The Book of Hosea: Stories of Steadfast Love
April 21, 2013 | Anita Retzlaff | Hosea

Grace and peace to you from God the Father of our Lord and Saviour Jesus the Christ. Hosea’s story is a love story - one that is played out in very desperate times. From what you have heard so far the instructions that come from the word of the LORD are anything but loving. God informs Hosea that he is to marry a woman who will be unfaithful to him, a whore (that is the language of the story and I am going to use it) and he is to have three children with her and is to name them “Jezreel”, “not pity” and “not my people”. It is clear that what God is asking of Hosea is that he enact within his own life, a metaphor, or a sign act of what is actually going to happen to Israel as a result of her relationship to God: one that is characterized by infidelity and is slipping into oblivion. Here is the situation.

Since settling in the Promised Land, in Canaan, the Children of Israel have gradually over the generations taken into their worship the fertility gods of Canaan. Israel has adapted its sovereignty of Yahweh to the religion of the nations and virtually lost all sense of relationship and covenant with God, the One who took them out of the land of Egypt, protected them in the wilderness and brought them to this new land of opportunity. Historically, the other major factor that is a dire threat to God’s people is a military sweep of the Fertile Crescent by Assyria. Its troops will be marching off to Egypt to conquer peoples and expand its territory. Israel is but a tiny little nation lying in the path of this huge military advance. Even though Israel puts on a brave face it doesn’t stand a chance of survival.

However, the language of the prophets and the story-tellers of the faith attribute Israel’s coming demise, not to this massive army but rather to the fact that Israel has been unfaithful to the LORD their God. They have worshipped Baal and Asherah and other gods of agricultural productivity. And so in the prophetic story that we read today the love that Hosea has for his unfaithful wife Gomer is a parallel love story of the pathos and protection that God has for his people Israel. Hosea’s domestic situation is to be a sign and an explanation of what is to happen to God’s people. God does not relish the eventuality of Israel’s losses. God is in agony as he waits.

Hosea 2:14-23

Therefore, I will now allure her (Israel), and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. From there I will give her her vineyards, and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope. There she shall respond as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt. On that day, says the LORD, you will call me, “My husband,” and no longer will you call me, “My Baal.” For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be mentioned by name no more. I will make for you a covenant on that day with the wild animals, the birds of the air, and the creeping things of the ground; and I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land; and I will make you lie down in safety. And I will take you for my wife forever; I will take you for my wife in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love, and in mercy. I will take you for my wife in faithfulness; and you shall know the LORD. On that day I will answer, says the LORD, I will answer the heavens and they shall answer the earth; and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil, and they shall answer Jezreel; and I will sow him for myself in the land. And I will have pity on Lo-ruhamah, and I will say to Lo-ammi, “You are my people”; and he shall say, “You are my God.”
God, the bridegroom entices Israel, the bride, to respond to his overtures of passionate love and steadfast commitment. Hosea takes Gomer, daughter of Diblaim, who is or will become a whore. Gomer is not faithful to Hosea. Israel is not faithful to God. Everything about these two concurrent love stories smack of sexism and patriarchy and worse. I refer to God as “he” and Israel as “she” because that is how the story is written. It makes me somewhat uncomfortable to refer to God as “he” and as a passionate husband and even more disquieting to refer to Gomer as a whore. We are much more discreet in describing similar situations today. Don’t be put off by the language; it comes from another day and time. It probably was as shocking a metaphor then as it is now and that is deliberate. God’s chosen people have become like a whore. Israel, in worshipping other gods, has been unfaithful. The situation is dire. Israel is in real trouble politically and spiritually.

And Hosea’s children become physical representations of the results of this infidelity. Their names testify to Israel’s shame. Jezreel, the first son of Hosea and Gomer, is a name that is representative of the place where one of the last of Israel’s kings, Jehu, goes on a bloody rampage. He kills Baal-worshipping Jezebel whose body is eaten by dogs. The killing and revenge continue as royal families are obliterated signifying the religious and moral failure that kingship has been in the sight of God. Hosea, the prophet of doom, then names two more children according to God’s instruction. A daughter, Loruhamah, whose name means “not-pitied” and a son Loammi meaning “Not-my-people” are the products of Israel’s faithlessness. But Hosea even after a likely divorce is given the chance to take back his unfaithful wife and in so doing becomes a prophet of hope. And God waits also to redeem the people whom he has covenanted with since the very beginning.

Hosea 3: 1-5

The LORD said to me again, “Go, love a woman who has a lover and is an adulteress, just as the LORD loves the people of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love raisin cakes.” So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer of barley and a measure of wine. And I said to her, “You must remain as mine for many days; you shall not play the whore, you shall not have intercourse with a man, nor I with you.” For the Israelites shall remain many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or teraphim. Afterward the Israelites shall return and seek the LORD their God, and David their king; they shall come in awe to the LORD and to his goodness in the latter days.

And so the story goes that Hosea ransoms his whoring wife and takes her back. He pays a price to redeem her. Again, this is a social norm that is foreign to us, rather abhorrent in fact, but one that in those days would have spoken volumes about the love that a man could dare to have for a woman. The cover picture on the bulletin is an artist’s interpretation of Hosea’s love for Gomer. He has wrapped his arms around her and you can see her obvious distress. In such a way God wraps divine protection around his people, caring for them, for us, and refusing to let go. We do have a New Testament story that is one of ransom and redemption if you will; the Easter story, the love story of Jesus for all humanity. God’s love for us defies description but listen to the word of God for us:

Hosea 11: 1-9

When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. The more I called them, the more they went from me; they kept sacrificing to the Baals, and offering incense to idols. Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk, I took them up in my arms; but they did not know that I healed them. I led them with cords of human kindness, with bands of love. I was to them like those who lift infants to their cheeks. I bent down to them and fed them. They shall return to the land of Egypt, and Assyria shall be their king, because they have refused to return to me. The sword rages in their cities, it consumes their oracle-priests, and devours because of their schemes. My people are bent on turning away from me. To the Most High they call, but he does not raise them up at all.

How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender. I will not execute my fierce anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim; for I am God and no mortal, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath. Yet I have been the LORD your God ever since the land of Egypt; you know no God but me, and besides me there is no savior.

This poignant image of a parent’s love for a child is a powerful metaphor for God’s unquenchable love. We remain in the season of Easter, a season of life beyond the end. The power of death has been eclipsed by the power of love. William Willimon, a guest speaker at The Survival of the Weakest conference here in Saskatoon last weekend reminded us that Jesus came back to the very people who deserted him in the first place. After the resurrection Jesus makes himself known to his disciples, the small community who abandoned him in his hour of need. Yet Jesus passes his mission on to these deserters and gives them the task of carrying on his work. And so it has been… the divine creator continues to wait for us, redeem us and send us out to transform the world.

God waits and God invites.

Hosea 13: 4-6; 14:1-8

I have been the LORD your God ever since the land of Egypt; you know no God but me, and besides me there is no savior. It was I who fed you in the wilderness, in the land of drought. When I fed them, they were satisfied; they were satisfied, and their heart was proud; therefore they forgot me.

Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity. Take words with you and return to the LORD; say to him, “Take away all guilt; accept that which is good, and we will offer the fruit of our lips. Assyria shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses; we will say no more, ‘Our God,’ to the work of our hands. In you the orphan finds mercy.”

I will heal their disloyalty; I will love them freely, for my anger has turned from them. I will be like the dew to Israel; he shall blossom like the lily, he shall strike root like the forests of Lebanon. His shoots shall spread out; his beauty shall be like the olive tree, and his fragrance like that of Lebanon. They shall again live beneath my shadow, they shall flourish as a garden; they shall blossom like the vine, their fragrance shall be like the wine of Lebanon.

O Ephraim, what have I to do with idols? It is I who answer and look after you. I am like an evergreen cypress; your faithfulness comes from me.

The settled life of Israel eventually comes to an end at the hands of the Assyrian army. Crushed and exiled to Babylon their story however does not come to an end. Just as in the wilderness God’s people wandered and searched for home the exiles in Babylon eventually return once again… but only because God waits in love.

Prayer – Let us know, let us press on to know the LORD; his appearing is as sure as the dawn; he will come to us like the showers, like the spring rains that water the earth. Come, let us return to the LORD. AMEN (6:1-3)