In this section the Lord brings His accusations against not only Israel but Judah too. And He zeroes in on the priests several times.
“Yet let no one contend, and let none accuse, for with you is my contention, O priest.”
Hosea 4:4 ESV
This correction of the priests is the context for one of the best-known lines in Hosea:
“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge…”
Hosea 4:6 ESV
He’s not talking about knowledge in general, but knowledge of God and how He is to be worshiped. Ever since Jeroboam the First set up the golden calves, the northern kingdom had been worshiping Yahweh according to their own rules. They felt no need to return to God’s Word (as Judah’s kings did repeatedly) to learn how to properly approach and worship the LORD. Their rebellious ignorance led to idolatry and idolatry led to destruction.
That’s why God is taking the priests to task. They were the leaders. They were the ones that taught the people that Yahweh was just another god to be worshiped like the gods of the other nations.
Spiritual leaders at any point in history have a heavy weight of responsibility, because people follow them; sometimes right off a cliff into error and sin and judgment.
“Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. For we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle his whole body.”
James 3:1-2 ESV
I think everyone should’ve spent at least 1 year in Bible College. That’s where people go away to be magically 🪄🎩 transformed into ministers.
Just kidding. There’s no magic. The guys that go to Bible college and seminary and who later go into ministry are normal guys. They pull pranks on one another. They stay up too late playing Call of Duty. They get super nervous to ask a girl on a date. They play basketball 🏀 and sweat and stink like any other guy. They are not a different species of human with elevated access to God. And they don’t get a magic phone ☎️ with God on speed-dial when they graduate. They are still fallible. Still VERY human.
In case anyone out there needed this warning: DO NOT put church leaders on a pedestal. They put on their pants 👖 one leg at a time just like everyone else.
James cautions his readers to not be too eager for leadership because it carries a heavy weight of responsibility. And he knows that “we all stumble in many ways.” The difference is, when a Christian leader stumbles – it affects a LOT more people than when the average Joe Christian stumbles.
I think I’ve mentioned before in the blog my “burnt toast prayer” from Bible College.
Not an elegant prayer. And I don’t recommend praying it unless you mean it and are prepared to be “drug through the knothole backwards” for Jesus. (Oh – and it might take years. Consider yourself warned.)
It’s better to be a piece of burnt toast that doesn’t lead anyone astray than to be perfectly toasted and lead people into sin.
And – most people that know me will probably read the burnt toast prayer and roll their eyes like- “What kind of wickedness could Miss Sunday School Goodie Two-Shoes possibly have hiding in her closet?” (As one friend joked, “Gasp! Maybe you left the cap off the toothpaste? Or left the toilet seat up?!”) But I assure you that even those of us who appear to be paragons of moral virtue have a sin nature just like everyone else.
Enough about me. Let’s get back to Hosea. He was taking the priests to task.
😐 They should’ve prayed the burnt toast prayer. Maybe it would’ve saved the nation.
Precisely. And that’s still true today.
Little House of Whorers
Chapter 4 has the word “whore” (whoredom, prostitute) no less than 10 times. This is not an offhanded insult or simply a metaphor.
Spiritually, Israel as a people, was created by and for Yahweh. All the other nations rebelled at Babel so God takes an elderly couple and makes a new nation from them.
Yahweh redeems them from slavery in Egypt and supernaturally keeps them alive in the wilderness for 40 years and enters into a covenant with them. They AGREE to be Yahweh’s people exclusively and to pass this covenant on to their descendants.
This is exactly like a marriage. God even refers to Israel as His “wife” and Himself as Israel’s “husband.” Yahweh is the only divine Being Who has the right to be intimate with, to dwell with, His people. So when Israel sets up altars to worship Baal right in Yahweh’s own land, it’s the equivalent of wifey bringing another man right into the master bedroom. It’s brazen.
And what’s worse is the amount of money involved. Baal worship isn’t free. There’s a whole priesthood getting paid. It’s the most inverted prostitution business model ever. Isarel is a harlot who pays the man. (Ezekiel is really gonna unpack this with more detail than we’ll be comfortable with).
“Come, let us return to the Lord; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him.” Hosea 6:1-2 ESV
I’ve generally read this verse and pictured the LORD as Shepherd striking the leg of a wayward sheep to keep it from wandering and also wrapping a bandage around the broken leg. But the work for ‘struck” (“smitten” in the KJV) is often used to mean killed. If that’s what it means in this passage then the “binding up” is not a bandage but grave clothes.
And that makes WAY more sense because “revive” means to “make alive” and you don’t need to resurrect someone just because they are injured. You only need to “make alive” the dead.
Jesus rose on the 3rd day, of course, and all who are IN Christ may also be said to have risen on the 3rd day.
But I’ve often wondered if this verse might be hinting at THE Resurrection; like at the END. After 2 days (of 1000 years each) He will revive us. So… 2000 years after Jesus is killed and bound up and then made alive… we are “revived.” And on the 3rd day (the 7th millennium) He raises us up- that’s exaltation. The word doesn’t mean to make alive like “revive.” It means to set up, to establish, to confirm, to lift up.
I dunno. Just a thought.
One more pattern that we notice in these chapters is that the prophet addresses “Ephraim” a lot.
Ephraim was the 2nd son of Joseph. He and firstborn Manasseh were adopted by Jacob and given a status and inheritance equal to Jacob’s other sons. Ephraim, though second, was placed ahead of Manasseh and together they were basically “the tribe of Joseph,”
Judah was given the kingship. Levi was given the priesthood. But Joseph was given the right of the firstborn because Joseph was the firstborn of Rachel and because Reuben had his right of the blessing of the firstborn taken away because he slept with his father’s concubine, (see Gen. 49).
So God addresses Ephraim as the tribe that represents the whole family. It’s kind of like how when kids are misbehaving and mom or dad corrects the eldest because they’re “supposed to be a good example to the younger children.”
In the next section, Hosea is going to tell them what the coming punishment will be.
To The Reader 