Hosea 10: The Prosperity Trap

The most dangerous moment in your faith journey might not be when everything's falling apart—it could be when everything's going well. In this episode examining Hosea 10, Pastor Brandon unpacks what he calls "The Prosperity Trap" and how it silently undermines our relationship with God.

Through Israel's story in Hosea, we witness a pattern that repeats in countless believers' lives today: coming to faith in humble surrender, experiencing God's faithfulness through difficult seasons, receiving His blessings—and then slowly forgetting where those blessings came from. The luxuriant vine of prosperity that should produce gratitude instead produces self-reliance and spiritual amnesia.

What makes this trap so devastating is how it flips the script when troubles inevitably return. Rather than recognizing our own drift from God, we blame Him for abandoning us. "God, why did you leave me? You're the one who gave me this job, this marriage, these children—why are you taking them away?" Pastor Brandon shares heartbreaking conversations with believers caught in this cycle, unable to see how they've positioned themselves outside God's covering through pride and self-sufficiency.

The good news threading through this challenging message is that course correction is always possible. God's "reckless love" waits patiently for our return. His desire isn't that we reject prosperity—after all, He created joy and abundance—but that we maintain a humble recognition that "in Him we live and move and have our being." Every gift, talent, opportunity, and blessing flows from His hand, and acknowledging this truth keeps our hearts soft and receptive to His guidance.

Want to grow deeper in God's Word? Connect with our Bible Breakdown Discussion on Facebook where our community shares daily devotions. Your questions, insights, and even pushback help us all grow closer to the Lord, one step at a time.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, hello everybody .
Welcome back to the BibleBreakdown Podcast with your host
, pastor Brandon.
Today, hosea, chapter 10, andtoday's title is the Prosperity
Trap.
The Prosperity Trap and I don'tknow about you, but I don't
know a single person who has notfallen into this trap from one
time or another.
And God's calling it outbecause he wants our heart and

(00:22):
His reckless love will neverstop.
So we'll get into all that injust a moment.
But if you like what we'redoing here, while you're opening
your Bible to Hosea, chapter 10, make sure you take just a
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and the podcast.
Make sure you leave us afive-star review on the podcast
and make sure you are going tothe Bible Breakdown Discussion
on Facebook.
There's an amazing team ofpeople doing devotions there

(00:46):
every day, and the goal is forus to dig into God's word
together, because the more wedig, the more we find, and we
want to hear from you.
We'd love for you to comment onthose different posts.
Give us your questions, give ussome pushback.
If you've got that, give ussome insights that you've
gathered as you have dug intoGod's word yourself, and let's
grow this community of faithgetting closer to the Lord, one
step at a time.
Once again, if you have yourBibles and you're opening up

(01:07):
with me to Hosea 10, don'tforget that the overall goal of
Hosea is God's reckless love.
Hosea is writing theseprophecies during the time when
Israel and Judah are stillkingdoms.
If you remember, they split.
You have Israel, which is thenorthern kingdom, you have Judah

(01:27):
, which is the southern kingdom,and Israel is.
They're in the process of beingtaken over by Assyria, and
they're being taken over byAssyria because they have turned
away from God.
And Hosea, who is living duringthe time of Isaiah?
Isaiah was in the southernkingdom Hosea is prophesying to
the northern kingdom and justbegging them.
Hey, man, pay attention to thereckless love of God.

(01:49):
He is turning our hearts backto him, or trying to, and it's
using this metaphor of afaithful husband and a wayward
wife, and how that faithfulhusband is continually going
back after his wife and sayingI'm not going to give up on you,
but at the same time, I loveyou too much to tell you a lie.
I'm going to tell you what'smessing you up.
And today we're going to lookat another one of those things

(02:13):
that God is saying.
This is what's standing betweenus, but I don't want it to.
So let's read this together andI'm just going to go ahead and
tell you, just like the rest ofthe soap operas, this, just like
the rest of the soap operas,this one's going to hurt a
little bit, but it's good for us.
It's like taking your vitaminsright, or eating some Brussels
sprouts every once in a while,lord, which, if you're from the
South, you fry it enough timesand it's all good, all right, so

(02:33):
let's fry this up a little bit.
Hosea, chapter 10, verse 1, saysthis how prosperous Israel is,

(02:55):
a luxuriant vine loaded withfruit.
We could just stop there, butlet's just keep going.
Guilty, and they must bepunished.
The Lord will break down theiraltars and smash their sacred
pillars.
Then they will say we have noking because we didn't fear the
Lord.
But even if we had a king, whatcould he do for us anyway?
They spout empty words and makecovenants they don't intend to

(03:18):
keep.
So injustice springs up amongthem like poisonous weeds in a
farmer's field.
Justice springs up among themlike poisonous weeds in a
farmer's field.
The people of Samaria tremble infear for their calf idol at
Bethhaven, and they mourn overit, though its priests rejoice
over it, its glory will bestripped away.
This idol will be carted awayto Assyria, a gift for the great

(03:39):
king.
There, ephraim will beridiculed and Israel will be
ashamed because its people havetrusted in this idol.
Samaria and its king will becut off.
They will float away likedriftwood on an ocean wave and
the pagan shrines of Avin andthe place of Israel's sin will
crumble.
Thorns and thistles will growup around their altars and they

(04:02):
will beg.
The mountains bury us.
They will plead with.
The hills fall on us and theLord says O Israel, ever since
Gebeah, there has been only sinand more sin.
You have made no progresswhatsoever.
Was it not right that thewicked men of Gebeah were
attacked?
Now, whenever it fits my plan,I will attack you too.

(04:23):
I will call out the armies ofthe nations to punish you for
your multiplied sins.
Israel is like a trained heifertreading out the grain An easy
job she loves.
But I will put a heavy yoke onher tender neck.
I will force Judah to pull theplow and Israel to break up the
hard ground.
I said plant the good seeds ofrighteousness and you will

(04:46):
harvest a crop of love.
Plow up the hard ground of yourheart, for now is the time to
seek the Lord that he may comeand shower righteousness upon
you.
But you have cultivatedwickedness and harvested a
thriving crop of sins.
You have eaten the fruit oflies, trusting in your military

(05:07):
might, believing that greatarmies could make your nation
safe.
Now the terrors of war willrise among your people.
All your fortifications willfall, just as when Shemla
destroyed Beth Arbel, evenmothers and children were dashed
to death.
There you will share that fate,bethel, because of your great

(05:29):
wickedness.
When the day of judgment dawns,the king of Israel will be
completely destroyed.
Wow, can I tell you what I'veseen happen so many times and it
breaks my heart every time is Ihave watched good people come
into God's presence, give theirlife to him and say God, I lay
everything down at the altar foryou.
That is just beautiful and itjust challenges you to go deeper

(06:00):
in your relationship with God.
Right, and you see them.
And then you see them gothrough these difficulties and
financial difficulties andrelationship difficulties, and
you see them just cry out to Godand trust the Lord.
And then you see God do amazingthings.
I mean, it's amazing and youcan't help but celebrate with
them.
You just see God's faithfulness.
They're just celebrating theLord.

(06:20):
And then not always.
But you'll see these samepeople who will take the
blessings that God has giventhem and they begin to forget
where they came from and they'llbegin to think that they are
the ones who did those things.
They are the ones who openedthose doors for themselves and
that God was a part of theprocess, but he wasn't the
author of the process.
And they begin to do all ofthose different things and

(06:44):
slowly it takes over their heartand their heart begins to get
further from God.
And then, when they come outfrom under God's protection and
they have to try to hold it upthemselves, it begins to fall
apart.
And then you know what they do.
I've seen people, instead ofcoming back to God and humbling
themselves, then they look atGod and they go God, why did you
leave me?
Why did you abandon me?

(07:04):
You're the one who gave me thismarriage.
You're the one who gave methese children.
You're the one who gave me thisjob.
Why are you now taking themaway from me?
And then, instead of realizingthat it was them that walked
away from God, now they'reblaming God for what has
happened and they doubled downon all the things that they
thought was what was holding itup.
And it just keeps getting worseand worse and worse.

(07:25):
And then, many times, I'll betalking to them as a pastor and
they'll say listen, god wasn'tfaithful.
And because I don't know thebackstory, I'm sitting here
going well, I really don't knowwhat to tell you.
Yeah, it sure looks like Godwasn't faithful, but I know he
is.
And they're going no pastor, Ihave no idea.
And I'm sitting therescratching my head, going this

(07:47):
math isn't mathing right now,because I know God's faithful,
but he sure doesn't look.
Tell me your story.
And as I start listening, Istart going oh, oh, I got it.
I got it.
You fell into that trap Many ofus have fallen into and it's
that that prosperity trap.
Well, at some point, godblessed you and you forgot who
was the one that blessed you.
And and I'm just like, like, myfirst thing is hey, hey, you're
good.
You know why?
Because we've all done it, andthe great thing is is that God

(08:09):
can redeem that.
But you got to come back upunder his blessing and and
that's what's happening in thischapter is, israel was blessed
by God.
And, as they were blessed byGod, they begin to forget that
it was God who blessed them.
And now that they're in thissituation where they don't know
what's going on, they're going.
God, why have you left us?
Why aren't you here?
What's going on and God isgoing?

(08:31):
Wait a minute now.
What do you mean?
Where am I at?
You're way over there in leftfield and he's trying to call
them back because he's sayingit's going to get bad, guys,
it's going to get bad.
So here's my question for youtoday Is there a time in your
life when you would say thatevery gift you have belonged was

(08:53):
from God?
Every gift you had was from God?
Every time any good thinghappened, you were like praise
the Lord for his goodness andhis faithfulness.
And if you're there right now,don't move, stay right there to
realize that in him we live, wemove and we have our being.
And so that's where you are.
Stay right there, don't youmove muscle.
But for some of us, when is thelast time that we realized

(09:14):
everything we have is from God?
If your pushback is?
Well, pastor, I don't know whatyou're talking about.
I mean, god may have given methat job, but I'm the one that
worked that job.
I mean, that's mine, it's likewell, who do you think gave you
the heartbeat you have?
Who do you think gave you theknowledge you've got?
Who do you think gave you thebrain?
Who do you think even gave youevery breath that you breathe?
No, no, no, you may have usedthe tools he gave you, but the

(09:36):
tools belong to him, and soeverything truly is a gift from
him.
And you know what all that Godwants Gratitude, thankfulness,
humility.
God doesn't mind us havingthings.
He doesn't want things to haveus.
You think that God wants you tobe miserable?
No, you think that God wantsyou to be miserable.
No, god created joy.
But, once again, the ultimatesource of joy we have to look

(10:01):
past the thing and get to thesource and realize the source is
him, and so the coursecorrection maybe for us today is
have we forgotten where all ofthe luxury we used to enjoy?
Have we forgotten where it camefrom?
And if so, the good news is iswe can fix it.
You know it may not be my fault, but it is my responsibility.
My responsibility is toacknowledge okay, maybe I have

(10:24):
gotten a little carried away,but it's time for me to come
back to him.
And if you do that man, god'sreckless love is waiting on us
today.
Let's pray right now.
God, thank you so much fortoday.
Thank you, god, that you'rewith us and you're for us.
Lord, sometimes it can be ahard conversation to just really
get honest and say you know,I'm not where I want to be.
I have gotten mixed up in somestuff, I have gotten a little

(10:45):
bit too wrapped up in me.
But, lord, I know that that isa beautiful prayer because it's
then that you come rushing inand you rescue us.
I'm thankful for that today.
In Jesus' name, we pray amen,amen.
Well, god's word says in Hosea6, verse 6, he talks to us and
he says I want you to show love,not offer sacrifices.
I want you to know me more thanI want burnt offerings.

(11:09):
God wants a real relationshipwith us.
I love you.
I'll see you tomorrow.
For Hosea, chapter 11.