Reading: Hosea 1-5, Psalm 122
Ugh. The gut response to the book of Hosea cannot really be anything else. This is a difficult book that illustrates some of the ugliest consequences of the human problem that we have seen since the book of Judges. Yet Hosea has been known for thousands of years as the “Prophet of Love.” We already read one covenant lawsuit against Israel in the book of Isaiah. Hosea issues one of his own, but takes the legal language of the covenant in the books of Moses and turns it into marital language. Rather than talk about how Israel has violated God’s covenant laws, he talks about how Israel has violated it’s marriage vows. All of Hosea’s accusations about Israel’s unfaithfulness take on this intensely intimate picture of betrayal. Prophets in the Bible in general did not have pleasant lives, but Hosea stands out in the emotional cost of his ministry. When he spoke God’s words about how Israel betrayed him as a bride, he spoke with personal experience.
Hosea was active around the same time as Isaiah, likely starting a little earlier, but he spoke primarily to the northern kingdom centered on Samaria, and only occasionally mentioned Judah. Hosea appears to have done most of his public ministry during the reign of Jeroboam II, who was politically powerful but spiritually bankrupt. During his reign, as we will see, the Canaanite religious practices around Baal and Asherah were pervasive. By this time these gods had complex fertility cults around them, which involved extensive ritual prostitution. Hosea’s use of the marriage metaphor was no accident. It spoke to his own life, the relationship of God and Israel, and likely the lives of many married persons in Israel at the time.
The story opens with God telling Hosea to marry a harlot. The language is actually a little ambiguous, and it’s not totally clear if God is informing Hosea that he will marry a harlot or commanding him to do so. In either case its not the most ideal situation for Hosea. Hosea marries a woman named Gomer, with whom he has three children, all of whose names are significant in God’s message to Israel, and are not very nice. The first, Jezreel, literally means “God sows” but is also a place name. Sowing and reaping will have significance throughout the book. Also, the king Jeroboam II was a descendant of Jehu, who if you remember the story in Kings, killed a great many people in Jezreel. The second is named No Mercy. Not a really great name to grow up with. The third was You Are Not My People. The second two don’t need a ton of exposition to see what God is saying.
That is all very depressing, but the chapter ends with a promise of restoration for Israel- they are Not My People, but they will be called children of the living God. Following this rather abrupt about face, we get a poetic expression of God’s decision to restore Israel which will parallel the choice of Hosea in regards to Gomer. The second chapter of Hosea contains some extremely brutal language as God considers Israel his unfaithful wife, but it is all aimed at turning Israel back to him. It will require losing everything and being hurt badly, but Israel will eventually realize everything they ever had came from God. The first half of the chapter reads like a buildup to forever casting Israel aside. God has every right to do so, based on their violation of the covenant. But in verse 14 he make a different choice. Rather than enforce his rights as Israel’s God and king, he chooses to make Israel right by winning her back to his side. The language turns from brutal punishment to romantic efforts. Despite the unfaithfulness of Israel, God will win her back. Following the parallel to Hosea’s children, God undoes their cursed names. No Mercy will receive mercy. Not My People will be called my people.
The story of Hosea and Gomer then follows the declared purpose of God for his relationship with Israel. Hosea goes to the city gate and buys his wife back from her state of enslavement. The price of a slave was thirty pieces of silver, but note what Hosea pays: fifteen pieces of silver, some grain, and some barley. It is not clear if this is because this is all Hosea could afford or because it was all Gomer was worth. But now she is under strict rules, as Israel will be under strict rules upon their return from exile. God will restore his people, but there are consequences for their actions.
Following the short personal narrative from Hosea in chapter 3, we begin the covenant lawsuits that Hosea brings against Israel, and some warnings to Judah as well. We now know the personal story of Hosea, now we see how that story impacts his declaration of judgment from God for disobedience. Hosea sees everything in intensely personal terms. As his children suffered from their mother’s wayward activities, Israel’s children will suffer for theirs. And who is the “parent” here? The priests. Hosea accuses the priests, who should have been the teachers of Israel, of being the Gomer character. Their unfaithfulness will result in disaster for the people. This compares with the imputed sin and righteousness of the kings. For those in authority, their actions have far reaching consequences.
One of the temptations of stories like that of Hosea is to read ourselves into the wrong role. Anyone who has been betrayed identifies on some level with Hosea, especially those who have been betrayed by a spouse or parent. However, recall that in this story, it is God who is represented by Hosea, and God’s people are Gomer and her children. In the story the Bible is telling, the aggrieved party is always God. He is always the faithful one. As we will see in the rest of the book of Hosea, that is the point. Hosea is told to buy back Gomer when he had every right to abandon her because that is what God will do for his people. We are not Hosea, God is. It is only the relentless faithfulness of God that lets us identify with Hosea at all.