OT412 - Part 3 THE BOOK OF HOSEA continued Lesson 9

THE MESSAGE OF HOSEA CHAPTERS 4-14:

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We will now turn to the rest of the book of Hosea to see how the themes introduced in chapters 1-3 are developed. The heart of Hosea’s message is the marriage (covenant) relationship between Yahweh and Israel.

THE BROKEN COVENANT: THE DISINTEGRATION OF SOCIETY

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Unlike Amos, Hosea says little about injustice and oppression. This is not because these problems no longer existed, we can safely assume that matters became worse as the years passed. Hosea’s primary aim was to expose the way in which Canaanite religion had destroyed the faith and life of Israel.

The Ten Commandments are the foundational requirements of the covenant relationship God established with Israel. The indictment is therefore a charge that Israel has broken the covenant. The problem is that Israel has “no knowledge of God”. Knowing God in the Old Testament means to know him in a personal way but in the eighth century Israel no longer knew God in such a manner. (The NIV translates it as no acknowledgment of God which does not bring out the personal aspect as clearly). Not knowing God resulted in a collapse of social morality shown in improper oaths, murder, adultery, stealing and lying.

Canaanite Worship

The Canaanite fertility religion involved religious prostitution because of the belief that through sympathetic magic sexual acts with sacred prostitutes (male and female) at the temples caused the gods to bring fertility to people, animals and soil. This religion was attractive to the people of Israel because of its sensuality and offer of wealth and power. In addition, Ba‘al made no moral demands on his worshippers. Incorporating temple prostitution into worship inevitably led to immorality in all aspects of society. (Sympathetic magic operates on the principle of analogy and underlies the practice of black magic or voodoo.)

Verse 12 refers to idolatry and magic. Instead of enquiring of Yahweh they turned to Canaanite gods and to divination using pieces of wood. These activities were carried out on the tops of hills (closer to the gods) where there were shady trees. Such trees had a sacred significance for the Canaanites but Hosea polemically says their only value was for shade.

THE BROKEN COVENANT: THE RELIGIOUS CORRUPTION

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The first of the ten principles of the covenant is “You shall have no other gods before me”. In the time of Hosea Canaanite practices had overwhelmed Israel’s life and faith. Ba‘al and Asherah had become Israel’s gods and although Yahweh was still worshipped he was perceived in Canaanite terms. Canaanite culture had won the battle for the hearts and minds of God’s people.

Hosea announced the shocking news that Israel had become a prostitute (harlot or whore), betraying the love of Yahweh and loving other gods (her “lovers”). Making matters worse was the failure of the priesthood to fulfil their calling as God’s representatives. It was their role to teach the torah, an impossible task for those who had degenerated to the point that they permitted sacred prostitution at the shrines under their control.

Hosea’s Criticism of the Cult

Verse 7 appears to mean that an increase in the number of priests did not lead to an increase in instruction in God’s requirements but to an increase in sinning because the priests themselves were so sinful. They even benefited from the sin of the people because Levitical law permitted them to eat part of the sin offerings – the more the people sinned, the more food they got. Therefore why should they seek to help people turn from their sin (v 8)? Hosea declares that priest and people will receive the same punishment (v 10).

THE BROKEN COVENANT: “RETURN TO THE LORD YOUR GOD”

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Hosea saw that what was needed was a change in the heart of the people. This could only happen if they returned to God. The problems stemmed from the fact that they did not know him (4:1b).

What God wants and does not want is stated in 5:15-6:6. In 5:15 God says he is waiting until Israel returns. In 6:1-3 Israel states that she will return to the Lord for he will surely forgive. Yahweh’s response in v 4 is one of frustration and disappointment for he knows that Israel’s words are not what they appear to be, they are empty and ritualistic and will disappear like the morning dew. What he wants is faithful love and a personal relationship with the people of Israel.

THE BROKEN COVENANT: GOD’S JUDGMENT

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Like Amos, Hosea declared that Israel was doomed. Her reliance on the Canaanite gods (eg. 2:2-13) and political alliances (eg. 7:11-13; 8:8-10; 12:1; 14:3) and a busy cult would not save her from the coming destruction and exile.

We have previously considered the threat of God’s judgment in the names of two of the children Lo-ruhamah and Lo-Ammi and in 2:2-13. Note what is said in the following passages about the future facing Israel (only some of the many passages):

The reference to returning to Egypt in 11:7 may be a way of saying that Israel will return to a land of bondage because they will not return to Yahweh.

THE RESTORATION OF THE COVENANT: FUTURE HOPE

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The immediate future meant devastation but Hosea declared that Yahweh had a glorious future for Israel beyond this. This restoration had its origin in the compassion and love of Yahweh (“How can I give you up O Israel?”) and not in the repentance of the people for Hosea was convinced that they were incapable of repentance (5:4). Their confession in 6:1-3 would last no longer than the morning dew.

There are a number of key passages describing Israel’s future. We have looked already at those which occur in chapters 1-3 (1:10-2:1; 2:14-23 and 3:5). The remaining passages are found in chapters 11 and 14. Hosea is certain Yahweh will restore Israel but does not indicate when this will take place.

Chapter 11 consists of alternating statements about Yahweh’s acts of love and judgment and Israel’s unfaithfulness. Verses 1-4 present Yahweh as a parent/father caring for a little child. He had shown his love by bringing the child out of Egypt and teaching it to walk but was rewarded by rebellion and ingratitude. This will result in devastation at the hand of Assyria and Israel returning to Egypt (vv 5-7). This is either a metaphor for slavery and exile or to seeking refuge from Assyria.

This devastation might have meant the annihilation of Israel but this would not occur. Verses 8-9 are a remarkable and unique revelation within the Old Testament of the feelings of God as he contemplates the punishment Israel deserves for breaking the covenant. Israel will be punished (vv 5-6) and will go into exile (vv 10-11) but if the covenant curses came fully into effect it would result in Israel’s extinction. He had punished Sodom and Gomorrah and the adjacent cities of Admah and Zeboiim to the extent that they could no longer be located (Genesis 19:12-29). But because of his covenant love for Israel he is unable to deal with her in the same way. F Andersen and D Freedman (Hosea, p 587) comment: “We glimpse the agony in the mind of God as he searches for some way of evading the response to which he has committed himself in the covenant curses.” God could not give up on his people. This same tension is seen in Hosea 6:4 - “What will I do with you O Ephraim?”

Verse 9 further describes God’s character. He cannot annihilate Israel because he is “God and no mortal”, “the Holy One in your midst”. Unlike human beings whose love and patience are limited, he could not abandon Israel even though they had forfeited his love by their unfaithfulness. It would be contrary to his nature as God to totally destroy those to whom he had pledged himself in the marriage (covenant). He will show an even greater love than had Hosea with his wife.

It is significant that God’s holiness is here defined in terms of his unfailing love not his power and transcendence. E Achtemeier (Minor Prophets I, p 95) writes:

“Yahweh of Israel is the ‘holy’ God, which means that God is more completely different than anyone or anything else – totally and qualitatively different from all human beings and from everything in all creation. God’s holiness is his divinity, that which distinguishes him as God. And because he is holy he is inexhaustible love (cf. 1 John 4:8, 16). That is the nature, the divinity of God which he cannot set aside, even in the face of Israel’s total unfaithfulness and refusal to return his love.”

Spend time thinking about Hubbard’s comment (Hosea, p 195): “The apostle Paul prayed for his fellow believers to abound in love in order that their hearts might be ‘unblameable in holiness’ (1 Thess 3:12-13). John captured the essence of God’s being with ‘God is love’ (1 John 4:16). Holy love, loving holiness – these are the phrases that give us the clearest insight that we possess into the divine nature. No-one except Jesus the Christ has taught us more about this than Hosea.”

Chapter 14

The call to repentance (vv 1-3) and the salvation oracle (vv 4-7) define the way forward for Israel. It does not mean the judgment will not take place, Hosea saw that it was inevitable and imminent but there is a way to find Yahweh, to “know him” in a way lacking in the eighth century (4:1). Yahweh will graciously love and heal Israel. The restoration theme has been sounded in the changed names of the children, in the ‘courting’ of Israel in the wilderness (2:14-23), in 11:8-9 but is developed here in the form of a love song.

The promise of v 4 is explained by the images of vv 5-7. God’s presence will be like the life-giving dew which was so important for Israel’s agriculture. Israel will no longer be like a parched land but in concepts reminiscent of the Garden of Eden and the Song of Solomon she is described as a bountiful and fragrant garden, flourishing in his presence. In v 8 there is a final comment on Israel’s unfaithful behaviour. The fertility Yahweh will create is a rebuke to Israel of the eighth century who was relying on the supposed power of Baal to promote fertility (chapter 2). Hubbard (Hosea, pp 229-230) describes vv 5-7 as a love song in which Yahweh the Husband declares his love to his Bride, a fitting conclusion to the story of the love of Yahweh for Israel and Hosea for his wife.

HOSEA'S USE OF ISRAEL'S ANCIENT TRADITIONS

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Hosea’s understanding of Israel was rooted in the traditions concerning the patriarchs, exodus, wilderness wanderings, the conquest of the land and the covenant at Sinai. The covenant with David is mentioned once and only briefly while Jerusalem is not mentioned. This is not surprising in light of his preaching to the Northern Kingdom.

Mays (Hosea, p 10) states that “no prophet is better informed than Hosea about Israel’s history, or uses historical tradition more for the stuff of his kerygma. The definitive period of Israel’s existence was the time of the Exodus and the wilderness and conquest.” Hosea speaks of a recapitulation of Israel’s history. The first period was in the wilderness when Israel worshipped only Yahweh but at the edge of the land they flirted with Baal, beginning a second stage which was a history of sin. Yahweh would bring this stage to an end by a devastating judgment by which he “would bring the career of faithlessness to a disastrous conclusion so that it could not possible continue. Then he would take the people back to their primary history, to the wilderness, where they would learn again to be his people (2:14f.). From there he would give them the land again.”

Yahweh had shown his love in bringing Israel, his little child, out of Egypt and continuing to care for it. The response had been increasing unfaithfulness (11:1-4). Hosea reminds Israel in 13:1-4 that they had known Yahweh from the time they were in Egypt, he had been their only God and saviour. He had cared for them in the barren desert, providing food and water and guiding them by day and night. He provided abundantly for them in the land (of milk and honey) but in their abundance they forgot who was providing it (and attributed it to Ba‘al, cf. 2:5-13). Israel had been warned against this (Deut 8:10-20).

Israel’s faithlessness was seen in the wilderness when Yahweh first made Israel his people (9:10). Israel and his relationship with her were rare and special, like grapes found in the barren desert or the first fruit on the fig tree. But something terrible happened as the men of Israel gave themselves over to Baal through sexual rites with Moabite and Midianite women (read Num 25:1-5).

Israel had broken the covenant (6:7; 8:1). In 4:1-3 Hosea brings a law-suit against Israel and the indictment lists violations which mirror the covenant stipulations found in the Decalogue: no improper oaths, no false witness, no stealing, no murder and no adultery. In addition the people lack the covenant qualities of faithfulness, covenant loyalty and knowledge of God. The breaking of the covenant is revealed in the name of the third child “Not my People”, the opposite of covenant terminology – “I will be your God and you will be my people.” For Hosea the covenant was a marriage where the wife had been unfaithful to her husband.

Israel’s history in the land was a history of sin. The sin at Gibeah (9:9; 10:9) refers to the rape and murder of the woman (Judges 19). Eighth century Israel had reached the same depths of degradation.

Israel’s failure can even be traced back to the patriarchs (12:2-4). Jacob had cheated his brother Esau out of the family blessing (Gen 27:35-36) which Hosea traces to the time of their birth (Gen 25:21-26) when Jacob grasped Esau’s heel. Israel was like her ancestor. But Hosea goes on to use the Jacob narratives to challenge Israel to meet with God, just as Jacob had when he “wrestled with God” (Gen 32:22-32) and encountered him in a dream at ancient Bethel (Gen 28:10-22).

The return to the wilderness is described in 2:14-23 and 12:9. In 12:9 Yahweh identifies himself as the one who had brought them out of Egypt. Now, in what is best understood as an act of judgment, he will take them out of the Promised land and away from their established homes and agriculture. They will go back to the privations of the desert and live in temporary dwellings as they now did once a year at the Feast of Tabernacles. The normally joyous Feast of Tabernacles will become a time of sorrow in the desert. In 2:14-23 the recapitulation of the wilderness experience is described in greater detail. Stripped bare of all that she enjoyed in the land, Israel will now encounter Yahweh as her lover who, having judged her, seeks to win back her love for him. Further comment on these verses is made in the previous discussion.

They will even return to Egypt (8:13; 9:3, 6; 11:5). Bright (Covenant and Promise, p 92): “It is back to the beginnings – as if the whole of God’s saving history with his people had been stood on its head, reversed!” If the return to Egypt is taken literally it refers to the flight of those seeking to escape the Assyrians. Alternatively the coming exile in Assyria is being equated to the bondage in Egypt. It is likely that both concepts would be in the minds of Hosea and his hearers.

Hosea reveals to us the heart of God and the book concludes with wise advice:

“How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? My heart recoils within me; My compassion grows warm and tender.”

“Those who are wise understand these things; those who are discerning know them. For the ways of the LORD are right, and the upright walk in them, but transgressors stumble in them.”

Appendix:

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THE CHURCH'S VIEW OF A SUFFERING GOD

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