Today I continue my series on the Minor Prophets by looking at the prophet Hosea. With each prophet, we are forced to look at the very sketchy information they provide about themselves within the word we find written in Scripture. And in each way we try to find the answer to several important questions. Where are they from? What did they do? Who was their father?
First of all we know that Hosea was from the northern kingdom of Israel. And we know that we was working actively there in the time of the prophet Amos and just after, the late 8th century BC. We also know that Hosea was the son of Beeri, which was probably more important at the time than it is now. Hosea is almost always seen as a counterpoint to the teaching of Amos, who we read last week. Like Amos, Hosea addressed himself to Northern Israel. But he was a native of that country, which Amos was not.
But Hosea also serves to show us a piece of thinking about God which was missing from the teaching of Amos. Amos was quite concerned that the moral law of God be upheld in all ways. Amos saw God as the great avenger of his law, the great avenger against all those who stood against him and against his prophets. Amos looked to the oppression and the injustice in Israel, and he shook his fist. There is very little mercy, however, in Amos. There are slight mentions of a remnant being brought back, but that is not Amos’ main focus.
Thus Amos left a great gap in his prophetic work. Amos had recognized that there were problems and he demanded a solution. But still there was a defect in Amos single-minded focus on righteousness. And it was into this gap that Hosea stepped. Hosea witnessed and recognized the sins of his people just as Amos had done, but his call for righteousness and repentance was tempered always by his preaching about the love and mercy of God.
The book of Hosea is divided into two main parts. Chapters 1-3 are a lived parable which shows us a portion of Hosea’s own home life. These chapters are difficult to understand, but if they are read as a metaphor, instead of as reality then it becomes clearer. Hosea was called by God to marry a woman named Gomer. This wife is unfaithful to Hosea and eventually she abandons him and their children. That is obviously a ground for divorce. But when she comes back, years later, Hosea welcomes her as his wife, welcomes her back into his home. This is a symbol for God and his kindness and love to an unrepentant Israel. Israel which violates the covenant. Israel, which worships other Gods. Israel, which stones the prophets. Israel, which abandons the law.
From chapter 4 to 14, Hosea moves beyond his own life, beyond the lived parable of his marriage, and he begins a systematic description of he sins of Israel. These sins had all been recognized by Amos, but now they were being discussed and condemned by someone who was a native-son, not a foreign born troublemaker. There is an indictment of the leaders of Israel, the monarchy, the ruling judges, the priests, the landlords. There is a condemnation of false repentance, of the world which says one thing when confronted by sin and another the very next day when they feel they can get away with it. Then Hosea speaks about the rejection of the true prophets, which meant the acceptance of false prophets. The people went to the religion that told them what they wanted to hear. Prophets which, as Jeremiah writes, say “Peace, peace when there is no peace.”
Hosea recognizes a people in decay. Politically, religiously, socially, ethically. George Adam Smith, in his great commentary on the Minor Prophets, describes Hosea going through these symbols of decay as if an explorer treading in a jungle. Decay which stifles dissent, decay which creeps and edges all around you, decay which becomes so much thick undergrowth. The treading in the jungle is difficult and it is dangerous.
Then as Smith writes, we come to chapter 11. “From the thick jungle of Hosea’s travail, the eleventh chapter breaks like a high and open mound.” This chapter is one of the most incredible in the Old Testament, one of the high points in its revelation of who God is, and what he has done and will continue to do for his people.
Chapter eleven speaks to us in God’s own words, expressing all the love which God has held for his people Israel. “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.” In true prophetic style, the love of God was shown especially in the Exodus from Egypt, God’s great saving act for the Israelite people, God’s deliverance of the people from slavery into freedom, from oppression into a land flowing with milk and honey. This is a blessed memory of his people, and Hosea makes it clear that it is of the utmost importance to remember the love which God has shown. God’s love could not leave them where they were, and so God’s love cannot leave us where we are. God’s love calls us, calls us from lives of servitude to sin into lives of freedom, calls us from the world around us to the world God has created.
But even in the glow of that love there is the tragedy of the people of Israel. Even in the desert on the way to their Promised Land, the people abandoned the God who loved them for a golden calf. And the story of Israel in the Promised Land is one of continual rejection of God for the local gods, idols of wood and gold. This leads God to say in sorrow, “But the more I called Israel, the further they went from me. They sacrificed to the Baals and they burned incense to images.” It seems as though the people reject God’s call even more fervently when they are brought out of trouble. The more I call, the further they went from me.
But God’s sorrow continues apace as he looks at the people who do not even recognize what God has done for them. “It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by the arms; but they did not realize it was I who healed them. I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love; I lifted the yoke from their neck and bent down to feed them.” Each way in which the people of Israel are benefited, they do not realize it is God that has blessed them. God takes their burdens away, but they feel it is self-effort. God brings them into their own kingdom, but they continue to feel that it is their own doing. The sin of self, the sin that we tell ourselves it is all done by us and for us. God becomes a mere shadow in this world, but as this passage from Hosea tells us, God’s love comes to us through our sin, despite our sin, lifting our burdens from us, feeding us in our souls, led by God in kindness and love, while we respond with rejection and apathy. God in every way has shown himself to be a Father, and we in every way rebellious children.
But all would not be well, for even the kind father begins again to show his children punishment. Hosea tries to show forth God’s anger by threatening the destruction of the land of Israel, at the hands of old enemies in Egypt and Assyria, what seems to be the only political deal. "Will they not return to Egypt and will not Assyria rule over them because they refuse to repent? Swords will flash in their cities, will destroy the bars of their gates and put an end to their plans. My people are determined to turn from me. Even if they call to the Most High, he will by no means exalt them.” As it was difficult to persuade proud people that the overthrow was at hand, which Hosea had foretold, seeing, as they did, that they were furnished with many defences, it is therefore now added, that their fortified cities would not prevent the enemy to break through, and to devastate the whole country, and to lead away the people captive. We now understand how this verse is connected with the last. The Prophet had threatened exile; but as the Israelites thought themselves safe in their nests, he adds, that there was no reason for them to trust in their fortresses, for the Lord could by the sword destroy all their cities. The people are determined to turn from God, to turn from all that God has done for them.
God’s human agency had failed, but does that lead directly to God’s abandonment of his people. In the next verses Hosea records a conversation God has within himself debating about the punishment which Israel deserves and the merciful love which God forever shows. "How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I treat you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboiim? My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused. I will not carry out my fierce anger, nor will I turn and devastate Ephraim. For I am God, and not man- the Holy One among you. I will not come in wrath. They will follow the Lord; he will roar like a lion. When he roars, his children will come trembling from the west. They will come trembling like birds from Egypt, like doves from Assyria. I will settle them in their homes, declares the Lord.” Hosea had said before, that though the Lord would deal severely with his people, there would yet be some moderation in his wrath, so that he would not destroy the whole people. Now, it follows, that God, after having thus restrained himself, will extend his favour even to the restoration of the people, and bring to life those who seemed to have been dead.
It is this love that leads Hosea through his prophecy to the end. It is this love which leads all of our prophets to speak to those who do not listen, to those who will not hear. It is this love which lets all of us be persistent in our lives before God. We hear and read in God’s word about the love, and we are offered again a chance at repentance, again the chance to change our lives.
We may wonder what the book of Hosea has to offer us today. First and foremost, the book of Hosea is a remarkable testament to God and his desire to save his people. And this testament to God’s resolve leads us directly into the new covenant which we have in Jesus Christ. Amos may be a John the Baptist type of prophet, but Hosea paves the way for Jesus, making his gospel of mercy and love a continuation of something which has been a part of the prophetic tradition.
A second thing which the book of Hosea shows us, as we saw in the reading from Luke, is that our being lost is never too large for God to handle. Hosea speaks of a people, a nation led by a loving God, a people who lose their way over and over again in their history. A people who are filled with ingratitude at all that God had done for them. But still, as lost as they are, God finds them and brings them home. God finds them and lifts their burdens. God finds them and celebrates in heaven. None of us is too lost for God to find. None of us is too lost for God to stop looking.
Hosea calls us to repent. Just as our Lord calls on us to make the turn in our lives, Hosea calls on his people to make the turn. As we hear his story of punishment, can we believe that we are immune? Can we believe that God has nothing planned for us? Can we believe that our lives are our own to live, and that God doesn’t really care anymore? Hosea is far more of an evangelist than Amos. He is perhaps the greatest evangelist in the Old Testament. We need to heed his call, and the call of the Old Testament prophets. Hear the words of judgment on your life. Hear God’s call that you have sinned. Hear God’s call that you must repent. Turn away from sin, turn away from the world, and turn again to your God. Hosea’s message. My message. God’s message. Amen and amen.
