Hosea 4:1 - Meaning and Application

Here is the court setting. God calls for both attention and a serious hearing: “Hear the word of the Lord, you children of Israel, for this word of conviction comes to you, whether you listen or refuse.” Who should God expect to hear Him fairly and take His warning more seriously than the children of Israel, His own professing people? They are often ready to listen when He speaks comfort, but will they listen when He brings a case against them?

Yes, they must hear Him when He speaks against them and lays charges before them. The Lord has a case against the people of this land, this holy land. Sin is the great troublemaker, because it creates a break between God and His people. God sees sin among His own people, and He has a case against them for it. He is specially offended when they break covenant with Him, bring shame on His name, and repay His kindness with ingratitude.

God’s case will be argued first by the warnings of His Word, before it is argued by His judgments. In this way He shows that He is right in all He does, and that He does not delight in the death of sinners. His warnings should be heeded, because sooner or later they will be heard.

The indictment now is read, and the whole nation is charged with very serious sins that greatly provoke God. First, they are accused of leaving out the most important duties. There is no truth or mercy, no justice or kindness, the weightier matters of God’s law, as our Lord calls them (Matthew 23:23), judgment, mercy, and faith. Most of the people seemed to have no real sense of honesty. They did not feel bound to speak and act truthfully, even when their words and deeds harmed others. They had even less sense of mercy, or of any duty to care for the poor.

This is no surprise when there is no knowledge of God in the land. What good can be expected where people do not know God? Israel had once enjoyed the great privilege of being a place where God was made known and His name was honored. That made their sin worse, because they did not know Him as they should have (Psalm 76:1).

From there comes national guilt in the most terrible sins against both God and man, against the first and second tables of the law. They had no real regard for either. Swearing, lying, killing, stealing, and adultery, sins against the third, ninth, sixth, eighth, and seventh commandments, were found everywhere in the land and among every class of people (Hosea 4:2). The corruption was widespread. Whatever good people there were among them were either lost, hidden, or hiding themselves.

By these sins they break out, meaning they go beyond all bounds of reason, conscience, and God’s law. They have gone too far in wickedness (Job 36:9). They let their sinful desires spill out. They break through everything that should stop them, like water overflowing a bank. Sin is a fierce thing, and its power is extreme. When people are fully set on doing evil (Ecclesiastes 8:11), what can hold them back? (Genesis 11:6).

When they break out like this, blood touches blood. That is, murders happen everywhere, one after another, almost without pause. Murders follow murders. Blood runs through the land, even royal blood. At this time there was much bloodshed in the struggle for the throne. Shallum killed Zechariah, Menahem killed Shallum, Pekah killed Pekahiah, and Hoshea killed Pekah. Likely, there was similar bloody violence among other rivals too. So the land was polluted with blood (Psalm 106:38), filled with blood from one end to the other (2 Kings 21:16).

Then comes the sentence on this guilty and polluted land (Hosea 4:3): it will be completely destroyed and laid waste. Since the whole land is infected with sin, the whole land will mourn under God’s severe judgments. It will sit in grief, stripped of its wealth and beauty. As valleys are said to shout for joy when there is plenty and peace, so here they are said to mourn when war and famine leave them empty.

The whole land will become like brimstone, salt, and burning, as the law had warned (Deuteronomy 29:23). They broke all God’s commandments, and now He threatens to take away all their comforts. The land mourns when there is no grass for cattle and no herbs for people. Then everyone who lives there will waste away from lack of good food and grow weary for lack of the usual rich foods they enjoyed. Even the beasts of the field will grow weak (Jeremiah 14:5-6).

The destruction of the crops will be so great that there will not even be food left for the birds of the air. They too will suffer with man, and their dying or growing thin will be a judgment on those who once filled their tables with wild birds. Even the fish of the sea will be taken away, or will gather and move off in schools to another coast, so that fishing will no longer be profitable. In this respect, the desolation will be more complete than Noah’s flood, because that flood did not affect the fish of the sea, but this one will. Removing the fish was also part of one of Egypt’s plagues (Psalm 105:29). When the waters dry up, the fish die (Isaiah 50:2; Zephaniah 1:2-3).

When people become disobedient to God, it is right that the lower creatures should become useless to them. How much reason we have to admire God’s patience and mercy toward our land, that even though there is so much swearing, lying, killing, stealing, and adultery, there is still plenty of flesh, fish, and fowl on our tables!

Then comes the court order that no more effort should be made to bring the condemned to repentance, along with the reason for that order. The order itself is this (Hosea 4:4): let no one strive or rebuke another. Let no further means be used to bring them back or correct them. Let their doctors give them up as hopeless and beyond cure.

This shows that as long as there is any hope, we should rebuke sinners for their sins. We owe one another both giving and receiving correction. It was one of Moses’ laws, “You shall surely rebuke your neighbor” (Leviticus 19:17), and that is an act of brotherly love. Sometimes there is need for sharp rebuke, not only correction but even earnest striving, because people are so unwilling to give up their sins. But when God says, “Do not rebuke them anymore,” it is a sign that persons and nations have been given over to ruin.

This warning means more than a command to the prophets not to pray. At times God gave that order, yet the prophets still prayed for the people. Here the point is that the people were so hardened in sin, and so ready for judgment, that speaking to them or pleading with God for them would do little good. It is a sad sign when those who should speak against the sins of the time stay quiet and give up the fight (2 Chronicles 25:16).

The reasons for this command are clear. They are determined to keep on sinning, and no warning will change them. God says, “Your people are like those who fight with priests.” They have become so bold in evil, and so unable to bear correction, that they would even attack a priest if he gave them the smallest rebuke. If they cannot accept reproof from God’s appointed servants, they will not accept it from ordinary people either.

This may point to the evil done under Joash, king of Judah, and his people, when they stoned Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada, for bringing them God’s message (2 Chronicles 24:21). He was a priest, and they opposed him while he stood between the temple and the altar. Dr. Lightfoot thinks Hosea also had that event in mind when he spoke of “blood touching blood” (Hosea 4:2). The blood of the one who offered the sacrifice was mixed with the blood of the sacrifice itself, and that showed the height of their wickedness. Jesus later used that same kind of language about the guilt that would bring judgment (Matthew 23:35).

Because they are so set against correction, no one should expect them to listen. More than that, God has also decided to bring their ruin. Since they refuse all warning and counsel, they will fall, and no one can stop what has been set in motion. The prophet who flattered them and led them astray will fall with them. Both the people and their false prophet will keep falling, day and night, into one trouble after another.

Their darkness will not hide them from trouble, and their light will not help them escape it. The false prophets were blind leaders, and the people were blind followers, so day and night are the same to them. They will fall in broad daylight, when they feel safest and others can see their shame most clearly. The prophet will fall at night, when the terror of it will be greatest to him. The ruin of those who helped ruin others will be especially bitter and unbearable.

They may have expected their mother to help them when they were in danger of falling, but that hope will fail. God says, “I will destroy your mother,” meaning Samaria, the mother city, the whole nation, the state that stood like a mother to the rest. Everything will be silenced and laid waste. When all share the guilt, it is only right to expect that all will share the ruin.