Hosea 4

Its been a while since I've been on the Hosea thread.

For those who may not be familiar, Hosea is a book in the Hebrew Bible. Hosea was a prophet. In simplest terms, a prophet is one who speaks for God. Yes, God could speak with a booming voice from the sky but God often spoke through a human agent, a prophet.

And so this is what God wanted to say through Hosea:

Hear the word of the LORD , you Israelites,
because the LORD has a charge to bring
against you who live in the land:
"There is no faithfulness, no love,
no acknowledgment of God in the land.
There is only cursing, lying and murder,
stealing and adultery;
they break all bounds,
and bloodshed follows bloodshed.
Because of this the land mourns,
and all who live in it waste away;
the beasts of the field and the birds of the air
and the fish of the sea are dying.

What do people care about? How do we know what people care about?

One clue is what is on our calendars. Another clue is what is in our checkbooks and credit cards. A third clue would be what we get excited about. And finally, we can tell what is important by what makes us angry.

What is God angry about here?

Is God justified in being angry about such things? Is God unfair to be angry?

The way Hosea told it, even the very ground itself seemed to be in protest to the evil in the land.

"But let no man bring a charge,
let no man accuse another,
for your people are like those
who bring charges against a priest.
You stumble day and night,
and the prophets stumble with you.
So I will destroy your mother-
my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.

"Because you have rejected knowledge,
I also reject you as my priests;
because you have ignored the law of your God,
I also will ignore your children.
The more the priests increased,
the more they sinned against me;
they exchanged their Glory for something disgraceful.
They feed on the sins of my people
and relish their wickedness.
And it will be: Like people, like priests.
I will punish both of them for their ways
and repay them for their deeds.

People, priests and prophets... all were disobedient.

Often times we may feel the God of the Old Testament is mean and angry. But looking at the situation, is there reason for anger?

When I stood at the site where the World Trade Center once stood, I felt sadness and anger. Is that wrong? I think not.

When a parent sees their child going the wrong way, what is a parent to feel?

The prophets who were supposed to speak for God and the priests who were supposed to mediate the relationship between God and the people all failed.

They are supposed to know better yet they did the wrong things and led and allowed the people to go astray.

"They will eat but not have enough;
they will engage in prostitution but not increase,
because they have deserted the LORD
to give themselves to prostitution,
to old wine and new,
which take away the understanding of my people.
They consult a wooden idol
and are answered by a stick of wood.
A spirit of prostitution leads them astray;
they are unfaithful to their God.
They sacrifice on the mountaintops
and burn offerings on the hills,
under oak, poplar and terebinth,
where the shade is pleasant.
Therefore your daughters turn to prostitution
and your daughters-in-law to adultery.

If there really is a God, then would it be reasonable for that God to say, "Don't worship idols?"

The idol is a block of wood or some other thing with no substance behind it. People worshipping that are wasting their time. So if God cares about people, then wouldn't God want to tell them don't waste your time on idols?

I don't know how much of the reference to prostitution/adultery is literal. Some pagan rituals of that era had sexual dimensions so some of it may well be literal.

Nonetheless, there may well be a strong figurative component to the usage of that language. Since love and fidelity is the hallmark of marriage and since God uses marriage as the picture of our relationship to God then unfaithfulness by our part would be pictured as prostitution and adultery.

God continues to make that case in the following.

"I will not punish your daughters
when they turn to prostitution,
nor your daughters-in-law
when they commit adultery,
because the men themselves consort with harlots
and sacrifice with shrine prostitutes-
a people without understanding will come to ruin!

"Though you commit adultery, O Israel,
let not Judah become guilty.

"Do not go to Gilgal;
do not go up to Beth Aven.
And do not swear, 'As surely as the LORD lives!'
The Israelites are stubborn,
like a stubborn heifer.
How then can the LORD pasture them
like lambs in a meadow?
Ephraim is joined to idols;
leave him alone!
Even when their drinks are gone,
they continue their prostitution;
their rulers dearly love shameful ways.
A whirlwind will sweep them away,
and their sacrifices will bring them shame.

With the movie by Mel Gibson "The Passion of the Christ" coming out soon, I'm sure to be blogging religious themes.

If you are curious, take a look at the archives for posts on Sept 25 and 29, Oct 5, 8 and 17, and Nov 11 of 2003 where there are posts to earlier portions of Hosea.