hosea 4 and 5

Read Hosea 4 and 5 at Bible Gateway.

The Hebrew paragraph divisions:

Hos 4:1-19 {p} Charge against Israel: You have forsaken Law + Me therefore the fruit of your deeds will come upon you
Hos 5:1-7 {s} Because Ephraim commits harlotry + does not turn to their God, they + their heritage shall be devoured
Hos 5:8-6:11 {p} …

The chiastic structure:

1a) Hos 5:6, With their flocks + herds they seek the LORD, but not find Him; He has withdrawn Himself from them;

1b) Hos 5:7-11, They have dealt treacherously with the LORD, therefore rebuke + wrath + desolation;

1a) Hos 5:7 {s} They have dealt treacherously with the LORD/ their pagan children/ a new moon shall devour them;
1b) Hos 5:8-9a, Sound the alarm! Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of rebuke;
1c) Hos 5:9b, Among the tribes of Israel I make known what shall surely be;
2c) Hos 5:10a, The princes of Judah are like those who remove a landmark;
2b) Hos 5:10b, I will pour out My wrath on them like water;
2a) Hos 5:11, Ephraim is oppressed and broken in judgment, because he willingly walked by human precept;

1c) Hos 5:12, Therefore I will be to Ephraim like a moth, and to the house of Judah like rottenness;

1d) Hos 5:13a, When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah saw his wound;

central axis) Hos 5:13b, Then Ephraim went to Assyria and sent to King Jareb (contentious);

2d) Hos 5:13c, Yet he cannot cure you, nor heal you of your wound;

2c) Hos 5:14, For I will be like a lion to Ephraim, and like a young lion to the house of Judah;

2b) Hos 5:14b-15a, I will tear them + take them away, no one shall rescue/ I will go to My place until they acknowledge their sin;

2a) Hos 5:15b, Then they will seek My face; in their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.

Now, these are the kind of questions I ask myself: Why would a snip about going to Assyria and King Jareb (a poetical title, not a historical name) be the central axis of the structure? What is the point?

I think the point is, the central axis reveals who Ephraim turned to for help, as soon as they realized they were in trouble. It is clear from the structure, that the trouble, the desolation, the rebuke, the affliction was clearly sent upon them by God exercising His sovereign will. Ephraim, in a way, was the cause of their own trouble, because it had been promised to them in Deu 28 and other places, that if they remained loyal to YHVH, blessing would come upon them, but they forsook Him, as they have done, then trouble would come upon them. And that trouble would be sent by the hand of the LORD.

So they recognized their sickness, and realized their affliction. But in their affliction, they turned to Assyria for help – an arm of flesh – and not to the LORD God. You might say, that if God allows trouble to come upon us, sometimes it is trouble that we bought for ourselves by disobedience, but if we have checked ourselves for besetting sins and have found none, what might be happening? It might be a test – because when a person is under duress, who they turn to in their duress is a clear indication of who they look to as God – their Savior and Deliverer. (If you look to God in your duress, I think that is a good sign that He will soon deliver you.)

So Ephraim saw their sickness, but turned to the arm of flesh to deliver them – who, of course, can neither cure him or heal him of his wound. So what did God do? He went away, He withdrew from them. They might seek Him with herds and flocks – in other words, they might rely on their sacrifice for sin, but as long as they are going through the motions, He will not be found by them. He will remain withdrawn until they seek His face in earnest, and acknowledge their sin. But as soon as they seek Him in earnest, confessing their sin, then He will be found by them.

But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. When you are in distress, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, when you turn to the Lord your God and obey His voice (for the Lord your God is a merciful God), He will not forsake you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them. Deu 4:29-31

The bottom line: God is a more loving parent than we are. He will allow us to suffer, rather than rescue us, or allow others to rescue us, if we need to experience the suffering to come to the realization of some things, our foolish choices and our transgression and sin; if we need to experience the suffering to be jolted from a stupor of apathy and going through the motions, to seek His face earnestly in a relationship with Him. All I can say is, thank You for loving me perfectly, Father! ♥