Exegesis on Hosea 8
The trumpet sound is the sign of the end times. Watch out, before the trumpet plays, and you will be in better shape to taste the savory judgements of God. Vultures fly over us because we reek of death wrought by our lawbreaking. We think we know God, when we only know of Him. How many nights have we really struggled to submit to His will? Satan is the Hebrew word for the enemy or adversary. This is why I question translations, and so should you. Learn about the holy scriptures from the holy scriptures, and not from pop-culture. We have definitely spurned good, and whoever the enemy in Verse 3 is, his pursuit is not welcome.
Verse 4 tells us the follies of our electoral processes, and the monarchies we had before it. The prophets are the mouthpieces of God. The prophet Samuel warned us to be satisfied with consensual rule by judges. We don't want to listen to God, or His mouthpieces. We want to follow the commandment of Jay-Z "do what thou wilt." We want beemers, benzes and bentleys. We want to make it rain. We want $20,000 chains. What ever happened to the oppressed? If we neglect the neglected, our sacrifices will never be accepted. They will be shattered and counted as if we had done nothing.
Verses 7 - 10 detail our whoredom. We seek the guidance of nature, and of foreign leaders. They are of no help to us. We should instead repent, and look for God Almighty.
Verse 11 is venomous. Imagine the talents that God has given you. Now imagine the greatest talent amongst these. What if you used the greatest talent that God has given you for your own glory instead of for the glory of God? This talent would become for you an altar of sinning, when it could have been used to expiate sin.
Verse 12 uses the word strange to remind us where we are from. We are in this world but not of this world. We are sojourners in a world that is not ours. Our world is the heavenly Jerusalem. And yet, we act as if the instructions of the heavens are foreign to us, when it is this world's instructions that should be foreign to us.
Returning to Egypt is another way of saying we are returning to the house of bondage. We can never be free in the vainglorious way that atheists and existentialists often try to be. We will always be in bondage. The only question is to whom? Are we in bondage to man, nature or the God of man and nature. We better pray that we remember our maker.
Lord Jesus Christ, keep your devouring fire from devouring us, and have mercy on us sinners.
Furthermore, we must love each other.