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56 lines
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<h2><a onclick="return mV('Hsa', 10, 'all');">Hsa 10</a> - Israel Has No King</h2>
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<p>A. The analysis of Israel’s sinful state.</p>
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<p class="c1">1. (<a onclick="return mV('Hsa', 10, '1-2');">1-2</a>) Israel’s empty vine.</p>
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<p class="c2"><span>Israel empties <i>his </i>vine; he brings forth fruit for himself. According to the multitude of his fruit he has increased the altars; According to the bounty of his land they have embellished <i>his </i>sacred pillars. Their heart is divided; now they are held guilty. He will break down their altars; He will ruin their sacred pillars.</span></p>
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<p class="c4">a. <b><span class="c3">He brings forth fruit for himself</span></b>: God blessed Israel with material abundance, but they spent it on themselves and their own idolatrous desires (<b><span class="c3">he has increased the altars</span></b>). Israel enjoyed the blessing of God, but used those blessings in ungodly ways.</p>
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<p class="c5">i. Paul warns against the same sin in <a onclick="return mV('Gal', 5, 13);">Gal 5:13</a>: <i>For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh</i><span>. Sometimes as Christians we take the liberty and blessing God gives and use them in ungodly ways.</span></p>
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<p class="c4">b. <b><span class="c3">Their heart is divided; now they are held guilty</span></b>: Because Israel has received blessing, they were more responsible than ever to use it wisely. Because they used God’s bounty in wicked ways, God will <b><span class="c3">break down their altars</span></b> to pagan gods and <b><span class="c3">ruin their sacred pillars</span></b> made unto idols.</p>
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<p class="c5">i. <b><span class="c3">Their heart is divided</span></b>: The word <b><span class="c3">divided</span></b> is <i>halaq</i>, which has the ideas of “<b><span class="c3">divided</span></b>” (<a onclick="return mV('Gen', 14, 15);">Gen 14:15</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Gen', 49, 7);">49:7</a>), of “smooth” (<a onclick="return mV('Gen', 27, 11);">Gen 27:11</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Psa', 55, 21);">Psa 55:21</a>) or of “flattering” (<a onclick="return mV('Psa', 5, 9);">Psa 5:9</a>; <a onclick="return mV('Psa', 36, 2);">36:2</a>). So, it may be accurate to translate this phrase as <b><span class="c3">their heart is divided</span></b>, but it may also be that God wants to say that Ephraim has a “smooth, flattering,” insincere heart.</p>
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<p class="c5">ii. The idea of Israel’s “smooth” or “insincere” heart is reflected by the adulteries of Hosea’s wife Gomer earlier in the book. In the same way that an unfaithful spouse will <i>say</i> they love their partner, all the while living a lie, is the same way Israel’s heart was towards God.</p>
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<p class="c5">iii. Israel had this divided, insincere heart and expressed it on the altars of idolatry. Now, <b><span class="c3">He will break down their altars</span></b>. “Now <span class="c6">God</span> will do in <i>judgment</i> what <i>they</i> should have done in <i>contrition</i>, ‘break down their altars, and spoil their images.’” (Clarke)</p>
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<p class="c1">2. (<a onclick="return mV('Hsa', 10, '3-8');">3-8</a>) Israel’s empty throne.</p>
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<p class="c2"><span>For now they say, “We have no king, because we did not fear the <span class="c6">Lord</span>. And as for a king, what would he do for us?” They have spoken words, swearing falsely in making a covenant. Thus judgment springs up like hemlock in the furrows of the field. The inhabitants of Samaria fear because of the calf of Beth Aven. For its people mourn for it, and its priests shriek for it; because its glory has departed from it. <i>The idol </i>also shall be carried to Assyria <i>as </i>a present for King Jareb. Ephraim shall receive shame, and Israel shall be ashamed of his own counsel. <i>As for </i>Samaria, her king is cut off like a twig on the water. Also the high places of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed. The thorn and thistle shall grow on their altars; they shall say to the mountains, “Cover us!” and to the hills, “Fall on us!”</span></p>
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<p class="c4">a. <b><span class="c3">We have no king</span></b>: Under the judgment of the <span class="c6">Lord</span>, foreign powers dominated Israel so they no longer had their own king. Even the idols they honored and trusted so much will be taken to foreign lands as treasure for foreign kings.</p>
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<p class="c4">b. <b><span class="c3">The thorn and thistle shall grow on their altars</span></b>: After the desolation of exile, the once-busy pagan altars of Israel are now overgrown with thorns and thistles. This is the result of Israel’s rejection of the <span class="c6">Lord</span> and embrace of pagan gods.</p>
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<p>B. God’s counsel to sinful Israel.</p>
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<p class="c1">1. (<a onclick="return mV('Hsa', 10, '9-11');">9-11</a>) God tells Israel to see their sin and to submit to His chastening.</p>
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<p class="c2"><span>“O Israel, you have sinned from the days of Gibeah; there they stood. The battle in Gibeah against the children of iniquity did not overtake them. When <i>it is </i>My desire, I will chasten them. Peoples shall be gathered against them when I bind them for their two transgressions. Ephraim <i>is </i>a trained heifer that loves to thresh <i>grain; </i>but I harnessed her fair neck, I will make Ephraim pull <i>a plow. </i>Judah shall plow; Jacob shall break his clods.”</span></p>
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<p class="c4">a. <b><span class="c3">You have sinned from the days of Gibeah</span></b>: <b><span class="c3">Gibeah</span></b> was already mentioned in <a onclick="return mV('Hsa', 9, 9);">Hsa 9:9</a>, recalling the horrific sin described in <a onclick="return mV('Jdg', 19, 'all');">Jdg 19</a>. Even though there was a <b><span class="c3">battle in Gibeah against the children of iniquity</span></b>, there was still iniquity in Israel. Here, God wants a willfully blind Israel to see their sin and repent of it.</p>
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<p class="c4">b. <b><span class="c3">When it is My desire, I will chasten them</span></b>: Like unruly farm animals, God will control and guide Israel and Jacob, even if they kick against Him.</p>
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<p class="c1">2. (<a onclick="return mV('Hsa', 10, 12);">12</a>) God tells Israel to break up the hard ground of their heart.</p>
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<p class="c2"><span>Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground, for <i>it is </i>time to seek the <span class="c6">Lord</span>, till He comes and rains righteousness on you.</span></p>
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<p class="c4">a. <b><span class="c3">Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap in mercy</span></b>: Israel had sown the seed of sin, and they would soon reap judgment from God. Even now, if they would sow <b><span class="c3">righteousness</span></b>, they would <b><span class="c3">reap in mercy</span></b> at the next harvest.</p>
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<p class="c5"><span>i. We all sow into our life but do we </span><b><span class="c3">sow</span></b><span> seeds of <b><span class="c3">righteousness</span></b>? What “crop” will grow up from the seeds planted today, or this past week, or this past month?</span></p>
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<p class="c4">b. <b><span class="c3">Break up your fallow ground</span></b>: God builds on the picture of sowing and reaping by telling Israel to <b><span class="c3">break up your fallow ground</span></b> - ground that hasn’t been plowed for more than a year. It is ground that is hard and stubborn, resistant to the seed. It does little good to sow seed on <b><span class="c3">fallow ground</span></b>; it must be broken up first.</p>
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<p class="c5">i. Sometimes when the word of God goes forth and seems to have little effect, it is because it falls on <b><span class="c3">fallow ground</span></b> - the hard ground that will not allow the seed of the word to penetrate and become fruitful.</p>
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<p class="c5">ii. Since <b><span class="c3">fallow ground</span></b> is hard, it probably doesn’t “want” to be broken up. It is hard and compact, and the blade of the plow hurts as it cuts through. If the <b><span class="c3">fallow ground</span></b> could talk, it would probably cry out when it is plowed. Yet it is useless as ground as long as it is <b><span class="c3">fallow</span></b>.</p>
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<p class="c5">iii. <b><span class="c3">For it is time to seek the <span class="c6">Lord</span></span></b> reminds us of <i>how</i> we break up the fallow ground. We do it by seeking the <span class="c6">Lord</span>, not our self or idols.</p>
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<p class="c5">iv. <b><span class="c3">For it is time</span></b> shows that the time to break up the fallow ground is <i>now</i>. “This should be immediately done: the season is passing; and if you do not get the seed in the ground, the early rain will be past, and your fields will be unfruitful.” (Clarke)</p>
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<p class="c4">c. <b><span class="c3">Till He comes and rains righteousness on you</span></b>: This tells us how long we should break up the fallow ground and sow the seed of righteousness. We do it until the harvest comes.</p>
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<p class="c5">i. God use of the figures of sowing and reaping remind us that harvest is sometimes a season away. Sometimes people expect to sow sin for years, but to immediately <b><span class="c3">reap in mercy</span></b> after sowing <b><span class="c3">righteousness</span></b> for one day. Stick with sowing in righteousness, you will <b><span class="c3">reap in mercy</span></b> in due time.</p>
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<p class="c1">3. (<a onclick="return mV('Hsa', 10, '13-15');">13-15</a>) God tells Israel the terrible result of resisting Him.</p>
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<p class="c2"><span>You have plowed wickedness; you have reaped iniquity. You have eaten the fruit of lies, because you trusted in your own way, in the multitude of your mighty men. Therefore tumult shall arise among your people, and all your fortresses shall be plundered as Shalman plundered Beth Arbel in the day of battle; a mother dashed in pieces upon <i>her </i>children. Thus it shall be done to you, O Bethel, because of your great wickedness. At dawn the king of Israel shall be cut off utterly.</span></p>
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<p class="c4">a. <b><span class="c3">Because you trusted in your own way</span></b>: This is the essence of all sin. We trust in our <b><span class="c3">own way</span></b> instead of in God’s way. Ruin always comes when we trust in our <b><span class="c3">own way</span></b> instead of God’s way, and that ruin was about to come upon Israel.</p>
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