THE BOOK OF HOSEA
Part Two: Lesson 10
Chapter 14
The conclusion of the Book of Hosea teaches the Church what
St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) so beautifully expressed: "The love
of the Beloved or, to put it better, the Beloved who is love, loves only love
and faithfulness. Do not resist his love. Can we stop loving the one who is
Love in person? Can the one who is Love by his very nature be unloved?"
St. Bernard, In Cantica Canticorum, 83, 5
The last lines of Hosea's book invite us to apply St. Bernard's message to our lives and the circumstances in which we live.
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Hosea 14:2-9 ~ The Necessity of Repentance and Sincere
Conversion of Israel to YHWH
2 Israel, come back to Yahweh, your God; your guilt was the
cause of your downfall. 3 Provide yourself with words and come back
to Yahweh. Say to him, Take all guilt away and give us what is good, instead
of bulls we will dedicate to you our lips. 4 Assyria cannot save us,
we will not ride horses anymore, or say, "Our God!" to our own handiwork, for
you are the one in whom orphans find compassion.' 5 I shall cure
them of their disloyalty, I shall love them with all my heart, for my anger has
turned away from them. 6 I shall fall like dew on Israel, he will
bloom like the lily and thrust out roots like the cedar of Lebanon; 7 he
will put out new shoots, he will have the beauty of the olive tree and the
fragrance of Lebanon. 8 They will come back to live in my shade;
they will grow wheat again, they will make the vine flourish, their wine will
be as famous as Lebanon's. 9 What has Ephraim to do with idols anymore
when I hear him and watch over him? I am like an evergreen cypress; you owe
your fruitfulness to me.
In the last chapter of the Book of Hosea, Yahweh's Divine Name is repeated five times, the number of power and grace in Scripture. The last oracle follows the pattern of the entire book: denouncing Israel's idol worship and covenant infidelity followed by a blessing and promise of the Lord's forgiveness and restoration. Yahweh has the power to pronounce divine judgment, but He also has the power to forgive and restore. Hosea's prophecy ends with a note of hope, already expressed earlier in 2:16-25; 3:5; 11:8-11, and 12:10.
Hosea pleads with the people to be converted so that Yahweh can heal Israel's unfaithfulness (14:4). In the oracle, both the prophet (verses 2-4) and Yahweh (verses 5-8) speak. The prophet calls for conversion (verse 2) and a prayer of repentance (verses 3-4) in which the sins of Israel are expressly mentioned, like their reliance on foreign treaties rather than trusting God and worshiping manmade idols as if they were Yahweh. The theme of guilt causing stumbling/downfall is repeated from 4:5 in verse 3. Verse 3 continues to call the people to repentance (addressed in the second person plural) and to return to their covenant relationship with Yahweh.
Hosea calls the Israelites to provide themselves with "words" (14:3) of sincere repentance and "come back to Yahweh," but not with empty sacrifices (Hos 6:6). Worshipers were instructed in Exodus 23:14, 34:20, and Deuteronomy 16:16 not to appear before God in worship empty-handed and to be prepared to offer what is necessary/required in the context of prayer, sacrificial gifts, and praise. Therefore, while repentance and the request for forgiveness are implied, the people's prayers to God also should contain the request that He receive from them what is good (tob) in words and actions.
The Lord's words in verses 5-7 generously offer the people the opportunity for reconciliation and a remedy for their unfaithfulness. God's words speak of an age of love between the covenant people and Yahweh in which His words use the lovely images of the dew, the fragrance of Lebanon, the fruitful grain and vine, all of which represent the good things that God, and not the false Baals, can give the people. The passage depicts the Lord as a mighty evergreen cypress "He is stable, steadfast, and enduring (verse 9).
The positive topics found in Chapter 14 related to other chapters in Hosea, for example:
The themes in Chapter 14 are framed in light of future repentance and forgiveness, as found elsewhere in the book. It also serves as a reversal of Israel's defeat and demise in Chapter 13:
Hosea 14:10/14:9 ~ Conclusion
10 Let the wise understand these words, let the intelligent grasp
their meaning, for Yahweh's ways are straight and the upright will walk in
them, but sinners will stumble.
The last verse in the book is reminiscent of Deuteronomy 32:4, Psalm 107:43, and Proverbs 4:7 and encourage us to read Hosea's words and apply its message to our own lives. Concerning this verse, St. Theodore of Mopsuestia wrote: "Everything done by God is marked by great correctness, with which he also applies punishment to the fallen and knows how to achieve their salvation when they repent."2
Hosea's marriage imagery allowed the covenant people to appreciate God's anguish and frustration over Israel's unfaithfulness. They could comprehend how God was not just angry but heartbroken like any human husband over the acts of a beloved but unfaithful wife. The marriage metaphor also allowed a better description of Israel's misconduct. By portraying Israel as a faithless spouse rather than a disobedient vassal, Hosea could introduce the imagery of Israel's multiple "lovers" (false gods). He used sexual promiscuity as a metaphor for idolatry—just as Gomer got involved with other men, Israel became enamored with other gods. The prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel would use the same imagery in their prophecies a century later. The marriage metaphor also helped emphasize that God chose to enter into a relationship with the Israelites not because they were a deserving partner or a more righteous people than any other. God chose Israel because He wanted to out of love like Hosea chose Gomer.
The restoration of the marriage relationship between Hosea and Gomer symbolizes Yahweh's desire to purify and restore His relationship with His covenant people of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. The last words in 14:10 are not words of doom but hope, as in Hosea 2:18-20. Righteousness, justice, faithful covenant love (hesed), and mercy are God's wedding vows to His bride, and they are what the people need for a right relationship with Yahweh. It is an incredible promise God made to them amid covenant failure. God took Israel for better or worse, forever!
A foundation of the Church has always been that God's revelation of His divine will was progressive throughout Old Testament prophecy. The Church Fathers interpreted the content of the entire Old Testament as prophecies about Christ, as the post-Resurrection Jesus indicated in His discourse to the Emmaus disciples and the eleven Apostles (Luke 24:25-27, 44-47). They taught that the prophets used Biblical "types" that pointed to Jesus and "antitypes" against the Jews for rejecting Him and His divine mission as their Davidic Messiah. They believed that the progressive revelation of God's divine will was revealed by Jesus, the Apostles, and Paul in his epistles. The Church Fathers taught that Jesus had fulfilled the Law and the prophets (Mt 5:17-18; Lk 24:44-47); the Old Covenant with Israel was eternal and had not been abolished, only completed. The Fathers saw repeated references and prophecies associated with Jesus in the Book of Hosea.1 They:
Endnotes:
1. Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: Old Testament XIV, The Twelve Prophets, edited by Alberto Ferreiro, InterVarsity Press, Downers Grove, Illinois, 2003, pages 1-56.
2. Ibid, page 56.
Catechism references (* indicates Scripture is either quoted or paraphrased in the citation):
All need salvation (CCC 588*)
Christ's coming for humanity's salvation (CCC 456, 457*, 519*, 1019)
God opened the way to humanity's salvation (CCC 54*, 56*, 218*, 431*, 781*, 1058*, 2575*)
The gift of salvation presented through Christ (CCC 1811)
The sin of presumption (CCC 2092)
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