The Ancient and Present Treachery Text: Hosea 6:7-10
Introduction: The First Domino
The Bible is a covenantal book from beginning to end. The Old Testament is the Old Covenant, and the New Testament is the New Covenant. This is the fundamental structure of God's relationship with mankind. A covenant is a solemn bond, sovereignly administered by God, with attendant blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience. And if we want to understand the mess we are in, whether we are talking about ancient Israel or modern America, we have to go back to the very first covenant transgression. We have to go back to the first domino that was tipped over, the effects of which are still cascading down through history.
Hosea, in this sharp and pointed indictment of Israel, does exactly that. He doesn't just point to the immediate sins of the northern kingdom, though he will get to those with searing specificity. He traces the entire sorry history of their rebellion back to its source. He says that their treachery is not a new invention. It is not an unfortunate departure from an otherwise noble tradition. No, their sin is an echo, a repetition, a re-enactment of the primal sin. Their covenant-breaking is cut from the same cloth as Adam's.
This is a crucial diagnostic tool for us. We live in an age that loves to psychologize sin, to explain it away with sociological factors, to treat it as a regrettable mistake. But God sees it as treachery. He sees it as a deep-seated rebellion that has its roots in the Garden. When we see the priests of Israel murdering travelers on the road to a city of refuge, when we see the entire nation defiled by spiritual adultery, we are not just seeing a localized political problem in the 8th century B.C. We are seeing the fruit of Adam's treason. And when we look at our own world, with its blood-soaked streets, its corrupt leadership, and its wholesale abandonment of God's created order, we are seeing the very same thing. The disease is ancient, and the symptoms are just variations on a theme.
So as we come to this text, we must see that God is pulling back the curtain. He is showing Israel, and us, that their specific, bloody sins are not isolated incidents. They are the predictable outworking of a foundational betrayal. Understanding this is the first step toward understanding the depth of our need for the Second Adam, the one who did not trespass against the covenant, but fulfilled it perfectly.
The Text
"But like Adam they have trespassed against the covenant; There they have dealt treacherously against Me. Gilead is a city of workers of iniquity, With a track of blood. And as raiders wait for a man, So a band of priests murder on the way to Shechem; Surely they have committed lewdness. In the house of Israel I have seen an appalling thing; Ephraim’s harlotry is there; Israel has defiled itself."
(Hosea 6:7-10 LSB)
The Adamic Pattern of Treason (v. 7)
We begin with the foundational charge in verse 7:
"But like Adam they have trespassed against the covenant; There they have dealt treacherously against Me." (Hosea 6:7)
Some translations might render this as "like men," but the Hebrew word is Adam, and the context points us straight back to the Garden. God is saying that Israel's sin is a replay of the original fall. What did Adam do? He was placed in a perfect garden, in a covenant of life with God. He was given one simple prohibition, a clear boundary that defined his relationship of loving obedience to his Creator. And he crossed that line. He trespassed. He broke the covenant.
Notice the language. They "trespassed against the covenant" and "dealt treacherously." This is not the language of a minor slip-up. Treachery is the betrayal of trust. It is a willful violation of a sworn oath. Adam was not an autonomous individual making a personal choice for self-fulfillment. He was a covenant head, a representative, and his act of disobedience was an act of high treason against his sovereign Lord. He wanted to be his own god, defining good and evil for himself, and in so doing, he plunged the entire human race into sin and misery.
Hosea says Israel has done the very same thing. God brought them out of Egypt, married them at Sinai, gave them His law, and brought them into a land flowing with milk and honey. He gave them every blessing. And what did they do? They dealt treacherously. They took His gifts and used them to worship other gods. They took His law and twisted it to serve their own corrupt ends. They were just like Adam. Placed in a paradise, they chose rebellion.
The phrase "There they have dealt treacherously" points to a specific location, likely connected to the sins about to be named. But it also carries the sense that in that very act of covenant-breaking, in that Adamic trespass, the treachery was located. Their sin was not an abstract failure; it was a concrete betrayal of a personal God. "Against Me," God says. All sin, no matter who it harms horizontally, is ultimately a vertical offense. It is a personal affront to the Holy One who made us and bought us.
The Bloody Consequences (v. 8-9)
Having established the root of the sin in Adamic treason, Hosea now details the rotten fruit it has produced. The general treachery manifests in specific, horrific atrocities.
"Gilead is a city of workers of iniquity, With a track of blood. And as raiders wait for a man, So a band of priests murder on the way to Shechem; Surely they have committed lewdness." (Hosea 6:8-9 LSB)
Gilead was a region, but here it likely refers to a specific city, perhaps Ramoth-gilead, which was one of the Levitical cities and a city of refuge. A city of refuge was supposed to be a place of safety, where someone who had accidentally killed another person could flee from the avenger of blood. It was a place where justice and mercy were to meet. But God says this place has become a "city of workers of iniquity," marked by a "track of blood." The very place designated for the preservation of life has become a hotbed of violence. This is what happens when covenant-breaking takes hold. The institutions God establishes for good become utterly corrupted and turned to evil ends.
The corruption is not limited to the civil sphere. It has thoroughly infected the religious leadership. This is the most damning indictment. "A band of priests murder on the way to Shechem." Shechem was another city of refuge and a place of great historical and religious significance. It was where Abraham first built an altar, where Jacob settled, and where Joshua renewed the covenant. The road to Shechem should have been a path to safety, worship, and remembrance of God's faithfulness. Instead, the priests, the very men tasked with teaching God's law and ministering His grace, have become like a pack of highwaymen. They are like bandits lying in wait to ambush and murder innocent travelers.
Why were they doing this? We are not told the specific motive, but it was likely for personal gain, robbing those who were fleeing for refuge. The point is the utter inversion of their calling. The shepherds have become wolves. The guardians have become gangsters. God calls this "lewdness." This is a strong word, often associated with sexual sin, but it carries the broader meaning of a heinous, deliberate, and thought-out plan of wickedness. This was not a crime of passion; it was calculated evil perpetrated by the religious establishment. When the pulpit becomes corrupt, the entire nation rots from the head down.
The Appalling Defilement (v. 10)
God then zooms out from these specific examples to give a summary judgment on the entire nation.
"In the house of Israel I have seen an appalling thing; Ephraim’s harlotry is there; Israel has defiled itself." (Hosea 6:10 LSB)
What God has seen is an "appalling thing," a horror. The "house of Israel" refers to the northern kingdom, and "Ephraim," its most prominent tribe, is often used as a synonym for the whole nation. The central sin, the sin that encompasses all the others, is "harlotry." Throughout Hosea, this is God's chosen metaphor for idolatry. Israel was the bride of Yahweh. He had entered into a marriage covenant with her. Her worship of other gods, her trust in foreign alliances, her adoption of pagan practices, was not just a theological error. It was spiritual adultery. It was the bride of the living God running off to prostitute herself to dead idols made of wood and stone.
This harlotry has "defiled" the entire nation. The land, the people, the worship, the leadership, everything has been contaminated. The covenant was meant to make them a holy people, set apart for God. But by breaking the covenant, they have become unclean, polluted, and profane. They have become just like the pagan nations around them, only worse, because they sinned against such great light and such great love.
Conclusion: From Adam's Treachery to Christ's Fidelity
So what are we to do with such a grim diagnosis? First, we must see ourselves in it. The pattern of Adamic treachery is the pattern of every human heart apart from grace. We are all born covenant-breakers. We are all prone to take God's good gifts and turn them into idols. We are all capable of the most appalling defilements. Our culture is tracked with blood, our leadership is corrupt, and our churches are constantly tempted by the harlotry of worldliness. The disease of Adam runs deep in our veins.
But this passage, by tracing the problem back to Adam, implicitly points us to the solution. The problem is Adam. The solution, therefore, must be a New Adam. The Apostle Paul tells us, "For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive" (1 Corinthians 15:22). And, "For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous" (Romans 5:19).
Jesus Christ is the Second Adam. He is the faithful Israelite who did not deal treacherously. He faced His temptation in the wilderness and, unlike Adam in the Garden, He obeyed the Word of God. He lived a life of perfect covenant faithfulness. He was the truly innocent one, yet He walked the bloody road, not to Shechem, but to Golgotha. There, the treacherous priests and corrupt rulers, like the ones in Hosea's day, lay in wait for Him. They murdered the Lord of Glory.
But in this ultimate act of human treachery, God was working out our salvation. Christ took the curse of our covenant-breaking upon Himself. He absorbed the defilement of our spiritual harlotry. He died the death that Adam and Israel and you and I deserved. And He was raised to life, the head of a new covenant people.
The call of the gospel is a call to turn from our Adamic treason and to be united by faith to the faithful Christ. It is a call to stop our harlotry and return to our true husband. In Him, our bloody tracks are washed clean. In Him, we are no longer defiled but declared holy. He is the true city of refuge for all who flee to Him from the just penalty of their sins. The priests of the old covenant failed, but we have a great High Priest, Jesus the Son of God, who never fails, and who is able to save to the uttermost all who draw near to God through Him.