Day 260. Hosea 1-4

In out reading for today we move far back into the history of the chosen people to the period before the fall of the northern kingdom of the Israel and the career of the prophet Hosea, who was active between 769-697 B.C. His oracles span the reigns of five kings of Israel and Judah (1:1) and give us a unique perspective on the relationship between God and his people based upon metaphors drawn from marriage and sexual love.
In it one of the misperceptions cherished by those who have never made a business of actually reading the Bible that the Christian scriptures are prim and straitlaced, when in fact quite the opposite is true. The Bible is in fact an embarrassment to the prudish of every age, dealing as it does with shocking honesty with every very aspect of human life, not the least the sexual. And for proof of that we need go no further than the writings of Hosea.
Who was Hosea? We get little information about his life before he is called to prophetic ministry with an outrageous command--"take a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom" (1:2). This goes against all the social norms of society in which virginity before marriage and faithfulness in marriage were both expected and demanded of women—on pain of disgrace or even death. The prophet is told essentially to marry a harlot and have children with her. What a family in the parsonage! Hosea might not have been much of a bargain either, of course, but that's not the point.
Prophets were often commanded to perform symbolic acts—visual parables—to illustrate the message that God is speaking to his people—we have seen this before. Hosea's dysfunctional family life is his message. The chosen people—who are God's spouse—have been profoundly unfaithful to their husband. They have "whored" after the Canaanite fertility gods and taken part in the orgies that accompanied their worship. And Hosea is commanded to marry Gomer, whose name means "End" and who symbolizes the people of Israel, and when she bears him a son, the LORD commands him to name the child "Jezreel" (1:4). This name has a complex double meaning. It means "God sows [abundantly]". It is also the name of a plain where a great battle had been fought. A rebellious general named Jehu fought and killed both King Joram of Israel and King Ahaziah of the house of David on the plain of Jezreel. Jehu's bloody coup founded the present dynasty
in Samaria, which was notorious for its wickedness. Now through his prophet Hosea God promises that he will "put an end of to the kingdom of the house of Israel" (1:4). When a second child is born to Hosea and Gomer, a girl, she is named "Lo-ruhamah," which means "not pitied"—because God will "no longer have pity on the house of Israel or forgive them" (1:6). The LORD has not yet given up on the southern kingdom of Judah—Hosea prophesied during the supremacy of several of Judah's best rulers—and the LORD promises that he "will have pity on the house of Judah" and "save them" (1:7). But when Gomer bears Hosea another son, the LORD commands that he be named "Lo-ammi," (1:8), which means "I am not yours." This is to underline the message God has for the northern kingdom of Israel—they are on their own.
Because of their unfaithfulness the people of Israel are no longer his people and he is no longer their God—that is Hosea's message. Yet inside the LORD's harshest condemnation mercy is always hidden. So, based upon God's love for his people and his eternal faithfulness to His word, at the same time Hosea condemns Israel his is also able to express the hope that Ephraim will have numberless descendents and that the day will come when the name "You are not my people"—Lo-ammi--will be changed to "Children of the living God" (1:10). The divided kingdoms of Israel and Judah will someday be reunited under one king (1:11). Then the shame of "Jezreel" will be taken away, and only its other name will be remembered--"God sows [abundantly]"(2:22). Lo-ammi shall become Ammi—"my people"—and Lo-ruhamah shall be renamed Ruhamah—"pitied" (2:1).
In this section—2:2-16-- Hosea, taking the part of God, the wronged husband, calls upon his children to beg their mother to "put away her whoring from her face" (2:2). She will continued to be punished until she realizes who it was "who gave her the grain, the wine and the oil, and who lavished upon her silver and gold" that she lavished upon the worship on the pagan god Baal (2:8). The LORD will "lay waste her vines and her fig trees, of which she said, 'These are my pay, which my lovers have given me' (2:12). But when these things are taken away and she is miserable and destitute, then she will realize it was the LORD, her husband, who gave her these good things, and not Baal—the name means "my Lord"—or the other pagan gods she has taken as her lovers.
Beyond punishment there is hope, however. Once he has disciplined her for her unfaithfulness, the LORD promises her a sort of second honeymoon. He will "allure her, and bring her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her" (2:14). And then they will be reconciled and their love renewed. "Then she will respond as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt" (2:15). Then God will "marry" Israel forever "in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love, and in mercy" (2:19) and take her as his wife "in faithfulness" (2:20). And she shall call him, "My husband," and no longer "my Baal" (2:16)—"my Lord"-- for the names of the pagan gods, with whom she was once unfaithful, shall be banished and mentioned "no more" (2:18). "On that day" the LORD will call from heaven and Israel shall answer from the earth that "God sows" his people "in the land, they are his and he is
theirs" (2:23).
Then the prophet—who is indeed given some rough assignments—is told to go and "love a woman who has a lover and is an adulteress"—we are not told if this is poor Gomer or not—"just as the LORD loved the people of Israel though they turn to other gods and love raisin cakes" (3:1). (Raisin cakes were a traditional offering brought to the agricultural gods worshiped in Canaan.) But he is forbidden to have intercourse with her "for many days" because for a long time Israel shall be without regular government—"king or prince"—and without spiritual guidance from either the LORD or the pagan gods—"without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or teraphim" (3:4). When this period of abstinence is over the people "shall return and seek the LORD their God, and David their king" (3:5).
But in the oracle that begins with chapter four, the LORD delivers an "indictment against the inhabitants of the land," because there is no trust in him--"no faithfulness or loyalty, and no knowledge of God" (4:1). Creation is languishing because of their unfaithfulness—wild animals, birds, and fish are dying because of the moral decay and decadence of the people. And who is to blame? Hosea singles out the priests and the prophets, because they "have forgotten the law of God." Because of the terrible examples they set and their negligence in teaching the Law of Moses, "the people are destroyed for lack of knowledge" (4:6). Hosea quotes the proverb: "Like people, like priest" (4:9)—the moral decay of the people reflects the laziness and carelessness of the clergy.
And because they are not taught, the people have reverted to the practices of the pagan Canaanites—sacrificing to strange deities on the mountains and in sacred groves, and seeking to ensure of fertility of the land by having sexual intercourse with temple prostitutes. "When their drinking is ended, they indulge in sexual orgies" (4:18), Hosea complains. The northern kingdom of Israel is more deeply into pagan practices—"playing the whore"; the prophet can only hope that Judah will not follow the example of Israel and become guilty of the same offenses (4:15). There is still hope for Judah and for the house David; as for Israel his depravity is too deep to be reformed—"let him alone" (4:17), the LORD says.