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.
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