Bible Reading Challenge Blog

Once again we read about the infidelity of the people of God.  We see a flashback to the time when the people of Israel, fresh from being set free from slavery in Egypt, how they turned on Moses and made a golden calf which they worshiped.  So here, again, Hosea speaks out against these idols which are finding their place in the ordinary life of Israelites.

What makes the people of God unique is that while all around them other nations worship other gods and serve other idols, Israel is supposed to be the only one who worships the one true God.  But this uniqueness has been lost, according to Hosea, and the people of God have become like any other nation with any other king.  This causes God to be furious.  We are never to become like those around us, allowing the culture and the norms of the day to dictate who we are and for what we should stand.  Once we exchange the Word of God with the word of culture, then our plodding down the wrong trail will go unchallenged.

The metaphor which repeats itself in these Scriptures is that of heat which is brought to a high temperature because of the consistent misdeeds performed by the people of God.  The entire chapter is a castigation against the people of Israel because they have turned their backs on the Lord.  There isn’t really any redeeming aspect of this chapter which might provide some hope.  And that happens periodically.  We see that happening where God simply tells the people: you are defiled, you are sinful, you do not deserve any of my grace.  You see that in a few Psalms and also in this chapter.  

Now, while there may not be any glimmer of hope in this chapter, almost  always in the Psalms we find that God has heard the plea of the sinner and the sinner returns back into God’s good favor.   It might be a few chapters before that happens to the people of Israel in Hosea, if it happens at all.

The last call of despair we read when God says that I am the one who trained them and showed them the way forward, and yet they have turned their back on me.  It sounds like a parent who has poured their time and their money into their child only to see him or her cast it aside without any recognition of the sacrifice that the parent may have made.  It reminds me of the prodigal son who did not care for what the father represented but only wanted what he considered his due.  The Father embraces the son when he comes back.  We expect our Father to do the same for Israel, but we will see.

There are some references in this chapter of Hosea to the resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ.  Look at vs.2 where we read that on the third day he will raise us up.  It reminds me of the song below.

If you look at vs.6 you will see a description of what exactly the Lord wants from us.  “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”  It is easy to make a sacrifice to the Lord, but harder to love God in all situations.  It is hard to know God, but it is easier to know about God.  

Vs. 9 once against speaks about the priests who have gathered as bandits and have turned their backs on the people of Israel.  Again, Hosea speaks out against the leaders of Ephraim, the northern part of the kingdom, also known as Israel.  

This chapter begins with a castigation against the priests.  So, why would that be?  The priests in this time were not speaking out against the negative culture and influences of society at this time.  If the leader were corrupt then the priests remained silent.  The priests were in place to support the status quo.  I was recently sent a pretty powerful link that might be good for people to listen to in regards to truth.

https://podcasts.google.com/?feed=aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5idXp6c3Byb3V0LmNvbS8yMDIxMjgucnNz&episode=QnV6enNwcm91dC0yMDY3NTcw

This prophecy sounds more like a scolding than anything else.  This chapter  does not contain any expressions of hope, but primarily a scolding of things gone bad. 

We now move away from the first chapters which really focused on the metaphorical use of marriage to depict the prophet married  to an unfaithful woman, to pretty much straight prophecy and speaking against the current situation of Israel.  Notice the use of Ephraim which is really Israel or the northern kingdom.  We do have a divided kingdom where we have Israel or Ephraim or the northern kingdom.  We also have Judah which is considered the southern kingdom.  

Look at vs.2 where the prophet speaks out strongly against the people by listing 5 of the 10 commandments that they have broken.  Look at the list: swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and adultery.  That’s not completely comprehensive, but not bad in a single sentence.  Vs.6 is a powerful verse which tells us: My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.  Ignorance may be bliss, but it is also deadly.  Not a good trade-off.

We find that things had gotten so out of hand with Hosea’s ex that she is now on the block for auction.  Hosea ends up buying his wife back from the auction block for 15 shekels of silver which was half of what Judas was given in order to betray Jesus.  Keep that in mind.  Also, keep in mind that in today’s  value those 15 shekels could be worth around $8,000.  Not a very high price in order to get back your wife, you would think.  But it is still a price and it is still something that should not have had to be done.

There is something in recognizing that God had to pay a price in order to get us back.  That price is seen by Jesus on the cross who gave of his life in order to reclaim us as His children.  We would still be wandering like the wife of Hosea, who knows where we would have ended up, without that sacrifice of our Lord.  

Once he does reclaim her and buy her back, he lays down ground rules this time.  They are ground rules that will not only affect her but also affect him.  No more adultery, no more unfaithfulness, and no more intercourse even with me.  Wait, what?  How come this is part of the deal?  They have every right to be together as husband and wife.  But there was necessary to have a time where things become normalized once again before we dive into all of the pains and pleasures of a marriage relationship.  This transitional period is crucial for any couple who has just experienced a trauma together.  

We find some hope in this chapter, but not until after we find destitution and betrayal.  We find the prophet asking the children of his wife to appeal to her to turn from her adulterous ways.  Yeah, so using kids as leverage is never a godly thing.  We next find a time in the life of the wife, who is the nation of Israel, when it will be stripped bare and it will cause her to say: “I will return to my first husband, for it was better with me then than now.”  It took getting to the very base, to the lowest of the low before she is able to realize what she had given up.

Once that desolation takes place, once Israel finds itself utterly hopeless, then God will act.  If you look at vs.14 you will see the transition take place from hopelessness to hope.  She will respond as in her youth, when she was taken out of Egypt.  That should be a very direct and familiar reference to the nation of Israel who was led out of slavery in Egypt in order to go into the promised land, where they found themselves now.  But remember, even in that story there was utter betrayal by the people.  

This chapter ends with the words  that we need to hear and that we need to have repeated to us: “You are my people” and then we would respond: “You are my God.”

The women of the church have just  finished a study on Hosea and what  I heard the take away was that no one is able to define you except the way in which the Lord defines us.  God commands one of his servants, a prophet named Hosea, to live a metaphorical life.  Go and marry a woman of whoredom because the people of Israel have been unfaithful to me.

The book of Hosea is written right after a time in the life of Israel that was pretty prosperous and very stable.  But now Assyria is starting to flex its muscle and by the time Hosea finishes his prophecies the people of Israel in 722 are taken into exile and the temple is destroyed.  So, what we find happening in Hosea is the prophet telling the people that this is about to happen.  You need to straighten up or else.  They don’t straighten up.

It is interesting when you juxtapose this Scripture with I Chronicles 21 which is its parallel Scripture.  When you look at vs.1 you see that the Lord was furious with the people and so kind of egged David on to take a census, which was not the desire of the Lord.  We read in Chronicles that it was Satan who egged David on to take the census.  These two Scriptures are identical except in the one that we have for today it is God who is angry with the Israelites.  In Chronicles it is Satan, that is the only difference.

When we pray in the Lord’s prayer: Do not lead me into temptation, we know that we have a God who is the giver of all good and perfect gifts.  When you read in James 1:13 that God does not tempt then we ought to know for sure that God is not the one who sets up scenarios hoping and waiting for us to fail.  David recognizes his sin, is given options on how he is to be punished, and decides that he will leave his future up to the Lord, and not up to people.

A plague strikes the land and God gives David a way out, which was what he was hoping would happen.  He goes down and buys a tract of land from one of his citizens in order to offer sacrifices to the Lord.  The person wants to give it to the king, after all, it is the king, but David says: “I am not going to give to the Lord anything that is free to me.”  What we give to the Lord has much to do with what we have been given by the Lord.

David goes back into time and remembers all of the military leaders that had been by his side from the time that he had fled from Saul to this present day.  You will see even in vs.39 that Uriah the Hittite is mentioned.  Remember, Uriah is the husband of Bathsheba, and yet David commanded him to the battle field in order to die.  But he still makes the list of the most respected commanders in David’s army.

We read at the beginning of this chapter that these are the last words of David.  The listing of his commanders follows David’s realization that the Spirit of the Lord was upon him to speak. We see this phrase used in other contexts as well.  We hear Jesus say it when he is in his hometown synagogue of Nazareth before they kick him out.  We see  the prophet Isaiah use these  words in Isaiah 61:1 which were the precursors to Jesus’ words in Luke while he is in Nazareth.  

As Presbyterians  we  do believe that on  Sunday morning while the sermon is preached that in some way the Spirit of the Lord is upon the person who is preaching.  Calvin called the Word of God not only the written Word but also the spoken Word.  That is something that we don’t often think about when we say that the Spirit of the Lord is upon me.  It really is.  But it also creates a responsibility that we may not often think about either.