097. LXIX. The Beginning Of Jehovah’s Revelation By Hosea
§ LXIX. THE BEGINNING OF JEHOVAH’S REVELATION BY HOSEA 1. Hosea’s marriage (Hosea 1:2-3a).
Now Jehovah said to Hosea:
Go marry a wife with whorish instincts who will bear you children by her whoredom, For the land is continually going a-whoring from after Jehovah. So he went and married Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim.
2. Birth and name of his first son (Hosea 1:3-5). And when she conceived and bore him a son, Jehovah said:
Call his name Jezreel, For yet a little while, And I will avenge the blood shed at Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, And I will cause the kingdom of Israel to cease. And it shall come to pass in that day, That I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.
3. Of Lo-ruhamah (Hosea 1:6). And when she conceived again and bore a daughter, he said to him:
Call her name Lo-rubamah [Unpitied], For I will no longer Have pity on the house of Israel, That I should still spare them.
4. Of Loammi (Hosea 1:8-9). Then she weaned Lo-ruhamah; and when she conceived and bore a son, he said:
Call his name Lo-ammi [Not-my-people], For ye indeed are not my people, And I indeed am not your God.
5. Hosea’s divorce of his unfaithful wife (Hosea 2:2b, c,Hosea 2:4,Hosea 2:5a, b).
[Then Hosea said:
I will put away Gomer], For she is not my wife, And I will not be her husband; And on her children I will have no pity, Since they are children of whoredom, For their mother hath become a harlot;
She who conceived them hath behaved shamefully.
6. The divine promptings still to love her (Hosea 3:1). But Jehovah said to me:
Still go, love this woman Who loves a paramour and is an adulteress, As Jehovah loveth the Israelites, Although they turn to other gods, And love raisin-cakes.
7. Her restoration and discipline (Hosea 3:2-3). So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver and eight bushels of barley and a measure of barley. And I said to her:
Many days shalt thou abide for me, Thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be any man’s wife.
8. Israel’s similar experience (Hosea 3:4).
Yet, I on my part will be thine. For through many days The Israelites shall abide Without king and without prince, Without sacrifice and without pillar, Without ephod and without teraphim.
9.Jehovah’s appeal to the Israelites to save their nation from apostasy (Hosea 2:2a, d, e,Hosea 2:3;Hosea 2:5, c–e).
Strive with your mother, strive, That she put her acts of whoredom from her sight, And her adulteries from between her breasts, Lest I strip her naked, And set her as she was on the day of her birth, And make her like the wilderness, And let her become like a parched land, And let her die of thirst. For she hath said, I will go after my paramours Who gave me my bread and my water, My wool, my flax, my oil and my drink.
10. Jehovah’s discipline of Israel to make clear the folly of apostasy (Hosea 2:6-7a–c,Hosea 2:8a–c,Hosea 2:9-10;Hosea 2:12;Hosea 2:11;Hosea 2:13).
Therefore I am going to hedge up her ways with thorns, And build a wall about her, So that she cannot find her paths. And she will pursue her paramours, But will not overtake them, And she will seek and not find them. But she herself did not know That it was I who gave her The corn, the sweet wine and the oil.
Therefore I will take back my corn in its time, And my sweet wine in its season, And I will withdraw my wool and my flax, Given to cover her nakedness; And so I will uncover her shame, And none shall deliver her out of my hand. And I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees, Of which she hath said, These are my rewards Which my lovers have given me. And I will make them a thicket, And the wild beasts shall devour them. And I will also cause all her mirth to cease, Her feasts, her new moon and her sabbaths. And thus will I visit upon her the days of the Baalim, In which she made offerings to them, And decked herself with ear-rings and jewels, And went after her paramours And forgot me, is the oracle of Jehovah.
11. Divine favor and reconciliation for penitent Israel (Hosea 2:14-17,Hosea 2:19-20).
Therefore I am going to allure her, And bring her into the wilderness, And speak endearingly to her. And I will give her from there her vineyards And the valley of Achor as a door of hope, And there she shall respond as in the days of her youth, As when she came up from the land of Egypt. And it shall be in that day, is the oracle of Jehovah, She shall call to her husband, And shall call no more to the Baalim. And I will remove the names of the Baalim from her mouth. And they shall no more be mentioned by their names. And I will betroth her to me forever;
Yea, I will betroth her to me in righteousness, And in judgment, and in kindness and in mercy;
Yea, I will betroth her to me in faithfulness and she shall know Jehovah.
12. The evidences of Jehovah’s forgiveness and love (Hosea 2:21-23). And it shall come to pass in that day That I will speak,—it is the oracle of Jehovah,—
I will speak to the heavens, And they will speak to the earth, And the earth will speak to the grain, And the new wine and the oil; And they shall speak to Jezreel, And I will sow her in the land. And I will have pity upon the Unpitied, And I will say to Not-my-people, Thou art my people, And they will say, Thou art my God.
I. The Book of Hosea. The book of Hosea falls naturally into two divisions. The first, chapters 1–3, tells of that tragic experience in Hosea’s life which made him a prophet and of the way in which he applied his own experience in interpreting the relations between Jehovah and the nation Israel. The second division, chapters 4–14, consists of extracts from addresses which the prophet delivered during the latter part of his life. They deal with the grave political, social, moral and religious problems of his age. They lack the close-knit logical unity which characterizes the prophecies of Amos. They vividly reflect, however, the thought and activity of the prophet during the years of national decline, and the impassioned words of denunciation, warning and entreaty with which Hosea sought to turn his fellow-countrymen from their fatal course.
II. Hosea’s Date and Nationality. The superscription to Hosea’s prophecy makes him contemporary of Isaiah, and assigns to his work a period of nearly a century (782–686 B.C.). The exact date of his activity must, however, be determined from the historical references within the prophecy itself. His call and earlier sermons found in chapters 1–3 are evidently to be dated before the death of Jeroboam II in 740 B.C.; for he refers in them to the overthrow of the house of Jehu as still in the future. The later sermons, chapters 4–14, reflect the period of anarchy and social and moral decay which followed soon after the death of Jeroboam. Since they contain no allusions to the invasion of Tiglath-pileser IV, in 734 B.C., but rather imply that the territory of Gilead, which was then annexed to Assyria, still belonged to the northern kingdom, their date is established between 740 and 735 B.C. Hosea, therefore, began his work during the same decade as did Amos, and labored, as the superscription implies, contemporaneously with the earlier period of Isaiah’s activity.
Unlike Amos, Hosea was a native of the northern kingdom. This conclusion is established not only by the fact that practically all of the historical and geographical allusions are to places and events in Northern Israel, but also by that deep love and devotion for the larger Hebrew kingdom which Hosea betrays in his every utterance. Hosea is the one prophet of the north whose sermons have been preserved. Regarding the last days of Northern Israel, biblical historians are almost silent; but in the utterances of its noblest patriot it is possible to study as an eye-witness the forces which were rapidly carrying the nation on to its final destruction.
III. The Prophet’s Private History. The first and second chapters of Hosea’s prophecy have evidently been reëdited by a later disciple who has added the appropriate sub-title, “The Beginning of Jehovah’s Revelation by Hosea.” In the third chapter the prophet’s experiences are told in the first person; but in the opening chapters his words have been incorporated in a framework in which the prophet is spoken of in the third person. In the second chapter also the account of his own personal experience, which binds together the narrative of the first and third chapters, has apparently been blended with one of Hosea’s sermons, in which he traces the close analogy between his own experience with his unfaithful wife, Gomer, and Jehovah’s experience with faithless Israel. Separating the narrative material of chapter 2 and introducing the sermon contained in that chapter in its logical position after chapter 3, a clear and consistent record of Hosea’s early life is secured.
Briefly, but plainly, Hosea tells of the tragic domestic experience which opened his eyes to the appreciation of those fundamental truths which made him a prophet. Looking back from the vantage point of later years, he realized that the strong love which he had felt for Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, and all the pain which his marriage with her had brought to him, were not without their profound significance and permanent value. Dean Plumptre, in his poem, “Gomer” (in Lazarus and Other Poems), has nobly and truly voiced the feelings with which Hosea interpreted his early history.
“Through all the mystery of my years, There runs a purpose which forbids the wail Of passionate despair. I have not lived At random, as a soul whom God forsakes; But evermore His Spirit led me on, Prompted each purpose, taught my lips to speak, Stirred up within me that deep love, and now Reveals the inner secret.”
Later events had disclosed the base character of the woman who had commanded his youthful affection; but even as he rose above the ruins of his home and his fond ambitions, Hosea could declare in the light which the painful experience brought him, that in it all God was leading him on to his true life-work.
IV. The Unfaithfulness of His Wife. In his earliest recorded prophetic utterance, Hosea reiterated the message of Amos to Northern Israel. That message was impressed upon the mind of his fellow-countrymen by the name which he gave to his oldest son. Jezreel was the plain on which Jehu, the founder of the reigning house, had slain his predecessor and thus become king of Israel. The name recalled Jehu’s bloody acts, and was interpreted by Hosea as a symbol of the coming judgment in which Northern Israel should pay with its life-blood for the crimes of the past. His little daughter also received the grim name, “Unpitied.” When it became known on the streets of Hosea’s native town, the prophet declared that it was intended to symbolize the ominous truth that, although Jehovah had long overlooked the crimes of the nation, he would no longer spare. The name of his youngest son, “Not-my-people,” proclaimed the same sad fact that Jehovah would soon be compelled to reject his people. The note struck in these early prophetic oracles is harsh and repellent, and perhaps suggests the bitterness in the prophet’s soul, as he recognized in his own domestic experiences the hideousness and awful consequences of sin. When he discovered that his wife, Gomer, was unfaithful, Hosea was justified by ancient Semitic custom and Hebrew law, in driving her from his home and thus severing the marriage bond. This would seem to have been his first impulse, and was in perfect keeping with his stern judicial spirit revealed in the child-oracles. The context implies that the impulse still to love and redeem the fallen woman who had wronged him so bitterly, came to Hosea only after he had already banished her or else she herself had fled from his home. At least he states that he bought her back from her life of ignominy and servitude for the price of a slave, and thus brought her again to his home. Immediate restoration to the former marriage relation was impossible. In silence and alone she must learn to appreciate the enormity of her guilt and the depth and greatness of the love which had followed her even in her shame. Whether or not she met Hosea’s love with true contrition and appreciation is not stated. The decision rested with her; for in the narrative Hosea stands waiting, the faithful lover, ready to forgive, when once penitence and contrition had done their purifying work.
V. The Truths which Hosea Learned from His Tragic Experience. It is evident that Hosea told of his own private experience with the same purpose that influenced Isaiah and Jeremiah to recount the profound spiritual experiences which marked the beginning of their prophetic work, namely, that their own disciples and readers might appreciate their aims and teachings. The minds of these later prophets were opened by a study of the conditions and needs of their race and by the remarkable crisis through which their nation was passing. Hosea’s mind was divinely enlightened and his will was stirred to action by the tragic experiences which came to him in his domestic life. These taught him: (1) That having once truly loved his wife, he could not cease to love her, however much she sinned. (2) That the more he loved her the greater was the pain which her sin brought to him. (3) That in the presence of defiant wrong-doing, discipline is the noblest expression of love, for it alone will develop penitence in the heart of the guilty. (4) That forgiveness is impossible without penitence on the part of the sinner. (5) That he who loves truly is ever eager to forgive the penitent sinner.
These simple but profound truths lie at the foundation of all of Hosea’s subsequent teaching. These convictions, won through infinite pain, and appreciated as no man had appreciated them before, made him not merely the prophet of stern justice but also the prophet of divine love and tenderness. Henceforth his task was to denounce the sins of Israel, for he now understood, as no one else, what they meant to Israel’s God. But his greater task was to reveal to the nation the Infinite Love which had guided them in their past and was ready and eager to forgive all the guilt of the present, if only they would reach out toward it with true repentance and contrition.
VI. The Application of his Own Experience to that of His Nation. In the account of his own experience, Hosea traces the close analogies between his relation to his wife Gomer and Jehovah’s to the nation Israel. Even as Hosea wooed and married Gomer, so Jehovah, back in the wilderness days, entered into solemn covenant relations with Israel. As Hosea had been faithful to Gomer through all the years and loved her still, even so Jehovah had shown his unceasing love for Israel; but as Gomer had been faithless to Hosea and had bestowed her affection on her paramours, even so Northern Israel had turned to the worship of the ancient Canaanite Baalim. In the case of both Gomer and Israel, love and kindness had failed to evoke a corresponding love and fidelity. Hence, as Hosea had learned from his own experience, love must now find expression in discipline. With impassioned words, he pleads, in the name of Jehovah, with the citizens of Northern Israel, that they appeal to the nation, their mother, to repent and turn from her criminal course. In her blind folly Israel has regarded Jehovah’s blessings of plenty and prosperity as the gifts of the local gods of fertility. Only as the nation is deprived of them and covered with humility and shame will she learn the true source of these blessings.
It is not certain that the closing paragraphs of this section are from Hosea, although on the whole they come most naturally from his lips. In any case they represent the conclusion suggested by his own personal experience. The object of his discipline of Gomer was that he might rouse within her that repentance which would make forgiveness and reconciliation possible. Jehovah’s withdrawal of plenty and prosperity from the nation was that the people of Israel might turn to him with that penitence which would make it possible for him again to bestow upon the nation the evidences of his favor. Even as in the days of the settlement, the valley of Achor, which had witnessed the punishment of the nation because of the sins of Achan (cf. § XXXII 10), had proved the gateway through which the Hebrews had entered into the possession and enjoyment of the blessings of the land of Canaan, so now, if the nation would but learn the lesson of divine discipline, the experience would open to them new revelations of Jehovah’s care and love. When once the nation should break with the Baal cults of Canaan and give its undivided love to Jehovah, he would renew, on the basis of the eternal principle of righteousness, justice and mercy, the old, close covenant between himself and his people. Then the heavens, as Jehovah’s messengers of love, would send down their fructifying rains upon the earth and the earth would send forth its rich products, so that Jezreel would no longer symbolize coming judgment, but rather, as its name suggests, represent the land which “God sows.” Then the unpitied people should be the object of Jehovah’s pity; they who had been rejected should again be called the people of Jehovah, and they in turn should recognize him as the one and only God.
VII. Hosea’s Message to the World. In the pathetic story of his own experience and of its application to his nation, the prophet Hosea laid the eternal foundations of all true religion. He has also given the clearest and most vivid presentation of the divine necessity of repentance found in pre-exilic Hebrew literature. Interpreted into universal terms, Hosea’s message was: (1) Jehovah is a God of infinite love and demands in turn not only the loyalty but the love of his people. (2) The sin and infidelity of man bring infinite pain to the eternal heart of God. (3) Even for God himself forgiveness of the impenitent is impossible. (4) Toward those who are defiantly impenitent, divine justice and its expression in discipline is the supreme evidence of love. (5) That which is called divine judgment and punishment is but a means to an end, and that end is forgiveness and reconciliation. (6) God is ever ready to forgive even the most guilty, provided only they come to him with true contrition. (7) The goal of all life and human experience is that perfect peace and happiness which come through harmony with the eternal Father.