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Wednesday, 9 March 2011

Hosea 9 - Rejection of Israel

The relentless judgement against Israel continues. She could not be jubilant like other nations for she belonged to God and had sinned against Him. In fact they would not be allowed to remain in the land and would end up in exile in Egypt and Assyria. They would have no place to offer sacrifices to the Lord. One might think that this would not be a problem seeing as they seemed to care so little for God. Yet when someone turns away from God there is still a part of us that knows we actually need to worship God, so we go on seeking something and end up living in frustration.
All this would happen because of the sins of the people. This was not a one-off sin, but the accumulation of many sins. God is often accused of being vindictive, but the truth is that He is tremendously patient. When judgement does come we can be sure that it was fully deserved, and every other avenue had been explored, every chance of repentance given. The reference to Gibeah is referring to the Benjaminites and the concubines (Judges 19:16-30). They had never repented of this sin, and so it had been remembered.
Israel had promised much, but ended up utterly corrupt. Because of this she will be utterly rejected by the Lord.

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