December 2021
REFLECTIONS ON THE WRITING PROPHETS
'Reflections' on the Writing Prophets 13
H O S E A
Hosea is burdened by the role the priests took in bringing about the demise of the northern kingdom. “Take heed, O house of Israel! Give ear, O house of the king! For yours is the judgment, because you have been a snare to Mizpah and a net to Tabor”. Both Mizpah and Tabor were most likely places of idol worship. The plea is for the people of the house of Israel to take note, because they are the ones who are about to bear the consequence of following the false teaching of the priests. And I find a salutary lesson for today right there. When the blind lead the blind, they both fall into the ditch (Matthew 15:14). There are plenty of “blind” Scripture pedlars (posing as priests) alive and well today. Anyone displaying a strong focus on (your) money should be viewed with caution. In any event it behoves each person to be diligent in their response to things taught by others. (YES, that does include what is written here. You are urged to diligently check the Scriptures for yourself.) In the case before us, Torah observance, which was the major issue, was clearly being wantonly disregarded. Idol worship, in a number of forms, being substituted. Today, we have even less excuse than did they, because we are privileged to have the word of God in printed form readily available. There is no excuse for our lack of discernment of false teaching, other than laziness. Not checking Scriptural truth for oneself is both unacceptable and dangerous. Beware of the ditch ahead.
“They do not direct their deeds toward turning to their God, for the spirit of harlotry is in their midst, and they do not know the LORD”. The LORD had commanded Hosea to marry a harlot so that he would understand what it was like to be joined to an unfaithful wife. But now we are introduced to these people being consumed with a “spirit of harlotry”. That really speaks of a compulsion to unfaithfulness. An addiction. Can’t get way from it. I have discussed addiction with people who are gripped by substance abuse. In many cases there is a genuine desire to be rid of the addiction, but its power is too strong to be cast aside. It has become habitual. Wrong has gained a victory over right. That is the picture we are given here. That is why God’s judgement was to allow them to go their own way, even though it meant them walking away from His presence. The phrase in bold letters above might be put that “they no longer know the LORD”. Because we know that they once did. It is possible to find ourselves in the same situation. Think back to the time you first made a covenant of faith with God. (A Welsh evangelist I knew many years ago used to say that our relationship with God was like riding a bicycle. You have to make progress, because if you stop you’ll fall off.) It is a description that appears to fit these Israelites doesn’t it? Make progress or fall off. They fell off. We should learn a lesson from that too.
“Come, and let us return to the LORD; For He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up”. This is an appeal to the people that they repent. The prophet Isaiah put it similarly. “Come now, and let us reason together, says the LORD. Though your sins are like scarlet they shall be as white as snow; Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool”. These words sound like they belong in the Apostolic Scriptures don’t they? But God is speaking in prophetic terms about a day far ahead for them. “After two days He will revive us; On the third day He will raise us up, that we may live in His sight”. God had His eye on His own people, even when they had so disappointed Him that He had to let them walk away.
The pleas of God echo around the world. Their world. “O Ephraim, what shall I do to you? O Judah, what shall I do to you? For your faithfulness is like a morning cloud, and like the early dew it goes away”. Do you feel the agony in those words? The disappointment expressed here is palpable. The people God described as His “special treasure”, and “the apple of My eye”, filled with so much promise, and now so utterly disappointing. And yet the words He uses are so comforting at the same time. The Apostle Paul, writing to the mixed “ekklesia” in Rome, said “have they stumbled that they should fall ? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles. Now if their fall is riches for the world, and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness (restoration).” As God continued to express His sorrow at their behaviour, He also began to show His understanding. “For I desire mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more that burnt offerings”. King David had expressed the heart of God in his Psalm of contrition many years earlier. “For you do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart — These, O God, You will not despise”. It is the contrite heart. The understanding and knowledge of God, which allows us to know what pleases Him. We noted earlier that the people of the northern kingdom were charged with the fact that “they do not know the LORD”.
“But like men (Heb. Adam .. mankind) they transgressed the covenant, there they dealt treacherously with Me”. God knows the heart of mankind. He knows my heart, and yours. And with that knowledge He still sent Yeshua to this earth so that we could enjoy fellowship with Himself. His perfect plan for those who are His is that one day “All Israel will be saved”. (Romans 11:26) Those who join them in faith, that is faith in the One who is their anointed Saviour, Yeshua Ha’Mashiach, will face Him who sits on that Great White Throne, and hear the words “well done good and faithful servant”.
It behoves all of us that ‘we get to know the LORD’.
Shabbat Shalom
RS
REFLECTIONS ON THE WRITING PROPHETS
‘Reflections’ on the Writing Prophets 12
H O S E A
We encounter a bit of a logistic problem at the beginning of our reading today. “Go again, love a woman who is loved by a lover and is committing adultery, just like the love of the LORD for the children of Israel, who look to other gods and love the raisin cakes of the pagans”. Is this the same woman taken as a wife by Hosea at the beginning of this book? Or a different one. On this occasion we are told that Hosea paid a “bride price” for this marriage, and that he made a few stipulations about how his new wife should behave. We need to use a bit of logic here. It would appear that this particular section of Hosea’s prophecy provides something of a “bookend” to the beginning, as God sought to provide a simile between Israel’s behaviour and that of the idolatrous, wayward woman in question. The women are one and the same.
(Daniel Lancaster, in his Torah Club commentary “The Voice of the Prophets” makes an interesting observation (Hosea 2:16) on the use of the two different words for ‘husband’ in Biblical Hebrew. “Baali”, a common name for ‘husband’, literally means “master”. “Ish”, also commonly used for ‘husband’, literally means ‘man’. Hosea tells his wife to call him ‘Ish’ (man) and no longer ‘Baali’ (master). In the same way, God tells the Israelites of that northern kingdom that they were to no longer to consider, or even mention, Him in any way as ‘Baali’ (master). It was a significant downgrading of that relationship.)
Chapter 3 of our text has a prophetic message of despair and then some hope. “For the children of Israel shall abide many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or scared pillar, without ephod or teraphim. Afterward they shall return and seek the LORD their God and David their king. They shall fear the LORD and His goodness in the latter days”. The phrase “ephod or teraphim” is reference to ‘totally godless’ in a broad sense. “Ephod” speaks of the Jewish priesthood, with which they were well familiar, and “teraphim” refers to the idol worship which was the cause of their demise. So in a ‘worship’ sense they would be left with nothing. But it would have been better without the ‘teraphim’ in the first place. Never-the-less, it was God’s purpose to punish their idolatry, but not to abandon them for ever. The reconciliation of which the prophet spoke would come when they sought the LORD in humility and truth. I believe that will take place when Messiah returns to this earth the second time. During Yeshua’s first time on this earth, the “Samaritans” were still pagan, not counted with the Jews.
Chapter 4 provides an opportunity for lesson learning for any who wish to learn. It continues in the vein of cataloguing the charges against the people. It is relentless. As we consider these charges, it may be profitable to measure ourselves, our nation, as we stand along-side these ancient people, in order to judge for ourselves what God might say of us as He documents the behaviour which He found so distressing in them. Remember God is consistent and unchanging. “There is no truth or mercy or knowledge of God in the land. By swearing and lying, killing and stealing and committing adultery, they break all restraint, with bloodshed upon bloodshed.” What does God see in our nation? Well, this is what He said He would do. “The more they increased, the more they sinned against Me; I will change their glory into shame. They eat up the sin of My people; (this is specific to that generation in that they were eating the sin offerings of the people who individually sought forgiveness in such sacrifice) They set their heart on iniquity, and it shall be; like people like priest. (The ones who should have been crying out against such, the priests, were delinquent in that task) So I will punish them for their ways, and reward them for their deeds”. This is quite alarming. God expected the priestly class to speak out against such profanity. He considered silence to amount to complicity. Didn’t the Apostle Peter (1 Peter 2:5) tell us that all believers are ‘priests’? Now there’s a thought!
The prophet is directed to shine a light on the southern kingdom of Judah in the manner of a warning to them. It is evident that God had provided His final warning to Israel, but Judah still had a chance because they had not yet gone down the same path of idolatrous ‘harlotry’ as Israel. “Though you, Israel, play the harlot, let Judah not offend. Do not come up to Gilgal, nor go up to Beth Aven, nor swear an oath ..”. Both Gilgal, in northern Samaria, and Beth Aven (‘house of deceipt’), a deliberate substitution of the name Bethel in the south of the country, were once places of Godly worship, they had now been given over to idolatry. The Judeans knew these places as they once were. In their former state of reverence before God. Whilst the injunction of God is not to even visit those places, it is further meant as a general warning not to go down that same path of idolatrous worship. Among the reasons God gave was that it was a path of separation from Himself. “For Israel is stubborn like a stubborn calf; now the LORD willed them forage like a lamb in open country”. That separation meant that they were easy prey for whatever might befall them. The Apostle Jude has an interesting piece of advice for believers. The original Living Bible paraphrase puts it well. “Stay always within the boundaries where God’s love can reach and bless you”. (Jude 21)
We may not be able to readily identify the exact situation our text uses to illustrate the message. “Harlotry” may seem to be extreme. But it is how God saw that situation. It was the rejection of Himself, the deliberate act of disobedience to His commands and statutes, the failure to honour covenant promises, the rejection of multiple warnings. That is what the message of Hosea is all about. And there is more to come. We would be wise to ask God to mercifully shine His light on us … while there is still time.
Shabbat Shalom
RS
REFLECTIONS ON THE WRITING PROPHETS
‘Reflections’ on the Writing Prophets 11
H O S E A
The name “Hosea” comes from the same Hebrew root word as Joshua and Yeshua. Its meaning is ‘salvation’, but the last two names carry the further meaning of “YHWH is salvation”. Hosea was called to deliver the message of God to the idolatrous northern kingdom when Jereboam 2 was king. Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah were kings of Judah at the time of this ministry. A period from about 755 BCE to 722 BCE., when Jonah, Amos, Isaiah and Micah were also active. It seems that the LORD took time to convey His message to Hosea, because we are told that when the LORD began to speak to him He gave Hosea a most unusual command. “Go take yourself a wife of harlotry and children of harlotry”. Gomer was a ‘shrine’ prostitute in their mixed up world of Baal worship (which Jezebel had introduced). She would produce childen by Hosea who would also commit harlotry! (idol worship) But then God also gave him the reason for such a command. “For the land has committed great harlotry by departing from the LORD”.
It is obvious that the Israelites of the northern kingdom were viewed by God in that light, (prostituting themselves with Baal worship) and in order for Hosea to accurately and passionately convey that message, God wanted Hosea to have real life experience of what that felt like. Poor Hosea! It is a measure of Hosea’s commitment that he did exactly what the LORD commanded. He married Gomer. In the fulness of time, and in quick succession, Gomer bore three children to Hosea. Each were given a name which was full of meaning. A boy, Jezreel (God will scatter), a girl, Lo-Ruhamah (not loved), and another boy, Lo-Ammi ( not My people).
The words of Scripture are more eloquent than any commentary.
About the first child God said “Call his name Jezreel, for in a little while I will avenge the bloodshed of Jezreel on the house of Jehu (2 Kings 9,10) and bring an end (722 BCE) to the kingdom of the house of Israel. It shall come to pass in that day that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel (2 Kings 15:29).” Prophetic words which the people of that day were to experience for themselves.
About the second child God said “Call her name Lo-Ruhamah, for I will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel, but I will utterly take them away. Yet I will have mercy on the house of Judah, will save them by the LORD their God”. But that salvation would not be on a battlefield. Jerusalem was besieged by the Assyrians in the days of king Hezekiah (701 BCE) and God preserved them from that siege.
About the third child God said “Call his name Lo-Ammi, for you are not My people, and I will not be your God”. A sad indictment. But in spite of that God said that they would continue to grow in numbers. This is consistent with the covenant promise God made to Abraham regarding their growth in numbers. “as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered”. However, God said that other nations would not understand the wrath of God on them and would continue to consider them to be His people.
Then in amazing prophetic insight (verse 11) God said “Then the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together, and appoint themselves one head.” This will be when the LORD makes ‘a new covenant’ with them (Jeremiah 31:31). The “One head” will be Yeshua Ha’Mashiach, in whose blood that ‘new covenant’ is guaranteed. And the “day of Jezreel” is a reference to the battle which ends all battles, which is to be fought in the valley of Jezreel in Samaria, just below Mount Carmel, close to Meggido.
As chapter 2 opens, Hosea uses the metaphor of a courtroom, as did Micah. God, ‘the plaintiff’, brings charges of harlotry against Israel. Charges which are plainly indefensible. The record of their syncretism is long standing, going back to the time when the first king Jereboam set up the golden calves in Bethel and Dan. To that had been added the worship of Baal when Ahab was king. (Elijah famously challenged them to make a choice on Mount Carmel). The charge goes on, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, I will also reject you from being a priest before Me; Because you have forgotten the Torah of your God, I will also forget your children”. This is the most serious charge against them. The idolatry they practised had distorted the very lifestyle they were supposed to uphold. Their priestly duty was to teach their children. They had not. Their covenant promise was to observe and obey the Torah. They did not. “The plaintiff” was also both the jury and the judge. He still is. And here is a lesson for us to remember.
The judgement of God was not without warning. Read again Deuteronomy 28 and 29 if any doubt remains about that. If anyone thinks Torah to be obsolete, which it isn’t, look again at Matthew 7:21-23, Hebrews 9:27, and Revelation 20:12. No-one is without warning, and the Judge has already pronounced His judgment, and has provided the means by which the penalty of His judgement may be forgiven. In the case of the northern kingdom He said “For Israel is stubborn like a stubborn calf; now the LORD will let them forage like a lamb in open country”. No longer under the protection of His love and care. But free to go about their own devices, and then, alone, to bear the consequences of the stubbornness of which they had been warned.
Hosea took the message of God to Israel. They acted like the ‘unfaithful wife’, the hurt and disappointment of which Hosea was only too painfully aware. The question that poses is; What sort of a ‘wife’ am I?
Shabbat Shalom
RS
REFLECTIONS ON THE WRITING PROPHETS
‘Reflections’ on the Writing Prophets 10
M I C A H
This third ‘reflection’ in Micah’s prophecy appears as though the scene is set in a courtroom. God is the plaintiff, uncertain as to the exact nature of the complaint against Him, the people appear as defendants. God wants to hear the details of their complaint before a jury. The jury is comprised of the mountains, the hills, the foundations of the earth, who were witnesses to the covenant God had made with the people centuries earlier. The covenant was wilfully broken by the people. What had God done to bring about such a situation? His own character and reputation was at stake. At least that is how it appears to me!
“O My people, what have I done to you? And how have I wearied you? Testify against Me” said the LORD. Then, by way of preamble He reminded them briefly of details of the journey He had safely brought them on to get where they now were. From bondage as slaves in Egypt. From the curse that Balaam of Moab had attempted to place upon them. His guiding influence on Balak in preventing him from uttering any such curse. His care of them, in food, water and protection during the long journey in bringing them into the land in which they now lived as free men. Then He posed some rhetorical questions. The sort of questions that a person might have asked of such a benefactor. They may be summarised as “How can we show our gratitude? What can we do to express our appreciation?”. The answer is simply and eloquently put. Words my late wife claimed to be her favourite Scripture text. (and on a quite personal note, in a more than six decade long marriage, I can testify, that is how she lived her life)
“He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD requires of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?” Of course, the whole prophecy of Micah, as with other prophets, was because that was NOT how people were living their lives. God reminded them of the injustices which had become engrained in their lifestyle. On account of which the judgement of the LORD was about to be delivered to them. They took advantage of the weak in their society, “wicked scales and deceitful weights” was the description. It was in stark contrast to their covenant agreement to care for and support such people. Micah knew the Scriptures. As did they. He reminded them of God’s warning to bring desolation, sickness and hunger upon them (Leviticus 26: 14 - 16) as a direct result of their disobedience. But the people had grown sceptical. “Nah! God wouldn’t do that to us!” They and their ancestors had been living in the land hundreds of years. Yes, they had seen the correction of the LORD. Yes, they had seen battles lost from time to time. And in very recent times they had seen the northern kingdom attacked by the Assyrians. But they had not seen “the arm of the LORD bared”. Big mistake. There is a loud and clear lesson for us in this if we are willing to learn it. Do not take God for granted. “What does the LORD require of you”. It is printed in bold above. Read it again. Micah is addressing people who seemed arrogantly contemptuous of God’s requirement of those who are His. He really does expect that we live righteously.
Micah likens it to the owner of a vineyard, going late in the harvest time to see what had been left for the ‘gleaners’. The poor, the widow, the orphan, the stranger in their gates, the disadvantaged. NOTHING. Cleaned out by the greed of the owner. God describes it as an evil. Gifts for the ‘influential’ in the land, yes. Bribes for the lawmakers, yes. All scheming together at the expense of those who have nothing. “Son dishonours father, daughter rises against her mother … a man’s enemies are the men of his own household”. The greed and animosity even within families. It seems endemic in society, even today. When Yeshua commissioned His disciples (Matthew 10:35) it was this very Scripture that He used to describe what they would encounter as they went about their task of spreading the good news about Himself. But Micah, as he spoke for the person wronged, said “Therefore I will look to the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation; my God will hear me”. This is the hope of those wronged and neglected by fellow man. Not looking to sinful man for assistance. Rather “I will bear the indignation of the LORD, (not you) because I have sinned against Him (not you) until He pleads my case and executes justice for me (which you have not). He will bring me forth to the light; I will see His righteousness”. (Because there is no righteousness to be seen in you, my neighbour.) What an indictment.
But even that is not the end. At the end of this sad lament, as the prophet laid bare the iniquity of that generation, and the inevitable judgment of God about to fall on them, there is hope. The Israelites of the northern kingdom, and the Judeans of the southern kingdom later, in their time, witnessed the judgment of the LORD on them. Our generation will also face the judgment of the LORD. But here is the good news. He provided a pardon.
“Who is a God like You. Pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His anger for ever. Because He delights in mercy. He will again have compassion on us, and will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depth of the sea. You will give truth to Jacob and mercy to Abraham, which YOU have sworn to our fathers from days of old”.
In His love, mercy, and grace, He sent Yeshua to settle our debt. Trust Him.
Shabbat Shalom
RS