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.   

Hosea, Part II

We are looking at the start of Hosea's prophetic career.  God's call is never easy.  God is more concerned about the message than the messenger.  That is not a cruel statement: By the time God has called His prophets, time is of the essence.  The event foretold may not come quickly, but it will come suddenly.  His people need to know enough in advance to repent, so that the event does not come upon them without warning.

We humans tend to wait until things are unavoidable and have descended into catastrophe before we act.  By then, the unfolding event has a power and life of its own, and cannot be stopped easily.  God loves Hosea, but He also wants His children to know that their status of being His chosen carries with it grave responsibilities and a call to holiness, both of which they are egregiously failing to do. 

Yes, it grieves God to place such a burden on Hosea, but what is going to befall the people in the northern kingdom of Israel is even more serious.  

Let us review God's call: 

When the Lord first began speaking to Israel through Hosea, he said to him, “Go and marry a prostitute, so that some of her children will be conceived in prostitution. This will illustrate how Israel has acted like a prostitute by turning against the Lord and worshiping other gods.” (1:2)

Hosea is demonstrating the message. Everywhere he speaks, his message will be reinforced by his own family--a family that is broken, chaotic and a violation of God's design.

Children are a sacred gift.  Marriage is a sacred gift.  Our relationship to God is a sacred gift. 

Hosea's family shows how prostitution and its violation of the marriage covenant results in children who don't know who their father is and thus, they live a life without roots and stability.  How will these children see God as their father when they don't even know their own?  They feel abandoned by whoever he is,  and they take that image and superimpose it over God's face.  

He becomes the father who doesn't honor the family. His abandons His children. 

God is the absolute opposite of this.  He is faithful to His people--He never violates His covenant with them.  He calls His people, "children," and makes Himself known to them through mighty acts, His Word and His presence.  He gives them roots.  Stability. Safety. His love for them never fails. He will never abandon them--even if everything around them says otherwise. 

God's love is fierce enough to step in and protect His people from the errors of their ways.  He does it by having prophets speak in His name: to guide, chastise and call them back. 

So, Hosea's message is not just about the people's apostasy; it is about God's character, and how utterly contrary it is to Hosea's family.  It is also contrary to the gods the people are serving.  These gods, with their demands and illusions of power, will abandon God's children in their time of need.

This will be sadly evident when the Assyrians march in. Where will all those gods be then?  Yes, you guessed it:  They will have abandoned their worshippers.

When we deceive ourselves, we always end up abandoned and alone. 

Enter the next part of the message: 

So Hosea married Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she became pregnant and gave Hosea a son.  And the Lord said, “Name the child Jezreel, for I am about to punish King Jehu’s dynasty to avenge the murders he committed at Jezreel. In fact, I will bring an end to Israel’s independence. I will break its military power in the Jezreel Valley.” (1:3-5)

As we noted in the last blog, everytime Hosea calls his son's name, he will be reminded of what is to come: the utter destruction of Israel's military capability and the scattering of His people. Everytime the people hear Hosea call his son's name, or see them both walking in the market square, they will be reminded of what is to come.  They think that their chosen people status and their military is protecting them from enemies. Wrong. God honors the covenant He made with His people, and it is Him alone who protects Israel. Not the army.  Not the so-called gods.  

Jezreel's name is a reminder that God wants His people to repent before the scattering begins.  

Next: 

Soon Gomer became pregnant again and gave birth to a daughter. And the Lord said to Hosea, “Name your daughter Lo-ruhamah—‘Not loved’—for I will no longer show love to the people of Israel or forgive them. But I will show love to the people of Judah. I will free them from their enemies—not with weapons and armies or horses and charioteers, but by my power as the Lord their God.” (1:6-7)

Hosea is not identified as the father. Gomer, despite the opportunity to be a wife, secure in her husband's love and concern for her welfare, again seeks the arms of another man. Why? She has Hosea now. Why is she out sleeping with other men?  

God is asking the same question.  Why, if you know that your army and gods aren't going to protect you, why are you, people of Israel, still sleeping around with those gods and your illusions of grandeur? 

Then the girl child receives the sad name of "Not Loved."  Has God really withdrawn His love for His people?  To show His people He is not walking away altogether, He declares His love and protection for Judah, the kingdom in the south. 

Is God trying to make Israel jealous?  

Why not?  God will woo, chastise, warn or do whatever it takes to secure Israel's repentance, because He is the Father of His people.  

But there more to come.

After Gomer had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she again became pregnant and gave birth to a second son. And the Lord said, “Name him Lo-ammi—‘Not my people’—for Israel is not my people, and I am not their God." (1:8-9)

God is pulling out all the stops.  These children, conceived out the marriage covenant, reveal the future:  God will step away from His people, for they keep sleeping around, bearing the children of sin, arrogance, unbelief and disdain for His holiness and their calling to be a kingdom of priests. 

They choose to be spiritual prostitutes. 

They are also choosing their future and the catastrophe that come. This is not just about being spiritually unfaithful, thought that is huge.  It's about being so narcissistic that you don't; notice or even care about the world outside your door.  All of Hosea's children are reminders that the world out there is important. One day, His people will find out that because they preferred sin over serving God, their world exploded.  

But God, whose heart is breaking, lovingly sends this coda to Hosea's message of God's anger: 

Yet the time will come when Israel’s people will be like the sands of the seashore—too many to count! Then, at the place where they were told, ‘You are not my people,’ it will be said, ‘You are children of the living God.’ Then the people of Judah and Israel will unite together. They will choose one leader for themselves, and they will return from exile together. What a day that will be—the day of Jezreel—when God will again plant his people in his land. (1:10-11)

Wow!  Even with those children walking around--"God Scatters," "Not Loved," and "Not My People,"  God takes that firstborn son and recrafts the root of his name to "God Plants."

Boom. The future has hope within it, despite what is to come.

No, the children of the northern kingdom of Israel will not repent.

No, they will not remain in the land but be scattered to the far winds. 

But yes!  They will be His people once again, too numerous to count.

But yes!  They will once more be a united kingdom, serving Him as His priests.  

But yes!  They will have a godly leader (instead of their current crop of evil kings).

But yes!  They will not only return to the land but will be established in it.  

New. 

Redeemed.  

Planted. 

Loved. 

Our God is always about the yes.

Even when we are not. 

Majoring in the Minors: Hosea (Part I)

We are going to start a new series, called "Majoring in the Minors"--the minor prophets, that is.  I am going to begin with Hosea, for he is called to live out the message, not merely proclaim it.  His message of God's persistent calling back of His wayward children is one that we need to hear. God is still in the business of reuniting with us, no matter where we've been or what we've done. 

Sometimes we tell our testimony; other times, we are the testimony.  Hosea is going to live out for all to see what God's love truly means, and he suffers right along with God.  He is not just a prophet--he is a  wounded husband and grieving father.

Like Yahweh. 

Does Hosea choose to live in such a heart-wrenching scenario?  Who would marry, in their right mind, a prostitute? But he chooses to obey God's ways.  God's ways are never easy, because in His pursuit of a fallen race, He must make two things very clear:  (1) We are fallen and we must accept the truth of our sin and break away from the self-delusion of our goodness (2) God loves us and will use whatever means at His disposal to call us back to Him. 

God was so persistent in His love for us that He sent His only Son to die for us, when we we still sinners and utterly alienated from Him. 

Let us see how God loves us so much that when we stray, He calls us back.  By any means necessary. 

Enter Hosea, telling the northern kingdom of Israel that Assyria is coming to bring God's judgment upon them.  The message could end right there:  God could say, "Because I despise how you are behaving, I divorce you.  Dusted and done."

But that's not calling the people to repentance--that's just an angry response to their behavior.  God is always about repentance, reconciliation and restoration.  Yes, He is angry at sin, but He never just leaves it there.  He calls out, warning the people that His judgement is coming if they do not repent.  But He equally calls out that His mercy is coming if they do.

Here we go.

When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, "Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the Lord." So he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. (1:1-3) 

I am sure Hosea's eyes grew wide at God's calling.  Let's consider Hosea's thoughts:

God, did I hear You correctly?  I have always wanted a wife, children and a life around the hearth.  But You are asking me to find a promiscuous women (Israel is not short of those these days) on purpose!  I must find one who sleeps around, and has no regard for the sanctity of marriage!  Then I must have  children with her?  Please, wait a minute, God.  I am willing to do as you say, for I know You have a divine purpose. But how will I know those children are even mine?  When I  marry her, that's not going to suddenly stop her from sleeping around.  Over time, other men's children will show up. These predacious men get off scot-free and I am burdened with the responsibility of providing and raising their children. Then, may I say with all due respect to You, what kind of mother is she going to be?  When her children are crying for food, wanting to be tucked in bed for the night, or wanting her comfort, will she be gone, having run off  to seek another man's arms?  I can do this, but my union with this kind of woman will punish a generation yet to be born.  Please, God..." 

The answer to Hosea's fearful questions is that he must be obedient to God's call.  

Hosea is going to live out, in his domestic microcosm, the utter chaos of the Jewish people in this time in their history.  Hosea realizes that the nature of sin is ugly:  It punishes us.  It punishes others.  It ultimately destroys what is good in our lives and leaves us empty, sorrowful and unable to right the wrongs ourselves.  Hosea is going to step into the macrocosm of Israel's violated spiritual home.  He will walk from one destroyed house, his nation's, into another...his own home.

It didn't take long for Hosea to find her.  Did she look at him and think,

Oh, here comes another rube. "Oh, I want to marry you!" Yeah. Right.  That's what they all say.  All they want is a roll in the hay and off they go.  Back to their wives.  Back to their homes. I sit here with next to nothing and they get to strut about in the marketplace, all respectable-like. Well, I know better.  At least, I make no pretenses that I am good. I know I am not. But there's one sin I am not guilty of: self-deception.   What you see is what you get, baby.

Hmmm.  Which one are we?  The narrative highlights three actors in their prophetic play:  Hosea, a man of God with moral scruples, who is appalled by the sin around him; Gomer, the woman who has no illusions of her goodness and her customers, the ones who act respectable but are filled with deceit, evil and godlessness.

God is watching all three, for they truly represent His people: 

• Those who love Him, yet feel rather helpless amidst all of this sin
• Those who are drowning in it, and feel there 's no way out
• Those who think no one has figured out their hypocrisy, for they are smarter than everyone else, and pride themselves on being the masters of the bamboozle 

God is extending His mercy to all three. 

OK, Hosea finds Gomer who is Diblaim's daughter.  Who is Diblaim?  We don't know, but she is someone's daughter.  Family member.  Real person.  She's has a context but one that has been destroyed. She is reduced to marrying a man she doesn't love (abuse will blunt that emotion in anyone) and soon, she's going to give birth. It's just another day in Gomer's life.

Then the Lord said to Hosea, “Call him Jezreel, because I will soon punish the house of Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel. In that day I will break Israel’s bow in the Valley of Jezreel.” (1:4-5) 

In this culture, the birth of a first born son is cause for celebration.  But God doesn't want this to lessen the potency of His message, so God tells Hosea what to name the son: "Jezreel."  The name means "God scatters" and this child's name foretells what is going to happen when the Assyrians invade Israel.  

Every day Hosea will be reminded of God's impending judgment when he calls his son.  When he tucks his son into bed.  When he stands at the doorway, and watching him play.  

Whenever I call you, small boy, your name cries out to me that God will scatter His people due to their unwillingness to repent. Your name reminds me to pray every single day.  Every time I say your name, God is reminding me to pray.  He doesn't want me, His prophet, to go one day without praying about His sinful nation.  Forgive me, Lord God, for distancing myself from your people.  Their behavior disgusts me and I want nothing to do with them.  Yet, my little boy reminds me of their humanity, their kinship and how we must pray for each other, asking You for mercy.  For all of us. 

You are teaching me to love the unlovable.

To forgive the unforgivable.

And to never forget to ask You to save those around me...

Gomer.  

Jezreel.  

Her customers. 

My fellow Jews.

My nation of Your chosen people. 

Oh, God, how we all so need You.