In this message we will consider from Hosea 9 and 10 the matters of the idolatry of Israel against Jehovah and the punishments of Jehovah upon Israel.
The idolatry of Israel against Jehovah was like a wife’s harlotries against her husband (1:2; 2:13; 3:1). Hosea’s thought here is very deep because it indicates God’s organic union with His people. However, the wife’s situation was exceedingly ugly.
Israel was told not to rejoice, for she had gone as a harlot away from her God. She had loved payment, like a harlot, upon every grain floor, worshipping idols on every threshing floor (9:1). The threshing floor was a place where people earned their living. Thus, they worshipped idols in the place where they earned their living.
Verse 2 says that the threshing floor and the winepress would not feed them, and the new wine would fail them. Whatever they had would not be sufficient to take care of their need. They would desire wine to drink, but there would be none.
According to verse 3, Israel would not dwell in the land of Jehovah. Rather, they would return to Egypt, and in Assyria they would eat what was unclean.
They would not pour out offerings of wine to Jehovah, neither would their sacrifices be pleasing to Him. Their sacrifices would be to them as the bread of mourning, the bread eaten by a family who had lost a relative. All who ate such sacrifices would be unclean, for their bread would be for themselves and would not come into the house of Jehovah (v. 4). They did not have the real enjoyment, and what they offered to God in name was not for God but for themselves.
Verse 5 indicates that they would not participate in the day of assembly and in the day of the feast of Jehovah. They did not care for the feast of Jehovah but only for their own necessities, enjoyment, and pleasures.