Hosea 10: The Prosperity Trap

The most dangerous moment in your faith journey might not be when everything's falling apart—it could be when everything's going well. In this episode examining Hosea 10, Pastor Brandon unpacks what he calls "The Prosperity Trap" and how it silently undermines our relationship with God.

Through Israel's story in Hosea, we witness a pattern that repeats in countless believers' lives today: coming to faith in humble surrender, experiencing God's faithfulness through difficult seasons, receiving His blessings—and then slowly forgetting where those blessings came from. The luxuriant vine of prosperity that should produce gratitude instead produces self-reliance and spiritual amnesia.

What makes this trap so devastating is how it flips the script when troubles inevitably return. Rather than recognizing our own drift from God, we blame Him for abandoning us. "God, why did you leave me? You're the one who gave me this job, this marriage, these children—why are you taking them away?" Pastor Brandon shares heartbreaking conversations with believers caught in this cycle, unable to see how they've positioned themselves outside God's covering through pride and self-sufficiency.

The good news threading through this challenging message is that course correction is always possible. God's "reckless love" waits patiently for our return. His desire isn't that we reject prosperity—after all, He created joy and abundance—but that we maintain a humble recognition that "in Him we live and move and have our being." Every gift, talent, opportunity, and blessing flows from His hand, and acknowledging this truth keeps our hearts soft and receptive to His guidance.

Want to grow deeper in God's Word? Connect with our Bible Breakdown Discussion on Facebook where our community shares daily devotions. Your questions, insights, and even pushback help us all grow closer to the Lord, one step at a time.

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The More We Dig. The More We Find.

Chapters

• 0:48 Welcome to The Prosperity Trap
• 3:03 Hosea 10: Israel's Luxuriant Vine
• 6:23 The Danger of Forgotten Blessings
• 9:46 When We Blame God
• 10:59 Coming Back to the Source

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:24

Well, hello everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, pastor Brandon. Today, hosea, chapter 10, and today's title is the Prosperity Trap. The Prosperity Trap and I don't know about you, but I don't know a single person who has not fallen into this trap from one time or another. And God's calling it out because he wants our heart and His reckless love will never stop. So we'll get into all that in just a moment. But if you like what we're doing here, while you're opening your Bible to Hosea, chapter 10, make sure you take just a moment to like, share and subscribe to the YouTube channel and the podcast. Make sure you leave us a five-star review on the podcast and make sure you are going to the Bible Breakdown Discussion on Facebook. There's an amazing team of people doing devotions there every day, and the goal is for us to dig into God's word together, because the more we dig, the more we find, and we want to hear from you. We'd love for you to comment on those different posts. Give us your questions, give us some pushback. If you've got that, give us some insights that you've gathered as you have dug into God's word yourself, and let's grow this community of faith getting closer to the Lord, one step at a time.

Speaker 1: 1:29

Once again, if you have your Bibles and you're opening up with me to Hosea 10, don't forget that the overall goal of Hosea is God's reckless love. Hosea is writing these prophecies during the time when Israel and Judah are still kingdoms. If you remember, they split. You have Israel, which is the northern kingdom, you have Judah, which is the southern kingdom, and Israel is. They're in the process of being taken over by Assyria, and they're being taken over by Assyria because they have turned away from God. And Hosea, who is living during the time of Isaiah? Isaiah was in the southern kingdom Hosea is prophesying to the northern kingdom and just begging them.

Speaker 1: 2:10

Hey, man, pay attention to the reckless love of God. He is turning our hearts back to him, or trying to, and it's using this metaphor of a faithful husband and a wayward wife, and how that faithful husband is continually going back after his wife and saying I'm not going to give up on you, but at the same time, I love you too much to tell you a lie. I'm going to tell you what's messing you up. And today we're going to look at another one of those things that God is saying. This is what's standing between us, but I don't want it to. So let's read this together and I'm just going to go ahead and tell you, just like the rest of the soap operas, this, just like the rest of the soap operas, this one's going to hurt a little bit, but it's good for us. It's like taking your vitamins right, or eating some Brussels sprouts every once in a while, lord, which, if you're from the South, you fry it enough times and it's all good, all right, so let's fry this up a little bit.

Speaker 1: 2:58

Hosea, chapter 10, verse 1, says this how prosperous Israel is, a luxuriant vine loaded with fruit. We could just stop there, but let's just keep going. Guilty, and they must be punished. The Lord will break down their altars and smash their sacred pillars. Then they will say we have no king because we didn't fear the Lord. But even if we had a king, what could he do for us anyway? They spout empty words and make covenants they don't intend to keep. So injustice springs up among them like poisonous weeds in a farmer's field. Justice springs up among them like poisonous weeds in a farmer's field.

Speaker 1: 3:48

The people of Samaria tremble in fear for their calf idol at Bethhaven, and they mourn over it, though its priests rejoice over it, its glory will be stripped away. This idol will be carted away to Assyria, a gift for the great king. There, ephraim will be ridiculed and Israel will be ashamed because its people have trusted in this idol. Samaria and its king will be cut off. They will float away like driftwood on an ocean wave and the pagan shrines of Avin and the place of Israel's sin will crumble. Thorns and thistles will grow up around their altars and they will beg. The mountains bury us. They will plead with. The hills fall on us and the Lord says O Israel, ever since Gebeah, there has been only sin and more sin.

Speaker 1: 4:37

You have made no progress whatsoever. Was it not right that the wicked men of Gebeah were attacked? Now, whenever it fits my plan, I will attack you too. I will call out the armies of the nations to punish you for your multiplied sins. Israel is like a trained heifer treading out the grain An easy job she loves. But I will put a heavy yoke on her tender neck. I will force Judah to pull the plow and Israel to break up the hard ground. I said plant the good seeds of righteousness and you will harvest a crop of love. Plow up the hard ground of your heart, for now is the time to seek the Lord that he may come and shower righteousness upon you. But you have cultivated wickedness and harvested a thriving crop of sins. You have eaten the fruit of lies, trusting in your military might, believing that great armies could make your nation safe. Now the terrors of war will rise among your people. All your fortifications will fall, just as when Shemla destroyed Beth Arbel, even mothers and children were dashed to death. There you will share that fate, bethel, because of your great wickedness. When the day of judgment dawns, the king of Israel will be completely destroyed.

Speaker 1: 5:59

Wow, can I tell you what I've seen happen so many times and it breaks my heart every time is I have watched good people come into God's presence, give their life to him and say God, I lay everything down at the altar for you. That is just beautiful and it just challenges you to go deeper in your relationship with God. Right, and you see them. And then you see them go through these difficulties and financial difficulties and relationship difficulties, and you see them just cry out to God and trust the Lord. And then you see God do amazing things. I mean, it's amazing and you can't help but celebrate with them. You just see God's faithfulness. They're just celebrating the Lord.

Speaker 1: 6:44

And then not always. But you'll see these same people who will take the blessings that God has given them and they begin to forget where they came from and they'll begin to think that they are the ones who did those things. They are the ones who opened those doors for themselves and that God was a part of the process, but he wasn't the author of the process. And they begin to do all of those different things and slowly it takes over their heart and their heart begins to get further from God. And then, when they come out from under God's protection and they have to try to hold it up themselves, it begins to fall apart. And then you know what they do.

Speaker 1: 7:21

I've seen people, instead of coming back to God and humbling themselves, then they look at God and they go God, why did you leave me? Why did you abandon me? You're the one who gave me this marriage. You're the one who gave me these children. You're the one who gave me this job. Why are you now taking them away from me? And then, instead of realizing that it was them that walked away from God, now they're blaming God for what has happened and they doubled down on all the things that they thought was what was holding it up. And it just keeps getting worse and worse and worse.

Speaker 1: 7:50

And then, many times, I'll be talking to them as a pastor and they'll say listen, god wasn't faithful. And because I don't know the backstory, I'm sitting here going well, I really don't know what to tell you. Yeah, it sure looks like God wasn't faithful, but I know he is. And they're going no pastor, I have no idea. And I'm sitting there scratching my head, going this math isn't mathing right now, because I know God's faithful, but he sure doesn't look. Tell me your story. And as I start listening, I start going oh, oh, I got it. I got it.

Speaker 1: 8:19

You fell into that trap Many of us have fallen into and it's that that prosperity trap. Well, at some point, god blessed you and you forgot who was the one that blessed you. And and I'm just like, like, my first thing is hey, hey, you're good. You know why? Because we've all done it, and the great thing is is that God can redeem that. But you got to come back up under his blessing and and that's what's happening in this chapter is, israel was blessed by God. And, as they were blessed by God, they begin to forget that it was God who blessed them. And now that they're in this situation where they don't know what's going on, they're going. God, why have you left us? Why aren't you here? What's going on and God is going? Wait a minute now. What do you mean? Where am I at? You're way over there in left field and he's trying to call them back because he's saying it's going to get bad, guys, it's going to get bad. So here's my question for you today Is there a time in your life when you would say that every gift you have belonged was from God?

Speaker 1: 9:18

Every gift you had was from God? Every time any good thing happened, you were like praise the Lord for his goodness and his faithfulness. And if you're there right now, don't move, stay right there to realize that in him we live, we move and we have our being. And so that's where you are. Stay right there, don't you move muscle. But for some of us, when is the last time that we realized everything we have is from God? If your pushback is?

Speaker 1: 9:41

Well, pastor, I don't know what you're talking about. I mean, god may have given me that job, but I'm the one that worked that job. I mean, that's mine, it's like well, who do you think gave you the heartbeat you have? Who do you think gave you the knowledge you've got? Who do you think gave you the brain? Who do you think even gave you every breath that you breathe? No, no, no, you may have used the tools he gave you, but the tools belong to him, and so everything truly is a gift from him. And you know what all that God wants Gratitude, thankfulness, humility.

Speaker 1: 10:10

God doesn't mind us having things. He doesn't want things to have us. You think that God wants you to be miserable? No, you think that God wants you to be miserable. No, god created joy. But, once again, the ultimate source of joy we have to look past the thing and get to the source and realize the source is him, and so the course correction maybe for us today is have we forgotten where all of the luxury we used to enjoy? Have we forgotten where it came from? And if so, the good news is is we can fix it. You know it may not be my fault, but it is my responsibility. My responsibility is to acknowledge okay, maybe I have gotten a little carried away, but it's time for me to come back to him. And if you do that man, god's reckless love is waiting on us today.

Speaker 1: 10:55

Let's pray right now. God, thank you so much for today. Thank you, god, that you're with us and you're for us. Lord, sometimes it can be a hard conversation to just really get honest and say you know, I'm not where I want to be. I have gotten mixed up in some stuff, I have gotten a little bit too wrapped up in me. But, lord, I know that that is a beautiful prayer because it's then that you come rushing in and you rescue us. I'm thankful for that today. In Jesus' name, we pray amen, amen. Well, god's word says in Hosea 6, verse 6, he talks to us and he says I want you to show love, not offer sacrifices. I want you to know me more than I want burnt offerings. God wants a real relationship with us. I love you. I'll see you tomorrow. For Hosea, chapter 11.