This chapter continues with the state of Israel with their divided hearts, using God’s blessings for their own purposes and not giving Him the honour, He deserved. They are pronounced ‘guilty’, and God said that He would break down their altars and ruin their sacred pillars or images. They should have done that themselves because they knew who the true God was (v1,2). They brought judgment upon themselves. They then seemed to mourn that God, their King, had forsaken them (v3-8). It was almost as if they were having a pity party and feeling sorry for themselves. Little wonder that He had. The foreign gods would be no use to them for they would be taken by their enemies. Even the altars to the idols would be overgrown with thorns and thistles, and the people would cry out to the mountains to fall on them and cover their shame.
God proceeds to tell them what they need to do (v9-11). He told them that they had sinned from the days of Gibeah referred to in the previous chapter of what took place in Judges 19. They had not changed, and the simple answer was to repent of their sin. It is still the same today – we must recognise our sin, confess it, and repent of it. It is the only answer to the sin question. God would deal with it, and it may lead to chastisement, but they would come through in genuine repentance.
God spoke to them in farming terms which they would understand and continues by telling them to sow in righteousness and reap in mercy. Sowing and reaping clearly followed on. They had sown in sin and would reap judgment but now He told them to sow in righteousness and mercy would be reaped (v12).
Sowing requires ploughing, and God told them that they needed to break up the fallow ground. They needed to prepare the ground to receive the seed. Jesus, in the parable of the sower, illustrated the different kinds of soil. If soil had not been ploughed for a year it would be hard and unable to receive the seed, and the seed have no depth to germinate.
They needed to prepare their hearts and minds to receive the sowing of righteousness. They needed to seek The LORD in preparation for Him to ‘rain righteousness’ upon them and into their lives (v12). Fallow ground would be hard and not receptive to seed and thus there would be no fruitfulness. How we need to seek The Lord as Jeremiah 29:13 tells us – ‘If we seek Him with all our heart, we will find Him’. No half-heartedness, ALL our heart. It is time to seek The LORD, not other things. We may not see fruit right away; in fact, the illustration seems to tell us that it will take time. The fruit will come at harvest time. Persistence and patience are required. We must trust in The Lord, we can plant and water but only God makes it grow.
Hosea reminds them that they have sown wickedness and reaped iniquity (v13). They had swallowed lies and trusted in their own ways (v13-15). All of us reap the results of our sowing and if it is wickedness and going our own way, we suffer the consequences, however religious we might appear on the outside. Bethel is mentioned here again – Bethel was once the house of God, but it had become a centre for idolatry, and it would be cut off. Ruin would come upon Israel if they continued to sow wickedness. God in His mercy was giving them the opportunity to reap mercy if they ploughed the fallow ground and sowed righteousness.
Many people think that the Bible is unfair in that it speaks of God’s wrath and judgment, but the good news is that there is a way of escape. We must confess our sin, repent of it and turn to Christ, otherwise we are already condemned (see John 3:16,17).
