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"As the LORD lives"

Text: Hosea 4:15

BOTH ISRAEL AND JUDAH

The practice of ritual harlotry was rampant in Israel. But this problem was not absent in Judah either.

“Though you, Israel, play the harlot,
Let not Judah offend.
Do not come up to Gilgal,
Nor go up to Beth Aven,
Nor swear an oath, saying, ‘As the LORD lives’ – ”
Hosea 4:15

1. Israel and Judah

a) In the beginning, there was hostility.

i) Jeroboam I took the break-away nation in the North.

ii) Rehoboam reigned over the smaller kingdom of Judah.

b) There came a time when a pact was established.

i) In the reign of Ahab in Israel.

ii) In the reign of Jehoshaphat.

iii) There was inter-marriage between their offspring.

2. “Though you, Israel, play the harlot”

a) Gilgal

i) It was a historic site.

ii) In the days of Joshua, it was his headquarters.

iii) In Hosea’s time it was a center of idolatrous worship.

b) Beth Aven

i) Bethel means “House of God”.

ii) But Bethel from the days of Jeroboam became the center for calf-worship.

iii) The term “Beth Aven” was coined to describe it as the “House of vanity”.

c) Israel had gone into idolatry in the worst possible way.

3. “Let not Judah offend”

a) Judah must take heed.

b) It must not choose to go in the way of Israel.

c) They must not go to Bethel, or Beth Aven as Hosea and Amos called it.

4. Swearing in the name of the LORD “As the LORD lives”

This was a common practice. This was taking God’s name in vain. Judah must guard against this sin.