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2026 Hosea Lesson 6

IT IS TIME TO SEEK THE LORD

Hosea 7:1-10:15

Key Verse: 10:12

1. How do the images of “a heated oven,” “a flat loaf not turned over,” and “a dove easily deceived” reveal Israel’s spiritual condition before God (7:4–11)? How does Israel’s failure to return to the Lord while seeking help from Egypt and Assyria reflect our own misplaced trust (7:10, 16)?
2. Why do you think God does not accept Israel’s verbal confession as genuine (8:1-3)? How does God expose Israel’s sin of idolatry and its consequences (8:4-10)? Why was God not pleased with Israel’s religious practices (8:11-14)?
3. Why does God reject Israel’s joy and religious celebration (9:1-9)? How are God’s original intention for His people and the consequences of their sins revealed (9:10-17)?
4. How did Israel’s trust in their kings and human strength instead of God lead to eventual judgment (10:1-10, 13-15)? How is God’s persistent hope and promise revealed in the midst of His warning (10:11-12)? How does the phrase “It is time to seek the Lord” challenge us today?

2026 Hosea Message Juan Seo (March 8, 2026)

IT IS TIME TO SEEK THE LORD

Hosea 7:1-10:15

Key Verse 10:12

“Sow righteousness for yourselves, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the LORD, until he comes and showers his righteousness on you.”

According to the church calendar, we are now in the season of Lent. This year, Lent began on Ash Wednesday, February 18, and it continues until Holy Week in early April, leading us to Good Friday and Easter Sunday. During these forty days, the church remembers the suffering and death of our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave his life on the cross for our sins. Lent is a spiritual invitation for us today. In the middle of our busy lives, this season invites us to slow down and draw closer to God. It is a invitation to spend intentional time with the Lord—to meditate on His Word, to examine our hearts honestly, and to repent. So during this Lenten season, may we take time to remember the cross of Jesus, repent sincerely, seek God in prayer, pray for those who suffer, and renew our commitment to the Lord.

Today’s message is titled, “It is time to seek the Lord.” It is an urgent invitation for us to seek God. Today’s passage is quite long. It covers Hosea chapters 7 through 10. I would like to deliver this message by focusing on three main themes: first, the sins of Israel; second, the causes of their sins; and finally, God’s invitation.

First, the sins of Israel.

In chapter 7, Hosea describes the spiritual condition of Israel in three images.

The first image is a heated oven. Hosea says that the people of Israel were burning like an oven (7:4) and that all of them were hot as an oven (7:7). In ancient Israel, people baked bread using a clay oven. They would build a fire inside the oven, and once the walls of the oven became hot enough, they would stick the dough to the inside wall to bake the bread. Once the fire was started, the oven would stay hot for a long time. Hosea uses this picture to describe the hearts of the people. Their sinful desire was constantly burning inside them. Their hearts were heated with passion for sin—anger, lust, pride, and selfish desire. Just like an oven that keeps burning, their sinful desires kept burning within them.

The second image is a flat loaf not turned over. Have you ever eaten bread that was burned on one side and still undercooked on the other? In those days, when bread was baked, once one side was cooked, they had to turn it over so the other side could cook as well. It is the same when we make pancakes. After one side is cooked, we flip it so the other side can cook properly. Otherwise, we end up with a pancake that is not good to eat. Hosea says Israel had become like that kind of bread. They had mixed themselves with the surrounding nations. Instead of remaining faithful to God, they became spiritually uneven and unhealthy—burned on one side and raw on the other.

The third image is a dove easily deceived. Today, we usually think of a dove as a symbol of peace and purity. But in the ancient world, a dove was known as a very simple and easily trapped bird. Because of that, people sometimes compared a foolish or naïve person to a dove. Hosea says Israel had become like a dove easily deceived. Politically, they kept running back and forth between powerful nations. Sometimes they looked to Egypt for help. Other times, they turned to Assyria. Instead of trusting in God, they kept looking for security from human powers. So they were constantly moving back and forth, not knowing where to go. They had lost their spiritual direction because they had stopped trusting in the Lord.

The sins of Israel described through these three images can be broadly grouped into the following three categories.

The first major sin was idolatry. After Solomon died, the United Kingdom of Israel was divided into two parts: the southern kingdom of Judah and the northern kingdom of Israel. The first king of the northern kingdom was Jeroboam I. Jeroboam became worried about something. The temple of God was in Jerusalem, which was in the southern kingdom of Judah. He was afraid that if the people of the northern kingdom kept traveling to Jerusalem to worship God, their hearts might turn back to the king of Judah. So Jeroboam made a political decision in order to protect his own power. He made two golden calves and said to the people, “Here are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt” (1 Kings 12:28). Jeroboam placed one golden calf in Bethel and the other in Dan. Instead of going to Jerusalem to worship the Lord, the people of Israel were encouraged to worship at these new centers. Gradually, the people began to worship the golden calves instead of God. From the very beginning, the northern kingdom fell deeply into the sin of idolatry. God had clearly commanded that His people must not make idols or bow down to them. But Israel broke this command and filled their land with idol worship.

The prophet Hosea strongly criticizes the golden calf worship. He says, “This calf—a metalworker has made it; it is not God. It will be broken in pieces, that calf of Samaria” (8:6). And Hosea goes even further. He says that this calf idol will eventually be carried away and given to the king of Assyria as tribute (10:6). The very object that the people trusted in and worshiped would end up being taken away by a foreign empire.

The second major sin was moral corruption. Hosea says, “They practice deceit, thieves break into houses, bandits rob in the streets” (7:1). People were lying, stealing, and taking advantage of one another. Instead of being ashamed of these things, they delighted in wickedness and lies. Their hearts were burning with sinful desires—adultery, lust, and anger. Hosea says, “They have sunk deep into corruption, as in the days of Gibeah” (9:9). What happened in Gibeah? The story is found in Judges chapters 19 through 21. One day, a Levite was traveling with his concubine. As evening approached, they arrived at Gibeah, which belonged to the tribe of Benjamin. An old man welcomed them into his house so they could spend the night. But later that night, a group of wicked men from the city surrounded the house. They began pounding on the door and demanded that the Levite be brought outside so they could have sexual relations with him. It was a shocking act of violence and perversion, very similar to what happened in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. In order to protect the guest, the Levite’s concubine was eventually pushed outside to the wicked men. Throughout the night, she was brutally abused by them. And when morning came, she collapsed at the doorway of the house and died. This story shows how deeply Israel had fallen morally during that time. So Hosea is saying that the moral condition of the northern kingdom had become just as corrupt as that terrible moment in Israel’s past.

This moral corruption was also revealed in the power struggles among the political leaders. Hosea says, “All of them are hot as an oven; they devour their rulers. All their kings fall, and none of them calls on me” (7:7). After the death of Jeroboam II, the northern kingdom of Israel entered a very unstable period. From that time until Israel was destroyed by Assyria, which was about thirty years later, six different kings ruled the nation. But what is shocking is that the throne kept changing hands through coups and assassinations. For example, Shallum killed King Zechariah and became king. Then Manahem killed Shallum and took the throne. Later, Pekah killed King Pekahiah, and after that, Hoshea assassinated Pekah and became king. Loyalty no longer mattered. Trust was gone. Leaders were consumed with ambition.

The third major sin was trusting human power instead of God. Hosea says they were “like a dove, easily deceived and senseless—now calling to Egypt, now turning to Assyria” (7:11). Instead of trusting the Lord, they kept running back and forth between powerful nations, hoping someone would protect them. In order to secure his throne, King Menahem paid an enormous tribute to the king of Assyria. King Hoshea initially paid tribute to the Assyrian king. But later, he secretly tried to form an alliance with Egypt. When the king of Assyria discovered Hoshea’s plan, he attacked Israel. The Assyrian army surrounded Samaria for several years. Eventually, the city fell, and the northern kingdom of Israel was destroyed. Hosea makes it clear that the real problem was not simply a political or diplomatic mistake. The deeper problem was spiritual. The people were not trusting God. Instead of seeking the Lord, they were putting their hope in the power of great nations.

Hosea says, “Israel cries out to me, ‘Our God, we acknowledge you!’ But Israel has rejected what is good” (8:2-3). The people say, “Our God, we know you.” But their lives show something very different. That is what syncretism looks like—mixing our faith in God with trust in other things. It is when people say they believe in God, but at the same time, they depend on something else as their real source of security. Many people come to church and use the language of faith. But instead of trusting God, many people trust money. They believe that if they earn enough money, their future will be secure. Others believe that if they gain the right position or the right connections, they will finally feel safe and respected. Others are constantly chasing success in this world. They believe that if they become successful, if they become well known, if they achieve their dreams, then they will finally be happy. But when our hearts depend on money, power, or success more than God, we are not really trusting God. This is the danger of syncretism. It allows us to keep the name of God while giving our hearts to other things. And that is exactly what happened to Israel in Hosea’s time.

Second, the causes of their sins.

So the question is this: why did Israel fall into such deep sin? The passage we read today actually gives the answer in many different places. The root problem was very simple. They stopped seeking God. 7:7 and 10 say, “None of them calls on me.” “Despite all this he does not return to the Lord his God or search for him.” In the middle of all their problems—political chaos, moral corruption, national crisis—not one of their leaders was truly calling on God. Even when they were experiencing difficulties and warnings, they still did not return to God. 7:14 reveals something even deeper about their hearts. It says, “They do not cry out to me from their hearts but wail on their beds.” In other words, they were crying, but not to God. They were upset about their circumstances, but their hearts were not truly turning to the Lord. Instead, they appealed to their idols for grain and new wine. They wanted blessings, but they did not want God. 7:16 says, “They do not turn to the Most High.” The direction of their lives was simply away from God. 8:14 tells us: “Israel has forgotten their Maker and built palaces.” They were busy building their own prosperity, their own security, their own success—but in the process, they forgot the God who created them. 9:7 says that the prophet was considered a fool. When God sent someone to speak His word, the people mocked him. They did not want to hear God’s voice anymore. And 10:2 says, “Their heart is deceitful.” When Israel was experiencing prosperity, their land was fruitful, and their economy was growing, they used their prosperity to build more altars for idols. The more prosperous their land became, the more they decorated their sacred stones for idol worship. God blessed them, but instead of worshiping God, they invested their blessings in idolatry. But the Lord will demolish their altars and destroy their sacred stones.

Third, God’s invitation.

Up to this point, we have spent quite some time looking at the sins of Israel. But the message of God does not end with judgment. At this very point, God gives an invitation. 10:12 says, “Sow righteousness for yourselves, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, until he comes and showers his righteousness on you.” This verse uses the language of agriculture. “Sow righteousness for yourselves.” Sowing righteousness means living in a right relationship with God. It means that God becomes the center of our lives. It means that God is our Creator, our Lord, and our Savior. It means trusting in God instead of trusting money, power, and other things. It means listening to God’s word and obeying it. It means loving God with all our hearts, with all our souls, and with all our strength. It means loving our neighbor as ourselves. When we sow righteousness for ourselves, we will reap the fruit of unfailing love. “Unfailing love” refers to God’s covenant love—His faithful, loyal love that does not give up on His people. When we live in a right relationship with God, we will experience the richness of God’s unfailing love. Then, our relationship with God becomes deeper. Our lives begin to change. Our hearts will be healed and restored. “Break up your unplowed ground.” The farmer must first break up the ground. He has to dig into the hard soil, turn it over, and soften it so that the seeds can take root. Sometimes our hearts become like unplowed ground. We become comfortable in our lives. We stop listening carefully to God’s voice. Breaking up the unplowed ground means allowing God to soften our hearts again. It means being honest about our sins instead of hiding them. It means turning away from things that have slowly taken God’s place in our hearts.

7:2 says something very striking: “But they do not realize that I remember all their evil deeds.” Very often, we commit sins secretly. We hide them. We think no one knows. We assume that if our sin is hidden from people, then it is safe or forgotten. But that is not true because God knows our hidden sins. Hebrews 4:13 says, “Nothing in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account.” God knows every sin we commit. God knows our thoughts, our actions, and even the words we speak. Therefore, we should live before the living God. We have to seek God earnestly with all our hearts.

“It is time to seek the Lord.” This is a call. This is an urgent invitation from God to His people. The time is now. The opportunity is right now. God is saying, “Do not delay. Do not wait for another opportunity. Not someday in the future. Now is the time to turn back to God.” God is calling us to turn our hearts back to Him and seek Him again. “Until he comes and showers his righteousness on you.” When we seek the Lord, God responds by pouring out His righteousness on us. He renews our lives. He restores what has been broken. So today God’s word is inviting us: “Break up the hard ground of your heart. Seek the Lord, turn away from your sins, and trust in the Lord, our God.” Amen.