Hosea 8:9
For they have gone up to Assyria like a wild donkey on its own. Ephraim has hired lovers.
Sermons
Hired LoversJ.R. Thomson Hosea 8:9
The Scripture Figure of the Wild AssAlfred Clayton Thiselton.Hosea 8:9
Sin its Own PunishmentC. Jerdan Hosea 8:5-14
Israel Among the GentilesJ. Orr Hosea 8:8-10














Israel excited the displeasure of Jehovah by not merely renouncing confidence in him, but by placing confidence in foreign nations and strange gods. And Israel aggravated the offence by rejecting the aid which her covenant God would readily and gratuitously have bestowed, and by expending her treasure in purchasing from neighboring nations assistance which proved to be vain and unprofitable. Her conduct is compared to that of an adulteress, so wanton as to purchase with her husband's money the affection and embraces of a stranger.

I. IT IS THE INFATUATION OF SIN TO FORSAKE THE FREE AND UNDESERVED FAVOR OF GOD. The folly of such a course is apparent to all whose minds are not under the influence of prejudice and passion. When the fountain of living waters is accessible, how wretched is the self-delusion of those who turn away from it!

II. THIS INFATUATION IS STILL MORE APPARENT WHEN IT LEADS SINNERS TO TRUST TO VAIN REFUGES. The cisterns which are sought when the fountain is forsaken are broken cisterns, which can hold no water. Such was the powerlessness, the insufficiency of the gods and the kings whom Israel sought. And in that they represent the men, the systems, the societies, the pursuits, which sinners are ever wont to exalt to the seat of God.

III. TILE INFATUATION OF SINNERS LEADS THEM TO PART WITH EVERYTHING IN ORDER TO OBTAIN NOTHING. Israel spent her treasure, drained her resources; and for what? Only to endure the bitterest humiliation, the most cruel disappointment. There was none, in the day of her sorrow, that could help, deliver, or comfort her - none! And this was all she obtained for her apostasy. The lovers, the friends, whom she "hired" were unfaithful and unhelpful. So is it with all who put their confidence in men and in princes. Men give up character and friends, a good conscience, a bright hope; they part with all, and what do they receive in return? The pleasures of sin for a season; but very soon weariness, disappointment, and misery. And "the end of these things is death." - T.

A wild ass alone by himself.
What a figure of the untamed soul which refuses the easy yoke of the blessed Redeemer. Man's untamed spirit spurns the adorable Lord's love. You cannot conceive a truer picture of the altogether untractable than this. The wild ass will go its own way. But this is according to nature. What we are Called to contemplate is the fallen being man, described as a "wild ass alone by itself." Ephraim and the Ten Tribes are compared to the wild ass for many reasons.

1. They refused Christ's easy yoke; their hearts were untamed; they were stubborn in their rejection of God's inviting grace; they were full of obdurate folly; they were headstrong and unruly, not consenting to any restraints; they chose their own course, running up and down after sin, mad upon their idols, as the wild ass traverses the desert only to gratify its own low nature.

2. The wild ass is excessively swift; and although numbers of them commonly herd together, yet it is usual for some one of them to break away and separate himself from his company, and run alone or at random by himself. It is when he thus breaks away that he is such an easy prey to the lion. Ephraim, in seeking to be all for himself, became the more sure prey of the devourer; and whenever the sinner breaks away by himself, thinking thereby to be masterless and free, he is in a fair way of being left to his own devices and given up by God.

3. The wild ass is the lion's prey in the wilderness, and the soul faithless to Christ, seeking its own things, is as a wild ass alone by himself, or for himself, for his own gratification, his own pleasure, and the end of these things is death.

(Alfred Clayton Thiselton.)

People
Hosea, Zechariah
Places
Assyria, Egypt, Samaria
Topics
Alone, Ass, Asshur, Assyria, Donkey, Ephraim, E'phraim, Herself, Hired, Lovers, Money, Sold, Wandering, Wild
Outline
1. Destruction is threatened both to Israel and Judah for their impiety and idolatry.

Dictionary of Bible Themes
Hosea 8:9

     4633   donkey
     8771   idolatry, objections

Hosea 8:1-10

     7216   exile, in Assyria

Hosea 8:4-9

     7324   calf worship

Hosea 8:9-13

     7233   Israel, northern kingdom

Library
The Bible
Oh! how ten-thousand-fold merciful is God, that, looking down upon the race of man, he does not smite it our of existence. We see from our text that God looks upon man; for he says of Ephraim, "I have written to him the great things of my law, but they were counted as a strange thing." But see how, when he observes the sin of man, he does not dash him away and spurn him with his foot; he does not shake him by the neck over the gulf of hell, until his brain doth reel and then drop him forever; but
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 1: 1855

And First, Can it be Said that Mammmon is Less Served by Christians...
And first, can it be said that Mammmon is less served by Christians, than by Jews and infidels? Or can there be a fuller proof that Christians, Jews, and infidels, are equally fallen from God and all divine worship, since truth itself has told us, that we cannot serve God and Mammon? Is not this as unalterable a truth, and of as great moment, as if it had been said, Ye cannot serve God and Baal? Or can it with any truth or sense be affirmed, that the Mammonist has more of Christ in him than the Baalist,
William Law—An Humble, Affectionate, and Earnest Address to the Clergy

That the Unskilful Venture not to Approach an Office of Authority.
No one presumes to teach an art till he has first, with intent meditation, learnt it. What rashness is it, then, for the unskilful to assume pastoral authority, since the government of souls is the art of arts! For who can be ignorant that the sores of the thoughts of men are more occult than the sores of the bowels? And yet how often do men who have no knowledge whatever of spiritual precepts fearlessly profess themselves physicians of the heart, though those who are ignorant of the effect of
Leo the Great—Writings of Leo the Great

That Whereas the City of Jerusalem had Been Five Times Taken Formerly, this was the Second Time of Its Desolation. A Brief Account of Its History.
1. And thus was Jerusalem taken, in the second year of the reign of Vespasian, on the eighth day of the month Gorpeius [Elul]. It had been taken five [34] times before, though this was the second time of its desolation; for Shishak, the king of Egypt, and after him Antiochus, and after him Pompey, and after them Sosius and Herod, took the city, but still preserved it; but before all these, the king of Babylon conquered it, and made it desolate, one thousand four hundred and sixty-eight years and
Flavius Josephus—The Wars of the Jews or History of the Destruction of Jerusalem

"For they that are after the Flesh do Mind the Things of the Flesh,",
Rom. viii. 5.--"For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh,", &c. Though sin hath taken up the principal and inmost cabinet of the heart of man--though it hath fixed its imperial throne in the spirit of man, and makes use of all the powers and faculties in the soul to accomplish its accursed desires and fulfil its boundless lusts, yet it is not without good reason expressed in scripture, ordinarily under the name of "flesh," and a "body of death," and men dead in sins, are
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

The Instrumentality of the Wicked Employed by God, While He Continues Free from Every Taint.
1. The carnal mind the source of the objections which are raised against the Providence of God. A primary objection, making a distinction between the permission and the will of God, refuted. Angels and men, good and bad, do nought but what has been decreed by God. This proved by examples. 2. All hidden movements directed to their end by the unseen but righteous instigation of God. Examples, with answers to objections. 3. These objections originate in a spirit of pride and blasphemy. Objection, that
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion

A Few Sighs from Hell;
or, The Groans of the Damned Soul: or, An Exposition of those Words in the Sixteenth of Luke, Concerning the Rich Man and the Beggar WHEREIN IS DISCOVERED THE LAMENTABLE STATE OF THE DAMNED; THEIR CRIES, THEIR DESIRES IN THEIR DISTRESSES, WITH THE DETERMINATION OF GOD UPON THEM. A GOOD WARNING WORD TO SINNERS, BOTH OLD AND YOUNG, TO TAKE INTO CONSIDERATION BETIMES, AND TO SEEK, BY FAITH IN JESUS CHRIST, TO AVOID, LEST THEY COME INTO THE SAME PLACE OF TORMENT. Also, a Brief Discourse touching the
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

Hosea
The book of Hosea divides naturally into two parts: i.-iii. and iv.-xiv., the former relatively clear and connected, the latter unusually disjointed and obscure. The difference is so unmistakable that i.-iii. have usually been assigned to the period before the death of Jeroboam II, and iv.-xiv. to the anarchic period which succeeded. Certainly Hosea's prophetic career began before the end of Jeroboam's reign, as he predicts the fall of the reigning dynasty, i. 4, which practically ended with Jeroboam's
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

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