For now, they will say we have no king, for we do not fear the Lord. And a king, what could he do for us?
– Hosea 10:3
So there’s a lot that’s going on here in Hosea 9 and 10 specifically as God is telling his people that because of their idolatry and immorality and unfaithfulness, he will send them into exile, specifically, the northern kingdom of Israel will have no king and they will be scattered in a foreign nation because of their sin against God.
Those who do not fear God do not honor God. We must ask ourselves if we truly fear God.
The reason why I read Hosea 10:3, I want to lead us to pray according to it, is because of this phrase right in the middle of this verse, the people are saying we do not fear the Lord. I just preached on fearing God a few days ago based on 1st Peter 2:17. And over a hundred times in the Bible, we’re commanded to fear God. We could talk a long time about exactly what that means, but there’s no question that in the scripture, sinfulness is described as having no fear of God.
Hosea 10:3 Reminds Us to Fear God
Think of Romans 3. There is no fear of God before their eyes. That’s the way man and woman in our depraved nature are described as lacking fear of God. So I just want to ask you as we pray, do you fear God? Do you know what that means? If not, I would encourage you maybe to listen to a sermon this last week at radical.net from 1 Peter 2:17 on fearing God, or just dive into the word and start just looking at different places in the Bible where we see what it means to fear God. You start to get a picture of reverence for God, of trust in God, of delight in God, of awe before God, of a sober reality of the judgment of God.
So God, we pray that you would unite our hearts to fear your name according to your word in Psalms. God, that you would teach us to fear you. God, that it would not be said if me, if us, if any person listening right now that we didn’t fear you, that we didn’t stand and pray and walk and bow in reverent awe of who you are and your greatness and your holiness and your glory. We pray that we would not approach you in a cavalier manner, much as your people were doing here in Hosea 10:3, ignoring you, treating your commands lightly, treating your holiness casually.
This Verse Leads Us to Praise God
God, we praise you for the intimacy we have in a relationship with you through faith in Jesus. We praise you that you call us friends and that you call us your sons and your daughters. So we enjoy this beautiful intimacy with you. But God, may it be all the more awesome to us as we realize who you are, that you are a God to be feared, that you are a consuming fire, that you are the judge of all the holy sovereign judge of all of our lives.
So God help us to hate sin. Help us to flee from it. Help us to run from it. And help us to live in a holy fear of you in a 1st Peter 1 kind of way. Oh God, help us to fear living in such a way that we show the blood of Christ is precious to us. And help us to show that your holiness is awesome to us. God, in an Acts 9:31 kind of a way, help us to walk in the fear of you. Today and tomorrow in our lives, may others say that we feared you.
May others say that we feared the Lord. And in that being true, that we trusted in you and we delighted in you and we worshiped you. Oh God, we will fear and trust in and delight and worship you forever. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder of Radical, an organization that makes Jesus known among the nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Don’t Hold Back, and How to Read the Bible.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
