contains, they would rather seek for truth in places where they shall never find it: in the false gods of the jews and the vain mysticism of the non-White races. If Confucius (and an apt play on that name is “confuse-us”) had ever done the Chinese any good, they would have developed a civil and efficient society apart from acquiring the technology and organization of the White man. If animism had done the African any good, they would not be living in dung-huts and using urine for bug repellant. If the idols of the Hindus and Buddhists and their vile yoga practices had done the Near East any good, they would not be living in total squalor in New Delhi and in Bangladesh. If Mohammed ever had the truth, then his followers would not be the backwards, uncivil and maniacal animals that they are today. When we go whoring after these idols, we become like the people who espouse them. According to Genesis 1:26-28, it can be argued that we should be the zookeepers, and instead we end up in bed with the monkeys.

13 They sacrifice upon the tops of the mountains, and burn incense upon the hills, under oaks and poplars and elms, because the shadow thereof is good: therefore your daughters shall commit whoredom, and your spouses shall commit adultery.

Elements of paganism are often referred to in the Bible. Paganism has Canaanite roots, and paganism is only evident in ancient Europe because our White ancestors had brought it to Europe, after learning it from the accursed races of the ancient world. Those who desire to follow paganism today, seek to return to the errors of these ancient forefathers who themselves departed from the ways of their God to seek after the idols of devils.

14 I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredom, nor your spouses when they commit adultery: for themselves are separated with whores, and they sacrifice with harlots: therefore the people that doth not understand shall fall.

How can unrighteous men seek to execute the law of God, even against their own wives and daughters, when they are also found to be unrighteous? That is hypocrisy, and not justice. If we seek justice, we ourselves must be just.

Listeners have sometimes insisted to me that most of our people are just, and therefore they do not deserve to suffer the fruits of unrighteousness. Well, that is our perception. Those same people watch television and buy the products advertised on it, thereby supporting all of the evils which the television programmers espouse. Those same people purchase the smut which comes out of Hollywood and Nashville quite regularly, and it fills the heads of themselves and their children with all sorts of perversions. Those same people sit in the pews of their churches as their pastors extol the virtues of multiculturalism, express empathy for the so-called disadvantaged races of the earth, and encourage race-mixing and the introduction of all sorts of other evils into our communities, such as all sorts of sexual deviancy. If these people were truly righteous, they would abandon Hollywood, Nashville, and the rest of the perversions coming over their televisions and radios. They would rebuke their pastors for evil and forsake their churches, not allowing such evil things to be preached in their communities. As Paul said at the end of Romans chapter 1, it is not only those sinning who are liable of the judgements of the law, but also all those who approve of the sinners who deserve to be punished along with them. We shall be punished so long as we as a nation admit the evil among us to thrive, and lend our support to it. The first step to repentance is a recognition of the sin, and then a cessation of the behaviour which causes that sin. We as a people are not yet at the first step.

15 Though thou, Israel, play the harlot, yet let not Judah offend; and come not ye unto Gilgal, neither go ye up to Bethaven, nor swear, The LORD liveth.

Israel was to be sent out of the land for their sins, and by this time there was no way to avoid that fate. Judah would remain in the land – not all of the people, for many of them too were taken away with Israel, but the kingdom of Judah would remain there. Israel could not turn to Gilgal or to Bethaven. Gilgal was the ancient seat of Samuel, the place where Saul was made king, and also the city of the prophets in northern Israel. Bethaven means literally house of vanity, and represents the idolatry of Israel. Therefore I take this passage to mean that the fate of the people of Israel was decreed, and she could turn neither to her God nor to her idols for reprieve.

16 For Israel slideth back as a backsliding heifer: now the LORD will feed them as a lamb in a large place.

The symbol of Ephraim, as the ten-plus tribes of the House of Israel would often be called from this point in Hosea, was an ox. The children of Israel under Jeroboam I had also turned to the worship of the golden calves, that same idolatry which they turned to at Sinai, and which they also carried into the Mediterranean in their travels, to Cyprus and to Crete and beyond. The golden calf cult was not removed under the partial reforms of Jehu, and persisted right to the end of the kingdom. So the backsliding heifer allegory is appropriate in several respects.

Hosea wrote “Now Yahweh will feed them as a lamb in a large place”. This is a prophecy that the children of Israel would be moved to a much larger land, away from the influences of the aliens and the enemies of God. This was the first step in the fulfillment of 2 Samuel 7:10, which said in the time of David that the children of Israel would be moved to another place. The first warning of the Assyrian deportations is found as early as Numbers chapter 24, where it is said that Asshur – the name of the eponymous ancestor of the Assyrians - would take the nation of Israel away captive.

17 Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone. 18 Their drink is sour: they have committed whoredom continually: her rulers with shame do love, Give ye. 19 The wind hath bound her up in her wings, and they shall be ashamed because of their sacrifices.

They would wallow in their idolatry until Yahweh should choose to feed them in that place to which He sent them. This happened, of course, when the dispersed Israelites, who eventually became the Germanic tribes, heard the Christian gospel. For some of them, that came before the third century, among the Alans, some of the Goths, and some of the Sakae. For others, it would not occur until the eighth or ninth centuries! Once having returned to Yahweh their God through Christianity, the children of Israel were indeed - for the most part - ashamed of their pagan practices.

KJV Hosea 5:1 Hear ye this, O priests; and hearken, ye house of Israel; and give ye ear, O house of the king; for judgment is toward you, because ye have been a snare on Mizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor. 2 And the revolters are profound to make slaughter, though I have been a rebuker of them all.

The political and religious leaders are those primarily responsible for the errors of the people. Isaiah 56:10-12: “10 His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. 11 Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter. 12 Come ye, say they, I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and to morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.” Our leaders usually care about their bellies, and not about their people. So it is today!

Ezekiel 34:2: “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto the shepherds; Woe be to the shepherds of Israel that do feed themselves! should not the shepherds feed the flocks?”

3 I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me: for now, O Ephraim, thou committest whoredom, and Israel is defiled. 4 They will not frame their doings to turn unto their God: for the spirit of whoredoms is in the midst of them, and they have not known the LORD. 5 And the pride of Israel doth testify to his face: therefore shall Israel and Ephraim fall in their iniquity; Judah also shall fall with them.

As Paul explained in his epistles, Yahweh God cannot “lose” His people. The Greek word so often translated as lost in the New Testament is ἀπόλλυμι, a word that Liddell and Scott in their Greek English lexicon describe as meaning to be destroyed, ruined, or driven off from one's own homeland. These definitions perfectly describe the deported children of Israel, and these are the people to whom Christ was referring at Matthew 15:24 where He said “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

Ezekiel chapter 34 is all about the “lost” sheep, how they had “wandered over every mountain”, meaning that the children of Israel would indeed endure a long migration. Yet they are first mentioned in the Bible at Jeremiah 50:6: “My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains: they have gone from mountain to hill, they have forgotten their resting-place.” Here we are also told that Judah shall fall along with Israel, and of course Judah did, coming under tribute to Assyria, but the kingdom of Judah in Jerusalem lasted nearly 140 years beyond that of Israel in Samaria.

6 They shall go with their flocks and with their herds to seek the LORD; but they shall not find him; he hath withdrawn himself from them. 7 They have dealt treacherously against the LORD: for they have begotten strange children: now shall a month devour them with their portions.

They have “begotten strange children”. This corroborates the interpretation of the phrase “blood touches blood” in regard to race-mixing which has already been given here at Hosea 4:2. Now we pray that the Word of God is true, and that the bastard children among our ancestors were not permitted to thrive among us. One place this promise is found is in the words of the prophet Amos, at Amos 9:9: “For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the house of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth.” Yahweh promises that He would sift the House of Israel through those nations to which she was deported, to ancient Assyria and Persia and Media.

8 Blow ye the cornet in Gibeah, and the trumpet in Ramah: cry aloud at Bethaven, after thee, O Benjamin. 9 Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke: among the tribes of Israel have I made known that which shall surely be. 10 The princes of Judah were like them that remove the bound: therefore I will pour out my wrath upon them like water. 11 Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment, because he willingly walked after the commandment. 12 Therefore will I be unto Ephraim as a moth, and to the house of Judah as rottenness. 13 When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound, then went Ephraim to the Assyrian, and sent to king Jareb: yet could he not heal you, nor cure you of your wound. 14 For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion, and as a young lion to the house of Judah: I, even I, will tear and go away; I will take away, and none shall rescue him. 15 I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early.

And so it was, not long after Hosea wrote these words, that Israel and much of Judah began to be taken away in bondage by the Assyrians - a process which lasted from about 742 BC to about 676 BC. Our people have returned to God in Christ, however today there are many other prophecies in play, and while we recognize personal sin, we still have not recognized our national sin, which is much more serious than anything which any of us may do wrong as individuals.

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