Return to Gilgal: A Look at Hosea 9 pt 2

Note: This post will make more sense after reading part 1 linked below.

I just can't get Hosea out of my head.  In my post, "Gilgal is Where I Started Hating You," I talked about how I thought that the incident with Saul not killing the Amalekite king, Agag, was the incident that caused God to begin to hate Israel.  I have studied further and I'm not so sure.

Gilgal has much significance.  It is where Joshua built the altar of twelve stones right after God parted the Jordan for the people.  It is where the people camped and celebrated their first Passover in the Promised Land. It is where the land was divided between the tribes.

It was while the people were camped at Gilgal that the Gibeonites tricked Joshua into a treaty.  This treaty was broken by Saul and brought on a drought years later that David had to deal with.

Caleb came to Joshua at Gilgal for his promised inheritance which was given with a blessing.  It should be remembered that Caleb was 85 years old at that time and claimed to be as fit and able as he was when he spied out the land.  He declared that he was well able to drive out the giants that inhabited his inheritance. 

So that is a list of some of the good things that happened at Gilgal.  Now let's look at some other things that happened there.  In the book of Judges, the Angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bokim and basically declared judgement on them for not clearing the Canaanites from the land.  I don't know, is this symbolic of the presence of God leaving the place?  Just a thought. 

But, it is now that we get into the nitty-gritty.  The story begins in 

1 Samuel 8, the prophet, Samuel, would make his rounds throughout the land and Gilgal was one of the stops on his route.  It is where Saul was crowned king of Israel.  Samuel had anointed him near Gibeah of all places but it took the Battle of Jabesh-gilead against the Ammonites (chapter 11) for Saul, who had been declared king, to become accepted fully as king. 

So, something interesting happened at this battle of Jabesh-gilead.  The enemy king had come against the city.  The city sent out a plea for help.  The messengers came to Saul, who had been plowing with a yoke of oxen.  He butchered his oxen and sent the pieces by those messengers into all of Israel to call them to war.  He said, "Whoever does not go out with Saul and Samuel to battle, so it shall be done to his oxen."  Hold that thought.  We are going to come back to it in another study.

This battle is the battle that caused the people to really embrace Saul as king.  As a matter of fact, they wanted to execute anyone who wasn't for Saul but Samuel forbade it.

Later, God sent Saul on a mission to wipe out the Amalekites (chapter 15). Samuel instructed Saul that nothing and no one was to be spared.  There was to be no booty taken. Even the livestock was to be destroyed.   Samuel sent Saul on his way and told him that he would catch up with him there. 

Saul didn’t obey.  He spared the king, Agag, and the best livestock to sacrifice to God.  This is where Samuel said, “To obey is better than sacrifice.”  Samuel killed Agag at Gilgal in obedience to God, but God had torn the kingdom from Saul that day and given it to another. We find out in the next chapter God's choice.

All the other mentions of Gilgal up to the prophets, that I see, are mostly mentions of places, not events.  There is a couple of mentions of Gilgal with relationship to Elijah and Elisha but these events wouldn't have brought on the hate of the Lord.

But once we get to the prophets, Gilgal is back in full swing, starting with in Hosea.  The thing that has me jumping around, at least in my head, right now is how Micah ties Gilgal to Baal-peor. I had no idea.  Micah 6:5 says,

"Oh my people, remember now what Balak king of Moab consulted, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him from Shittim unto Gilgal; that ye may know the righteousness of the Lord."

This verse caused me to really look at a map. Shittim is where the sin of Baal-peor took place.  Peor is a mountain.  Baal-peor was the local deity.  Shittim was where the Israelites were camped when they fell into sin. It was directly across the river from Gilgal where they camped after crossing the Jordan. Now, what ties them all together in Hosea 9? Let's look again at the passage from our other study:  

The time of Israel's punishment has come; the day of payment is here...you say, 'The prophets are crazy and the inspired men are fools!'  the prophet is a watchman over Israel for my God, yet traps are laid for him wherever he goes.  He faces hostility even in the house of God.  The things my people do are as depraved as what the did in Gibeah long ago.  God will not forget. He will surely punish them for their sins...They deserted me for Baal-peor.  Soon they became vile, as vile as the god they worshiped. I have watched Israel become as beautiful as Tyre.  But now Israel will bring out her children for slaughter, (KJV says 'murderer').  All their wickedness began at Gilgal; there I began to hate them.

Saul is the guy.  Baal-peor is tied to Gilgal by proximity and sin.  But let's look further.  Saul was a Benjaminite. He was from Gibeah.  Did you get that?  Gibeah was his hometown.  He was anointed by Samuel near Gibeah and crowned at Gilgal.  His two major sins were at Gilgal (I left out the one where he performed an illegal sacrifice because Samuel was delayed.  Yes that was at Gilgal, too). 

I never realized before what a picture of the Anti-christ Saul is until this study that began in Hosea.  Saul was the most handsome man in Israel and was a head taller than anyone else.  The people loved him and were willing to kill anyone who wasn't all for him.  He started out good but turned evil and actually became tormented by an evil spirit.  He was the people's choice.  If the people had just waited a little while longer, they could have had God's choice which was David.

You see, David was always going to be king.  The prophecies began back in Genesis.  But, God gave the people what they wanted  which was a king out of God's perfect timing and will.  The people will want the Anti-christ, too.  Again, if they would hold on, the Son of David, the true King is coming.  Amen.  Even so, come, Lord Jesus.