The Gospel of Hosea, Ch. 4: Yahweh Makes His Case
The Gospel of Hosea, Ch. 4: Yahweh Make His Case.
“Israelites, hear the words of Yahweh, for He has brought charges against you…” (Hosea 4:1a).
A Courtroom Setting. Here in chapter 4 we find Hosea standing up with his people and yelling out “Hear ye! Hear ye! Hosea here is offering a summary of the Lord’s case against Israel as He finds them guilty of all charges. The Lord is bringing His lawsuit against His chosen people and offers evidence by listing their sins against God’s law. Yahweh is the prosecuting attorney, and His letter of indictment is centered on the many ways Israel has broken their holy covenant relationship with God.
“… There is no faithfulness or truth (’emeth’), there is no steadfast mercy or lovingkindness (‘hesed’), and there is no meaningful knowledge (‘yada’) of Me in your land.” (Hosea:1b).
The Big Three. Hosea begins the outline of the charges by listing the three main headings under which all the crimes can be grouped. Each of these three are stressed later in Hosea: knowledge in chapters 4-6; mercy in chapters 6-11; and faithfulness/truth in chapters 11-14. Remember Yahweh is the judge in this setting, not the defendant. God has completely remained loyal to the covenant promises and done His part by displaying all three holy qualities towards Israel. But Israel is the one being charged with these crimes, because they have ignored or outright rejected the holy covenant established with Yahweh since they became His chosen people. Since these three qualities have been highlighted in importance by Hosea and by Yahweh, they deserve some attention:
“Emeth” = In Hebrew, “faithfulness” and “truth” are interchangeable, and the literal meaning is: True to His word; steadfast loyalty; trustworthy; truthful about promises; reliable; constant and dependable; act in good faith; certain in commitment; His word is His bond. The Hebrew word used is emeth, which means faithfulness, truth, certainty, stability, trustworthiness. The fact that the Hebrews saw truth and faithfulness as interchangeable points to God’s character, that He is true to His word, true to His nature, that God keeps truth certainly and with stability and trustworthiness. God is literally, truly faithful, and His true and faithful nature becomes part of our character as we live into His Spirit’s transformation of us while acquiring the mind of Christ.
“Hesed” = A Hebrew word for mercy used a number of times in Hosea, and is often translated as lovingkindness, indicating an eternally steadfast love, covenant faithfulness, unfailing loyalty, love-in-action. Hesed has so many dimensions that it is much easier to describe than define. Hesed may be the most important word in the Hebrew Bible, because it is considered a summary word for all of God’s character traits, the driving force behind all He does. There is no one translation of hesed that is perfect or says it all. Hesed is a covenant word, a relationship word, and celebrates God’s commitment to remaining true to his merciful promises out of sheer love. “Hesed” is used over 120 times in the book of Psalms alone, and a grand total of 250 times in the Hebrew Bible.
“Daath” = The word knowledge here in verse 1 is the noun form of its verb “yada,” a key idea throughout the book of Hosea… Knowledge of God. The Hebrew word “yada” is dropped 25 times in the book, and if we don’t understand what the Bible means by “know” or “knowledge,” we are missing the heartbeat of our relationship with God. The Bible has a lot to say about the meaning of know, including the usual suspects: memory of a fact or event; possession of a technical skill; a perception of a piece of reality; an intuitive awareness; a mastery of a particular subject; an understanding of something; a personal familiarity with something. That’s all good. Nothing new there. But now the fun begins… The Hebraic-Christian understanding of “know” is not at all limited to an intellectual or mental knowledge. To know someone in the Biblical sense is to experience that person in a deeply intimate way. “Know” is a relationship word and involves knowledge that comes from personal experience. To know involves a deeply personal union with a truth or a person. In the Hebrew and Christian mind, we don’t really know something until it becomes a part of us, something that changes us in some way. To truly know something is to be able to live it out, to experience participation with that which is known. Knowing something involves a heartfelt focus, an intense investment. To know something is to care for it, to give oneself over to it. To know someone in the Biblical sense is to literally participate in a profound relationship with that person, to establish an ongoing union with someone, to be personally invested to an intimate degree with a person. A spiritual relationship with God seems best understood in the context of “knowledge” in the biblical sense, a deep union involving spiritual relations between God and the believer. In the same way that Adam and Eve “knew” each other physically, God wants to “know” us spiritually, and for us to know Him at that same level. To walk with the Lord is to grow in our “knowledge” of Him, to experience spiritual relations with Him in an intimate way. In fact, to know God in the way He want us to know Him means to have an ongoing spiritual union with God that involves, not physical “carnal knowledge,” but spiritual knowledge.
A Nasty List of Crimes. And now Hosea dives into some specific ways that Israel has broken God’s law. Yahweh’s catalogue of charges incudes…
Gilgal. So this new generation has now entered the Promised Land, and have decided to gather together about two miles from Jericho and get organized. They are waiting for marching orders from Joshua. So after placing stones from the Jordan at their camp sight in memory of God’s miracle at the river, God has something important to say to Joshua and to all the Jews at this critical hour. With the whole nation of Israel gathered there, God thundered these momentous words with profound authority, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you!” (Joshua 5:9). God is saying here that He has rolled away the heavy weight of shame, guilt, disdain; the disgrace that was the Jewish experience in Egypt. God has rolled all that away. So no longer do they have the mentality of being a slave, of being hindered or held back, of being in bondage. No longer do they have to feel scorned as when they were slaves. This new Jewish generation are to live in freedom. They are now intended to enjoy life without the burden of slavery, the shame of being owned, the despair they experienced in history.
This was momentous in Jewish history. After 400 years of slavery and subjection, and after 40 years of wandering, they were a free nation. It is now official, declared by God! As a sign of this renewal, to confirm it and etch it into the psyche of every Jew, the entire nation of Israel celebrated Passover right then, right there, for the first time in 40 years. They remembered together the passing over of death and judgment in Egypt, the lamb’s blood on the doorposts, Pharaoh’s release, and God’s salvation. They celebrated this Old Testament sacrament to renew their old relationship with God. Everyone in the spiritual nation of Israel now knows… no more business as usual; we have turned a corner; we are a renewed people. God has rolled away the reproach of Egypt, the disgrace of bondage, the humiliating shame of being dehumanized, hindered from being fully human.
This famous place of renewal was named Gilgal, because that Hebrew word evidently sounds like “rolling.” Gilgal became their military base camp, as well as the headquarters for worship as a nation. Gilgal came to represent a nation-changing renewal as they entered the Promised Land. Gilgal signifies where God rolled away their history of slavery in Egypt. Gilgal was where there was a national healing of memories.
Bethel. This famous holy site which means “House of God” was used as an important place of worship since the days of Abraham and Jacob. God’s covenant with Jacob was established at Bethel (Genesis 28:15), and God even asked Jacob to live there for a time (Gen. 35:1), and changing Jacob’s name to Israel (Gen. 35:9-15). Since Bethel, earlier known as Luz, was one of the highest places in Israel, with an elevation of almost 3,000’, it was very busy in Hebrew history as a common worship site. Bethel is mentioned 60 times in the Hebrew Bible, with only Jerusalem mentioned more. During the time of the Judges, the Ark of the Covenant was housed there, which made it an important worship center for faithful Jews. Most biblical archeologists now believe that Bethel was about 10 miles north of Jerusalem, in the hill country of Samaria. But it didn’t take long for Bethel to take a drastic turn from being famous to infamous, from being a time-honored thin place to a spiritual death trap. Soon after Solomon, Jeroboam foolishly decided to establish Bethel as a pagan worship site, even going so far as to set up a golden bull there (1 Kings 12:28). Tragically, Bethel remained a pagan site for a long time, and was denounced by one prophet after another, such as Amos, Hosea and Jeremiah. Eventually, the heroic reformer King Josiah destroyed that pagan site literally and completely. Josiah left no doubt as to what he thought of Bethel’s turn to paganism… He executed all the pagan priests there, exhumed the bodies of the dead priests and burned their bones to ash on their altars, broke the stones of the pagan altars into pieces, and had those very pieces ground into dust! (2 Kings 23). Bethel became nothing but a memory, faded away in biblical history, and is not even mentioned in the New Testament.