Hosea 4—6 covers the sins of the apostate people, the punishments of Jehovah, and the return of the apostate people. In this message we will consider the details regarding these matters recorded in these three chapters.
The sins of the apostate people and the punishments of Jehovah are seen in 4:1—5:14 and 6:4-10.
Hosea 4:1 tells us that Jehovah had a controversy with the inhabitants of the land, for there were no faithfulness or truth, no kindness, and no knowledge of God.
Instead of truth, kindness, and the knowledge of God, there were false swearing, deceiving (not fulfilling one’s promise), murder, stealing, and adultery (v. 2a).
The people were violent, and bloodshed followed bloodshed (v. 2b).
Because of this the land mourned, and the inhabitants of the land languished with the beasts of the field and with the birds of heaven. Indeed, even the fish of the sea would be taken away (v. 3).
The people contended with the priest (v. 4). This was altogether contrary to God’s law, which did not allow the people to contend with the priests.
Verse 5 says that the priest would stumble in the day and that the prophet would stumble with the priest in the night. Also, the mother of the priest would be destroyed by God. This tells us that they all were committing sins. The prophet cooperated with the priest to commit sin, and the mother of the priest joined them. That brought in God’s judgment upon the mother.