Original Meaning

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.

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.

Original Meaning

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.

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.