Hosea 13

When Ephraim spoke, people trembled; he was exalted in Israel. But he became guilty of Baal worship and died. Hosea 13:1

Feinberg comments: “One can hardly read the history of the twelve tribes without noting how prominent was the position of Ephraim.” [1] Ephraim and Manasseh were the sons of Joseph, who were adopted by Father Jacob as his own. While Manasseh was firstborn, Jacob deliberately chose Ephraim for the blessing (Gen. 48:14). Ephraim went on to become the most dominant and influential tribe in the northern kingdom. In time, “Ephraim” came to be a name representing the whole northern kingdom.

Ephraim was numerous, strong, courageous, and feared by all until the tribe began to worship Baal. King Jeroboam (I) opened the door to Baal worship with the golden calves he set up at Bethel and Dan. However, it was King Ahab (c. 874–853 BC) who was responsible for truly establishing Baal worship in Israel. Ahab married the Phoenician princess Jezebel, and she made it her business to promote Baal worship. She replaced the Aaronic priesthood with 450 prophets of Baal and 400 prophets of Asherah (Baal’s female counterpart). We can read about the great contest with Elijah the Prophet on Mt. Carmel in 1 Kings 18. Still, Baal worship went on in Ephraim as well as the rest of Israel.

The tribe of Ephraim was strong until they began their Baal Worship. At that point, Ephraim died. The tribe continued physically, but it was dead spiritually. When Adam and Eve sinned, they did not die immediately. It took many years to die. Boice says, “The first step in a nation’s death takes place when its God-consciousness dissipates or, worse yet, is deliberately removed.” [2]

We need to look around us today to see how many false religions are moving into our society. Pfeiffer & Harrison remark: “There was no savior in the golden calf, no savior in Baal, no savior in Moloch, no savior in any god worshiped by the nations surrounding Israel. Likewise, there is no savior in Islam, Buddhism, or any Eastern religion. There is no savior in the false cults of Christendom. There is no savior in a creed of good works. There is no savior in humanism or communism.” [3]

“Now they sin more and more; they make idols for themselves from their silver, cleverly fashioned images, all of them the work of craftsmen. It is said of these people, ‘They offer human sacrifices! They kiss calf-idols!’” (13:2). Once the two golden calves were set up by Jeroboam, we realize that many other images began to appear. Simply, the nation was taken over by idolatry. We see something else here, that they were offering some human sacrifices. These were often offered to the god Molek (Moloch, Molech), and it was small children who were offered. Of course, the Bible strictly taught against this practice in Leviticus 18:21, just as it had taught against all idolatry in Exodus 34:17.

There was a lot of smacking going on as people kissed their idols. Apparently, it was also a practice to kiss one’s hand in the direction of the idol and that would also count as devotion. [4] It is interesting that during the terrible times of Jezebel when true prophets were killed or in hiding, God says, “Yet I reserve seven thousand in Israel – all whose knees have not bowed down to Baal and whose mouths have not kissed him” (1 Ki. 19:18). God always has his people and he has some pure souls today.

“Therefore they will be like the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears, like chaff swirling from a threshing floor, like smoke escaping through a window” (13:3). People who worship idols become worthless like their idols (Psa. 115:8). They become like the ephemeral things around them, like the morning mist or the dew which all disappear when the sun comes up. They become like chaff on the threshing floor. Threshing floors were usually on high ground with access to the wind. When the wind arose, the chaff was quickly blown away. Calf kissers were like smoke that blows out a window and quickly dissipates. Utley tells us that stovepipes were nonexistent at that time. Smoke was just normally expelled out the window. [5]

Idolatry, whether ancient or modern, is a very silly thing. How can we worship the work of our hands and expect to receive spiritual benefit? Isaiah laughs at the stupidity of it all. He mocks the man who cuts down a tree, cooks his meal with part of the wood, and then makes an idol to worship with the rest of it (Isa. 44:14-20).

God Alone Is God

But I have been the LORD your God ever since you came out of Egypt. You shall acknowledge no God but me, no Savior except me. Hosea 13:4

This is the very command God gave the people when they came out of Egypt (Exo. 20:2), but they never listened to him. At the same time, he warned them about worshipping graven images, but they never listened to that either. Sometimes old Christians are like old people in general. They often lose their hearing. So many times in the Bible, God commands both Jews and Christians, “Hear, hear, hear, hear!”

“I cared for you in the wilderness, in the land of burning heat. When I fed them, they were satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; then they forgot me” (13:5-6). When they had stuffed their faces with God’s abundant supply of manna, they quickly forgot the God who gave it all to them. Pett says, “It is difficult to avoid the idea that Hosea had been reading Deuteronomy, and saw it as fulfilled here.” [6]

“So I will be like a lion to them, like a leopard I will lurk by the path. Like a bear robbed of her cubs, I will attack them and rip them open; like a lion I will devour them – a wild animal will tear them apart” (13:7-8). To meet a lion in those days, one had better be a Samson who could tear the lion apart with his bare hands. We think of the poor, disobedient prophet who met a lion on his return path. In that strange case, the lion killed the prophet but did not devour him. Rather, he stood watch over him and his obviously frightened donkey until rescuers came (1 Ki. 13:1ff.).

In the West, we seldom have encounters with leopards and the like. We do have our bear stories. The ferocity of the she-bear became a biblical proverb (2 Sam. 17:8; Pro. 17:12). Even today, some mothers refer to themselves as “she bears” because of their protection of their babes.

It was so tragic that God, their protector, became their destroyer because of their great disobedience.

Israel Destroyed By Disobedience

You are destroyed, Israel, because you are against me, against your helper. Hosea 13:9

God is known as the Good Shepherd. It is his job to guard the sheep from lions, leopards, bears, and any other animal that tries to attack them. Now, because of their great disobedience, God has taken a stand against them, to attack them and not to help them. How can we get things so turned around that we are against God and he is against us?

“Where is your king, that he may save you? Where are your rulers in all your towns, of whom you said, ‘Give me a king and princes’? So in my anger I gave you a king, and in my wrath I took him away” (13:10-11). “This does not imply that Israel had no king at all at that time, but simply that it had no king who could save it.’” [7] Israel made a dreadful mistake when the people asked for a king like those of the nations. This in itself was a rejection of God’s Kingship (1 Sam. 8:5). Still, God worked with them and gave them a king. It is interesting that the northern kingdom failed to have a single good king in all its history. Several of the kings were so bad that God quickly took them away.

“The guilt of Ephraim is stored up, his sins are kept on record” (13:12). Some people probably hope that God has a bad memory and will not recall their sins. The Bible says, “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each of us may receive what is due us for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad” (2 Cor. 5:10). This technological age in which we live helps us understand how our every word and action can be recorded digitally and kept for the generations. We all need to live expecting our lives can be replayed to us. It is no problem for our God who created all these astounding things.

“Pains as of a woman in childbirth come to him, but he is a child without wisdom; when the time arrives, he doesn’t have the sense to come out of the womb” (13:13). Utley comments: “Israel as an unborn son who is reluctant to come out of the womb and, therefore, is spiritually dead (cf. 2 Kgs. 19:3; Isa. 37:3). [8] Dummelow adds, “Ephraim is like a foolish child that delays his own birth by staying in the passage from the womb. In other words, he has not the wisdom to rouse himself in this great crisis.” [9]

“I will deliver this people from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death. ‘Where, O death, are your plagues? Where, O grave, is your destruction?’ I will have no compassion, even though he thrives among his brothers. An east wind from the LORD will come, blowing in from the desert; his spring will fail and his well dry up. His storehouse will be plundered of all its treasures” (13:14-15). We seem to have a flash of revelation here. We have a quick picture of a time far into the future when people will be saved and raised to new life. Paul gets hold of this flash of hope in 1 Corinthians 15:19-22; 51-57.

However, for the present, there was great trouble for Israel. Commentators feel like the east wind is the Assyrian army. Because of the vast desert area, the Assyrians, who lived in the east, had to bypass the drylands and invade from the north. The Assyrian leader Shalmaneser V, as recorded in 2 Kings 17, conquered Samaria in 722 BC. He accomplished this after a three-year siege (2 Ki. 18:10). Before the people could be deported to Assyria, the kingship changed, and Sargon II became the ruler.

“The people of Samaria must bear their guilt, because they have rebelled against their God. They will fall by the sword; their little ones will be dashed to the ground, their pregnant women ripped open” (13:16). The siege and captivity of Samaria were a horrible nightmare. It was the Assyrian practice to kill children as well as the weak. Assyrians were infamous for their cruelty. They were like the ISIS of the ancient world. They impaled, flayed, and mutilated their enemies. They often led enemy dignitaries away with hooks in their lips and noses.

Such a terrible end for God’s people. Yet, they brought it all on themselves by their insistence on Baal worship and the rejection of their loving God. According to Assyrian records, 27,280 from the northern kingdom were carried away captive.

Footnotes

1. Feinberg, The Minor Prophets, p. 63.

2. Boice, The Minor Prophets, Vol. 1, p. 104.

3. Pfeiffer & Harrison, The Wycliffe Bible Commentary, p. 63.

4. Clarke, Clarke Commentary, Hosea. v. 13:2.

5. Utley, Free Bible Commentary, v. 13:3.

6. Pett, Pett’s Commentary, vs. 13:5-6.

7. C. F. Keil quoted in Coffman, Coffman’s Commentaries on the Bible, Hosea. v. 13:10.

8. Utley, Free Bible Commentary, v. 13:13.

9. Dummelow, Dummelow on the Bible, v. 13:13.