Hosea, Part XIII

It's interesting that the prophet is now talking about both Israel and Judah at the end of chapter 6. 

Did Judah think they would slip the noose because the Temple was in their midst?  That the City of David was in their land?  

Why do we think we are the exception?  We look around at everyone else who are doing the same things we are and yet we convince ourselves that judgement won't happen to us, because ___________________ (name your favorite exception).

Why do we think that God's judgement is limited to "those people"? Isn't that perhaps the greatest sin of the Pharisees, thinking that because they were (in their own estimation) truly righteousness and everyone else had fallen short, that they wouldn't come under God's holy scrutiny?

But Jesus laid that notion to rest when He said, "For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven." (Matt. 5:20)

The Pharisees thought that their utter devotion to the Law in terms of adherence is what mattered most. But the Law was a way to shepherd God's people, so that they would role model what God demanded of all of humanity. The Israelites were to be a blessing to all nations, not to just themselves. They were to model a godly society, based on a moral code that honored God and humanity. 

The Pharisees forgot the human element of the Law--not just rituals but a relationship with God and with other people. 

The Law wasn't a barrier but a bridge to pleasing God by loving Him with all of our heart, mind and soul. We just read in Hosea how God said, "For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings. (6:6). 

Jesus repeated these same verses when He dined with "those people": 

While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” (Matt. 9:13) 

Ironically, we love to cite John 3:16: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." This is a verse that speaks to how the gift of salvation in Christ was not intended for any one group, but for everyone. 

But we are less incline to quote 2 Corinthians 5:10: "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil."

If salvation, in Christ, came to everyone, then judgement will as well. 

Israel (literally and figuratively) may go down first, but Judah (literally and figuratively) will be right behind her. 

But what about the people in both Israel and Judah who loved the Lord, followed Him with all their heart, mind and soul, and were aghast at what they saw their fellow Jews doing?  I don't think Hosea was the only person who was angry and saddened by how far the northern kingdom had fallen.  There were people who grieved about how her kings were corrupt, the people idolatrous and their love for God and His Law subsumed under utterly immoral practices that had nothing in common with His love and Law.

Love and Law.  Hmmm.  The two are expressed most beautifully in the Ten Commandments.  The first four laws are about God and the other six are about how a person should treat others.

The love of God is expressed in how we worship and act in His name but equally in how we treat one another. The Pharisees thought they'd nailed it because they followed the Law carefully and methodically. They had forgotten the other way the Law is expressed, by treating others in a loving way with compassion.  

Hosea says at the end of chapter 6 and on into the first few verses of chapter 7: 

I have seen a horrible thing in Israel:

There Ephraim is given to prostitution,

Israel is defiled.
Also for you, Judah,
a harvest is appointed. (6:10-11) 

God wants restoration, and not judgement, above all else. But in order to restore us, our sin must be revealed:  

Whenever I would restore the fortunes of my people,

whenever I would heal Israel,

the sins of Ephraim are exposed
and the crimes of Samaria revealed.
They practice deceit,
thieves break into houses,
bandits rob in the streets;
but they do not realize
that I remember all their evil deeds.
Their sins engulf them;
they are always before me. (Hosea 6:11, 7:1-2) 

This is why Jesus is so beautiful:  He is the Great Physician, for He sees sin as a kind of illness.  Interesting to note that the word in Greek for "saved" (sozo) is also the word for "healed."  As John Mark Comer comments in Practicing the Way: 

Because salvation is a kind of healing…it’s about having your soul healed by God’s loving touch. Salvation is not just getting back on the right side of God’s mercy through judicial acquittal; it’s about having your soul healed by God’s loving touch. Ironically, the same sin that keeps us from relationship with God can be healed only by God. Yet again, we need to be saved…And the beginning of our healing/salvation is what Christians call ‘confession’…It’s about courageously naming your woundedness and wickedness in the presence of loving community as you journey together toward wholeness…God is the physician; we’re the patient. All we can do is set our sin in his light. His job is to deal with our sin; our job is to confess our secrets…The journey to healing begins with naming your illness…” [1] 

He then gives us a wonderful quote by James Baldwin: “Not everything that is faced can be changed; but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” [2]

That is why Hosea was prophesying in the first place.  God, though him, was diagnosing the illness that plagued the heart of the people: sin.  God sought to restore the people, who would die (literally and figuratively) if they were not restored by God's healing touch.  

The diagnosis may have seemed harsh to the people but God was (and still is) not in the business of sugar-coating the things we don't want to hear.  In fact, God is quite the opposite. He is direct and forceful when He is diagnosing the severity and the lethality of our condition.  

Jesus made it clear the truth above all else is what leads to restoration: 

Then Pilate said, “So, are you a king or not?” Jesus answered, “You tell me. Because I am King, I was born and entered the world so that I could witness to the truth. Everyone who cares for truth, who has any feeling for the truth, recognizes my voice.” (John 18:37 MSG)

What was true in Hosea's day is equally applicable to every century that has rolled on past, including ours:

This is the crisis we’re in: God-light streamed into the world, but men and women everywhere ran for the darkness. They went for the darkness because they were not really interested in pleasing God. Everyone who makes a practice of doing evil, addicted to denial and illusion, hates God-light and won’t come near it, fearing a painful exposure. But anyone working and living in truth and reality welcomes God-light so the work can be seen for the God-work it is. (John 3:19 MSG)

What was true for Israel and Judah long ago still applies. God is the same, yesterday, today and forever, and so is His call for loving Him, one another and and being obedient to His ways. 

We seek healing, and He offers us the truth and the Truth.   

[1] John Mark Comer, Practicing the Way, pp. 95-96

[2] John Mark Comer, Practicing the Way, p. 96