Hosea 10
We have before noticed the references to Israel as a vine. Psalm 80, Isaiah 5, Jeremiah 2:2121Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me? (Jeremiah 2:21) and John 15:1-51I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. 2Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. 3Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. 4Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. 5I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. (John 15:1‑5) show the nation’s failure to yield fruit to God, and they being set aside, Christ is the true vine. Israel was an empty vine, —one which “emptied” itself in wood and leaves, but gave forth no grapes. He brought forth fruit unto himself, i.e., there was prosperity in the kingdom, but it was turned to their own advantage, and to an increase of idolatry (verse 1).
Verse 2: Their heart was divided; they knew a responsibility to God, but gave the honor due to Him to their idols; they would be ‘found guilty, and altars and images—tokens of idolatry—would be cut off and spoiled.
Verse 3: In the last years of Israel’s history, their king was in prison (2 Kings 17:4, 54And the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea: for he had sent messengers to So king of Egypt, and brought no present to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year: therefore the king of Assyria shut him up, and bound him in prison. 5Then the king of Assyria came up throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria, and besieged it three years. (2 Kings 17:4‑5)); they realized that this happened because they feared not God, hut instead of this circumstance humbling them with other distresses then occurrent, they brazenly said, “What then should a king do for (not to) us?”
The immediate cause of Israel’s being carried off into captivity, was their being untrue to a covenant with the Assyrian king; so was it also, later on, with Judah. Both acknowledged the dominant power of the east—Assyria at this time, Babylonia a century later—and both broke their pledge by negotiating with the ruler of Egypt (2 Kings 17:11In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah began Hoshea the son of Elah to reign in Samaria over Israel nine years. (2 Kings 17:1); 2 Chronicles 36:1313And he also rebelled against king Nebuchadnezzar, who had made him swear by God: but he stiffened his neck, and hardened his heart from turning unto the Lord God of Israel. (2 Chronicles 36:13)). Thus judgment sprang up as the hemlock in the furrows of the fields, for as a man soweth, so shall he also reap.
Verses 5 and 6 deal with Jeroboam’s golden calves, called the calf of Samaria in chapter 8, and here the calves of Bethaven (house of vanity or house of idols). These tokens of idolatry—powerless in the day of trouble—now to be mourned over, with fear in the heart (for the false gods whom men have set up in place of the true God have always been revengeful beings) were to be carried to Assyria a present to king Jareb (or, the contentious king).
Verse 9: Gibeah was referred to in chapter 9, but here is in even more solemn connection. Israel had sinned “from the days of Gibeah”, when the tribe of Benjamin was almost destroyed because of flagrant sin. At that time Israel had stood firmly; the battle against the children of iniquity did not overtake them, but afterward there was grave decline, as we know. Verses 10 and 11 speak of the judgment impending.
The peoples (Gentiles) were to be gathered against Israel when they are bound for their two iniquities (Jeremiah 2:1313For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water. (Jeremiah 2:13)). Ephraim had been diligent in service, but not for God; He would make them to draw, or to bear a rider (N.T.). Judah, too, was to be brought down to labor for others; thus Jacob (the whole of the 12 tribes) was to till the ground for the peoples.
The chapter closes with an exhortation to turn to God; plowing wickedness had been followed by reaping iniquity, and then by eating the fruit of lies; far worse was the day near at hand. Shalman (verse 14) is believed to have been Shalmaneser, the king of Assyria, but Beth-arbel has not been identified. Beth-el (house of God) was the location of one of the golden calves, and is elsewhere called Bethaven, house of vanity, or house of idols.
ML 11/22/1936