Hosea Chapter 2:16-24

Podcast

Welcome and Prayer: Jim Calhoun

Come Lord, join us here today
Be with us
Among us
Close and known
Immanuel
Calling to us
Helping us along
Bringing us near
Restoring us
Making us new
Ready to love
And serve
With joy and expectation

And join us here today Lord
One people
One family
One body
Close and known
Serving each other
Restoring each other
Learning together
Growing together
Building up
Sharpening
Softening
With gentleness
And kindness
And patience
With joy and expectation
Amen

Today’s Talk: chuck smith, jr.

Therefore, I am about to beguile her
and will lead her to the wilderness
and speak to her very heart.
And I will give her from there her vineyards
and the Valley of Achor an opening to hope,
and she shall sing out there as in the days of her youth,
as on the day she came up from the land of Egypt Hosea 2:16-17 (Robert Alter translation)

Intro: Since it has been a couple of weeks, let me remind you . . .

The book of Hosea is a love story – but not like a romance novel
– it was never meant to entertain
• God’s message came to Israel in a graphic illustration,
◦ played out in the life of his prophet
• first, God told Hosea to marry a prostitute
◦ the point was to give Israel a living re-enactment of
◦ their history with God – deserting him for another god or other gods
– Hosea and his wife had three children who were placed onto the stage with their parents
• each of their names revealed an aspect of the unfolding crisis
◦ Jezreel – a place where God would render a verdict, to bring closure
◦ Lo-Ruhamah – No Mercy – God would leave them to their fate
◦ Lo-Ami – Not Mine – God rejected them from being his people
• so up till now, the unfolding drama has been harsh

We cannot allow ourselves to lose the “big idea” of Hosea’s prophetic story
– God’s message is intense–and urgent– and must be heard
• what is revealed in Hosea is God’s Crazy love
◦ although he says he will stop loving his people, stop caring for them,
◦ his love won’t let him dump them and walk away
• though God’s complaint against them is brutal and ongoing,
◦ though his threats are severe and painful to read,
◦ God’s chief aim is to repair the rupture in their relationship
– it is important for us that we own the storyline
• we are God’s people – we are the subjects of his intense love
◦ the truth is revealed through Hosea for us to learn it and experience it
• the first half of the chapter was brutal
◦ God rejects Israel from being his wife because she cheated on him
◦ abandoning her, their land would come to ruin

Now, the prophecy makes a sudden and unexplained turn (vv. 16-24, Hebrew Bible)

God reveals his strategy to win Israel back to himself
– first he would beguile her – sometimes translated allure, entice, even seduce
• but the context suggests “woo” – God would romance Israel
◦ “lead her into the wilderness” – that’s where it all started
Henry McKeating, “God and Israel spent their honeymoon in the wilderness. It is there that God will take her back and make a new beginning.”
Compare this to God’s reminiscence in Jeremiah’s prophecy
“I recalled for you the kindness of your youth,
your bridal love,
your coming after Me in the wilderness,
into an unsown land” (Jer. 2:2)
◦ there, God says, he would “speak to her very heart”
• Alter has translated this statement literally
(some versions paraphrase the Hebrew as tenderly, comforting, soothing)
◦ this is an idiom in the Hebrew language that is found many time in Old Testament
◦ in this passage, speak to her very heart captures the idea of courtship
– once God wins their love again in the wilderness,
• he will give them gifts – two, in particular:
◦ “vineyards” – which makes sense as evidence of their restoration
◦ and “the Valley of Achor and opening to hope”
▫ this makes less sense – that’s because this valley has a history
• Israel’s first battle in the promised land was against Jericho was a total victory
◦ but there was a glitch; one soldier, Achan, disobeyed a direct order from God
▫ his disobedience sabotaged Israel’s next battle and they suffered a disastrous defeat
◦ Achan had to be exposed, confronted, and suffer fate of enemy
▫ the Hebrew name Achan means “to trouble”
Joshua confronted Achan, asking him, “Why did you bring trouble on us? The LORD brings trouble on you today. . . . Therefore, to this day the name of that place is called the Valley of Achor” (Jos. 7:26)
▫ Achor is related to the name Achan, therefore that place was “the Valley of Trouble”
– you can see why this is odd, that the Valley of Trouble would become “an opening to hope”
• but this is how the story finds its way to a solution
◦ it is in Israel’s trouble that they wake up and return to God
◦ hope lies on the other side of the door in the Valley of Trouble
• instead of their hardship being the end,
◦ it would lead Israel to a new beginning with God
◦ a renewed romance, renewed covenant, and renewed commitment
“and she shall sing out there as in the days of her youth . . .”; i.e., in her prime
– finally, they will demonstrate the response God wants to see
– when we go to the Psalms, we find Israel had a song for everything
• the Hebrew word translated “sing out” has another meaning: to respond or answer
• we will come to that alternative translation in a few verses
◦ in this and the following verse we see a combined effort
◦ God says, “I will” which is followed by, “she shall”

At this point, the poem picks up momentum
And it shall be, on that day, said the LORD,
she shall call Me “my husband”
And no longer call Me “my Baal.”
And I will take away the names of the Baalim from your mouth,
and they shall no more be recalled by their name Hosea 2:18-19

Three times in the next six verses we find the words, “on that day”
– on that day that Israel returns, God becomes very busy taking care of his wife
• I think we can all appreciate what we see happening here
◦ we feel like we’ve waited so long to see God answer our prayers and take action,
◦ but when he moves, he makes a lot of changes all at once
– the first thing God does is restore his exclusive role with Israel
• Ba-al had the general meaning of lord, master, and husband
◦ but it was also the name of the primary God of the Canaanites
• it’s possible Israel sometimes referred to God as Baal Yahweh
◦ God was going to remove that word from their vocabulary
◦ he was going to leave no memory of their former lover

God’s covenant with his people must be renewed and reaffirmed
And I will seal a pact with them on that day,
with the beasts of the field and with the fowl of the heavens
and with the creeping things of the earth.
And bow and sword and battle
will I break from the earth,
and I will make them like down secure Hosea 2:20

“And I will seal a pact with them” is usually translated, “make a covenant”
– this is something that both Jeremiah and Ezekiel emphasized
• Israel broke their covenant with God, so now it must be restored
• the covenant is what binds them together
– God’s part as described here is first of all protection
• part of this promise picks up some of the very words from God’s covenant with Noah
“Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, ‘Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you . . . .” (Gen. 9:8-10)
• the promise also includes protection from their enemies’ armies

These verses come as close to vows as anything we find in the Scriptures
And I will betroth you to Me forever,
I will betroth you to me in right and in justice
and in kindness and in mercy.
And I will betroth you in faithfulness,
and you shall know that I am the LORD Hosea 2:21-22

Three times the Lord says, “I will betroth you to Me”
– “betroth” meant to become engaged with a determined commitment to marriage
Robert Alter, “The triple repetition of ‘I will betroth you’ sounds very much like a performative speech-act, God pronouncing the wedding vows.”
– these are the shared commitments of God and his people:
• first, the relationship is forever
• second, it is sealed in right and justice
◦ righteousness is personal – doing what’s right given the nature of one’s relationship to another specific person
◦ justice communal – to practice and maintain fairness in the social realm
• third, it is sealed in kindness and in mercy – (Heb. chesed and racham)
◦ there is a suggestion of strong passion in both of these words
• fourth, it is sealed in faithfulness

“And you shall know that I am the LORD”
– to “know” is a frequent theme in Hosea
• it isn’t merely memorizing information
• here it is a personal and experiential knowledge of Yahweh

God describes a goodness granted to Israel that advances by degrees to an ultimate blessing
And it shall be on that day,
I will answer, said the LORD,
I will answer for the heavens,
and they shall answer for the earth.
And the earth shall answer for the new grain
and for the wine and for the oil,
and they shall answer for Jezreel.
And I will sow her for Me in the land
and show mercy to Lo-Ruhamah,
and I will say to Lo-Ami, “Your are My people,”
and he shall say, “You are my God” Hosea 2:23-24

“I will answer” – this is the word that I told you also means “to sing”
– the poem moves through the following stages:
• God responds to the heavens that depend on him for rain clouds
• the clouds respond to the earth that needs to be watered
• grain, wine, and oil depend on the moist soil in order to grow
• Jezreel now stands for the culmination of God’s work
– finally, the restoration of all that Israel had walked away from
• this is the heartbeat of the covenant:
God says, “You are My people”
Israel responds, “You are my God”

Conclusion: Whatever devotion we have toward God,

What ever praise we give him, or love we have for him, it is always a response
“We love because he first loved us” (1 Jn. 4:19)
But where I want to leave you today is at the opening to hope in the Valley of Trouble
The help is there, so for our part, we have to walk through the open door

In 2003, after reading this chapter, I wrote the following in my collection of meditations:
“Despair can come to us through loss, ongoing hardship, chronic pain, clinical depression, a series of bad choices, and so on. God cares enough to provide a door of hope–light in our darkness, joy in our sorrow, a glimmer of faith in our unbelief.
‘And she shall sing there.’ Amazing how hope creates a song!”
There is always a door of hope.”