The Book of the Twelve for Lent 2016 - Hosea (6)
The
Book of the Twelve for Lent 2016
The
Dynamics of Life with God and as his People - Hosea (6)
Lent
4
I hope you
can see from the soundings we have taken in Hosea so far how rich and supple
its thought and dynamics are. And how appropriate it is that the editors of
this collection of prophetic books put it at the head of the collection as an
introduction.
The
template Hosea presents is one of repeated overtures by God to the people,
repeated (partial) responses by the people followed by relapses into idolatry
and disloyalty, followed by further overtures from God and less than faithful
responses by the people, ending with a promise by God to do what the people
cannot or will not do for themselves, forgive and restore them by grace and out
of love for them.
Hosea
seems to lack a tight structure instead opening with the memorable scene of God
commanding the prophet to marry a prostitute (or a woman who would become one).
Either way the pathos of the image pervades the relationship between God and
his people throughout the rest of book even though Hosea’s marriage to Gomer is
not mentioned after ch.3. What follows is a series of alternating scenes of
judgment and salvation which are intended to characterize the God-Israel
relationship throughout its duration. The chart below is one way to portray
this structure (Robert Chisholm, Interpreting
the Minor Prophets, 22):
Judgment
|
Salvation
|
1:2–9
2:2–13
4:1–5:15a
6:4–11:7
11:12–13:16
|
1:10–2:1
2:14–3:5
5:15b–6:3
11:8–11
14:1–9
|
We’ve
already looked at some of the particulars of God’s judgment and salvation of
the people. Here I want us to reflect a bit on this macrostructure of Hosea and
what that means for us as God’s people today.
First,
the marriage imagery sets a master-image for all of scripture. The Old
Testament looks forward to God’s marriage to his people while in the New
Testament it is Christ who is the bridegroom and the church his bride, indeed
in the last vision of the book of Revelation the New Jerusalem is so described
(21:2).
This
helps us remember who this God is with whom we have to do. Earlier I mentioned
the “God with a Scowl” who seems to be the default deity many imagine as the
true God. Rather, the God with whom we have to do is the bridegroom
passionately seeking his intended who has strayed and betrayed him but whom he
still dearly loves and hopes to win back to himself. Simply put, God is for us,
not against us! And will do all that can be done to reunite us with him. That’s
the love and passion that drives our God.
Just
as marriage, even, or especially, the best of them, requires work and
endurance. All of our marriages or close relationships have their fair share of
failures that need dealing with and forgiveness and mercy to make such dealing
with failure possible. The recurring bouts of judgment and salvation Hosea
records insists that such failure and forgiveness are the ligaments which hold
together and promote the growth of the body of marriage (Eph.4:13). Obviously
the judging and forgiving in this relationship goes only one-way (though we may
in fact have times when we feel we need to “forgive” God!), the pervasiveness
and persistence of God’s outreach to the people in spite of everything
testifies to the utter necessity of such dynamics in any healthy relationship.
In
other words, perfection is not possible (at least from our side). We should not
be surprised, then, when we hurt one another, even in the church. But nor
should we believe we can ignore or deny such hurt without grievous harm to the
relationship. We then easily slip into passive-aggressive responses, silence,
or even overt violence. We can do the same with God, especially since God is
perfect, and we may be even more motivated to hide or deny or failures. But
that’s only if we believe God is the vengeful condemning deity our culture
often promotes.
“[Man’s] legal status as a sinner is rejected in every form. Man is no
longer seriously regarded by God as a sinner. Whatever he may be, whatever
there is to be said of him, whatever he has to reproach himself with, God no
longer takes him seriously as a sinner. He has died to sin; there on the Cross
of Golgotha…We are no longer addressed and regarded by God as sinners…We are
acquitted gratis, sola gratia, by God’s own entering in for us. (Dogmatics
in Outline, 22)
This is who we are in Christ, which is the reality about us. Doubts
about God’s love and goodness are insinuations of the evil one or our own
unredeemed imaginings but not from God. Even in judgment God’s discipline is of
his love (though it may occasionally take us a while to realize it).This marriage relationship takes time, both for God and for us. Time is medium in which relationships are made, healed, remade, and finally fulfilled. God has entered time himself in Jesus Christ and in time he works out his relationship with us. This means all time is hallowed by his presence with us. Every moment is thus fraught with significance and possibility for us. Wasting, or “killing” time takes on a more serious air.
Finally, any marriage or close relationship takes two. Relationship is at the heart of God’s life as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Relationship is at the heart of God’s life with us and this world. Relationship is the heart of our lives. Relationship, then, is the center of our world and its life.
This is critical because too often in our western theological tradition it has been law, guilt, and sin (considered as breaking the law) that has been primary. But in the Bible it is relationships, broken relationships, healed and restored relationships that are primary. They are what drive both God and humanity in this thing we call the biblical story.
Hos.11:1-11 give us an overview of all this. The asymmetrical Divine-human relationship we noticed earlier in this series dominates this passage. The divine I dominates (17x). The human “they” plays it part, responding poorly and faithlessly to God’s acts toward and for them (11:1-3). The list of the verbs for God’s activity here is astonishing: love (v.1), called (v.1), taught to walk, took them in his arms, healed (v.3), lead them with cords of human kindness, with bands of love, lift infants to cheek, bent down, fed (v.4), return them to their homes (v.11).
Vv.8-9 reveal the interior anguish born of
God’s love for this people.
How can I give you up, Ephraim?
How can I hand you over, O Israel?
How can I make you like Admah?
How can I treat you like Zeboiim?
My heart recoils within me;
my compassion grows warm and tender.
I will not execute my fierce anger;
I will not again destroy Ephraim;
for I am God and no mortal,
the Holy One in your midst,
and I will not come in wrath.
How can I hand you over, O Israel?
How can I make you like Admah?
How can I treat you like Zeboiim?
My heart recoils within me;
my compassion grows warm and tender.
I will not execute my fierce anger;
I will not again destroy Ephraim;
for I am God and no mortal,
the Holy One in your midst,
and I will not come in wrath.
Finally
(v.11), God promises that he will unconditionally return his people home from
their exile and dispersion. Exercising the power of his parental love, he will
gather his people, even presumably, those who may not at the moment wish to
return. The logic here is that of relationships not propositions. Every parent
knows of times when their love for their children has overruled the children’s
choice in order to care for them or protect them from harm. This is what is
happening here.
These
are the dynamics and varied actions that mark God’s relationship with his
people and his world. These are the dynamics and actions of Lent. These are the
dynamics and actions of your life and mine. These are the dynamics and actions
of the heart of God. Made known to us in Jesus Christ. On the cross. At the
resurrection. Ascended into heaven. Through the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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