(REFLECTIONS ON Hosea 9:1-17)

In today’s Scripture, Ephraim represents all of the northern kingdom of Israel. The Lord’s message is this,

1 Do not rejoice, O Israel, with exultation like the nations!
For you have played the harlot, forsaking your God.

Israel is not to rejoice like the nations. The nations rejoice at things of this world, temporary, finite, and superficial things. The nations rejoice at the work of their hands, and so Israel is not to rejoice because they have forsaken their God and gone after the things of the nations, and chased after the nations themselves.

Israel will return to Egypt, defile the Lord in Assyria, and they are led astray by their prophets into a day of punishment,

7 The days of punishment have come,
The days of retribution have come;
Let Israel know this!
The prophet is a fool,
The inspired man is demented,
Because of the grossness of your iniquity,
And because your hostility is so great.

Although the Lord found Israel like grapes in the wilderness, bearing fruit and with so much potential as the people of God, but now Ephraim is stricken, their root is dried up, and they will bear no fruit.

Do not rejoice, if we are not rejoicing in the Lord. More than rejoicing about the Lord, we must rejoice inside of the Lord, meaning that we are in Him and He is in us. Do not rejoice like the nations, that live for short-sighted gains, rather than eternal promises.

Do not rejoice, because we were once also a fruit bearing tree planted by the stream of God’s living waters, but now even our prophets are fools, our inspired men and women are demented, and we have lost our way.

Do not rejoice, but in the Lord because all others paths outside of the Lord lead to dried up roots that bear no fruit. Let us hear the word of the Lord as spoken through Hosea the prophet, and let us turn back to Him as our physical and spiritual act of repentance.

Pastor Michael Lu
Enduring Word Bible Commentary: Hosea 9