Exegesis on Hosea 7
As God Almighty plucks us from the darkness of the spirit of harlotry oppressing us into sin, our fathers, mothers, sistren, brethren and friends still in the darkness shriek. They cannot stand to see you moving toward the true light of light. When you do good, it will encourage people to scoff at you, dissuade you and attack you.
Verse 2 tells me that we should never forget that the Lord of hosts will never forget our inequities. He may forgive us, but He will not forget our whoredom. Do not forget, we are all whores in the eyes of God.
Blindly obeying orders does not make you free from moral culpability. Even if those orders come from the head of your State, church, small group, company et cetera. All commands must be weighed against the commands of God. We learn the commands of God by tuning our ears to the holy writings that speak of Him.
Verse 5 says that we use excuses to get drunk. It's St. Patrick's day (O the sacrilege), Cinco De Mayo, Independence Day, President's Day, Veteren's Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day, MLK's Day, Cesar Chavez Day, Christopher Columbus' God-forsaken Day, my dude's birthday and my girlfriend's birthday. No matter the occasion, drunkenness abounds. Are you telling me there are no spirits of drunkenness binding people to this sin?
Verse 6's advice is absolutely essential for those of us who have received the holy flesh and honorable blood of Jesus Christ of Nazareth in the elements of communion. But, this sage advice applies to all people. Never let yourself go to sleep angry at your neighbor. Anger and murder are equal sins of adultery in the eyes of God, because you complete the violent deed in your thoughts or your dreams.
Verse 7 shows us the counter-intuitiveness of God's vision. He sees the rulers as fallen, but in this world, they are at the top. They have fallen, not because of defeat by some other ruler, but because they are not in communion with God. This is just like Adam and Eve. They were told they would die if they ate the fruit they were supposed to fast. They did not die immediately, in the worldly sense we would expect. But, their death was worse than anything the world could offer. Their death was distance from God.
Electoral politics is a depraved bout where you will be eaten from the inside out whether you 'win' or 'lose' outwardly. No matter the outcome, we should have spent that time seeking the Lord God's steadfast love. None of our earthly achievements matter. President of the 'free world', 5.0 GPA, billionaire et cetera. Our lives are in the palm of God. He has total control. If He wills it, we will fall, and if He wills it, we shall rise. We should seek His ordinances, so that He may discipline us.
Verse 13 calls us liars. We are if we say we have no sin. The Lord wants to redeem us with a second chance. Woe to us if we do not take Him up on His offer.
Verse 14 says that we should not just say words to God that we were taught to at church. They can be edifying if we have nothing else to say, but we should try to think independently and critically of what we have done to soil our marriage with God. These thoughts should then take the form of feelings, until we are in tears because of how much we know we are guilty of betraying the God that loves us. The people of the OT spilled their blood and sacrificed to demonic spirits of grain and wine to be more prosperous. They did this because they were Henotheists. No, this is not the belief of Henok as God. This is the belief in one god, without the denial of the existence of other gods. It is popular today for Christians (usually who are Democrats before they are Christians) to say, "Jesus is right for me, Buddha is right for her, and Hinduism is right for them." Whenever we sin, we are no better than these blatant idolaters, because to sin is to prioritize ourselves before God, which is always and everywhere idolatry.
Verse 15 is the truth of our thoughts. No matter who we are, we could not exist without God. In spite of this, we take time to plot against our marriage with Him, and select a god or goddess to share the intimate chamber of our thoughts with.
In Verse 16 it is made clear that there are no benefits to seeking counsel outside of God. The remedies we pursue outside of God are all temporary. A bandaid cannot help a man with a sawed off leg, or hanging from a cliff. God can.
Furthermore, we must love each other.