Hosea 5:8 - Meaning and Application

Here is a loud warning sound, announcing that judgment is coming (Hosea 5:8). “Blow the trumpet” in Gibeah and in Ramah, two nearby towns on the border between Judah and Israel. Gibeah was on Judah’s frontier, and Ramah was in Israel, so the alarm reaches both kingdoms. “Cry out at Beth-aven,” or Bethel, which seems to have already fallen to the enemy. There, instead of the trumpet, people hear the cries of the conquered mixed with the shouts of the victors.

The call is, “After you, Benjamin! The enemy is coming behind you.” Ephraim has already been defeated, and Benjamin is next in line for trouble. The cup of trembling will go around. Hosea has already described God’s case against them as a courtroom trial (Hosea 4:1). Here he describes it as a battle, and when God judges, he will also win. So all should get ready to meet their God. He had already said the judgment was certain; now he shows it is also near. When people see danger at the door, it wakes them up.

The meaning of this trumpet blast is explained in the next verse. “Among the tribes of Israel I have made known what is sure” (Hosea 5:9). The destruction of stubborn sinners is certain. It is not empty talk meant only to scare them. It is a fixed sentence. It is also a mercy that God makes this known ahead of time, so we have warning and may flee from the coming wrath. It is a privilege for Israel that God tells them both their duty and their danger.

Now Hosea gives the reason for God’s case against them. First, he is against the princes of Judah because they led boldly in sin (Hosea 5:10). They are like people who move boundary stones. God had given his law as a fence around what belongs to him, but they broke through it. They crossed over God’s rights, and they ignored the line between good and evil, as well as the duties of justice and fairness. They acted as if, because they were princes, they could do anything. Some also take this to mean they invaded the people’s rights and property to strengthen royal power, which was like moving old boundary marks.

Some have noticed that Judah’s rulers seem to have been more absolute and arbitrary than Israel’s rulers. For that reason, God says, “I will pour out my wrath on them like water.” That means in great fullness and force, like the flood on the old world because it was filled with violence (Genesis 6:13). Even rulers must not move the boundaries God has set. There are limits in religion and in justice, and if they break them, they must answer to the God above them.

Second, God is against the people of Ephraim because they followed sin eagerly and quietly (Hosea 5:11). “He willingly walked after the commandment” means they followed Jeroboam and later kings of Israel, who forced the people by law to worship the calves at Dan and Bethel and not go to Jerusalem. This was a command from men, supported by state policy. The people did not only obey blindly, they also did it willingly, because they had a hidden hatred for God’s true worship. A people that easily accepts human commands that oppose God’s commands is preparing itself for ruin.

The punishment fits the sin. Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment, meaning his civil rights and freedoms are crushed. This is just with God, because those who betray God’s rule often lose their own rights. It also follows naturally from the sin itself. If people willingly follow a command that goes against God, they will find that such power keeps growing and taking more. Nothing helps a fierce tyranny more than weak, flattering submission. So Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment. He is wronged under the appearance of justice. It is a sad and bitter judgment when a people is crushed while being told it is receiving justice.

This explains the warning in Hosea 5:9, “Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke.” Bold sinners must expect a day of rebuke. That day will strip them of the comfort of all they have and all they hope for.

God would deal with Judah and Ephraim in different ways at different times, and sometimes with both together, until their ruin was complete. He would begin with smaller judgments that often work quietly and almost unnoticed (Hosea 5:12). “I will be to Ephraim like a moth” means, or rather, “they are to Ephraim like a moth,” since the sickness is already at work. God’s judgments can be like a moth or like rot. A moth eats clothing, and rot eats wood, and in the same way God’s judgments slowly consume sinners.

These judgments work quietly, so people may not notice them at first. They may think they are safe and doing well, but later they find themselves wasting away. They also work slowly, with delays and pauses, giving time for repentance. Many a nation, like many a person, dies from a slow wasting illness while still seeming strong. They also work step by step. God sends lesser judgments to keep greater ones away if people will listen and turn back. He moves gradually, showing that he does not want people to perish. A moth breeds in cloth, and rot in wood, so sinners are often consumed by a fire they themselves have started.

When it became clear that these lighter judgments were not doing their work, God said he would come against them with greater force (Hosea 5:14). “I will be like a lion to Ephraim, and like a young lion to the house of Judah,” even though Judah had earlier been called a lion’s cub in Jacob’s blessing. So no one should think his power has grown weak because he had been like a moth to them before. If smaller judgments do not turn people back, we should expect God to send greater ones.

Christ is sometimes called the lion of the tribe of Judah, yet here God is a lion against that tribe. See what God will do to people who feel safe while living in sin: “I, even I, will tear.” He speaks as one who has the right to destroy, as the only Lawgiver (James 4:12). There is a more direct work of God in some judgments than in others. “I will tear and go away.” He goes away in judgment, without fear of them, like a lion leaving its prey. He also goes away without helping them. If God only sends affliction but stays with us in grace and comfort, our state is still bearable. But it is truly sad if he tears and then goes away, taking his presence with him. When God departs, he takes away all that is truly valuable, because all good goes with him.

He will take away, and no one will rescue. Just as prey cannot be rescued from a lion, so no one can be rescued from God’s justice except those who are placed under his grace (Micah 5:8). It is useless for a person to fight against his Maker. When God deals by lesser judgments and people still do not turn, he may send greater ones. That is his warning and his right.

The different judgments had different effects. When God fought against them by smaller afflictions, they ignored him and looked to creatures for help, but found no relief (Hosea 5:13). When God was to them like a moth and like decay, they noticed their sickness and their wound. After a while they saw that their affairs were slipping and their estate was falling apart. Then they sent to the Assyrian for help and sought favor from King Jareb, a name some think belonged to Pul or Tiglath-pileser, kings of Assyria. Israel and Judah both looked to them for relief in their trouble, hoping an alliance would repair their failing strength.

This is what a worldly heart does in trouble. It sees the sickness and the wound, but not the sin that caused them. It does not confess the hand of God, much less his righteous hand, in the trouble. So instead of going straight to the Creator, who alone can help, it goes far out of its way to seek help from creatures, who can do nothing. Those who do not repent of sin are unwilling to depend on God in affliction. They would rather look anywhere else than to him.

And what happened? “Yet he could not heal you, nor cure you of your wound.” Those who neglect God and trust creatures for help will always be disappointed. Those who rely on them for support find broken reeds. Those who look to them for supply find broken cisterns. Those who expect comfort and healing from them find miserable comforters and useless doctors. The kings of Assyria, whom Judah and Israel called on, distressed them and did not help them (2 Chronicles 28:16, 2 Chronicles 28:22). Some think King Jareb means the great or mighty king, because they trusted his power. Others think it means the king who would plead their cause, because they trusted his wisdom and skill, and that he would take up their case. They had even sent him a gift (Hosea 10:6), as a fee, as if they had hired him to represent them. But he deceived them, as human strength always deceives those who trust it (Jeremiah 17:5, Jeremiah 17:6).

When God had torn them like a lion, he would at last bring them back to himself by their sufferings, which is what he was waiting for (Hosea 5:15). “I will go and return to my place,” meaning heaven, or the mercy seat, the throne of grace where he shows his favor. When God punishes sinners, he comes out in judgment (Isaiah 26:21). But when he means to show favor, he returns to his place, waiting there to be gracious once they submit. Or, after correction, he may return to his place in the sense that he hides his face and does not seem to notice their troubles or prayers. He does this to humble them further until they are, in some measure, ready for his favor again.

Two signs of their return are named here. First, they will confess their sin: “Till they acknowledge their offense.” That is, until they feel their guilt, admit it, and humble themselves before God. When people begin to complain more about their sins than about their afflictions, there is some hope for them. This is what God asks for when his hand is correcting us, that we own our fault and admit we are justly punished. Second, they will pray for God’s favor: “Till they seek my face.” We may expect this when people are brought to the point where other helpers have failed them. “In their affliction they will seek me early,” meaning earnestly and with persistence. If they seek him sincerely, even if it is late in one sense, God graciously counts it as early. He is glad to receive true penitents when they return to him.

When we are made aware of sin and corrected by God’s rod, our duty is to seek his face. We should want to know him and draw near to him, so that he may show himself to us and for us, proving that he is at peace with us. It is reasonable to expect that affliction will bring back to God those who have long wandered from him and stayed far away. For that reason, God turns away from us for a time, so that he may turn us back to himself, and then return to us. “Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray.”