Crime and Punishment

1
Crime and Punishment

• Hosea 4-5

2
Gods Evaluation
Exodus 20 Hosea 4.2
You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain (v.7a) Cursing
You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor (v.16) Lying
You shall not murder (v.13) Murder
You shall not steal (v.15) Stealing
You shall not commit adultery (v.14) Adultery
3
Idolatrous hotspots
Hosea 4.12-13 2 Kings 17.10-12
They consult a wooden idol and are answered by a stick of wood. A spirit of prostitution leads them astray they are unfaithful to their God. They sacrifice on the mountaintops and burn offerings on the hills, under oak, poplar and terebinth, where the shade is pleasant. Therefore your daughters turn to prostitution and your daughters-in-law to adultery. They set up sacred stones and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every spreading tree. At every high place they burned incense, as the nations whom the LORD had driven out before them had done. They did wicked things that provoked the LORD to anger. They worshiped idols, though the LORD had said, "You shall not do this."
4
Priests and Royalty in Cahoots

• For Israel, religion and state were as two sides
  of a coin. Royal family and the priestly family
  both inherited their authority and exercised
  leadership responsibilities in sphere that,
  although different, complemented one another.
  The priesthood served the interests of the
  monarchy by adapting the religious demands upon
  the people to fit the materialistic,
  nationalistic interests of the kingship. The
  fertility cult was an important adjunct to the
  royaltys concern to promote prosperity,
  especially among the upper classes.

5
Priests and Royalty in Cahoots

• The greater the fertility, the greater the
  harvests. The greater the harvests, the larger
  the tithes and taxes. In turn, the monarchy
  could give official support and subsidy to the
  false cult (cf. 1 Kgs 1226-33), so as to
  establish it throughout the land. It was
  therefore to the advantage for the priesthood and
  the monarchy to work together (Stuart 1987 95).

6
Punishment on State

• Though you commit adultery, O Israel, let not
  Judah become guilty (Hos 4.15).
• The LORD said to Jeremiah, Faithless Israel
  is more righteous than unfaithful Judah (Jer
  3.11)!
• A whirlwind will sweep them away, and their
  sacrifices will bring them shame (Hos 4.19).
  Moreover, it was just as God warned in the Law
  You who were as numerous as the stars in the sky
  will be left but few in number, because you did
  not obey the LORD your God. You will be
  uprooted from the land you are entering to
  possess (Deut 28.62, 63c)exile.

7
Punishment on Priests

• my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.
  Because you have rejected knowledge, I also
  reject you as my priests because you have
  ignored the law of your God (Hos 4.6)
• I will not punish your daughters when they turn
  to prostitution, nor your daughters-in-law when
  they commit adultery, because the men themselves
  consort with harlots and sacrifice with shrine
  prostitutesa people without understanding will
  come to ruin! (Hos 4.14)

8
Punishment on People

• Their deeds do not permit them to return to
  their God. Because A spirit of prostitution is
  in their heart they do not acknowledge the
  LORD (Hos 5.4).
• I will go back to my place until they admit
  their guilt. And they will seek my face in their
  misery they will earnestly seek me (v.15).

9
Punishment on Land Animals

• Because of this the land mourns, and all who
  live in it waste away the beasts of the field
  and the birds of the air and the fish of the sea
  are dying (Hosea 4.3).
• I will be like a lion to Ephraim, like a great
  lion to Judah. I will tear them to pieces and go
  away I will carry them off, with no one to
  rescue them (Hos 5.14).

10
Punishment on Land Animals

• However, if you do not obey the LORD your God
  and do not carefully follow all his commands and
  decrees I am giving you today, all these curses
  will come upon you and overtake you You will be
  cursed in the city and cursed in the country.
  Your basket and your kneading trough will be
  cursed. The fruit of your womb will be cursed,
  and the crops of your land, and the calves of
  your herds and the lambs of your flocks. You
  will be cursed when you come in and cursed when
  you go out (Deut 28.15-19).

11

• Projecting
• into
• the New Testament

12
Affects of Sin

• The creation waits in eager expectation for the
  sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was
  subjected to frustration, not by its own choice,
  but by the will of the one who subjected it, in
  hope that the creation itself will be liberated
  from its bondage to decay and brought into the
  glorious freedom of the children of God. We know
  that the whole creation has been groaning as in
  the pains of childbirth right up to the present
  time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have
  the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as
  we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the
  redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we
  were saved (Romans 8.19-24a).