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Hosea 9:7  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 person a maniac.  

It has been a common phenomenon throughout history that the more a society moves towards a man-centred, humanist worldview the more actively hostile it becomes to the truth God reveals in his Word.  This is what happened in the Northern Kingdom of Israel in the 8th Century BC.  Slowly but surely God’s Covnant People, Israel, allowed themselves to be influenced by, and absorbed into, the surrounding culture so that when God sent them prophets to declare his word and his will, they reacted with anger and hostility.  The inevitable sequel to this was that the already compromised ‘establishment’ ridiculed God’s faithful messengers.  “Because your sins are so many and your hostility so great, the prophet is considered a fool, the inspired man a maniac.”

In the last 100 years we have seen our society go from being patronisingly tolerant of the Bible to being quite outspoken and derogatory in its opposition to it.  Our media, and perhaps therefore the community in general, are champions at mocking anyone who stands up for Bible truth.  Their implied ridicule of it has now become so entrenched that quoting the Scriptures is considered counter-productive and we need to come up with more ‘logical’ arguments – ie arguments that are ‘acceptable’ to human reasoning – against things like abortion, same-sex marriage and euthanasia, all of which are contrary to God’s wonderful Plan for Creation as revealed in his Word (cf Exodus 20:6/Jeremiah 1:5; Genesis 1:26/Mark 10:6/Romans 1:26-27; Psalm 90:9-12).  It is seen by our present culture as ‘laughable’ to say: “The Bible says …”!  The usual smug response is, “So what?”

All this makes the first half of today’s verse pretty scary: “The days of punishment are coming, the days of reckoning are at hand.  Let Israel know this.”  At least our God is gracious and compassionate enough to give nations plenty of warning before he acts!  And Hosea himself will spell out the extent of his compassion and grace in Chapter 11, an extent which will be finally clearly demonstrated and proven in the Life, Death, Resurrection and Ascension of his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

“What love could remember no wrongs we have done, omniscient, all knowing, he counts not their sum; thrown into a sea without bottom or shore, our sins they are many, his mercy is more.  What patience would wait as we constantly roam; what Father, so tender, is calling us home.  He welcomes the weakest, the vilest, the poor, our sins they are many, his mercy is more.  … What riches of kindness he lavished on us, his blood was the payment, his life was the cost.  We stood ‘neath a debt we could never afford, our sins they are many, his mercy is more” (Matt  Boswell  & Matt Papa).

– Bruce Christian