The Anatomy of Apostasy and the Anchor of Faithfulness Text: Hosea 11:12
Introduction: A Tale of Two Treacheries
The book of Hosea is a heart-wrenching, covenantal lawsuit. God, the faithful husband, brings charges against His adulterous bride, Israel. The prophet's own marriage to Gomer is a living, breathing parable of this tragic reality. But here, at the close of chapter 11, the Lord provides a summary diagnosis of the spiritual sickness that has consumed His people. It is a divine assessment that lays bare the condition of both the northern and southern kingdoms, Ephraim and Judah respectively. And in this diagnosis, we are given a crucial lesson on the nature of sin, the character of God, and the difference between open rebellion and pious pretense.
We are accustomed to thinking of sin in monolithic terms. Sin is sin. And while it is true that all sin separates us from a holy God, the Scriptures are far more nuanced. God is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. He distinguishes between sins of ignorance and sins of presumption, between the outright paganism of the godless and the respectable, church-going hypocrisy of the covenant people. Here, God puts Ephraim on the scales, and then He puts Judah on the scales, and the verdict is not what we might expect. He draws a sharp contrast, not between a good people and a bad people, but between two kinds of bad people.
This verse serves as a hinge, concluding the tender lament of chapter 11 and introducing the blistering indictments of chapter 12. It is a stark and solemn declaration from Heaven's courtroom. God is encircled, besieged as it were, not by the armies of Assyria, but by the sins of His own children. This is the central tragedy of apostasy. It is not the rebellion of strangers, but the betrayal of sons. And as we dissect this verse, we must allow its searching light to fall upon our own hearts, our own families, and our own churches. For the sins of Ephraim and Judah are perennial temptations for the people of God in every age.
The Text
Ephraim surrounds Me with lies
And the house of Israel with deceit;
And Judah is also unruly against God,
Even against the Holy One who is faithful.
(Hosea 11:12 LSB)
The Siege of Lies (v. 12a)
The indictment begins with the northern kingdom, designated here by its leading tribe, Ephraim.
"Ephraim surrounds Me with lies And the house of Israel with deceit..." (Hosea 11:12a)
The picture here is vivid and military. The verb "surrounds" is what an army does to a city it intends to conquer. God is depicting Himself as being besieged, hemmed in on every side. But the weapons of this warfare are not swords and spears; they are lies and deceit. This is the very essence of covenant unfaithfulness. Ephraim's entire religious and political life had become a grand deception.
What were these lies? They were, first and foremost, the lies of idolatry. From the time of Jeroboam I, the northern kingdom was founded on a lie. Jeroboam set up golden calves in Dan and Bethel and said, "Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt" (1 Kings 12:28). This was a foundational falsehood, a direct assault on the first and second commandments. They took the symbols of Egyptian bondage and credited them with their liberation. Their worship was a lie. Their sacrifices were a lie. Their prayers to these dumb idols were a lie. Their entire system was a carefully constructed religious fraud, designed for political expediency and pagan syncretism.
This religious deceit inevitably bled into every other area of life. When you lie about who God is, you will soon lie about everything else. Their political alliances were deceitful, playing Assyria and Egypt off against each other. Their business dealings were full of false weights and measures, which Hosea condemns elsewhere. Their oaths were worthless. They had built a society on a foundation of falsehood, and God says that He is the one who is trapped in the middle of it all. It is a staggering thought. The omniscient God, who cannot be deceived, describes Himself as being walled in by their treachery. This shows us how personally God takes the apostasy of His people. It is an offense that presses in on Him from every side.
The Unruly Son (v. 12b)
Next, the prophetic lens turns to the southern kingdom, Judah.
"And Judah is also unruly against God, Even against the Holy One who is faithful." (Hosea 11:12b)
Now, we must tread carefully here, because some translations render this phrase in a positive light, something like "Judah still walks with God." While there were periods of reform in Judah under kings like Hezekiah and Josiah, the overwhelming testimony of the prophets, and the context of Hosea's indictment, points to this being a negative assessment. The word translated "unruly" carries the sense of roaming, wandering, being without restraint. Judah was not openly apostate in the same way as Israel. They still had the Temple. They still had the Levitical priesthood. They still had the Davidic king. But their loyalty was fickle. They were spiritually untamed.
Judah's sin was not the outright rejection of Yahweh, but the attempt to domesticate Him. They wanted to keep God in His box at the Temple, while they went and played on the high places. They wanted the benefits of the covenant without the constraints of the law. They were unruly. They roamed. One day they would be offering sacrifices in Jerusalem, and the next they would be burning incense to the Queen of Heaven. Their sin was not atheism, but syncretism. It was not a denial of God, but a defiance of His exclusive claims.
Notice the contrast. Ephraim's sin is "lies and deceit," a total fabrication. Judah's sin is being "unruly," a lack of steadfast submission. You could say that Israel was the prodigal son who left for the far country and built a life on lies, while Judah was the son who stayed home but chafed under his father's authority, constantly wandering off and breaking the rules. And in some ways, as Jeremiah would later point out, faithless Israel was more righteous than treacherous Judah, because at least Israel's rebellion was honest. Judah's rebellion was cloaked in the garments of religious observance, which is a far more insidious form of deceit.
The Faithful and Holy One (v. 12c)
The verse concludes by setting the behavior of both kingdoms against the immutable character of God Himself.
"...Even against the Holy One who is faithful." (Hosea 11:12c)
This final clause is the anchor of the entire passage, and indeed, the entire book. All of this human treachery, both the calculated lies of Ephraim and the restless unruliness of Judah, is set against the backdrop of God's unwavering character. He is the Holy One, and He is the faithful One. These two attributes are the bedrock of reality.
His holiness means He is utterly separate, transcendent, and pure. He is not like the gods of the nations, which are merely magnified projections of human lust and ambition. His holiness is the reason sin is so offensive to Him. Lies, deceit, and unruliness are not just minor infractions of a celestial rulebook; they are a direct assault on His very nature. Because He is holy, He cannot abide sin. He must judge it. The lies of Ephraim and the wandering of Judah are an affront to the One who is absolute truth and absolute stability.
But He is also the faithful One. This is the great paradox and the heart of the gospel. His faithfulness, His covenant loyalty, is the only reason these treacherous people have not been utterly consumed. He made promises to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. He established a covenant with David. And God cannot deny Himself. Even when we are faithless, He remains faithful (2 Tim. 2:13). His faithfulness is not a response to our goodness; it is a display of His character. It is this very faithfulness that makes their unfaithfulness so heinous. They are not sinning against a distant, capricious deity. They are sinning against the Holy One who has bound Himself to them in a covenant of steadfast love, a love they have spurned and trampled underfoot.
Conclusion: The Unwavering Standard
So what is the takeaway for us? This verse presents us with a profound diagnostic tool for our own souls. Are we like Ephraim, surrounding God with outright lies? Have we constructed a "Christianity" that is a total fabrication, one that denies the clear teaching of Scripture on creation, on sin, on sexuality, on the exclusivity of Christ? This is the state of the liberal, apostate church. It is a house of deceit.
Or are we like Judah, unruly and wandering? We have the right buildings, the right liturgies, the right confessions. We haven't outright denied the faith. But our hearts roam. We want to serve God on Sunday morning and our mammon, our lusts, our ambitions the rest of the week. We want the security of the covenant without the submission of discipleship. This is the great temptation of the conservative, evangelical church. It is not the temptation of heresy, but of hypocrisy.
Both of these conditions are a grievous offense to the God who is both holy and faithful. He is not fooled by Ephraim's lies, and He is not mocked by Judah's unruliness. His holiness demands repentance, and His faithfulness promises forgiveness to all who will turn from their sin and lay hold of Christ.
The ultimate demonstration of God's character as the faithful and Holy One is found at the cross. At the cross, His holiness was satisfied as the full penalty for our lies and unruliness was poured out upon His Son. And at the cross, His faithfulness was vindicated as He fulfilled His ancient promise to provide a Redeemer. In Christ, the unruly are brought into submission, and those who lived by lies are brought into the glorious light of the truth. He is the only remedy for the sins of both Ephraim and Judah, and for the sins of our own deceitful and wandering hearts.