Lesson #10

HOSEA 9
Lesson #10
MATERIALISM AND THE DECEPTION OF PROSPERITY

• Memory Verse: Hos 9:17
• To this point in the book of Hosea, we have seen the life of a tragic family paralleled with the tragic household of God.
• We have learned the importance of the family in God’s plan that began with the first couple, Adam and Eve, in the book of Genesis.
• We have learned in the book of Exodus that God established the plan of redemption within the family when he brought the Israelites out of Egypt as a new nation.
• We have discovered the importance of the marriage vow that binds a family together, over which God placed severe consequences and punishment for the breaking of that vow in the books of Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy.
• We are going to examine more concepts concerning the family in this chapter.
• Keep in mind that Hosea’s household makes a parallel with God’s household as both worked out the plan established in Hos 2 and 3, the plan of deprivation, consequences, and unconditional love.

• Read Hos 9:1-17

• “Rejoice not, O Israel, for joy, as other people: for thou hast gone a whoring from thy God…”

(1)

• Israel could not enjoy her sin as other nations did. Why?
• When you belong to God, He will not permit you to get too far away without making your life miserable in hopes that you will RETURN to God.
• A very important principle:
• The backsliding believer walks a miserable path of conviction and chastisement to bring him back to the Lord.
• “…thou hast loved a reward upon every cornfloor.”

(1)

• In her misery, Israel tried to fill the spiritual void with materialism. The more she tried to increase her economy, the more miserable she became because the greed and violence in society grew.
• Remember that this is exactly what Gomer did. She liked the money she received from prostitution.
• The judgment of prosperity:
• In Hosea’s time, Israel was prosperous under King Jeroboam II.
• Prosperity in a nation is a false blessing. Why?
• Prosperity becomes addictive and is fed by greed.
• We have seen in the book of Hosea that Gomer attributed her wealth to the gifts her lovers gave her when, in fact, her true wealth came from her husband in the household.
• Israel attributed her prosperity to the idols, when her true wealth came from God.
• In today’s world, the stock market is more important than God. The Wallstreet Journal is more widely read than the Word of God. Money and prosperity become gods in the global world we live in today.
• The false god of prosperity causes a person or a nation to become:
• …self-reliant instead of trusting in God.
• …full of pride for accomplishments instead of gratefulness to God.
• …greedy and lustful for more in an addictive way.
• …blind to spiritual things. (Rev 3:17-18)
• Eventually the prosperity bubble will burst that all might see the spiritual reality of it:

• “The floor and the winepress shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail in her.”

(2)

• Therefore, a false prosperity will eventually reveal its true nature:
• …its temporary nature.
• …its emptiness and inability to satisfy.
• …its distractive nature.
• …its corruptive nature.
• In Israel, the prosperity bubble began to burst when Assyria began to raid Israel’s crops.
• What does prosperity in a nation really tell you about a people’s values?
• A person’s economic values are learned in the family, which is the foundation of the nation.
• We learn from our parents the value of money.
• The child sees whether the money in the family is gained by hard work, dishonesty, deception, corruption, or by entitlement programs.
• The child sees whether or not the parents are good stewards of the money God gives them.
• We learn from our parents the priorities of life by how money is spent in the family.
• Whether it is spent for sinful practices.
• Whether it is spent for the Lord.
• Whether it is spent to promote luxury and greed.
• Of course the ultimate bursting of the economic bubble and the awakening of Hosea’s neighbors in Israel was the final destruction of the Northern Kingdom of Israel by Assyria in 722 BC.

• “They shall not dwell in the LORD’s land; but Ephraim shall RETURN to Egypt, and they shall eat unclean things in Assyria.”

(3)

• The majority of Israelites were deported to Assyria in 722 – 721 BC.
• Some of the people fled to Egypt.
• The global economic bubble will eventually burst, as well. (Rev 18)
• Outside of the Promised Land in captivity, they could not worship God in the manner He prescribed.
• They could not do the animal sacrifices without the temple. (4)
• They could not keep the feast days. Meanwhile in the Promised Land they incorporated the pagan practices of prostitution into the feast days established by God. .(5)
• “The days of visitation are come, the days of recompense are come.…”

(7)

• These are phrases that refer to judgment.
• Specifically for the Northern Kingdom, their day of judgment was the final invasion of Assyria in 722-721 BC.
• The two religious systems:
• There were two religious systems that existed in Hosea’s day.
• =1= The true religious system with its worship of Jehovah.
• =2= The false religious system of idolatry established by the Northern Kingdom.
• “…the prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad…”

(7)

• This is what the people said about the true prophets of God, like Hosea, that predicted a coming judgment.
• Instead of accepting the message of repentance from the true prophets of God, the Israelites accepted the message of false prophets that told them lies they wanted to hear.
• The same is true today. Some churches and preachers say, “We should not mention sin because that is not acceptable to non-believers. We should make our message acceptable to gain their attention.”
• The true prophets of God had no problem with telling the people the truth even though it cost them their lives.
• The reality is that the false prophets were the fools and the “religious” system of idolatry was mad to think that idols of wood and stone could deliver them from their enemies.
• We see the two religious systems contrasted in verse 8.

• “The watchman of Ephraim was with my God: but the prophet is a snare of a fowler in all his ways, and hatred in the house of his God.”

(8)

• God had his true prophets watching like a guard against the approaching enemy and warning the people.
• Because the people would not listen, they raised up false prophets that trapped them into believing a lie and caused the people to hate God.
• We have the two religious systems today, the true and the false. The false takes many forms and a variety of names but none bring people to repentance and salvation.
• The true religion is not a “religion” at all, but a saving relationship with the creator, Jesus Christ that deals honestly with man’s sin problem.
• ‘They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah…”

(9)

• The worst sin Israel committed occurred in Gibeah in Jdg 19:20.
• Judges 19 tells us the story of a priest that took a woman into his house, but she was unfaithful like Gomer. She finally RETURN ed to her father, but the priest came after her. After her father was sure the priest would be good to his daughter, the priest and the woman started the journey home. They stayed the night in the evil city of Gibeah which was very much like the homosexual city of Sodom. When the men of the city made sexual advances toward the priest, he gave them the woman. They beat and abused her, and she died at the door of the house where the priest stayed. When the priest arrived home with the dead woman, he divided her body into 12 pieces and sent one piece to each of the 12 tribes of Israel to call attention to the fact that there was no justice in Israel.
• It is interesting that the New Testament tells us from where homosexuality comes.
• Read Rom 1:18-28
• Homosexuality is directly related to and the results of idolatry.
• Here is the sequence according to Rom 1:18-28:
• Man fails to acknowledge God and fails to worship Him.
• Instead man makes his own gods.
• Without restraint man permits his lusts to carry him into diverse sexual sins.
• Sexual sins that run rampant without restriction result in homosexuality.
• The grapes and the figs = the household of Israel (10)
• These two types of fruit are used in scripture in a symbolic way to represent the nation of Israel.
• Read Jer 24:1-10
• Two baskets of figs, the Northern Kingdom and the Southern kingdom in exile in Babylon.
• The vineyard is the Promised Land given to Israel, that contained God’s people, and the grapes are the people from the divided kingdoms. (Isa 5:1-7)
• Just like Gomer brought her lovers into the family relationship of Hosea’s household, King Ahab and Jezebel brought in the idols of Baal and the false prophets of Baal into God’s household.
• King Ahab and Queen Jezebel were the authorities over the kingdom of Israel. They were supposed to protect the household of God from this enemy. Instead they opened the doors to idolatry that destroyed the nation.
• In the same way, the parents are the authority over the household. God especially holds the husband responsible for what enters his household.
• Hosea prohibited Gomer from bringing her lovers into his house. He isolated his family from this immoral influence. Just as Gomer ran after her lovers, Israel ran after other gods.
• However the principle remains true:
• The father is the head of the home and is placed there by God as a protection over his family.
• Read Eph 5:23, 26-27
• The husband is the guard at the gate and his wife is to help him in this task.
• This task of guarding the household is a much greater task today than it has ever been before.
• The enemy comes in by television and the internet that were not available 75 years ago.
• The enemy comes in by movies and worldly music.
• This task of guarding the household includes setting the priorities and standards for the household:
• …to maintain the worship of God.
• …to avoid the idolatry of materialism.
• Notice that God says in verse 12 and in verse 16 that their children will reap what the parents have sown.

• “Though they bring up their children, yet will I bereave them…”

(12)

• “…they shall bear no fruit: yea, though they bring forth, yet will I slay even the beloved fruit of their womb.”

(16)

• The children were not excluded from the judgment of the captivity in Babylon.
• They all paid the price for their idolatry and materialism.
• There would be no one left in the Promised Land that stood for God (12)
• “Ephraim, as I saw Tyrus, is planted in a pleasant place: but Ephraim shall bring forth his children to the murderer.”

(13)

• Background:
• Tyre was a very prosperous commercial and shipping center. The business of trade was booming. This prosperity was spilling over into the Northern Kingdom.
• As it is characteristic of materialism, the lust of the eyes caused the Northern Kingdom to want a part of this prosperity. The kings of the Northern Kingdom lusted for the prosperity of Tyre and the other Phoenician sea ports.
• The result:
• The prosperity of materialism could not give them enough money to buy peace with Assyria year after year.
• The prosperity of materialism was a false crutch that led them to the slaughter because Assyria demanded more and more tribute that they could not pay.
• The tribute paid to Assyria was supposed to buy peace, but it became a bondage that ended in destruction by Assyria. They had neither peace nor prosperity.
• A decreased birth rate would result because they were using pagan fertility rites to increase the birth rate. (14, 16)
• “…I will drive them out of mine house…”

(15)

• This phrase refers to the loss of the Promised Land physically, but it also refers to Israel’s relationship with God.
• God cannot tolerate sin in his presence.
• In the same way, Hosea was forced to isolate Gomer from her children.
• “…they shall be wanderers among the nations.”

(17)

• The seventy year captivity in Babylon was the beginning of what is called The Diaspora” (the dispersion of Jews throughout the world.)
• When the Israelites RETURN ed to the Promised Land after the captivity, the majority did not RETURN to their original tribal land given to each tribe under Joshua. In fact many had forgotten to which tribe they belonged.
• We can see this dispersion with Mary and Joseph for they were both from the tribe of Judah, but were not living in the land given to the tribe of Judah.
• A further dispersion occurred in 70 AD when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem, the temple with its genealogic records, and the nation.
• A further dispersion occurred under Hitler in World War II so that today only a few Jews actually know to which tribe they belong.
• There are more Jews today living outside of the Promised Land than in it.
• Summary and application:
• We have discussed how materialism is a false blessing and actually deceives people into a false sense of security.
• We have discussed how the Christian household is be protected by the parents as they set the standards and priorities for their children to guard them against the modern idolatry of materialism.
• We have seen in scripture how the false security of an economic bubble will eventually burst.
• In our day, we have already begun to see the temporary nature of materialism with the global economic crisis.
• Here is a current warning right out of the pages of scripture:
• The current global economic crisis is nothing compared to the collapse of the economic bubble that is still ahead. I encourage you to take the advice of scripture:
• Read Rom 13:8 and Pro 22:7
• Get out of debt!
• Read Luk 12:31 and Luk 6:38
• Give to God!

HOMEWORK
HOSEA 10
This is a self-study. Please do not send homework answers to the teacher forcorrection.

• Application of Hos 9
• In what ways does this lesson speak to how you manage your household:
• In setting priorities that teach and use the principles of God so that my family worships the one true God.
• In being a watchman and a model to protect your family from the deceptions of materialism.
• Other.
• How can you improve?

• Preparation of Hos 10
• Read Hos 10:1-15
• What is the “empty vine”?
• Read Isa 5:1-7
• What would a full vine look like?

Memory verse :Hos 10:12