TEXT

8 Put the ram’s horn to your mouth!
One like an eagle comes
against the house of the Lord,
because they transgress my covenant
and rebel against my law.
² Israel cries out to me,
“My God, we know you!”
³ Israel has rejected what is good;
an enemy will pursue him.

⁴ They have installed kings,
but not through me.
They have appointed leaders,
but without my approval.
They make their silver and gold
into idols for themselves
for their own destruction.
⁵ Your calf-idol is rejected, Samaria.
My anger burns against them.
How long will they be incapable of innocence?
⁶ For this thing is from Israel—
a craftsman made it, and it is not God.
The calf of Samaria will be smashed to bits!

⁷ Indeed, they sow the wind
and reap the whirlwind.
There is no standing grain;
what sprouts fails to yield flour.
Even if they did,
foreigners would swallow it up.
⁸ Israel is swallowed up!
Now they are among the nations
like discarded pottery.
⁹ For they have gone up to Assyria
like a wild donkey going off on its own.
Ephraim has paid for love.
¹⁰ Even though they hire lovers among the nations,
I will now round them up,
and they will begin to decrease in number
under the burden of the king and leaders.
¹¹ When Ephraim multiplied his altars for sin,
they became his altars for sinning.
¹² Though I were to write out for him
ten thousand points of my instruction,
they would be regarded as something strange.
¹³ Though they offer sacrificial gifts
and eat the flesh,
the Lord does not accept them.
Now he will remember their guilt
and punish their sins;
they will return to Egypt.
¹⁴ Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces;
Judah has also multiplied fortified cities.
I will send fire on their cities,
and it will consume their citadels.

Title: On the Danger of Mixing Religion with Politics
Text: Hosea 8.1-14
Series: Hosea: A Love Story Like No Other
Church: Redeemer Baptist Church, Jonesboro, AR
Date: May 11, 2025