Hosea Chapter 2:1-15

Podcast

Intro: If what I read doesn’t match your Bible, there are two reasons

First, I’m reading from Robert Alter’s translation of the Old Testament
– so obviously that is different from other standard translations
• but another reason is that Alter worked from the Hebrew Bible,
◦ and in that version, chapter 1 has only nine verses
◦ in our English Bibles there are eleven verses in chapter 1
• so those two verses missing in chapter 1 are the beginning of chapter 2 in the Hebrew Bible
(If you didn’t get all that, just trust me; the texts are basically the same)
– reading through this chapter can be confusing
• that’s because in the first part God condemns his unfaithful wife
• but without warning, in the second part he is romancing her again

As I begin reading in chapter 2, be prepared to be surprised
And the number of the Israelites shall be like the sand of the sea that cannot be measured and cannot be counted, and it shall happen, instead of its being said of them, “You Are Not My People,” it shall be said of them, “Children of the Living God.” And the people of Judah and the people of Israel shall gather together and set over them a single chief, and they shall go up from the lands, for great is the day of Jezreel.
Say to you brothers, “My People,”
and to your sisters, “She is Shown Mercy.” Hosea 2:1-3

Okay, you probably weren’t surprised after all
– but we’re two weeks away from when we last read in Hosea
• there we heard God’s initial message to his prophet
◦ the odd command to Hosea and the birth and naming of his children
◦ two of them were given unhappy names: No Mercy and Not Mine
• Israel broke their covenant with God, so he was done with them
“I’m not going to show you mercy and you are no longer My people”
◦ that’s why we’re surprised at this sudden shift, because here they are shown mercy and are his people again
◦ God is letting his people have a “do over” “instead of it being said to them . . . .”
– this is the first bit of encouragement we find in Hosea
• a secret is leaked–an intention moving behind the dark parts of his prophecies
• for all of Israel’s failure, God doesn’t want to lose his people

If the first words regarding the “number of the Israelites” sound familiar, it’s because we’ve heard them before
– long ago, when God swore a covenant with Abraham (Gen. 22:17)
“like the sand of the sea that cannot be measured . . .”
• this was the picture God planted in his mind
◦ and though Abraham did not live to see its fulfillment,
◦ God had his eyes on his people through all the future ages
• eventually, the hundreds of thousands of Abraham’s children split into two nations:
◦ ten tribes of Israel lived in the north, while Judah dominated the south
◦ toward the end of Hosea’s life, the ten tribes of Israel had all but disappeared
– God, however, had not forgotten his promise to Abraham
• nor had he given up hope for their covenant relationship
◦ so here, God retrieves the extravagant word picture of sand on shore
• because he does not–he cannot–let go of his people
◦ I hear a meaning in the gospels of something Jesus did not intend, but fits here as an analogy:
“Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost” (Jn. 9:12)
◦ I don’t think he wanted to lose even one person who had been in the crowd he fed
“The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise . . . but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9)

“great is the day of Jezreel” repeats the name of Hosea’s first son (Hosea 1:4)
– the name was chosen to signal a crisis – Israel’s punishment
• but now it seems God’s purpose was not Israel’s destruction,
◦ but a purification leading so their restoration
• this is the new announcement:
“Say to your brothers, ‘My People,’
and to your sisters, “She Is Shown Mercy’”
– the prophecies of Hosea move like a teeter-totter
• one minute God prepares to punish Israel,
• but the next minute he pours out his mercy and forgives them
◦ later he will ask,
“How can I give you over, Ephraim,
surrender you Israel?
How can I make you like [the cities destroyed with Sodom and Gomorrah]?
My heart churns within me
My compassion altogether stirred (Hos. 11:8)

Israel is summoned to appear in court
Bring a case against your mother, bring a case,
for she is not my wife,
and I am not her husband Hosea 2:4

It’s her children’s sad task to serve her the divorce papers
– we enter an imagined courtroom and Israel is told dress properly
• not with appearance and accessories of a prostitute
Let her take off her whoring from her face
and her adultery from between her breasts,
lest I strip her naked
and set her out as the day she was born.
And I will turn her into a desert
and make her like a parched land
and let her die of thirst Hosea 2:5
◦ “from her face” – thick, black eyeliner (kohl) and deep red lipstick
◦ “adultery from between her breasts”
Robert Alter, this would be a “sachet of fragrance” hung around her neck (Song. 1:13)
• if she enters the courtroom with that attire, she’ll be stripped bare
– from God’s perspective, idolatry is adultery
• the most radical and focused example in the prophets is recorded in Ezekiel 16
“As to your birth, on the day of your birth, your navel cord was not cut nor were you washed smooth in water nor were you rubbed with salt nor were you swaddled. No eye had pity on you to show mercy on you ” (Eze. 16:4)
• in v. 5, Hosea makes a quick jump to a different metaphor
Alter, “As often happens in biblical poetry, the prophet switches from one set of images–Israel as a promiscuous female body–to another–the barren desert as a representation of national ruin.”

And to her children I will show no mercy,
for they are the children of whoring.
For their mother played the whore,
she who conceived them acted shamefully Hosea 2:6

We’re probably not meant to take “her children” literally
– this would be the fruit of her affairs with idols and pagan gods
• this is the evidence that is stacked against her

If we next imagine the judge asking, “How do you plead?”
– she answers, “Let me go after my lovers”
For she said, “Let me go
after my lovers
who give me my bread and water,
my wool and my flax,
my oil and my unguents.” Hosea 2:7

• Israel was giving pagan gods credit for their provisions
◦ staring with basic needs, progressing to non-essentials
◦ first food, next fabric to clothe them, then luxury items
• this was an extreme insult to the Lord their God

God’s first response is to stop her in her tracks
Therefore I am about to hedge in your way with thorns
and raise a wall for her,
and she shall not find her paths.
And she shall run after her lovers
and shall not catch them,
and she shall seek them and not find them.
And she shall say, “Let me
go back to my first husband,
for it was then better for me than now.”
And she did not know
that it was I who gave her the new grain and the wine and the oil,
and silver I showered upon her
and gold that they fashioned for Baal.
Therefore I will turn her back and take away
My new grain in its time
and my wine in its season
and reclaim my wool and My flax
that would cover her nakedness Hosea 2:8-10

Her instant reaction is desperation–she runs “after her lovers”
– but it’s wasted effort
• we know the secret why she could not find them: they don’t exist
◦ that’s why she runs into a wall or gets lost in a desert
• what God hopes, is that his people will come to their senses
“Let me
go back to my first husband,
for it was better for me than now”
– through the entire period of Israel’s wandering from God,
• there has been one central defect, “she did not know” !
◦ the word know (or knowledge, Hebrew yada) occurs multiple times in Hosea, all the way to the last verse
◦ it is central themes in this book of prophecies, and in chapter 4 we read:
“My people is destroyed without knowledge,
for you—you rejected knowledge” (Hosea 4:6)
• Israel forgot that all their blessings came from the Lord
◦ but she had abused his gifts and, instead, dedicated them to the Canaanite god Baal
◦ again, this is a complaint skillfully expressed in Ezekiel
“And you took from your garments and made yourself tapestried high places and played the whore on them. Such things should never be. And you took your splendid ornaments, from My gold and from My silver that I gave to you, and you made for yourself male images and played the whore with them . . . .” (Eze. 16:15-18)

At this point in the trial God pronounces sentence on Israel
And now, I will lay bare her shame
before the eyes of her lovers,
and no man shall saver her.
And I will put an end to her rejoicing,
to her festivals, her new moons and her sabbaths
and all her appointed times.
And I will wither her vines and her fig trees
of which she said, “They are a whore’s pay for me
that my lovers gave to me.”
And I will turn them into scrubland,
and the beasts of the field shall devour them.
And I will make a reckoning against her for the days of the Baalim
to whom she burned incense,
and she put on her nose right and her jewelry
and went after her lovers,
but Me she for got, said the LORD Hosea 2:11-15

This is what her punishment would be:
First, her guilt would be publicly exposed to the world (cf. Eze. 16:35-37)
Second, no one would come to her rescue (no one could)
Third, every joy and cause for celebration would be taken from her
Fourth, her agriculture would be ruined
– the shrubs their fields produced would be food for wild beasts

If we remember that this drama was played out in Hosea’s life,
– we might have an idea of the wrenching sadness he felt
• betrayal strikes hard and leaves deep wounds
◦ Shakespeare captured the deep pain of betrayal in three words
◦ as Caesar was being assassinated, he noticed his friend among the conspirators and said,
et tu, Brute – “And you, Brutus? Then fall Caesar.”
• we know we can ignore and reject God,
◦ but it doesn’t occur to us that we might cause him sadness
◦ we see it, however, in Jesus
“And when [Jesus] drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, ‘Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes” (Lk. 19:41-42)
• here are the sad last words of our text for this morning: “but Me she forgot, said the LORD”

Conclusion: One morning twelve years ago, my meditation was on this line: “And she did not know”

I wrote:
“It is what we don’t know that ruins us
We do not know:
• how far the effects of one kind deed we skipped would have traveled
• the wound we inflicted by one mean word or rude expression or gesture
• that the person who was in our way carries an intolerable burden
• that Jesus was expecting us to return to him to give thanks after an answered prayer
• the greatness of God’s love for us or the immense depth of his grace and mercy
• how much more God will give us when we joyfully share what we have

That morning, I also reminded myself about the parable of the talents;
that the boss gave ten to one servant, five to another, and two to another
My thought was, God does not give only assets, he makes investments
and we do not know when he will come to collect