Why is God against His own people?
Hos 5:8-15
Many of us know from personal experience, or from those of others, what it is like when we make plans, but it seems that everything conspires against us. It may be the promise of a new job that falls through, an overseas move that is thwarted by a pandemic, the purchase of a house that is prevented because the funds are needed for something else – the list is endless. If a string of events stops us in our tracks, Christians who are alert to God’s guidance will ask whether He is trying to tell them something. In Israel’s story we see the Lord communicating with His people through their circumstances albeit in a more dramatic way. God is effectively saying to them that He is behind their misfortune, and they cannot wriggle out of the disaster that is coming.[1] God Himself is against them. Why does the Lord use such terrifying language?
Crisis and war
The background to our reading is likely the crisis of the Syro-Ephraimite war (734-33 BC). Assyria was on the rise and threatened Syria and Israel (Ephraim was the most prominent tribe in the northern kingdom of Israel and often stood for the whole country in prophecies). The two powers formed an anti-Assyrian coalition and tried to force Judah to join them. Judah’s king, however, appealed to Assyria for help (2 Kings 16:5, 7) and on receiving support, may have retaliated against Israel by conquering territories in Benjamin, the southernmost tribe of Israel, bordering on Judah. Thus, the alarm that is sounded in Hosea 5:8 is an indication of an impending attack going from south to north (from Judah to Gibeah, Ramah and Beth-aven – Hosea’s nickname for Bethel).[2] Israel must brace itself because its destruction (ultimately by Assyria) is sure (Hos 5:9) and this attack from Judah is just the beginning. Nevertheless, Judah’s conquest is illegitimate (Hos 5:10) because it is like moving a land boundary, which is theft, and draws God’s curse on the perpetrator (Deut 19:14; 27:17).
God is behind Israel’s disaster – is He against His people?
What follows is the description of God’s judgment that will come because of Israel’s (Ephraim’s) sin (Hos 5:11). The metaphors used for God are bold, even shocking. He is like a moth chomping through a valuable woollen garment, a rottenness that causes decay (Hos 5:12 cf. Job 13:28). The focus is on Israel, but Judah is drawn into the judgment, too. The reference to a wound (Hos 5:13) evokes a military attack and Assyria did conquer parts of Israel even before the final end (2 Kings 15:29). Thus, the last kings of Israel kept alternating between rebellion and submission towards the great empire. Two of them tried to buy their peace by paying tribute to Assyria (2 Kings 15:19-20; 17:3 cf. Hos 5:13),[3] but ‘their wound’ had a deeper cause in God’s judgment and could not be healed so that they eventually went into Assyrian captivity (722 BC; 2 Kings 17:4-6). While the winged lion was a symbol of Assyria, the lion in our passage is God Himself, tearing the people to pieces (Hos 5:14). Assyria may look like the power who destroys Israel, but it is really the Lord who does so.
God’s grace through disaster
Any sensitive person would feel shaken, perhaps frightened by such statements about God. How could the Lord, whom we know as loving, act in such an antagonistic way to His people? The key is in our previous exploration of how sin and self-will have desensitised Israel and blinded them to God’s ways. The issue is that Israel resists God and His ways and seeks out help from everyone and everything except the Lord. Surprisingly perhaps, such an attitude can go hand-in-hand with commitment to serving God in other areas of one’s life (Hos 5:6-7). At the same time, the person might struggle on with a festering wound, be it an obsession, an addiction, a character weakness that cannot be mastered or a deep need that forces one into unhealthy behavioural patterns. Like Israel, even Christians may not turn to God for help but apply self-help techniques or will power, or simply give in and feed their desires to ‘heal’ the wound. Yet, none of these is the solution because God is not in the business of healing wounds superficially. Despite the appearance of cruelty in such an approach, it is God’s grace that He brings circumstances to a head, if only to bring us to true repentance. There is, however, no need to wait until disaster hits. Genuine acknowledgment of sin, crying out to God and seeking His help is an option in the here and now.
[1] As always, it is important to point out that not all disasters, illness or difficulty in our lives is the result of sin and the connection should not be made automatically or lightly.
[2] Beth-el means ‘house of God’, so named by Jacob who saw a vision of a ladder reaching to heaven and to God (Gen 28:12-17). Bethel, however, became infamous for its shrine holding a golden calf that was set up by Israel’s first king after Solomon’s death (1 Kings 12:28-30). Because of the idolatry going on there, Hosea refers to Bethel as Beth-aven (‘house of sin’). The three towns are north of Jerusalem (ancient Gibeah is 5km away from it, Ramah 8km and Bethel 16km).
[3] King Jareb (Hos 5:13) cannot be identified as there was no king called that in Assyria. It is more likely that the name is symbolic. Either it should be read as ‘the great king’ (malki rav) or as ‘the contentious king’ (melekh yarev). In the Hebrew, the consonants in these two options are the same, which is how the original text was written (the inclusion of vowel sounds in the text came later). If the meaning is the first option, then it is a sarcastic statement that not even such a great king could help Israel’s wound. If we choose the second option, then it is ironic that the very king and empire sought out for peace will be the one that will ‘contend’ and fight Israel and destroy it.
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