Reading: Hosea 6-10, Psalm 123
The start our second day in Hosea with a short plea by the prophet for his people to return to their God. Come, let us return to the Lord. Hosea, having played the part of the aggrieved husband, knows how God will respond to repentance. It will not be easy, but there will be restoration. A literary allusion illustrates it: after two days he will revive us, on the third day he will raise us up. Here is another one of those interesting moments in the prophets where, with the benefit of hindsight, we see Jesus. I don’t think we are wrong to do so, but at the time there is no hint that this is about the Anointed One. So what did it mean to the people at the time? I think Hosea was saying to patiently persist in repentance, and in due time God would restore his people.
His plea was not successful. God addresses both Ephraim (another name for the northern kingdom, which was dominated by the tribe) and Judah, accusing them of fair weather worship- like the morning cloud, the dew that fades early. Verse 7 compares the actions of God’s people with that of Adam. There is clever wordplay going on there. The people reading and listening to Hosea had the books of Moses so knew the story of Adam and Eve. But they also knew the Hebrew word for Adam as a generic term for humanity. Both kingdoms prided themselves on being a chosen people of the God of Israel, but God is telling them they are like the other nations when they break covenant with God, as well as participating in the rebellion of their ancestor, Adam.
In chapter seven God says he has turned to heal Israel, only to find them continuing in ever increasing sinfulness, as if he was not there. There are euphemistic descriptions of Canaanite orgies, worship practices to Baal and Asherah. God wants to recover and heal his people, but they ignore him and persist in self destruction, all while claiming to be God’s people and following the forms of worship. God makes some comparisons to the people of Israel that we might find unkind: they are half-baked bread that has already started to mold (7:8-9), a foolish bird (7:11), and later he will call them a child too stupid to be born in chapter 13.
God turns to the leadership. The kings participate in people’s cult worship. God disowns the northern kings, as they were not made through me. He disowns their priests, as they sacrifice to a calf image that does not represent him. The consequences of this will be exile. They sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. In the books of Moses, when the people sinned, God added clarity to the covenant laws, but here he says if I wrote him laws by the ten thousands it would do no good. The days of recompense had come. There is no way to avoid the judgment now.
God reviews some of the history of unfaithfulness. He accuses Israel of being unfaithful since the days of Gibeah, evoking the last four chapters of Judges, the disastrous story of the Levite’s concubine and the destruction of the tribe of Benjamin. He recalls the people’s quick surrender to Balaam and Balak’s ritual prostitutes at Baal-Peor in the book of Numbers. He accuses present Israel of being as bad as these. In chapter 10 Hosea turns to the means and reason for the destruction of the northern kingdom. Assyria is called by God to punish his rebellious people. Hosea sees Assyria come and take all the glories of Samaria, their king, and their altars. The people will be so shamed in their defeat and exile they will call on the mountains to fall on them.
Interposed here we also get a warning to Judah. Hosea compares the two kingdoms to a yoke of oxen, one of whom has been removed. The southern kingdom must now plow and harrow alone. Hosea calls Judah to pay attention to what has happened to the northern kingdom. The reading today concludes with an exposition of why the northern kingdom fell: you have trusted in your own way. It is the sin of Adam. The human problem. The declaration of independence from God. The northern kingdom set up their own kings, practiced their own worship, nominated their own priests. God held off their destruction for a long time, but in the end he had to remind them that they were not who they thought they were. They followed formal worship practice and claimed to be God’s people, but God looks on the heart. Back in chapter 2 we saw God decide, despite having all the rights in the world to be rid of her, to remain “married” to Israel and restore her. Tomorrow we will see God mourn over his people, and hear his relentless commitment to heal them. He will make all things new.