FBC Morning Light (7/6/2024)

Good Saturday morning, people of faith. We're looking at Hosea chapters 8 through 11, Micah chapters 2 and 3, and Isaiah chapter 7 this weekend. And today, this morning, I'm going to focus on Hosea chapter 8.

The Covenant Rebellion of Northern Israel in Hosea 8

Let me begin in verse 1, says, set the trumpet to your mouth. He shall come like an eagle against the house of the Lord, because they transgressed my covenant and rebelled against my law. So the first phrase here, set the trumpet to your mouth, is to Hosea.

So he is supposed to proclaim what is going to happen here, the judgment against, primarily against the northern kingdom of Israel here in chapter 8. And he shall come like an eagle against the house of the Lord is likely talking about the Assyrians and how they will wipe out the northern kingdom.

And it says, because they have transgressed my covenant and rebelled against my law. This is not some sort of simple sin or mistake in sinning accidentally. This is this is outright rejection of God's law and an open going against the covenant that God has made with his people.

He said that he would be that that he would be their God and they would be his people. And they have openly rejected that, says in verse 2, Israel will cry to me, my God, we know you. Israel has rejected the good.

The enemy will pursue him. And Israel there refers to the northern kingdom. It says they set up kings, but not by me. They made princes, but I did not acknowledge them from their silver and gold. They made idols for themselves that they might be cut off.

Your calf is rejected, O Samaria. My anger is aroused against them. How long until they attain to innocence for for from Israel is even this a workman made it and it is not God. But the calf of Samaria shall be broken to pieces.

Jeroboam's Kings and the Calf of Samaria

So there's two main ways in which the the northern kingdom has rejected the covenant that that the Lord has set up with them. First of all, they established kings, but not by God's correct order. All right.

Going back to the first king of the northern tribe, Jeroboam. Yes, it was prophesied that he would take 10 of the 12 tribes and form his own kingdom. But that was not the initial intent of what God had ordained.

And so the kings that they were setting up were being set up by their own rules and laws and orders, not according to what God had ordained. And I think the second and much more egregious sin has to do with the calf.

This is likely the the calf or the calves, referring to the two altars to the calves that Jeroboam had set up in order to keep the people of the northern kingdom from going down to the temple in Jerusalem to further move them away from what God had ordained for them to do, that they had gone and to the point of worshiping this calf that Jeroboam tried to say was Yahweh, which was not Yahweh, could not be Yahweh, was a violation of the and was just an abomination to what God had ordained.

Judgment on Israel and the Call to Examine Our Own Idols

So the question becomes, yes, this is what happened. This is what the northern tribe had, the northern kingdom had done. This is the evil. And there was judgment that came about because of that, that northern kingdom in 722 BC was wiped out.

Now, the question becomes, are there ways in which we go about life ordaining things that are not meant to be ordained and having idols that are that are in our lives that are not meant to be so? And with that thought and with that question, I will leave you to ponder this day.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for the example. From your word, may it be true of us that that we walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have called us, that we would not seek after things of this world to set up kings or idols to follow and worship, but rather to walk humbly with you.

It's in your son's name, Jesus, we pray. Amen. Have an excellent day, people of faith.