What it means to know God and why it matters
Hosea 6:1-11
Once upon a time, being a Christian was associated with being ‘a good person’, someone with moral integrity, a diligent and conscientious individual who spoke truth and showed compassion and love to others. Nowadays, Christians are more likely to evoke mistrust, or at least reservation, in secular people. This is partly because of the suspicion that traditional Christianity is bigoted and hypocritical, but also because of the association of abuse, scandal and strife in the Church that is periodically given media coverage. Some of the antagonism is unwarranted and not all feel this way towards Christians. Nevertheless, the emphasis on demonstrating Christian character, even aiming to be morally upright, has diminished in Christian teaching and preaching.
Returning to the Lord
The issue of discrepancy between religiosity and the fruit of one’s life is not a new one though, surprisingly for us, the ancient world had little concern for connecting the two. The gods expected religious devotion expressed in sacrifices but had no interest in the character or morality of their worshippers.[1] Israel bought into this cultural narrative and thought that as long as they brought their sacrifices, God would be pleased with them. Thus, Hosea exhorts Israel to turn to God and really seek to know Him (Hos 6:3) and what He requires.[2] Although they are being punished, the Lord is able to heal them (Hos 6:1). Indeed, He can bring life out of death and reverse the terrible fate that His people are to suffer in exile, a form of death (Hos 6:2 cf. Ezek 37:11-14). Neither is the Lord slow to respond to His repentant people and would help them in a short space of time (v.2; the reference to two or three days is symbolic of this).[3]
What it means to know God
The key to the relationship highlighted by the prophet then is knowing the Lord (Hos 6:3), a central concept in the book. This is not an esoteric, mystical knowledge but the understanding of His character and will, revealed in the law (see Hosea 4:6 and note the parallel lines in connecting knowledge and the law) and experienced in Israel’s history. God is revealed as noticing the needy and the injustices they suffer, who saved and redeemed Israel from oppression and slavery (Exod 20:2). This should evoke gratitude and a determination to trust and serve Him alone (Exod 20:3). Observing His character should also motivate Israel to pay God’s generosity, kindness and justice forward by acting like Him (e.g. Deut 5:14-15; 10:17-19). Sadly, this is where Israel’s covenant commitment (NASB ‘loyalty’, Hebrew ḥesed) to God is merely skin-deep and transitory (Hos 6:4). Although the Lord repeatedly confronted them through His Word spoken by the prophets (Hos 6:5), the people did not get the key principle that loyalty to Him was not exhausted in religious observance (Hos 6:6). The brief vignette mentioning sins at various places (Adam is a location in the Transjordan; Josh 3:16; Hos 6:7) paint a horrifying picture of gross sin,[4] murder and sexual immorality/idolatry (Hos 6:8-10).
Why knowing God matters
The challenge for us, as it was for Israel, is whether we understand God’s character and will or accommodate ourselves to our culture’s view of God. In a Western context, God is supposed to be loving, tolerant and non-judgmental, which predisposes us to think that He would never condemn certain ways of living or discipline us when we sin. We may also look to God for our material wellbeing and happiness and put our needs and wants in the centre so that we see God revolving around us. However, we are to become a God-like (i.e. godly) people responding to His amazing salvation by mirroring the same qualities that God has shown us in generosity, love, compassion, self-sacrifice and yes, even in drawing a clear line between right and wrong. Thus, we may ask in our daily life, for instance, whether we show God’s character of generous love to those who hurt us. Do we speak truth and act with integrity in our work, in money matters and so on? Do we give others the benefit of the doubt when they make mistakes or put them down harshly? Are we impatient with those who disagree with us and treat them like the enemy? May we be people who press on to know God, His character and will and be shaped to be like Him.
[1] Character and morality were important, of course, in maintaining order in society and the laws of a country enforced this, but it was unrelated to the worship of the gods.
[2] There is some disagreement among commentators about how best to interpret the prayer in Hosea 6:1-3. Is it Israel’s inadequate approach to God, which is critiqued in the rest of the chapter, or the prophet’s exhortation for a true turning to God? While either is theoretically possible, the latter is more likely. There is nothing objectionable in the actual prayer and the rest of the chapter does not refer to it or pick out any traits that are wrong with the words. Rather, the wording reflects Hosea’s emphasis on the knowledge of God (Hos 6:3), which was so sorely missing (cf. Hos 4:1, 6; 5:4) and which Israel already thought they possessed (Hos 8:2).
[3] Given Jesus’ resurrection on the third day, readers may wonder if this is a veiled prophecy about that. However, it is hard to see how this could be since the reference is to Israel (‘us’), not to Messiah and it refers to restoration from sin and exile in a non-literal sense. ‘Three days’ or ‘the third day’ are expressions often used in the OT as symbolic of a short period of time. Conversely, ‘forty days’ can function symbolically as an indefinite longer period of time. In every culture, numbers can be used in a non-literal sense and within our own context, we understand the conventions. Thus, we might say ‘I told you a hundred times before’ using exaggeration to express frustration. Or we describe someone’s behaviour as ‘nine times out of ten, he acts like this’ meaning ‘almost always’. Likewise, someone might say that they submitted an essay ‘at the last hour’, meaning very late or just before the deadline, without intending it to be taken literally.
[4] Confusingly, Adam could refer to the first human or to a place. Although the first option is not impossible, there is no reference to a covenant with Adam in Genesis and it seems an abrupt comparison in the Hosea passage that does not otherwise mention the first sin or the story of the Fall. Adam as a settlement is in the area of Gilead in the Transjordan (Josh 3:16) and fits nicely into the list of place names associated with Israel’s sins. Note also the reference to ‘there’ in the second line of Hosea 6:7, which parallels ‘Adam’ in the first line and points to a geographical location rather than a person. What specific incidents Hosea has in mind are impossible to know from this distance, but no doubt, his first hearers would have understood the references.
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