Hosea 9:1-2 – “Do not rejoice, O Israel; do not be jubilant like the other nations. For you have been unfaithful to your God; you love the wages of a prostitute at every threshing floor.  Threshing floors and winepresses will not feed the people; the new wine will fail them.”

“Do not rejoice, O Israel…” True rejoicing is appropriate for those who are actually right with God, those who are walking in faithfulness.  This is the case in Philippians 4:4, where Paul tells us tells to “Rejoice in the Lord always,” referring to people whose mature Christian character is “evident to all” (Philippians 4:5).  In contrast, Hosea 9 (like James 4:8-10) addresses hypocritical believers, backsliders, and religious phonies.  They need to repent, to get right with God, to yield completely to Him and start walking in faithfulness and obedience.

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Judges 6:11-12 - “The angel of the Lord came and sat down under the oak in Ophrah that belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, where his son Gideon was threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites.  When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, ‘The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.’”

These events happened some time after the death of Joshua.  The Israelites were supposed to be God’s chosen people, but great difficulties befell them whenever they disobeyed the Lord.  In this case, the Midianites, a large tribe of roving bandits and traders, were oppressing the Israelites.  The Midianites would confiscate their entire harvest of wheat.  At each harvest time, the Midianites knew to go and get the wheat.  There was no way out for the Israelites; they were impoverished.  They cried out to the Lord for a deliverance from their oppressors.  The Israelites did not deserve God’s protection, of course, because they had completely ignored the Lord for a long time up to that point.  Even so, God had mercy and raised up a deliverer to save them.   continue