Hosea 5:1-4 Failure of Israel's leaders

Good morning all. God is good all the time, all the time God is good.  BLESSED TODAY AND EACH DAY!!

  Well, we can look at Israels demise and in it we can see the same for America.  Read and watch.  Hose 5:1Hear ye this, O priests; and hearken, ye house of Israel; and give ye ear, O house of the king; for judgment is toward you, because ye have been a snare on Mizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor.  

  Mizpah and Tabor were most likely prominent places in the worship of Baal.  The leaders most likely encouraged the people to worship (sin) at these places.  Look at verse 2 - 2 And the revolters are profound to make slaughter, though I have been a rebuker of them all.

  Profound to make slaughter, as I understand it is they sacrificed or 'KILLED' but their sacrifice was unacceptable by God.
     The civil and religious leaders appear to be quite corrupt, so the people, who looked to the leaders for guidance, they did not find it and fell to the sins of the secular world.  Today, we can choose our leaders but we need to maintain the diligence of looking for people of God, not of false promises.  They will be held accountable as will we at judgment day.

  3 I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hid from me: for now, O Ephraim, thou committest whoredom, and Israel is defiled.  Okay, Ephraim is another name for Israel, the northern kingdom, and Ephraim was the most powerful of the ten tribes in the north.  In the southern kingdom, Judah, was named after its most powerful tribe.  God sees all this and HE knows.  Nothing is hid.  The phrase "thou committest whoredom" is saying the worship of God has been prostituted, it has be shaded, and because of this Israel is corrupt.

  Here is NIV verse 4 - “Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God.  A spirit of prostitution is in their heart; they do not acknowledge the Lord.    This makes it very easy to understand.  They are sinning - their deeds- which in turn move away from God.

   Look at the next phrase - "A spirit of prostitution is in their heart" - this, to me, is big!  This is just the way someone acts if caught in a lie, if trying to manipulate their own way, easy words would be politician. We can say what is right through head knowledge, but if it does not come from the heart, then it is just idle (or idol) words.  

  Words from the heart is love. Look at 1 Corinthians 13 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

  What is in your heart - LOVE?  or are you a clanging cymbal?  Take a moment for self evaluation.  Love you all.

In Christ's Love and Grace

Johnny