Hosea 09: The Prophets Be Crazy

Have you ever witnessed someone air their spouse's dirty laundry in public, leaving everyone squirming in discomfort? That's precisely the energy of Hosea 9, where God—portrayed as the faithful but heartbroken husband—finally reaches His breaking point with unfaithful Israel.

Pastor Brandon unpacks this dramatic chapter titled "The Prophets Be Crazy," drawing a compelling parallel to those awkward prayer request moments in Southern churches where personal grievances suddenly become public knowledge. With characteristic authenticity and humor, he reveals how God calls out specific behaviors and recalls the beautiful beginnings of His relationship with Israel: "When I first found you, it was like finding fresh grapes in the desert." This poignant metaphor captures something unexpected, refreshing, and life-giving—the sweetness of first devotion now replaced by spiritual adultery.

The heart of this episode challenges us to examine what might have slowly displaced God from the center of our lives. Has Sunday baseball become your new worship service? Has keeping peace with an unbelieving spouse trumped your spiritual growth? Are you chasing material possessions at the expense of your relationship with God? These subtle shifts don't happen overnight but through a series of small compromises that eventually leave us viewing dedicated believers as "fanatics" or "inspired fools." The good news? God's reckless love never stops pursuing us, and the path back begins with one honest step in His direction. Subscribe to Bible Breakdown for more insights that transform ancient scripture into relevant, life-changing wisdom for today's challenges.

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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 9, and today's title is
the Prophets Be Crazy.
The Prophets Be Crazy.
As I was telling you guys, thisis the soap opera of the Old
Testament, and God ispositioning himself as this

(00:20):
broken-hearted, faithful husband, and he's had enough, and so
he's going to call out somenames and it's going to get
awkward up in here, but it getsbetter after it gets worse, and
so we're going to get all thatin just a moment.
But if you like what we'redoing here, as you are opening
your Bible to Hosea, chapter 9,make sure you like, share and
subscribe to the YouTube channeland the podcast.

(00:41):
Make sure you leave us afive-star review on the podcast
it really does help us to getthe word out about everything
that we are doing and make sureyou're going to the Bible
Breakdown Discussion on Facebook.
It's an amazing group of peopledoing a wonderful job and, as
always, the more we dig, themore we find.
Well, if you remember what wehave been kind of walking
through over the past severaldays, hosea is all about God's

(01:04):
reckless love and it is one ofthose soap operas where it's
like you could call it GeneralHospital, as the World Turns,
whatever you want to do, butit's real.
I mean, this actually happened,and what today's chapter
reminds me of is something thatis like.
So here, let me tell you a quicksegue about me.

(01:24):
That is, I grew up in in church.
I grew up in the SoutheastUnited States.
I grew up in Southern ruralcountry churches, you know, and
just where people just born,lived and died going to that
same church.
They just loved each other,they knew each other and that
was a double-edged sword, right,and there would be all these
different things that we woulddo that I am so glad that my

(01:46):
kids don't get to experience,but at the same time, I'm kind
of sad they don't get toexperience it, because one of
those things is we used to havethis thing called prayer request
time and what would happen issomebody would get up in front
of the congregation and say doesanyone have a prayer request?
Now I can't think of the lightfor the life of me why we would
do this, because can I tell you,not one single time when

(02:07):
someone would give out a prayerrequest did I ever hear that guy
on stage mention it when hewould pray.
He would just say, lord, overall these requests we ask you to
, you know all that.
So it really became a time tojust kind of let everybody know
what was going on in your life,and sometimes that was for
better, sometimes that was forbetter, sometimes that was for
worse.
And listen, I can't tell youhow many times, and I'd love to
know down in the comments belowif you've ever been a part of

(02:29):
one of these.
I can't tell you how many timesthat the prayer request time
would be one of my favoritetimes of the service, because
people would get, um, get reallyanimated by what they were
talking about.
And there would be times whenthere would be these, these
folks, and most of the times itwas a, it was an upset wife, but
sometimes it'd be an upsethusband and they would say now,
listen, church, I need y'all topray for my spouse because and

(02:54):
then they would say all mannerof things they didn't need to
say out loud, such as you needto pray for my husband because
he's been looking at some stuffhe don't need to be looking at
on the internet.
Oh Lord, all of a sudden wedone got real up in the church
house.
Or you need to pray for my wife, because I see her and she's
flirting with a bunch of men andnone of them is me.

(03:15):
I mean, just awkward cityimmediately is what would happen
, and we would just very, veryquietly, just well, lord, we
just pray for everybody,including all of us who had to
hear that just now.
We just keep going.
And that is what today'schapter reminds me about a
little bit, because what God isdoing is he is talking about all

(03:39):
these different people and allthese different things that's
going wrong in the nation ofIsrael.
People and all these differentthings that's going wrong in the
nation of Israel, and insteadof just you know, saying you
know, there's some things weneed to fix, he's naming names
and he's saying all you foolsneed to stop it, and so we're
gonna learn and see what that is, and then we get through with
this.
We're gonna maybe ask someserious questions for ourselves

(04:00):
and see if God will help us takea step closer to him today.
So if you no grapes for makingnew wine, you may no longer stay

(04:28):
here in the Lord's land.
Instead, you will return toEgypt and in Assyria you will
eat food that is ceremoniallyunclean.
There you will make noofferings of wine to the Lord.
None of your sacrifices therewill please Him.
They will be unclean, like foodtouched by a person in mourning
.
All who present such sacrificeswill be defiled.

(04:51):
They may eat this foodthemselves, but they may not
offer it to the Lord.
What, then, will you do on thefestival days?
How will you observe the Lord'sfestivals, even if you escape
destruction from Assyria?
Egypt will conquer you andMemphis will bury you?
Nettles will take over yourtreasures of silver, thistles

(05:13):
will invade your ruined homes.
The time of Israel's punishmenthas come.
The day of payment has come ishere Soon.
Israel will know this all toowell Because of your great sin
and hostility.
You say the prophets are crazyand they've inspired men.
The inspired men are fools.
The prophet is a watchman overIsrael for my God, yet traps are

(05:37):
laid for him.
Wherever he goes, he faceshostility, even in the house of
God.
These things my people do areas depraved as what they did in
Gebeah long ago.
God will not forget.
He will surely punish them fortheir sins.
The Lord says O Israel, when Ifirst found you, it was like

(05:57):
finding fresh grapes in thedesert.
When I saw your ancestors, itwas like seeing the first ripe
figs of the season.
But then they deserted me inBaal Peor, giving themselves to
that shameful idol.
Soon they became vile, as vileas the God they worshipped.
The glory of Israel will flyaway like a bird and your

(06:20):
children will not be born orgrow in the womb, or even be
conceived.
Even if you do have childrenwho grow up, I will take them
from you.
It will be a terrible day whenI turn away and leave you alone.
I have watched Israel become asbeautiful as Tyre, but now
Israel will bring out herchildren for slaughter.
Oh Lord, what should I requestfor your people?

(06:43):
I will ask for wombs that don'tgive birth and breasts that
give no milk, the lord says.
All their wickedness began atgilgal.
There, I began to hate them.
I will drive them from my landbecause of their evil actions.
I will love them no morebecause all their leaders are
rebels.
The people of israel are struckdown.

(07:04):
Wow, god has had enough.
And he is pointing fingers andhe is saying this is where you

(07:29):
went wrong, this is whathappened.
And then it just kept going.
And then, when there werepeople like these priests, you
called them crazy and instead ofletting them help you.
It kept getting worse and worseand worse.
So God's just calling them outand he's just saying what's
going on.
But I love at the same timewhen he said but I remember when
we first found each other Now,of course, this is God saying it

(07:50):
for their benefit.
God existed before time and heknew exactly what was going on.
But he's framing it in themetaphor of this relationship of
a wayward wife and a faithfulhusband.
And he said I remember we firstsaw each other.
It was like grapes in thedesert, in other words, it was
just refreshing and it wasbeautiful and it was new and it
was exciting.

(08:12):
But all these other thingshappen, and and I think that the
obvious question that we mustask ourselves today, with this
application question for today,is have have we gotten to that
place?
Have we gotten to that placewhere, instead of celebrating
our relationship with God,instead of being excited about
our relationship with Him, wehave started chasing after

(08:35):
everything else?
That doesn't satisfy?
Let me ask this question, andthat is this is there anything
more important than God in yourlife?
Do you place anything higherthan him?
If so, it's an idol.
It's an idol in our life, andhere's the thing for most of us
is, for most of us, this doesn'thappen overnight.
It happens very slowly, verysubtly, to the point that we

(08:57):
didn't even realize when ourkids became more important than
God.
How do I know?
Because it's been weeks sincewe've been to church, because we
have to take them to the otherworship place called the ball
field.
I know I just lost a couplelisteners.
I'm not saying baseball iswrong.
I am saying it becomes wrongwhen it becomes our idol.
What about our spouse?
Our spouse doesn't want to goto church.

(09:18):
They want to go elsewhere, theywant to do whatever, and in
order to keep the peace, we puttheir needs ahead of our desire
to worship God.
To worship God.
And now we only go to churchevery three or four weeks and on
the other time we sit at homebecause we've made their needs
more important.
What about the idea of you knowwe love God, but we don't go to

(09:39):
church on Sunday, becauseSunday is an opportunity for us
to get some extra hours, becausewe really want that new boat or
we want this, we want that?
Have we got to the place wherewe've put something else as more
important than God in our life.
Now, once again, god does notmind us having things.
God does not mind with yougiving your children an
opportunity to do sports.
Of course not.
Of course not.
There's nothing wrong with that.

(10:00):
The problem becomes is when ittakes the precedence of God in
your life.
Now, is Christianity going tochurch?
No, not by itself, but it isimportant.
It is a time when God's peopledo need to come together to
worship the Lord, and it needsto be a central focus of our
life, not just so we can come tochurch, but so we can come and

(10:21):
be part of the church and serveone another.
So there's nothing wrong withhaving things.
The problem is when things haveus and it gets to be more
important than God in our life,and so the question today is is
there anything in our lifethat's become more important
than God, to the point now that,when we look at people who are
serving God, we think they'recrazy, we think that they've

(10:42):
gone too far, just like it wassaying that these prophets have
gone crazy and they were callingthem inspired fools because
they were speaking for God.
Do you see people who are goingall in for God?
Do you see them as crazy?
Do you see them as fanatics andinspired fools.
Well, I'm going to ask you thisquestion Do you remember the
time when you first got savedand you were an inspired, crazy

(11:04):
fool?
What happened?
What happened?
Why did you take one step away?
That turned into two, thatturned into ten, and until now,
you don't even know how you feelabout God.
But let me tell you somethingGod's reckless love will not
give up on you and, just likeyou may have taken some steps
away from him, he has beenfollowing you, he has been

(11:25):
chasing you, he's been callingback to you and he'll never give
up on you.
It's amazing, grace of God.
And so what do you do today?
You take a step back toward himand get really honest and say
God, you are not number one inmy life right now, but I want
you to be.
I repent of my sin.
I turn to you and help me walkback to you.
God has no intention of youmaking that walk by yourself.

(11:47):
That's not a walk of shame,it's a walk of freedom.
When you say, you know what, Iam going to start course
correcting until I make Godnumber one in my life, and, as
you do, every step you take is astep of freedom for you and
everybody else around you.
Let's pray together right now,god.
Thank you so much for today.
Thank you, god, that it is forfreedom that you have set us
free.
Thank you, god, that your wordis a lamp unto our feet and a

(12:10):
light unto our path.
It shows us times when we needcourse correction.
We need to move here or there,and you do it because you love
us and you want us to walk infreedom every day.
Help us to do that today.
In Jesus' name, we pray Amen.
Amen.
What God's word says in Hosea 6, verse 6, I want to show love,
not offer sacrifices.
I want you to do that.
I want you to know me more thanI want burnt offerings.

(12:33):
More than your hands.
God wants your heart, and ifyou serve him with your heart,
then it will change what you dowith your hands.
I love you.
I'll see you tomorrow for Hosea, chapter 10.