8:1“Put the trumpet to your lips!
An eagle is over the house of the LORD
because the people have broken my covenant
and rebelled against my law.
2Israel cries out to me,
‘O our God, we acknowledge you!’
3But Israel has rejected what is good;
an enemy will pursue him.
4They set up kings without my consent;
they choose princes without my approval.
With their silver and gold
they make idols for themselves
to their own destruction.
5Throw out your calf-idol, O Samaria!
My anger burns against them.
How long will they be incapable of purity?
6They are from Israel!
This calf—a craftsman has made it;
it is not God.
It will be broken in pieces,
that calf of Samaria.
7“They sow the wind
and reap the whirlwind.
The stalk has no head;
it will produce no flour.
Were it to yield grain,
foreigners would swallow it up.
8Israel is swallowed up;
now she is among the nations
like a worthless thing.
9For they have gone up to Assyria
like a wild donkey wandering alone.
Ephraim has sold herself to lovers.
10Although they have sold themselves among the nations,
I will now gather them together.
They will begin to waste away
under the oppression of the mighty king.
11“Though Ephraim built many altars for sin offerings,
these have become altars for sinning.
12I wrote for them the many things of my law,
but they regarded them as something alien.
13They offer sacrifices given to me
and they eat the meat,
but the LORD is not pleased with them.
Now he will remember their wickedness
and punish their sins:
They will return to Egypt.
14Israel has forgotten his Maker
and built palaces;
Judah has fortified many towns.
But I will send fire upon their cities
that will consume their fortresses.”
9:1Do not rejoice, O Israel;
do not be jubilant like the other nations.
For you have been unfaithful to your God;
you love the wages of a prostitute
at every threshing floor.
2Threshing floors and winepresses will not feed the people;
the new wine will fail them.
3They will not remain in the LORD’s land;
Ephraim will return to Egypt
and eat unclean food in Assyria.
4They will not pour out wine offerings to the LORD,
nor will their sacrifices please him.
Such sacrifices will be to them like the bread of mourners;
all who eat them will be unclean.
This food will be for themselves;
it will not come into the temple of the LORD.
5What will you do on the day of your appointed feasts,
on the festival days of the LORD?
6Even if they escape from destruction,
Egypt will gather them,
and Memphis will bury them.
Their treasures of silver will be taken over by briers,
and thorns will overrun their tents.
7The days of punishment are coming,
the days of reckoning are at hand.
Let Israel know this.
and your hostility so great,
the prophet is considered a fool,
the inspired man a maniac.
8The prophet, along with my God,
is my watchman over Ephraim,
yet snares await him on all his paths,
and hostility in the house of his God.
9They have sunk deep into corruption,
as in the days of Gibeah.
God will remember their wickedness
and punish them for their sins.
10“When I found Israel,
it was like finding grapes in the desert;
when I saw your fathers,
it was like seeing the early fruit on the fig tree.
But when they came to Baal Peor,
they consecrated themselves to that shameful idol
and became as vile as the thing they loved.
11Ephraim’s glory will fly away like a bird—
no birth, no pregnancy, no conception.
12Even if they rear children,
I will bereave them of every one.
Woe to them
when I turn away from them!
13I have seen Ephraim, like Tyre,
planted in a pleasant place.
But Ephraim will bring out
their children to the slayer.”
14Give them, O LORD—
what will you give them?
Give them wombs that miscarry
and breasts that are dry.
15“Because of all their wickedness in Gilgal,
I hated them there.
Because of their sinful deeds,
I will drive them out of my house.
I will no longer love them;
all their leaders are rebellious.
their root is withered,
they yield no fruit.
Even if they bear children,
I will slay their cherished offspring.”
17My God will reject them
because they have not obeyed him;
they will be wanderers among the nations.
Original Meaning
THIS LONG SECTION contains a series of explanations for, and warnings about, Israel’s coming destruction and captivity. The reasons primarily relate to misguided political alliances and unacceptable worship. The consequences for these sins are painted in multicolored pictures of war, no food, wasting away, returning to Egypt, the burning of their fortresses, the end of feasting, a day of reckoning, no pregnancies, no divine love, and God’s rejection. These breathtaking images jar the imagination with unthinkable punishments too horrible to contemplate.
Hosea’s prophecies are purposely put into shocking images to force his Israelite listeners to evaluate the truthfulness of his divine message. Does God actually despise the golden calves at Bethel and Dan? Why is he not pleased with the sacrifices given to him? Why does he threaten that Israel will reap the whirlwind? Will God really destroy all of Israel’s villages and fortresses and send his people into captivity? Why will there be no more festivals, no new children born, and no more love from God? Is the prophet Hosea totally crazy (9:7)?
The blowing of the trumpet in 8:1 fits the time of the Syro-Ephraimite war in 734–732 B.C. This war brought some reality to Hosea’s words of God’s judgment, for this defeat was one more step in Israel’s decline and another fulfillment of Hosea’s prophecies. This military loss should have opened the people’s minds to the explanations of the prophet; God was chastening the Israelites for their sins. Things will get worse if they do not change. Destruction, captivity, and the end of Israel is at hand.
This section can be divided into three subsections: the destruction of gods and government (8:1–14), captivity that brings an end to Israel’s festivals (9:1–9), and bereavement for Israel’s sins (9:10–17). These verses persuasively explain and justify God’s action. They present detailed arguments that tell people what they should not do. They legitimate God’s plan to destroy them because they are following a course of action God rejects.
The Destruction of Gods and Government (8:1–14)
THE THEME OF destruction in 8:1–3 is implicit in Hosea’s charge to sound the trumpet to warn the people about an approaching military threat (cf. 5:8). This war will produce the circling “vulture” (better than the NIV “eagle”),1 who will devour the carcasses of the dead. The vulture’s flight over “the house of the LORD” is a metaphorical way of describing God’s judgment on the nation as a whole (see 9:8, 15 for a similar usage) rather than a prediction of death at a temple.2
The reason for this judgment is identical to the rationale in 6:7: The people have broken their covenant relationship with God by rebelling against his instructions in the Torah (8:1b). These covenant stipulations were supposed to guide the people so that they would know the meaning of loving God with all their hearts. The Mosaic statutes revealed what the people should and should not do in various civil, political, religious, and social situations so that they could maintain their favored relationship with God. The rebellion against these instructions (the “good” thing mentioned in 8:3) is thus a willful rejection of the authority of God and a repudiation of the unique relationship that has set them apart from all the other nations of the world.
In response to the impending disasters when Assyria (the “enemy,” 8:3) attacks Israel, the people briefly call out to God for help, confessing he is their God (8:2). They claim with their lips to know God, but one cannot reject him on one day and call him “my God” on the next. Thus, God will allow their enemies to pursue and destroy them (8:3).
Verses 4–6 describe Israel’s rebellion against God in the area of politics and worship. Referring back to his earlier discussion in 7:3–7, Hosea reminds his audience that they have removed one king and appointed another without asking God for direction or identifying his chosen leader (see 2 Kings 15). They have rejected God’s sovereign control and “approval” of key decisions3 and have taken over his role of directing the nation.
The people have also made idols of gold and silver, particularly the golden calves at Dan and Bethel (Hos. 8:5–6; see 1 Kings 12). God’s “anger burns against them” (8:5) because these bull images were quickly confused with the Canaanite god Baal, thus syncretizing perverse pagan ideas with the pure revelation of God revealed in the Torah. God laments the impurity this has brought to the nation and yearns for the day when they will reject idols (8:5b). This hunk of metal in the form of a bull is just a man-made piece of art, not a divine being with almighty power. It is not the God of Israel. Therefore, God rejects this calf and will have it cut to pieces (8:4b, 6b).4
In verses 7–10 Hosea laments because Israel’s sowing of friendly alliances with other nations will result in reaping the whirlwind of destruction. This agricultural proverb summarizes what every farmer knows: A harvest is directly related to what is planted. Since Israel will reap nothing good and the foreign Assyrians will take what little is harvested, one can assume that they have sown evil behaviors to produce these kinds of results (8:7). These comments can be understood literally of a famine or metaphorically for “Be sure your sins will find you out.” Certainly the Israelites can understand this principle, for the nation is despised like a “cup that gives no pleasure” (NIV “a worthless thing”). Everything good in the cup (i.e., the nation’s resources) has been swallowed or taken by their enemies (8:8).
This has happened because the nation willingly went “to sell herself” like a prostitute (8:9–10) through her alliance with the Assyrians—possibly a reference to Hoshea’s submission to Assyria in 733 B.C.5 In response, God will gather the nations together against Israel and send a “mighty king” (perhaps Tiglath-Pileser III) against them.
Verses 11–14 draw a logical connection between God’s condemnation of Israel for giving unacceptable sacrifices and her rejection of God’s instructions in the Torah. According to Leviticus, sacrifices were to be a sweet-smelling aroma that pleased God (Lev. 1:9, 13, 17; 2:9, 12; 3:5, 16; 4:31) because the people’s worship and repentance brought forgiveness of sins. But in Hosea’s time the people’s “choice sacrifices”6 (Hos. 8:13) on the many pagan altars around the nation have brought greater sinning instead of expiation of sin and divine pleasure (8:11). This is due to the nation’s rejection of the divine instructions God gave in the laws of Moses (Hosea blamed the priests for not teaching people these laws in 4:6).
Since the people have adopted their theological understanding of sacrifices, dietary laws, the character of the divine, and appropriate social behavior from their Canaanite culture, God’s instructions in the Torah seem strange and inapplicable in their setting (8:12). Since God’s instructions do not fit in with the times, the people have rejected his covenant stipulations. They are like a spouse who has decided not to live by the marriage covenant any longer.
These actions give God few choices. He must punish the nation for her sins. The people are only pleasing themselves, not God, when they eat these sacrifices. They forget who God is, the One who originally made them into a nation (see Isa. 44:2; 51:13) and who can send them back to Egypt and nullify his redemptive acts (Hos. 8:13). The leaders of the nation love the luxury of bigger homes and the security of stronger palaces and fortifications for themselves. But they forget that God protects cities, not walls. Therefore in the near future God will demonstrate his power and destroy these proud cities and the homes in them.
Captivity Will Bring an End to Israel’s Festivals (9:1–9)
IN THE MIDST of a joyful harvest festival, Hosea boldly stands up and adamantly admonishes his listeners. Above the noise of joyful singing and dancing he shouts, as it were: “Stop the music! Stop celebrating! The party is over!” This must have seemed like a crazy thing to say since everyone is happy and having a good time. Certainly there cannot be anything wrong with celebrating the divine blessing of a good harvest, right? God has even instructed his people to rejoice (Lev. 23:39–43; Deut. 16:13–15) at the Feast of Booths. So what’s the problem?
Hosea argues that the people should not be conducting their feasts like the pagans in other nations (Hos. 9:1). Apparently this festival changed over the years into a pagan celebration by adding activities common in Baal festivals, such as sacred prostitution at their threshing floors. This paganization of Israel’s faith (see 4:10–14) is an act of unfaithful prostitution against God. But the people love the rewards of a good harvest (the “prostitute’s wages” in 9:1) more than they love God, so they have added Baal practices to ensure a better harvest.
In response, God will reverse their false theology and remove the fertility of the land, thus proving that Baalism does not work (9:2); he will also reverse the people’s security by exiling them from God’s holy land and putting them in some other countries (Egypt and Assyria). Because of their own uncleanness, they will eat unclean food in an unholy land. They will get exactly what they have wanted and exactly what they have chosen; they choose not to be the holy people of God.
In these pagan countries the Israelites will be unable to give to God their Levitical sacrifices (Lev. 1–5; 23:13; Num. 15:1–10), so it will be impossible to please him. By comparing their sacrifices to “the bread of mourners” (Hos. 9:4), Hosea is saying that they will not sacrifice, for mourners who touch a dead body are unclean and cannot offer sacrifice to God (see Num. 19:11–16).
Will there be any more joyful festival days in the future (Hos. 9:5)? Will there be any way to please God? No, for “they will go from a desolate land” (9:6), meaning Israel (rather than NIV “even if they escape from destruction”) will go down to Egypt, where many will die and be buried in Memphis, the graveyard of Egypt (9:6).7 All the things they value (things of silver and gold) and the places where the people live will be desolate ruins overrun with weeds and briers.
In a final summary statement Hosea declares that the days of final reckoning and divine vengeance are close at hand (9:7). The day of God’s judgment is going to come on Israel. This statement draws a strong reaction from Hosea’s audience for they “know, perceive”8 that the prophet is acting and talking like a ranting fool. He must be an insane maniac driven by an evil spirit, because he reacts so strongly to the sins of the nation.9 Since they do not see their own action as sinful, Hosea is branded a radical reactionary, who makes such a big to-do about normal everyday things accepted in their culture. They scorn the prophet and call him bad names in order to dismiss his message, which does not fit their view of reality.
But Hosea sees himself differently. He speaks for God, for God is with him, and his Spirit inspires him with the words he speaks. He is God’s “watchman,” who warns the people of approaching danger to help them avoid destruction. The last line of verse 8 is difficult to interpret because there are no verbs, and it is unclear who the “his” refers to. If it is a continuation of 9:8a and is related to 9:9, the reference may be to hostilities against Israel about which Hosea warns the Israelites. But if this is seen as a contrast to 9:8a (the “yet” in NIV is not in the Hebrew), it may refer to the Israelites’ hostility toward the prophet.10 The first option seems best here.
If so, then 9:9 gives a rationale for Hosea’s claims of judgment on Ephraim in 9:8b. Their punishment is simply a natural consequence of their corruption and sin, which is similar to the godless corruption in the time of the judges (see the sin at Gibeah in Judg. 19–21), when “everyone did as he saw fit” (17:6; 21:25).
Bereavement for Israel’s Sins (9:10–17)
THE FINAL PARAGRAPH is divided into two parallel segments: 9:10–14 and 9:15–17. Both draw on past sinful events in the history of Israel (Baalism at Baal Peor and Gilgal) to make comparisons with the situation in Hosea’s time. Both portions end with a brief prophetic prayer and compare Israel’s punishment to having no fruit or fertility.
The story of Israel starts with positive images of God’s joy and excitement when he first entered into a covenant relationship with them (cf. Jer. 2:1–3; Ezek. 16:6–16). This experience compares to finding sweet, juicy grapes in a hot and dry desert, or to enjoying the first fruit from a fig tree (Hos. 9:10a). Both pictures contain a bit of surprise (since grapes do not grow wild in the desert) and remind the listener of how good fresh fruit tastes when you have not had any for a long time (cf. Isa. 28:4; Jer. 24:2). Hosea does not use traditional election traditions but creatively focuses on God’s delight over this precious partner he found.
But this joy was abruptly turned into something shameful11 when the people worshiped an idol at Baal Peor (Hos. 9:10b; see Num. 25:1–5; Ps. 106:28–30). In these sins the people set themselves apart to an idol instead of God—presumably a reference to the vile sexual rituals that some Israelites participated in at Baal Peor (Num. 25:6–8). Although Hosea does not here connect these acts with the behavior of the Israelites in his day, his audience’s present participation in the Baal cult gives them the same status as those who worshiped at Baal Peor.
God’s curse on the nation for these detestable acts is described in Hos. 9:11–13. The nation’s glory,12 honor, power, resources, and people will disappear quickly into exile, like a bird flying away. Most Israelite women will no longer get pregnant or give birth, and the few who are born will soon die because God will turn against them. These warnings remind us of the covenant curses that predict the people will be bereaved and not have any children (Deut. 28:18, 41).
A final comparison of Israel with Tyre shows that both had great advantages (“planted in a pleasant place”), but now their children will be killed.13 H. W. Wolff believes this refers to death through military conflicts, while D. Garrett thinks Hosea is describing the death of children through child sacrifice and war.14 The clear point is that there is no doubt about the future of the nation because God will cut off the future generation.
Hosea interrupts this dire prediction of slaughter with a brief prayer in Hos. 9:14. Some see this as an intercessory merciful prayer that asks God to give one of his lesser punishments,15 but this does not sound like the intercessory prayers of Abraham (Gen. 18:22–33), Moses (Ex. 32:11–14), Amos (Amos 7:2), or Jeremiah (Jer. 14:13–22). Hosea is not pleading for mercy or trying to keep back God’s wrath.16 He is sorrowfully agreeing with God’s earlier statements: God should remove the fertility of the nation and curse their offspring (see Deut. 28:4, 11).
The final subparagraph (Hos. 9:15–17) recalls Israel’s sins at Gilgal. Hosea does not mention a specific sin at this city near the banks of the Jordan River, but there was a pagan temple there (4:15; 12:11; see also Josh. 4:19–5:12; Amos 5:5), and at this place Israel’s first king was inaugurated (1 Sam. 11:15). God hated the present political system that sprang from this initial event and the worship practices that spread from Gilgal to infect the whole nation. As a result, he will drive them out of his land; he will love them no longer because there is no one to lead the people back to God. These are strong statements of rejection that express an unreserved finality. The results will be barrenness, fruitlessness, and premature death (Hos. 9:16, see vv. 11–12).
Once again Hosea interrupts this prediction of judgment with a prayer (Hos. 9:17) that agrees with God’s conclusion. God should reject them as they have rejected God. They are no longer his people but will be fugitives, wandering homeless and aimless among the nations. Hosea may well be remembering God’s earlier rejection of Saul at Gilgal (1 Sam. 15:23) and seeing how this rejection now extends to the whole nation. This truly is a depressing ending—without hope, without divine love, and without a prophet to intercede.
Bridging Contexts
THE PROPHECIES IN Hosea 8–9 are about the sin and punishment of Israel many years ago, not about any nation or people group today. They do not predict anything about events in our day or in the future. Nevertheless, the history of God’s dealings with Israel reveals the general principles of how a holy God deals with sinful people on the earth. These messages have been preserved to teach us how to live and what to avoid (Rom. 15:4). The present section describes a cycle of events that any group may experience if it acts as the children of Israel did. This cycle seems to follow a pattern that is played out again and again when people rebel against God.
Divine pleasure. Hosea begins by referring to times when God created this nation as his own people (Hos. 8:14), when he had the surprising pleasure of finding them in the desert (9:10). At that time he revealed his divine instructions on Mount Sinai so that they would know how to maintain a covenant relationship with him and please him (8:12). This included instructions about rulers (Deut. 17), sacrifices (Lev. 1–6), and feasts (Ex. 23; Deut. 16), and warnings about not mixing with other nations (Deut. 7:1–9). Israel was graciously given a “pleasant place,” flowing with milk and honey (Hos. 9:13). If they remained pure and followed God’s instructions, they would please God and reap additional blessings.
Although these examples of divine favor are not part of the promises God extends to each people group or individual person, it is his pleasure to graciously bestow his blessings and truth on people in many different ways. He has created everyone in his own image and provided breath and strength for each day. He provides food to eat, rest from work, and purpose to life. God reveals himself and his ways through conscience, nature, and special revelation (Rom. 1–2) so that people can know how to have a covenantal relationship with him. All tribes and peoples sense that there is a connection between life on earth and divine favor and that they must please the divine being if they want to enjoy his blessings.
The New Testament provides specific guidelines on how to please God. Paul prayed that the believers in Colosse might “live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way” (Col. 1:10). The book of Hebrews outlines essential internal qualities God looks for, such as the unambiguous declaration that “without faith it is impossible to please God” (Heb. 11:6). Broadly stated, pleasing God means following his will revealed in Scripture, living holy lives dedicated to worshiping and serving him, and avoiding the sinful practices of this world (1 Thess. 4:1–8).
Human displeasing of God. The picture of thousands of people rejoicing at a joyous fall harvest festival is a landscape of great pleasure (Hos. 9:1–5). The crops are in, an abundance of food has been stored for future use, and it is finally time to let one’s hair down and enjoy the party. The people are enjoying food, their sacrificial offerings, wine, and sexual pleasures. But things that bring humans pleasure do not always please God. He is not fooled by all the joy because he notices that the people have “rebelled against my law” (8:1), doing things “without my approval” (8:4), being “incapable of purity” (8:5), selling themselves through alliances with other nations instead of trusting in God (8:8–9), “sinning” at the temple worship (8:11), viewing God’s instructions as “something alien” (8:12), forgetting their “Maker” (8:14), being “unfaithful to your God” (9:1), rejecting his prophets (9:7), and doing other sinful hostilities (9:8). These failures make the political life of the nation and the worship of the people displeasing to God.
Such sins are a direct reversal of what pleases God. God wants the people to keep the covenant, but they have broken it (8:1). God was supposed to choose and anoint each new king; the people were not supposed to just appoint whoever might be the most powerful politician, yet that is what they are doing (8:4). God forbade the making of idols (Ex. 20:3–6), but the nation built the golden calves and other pagan idols (Hos. 8:6). Instead of worshiping God, the people have been sinning at their temple ceremonies (8:11). God revealed his will so the people could follow the stipulations of the covenant, but they have rejected them (8:12). They are more interested in pleasing themselves at temple events than pleasing God (8:13; 9:4). God has tried to call the people back to himself by sending prophets, but they consider the prophets fools (9:7). They love vile things (9:10) instead of God.
These accusations provide guidelines for any group of people who do not want to displease God. They warn us what we should and should not do. People in every generation need to ask if their behavior in worship and in the political sphere is pleasing to God. God is still displeased if people follow Israel’s example rather than his instructions in the Scriptures.
Displeasing God reverses his grace. The tragedy of the situation for Israel is evident in the punishments God will bring on those who reject him. Instead of protecting the people, he will destroy the nation (8:3). Instead of receiving God’s blessing and grace, the nation will suffer under his anger (8:5). God will remember the people’s sins and punish them rather than forgive and forget them, for their worship does not please him (8:13). Instead of building up the nation, God will destroy their cities and fortified towns (8:14). There will be no more joyful feasts, no more coming to the temple, no glory to the nation, no children, no new births, no more divine love, and no more fruitfulness (9:15–16). God will hate them and reject them (9:15, 17).
These admonitions provide principles and illustrations that enable each person (or nation) to understand what will happen to it if he or she displeases God. There is little mystery about what displeases God, and there is no doubt what God will do when people displease him. The future will bring disaster after disaster, and the nation will be destroyed.
Contemporary Significance
THIS MESSAGE RAISES three fundamental questions: (1) What pleases God? (2) How can people please God? (3) How does pleasing or displeasing God affect people’s lives today? The answers to these questions for modern Christians will not necessarily be identical to what Hosea told the people of Israel, but his basic principles do provide a framework that can be supplemented with additional information from the rest of the Bible.
A framework for pleasing God. (1) One can look at biblical narratives for individuals who pleased God and were used by him and contrast these with narratives of sinful people, who rebelled against God. Narratives sometimes explicitly condemn people for not doing what pleases God. For example, Israel’s ancestor Abram made deceptive statements about Sarah being his sister (Gen. 12). Sodom and Gomorrah were boldly condemned for rebelling against God (Gen. 18). Pharaoh refused to accept God’s will and let the Israelites go from Egypt (Ex. 7–12). Three thousand Israelites rebelled by worshiping a golden calf at Mount Sinai (Ex. 32), and Levi’s sons died because they did not treat God as holy (Lev. 10:1–3).
After Joshua led the people into Canaan, a new generation grew up that did not know God and instead worshiped the pagan gods of their neighbors (Judg. 2:10–15). The people rejected God as their king and appointed a king like the other nations (1 Sam. 8), but King Saul did not obey the voice of the Lord (1 Sam. 15). David had sexual relations with someone who was not his wife (2 Sam. 11–12), and Solomon’s wives turned his heart to worship foreign gods (1 Kings 11). Hosea emphasizes that Israel’s worship did not please God (Hos. 8:13; 9:4) and that their political process did not take God into consideration (8:4, 8–10).
(2) By contrast, instructive literature (law, proverbs, beatitudes, exhortations) provides positive comments about what God wants people to do to please him and corrective passages on what displeases him. The apostle Paul summarizes a whole series of sinful deeds when he writes that “those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God” (Rom. 8:8). Yet in spite of human sinfulness God is pleased to forgive, because he has committed himself to a people (1 Sam. 12:20–22). The people of Jerusalem were not better people or more deserving of God’s grace; rather, it simply pleased God to prosper Zion according to his will (Ps. 51:18). God wills to choose and to love, but not out of obligation or because it is deserved. He is just pleased to fulfill his plans, which are mysterious and beyond human understanding.
Amazingly, it even pleased God to crush the Suffering Servant and make him a guilt offering so that his offspring might live and the will of God be accomplished (Isa. 53:10). This is the One whom God said he loved and with whom he was well pleased (Matt. 3:17). Since the Bible reveals parts of God’s plans for the future, one can discover some of the things he will be pleased to do in prophetic texts. God knows everything that has happened in the past and what is still to come, for he has said: “My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please” (Isa. 46:10).
We can also find didactic instructions on what pleases God in the laws of the covenant, proverbial statements with advice on wise and righteous behavior, theological teachings that undergird practical applications in the letters, and pearls of truth in Jesus’ teaching and parables. Hosea was particularly concerned about pleasing God in worship (Hos. 8:13; 9:4) because the people he speaks to are worshiping before idols and are more interested in pleasing themselves than God. Although people often think that pleasing God in worship involves going to church, giving a tithe, and being baptized, the psalmist stresses that praising and glorifying God with thanksgiving please him more than any sacrifices or outward acts (Ps. 69:30–31). In David’s confession of his sin with Bathsheba, he declares God’s praise and realizes that God delights in a broken and contrite heart more than any sacrifices one might give (51:15–17).
Hebrews 13:15–16 encourages people to “continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that confess his name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased.” Micah 6:7–8 argues against trying to please God by impressing him with bigger and better gifts, for what God requires is justice, steadfast covenant love, and a circumspect walk with God. The author of Hebrews 11:6 indicates that faith in God is absolutely necessary to please him. Certainly loving the Lord with all our heart and soul delights God and should be the heart’s emotional attitude in any act of worship (Deut. 6:5).
We could extend this list, but Paul’s summary application in Galatians 6:8 makes a key connection between appropriate motivation to make the right choice with the results of that choice: “The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.” As in Hosea 8:7, Paul presents the consequences of pleasing God as a life-threatening or a life-giving decision. Thus, people need to carefully weigh the results before the wrong attitudes and responses are chosen.
Key areas for pleasing God. (1) God is fussy when it comes to worship; he will not accept worship from sinners who have not confessed their sins (Isa. 59:1–2) and is not fooled by pious statements, flowery prayers, or hypocritical fasts (Amos 4:4–5; Matt. 6:5–18). Believers today should examine their own attitudes and actions to discover if they are worshiping God in a way consistent with Scripture. Would Hosea find anything to criticize in the worship of my church? How much do we focus on pleasing God? Have the modern trends in the key journals paid more attention to changing worship services to please the audience and make them comfortable, or have they placed a proper emphasis on pleasing God?
(2) Another area that did not please God in Hosea’s day arose from inappropriate choices by politicians. The people did not consult God when they chose or appointed new rulers (Hos. 8:2), sold their souls to other nations through treaties to escape defeat (8:8–9), and focused on building bigger and better fortifications to protect themselves (8:14). Similar government failures exist today across the globe. F. Schaeffer wrote that “God has ordained the State as a delegated authority; it is not autonomous”; nor should we “confuse the Kingdom of God with our country.”17 Although one hears presidents and prime ministers call on God to bless their country, the scandals in governments around the world testify that he is not nearly as important as the manipulation of the facts to gain political advantage and reduce negative fallout. After J. Ellul became convinced of the value of the writings of Marx, he had a meeting with Marxists in Paris. After the meeting he wrote, however: “I was deeply disappointed because I felt I was meeting people whose main concern was to ‘make it’ politically. Apart from that they had no interest in transforming society.”18 He learned that sinful leaders are the main problem of government; therefore, the problems with government are present in every political system.
The Watergate scandal in Washington, D.C.,19 is one of the few cases where some of the details of sinful choices in government have become known, but similar systems of human manipulation are inside many governments today. I doubt that God was consulted before the Watergate break-in took place, and the filthy cursing on the president’s Watergate tapes suggests that God was not part of the cover-up either. If government is for and by the people, the people need to be concerned about the moral character of their leaders and the extent of their trust in God, and not just their military experience and power.
Should God’s people not be concerned if their rulers are unwilling to submit their decisions to the authority of God and his Word? It is not enough to go to annual prayer breakfasts, to be seen on television praying silently to remember the sacrifice of the dead in past wars, or to swear the oath of office on a Bible. People in nations around the world need to have leaders who humbly submit to God’s will and trust in him for direction. A thorough study of R. D. Culver’s book on the Bible’s view of civil government may well serve as a basis for a serious look at how Christians can understand and relate to the political establishment in our day.20
If people do not please God with their worship and political leaders do not allow God to guide their decisions, how can God bless them with prosperity and children? Eventually these nations will end up like Israel. God will hate them because of their sinful deeds, no longer love them because of their rebellious leaders (9:15), and reject them because they have rejected him. If people do not put pleasing God as a priority, God will not be pleased with them.