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Hosea 9:4 Past, present of future - Day 307

When I picked this verse back on the 4th of July '21, I really didn't have any particular reason other than I had written thoughts on most of the rest of the chapter in previous year's readings.  So this was just something that I hadn't written on before.  But now that I have written it (July 18 "21), the applicability to "Independence Day" seems to be clearer.  Israel was well on their road to ruin.  But they still had kings and some degree of freedom.  Hosea may well have been speaking of current loss of benefit and not future.

Blessings,

Jeff

Part of the description of the Lord's punishment of Israel.

Hosea was a prophet to Israel at the time of Jeroboam II, the 3rd son of Jehu as we saw in yesterday's devotional. 

In reality, the northern kingdom had abandoned proper sacrifices from the beginning.  Because Jeroboam I was afraid that Israel would want to go back to Jerusalem to comply with laws, he made two calves to replace temple worship. All the kings of Israel fit this description: He did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel to sin. 2 Kings 15:9

Calvin sees this not as punishment in the future when they are dispersed, but as current punishment.  

What, then, is the meaning of the Prophet, when he says, "All that eat of their sacrifices shall be polluted"? We must know that the Prophet speaks here of the intermediate time, as though he said, "What the Israelites now sacrifice is without any advantage, and God is not pacified with these trifles for they bring polluted hands, they change not their minds, they obtrude their sacrifices on God, but they themselves first pollute them." Of this same doctrine we have already often treated; I shall not then dwell on it now; but it is enough to point out the design of the Prophet, which was to show that the Israelites were seeking in vain to pacify God by their ceremonies, for they were vain expiations which God did not regard, but deemed as worthless. Hosea 9:4

To me, this is another way in which the prophetic voice is sometimes hard to understand.  Or maybe it is just the words supplied by interpreters.  They used a future tense to be consistent with v3.  But it is significant that prophet can be addressing a current loss of blessing, not always a future loss.


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