When we think about the destruction of empires and kingdoms, we often have the imagery that a large army came in and destroyed the society. But, God shows us in His word, many times, it is the people's own apostasy which leads the nation astray. No nation is more apropos to this than the nation of Israel. Over and over again they strayed from God. Over and over again, God sends prophets and tells the people to repent. Repentance is short-lived or never happens. The destruction which ensues, is the nation's punishment for its disobedience.
In Jeremiah chapter 8, God continues his chastisement of the Southern Kingdom of Judah and its treachery. God gives a detailed description of what will happen to Judah’s king and the inhabitants of the land.
“At that time,” declares the Lord, “they will bring out the bones of the kings of Judah, the bones of its leaders, the bones of the priests, the bones of the prophets, and the bones of the inhabitants of Jerusalem from their graves. 2 They will spread them out to the sun, the moon, and to all the heavenly lights, which they have loved, which they have served, which they have followed, which they have sought, and which they have worshiped. They will not be gathered nor buried; they will be like dung on the face of the ground. 3 And death will be chosen rather than life by all the remnant that remains of this evil family, that remains in all the places to which I have driven them,” declares the Lord of armies.
4 “You shall say to them, ‘This is what the Lord says:
“Do people fall and not get up?
Does one turn away and not repent?
5
Why has this people, Jerusalem,
Turned away in continual apostasy?
They hold on to deceit,
They refuse to return.
6
I have listened and heard,
They have spoken what is not right;
No one repented of his wickedness,
Saying, ‘What have I done?’
Everyone turned to his own course,
Like a horse charging into the battle.
7
Even the stork in the sky
Knows her seasons;
And the turtledove, the swallow, and the crane
Keep to the time of their migration;
But My people do not know
The judgment of the Lord.
8
“How can you say, ‘We are wise,
And the Law of the Lord is with us’?
But behold, the lying pen of the scribes
Has made it into a lie.
9
The wise men are put to shame,
They are dismayed and caught;
Behold, they have rejected the word of the Lord,
So what kind of wisdom do they have?
10
Therefore I will give their wives to others,
Their fields to new owners;
Because from the least even to the greatest
Everyone is greedy for gain;
From the prophet even to the priest,
Everyone practices deceit.
11
They have healed the brokenness of the daughter of My people superficially,
Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’
But there is no peace.
12
Were they ashamed because of the abomination they had done?
They were not ashamed at all,
And they did not know how to be ashamed;
Therefore they will fall among those who fall;
At the time of their punishment they will collapse,”
Says the Lord.
13
“I will certainly snatch them away,” declares the Lord.
“There will be no grapes on the vine
And no figs on the fig tree,
And the leaf will wither;
And what I have given them will pass away.”’”
14
Why are we sitting still?
Assemble yourselves, and let’s go into the fortified cities
And perish there,
For the Lord our God has doomed us
And given us poisoned water to drink,
Because we have sinned against the Lord.
15
We waited for peace, but no good came;
For a time of healing, but behold, terror!
16
From Dan there is heard the snorting of his horses;
At the sound of the neighing of his stallions
The whole land quakes;
For they come and devour the land and its fullness,
The city and its inhabitants.
17
“For behold, I am sending serpents among you,
Vipers for which there is no charm;
And they will bite you,” declares the Lord. (Jeremiah 8:1-17)
Book of Hosea
In the Book of Hosea, Israel is compared to as being an unfaithful wife. The entire Book of Hosea is about Israel being unfaithful, but God taking Israel back and restoring her to being his wife.
In Hosea chapter 2, Israel is being scolded for being unfaithful. Israel has gone after other gods and has sold herself as a prostitute. God condemns Israel’s unfaithfulness.
Say to your brothers, “Ammi,” and to your sisters, “Ruhamah.”
2
“Dispute with your mother, dispute,
Because she is not my wife, and I am not her husband;
But she must remove her infidelity from her face
And her adultery from between her breasts,
3
Otherwise, I will strip her naked
And expose her as on the day she was born.
I will also make her like a wilderness,
Make her like desert land,
And put her to death with thirst.
4
Also, I will take no pity on her children,
Because they are children of infidelity.
5
For their mother has committed prostitution;
She who conceived them has acted shamefully.
For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers,
Who give me my bread and my water,
My wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’
6
Therefore, behold, I will obstruct her way with thorns,
And I will build a stone wall against her so that she cannot find her paths.
7
And she will pursue her lovers, but she will not reach them;
And she will seek them, but will not find them.
Then she will say, ‘I will go back to my first husband,
Because it was better for me then than now!’
8
“Yet she does not know that it was I myself who gave her the grain, the new wine, and the oil,
And lavished on her silver and gold,
Which they used for Baal.
9
Therefore, I will take back My grain at harvest time
And My new wine in its season.
I will also take away My wool and My flax
That I gave to cover her nakedness.
10
So now I will uncover her lewdness
Before the eyes of her lovers,
And no one will rescue her from My hand.
11
I will also put an end to all her joy,
Her feasts, her new moons, her Sabbaths,
And all her festivals.
12
And I will destroy her vines and fig trees,
Of which she said, ‘They are my wages for prostitution
Which my lovers have given me.’
And I will turn them into a forest,
And the animals of the field will devour them.
13
I will punish her for the days of the Baals
When she used to offer sacrifices to them
And adorn herself with her nose ring and jewelry,
And follow her lovers, so that she forgot Me,” declares the Lord. (Hosea 2:1-13)
In Hosea chapter 9, God gives Ephraim a rebuke for going after other gods and for being unfaithful to Him. Ephraim is the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Israel is soon to be conquered and destroyed by the Assyrians. God tells Ephraim (which is another name for the Northern Kingdom) what their punishment will be. They will be scattered and wander among the nations.
Do not rejoice, Israel, with jubilation like the nations!
For you have been unfaithful, abandoning your God.
You have loved the earnings of unfaithfulness on every threshing floor.
2
Threshing floor and wine press will not feed them,
And the new wine will fail [e]them.
3
They will not remain in the Lord’s land,
But Ephraim will return to Egypt, And in Assyria they will eat unclean food.
4
They will not pour out drink offerings of wine to the Lord,
Nor will their sacrifices please Him.
Their bread will be to them like mourners’ bread;
All who eat it will be defiled,
Because their bread will be for themselves alone;
It will not enter the house of the Lord.
5
What will you do on the day of the appointed festival
And on the day of the feast of the Lord?
6
For behold, they will be gone because of destruction;
Egypt will gather them together, Memphis will bury them.
Weeds will take possession of their treasures of silver;
Thorns will be in their tents.
7
The days of punishment have come,
The days of retribution have come;
Let Israel know this!
The prophet is a fool,
The inspired person is insane,
Because of the grossness of your wrongdoing,
And because your hostility is so great.
8
Ephraim was a watchman with my God, a prophet;
Yet the snare of a bird catcher is in all his ways,
And there is only hostility in the house of his God.
9
They are deeply depraved
As in the days of Gibeah;
He will remember their guilt,
He will punish their sins.
10
I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness;
I saw your forefathers as the earliest fruit on the fig tree in its first season.
But they came to Baal-peor and devoted themselves to shame,
And they became as detestable as that which they loved.
11
As for Ephraim, their glory will fly away like a bird—
No birth, no pregnancy, and no conception!
12
Though they bring up their children,
Yet I will bereave them of their children until not a person is left.
Yes, woe to them indeed when I depart from them!
13
Ephraim, as I have seen,
Is planted in a pasture like Tyre;
But Ephraim is going to bring out his children for slaughter.
14
Give to them, Lord—what will You give?
Give them a miscarrying womb and dried-up breasts.
15
All their evil is at Gilgal;
Indeed, I came to hate them there!
Because of the wickedness of their deeds
I will drive them out of My house!
I will no longer love them;
All their leaders are rebels.
16
Ephraim is stricken, their root is dried up,
They will produce no fruit.
Even though they give birth to children,
I will put to death the precious ones of their womb.
17
My God will reject them
Because they have not listened to Him;
And they will be wanderers among the nations. (Hosea 9:1-17)
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