Hosea, Part XII

Here we go.  We are exploring Hosea, chapter 6.  We have just heard the voice of Hosea himself, telling the people that despite God having judged them, He is all about bandaging their wounds and restoring them.

After the correction, comes the love. 

After the love?  Exasperation:

“O Israel and Judah,
what should I do with you?” asks the Lord.
“For your love vanishes like the morning mist
and disappears like dew in the sunlight.
I sent my prophets to cut you to pieces—
to slaughter you with my words,
with judgments as inescapable as light.
I want you to show love,
not offer sacrifices.
I want you to know me
more than I want burnt offerings.
But like Adam, you broke my covenant
and betrayed my trust." (6:6-7) 

What kills our relationship with God?  

Rituals without relationship. 

Rituals without realty.

When the people in Israel and Judah were not engaged in rituals with the Canaanite gods, they were just going through the motions with the Mosaic requirements. They were doing the rituals without wanting to know who God was.  They were not interested in a relationship with Him. 

A relationship causes us to engage in introspection: Am I truly loving this person to the best of my ability?  Am I being hypocritical--saying one thing and then doing another--or am I being sincere in all I do, even if I don't always get it right?

Equally, when the people thought they could accommodate both--God and the gods--their grasp of reality was deeply deluded.  God made it clear they could not serve both: Light and darkness could not and should not mix.  They recreated a new reality of following God: a spiritual adultery that they thought God would turn a blind eye to.  They reasoned that God would understand and forgive them  because they were His chosen people. They considered that God didn't mind as much as the prophets said He did, and that He was more open than He was made out to be.  Surely, He must have understood how the people wanted to serve the gods of the land they were in, due to its abundance and if they wanted that to continue, they needed to join their neighbors. 

To them, all of this was obvious.  It wasn't sin, it was survival. 

Really?

When people have an adulterous affair, they are not prioritizing the relationship with their spouse.  Perhaps, due to repeated lapses in making their marriage the most important thing in their lives, the relationship no longer holds sway over what they say and do.  They also have deluded themselves that  they deserve to be happy; their spouse doesn't really care anymore about the marriage; the children will be happier if the parents stopped fighting and finally, why not?  A lot of people have affairs, and the sky doesn't fall in.

God was grieving how His prophets' words couldn't penetrate the people's stony hearts.  God wasn't about the rituals--He wanted their sincere love. He wanted them to know Him and know Him well.  

Their spiritual adultery elicited two emotions in God: He was deeply angry that they had defied the King of the Universe and He was devastated at their wanton breaking of the covenant that was akin to a marriage.

God's anger doesn't surprise us.  He had every right to be incensed by their horrible rituals for the Canaanite gods and their disregard for human life.  But if you have heard people say that the God of the Old Testament is a harsh God, and is only concerned with judgement, the next verses show us why that belief is wrong: 

“O Judah, a harvest of punishment is also waiting for you, 

though I wanted to restore the fortunes of my people.

Gilead is a city of sinners, tracked with footprints of blood. 

Priests form bands of robbers,

waiting in ambush for their victims.

They murder travelers along the road to Shechem 

and practice every kind of sin. 

Yes, I have seen something horrible in Ephraim and Israel:

My people are defiled by prostituting themselves with other gods!

O Judah, a harvest of punishment is also waiting for you,

though I wanted to restore the fortunes of my people." (6:8-11)

When the people broke the covenant with God and violated His trust (verse 7), it was because the leaders were aiding and abetting the people's disobedience by doing so themselves. The commandments, given by Moses, were a visible manifestation of the covenant relationship between God and His people.  If the priests themselves broke the law, they were being a contemptible role model, because they gave sin a kind of respectability: If the priests don't tell us to stop, well, why not keep going?  They don't seem to care. Why should I? 

Had Judah pointed to Israel to justify their sin, saying that the northern kingdom was getting away with pagan practices?  

Had Israel pointed to Judah to justify their sin, saying that the southern kingdom was getting away with pagan practices? 

Had they both insisted that God couldn't be all that angry because nothing had happened? All that doom and gloom was just the rantings and raving of a misguided prophet?  Didn't the prophet say that God want to "restore the fortunes of His people"? 

This argues that God was (and is not) harsh, vengeful and perpetually angry at human beings:  He was (and still is) waiting for our repentance.

But isn't that the very sin in our hearts that makes us blame Him when His judgment finally falls?  

Do you hear a distant echo here?  Do the words, "Did God really say?" come floating back?  That God is not trustworthy?  That He doesn't mean what He says?  That He doesn't say what He means? 

These lies have dogged humanity since the Garden. 

We ignore God's words and then when our lives fall apart, we echo Adam: "It was the woman you gave me..."  In other words: It's your fault, God.  Without ___________, I wouldn't have sinned.

Then we echo the words of Eve: "The serpent deceived me."  In other words: I am not at fault here. I was deceived...

This is why He sent His prophets.  He wanted His children to be fully appraised of what He expected of them, and what the consequences were if they disobeyed.  

He also wanted His children to hear His grief and hurt that His children, after all He's lovingly done for them, have turned away and ignored Him in heart and in deed. 

If God were truly irresponsible and capricious as Satan insinuates He is, humanity would have ended in the Garden, right then and there, about two minutes after God questioned our Parents. 

But God has stood by His errant and arrogant children, with warning and waiting, and a heart that  deeply wanted their repentance.  

He still warns.  

He still waits.