Bible Readings:
Numbers 25:1 – 18
Hosea 9:1 – 17
Sermon Outline:
Hosea 9:1–14 (NKJV)
1 Do not rejoice, O Israel, with joy like other peoples, For you have played the harlot against your God. You have made love for hire on every threshing floor.
2 The threshing floor and the winepress Shall not feed them, And the new wine shall fail in her.
3 They shall not dwell in the Lord’s land, But Ephraim shall return to Egypt, And shall eat unclean things in Assyria.
4 They shall not offer wine offerings to the Lord, Nor shall their sacrifices be pleasing to Him. It shall be like bread of mourners to them; All who eat it shall be defiled. For their bread shall be for their own life; It shall not come into the house of the Lord.
5 What will you do in the appointed day, And in the day of the feast of the Lord?
6 For indeed they are gone because of destruction. Egypt shall gather them up; Memphis shall bury them. Nettles shall possess their valuables of silver; Thorns shall be in their tents.
7 The days of punishment have come; The days of recompense have come. Israel knows! The prophet is a fool, The spiritual man is insane, Because of the greatness of your iniquity and great enmity.
8 The watchman of Ephraim is with my God; But the prophet is a fowler’s snare in all his ways— Enmity in the house of his God.
9 They are deeply corrupted, As in the days of Gibeah. He will remember their iniquity; He will punish their sins.
10 “I found Israel Like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your fathers As the firstfruits on the fig tree in its first season. But they went to Baal Peor, And separated themselves to that shame; They became an abomination like the thing they loved.
11 As for Ephraim, their glory shall fly away like a bird— No birth, no pregnancy, and no conception!
12 Though they bring up their children, Yet I will bereave them to the last man. Yes, woe to them when I depart from them!
13 Just as I saw Ephraim like Tyre, planted in a pleasant place, So Ephraim will bring out his children to the murderer.”
14 Give them, O Lord— What will You give? Give them a miscarrying womb And dry breasts!
GIBEAH (Heb. giḇʿâ)
A Benjaminite city that was particularly prominent during the reign of Saul. The name means “hill” and often was used in place names such as Gibeah of Benjamin (1 Sam. 13:2, 15; 14:16), Gibeath-elohim (“Hill of God”; 10:5), or Gibeah of Saul (11:4; 15:34) as a synonym for Gibeah. The relationship of Gibeah to Geba is difficult to ascertain. Sometimes the two terms are used independently, but they also are used interchangeably (Judg. 19–20; 1 Sam. 13–14; Isa. 10:28–32). The use of both terms in the same passage may reflect different sources, or it may indicate that the terms are synonyms. Many scholars view Gibeah and Geba as referring to the same site.
Langston, S. M. (2000). Gibeah. In D. N. Freedman, A. C. Myers, & A. B. Beck (Eds.), Eerdmans dictionary of the Bible (p. 501). W.B. Eerdmans.
GILGAL (Heb. gilgāl)
the 8th-century prophets condemn the use of Gilgal as a center for sacrifices (Hos. 4:15; 9:15; 12:11 [MT 12]; Amos 4:4; 5:5).
Good, R. (2000). Gilgal. In D. N. Freedman, A. C. Myers, & A. B. Beck (Eds.), Eerdmans dictionary of the Bible (p. 505). W.B. Eerdmans.