A (8:19)

So.

B (8:20)

So I would 1000% like if there, if you want a modern equivalent to this, it would be crystals in burn of sage. Like chakra stones. Crystals and burn of sage. 1000% are cultic rituals that if you're a believer, are not. Like, why would you put your trust in that? Your trust is in the almighty God. And you're going to see this theme actually develop as, as we keep moving. Chapter 5, verse 1 and 2, verse 10, verse 13. The thing that's gonna be the lawsuit oracle is going to be spoken against the ruling classes. Royalty are going to be accused of moving boundary stones, actually. So this is one of the moments in Hosea where injustice is actually going to rear its head again. Okay, so this is verse 10 of chapter 5. Judah's leaders are like those who move boundary stones, which means Judah's leaders are unjust. Okay, Moving a boundary stone. A boundary stone is how you delineated what's my property versus my neighbor's property, the boundary. And this is leaders are not supposed to move boundary stones, okay? Property is the land got divided up by. By God in the book of Joshua. And every tribe has allotments of land. And so it's not my job to move a boundary stone. This is deeply rooted in injustice. So in verse 11, Ephraim is oppressed, trampled in judgment, intent on pursuing idols. I am like a moth to Ephraim, like rot to the people of Judah. So Ephraim is going to be a repeated word. Okay, so here's just another nerdy nugget. Ephraim is gonna. So this is the tribe of Ephraim. Remember, Manasseh and Ephraim become the tribes that replace the tribe of Joseph, because Ephraim and Nasser are the sons of Joseph. And so in the north, Ephraim is actually the strongest tribe in the same way that the tribe of Judah is the strongest tribe in the south. Okay, so, so Ephraim is obviously Judah's nephew, okay, in the story that, that all this comes from. So the tribes are named after the sons of Jacob. But then the second youngest son's name is Joseph. He has two boys, Ephraim and Manasseh. So Ephraim is the reason it's like Ephraim and Judah. Ephraim and Judah is because Ephraim is referring to the Northern kingdom, But the most influential tribe of the Northern Kingdom, which is the tribe of Ephraim. Let's keep kind of going with some nerdy nuggets here. We're going to get to chapter 4, verse 15, and Hosea is going to flat out say, like, do not go to Gilgal. Do not go up to Beth Aven, and that's Bethel. Okay? So for anyone who's like, oh, what's like that? That name, I'm not familiar with that name. Okay, here's the irony, okay? Hosea tells Israel not to enter these places, both of which are connected to Israel possession of the promised land. So, like, these places should be like, cities that bring back all this symbolism of, like, God's faithfulness. But now they're connected to idolatry, which is really, really, really Sad family. The wait is over.

A (11:50)

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B (11:58)

Literally. Today I walked into a Barnes and.

A (12:01)

Noble and I signed a bunch of.

B (12:03)

Copies at a physical location. So you can grab this book at a physical Barnes and Noble or you can go to a Books A Million.

A (12:10)

Or Amazon or anywhere books are sold and grab a copy. If you enjoy reading the Bible from an ancient perspective, if you understand that.

B (12:21)

The beauty of scripture is actually knowing.

A (12:23)

It in context, then you'll love this book. And if there's any chaos in your personal life, I think that reading the Bible from an ancient perspective can actually help to crush the chaos in your life.

B (12:36)

I think this book is going to be a New York Times bestseller. I really do. I think we wrote a good one.

A (12:41)

I think you should get a copy today.

B (12:43)

Day. All right, back to the episode. It was at Beth Aven, or Bethel, where God promised Jacob that the land where he slept would belong to his descendants. Remember, this is. Bethel is the place where Jacob sees a ladder. This would be Jacob's ladder. He probably sees a ziggurat and he sees angels ascending and descending. Gilgal was the place the tribes of Israel gathered to begin their conquest of Canaan. So Bethel and Gilgal should actually trigger all of these thoughts of God's faithfulness. They should be monuments, like national monuments of great pride and joy. But now they are monuments of, like, shame and guilt and idolatry. Hosea, chapter 4, verse 15. Do not go to Gilgal. Do not go to Bethel. And here's just a theme along the lines of, like, that theme of trust. Two things that I want to say. The first is that syncretism is idolatry. And syncretism is taking anything from culture and, like, mixing it in with Christianity. That's syncretist. So a lot of the people who are being accused of prostitution or adultery or idolatry, what they're doing is they're worshiping God and baal. And God demands exclusive worship, okay? Loyalty, faithfulness. BAAL doesn't care if you worship multiple gods, but Yahweh cares that you only worship the one true living God. And so syncretism is, I go to church on Sunday, but I also burn sage. You know, I go to church on Sunday, but I also use my crystals and my chakra stones and it's like, got it. So you're mixing, okay? This is called syncretism. You're mixing. You're trying to mix Christianity with, you know, African traditional religious experiences. You're trying to Mix, you know, Christianity with native, you know, spiritual, spiritist practices. Like, you're trying to take Christianity and instead of being a purist and going, yeah, no, I'm going to be a purist. You're actually mixing it with other stuff. And it's because you don't trust that Jesus is enough. You don't trust that God's enough, that the Bible's enough, that this is enough. You think that God needs help or assistance or he needs your kind of. He needs your practices. And God's like, man, I don't need any of that. So I want you to, like, see, this theme is not just with idolatrous or religious practices, but this theme is also the reason that God's upset about Israel's religious political practices. Okay, listen. Listen to these and you'll see the theme emerge. This is Hosea 7:11. Ephraim. So that's Israel is like a dove, easily deceived and senseless. Now calling to Egypt, now turning to Assyria, Calling to Egypt for what help? Turning to Assyria for what help? I need to be rescued. I need to be saved. And then I need you to read Hosea 5:13. Then Ephraim turned to Assyria and sent to the great king for help. Okay, Then I want you to read. Yeah, Hosea 4:12. My people consult a wooden idol, and a diviner's rod speaks to them. A spirit of prostitution leads them astray. They are unfaithful to their God. Okay, so for the people that they're trusting in wooden idols and a diviner's rod for the leaders they're trusting in Assyria and Egypt, the thing that is the common denominator here is trust. Who do you trust? Stop trusting in horses and chariots. Stop trusting in baal. And if we translate that into the modern age, there's just stuff we trust. Hey, stop trusting in the government. Stop trusting in, you know, your job. Stop stop trusting in this stuff. We are quick to say, oh, it's ridiculous that they would worship idols. But idolatry is not about how you express that idolatry. It's about a distrust on the inside that says, yeah, I don't think God's enough. I don't think that God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, I don't think Christianity is enough. And God needs assistance. God needs help. And God says, that is absolutely the most offensive thing you could ever say to me. I would say, as we transition to the end of the episode, that's my timeless truth, is that as you read through this stuff, I don't just want you to go, oh, man, they don't have it together. God's mad at them. I want you to think, do I fully trust in the Lord? Like, where do I stand in terms of my exclusivity? In whom I trust, in whom I place my trust? Where does my trust come from? And I'm preaching to me. Do I trust in speaking engagements or do I trust in God? Do I trust in how many subscribers we have as a business? Or do I trust in God? Do I trust in my ability to hire the right people? Or do I trust in God? Like, what do I trust? Because idolatry is rooted in me not being able, not having sole exclusive, giving, giving sole exclusive rights to God in terms of the resources that I'm going to choose to trust. Last little bit that I'll say this is actually really, really helpful is the state of Israel towards its end is almost unrecognizable from the picture of Israel in our minds. Okay? Jeroboam II's reign was one of extreme unfaithfulness to Yahweh in his Torah. But it all started with the first Jeroboam, who decided to worship Yahweh in his own way. He just didn't trust. He didn't trust to worship God and just be literal. Just stick to the book, man. He chose to deviate. He chose to make small decisions. This decision doomed Israel and led to this chaos. This is the danger of idolatry. We'll worship for our own sake. Leads. So trust, trust, trust. Trust leads to patience, man. Trust leads to so many things. You gotta trust. You have to place your trust in God and say, lord, like, I trust you and I trust you even in the middle of a famine or a drought. And, and, and I trust that you can provide for the real needs of my family. I think sometimes it's easy to villainize these people. But it's like, yo, if it hasn't rained and your kids are hungry, like, you start to compromise. And the moment we can't empathize with the character of the Bible, I think that we can. We were unable to, to really learn something from them. And so they're not idolatrous for any reason, then they are placing their trust for real needs in the hands of gods who cannot meet those needs. And the kings of Israel are putting their trust in the horses and chariots of Egypt because they're scared that their people are going to experience violence against them. And so they reach out for these alliances. And God says, man, every time you trust in foreign powers to help you, it always leads to the thing you were scared of actually coming to pass. Which means fear is fear has to be conquered in that you can't keep obeying your fears because ultimately, if you keep obeying your fears, the very thing you're scared of will come to pass. And so that's our Thomas truth, and that is Hosea, chapter four through eight. Tomorrow we will be back for day 188 and we've got Hosea. Let me make sure I got the right thing. Hosea, chapter nine to 11 tomorrow. If you're on a streak, don't break it. Whatever you do, don't break your streak. If you're not on a streak, let's start one. I'm so proud of you. I love you. I'll see you right here for tomorrow's episode and can't wait to continue our trek through the Book of Hosea and the prophets in general. Love y'. All. Peace.

A (21:31)

Thanks so much for joining us on the Bible Department Podcast. You can find us online and learn more about the show at the Bible Department and on Instagram. Hebibledepartment if you enjoyed this episode and want to dive deeper into the Bible, you can get free access to our library of courses@thebibledepartment.com we'll see you back here tomorrow.