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"The revolters are deeply involved in slaughter"

Text: Hosea 5:2

THE PRACTICE OF IDOLATRY

Many were involved in idolatrous practices. Hosea had to address this sin problem forthrightly.

“The revolters are deeply involved in slaughter,
Though I rebuke them all.
I know Ephraim,
And Israel is not hidden from Me;
For now, O Ephraim, you commit harlotry;
Israel is defiled.”
Hosea 5:2-3

1. “The revolters”

a) Idolatry is a revolt against God.

b) The revolters are the people who had rebelled against God defiantly.

2. “Deeply involved in slaughter”

a) These were not passive worshippers.

b) Rebelling is always an active thing.

c) Idolatry demanded many sacrifices to be made to appease the deities worshipped.

d) Worshippers then become deeply involved in the slaughter of the animals.

e) There were some deities who also demanded human sacrifices.

3. “Though I rebuke them all”

a) The Lord had rebuked the priests, the kings and the nation as a whole.

b) His servants, the prophets, like Hosea brought words of rebuke time and again.

c) But few had taken heed.

4. “I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from Me”

a) Ephraim was the leading tribe and thus his activities were very obvious.

b) But the smaller tribes of Israel also received a rebuke from the Lord.

i) God had not forgotten the lesser-known tribes.

ii) Their sinful ways were not hidden from God at all.

5. “For now, O Ephraim, you commit harlotry”

a) This was a fact that was well-established.

b) The leading tribe was a snare and a net that had trapped many.

6. “Israel is defiled”

a) Ephraim’s sin of spiritual harlotry had to be rebuked for another reason.

b) The sin of Ephraim caused Israel as a nation to be defiled in the sight of the Lord!