CHAPTER 8 Nov. 11 
Sowing the Wind, Reaping the Whirlwind 
Put the trumpet to your lips! Something like an eagle is over Yahweh’s house, because they have broken My covenant, and rebelled against My law. 2They cry to Me, ‘My God, how we know You!’. 3Israel has cast off that which is good. The enemy will pursue him. 4They have set up kings, but not by Me. They have made princes, and I didn’t approve. Of their silver and their gold they have made themselves idols,  that they may be cut off. 5Let Samaria throw out his calf idol! My anger burns against them! How long will it be until they are capable of purity? 6For this is even made in Israel! The workman made it, and it is no God; indeed, the calf of Samaria shall be broken in pieces.  7For they sow the wind, and they will reap the whirlwind. He has no standing grain; the stalk will yield no head of grain. If it does yield, strangers will swallow it up. 8Israel is swallowed up. Now they are among the nations like a worthless thing. 9For they have gone up to Assyria, like a wild donkey wandering alone. Ephraim has hired lovers for himself. 10But although they sold themselves among the nations, I will now gather them; and they begin to waste away because of the oppression of the king of mighty ones. 11Because Ephraim has multiplied altars for sinning, they became for him altars for sinning. 12I wrote for him the many things of My law; but they were regarded as a strange thing. 13As for the sacrifices of My offerings, they sacrifice flesh and eat it; But Yahweh doesn’t accept them. Now He will remember their iniquity, and punish their sins. They will return to Egypt. 14For Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces; and Judah has multiplied fortified cities; but I will send a fire on his cities, and it will devour its fortresses.

Commentary

8:2 As in 7:14,16, the pain of God was that Israel’s words of devotion to Him were meaningless. This was the pain Hosea would’ve had as Gomer protested her faithfulness to him, whilst sleeping with and getting pregnant by other men. We must ensure that the words we say in prayer and sing in song to God are really meant sincerely by us, and that we realistically live according to them.
8:13 They will return to Egypt- This is repeated in 9:3 and yet God says the very opposite in 11:5. We have God showing His extreme emotion, just as a betrayed and angry husband would- shouting threats one minute and then cancelling them out in expressions of deep love the next. The most hurt man on earth would, however, be nowhere near the pain and hurt felt by God Almighty at the unfaithfulness of His people. The huge extent of His love for Israel is reflected in the depth of His pain and the emotional nature of His outbursts. God has emotion and passion- for us, we who are but water, calcium and complex chemicals, specs of dust on the earth…