“A king, what could he do for us?” What good is a king or a president if the people have no sense of responsibility; if honor, honesty, integrity, decency, are lacking?”Ephraim was a trained heifer.” What Hosea is saying is that sin greatly increases the burden of life. “Break up your fallow ground…that he may come and rain salvation upon you.” To break up the old habits, to leave the old road so long traveled, to turn around and go in an opposite direction-that is not easy. God called the Israelites out of Egypt, gave them political freedom, but “the more I called them, the more they went from me.” Their freedom became the occasion of deeper enslavement. Hosea suddenly changes his mood from tenderness to severity. His insight again overtakes his love. The people will not respond to the goodness of their God. Yet God’s initiative prevails. He always calls us back to Him. Israel is to return “by the help of …God”. “I have gained wealth for myself” Ephraim said, and no doubt thought he had gained it by himself. But, at the expense of how many lives had he done so? “The chaff that swirls from the threshing floor and smoke from a window” is a figure that is not found elsewhere. Hosea piles up the figures of cloud, dew, chaff and smoke to drive home the fickle, insecure, unstable, transient character of idolatry. “When they had fed to the full,…they forgot me.” How is it that in good times we forget the God who sustains us? The lion, bear, and wild beast of which the prophet speaks are not foreign assailants imported y God to disturb domestic tranquility. They are in every person; of tremendous value when directed to worthy ends, of frightening ferocity when unleashed and left to run their course unchecked. “O Israel return to the Lord.” With repentance and confession come forgiveness, restoration, healing. Hosea sees the Israel that will “blossom as the lily”. “The ways of the Lord are right,…transgressors stumble in them.” The final appeal is to the wise, the men of sense;”Whoever is wise, let him understand these things.”
“A king, what could he do for us?” What good is a king or a president if the people have no sense of responsibility; if honor, honesty, integrity, decency, are lacking?”Ephraim was a trained heifer.” What Hosea is saying is that sin greatly increases the burden of life. “Break up your fallow ground…that he may come and rain salvation upon you.” To break up the old habits, to leave the old road so long traveled, to turn around and go in an opposite direction-that is not easy. God called the Israelites out of Egypt, gave them political freedom, but “the more I called them, the more they went from me.” Their freedom became the occasion of deeper enslavement. Hosea suddenly changes his mood from tenderness to severity. His insight again overtakes his love. The people will not respond to the goodness of their God. Yet God’s initiative prevails. He always calls us back to Him. Israel is to return “by the help of …God”. “I have gained wealth for myself” Ephraim said, and no doubt thought he had gained it by himself. But, at the expense of how many lives had he done so? “The chaff that swirls from the threshing floor and smoke from a window” is a figure that is not found elsewhere. Hosea piles up the figures of cloud, dew, chaff and smoke to drive home the fickle, insecure, unstable, transient character of idolatry. “When they had fed to the full,…they forgot me.” How is it that in good times we forget the God who sustains us? The lion, bear, and wild beast of which the prophet speaks are not foreign assailants imported y God to disturb domestic tranquility. They are in every person; of tremendous value when directed to worthy ends, of frightening ferocity when unleashed and left to run their course unchecked. “O Israel return to the Lord.” With repentance and confession come forgiveness, restoration, healing. Hosea sees the Israel that will “blossom as the lily”. “The ways of the Lord are right,…transgressors stumble in them.” The final appeal is to the wise, the men of sense;”Whoever is wise, let him understand these things.”
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