The Sum of Judgment
Text: Hosea 10:1-5 Date: 9-20-26
1. Multiplied altars (Hosea 10:1).
The vine has had a large production, but God despised the results. The vine was luxuriant in growth but empty in fruit quality.
The richer the people became, the more they credited their idols. The more they honored their idols, the more they constructed them.
Fruitfulness will always turn into faithlessness when altars are multiplied. God expects faithfulness, and in turn He will bless with fruitfulness. But an unfaithful heart will be punished.
2. Divided hearts (Hosea 10:2).
The word divided (halaq) means to be deliberately deceptive, slippery, made smooth, to flatter. The Hebrew word is only used 9x in the OT and is used in Psalms, Proverbs, once here and once in Isaiah. The word is almost used exclusively of a smooth or flattering tongue, words, or eyes. Psalm 36:2 says: “For he flattereth himself in his own eyes, until his iniquity be found to be hateful.”
Application: A divided heart is a heart that is characterized by deception, slipping, and faithlessness. A divided heart is a false heart.
Anything but wholehearted devotion to God is the only thing that is acceptable to Him. The solution to a divided heart is found in Ps. 86:11: “Unite my heart to fear thy name.”
3. Subtracted kings (Hosea 10:3)
When a nation chooses to profane God, even a “great” king cannot turn back the tidal wave of destruction; only genuine repentance can.
Failing to reverence God will lead God to fight against you:
Truth: There is no more dreadful condition than to have the Almighty God as your adversary. The greatest danger a person can face is not to have the world against him, but to have God against him.
“Israel had exchanged the living God for things that could do nothing. They trusted kings who could not ultimately protect them and gods who could not save them. The tragedy was not that they had no God—the tragedy was that they rejected the God who could actually help them.” (https://chatgpt.com/g/g-p-6912811790b48191a3e3bcf992053c0d/c/6a0b9ca8-4640-83e8-aede-27067f9996e9).
4. Added Empty Covenants and Words (Hosea 10:4)
Israel swore falsely in making covenants with the Egyptian and Assyrian nations. But, the people also made legal agreements with each other and could not keep those promises. Read Hosea 5:13 for Assyria and Hosea 7:11 for Egypt.
The result was a judgment—the determination of right and wrong regarding legal matters. It sprang up like deadly, poisonous hemlock (venom) growing in the furrowed rows of a farmer’s field. This was not divine judgment. Let me explain: Oaths and covenants had become common place. The Israelites said empty words, false oaths, and empty agreements. Then when people didn’t keep their oaths, this created legal disputes, known here as judgments or lawsuits. These legal disputes sprouted up like poisonous plants where goodly crops should have been growing.
5. A Devastating Sum (Hosea 10:5)
This means that the idols will be torn down, and any power associated with them will be vanquished. “Samaria’s inhabitants, instead of resting securely in their dependence on their images, will be in terror because of what they see transpiring to their godlings” (Feinberg 50).
Final Word: Idols are terrible representations of God. Idols steal mankind’s hearts. Idols can never live up to their expectations. Idolatry is a sin and must be treating with contempt. What glory may be ascribed to an idol will soon vanish and nothing will stop it from being defeated. Not you or the idol. Israel found out the hard way. So, will our nation. The sum of the nation’s sin equals the death and destruction and ultimately the damnation of these people. Woe unto anyone who spiritually calculates against Jehovah God for His sin’s final sum will always be judgment.