Hosea, Part IX

The Divine Prosecutor is not mincing any words about why He is disgusted with His people. God is very clear:  He is the One who is facing His people, and here is what they have done, and this is why He is angry. Nothing could be clearer than that. Let us go back into the courtroom.

"Wine has robbed my people of their understanding." (4:11) 

Let's stop there.  Wine is a choice--no one is forcing inebriation upon the people.  May I expand the list? 

Alcohol...drugs...cell phones...sex...entertainment...social causes...anything that distracts us way from God is a "wine."  No one forces this "wine" on us.  We choose it. When we are distracted, we lean on our own understanding.  We don't know what to do when life isn't so dependable or comprehensible. We lose a job; our spouse files for divorce; our kid wants to be a girl; our pastor is preaching doctrine that is only faintly biblical and we just don't know which end is up anymore.  Our "wine" has blunted our spiritual awareness of God and His presence.  So what do we do?

Well, in Hosea's day, they consulted idols: 

"They ask a piece of wood for advice!
They think a stick can tell them the future!
Longing after idols
has made them foolish.
They have played the prostitute,
serving other gods and deserting their God." (v.12)

Then, what did the people do when the way was not clear? 

"They offer sacrifices to idols on the mountaintops.
They go up into the hills to burn incense
in the pleasant shade of oaks, poplars, and terebinth trees.
That is why your daughters turn to prostitution,
and your daughters-in-law commit adultery.
But why should I punish them
for their prostitution and adultery?
For your men are doing the same thing,
sinning with whores and shrine prostitutes." (vs. 13-14) 
O foolish people! You refuse to understand,
so you will be destroyed." (vs. 13-14)

Of course.  The people, with no vision, were perishing.  So, they turned to what they were accustomed to...which is sad.  The people have been used to consulting other gods by engaging in reprehensible practices, and so, in their confusion on how to proceed, they defaulted to their usual evil.

Not only the older generation but the younger people were engaging in these practices.  The adults had failed to teach the ways of Yahweh, so it was no surprise that the younger generation didn't know any better.  Why would they? 

If we don't teach, and more importantly model Christ-like behavior, then the younger generation will not understand His ways, and the culture will fill in the gap.  Relying on that verse in Proverbs that tells us that if we train up a child in God's ways, they won't depart from it, is not a free pass for our behavior.  The "training up" must be a "living out" of what it means to follow Christ.

Many adult children do not follow the faith of their parents.  Somewhere along the line, what the parents said and what they did started to unravel.  Rules replaced love; self replaced selflessness and compromise replaced following Christ closely. 

We are always training up our children, because we are always walking in Christ, and showing them how we deal with each life stage in a godly way.  Our training falls by the wayside if we are not walking consistently.  And if we fail, we are quick to seek His forgiveness, and that of those around us. 

We now have many children who don't know the things of God, because their parents walked away from faith, having repudiated what they experienced themselves as children growing up in a Christian home.  I know we all make mistakes as believers, but I have seen parents who thought that judging their children's faith was acceptable because it didn't conform to what they thought Christianity should be like and now those children have grown up, not wanting faith.

Each generation must find Christ in their own idiom.  As long as the Bible is upheld, how the younger generation expresses their faith is up to them.  

I taught in a Christian school where several of the older teachers were aghast that one of my middle school students was wearing blue nail polish.  They wanted my students to wear only pinks and corals, as proper Christian girl should do.(!)  

It is that kind of thinking that drives younger people away, because if wearing blue nail polish is tantamount to sin, then why bother? When sin is defined by tradition and not by the Bible, it loses its potency to correct our behavior. 

 So, what will happen to all of the generations occupying Israel?

"O foolish people! You refuse to understand, so you will be destroyed." (v. 14)

Ignorance can be fixed.  Arrogance cannot.  So, the people, in refusing to reacquaint themselves with  Yahweh's ways as taught by the prophets, they will soon reap what they sowed. 

God is always interested in repentance. He does not want His people to be destroyed, but He cannot abide sin year after year after year. If the people refuse to listen to His word, as proclaimed by His prophets, their arrogance will lead them into the deep waters of judgement. Ezekiel 33:11 captures God's sorrow: “Tell them, ‘As sure as I am the living God, I take no pleasure from the death of the wicked. I want the wicked to change their ways and live. Turn your life around! Reverse your evil ways! Why die, Israel?’" (The Message) 

God is mourning what is coming to His people as a result of their sin. He laments over Israel, and hopes her example will be a warning to Judah, her southern neighbor: 

“Though you, Israel, are a prostitute,
may Judah not be guilty of such things.
Do not join the false worship at Gilgal or Beth-aven,
and do not take oaths there in the Lord’s name.
Israel is stubborn,
like a stubborn heifer.
So should the Lord feed her
like a lamb in a lush pasture?
Leave Israel alone,
because she is married to idolatry.
When the rulers of Israel finish their drinking,
off they go to find some prostitutes.
They love shame more than honor.

So a mighty wind will sweep them away.
Their sacrifices to idols will bring them shame." (4:15-19)

Why do we, in our modern America, think we will escape God's judgment?  You could argue we are not His chosen people, but we have, in our history, identified ourselves as a Christian nation.  With great power comes great responsibility, and we are losing our moral standards by allowing the culture to define us. 

We want the culture to approve of us.  But will they?  Ever? Or will they continue to chip away at our faith until there is nothing left?

I am not proclaiming a nationalistic approach.  I am advocating a personal approach.  We must live our lives so that people see a difference. I am advocating a grassroots approach.   

The sacrifices prescribed in Leviticus resulted in "a pleasing aroma to the Lord." What made that aroma even possible was the sacrifice itself. Jesus was our sacrifice. Now His aroma becomes our own: "Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God." (Eph. 5:2)

 
Not everyone will respond positively to what they sense in us, but that doesn't absolve us from allowing His fragrance to emanate from us: "For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing, to one a fragrance from death to death, to the other a fragrance from life to life." (2 Cor. 2:15-16)

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Hosea, Part VIII

The Divine Prosecutor is not giving any quarter to those who lead the people. God is furious at how His priests--people who are called to serve Him and teach the people--are actually deleterious to His kingdom.  He lays the blame squarely on the shoulders of those who know better, but do not do better.

This is rather startling, but how often do religious leaders benefit from the very people they purport to serve?  Religion puts a respectable patina over carnal motivations.  The leaders can justify what they do because the people love them: 

I just love when my people look up to me, and you know what, why not? I heard the call from the Lord and I am doing His will. He has blessed me and I am indispensable in the lives of my people. They look to me to teach them about God, and that's what I do.

The money I receive is compensation for all my hard work. Why shouldn't I use that money to buy a jet, a big house, a fine wardrobe or those things that show that my followers love me and how God is blessing me? I am showing them how much I love them by letting them see how much I enjoy what they give me! It's a win-win for everyone.

What do the followers say?

Oh, I just love it when my teacher opens up her Bible and teaches me.  I actually understand it.  How could she be so wonderful if God wasn't working in her?  She has so many people come to hear her.  Yes, I know.  Sometimes her words are more, well, her words, rather than God's holy word, but she seems to know what she is doing.  I trust her.  I should open my Bible and pray for His wisdom, but I trust she is getting it from God and so I get it from her.  

So, the followers trust the teachers to explain the Word and they do not study it themselves. The leaders exploit the trust of their followers to meet their material needs at the expense of God's truth. 

Has anything really changed? 

What does the Divine Prosecutor say? 

“When the people bring their sin offerings, the priests get fed. So the priests are glad when the people sin!" (4:8)

Wow. The priests have clearly created an environment where they do not excoriate sin by emphasizing  how contrary it is to Yahweh, but then act all indignant when the people sin, demanding that they bring sin offerings! It's a twisted win-win. 

It's as if the priests are spiritual loan sharks:

Hey, go visit those temples!  It's not that big of a sin!  Yes, you've heard Yahweh doesn't like when you sin, but I am His priest and I say what you are doing in those temples with those prostitutes and all the offerings you are making is really not that offensive to Yahweh.  Don't listen to those old priests--they are so out of touch with what Yahweh is revealing to us today.  

Sometime later that day...

You did what?  You stepped over the line with that! I said going to the temple wasn't all that wrong, but you went multiple times last week?  You're kidding, right?  No? OK, this calls for some serious offerings to offset your lack of judgment. Hand it over.  No, I mean more.  This is going to take more.  Much more. 

So the ugliness continues. The priests are capricious in their teaching as to what Yahweh demands of His chosen, and the people are are confused as to which way is up. 

Jesus had no tolerance for the spiritual loan sharks of His day. In Matthew 23, He is uncompromising when He expounds the seven woes of the Pharisees and how they have used their authority to destroy His Father's place in the lives of His people.  This particular woe captures what the priests of Hosea's day were doing:

“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut the kingdom of heaven in people's faces. For you neither enter yourselves nor allow those who would enter to go in. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves." (Matt. 23:13-15) 

In other words, out of the evil hearts of the Pharisees came evil teachings, making the Jewish people of Jesus' day confused at best.  But at worse, the people emulated the behavior of the Pharisees and committed evil themselves.  The nation of Israel was then a terrible witness to the Gentiles around them.

Back to Hosea's day: How can the priests of Yahweh minister to the Canaanites when their teachings are really no different from the priests of Baal?  How can the Israelites be a blessing to all nations when they are no different from all nations?  

But the Divine Prosecutor is not going to let the people off the hook.  They have the Torah.  They have the history of God's mighty deliverance from the slavery of Egypt, His provision in the desert and the founding fathers of the faith: Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  

The people know. Thus, they should be pushing back on the priests, by telling them that what they are doing is contrary to Yahweh. 

9 "'And what the priests do, the people also do.'

So now I will punish both priests and people
for their wicked deeds.
They will eat and still be hungry.
They will play the prostitute and gain nothing from it,
for they have deserted the Lord
to worship other gods." (9-10)

It takes two to sin, and in this case, priest and pupil are culpable. 

Does this message about leaders and followers ring true today?  Yes.  How much teaching is being done in the name of Christ, and is contrary to the Word of God outright?  Or, how much teaching has been based on a few proof-texts, twisted to construct a whole new theology? The leaders then benefit, because many people flock to hear and follow them, making the leaders celebrities.   

Why?  Because we would rather have someone tell us what the Word says, rather than partner with the Holy Spirit and allow Him to teach us.  He will not teach a verse here and there, but He will show us the full counsel of God. 

But we must humble ourselves.  The people of Hosea's day lost humility as they arrogantly sought a "better" way than the Torah.  As a result, their behavior degraded and mocked the values of Yahweh. 

We are no different, and God's warnings are as relevant today as they were then.   

Hosea, Part VII

Wow.  We left our last look into Hosea with the verse from chapter 4: "Don't point your finger at someone else and try to pass the blame!" (verse 4).

We have a universal and rather nasty habit of saying that our woe is caused by someone or something "out there"--it has nothing to do with whatever actions or decisions we have made. 

No way.

This goes back to our very beginning.  Remember when God confronts Adam and Eve with their transgression?  What is Adam's response?

The man said, “The woman you put here with me—she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.” (Gen. 3:12)

Look at what Adam does. He blames God outright (with no reverence or respect here) for placing her with him in the first place.  He dehumanizes Eve by calling her "the woman." She has lost her name, her identity, her oneness with him--she is now "the other." He blames her for being in his space--he implies that he would have never sinned if Eve weren't in the Garden with him. Oh, and don't forget:  She gave him the fruit and he (helplessly? without any choice? ignorantly?) ate it.  

Classic. (a) It's God's fault I am where I am. (b) It's that person/group who has caused me such woe.  They don't deserve respect.  The other is not like me. (c) Can we just remove that person/group from my/our space?  Life would be so much easier. (d) Choice?  What choice?  Why are you blaming me? I am the victim here.

Now, a quick moment with Eve: 

"Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate” (verse 13).  

God asks her what she did, not who is involved.  God wants her to dissect her action--seeing if she understands why it is wrong and if so, why. Regardless of the serpent's involvement, she did not follow God's instructions to not eat the fruit.  Period. She passes the blame to the serpent.  

She had no choice?  She didn't fully understand? She thought that somehow the serpent's words were more important than God's?  Who provided everything around her with its beauty and bounty? Who gave her Adam? Who walked in the Garden with her, enjoying her company and vice versa? 

Classic. (a) I was deceived--I didn't know what I was doing. I blew it because that ______ was more important than following God and His ways. I knew better, but that temptation drew me in and I couldn't help myself. (b) I know what I needed to do, but those people around me confused me, and I wanted their approval. They were so persuasive--you can't blame me. (c) Yes, I know.  God loves me, but if He does, why did He make a world that is so contrary to who He is?  Is He just trying to make it hard on us humans? 

So, blame is nothing new. God thwarts the blame game. God will not brook the "logic" of His people who are justifying what is going on.  How do I know this?  If the people had come up to Hosea and said, "We know.  We truly have fallen short of the glory of God.  Please ask God to forgive us," that would indicate they were willing to take responsibility for their actions and the consequences thereof. 

Didn't happen. 

God shoots straight at the target: the priests.  Jesus will take the religious leaders of His day to task as well.  Why?  The leaders know better.  They have the Law. 

If they haven't gone deep into the ways of God, that's on them.  If they have gone deep into the ways of God, and have not followed what they've learned, that's on them.  If they don't really know or understand the ways of God, but haven't rectified their ignorance with study, that's on them.  

The priests, by the virtue of their office, have a moral responsibility to teach the people--not what they think is best, but what God says.  In order to teach the ways of God, you must be cultivating an ever deepening relationship with God.  You can't teach Him if you don't know Him, or you know Him only superficially.

So here it what Hosea says:

My complaint, you priests,
is with you.
So you will stumble in broad daylight,
and your false prophets will fall with you in the night.
And I will destroy Israel, your mother.
My people are being destroyed
because they don’t know me.
Since you priests refuse to know me,
I refuse to recognize you as my priests.
Since you have forgotten the laws of your God,
I will forget to bless your children.
The more priests there are,
the more they sin against me.
They have exchanged the glory of God
for the shame of idols. (4:4-11) 

I think of Jesus' words against the Pharisees: "Leave them; they are blind guides. If the blind lead the blind, both will fall into a pit.” (Matt. 15:13) 

Blindness: The deliberate ignoring of the Law means that when the priests step forward to teach the people, their blindness leads them to teach all sorts of things--whatever passing fancy they have that day--and the people perish for a lack of true vision. James made it clear that teachers bear a greater responsibility because their knowledge becomes the people's. If it is wrong, the people will stumble and fall: "Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly." (3:1) 

The priests "refuse to know Me."  This is not ignorance.  This is defiance. 

Why do the priests defy the Lord?  Because the world has taken over.  In this case, it's the alluring world of pagan practices and an arrogant sense that because we do what the gods tell us to do, the gods are obligated to do as we tell them to do.

Shocking?  Yes.  Welcome to the world of pagan thinking.  The gods make all sorts of demands. The people do them. Consequently, the gods must act.  

Let me give you an example.  The sexual act between a temple prostitute and an adherent is a signal to the gods to give a reproductive bounty.  The man's semen is analogous to rain, the woman's womb is the earth and thus the act is a demonstration of what the gods should be doing: Bringing forth rain to make the earth productive.  This is called sympathetic magic, whereby what you do is a reminder of what the supernatural beings should be doing. 

Thus, after the sexual act is complete, having fulfilled what the gods demanded, they must act.

If you engaging in temple prostitution, the gods will not act.  Or, if the rains do not come, you did it wrong. Or not enough. You seek to control the gods with your actions, but in the end, the gods are capricious and unpredictable, so you, a mere human, can never be entirely sure of the gods acting in your favor. But most of the time you succeed. 

Do you see how contrary this is to Yahweh?  

We don't control Him by what we say and do.  He acts out of His love.  He acts out of His covenant with us ("covenant" comes from the Hebrew word meaning, "lovingkindness"--hesed). His covenant still stands with us and even when we are disobedient, the rains fall, the plants flourish and the animals frolic with their babies. Yes, sometimes God will use a drought or a famine to remind the people that He alone is in control and desires their obedience.  He does this not out of anger but out of love, for He knows what is best for us and is trying to ger our attention.  

Why did the priests of Yahweh exchanged "the glory of God" for idols?  They wanted to be in control.  They wanted to control the spiritual narrative by dictating to the people what they must do to appease the gods. It wasn't hard to persuade the people, for everything about paganism speaks to the flesh, and humans love that, especially if you put a religious patina over it:  Hey!  We're engaging in human sacrifice and ritual sex to get the gods to do what they said they would do!  And they do!  Look at this land, filled with milk and honey.  And you know why?  Because of us!

So, let's summarize the charges so far that Yahweh is bringing against His children in this Divine Court:

1. The people are not faithful, kind and don't seek God to understand Him.
2. They break vows.
3. Murder, theft and adultery are rampant.
4. Violence is everywhere.
5. The priests are tantamount to false prophets: they do not speak the truth and choose to not know God or they allow false prophets a place from which to spew their sinful words.
6. The people are ignorant because of the moral failure of their priests.
7. There is an ever-increasing number of priests spreading their sinful knowledge to the people and acting in ways that are contrary to Yahweh.
8. These priests are pagans in Levites' clothing--wolves among the sheep.


The Divine Prosecutor is just getting started.

Hosea, Part VI

Chapter 4 has a different kind of feel to it.  We have moved from a domestic setting--with children running about, tears of a pleading husband, the shameful grimace of a broken wife--to a courtroom. It's as if God has moved His message to a more public arena, broadening the venue as to drive the point more fully home.

Did people discount Hosea's message, dismissing it as the ramblings of a distraught husband? 

Of course Hosea is ranting and raving at us. What kind of man names his children those ridiculous names?  His wife's a whore--no wonder he's burdened with sorrow and grief.  He then has the unmitigated gall to turn his anger on us!  Making us out as some kind of whore towards God!  What? Yeah, maybe we do engage a little too much with those pagans, but it's hard to deny their success!  The god Baal does an awful lot to provide for them.  Every season, the fields are full of grain.  The rains come and the streams overflow.  The animals have lots of babies and so do the people. Yes, sacrificing a child is hard to take, but hey, if that means a bounty for the rest of the family, so be it!  And to everyone else!  Yeah, that sexual stuff is strange, but hey, if the god requires it and we benefit from it, why not?  Hosea is miserable with his own weird family-- that is his problem.  We have been able to balance Yahweh with Baal, and we get results!  All Hosea gets is unhappy children and a wife who sleeps around.  He's made his problem our problem, and we don't buy it. 

God is now acting as a Dvine Prosecutor, speaking through Hosea, and no longer having him demonstrate the unfaithfulness of Israel in his personal life. 

God will take on any role He can to get our attention, even the role of Son. Here we go!

In 4:1-3, we hear:

Hear the word of the Lord, O people of Israel!
The Lord has brought charges against you, saying:
“There is no faithfulness, no kindness,
no knowledge of God in your land.
You make vows and break them;
you kill and steal and commit adultery.
There is violence everywhere—
one murder after another.
That is why your land is in mourning,
and everyone is wasting away.
Even the wild animals, the birds of the sky,
and the fish of the sea are disappearing.

God does not mince words as to cause and effect.  If you turn away from the value system of Yahweh--where life is sacred, the Law is essential and others are family--then what do you get? Remember how your founding mother and father didn't want God's knowledge but took a bite from a tree of good knowledge (what you determine it to be) and bad knowledge (what you don't see until you are drowning in its evil depths).   

Here's the bitter fruit of your own knowledge: 

Violence. 

 

Adultery. 

Murder. 

False testimony. 

No love for God.  

No love for others. 

No loving your neighbor as yourself. 

No seeking after the ways of God.

(Just a thought here--did your pursuit of sexual perversion and watching babies burn to death harden your hearts?  Are your souls seared by sin?  Are you now utterly deaf to your conscience?  That is the greatest "gift" of Baal:  The Prince of Darkness, using this false god as a mouthpiece, now whispers to your heart and you follow his lead.  Your society, as a result, is being degraded by sin's tyranny.)

(Oh, yeah. One more thought.  Slavery is never advertised as slavery, but as freedom...  

Freedom from such antiquated thinking such as the Law of Moses.  

Freedom from anything that restricts you.  

Freedom to be non-judgmental towards others, and to embrace the good they have to offer.  

Freedom to pick and choose your own morality because this isn't the desert anymore--this is the land of milk and honey and it's hard to ignore all of its god-given bounty. 

But, Israel, did you hear the metal sound that the shackles made as they slammed tight around your wrists and ankles? Oh wait!  That's what God is trying to do through Hosea: He wants you to see just how enslaved you are!)

God is also using nature to drive home His point. Remember how He judged every god of Egypt, by overcoming their supposed rule over the earth?  The god of light couldn't prevent the utter darkness that descended over the land; the god of the Nile couldn't stop the waters from changing into blood and Pharaoh, claiming to be a god himself, couldn't save his own son. 

No difference here: the gods of Canaan can't stop the fish, the birds and the wild animals from disappearing.  People are starving.  Where's your god Baal now?   Where's his provision?  Didn't all that sex done before the gods and all those screaming babies make any difference?  

Then, God doesn't give the children of Israel a chance to start the blame game: “Don’t point your finger at someone else and and try to pass the blame!" (4:4)

God will then launch into holding the leadership--the priests--for having aided, abetted and benefitted from the sin of the people. 

Stay tuned.  These are powerful (and deeply convicting) words from the Lord.

Hosea, Part V

I love how the previous passage ends in chapter 2:

I will plant her for myself in the land;
I will show my love to the one I called ‘Not my loved one.’
I will say to those called ‘Not my people,' ‘You are my people’;
and they will say, ‘You are my God.’” (v. 23)

God is all about restoration. He is the father in the parable of the prodigal son: He is always waiting for His children to come home. 

But God doesn't ignore the sin that led His children to wander in the first place. The father says his prodigal son was "lost" but now is "found."

Lost.  Estranged. Wounded. Alienated. Alone.

That is the fruit of sin. To put it another way: Sin never advertises itself as slavery.  It brands itself as freedom and it's not until we hear the shackles' sickening metallic sound as they clamp around our legs and feet that we realize just how devastating sin really is.

He admonishes Israel for their spiritual adultery. They have shackled themselves to gods who are not real; engaged in child sacrifice and sexual immorality; taken on a value system antithetical to Yahweh's and walked away from their beautiful covenantal relationship that is their inheritance.

God made it clear from the moment that Moses descended the mountain with the Ten Commandments, which are the heart and soul of how the children of Israel were to conduct themselves with God and with each other, that: 

You must worship no other gods, for the Lord, whose very name is Jealous, is a God who is jealous about his relationship with you. (Ex. 34:14)

Strong's Concordance says that the word is Hebrew for "jealous" is qanna and means that God will have no rival, and will destroy those who depart from Him. 

Before you assume God is being rather petulant and unforgiving, realize you are seeing Him through a fallen lens. 

Think of God in the Trinity, where He has an unbroken fellowship of adoration with His Son and with the Spirit. 

When God created Adam and Eve, He made a kind of replica of the Trinity: He had an unbroken fellowship of adoration with His children. His children gazed lovingly into His eyes, with no other desire than to walk with Him and hear His voice, marveling in His creation and in each other. 

Sin changed all of that.

Now, because of how sin has stained our love and fellowship with God and with one another, we see God's adamancy as too harsh and rather scary.  

God desires us.  When we even consider a rival to the Lover of our souls, we are allowing sin to dictate the terms of our engagement with God.  Rivals cause us to lose our first Love. Why wouldn't God be  angry and anguished? 

How do we respond when we find out that the one we love is being unfaithful? We are angry, hurt, stunned and feel utterly betrayed. Betrayal is a kind of repudiation:  I no longer care about you.  I have given myself to a rival.  What we had, who you are, where we were going and what we shared no longer matters. 

If we grieve over someone we love being unfaithful, why do we expect God to pat us on the head? God uses the metaphor of being Israel's husband for a reason.  

God's love is not harsh or scary.  It is devoted. Uncompromised. Deep. All-encompassing. 

God speaks through Hosea not only to bring Israel back but to celebrate the coming restoration. He says:

The Lord said to me, “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.”

So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley. Then I told her, “You are to live with me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will behave the same way toward you.” 

For the Israelites will live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred stones, without ephod or household gods. Afterward the Israelites will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the Lord and to his blessings in the last days. (3:1-5)

Gomer is now probably in debt. Hosea must now redeem her.  So her sin has lead her into an ever deeper literal bondage.  

So has Israel.  They love the gods and the raisin cakes:  They are now indebted, if you will, to follow the rituals that the gods of the Canaanites demand: child sacrifice and temple prostitution. They are in bondage to a set of values that the society demands they enact. Yes, they may do it willingly, but what if they have qualms the day they are to show up with their child who is to be put into the arms of a fiery bronze god?  When they hear their wee one scream has its tiny body touches down on the scalding hot metal? 

The pain.  The guilt.  The questioning.  Having to smile and say, "Praise Molech." Walking home with empty arms and retuning to the house where the little baby bed is now empty.  If that is not bondage, I don't know what is.

But God is faithful. God promises a king who will defeat His enemies and bring Israel back to a place of worship, faithfulness and adoration. 

David will be a representative of the One to come.  Let's travel to the day of when Jesus confronts the woman caught in adultery.  She is brought before Him.  She is in bondage to sin:  She is paid by men for sex and in her degraded state, is dragged before Jesus by her gleeful detractors (are any of them customers who are trying to hide their sin by acting righteous, until the next time they come a-calling?) 

Jesus confronts sin on all of its ugly levels. First, her detractors:

They kept demanding an answer, so he stood up again and said, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” (John 8:6-8) 

The religious leaders and the crowds drop their stones.  They know, deep in their hearts, they are not perfect.  But do they realize just how enslaved they are? Judgement, anger, self-righteous, and wanting to trap Jesus as opposed to learning from Him has enslaved their hearts and minds.  They use this poor woman to discredit Him.  All done, I might add, in the name of serving their version of God. 

Next, Jesus confronts the bondage that the woman is in:  

Then Jesus stood up again and said to the woman, “Where are your accusers? Didn’t even one of them condemn you?”

“No, Lord,” she said.

And Jesus said, “Neither do I. Go and sin no more.” (8:10-11) 

Wait a minute!  She calls Him, "Lord."  Not Rabbi.  Not Jesus. But Lord.  She has repented right then and there:  She is facing the true Lover of her soul, and she senses His disappointment in her sin, but also she feels His redemptive call in His voice. 

That what God in Hosea was trying to do and what Jesus was trying to do: Acknowledge your wandering but focus on returning.

Paul puts it another way:

Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. (1 Cor. 13: 6-7)

God is love. So let's capture this idea even more deeply: God does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. He always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Amen.

 

Hosea, Part IV

Throughout these verses, you hear God expressing Himself with highly charged words.  You can interpret the words one of two ways: (1) He is vengeful and punishing towards Israel, (2) He is angry and spiteful, giving it as good as He gets, (3) He is broken-hearted and anguished, speaking with words that are at one moment just, and another moment, merciful.

Which number you pick depends on how you see God. 

With #1, you could say, Why wouldn't He be angry at Israel?  Look at how they have betrayed Him, worshipping other gods and ascribing His goodness to them!  I'd punish them too!  I'd allowed the Assyrians to march in, and as they did, I would cheer them on.

So, for you, God is an agent of wrath, just waiting for the right moment to strike, because, after all, we deserve it. 

With #2, you could say, Of course, God holds grudges.  He not only sees our sin, but harps on our failings and shortcomings, because we never seem to get it right in His eyes.  There's no pleasing Him.  No wonder He's always upset about something. He needs to give us a break.

So, for you, God is never pleased with anything you do, for His standards are too high.  He focuses only on the negative and is quick to condemn you. 

With #3, you could say, He's my Father and if I am sinning, I am throwing darkness towards His light, disobedience against His love and accusation against His kindness.  I focus on myself and fail to see His hurt as that wall of sin grows taller and taller and shuts Him out.  He loves me with a fierce love and will do anything to win me back.  If that includes suffering, He will allow it.  He will watch me with grief but chastens me so I may see the error of my ways. He is just but His mercy is new every morning, whether I deserve it or not.  His love is not based on my how much or how little I deserve it; it's based on me simply being His child.

So, as we read Hosea, you can interpret God in many ways as He speaks to and through Hosea. Perhaps Hosea's greatest gift to us is presenting a God who cares.  If He was truly vengeful, He would have give His people no warning (they deserve what's coming to them anyway, right?) and when the Assyrians showed up, they would have been shocked.

God's love cannot help but point to Israel's sinful behavior and He will do anything to convince Israel to turn from her pursuit of spiritual adultery.  

(Jesus dying on a cross comes to mind here.)

If we think God is not willing to give His people a break, it's good to know that Hosea prophesied for over 25 years [1] before God allowed the Assyrians to invade Israel.

25 years of warning, pleading, showing, cajoling...God is patient.  He seeks the restoration not and  the destruction of His people. This shows His patience, mercy and love. 

In verses 2:9-12, God removes His material blessings from Israel.  He bestowed them out of love for His people, honoring His covenant to be their God, and now He removes those blessings. Why?  

We use the word, "enablement" today.  Think of it this way:  If God continues to provide to His people, ignoring their sinful ways, what will induce them to change?  Their behavior, whether good or bad, yields the same result: blessings. Why then be good?  Sin is lot more fun.  Chasing after temple prostitutes.  Doing whatever you want to the poor, the needy, and the widow.  Laughing with your neighbors over how great Baal's provision is!  You see it everywhere!

We know enabling the drug addict, the alcoholic, the abuser, the manipulator, the whiner, the "victim" (you name it) does not bring about the change the person truly needs. We talk about "rock bottom."  When you are flat on your back, that's when you look up.  

If we don't do this, knowing how counter-productive it is, why do we expect God to enable our sin and then accuse Him of being unkind when He won't? 

God is clear as to His next step: 

"I will punish her for the days
she burned incense to the Baals;
she decked herself with rings and jewelry,
and went after her lovers,
but me she forgot,”
declares the Lord. (2:16-17) 

But God is not abusive, punishing more than He needs to.  The punishment fits the crime.  But in the rest of the verses, (way longer than the verses outlining the punishment) He wants to restore Israel and lavish on her His love and bounty: 

“Therefore I am now going to allure her;
I will lead her into the wilderness
and speak tenderly to her.
There I will give her back her vineyards,
and will make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.
There she will respond as in the days of her youth,
as in the day she came up out of Egypt." (2:14-15) 

"Achor" means "trouble." God is putting an expiration date on the punishment, but His love is everlasting. 

"In that day,” declares the Lord,
“you will call me ‘my husband’;
you will no longer call me ‘my master.’
I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips;
no longer will their names be invoked..." (2:16-17) 

Restoration.  A marriage that is whole, faithful, loving.  Not at all the kind of marriage Hosea has and one that Israel is now demonstrating.  Where's the revenge?  Where's the "you get what you deserve" attitude?  God is the opposite of that.  He brings peace and safety to a people who now obey Him and have felt His chastisement for just the right amount of time. God's goal is always repentance, not rejection.   

"Bow and sword and battle
I will abolish from the land,
so that all may lie down in safety.
I will betroth you to me forever;
I will betroth you in righteousness and justice,
in love and compassion.
I will betroth you in faithfulness,
and you will acknowledge the Lord..." (2:18-20) 

Remember Hosea's children? All along God wanted these names to be what He called His children. 

"I will show my love to the one I called ‘Not my loved one.’
I will say to those called ‘Not my people,' ‘You are my people’;
and they will say, ‘You are my God.’” (2:23) 

After this utterance, did Hosea go home and embrace his children, celebrating how their names, just like Israel's, were going to change? 


[1] Steven Hovater, "Historical Background of Hosea—Assyria," https://stevenhovater.com/2011/05/30/historical-background-of-hosea-assyria

Hosea, Part III

Picture Hosea, standing and watching his children play. They laugh and kick up the dust as they run and shout at each other. They haven't a care in the world.

Then Hosea looks at them, and in a voice ladened with sadness, says,

God Scatters! Not Loved! Not My People! It's dinner time!

They stop their laughter. They stand still and lower their heads. When Hosea turns and walks back into the house, one of them says,

Why does Abba call us that? He gathers us together and hugs us. He loves us. We are his. We are nobody else's. But everytime he calls us, he puts his face in his hands, and cries. Every time. He wipes his eyes and then gives us a hug. He goes on walks. By himself. Ema is here sometimes, but more often she is away. So, we only have Abba. He seems distant. But we know he loves us, because he'll kiss us goodnight. We wish he'd change our names. They don't match his love for us.

Hosea, like many of God's prophets, not just speaks the word of the Lord, but he demonstrates it. He is an actor in a play called, "God's Call to His Errant People."  Hosea will play the part of God.  Hosea cries when he calls his children's names.

God cries when He calls Israel's name.

Hosea calls his children by names he didn't want to give them--who would want to bestow such names on their loved ones?

But names describe character.

The names Hosea calls out describe the results of Israel's sin: they will be scattered after their enemies descend on them.  They are not loved, not because of who they are but because of what they are doing. They are not acting like His chosen people, but are behaving like pagans. 

But Hosea still loves his children. Deeply.

So does God. Deeply. 

When God calls His children through Hosea, He is shattered by what is to befall them, but He is also angry that they have commited spiritual adultery and have chosen to walk away. They decided, for themselves, what is right. They are devouring the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil--they decide what is good and pursue what is evil.

God did not want to bestow such names on His people--but He must. His children have new names because they pursue a new way of living. 

Perhaps, in a way, they have named themselves.

They are pursuing a pagan way of life--thus, when the true pagans show up, they will be scattered away from God and will dwell among the gods they so lust after.

They are not loved--the gods they are so enamored of do not love them, and care not a wit for their welfare. The people are worshipping figments of a perverted imagination.

They are not God's people--they would rather align themselves with darkness than pursue the light of His love and truth.

God speaks through Hosea a deeper and even more painful message.  But first, He says: 

In that day you will call your brothers Ammi—‘My people.’ And you will call your sisters Ruhamah—‘The ones I love.’

God, before He denounces Israel, reminds his people that He is willing to accept them back when they repent. He will rename them, for despite His denunciation, He still loves them. But with God's mercy, comes His justice. And it rolls down like a mighty stream:

But now bring charges against Israel—your mother—
for she is no longer my wife,
and I am no longer her husband.
Tell her to remove the prostitute’s makeup from her face
and the clothing that exposes her breasts.
Otherwise, I will strip her as naked
as she was on the day she was born.
I will leave her to die of thirst,
as in a dry and barren wilderness.

Israel has clothed herself in garments made of sin.  God wants her to discard such filthy garments, or He will. Once she is stranded in the desert, will she see the sinfulness of her ways? Will her thirst and hunger make her long for the provision and security only Yahweh can provide? Will she seek Him with a repentant heart? 

And I will not love her children,

for they were conceived in prostitution.
Their mother is a shameless prostitute
and became pregnant in a shameful way.
She said, ‘I’ll run after other lovers
and sell myself to them for food and water,
for clothing of wool and linen,
and for olive oil and drinks.’

God is accusing Israel of loving other gods who bless her with the finer things of life.  But Israel, while she may have gained the whole world (in her eyes), she is losing the Lover her soul. But Yahweh will not abandoned her.  He has covenanted Himself to her, as a husband to a bride. He may, for a time, forsake her, but He will never leave her.  

God, although His judgement will fall one day, will protect Israel from herself: 

For this reason I will fence her in with thornbushes.
I will block her path with a wall
to make her lose her way.
When she runs after her lovers,
she won’t be able to catch them.
She will search for them
but not find them.
Then she will think,
‘I might as well return to my husband,
for I was better off with him than I am now.’
She doesn’t realize it was I who gave her everything she has—
the grain, the new wine, the olive oil;
I even gave her silver and gold.
But she gave all my gifts to Baal. (2:1-8) 

The last line is terribly painful:  Israel is so steeped in her spiritual adultery that she ascribes her wealth and abundance to a god that doesn't even exist. She takes the gifts from Yahweh and hands them over to a fake, a deceiver, a demon. 

She walked away from love and light into sin and darkness.   

But still, even still, He watches over her and wants her back.

How can we say we've gone beyond God's reach when we sin? How can we listen to such a lie? How can we think that of other people and their sin? 

Isaiah reminds us: "Listen! The LORD’s arm is not too weak to save you, nor is his ear too deaf to hear you call." (59:1)

Amen.