Hosea 9:15

"All their wickedness is in Gilgal; for there I hated them: because of the wickedness of their doings, I will drive them out of my house; I will love them no more; all their princes are revolters."

"All their wickedness is in Gilgal ..." This is the third of the historical situations cited by the prophet to show that Israel's defection from God was no recent thing at all, but the final flowering of a fundamental rejection of God's teaching which had been evident in the behavior of the people from the very first. At Gibeath, they had rejected God's government and set up their own king; at Baal-peor, that had rejected the stern morality of the Decalogue and "consecrated" themselves to Baal "And Israel joined himself unto Baal-peor" (Numbers 25:3). Gilgal was another place where their inherent apostasy had long been in evidence.

"Hosea considered Israel's monarchy to be one of Israel's primary offences against Jehovah; and the only noteworthy incident at Gilgal preserved in...the Old Testament is the inauguration of Saul's kingship (1 Samuel 11:14f).[26]

Since Gibeah, already mentioned, was conspicuously associated with the rise of the evil monarchy, it is possible that the introduction of Gilgal here focuses upon something beyond that. If so, it was likely because, "It was at Gilgal that Saul, their first king, was rejected in the name of the Lord by Samuel the prophet, for the king's disobedience."[27] There is also the widespread identification of that place with the extravagant immoralities and indecencies of the worship of Baal adopted by the Israelites. See Amos 4:15; 5:5; and 12:11. Keil mentioned the opinion of some that human sacrifice was even practiced there.[28] However, in line with the rejection of Israel bluntly stated almost in the same breath, it would appear that the implication of bringing in Gilgal here pertained to the rejection of Saul. Just as their first king had been rejected, now the whole nation would also be cast off. The prophecy of the final event was in the first.

"There I hated them ..." Smith and many others pointed out that "hate" is not to be understood in absolute terms, because God hates no man;[29] nevertheless, a rejection of the most violent and terminal dimensions is indicated,

"I will drive them out of my house ..." Just as Abraham drove Hagar out of his house, and just as Gomer was rejected as a wife by Hosea, in that same definite and final way, Israel is summarily removed from any further participation in the covenant with God. As far as the northern kingdom was concerned, this hardened into a permanent and unrelenting reality shortly after this prophecy was delivered. For the southern kingdom, after severe punishment, the opportunity to accept God, recognize the Christ when he appeared, and to participate in the New Covenant delivered through the preaching of the apostles, was continued historically until the times of Christ and the apostles; but after the destruction of Jerusalem, the status of all Israel, Judah and Ephraim alike, was removed forever. None of their posterity were excluded from the terms of the gospel; but there is no Biblical promise, not even the outside possibility of any hint, that old secular, temporal, fleshly Israel (whether Judah or Ephraim)can continue any longer in any sense as "chosen people of God." The status of that Israel with God is exactly that of a wife divorced for adultery in relation to her former husband after his death!

"I will love them no more ..." Hosea exhausted the power of words in order to convey the finality and completeness of God's repudiation of the historical Israel. The final fulfillment of it could not become effective until after the Messiah was delivered to the world, because all of the prophecies had pointed to the Christ who would arise from the "midst" of the people of Israel. It was that circumstance alone that resulted in the Southern Kingdom's preservation until the Messianic age had dawned. Beyond this, there does appear the continuity of secular Israel throughout history "until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled," the purpose of which resides in the type of witness furnished by their history, "Lest the Gentiles should be wise in their own conceits" (Romans 11:25).

Christians, we call upon all who see these lines to look at what God did to the old Israel and to remember why he did it. If the same gross sins and wretched indifference to the will of God that destroyed the old Israel is indulged by the New Israel, what will happen? Read the paraphrase of this chapter at the beginning of it, above, and know that the message is for us as well as for them! Yes, God's love is not unconditional!