7 Results of Rebelling Against God

Hosea  9:1-17   (CLICK HERE FOR BIBLE VERSES)

Hi GAMErs!

Today’s passage is Hosea 9:1-17.  Let’s go!

Hosea 9:1-17 (NIV)
¹  Do not rejoice, O Israel; do not be jubilant like the other nations. For you have been unfaithful to your God; you love the wages of a prostitute at every threshing floor.
²  Threshing floors and winepresses will not feed the people; the new wine will fail them.
³  They will not remain in the LORD’s land; Ephraim will return to Egypt and eat unclean food in Assyria.
⁴  They will not pour out wine offerings to the LORD, nor will their sacrifices please him. Such sacrifices will be to them like the bread of mourners; all who eat them will be unclean. This food will be for themselves; it will not come into the temple of the LORD.
⁵  What will you do on the day of your appointed feasts, on the festival days of the LORD?
⁶  Even if they escape from destruction, Egypt will gather them, and Memphis will bury them. Their treasures of silver will be taken over by briers, and thorns will overrun their tents.
⁷  The days of punishment are coming, the days of reckoning are at hand. Let Israel know this. Because your sins are so many and your hostility so great, the prophet is considered a fool, the inspired man a maniac.
⁸  The prophet, along with my God, is the watchman over Ephraim, yet snares await him on all his paths, and hostility in the house of his God.
⁹  They have sunk deep into corruption, as in the days of Gibeah. God will remember their wickedness and punish them for their sins.
¹⁰  “When I found Israel, it was like finding grapes in the desert; when I saw your fathers, it was like seeing the early fruit on the fig tree. But when they came to Baal Peor, they consecrated themselves to that shameful idol and became as vile as the thing they loved.
¹¹  Ephraim’s glory will fly away like a bird– no birth, no pregnancy, no conception.
¹²  Even if they rear children, I will bereave them of every one. Woe to them when I turn away from them!
¹³  I have seen Ephraim, like Tyre, planted in a pleasant place. But Ephraim will bring out their children to the slayer.”
¹⁴  Give them, O LORD– what will you give them? Give them wombs that miscarry and breasts that are dry.
¹⁵  “Because of all their wickedness in Gilgal, I hated them there. Because of their sinful deeds, I will drive them out of my house. I will no longer love them; all their leaders are rebellious.
¹⁶  Ephraim is blighted, their root is withered, they yield no fruit. Even if they bear children, I will slay their cherished offspring.”
¹⁷  My God will reject them because they have not obeyed him; they will be wanderers among the nations.

On verses 1-17:  Here in verse 10 we see a picture of God as being so excited and overjoyed when He first chose the Israelites to be His people.

Hosea 9:10a (NIV)
¹⁰ “When I found Israel, it was like finding grapes in the desert; when I saw your fathers, it was like seeing the early fruit on the fig tree…

However, as we hear about over and over in the book of Hosea, the Israelites lived in persistent rebellion against God and repeatedly broke God’s heart.

God’s broken heart is not the only result of the Israelites’ rebellion.  As Pastor Jon Courson wisely notes, Hosea 9 shows us a number of problems that the Israelites would experience as a result of continually rebelling against God.  These are the same problems we experience when we keep ignoring or forgetting about God.  Here are 6 results of rebelling against God from Hosea 9:

1.  When we live in rebellion against God, true joy eludes us (v1-2).  Often we think rebelling against God and doing things our way will make us happy, but the opposite is true.  When we live in persistent rebellion against God, we lose true joy.  The things we think will satisfy us and make us happy fail to do so.

Hosea 9:1-2 (NIV)
¹ Do not rejoice, O Israel; do not be jubilant like the other nations. For you have been unfaithful to your God; you love the wages of a prostitute at every threshing floor.
² Threshing floors and winepresses will not feed the people; the new wine will fail them.

2. When we live in rebellion against God, we become slaves to sin (v3, 6).   We might think that rebellion against God will mean that we will be free.  In fact the opposite is true: when we live in rebellion against God, doing whatever we want to do, we will eventually live in bondage.  Just like the Israelites going back to Egypt and becoming slaves once again, when we live in rebellion against God we become slaves to our appetites and our flesh.

Hosea 9:3 (NIV)
³ They will not remain in the LORD’s land; Ephraim will return to Egypt and eat unclean food in Assyria.

3. When we live in rebellion against God, we don’t bring sacrifices that please God (v4-5).  Our religious practices become empty.

Hosea 9:4-5 (NIV)
⁴  They will not pour out wine offerings to the LORD, nor will their sacrifices please him. Such sacrifices will be to them like the bread of mourners; all who eat them will be unclean. This food will be for themselves; it will not come into the temple of the LORD.
⁵  What will you do on the day of your appointed feasts, on the festival days of the LORD?

4. When we live in rebellion against God, we lose discernment (v7).  We might think we are so smart when we choose to do things our way instead of what we know to be the right way, God’s way.  Yet the opposite happens when we live in rebellion against God; in actual fact our judgment becomes clouded.  We become less able to discern what is from God and what is not.  Just like the Israelites in verse 7 who couldn’t recognize God speaking through His prophets, we can’t hear or discern God’s voice well when we’re in rebellion against Him.  We ended up mocking God’s wisdom as foolishness and exalting foolishness as wisdom.

Hosea 9:7 (NIV)
⁷ The days of punishment are coming, the days of reckoning are at hand. Let Israel know this. Because your sins are so many and your hostility so great, the prophet is considered a fool, the inspired man a maniac.

5. When we live in rebellion against God, you will mock, attack and scoff at people who represent God (v8-9).  In Hosea’s day, the prophets represented God and served the community, yet the people were disrespectful and hostile toward the prophets.  Verse 9 even compares the Israelites in Hosea’s time to some of the most infamous sinners in Israel’s history when Israelites in Gibeah raped and murdered a priest’s concubine in Judges 19. Likewise, when a person lives in rebellion against God, that person will often treat spiritual leaders with tremendous disrespect, cynicism and mockery, wanting to attack them whatever chance they get.

Hosea 9:8-9 (NIV)
⁸ The prophet, along with my God, is the watchman over Ephraim, yet snares await him on all his paths, and hostility in the house of his God.
⁹ They have sunk deep into corruption, as in the days of Gibeah. God will remember their wickedness and punish them for their sins.

6. When we live in rebellion against God, we produce less and less fruit (v11-16).  The strong language in verses 11-16 show us that when a Christian is not healthy, there is no new spiritual growth in or through that person.

Hosea 9:11 (NIV)
¹¹ Ephraim’s glory will fly away like a bird– no birth, no pregnancy, no conception.

7. When we live in rebellion against God, we end up living in isolation (v17).  When we do things our way instead of God’s way, we might assume that doing this will cause us to gain more friends or become more popular.  Yet the opposite often takes place when we keep rebelling against God: we become more and more isolated, more and more lonely, like “wanderers among the nations” (v17).  We may have many acquaintances and “friends”, but no true companionship with God or with others.

Holy Spirit, thank You for helping me see that rebellion against You does not lead to life, freedom, peace and joy, but the opposite.  I am always better off staying close to You than running away from You.  In Jesus’ name, AMEN!

Copyright © 2021 Justin Lim. All rights reserved.