Hosea 9

9:1A threshing floor was a flat area, often built on a hilltop, where harvesters beat the wheat and separated it from the chaff. Often men would stay overnight at the threshing floor to protect their grain, so prostitutes would visit there. Because of the location of threshing floors in the hilltops, they began to be used as places to sacrifice to false gods.

9:6Israel's leaders vacillated between alliances with Egypt and alliances with Assyria. Hosea was saying that both were wrong. Breaking an alliance with untrustworthy Assyria and fleeing for help to the equally untrustworthy Egypt would not forestall Israel’s destruction. Its only hope was to return to God.

9:7By the time Israel began to experience the consequences of its sins, it was no langer listening to God's messengers. Refusing to hear the truth from prophets who spoke out so clearly about its sins, the nation did not hear God’s warnings about what was soon to happen. We all listen and read selectively, focusing on what seems to support our present life-style and ignoring a radical reordering of our priorities. In doing this, we are likely to miss the warning signs. Listen to people who think your approach is all wrong. Read articles that present viewpoints you would be unlikely to take. Ask yourself, Is God speaking to me through these speakers and writers? Is there something I need to change?

9:9Acouple had stopped to stay overnight in Gibeah when some wicked men gathered around the house and demanded that the man come out so they could have sex with him. Instead, the traveler gave them his concubine. They raped and abused her all night and then left her dead on the doorstep (Judges 19:14-30). That horrible act revealed the depths to which the people had sunk. Gibeah was destroyed for its evil (Judges 20:8-48), but Hosea said that the whole nation was now as evil as that city. Just as the city didn't escape punishment, neither would the nation.

9:10Baal-peor was the god of Peor, a mountain in Moab. In Numbers 22, Balaam, a prophet, was hired by King Balak of Moab to curse the Israelites as they were coming through his land. The Moabites enticed the Israelites into sexual sin and Baal worship. Before long, the Israelites became as corrupt as the gods they worshiped. People soon begin to copy the characteristics and life-styles of those around them. What do you worship? Are you becoming more like God, or are you becoming more like the world?

9:14Hosea prayed this prayer when he foresaw the destruction that Israel’s sins would bring (2 Kings 17:7-23). This vision of Israel’s terrible fate moved him to pray that women would not get pregnant and that children would die as infants so they would not have to experience the tremendous suffering and pain that lay ahead.

9:15At Gilgal, both the political and the religious faiture of the nation began. Here idols and kings were substituted for God. Saul, the united nation’s first king, was crowned at Gitgal (1 Samuel 11:15), but by Hosea’s time, Baal worship flourished there (4:15; 12:11).