They shall return to the land of Egypt, and Assyria shall be their king, because they have refused to return to me. The sword rages in their cities, it consumes their oracle-priests, and devours because of their schemes. My people are bent on turning away from me. To the Most High they call, but he does not raise them up at all. (Hosea 11: 5-7)

They will return to slavery under Assyria and the sword will kill because they are not in relationship with God. The people make their own plans and set their own purposes without seeking God's intention.

In most translations verse seven is footnoted, "meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain." We might add that Hosea's meaning seems contradictory. This chapter is written as a divine soliloquy with God engaged in internal argument.

How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender. I will not execute my fierce anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim; for I am God and no mortal, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath. (Hosea 11: 8-9)

Yet we know that the northern kingdom was destroyed. The Assyrian sword did rage and the ten tribes were lost in exile. Awful punishment was experienced. We can argue if the cause was God, the Assyrians, or the choices of Ephraim, but disaster came.

Is my disaster a disaster for God? One of my son's first disasters - at age three or four - was losing his toy bear at a hotel. We never found it. I still feel pangs of empathy and loss. But even given my son's deep sadness and my own sympathetic response, the loss of a toy cannot be meaningfully defined as a disaster.

When Admah, Zeboiim, Sodom, and Gomorrah were destroyed (Genesis 19) the survivors were shocked. The sense of loss and empathy was profound, even for an evil people. But if God loves the dead and receives the dead and redeems the dead, is it a disaster? If confusion, violence, and perpetual unhappiness is ended, resolved, and replaced with clarity, peace, and love is this punishment?

It depends on what is real and what is unreal.

When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. The more I called them, the more they went from me; they kept sacrificing to the Baals, and offering incense to idols. Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk, I took them up in my arms; but they did not know that I healed them. I led them with cords of human kindness, with bands of love. I was to them like those who lift infants to their cheeks. I bent down to them and fed them. (Hosea 11: 1-4)

I was with my father this weekend. He said something that I have often thought. His attention to detail may be his greatest strength... and his greatest weakness.

In most ways I rejected his strength. I look for the big concept and tend to dismiss finer details. This was one way that I claimed my own identity.

The ability to conceive and act on the big concept - without any certainty regarding the details - is probably my greatest strength... and my greatest weakness.

We each have a heavenly father who seems to be characterized by two great strengths: love and creativity. We often seem inclined to reject this inheritance.

In the case of either our earthly or heavenly fathers such rebellion may be reflexive. But it seldom survives careful reflection.

We do not find ourselves simply through differentiation with another. We find ourselves by engaging the world and discovering what is effective and fulfilling.

Should kindness and love prompt rejection? Does becoming an individual mean rejecting relationships? Our choices are not binary. Creativity and love can walk together.

You have ploughed wickedness, you have reaped injustice, you have eaten the fruit of lies. Because you have trusted in your power and in the multitude of your warriors, therefore the tumult of war shall rise against your people, and all your fortresses shall be destroyed, as Shalman destroyed Beth-arbel on the day of battle when mothers were dashed in pieces with their children. Thus it shall be done to you, O Bethel, because of your great wickedness. At dawn the king of Israel shall be utterly cut off. (Hosea 10: 13-15)

What do I trust? In what do I have confidence? Who do I trust? Of what am I certain?

A colleague who once knew me well commented he had never known anyone "less certain yet still decisive."

I am not confident. Certainly not of my power. Nor my insight. Nor even of past lessons or profound principles.

Hosea clearly intends that I should trust in God. But I do not have the knowledge of or faith in or relationship with God to truly trust.

So I keep plowing, hoping I am opening the hard soil that separates me from God and not a field of wickedness.

This is the Bible's only mention of Beth-Arbel or Shalman. We have no other word of this disaster.

Above is King Jehu of Israel (842-814BC) giving homage to Salamaneser of Assyria, about a century before Hosea.

Ephraim was a trained heifer that loved to thresh, and I spared her fair neck; but I will make Ephraim break the ground; Judah must plough; Jacob must harrow for himself. Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you. (Hosea 10: 11-12)

Illusion is fallow. Delusion is is a dead-end. The unreal is infertile. Only what is real is truly creative, productive, and fulfilling. The rest is fantasy.

We must break through our illusions. We must plow up our delusions. It is time to seek the Lord. It is in the deep, dark, rich soil of relationship with God that we become real.

In this soil we are to sow for ourselves righteousness - tsadaqah - deep purpose, right conduct, and true identity. We are to plant ourselves, ground ourselves, in the moist earthy fecundity of the Creator.

In relationship with God we are fulfilled. In God we find ourselves. With God we are made whole. As the seed responds to the sun, soil, and rain so we each grow and blossom.

Unless we break the hard ground of our illusions, we are like a seed that sits drying and windblown on a dusty plain. We must plow and harrow if we hope to harvest.

Samaria’s king shall perish like a splinter on the face of the waters. The high places of Aven, the sin of Israel, shall be destroyed. Thorn and thistle shall grow up on their altars. They shall say to the mountains, Cover us, and to the hills, Fall on us. Since the days of Gibeah you have sinned, O Israel; there they have continued. Shall not war overtake them in Gibeah? I will come against the wayward people to punish them; and nations shall be gathered against them when they are punished for their double iniquity. (Hosea 10: 7-10)

My best guess is that Hosea was active between about 780BC-740BC from the long and prosperous rule of Jeroboam II, through the brief reigns of Zechariah, Shallum, and Menahem, and perhaps lived to see Kings Pekahiah and Pekah ascend the throne. I do not perceive he was living in 722BC when the Assyrians conquered the northern kingdom.

After about six months on the throne Zechariah, son of Jeroboam, was assassinated by Shallum. Barely a month later, Shallum was killed by Menahem. During the ten year reign of Menahem (most of the 740s) a resurgent Assyria emerged. In 745BC Tiglath-Pileser III seized the Assyrian throne and began a very successful eighteen year reign.

In the 730s conflict between King Pekah of Israel and King Ahaz of Judah provided Tiglath-Pileser an easy excuse to intimidate both Israel and Judah. In 732BC the northern region of Israel was annexed by Assyria. An initial deportation of Israelite elites occurred during this period, at least ten years before the extermination of an independent Israel by Tiglath-Pileser's son.

The "king shall perish as a splinter on the face of the waters." Another translation offers, "The king is silenced and is like foam on the surface of the water." Certainly all of these proud men - from the totally obscure Zechariah to the "very successful" Tiglath-Pileser - seem like little more than foam to us. They were each agents of enormous turmoil. But from this distance, it is not clear what they substantively accomplished.

I am sure that ten psalms of King David have had more long-lasting consequence than the conquests, constructions, and conspiracies of Tiglath-Pileser. What is real? What is unreal? What criteria can we apply? Hosea would argue that our relationship with God is the only reality that matters.

To the left is Tiglath-Pileser III also known as Tukulti-Apil-Esarra also known as Pul or Pulu. He is generally recognized as one of the most successful military commanders in world history and implemented significant administrative reforms within the Neo-Assyrian Empire.

For now they will say: ‘We have no king, for we do not fear the Lord, and a king—what could he do for us?’ They utter mere words; with empty oaths they make covenants; so litigation springs up like poisonous weeds in the furrows of the field. The inhabitants of Samaria tremble for the calf of Beth-aven. Its people shall mourn for it, and its idolatrous priests shall wail over it, over its glory that has departed from it. The thing itself shall be carried to Assyria as tribute to the great king. Ephraim shall be put to shame, and Israel shall be ashamed of his idol. (Hosea 10: 3-6)

For Hosea the consequence of valuing what is unreal is the proliferation of confusion. Every source of authority and assurance fades into illusion.

Lack of respect for God leads to disintegration of order. Being out of relationship with God results in us abusing other relationships. If we worship untruth, it is natural to speak untruths. Our promises are worthless. Confusion spreads.

God is the ultimate reality. Hosea calls us to be radical realists. By attending to what is real we will find what is ultimately fulfilling.

Above is a bronze bull with gold leaf from ancient Byblos, a Phoencian port city adjacent to Israel.

Israel is a luxuriant vine that yields its fruit. The more his fruit increased the more altars he built; as his country improved, he improved his pillars. Their heart is false; now they must bear their guilt. The Lord will break down their altars, and destroy their pillars. (Hosea 10: 1-2)

The prior chapter's symbols of stark infertility are replaced with one of fertile promiscuity. But calling the vine luxuriant is an odd choice. The Hebrew is baqaq. This suggests wasting or destroying.

Hosea perceives that Israel is like kudzu. The more it spreads, the more it covers, darkens, and kills. Think of the great columns of kudzu as you approach Atlanta. Wherever the vine of Israel reaches it throws up pillars and altars to false gods.

For Hosea the principal threat seems to have been Phoenician, specifically Tyrenian, religion. The holy trinity for Tyre consisted of El, protector of the universe (also called Baal), the son of El was Melqart who was the bringer of life and seasons, and Astarte, called Ashotoreth in the Bible, was the goddess of earth, home, and children.

From Gilgal until Hosea the people of Israel had worshiped both Yahweh and El. Hosea is sure this is nothing but idolatry, illusion, and betrayal of the true God. The heart of Israel is chalaq. This is translated above as false, even better is divided.

Hosea, and Jesus, and most of the great philosophers and prophets perceive distraction as the great enemy. Find what is real, focus on what is real, embrace what is real. We are to worship - give value - to what is real. The illusions of hope or worry are unhelpful or much worse.

Every evil of theirs began at Gilgal; there I came to hate them. Because of the wickedness of their deeds I will drive them out of my house. I will love them no more; all their officials are rebels. Ephraim is stricken, their root is dried up, they shall bear no fruit. Even though they give birth, I will kill the cherished offspring of their womb. Because they have not listened to him, my God will reject them; they shall become wanderers among the nations. (Hosea 9: 15-17)

Hosea is pressing forward with his metaphor: God and Israel as man and wife. If the Exodus was the culmination of a long courtship, entering the Promised Land was the consummation of marriage.

Joshua and the twelve tribes crossed the Jordon near Gilgal and there they erected twelve large stones to commemorate this important transition (Joshua 4). This subsequently became a place of pilgrimage.

In the process the stones of Gilgal had become, in a way, objects of worship. The struggle of ancestors, the founding of the nation, the hopes of the people came to be symbolized by those ancient rocks.

Just as we might be inspired to prayer at the Lincoln Memorial or the Statue of Liberty or the Vietnam Memorial or as I once prayed in the Williamsburg House of Burgesses, the people of Israel would bow to pray at Gilgal.

For Hosea this is adultery, idolatry, and heresy. We are confusing our hopes for God. We are confusing our needs for God's intention. We are extending value to empty vessels. These are all false lovers distracting us from our sacred marriage.

Hosea accurately describes the anger with which even the most long-suffering husband might eventually respond to a self-absorbed and unfaithful wife. Is this how God responds to Israel? To us?

Ephraim’s glory shall fly away like a bird— no birth, no pregnancy, no conception! Even if they bring up children, I will bereave them until no one is left. Woe to them indeed when I depart from them! Once I saw Ephraim as a young palm planted in a lovely meadow, but now Ephraim must lead out his children for slaughter. Give them, O Lord—what will you give? Give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts. (Hosea 9: 11-13)

God's diversity is great. Lay down in a summer meadow for a few minutes. Look and listen to the fecund variety all about. Rise up better prepared to truly worship.

But loving God's creation includes discovering and - sometimes more difficult - accepting our particular role and place in this diversity.

Ephraim is not Tyre. California is not Virginia. I am not you. Each is unique. We can learn from one another. But we should not seek to be another.

We are to seek God's intention. We are to choose our specific role. God proclaimed "I AM." Created in God's image we are called to the same understanding.

Fundamental to self-discovery is to focus not on ourselves but on God. The scripture - old and new - insists that it is through self-giving that the true self is cultivated.

"Woe to them indeed when I depart from them," might also be read as "Oh yes when they put Me aside." God is the path, our guide, and our destination in the adventure of self-discovery.

With God there is ongoing opportunity. Without God there is accelerating decay. When we turn our focus from God to ourselves we confuse creator and creation, sun for shadow, and lose our way.

The palm symbolized fertility in the midst of adversity. Above a palm tree and bunch of dates is featured on a second century AD coin minted in Jerusalem.

Like grapes in the wilderness, I found Israel. Like the first fruit on the fig tree, in its first season, I saw your ancestors. But they came to Baal-peor, and consecrated themselves to a thing of shame, and became detestable like the thing they loved. (Hosea 9: 10)

Moses complained that some of his followers, even within sight of the Promised Land, had begun to worship Baal-peor (Deuteronomy 4:3). This was the Lord of the Gap or the Lord of the Opening or the Lord of Mt. Peor.

The worship of Baal-peor is closely associated with intermarriage. In the book of Numbers it is foreign women who entice the men of Israel into worship of Baal-peor. There is a shared sense of spiritual and sexual seduction.

This is the season for concord grapes. They are one of my favorite fruits. Like morrell mushrooms or garden tomatoes, concord grapes are distinctly seasonal and do not travel very well. They are of a particular time and place.

This year I tasted fresh figs for the very first time in my life. The flavor, texture, and appearance is luscious. Even an hour after picking the fig becomes something entirely different. Still good, but not nearly as good.

Too often some push us to despise others as a way to exalt ourselves. There are different realities. The beauty of one time and place is distinct from another. We worship a God of diverse creating. We can worship God in recognizing and loving our differences.

The days of punishment have come, the days of recompense have come; Israel cries, 'The prophet is a fool, the man of the spirit is mad!’ Because of your great iniquity, your hostility is great. The prophet is a sentinel for my God over Ephraim, yet a fowler’s snare is on all his ways, and hostility in the house of his God. They have deeply corrupted themselves as in the days of Gibeah; he will remember their iniquity, he will punish their sins. (Hosea 9: 7-9)

In the translated Tanach published by Judaica Press the first verse above reads, "The days of visitation have arrived..." The sense of punishment comes as in "when your father gets home..." or "The king is coming to look into the matter himself," or "The IRS has made an appointment to see you."

Our typical reading of Hosea places him in a long line of apocalyptic prophets. He expects - or at least we expect - a punishing God. So did John the Baptist. So did John of the Revelation. So did Jonathon Edwards. Is this God's intention or does this better reflect our expectations?

Would I welcome a visit from God? If God made an appointment to see me tomorrow morning how would I feel? How would I envision the conversation? What would I expect? I would, I am sorry to say, approach the meeting with embarrassment, dread, and a keen desire to run away.

Hosea writes, "He will punish their sins." Actually that is what the translator wrote. The Hebrew is paqad chatta'ah: He will visit, look after, care for, pay attention to their errors, mistakes, guilt, failures, losses, bad choices. Punishment is possible. Feeling punished is likely.

But perhaps it is just a visit. Maybe it is an opportunity to be with one who loves me. Can I approach the meeting with less dread and more trust? Can I admit my sins, failures, losses and move on? Can I accept that, despite my expectations, God loves me? Can I step out of myself to truly engage God?

They shall not pour drink-offerings of wine to the Lord, and their sacrifices shall not please him. Such sacrifices shall be like mourners’ bread; all who eat of it shall be defiled; for their bread shall be for their hunger only; it shall not come to the house of the Lord. What will you do on the day of appointed festival, and on the day of the festival of the Lord? For even if they escape destruction, Egypt shall gather them, Memphis shall bury them. Nettles shall possess their precious things of silver; thorns shall be in their tents. (Hosea 9:4-6)

Compared to most church-going Americans, the people of Israel were conspicuously religious. Daily prayer, regular sacrifice, and deep belief are all in evidence.

For Hosea Israel's whoring is not a matter of ignoring God so much as misunderstanding and misuing God. Israel approaches God to get rather than give.

Despite the threshold floor accusation, the whoring of Israel is a high class affair: more like a smart young gold-digger pursuing a distinguished older man.

A gold-digger or prostitute is at least seeking something in return. If they were whoring, Hosea would find us promiscuous beyond belief, discounting the value of every relationship.

We are to engage God - and each other - not for benefit but in love. This is not a matter of exchange, it is a value-in-itself. It is the ultimate value.

Above is an illustration copied from an 8th Century BCE pottery shard. Hebrew inscription reads, "... I bless you before Yahweh of Samaria and his asherah." Courtesy of Keel and Uehlinger: Gods, Goddesses and Images of God in Ancient Israel.

Do not rejoice, O Israel! Do not exult as other nations do; for you have played the whore, departing from your God. You have loved a prostitute’s pay on all threshing-floors. Threshing-floor and wine vat shall not feed them, and the new wine shall fail them. They shall not remain in the land of the Lord; but Ephraim shall return to Egypt, and in Assyria they shall eat unclean food. (Hosea 9: 1-3)

What do I value? Over what do I rejoice? What do I love? To what and to whom and how do I give myself?

Hosea complains that Israel has become as a common whore who will even go to the threshing floor to conduct her trade and collect her pay.

Israel has already returned to bondage in Egypt. She has given herself over to meaningless sensuality, corrupting indulgence, and vulgar materialism.

The threashing floor and wine vat do not feed - ra'ah - us. These material things cannot tend us, nurture us, or return our love. Ra'ah can also mean to be a special friend or teacher.

We are to love that which is capable of loving. The loving is to be, in itself, end and fulfillment. Love can be unconditional. But that which cannot love is not due our love.

Now he will remember their iniquity, and punish their sins; they shall return to Egypt. Israel has forgotten his Maker, and built palaces; and Judah has multiplied fortified cities; but I will send a fire upon his cities, and it shall devour his strongholds. (Hosea 8:13-14)

Hosea claims that his people have forgotten - shakach - their Maker. They ignore and no longer care about their origins.

Instead they are busy with building palaces. They are engaged in great efforts to protect what they have. But they have forgotten what they are.

Each morning I try to remember my Maker and be reminded of my purposes. But most days are spent on matters only indirectly related to my purposes... if at all.

I perceive that each of us are made to love and to create. What and how we love and create will be unique to each. But we share this common purpose.

Building a palace or fortification is a kind of creation. But such creating is often animated by pride or fear. May my creating be motivated by love.

When Ephraim multiplied altars to expiate sin, they became to him altars for sinning. Though I write for him the multitude of my instructions, they are regarded as a strange thing. Though they offer choice sacrifices, though they eat flesh, the Lord does not accept them. (Hosea 8: 11-13)

The altars of the Northern Kingdom were erected with care. They stood where the patriarchs and matriarchs had prayed. They honored Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and Aaron.

The laws of Moses were preserved and studied. The laws could seem strange - zuwr - irrelevant and weird. But the laws were honored.

The princes, priests, and people came to the altars with thank offerings and with an authentic attitude of worship. They honored God.

But Hosea perceives a fundamental corruption. Rather than loving God, the religious treated God as the Great John of prostitutes.

The prostitute will honor the John's wishes, no matter how weird, in return for an agreed price. The weirder the wish, the higher the price. The best prostitutes honor their clients, but they do not love them.

Above is a miniature altar from archeological digs at Beth-Shan in Northern Israel.

For they sow the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. The standing grain has no heads, it shall yield no meal; if it were to yield, foreigners would devour it. Israel is swallowed up; now they are among the nations as a useless vessel. For they have gone up to Assyria, a wild ass wandering alone; Ephraim has bargained for lovers. Though they bargain with the nations, I will now gather them up. They shall soon writhe under the burden of kings and princes. (Hosea 8: 7-10)

The Northern Kingdom engages in self-delusion and indulges illusion. They sow, but they sow the wind rather than the soil. Whatever such sowing might yield, it will not be grain.

Israel has forgotten its particular role. Ephraim has put aside its real purpose. It has become as any other nation with no specific strength.

God calls us to be radically realistic. God calls us to be our true selves. When we are true to ourselves, we are true to God, and we are in right relationship with the foundations of reality.

But we can - too easily - lose ourselves. We can mistake a mirage for the truth. We can forsake our place for another's. We can choose the wrong path.

When we are lost, God calls to us. When we are wandering, God is ready to gather us up. But to reclaim reality we must first recognize our illusions.

Your calf is rejected, O Samaria. My anger burns against them. How long will they be incapable of innocence? For it is from Israel,an artisan made it; it is not God. The calf of Samaria shall be broken to pieces. (Hosea 8: 5-6)

When the Northern Kingdom had been founded, nearly three centuries before Hosea, the new royal house had good reason to restore and reinforce the prestige of ancient places of worship outside Jerusalem. The Temple of Solomon was impressive, but it could not claim association with the patriarchs as could many high places in the Northern Kingdom.

In the First Chronicle of Kings (chapter 12, verses 25-33) we read of King Jeroboam's religious reforms, including setting up at Dan and Bethel "two calves of gold." While the chronicler clearly sees this act as heretical, this may be more helpful in understanding the view from Jerusalem than the King's intent or the religious attitude of those who worshiped.

Even in the words of the critical historians that have survived, it seems clear that King Jeroboam did not see the calves as replacing worship of Yehovah, but as giving such worship a physical focus to compete with the Jerusalem mysteries. We can think of our attendance to the Cross to understand the value of such a device.

There are Biblical scholars who argue that until Hosea many places of Hebrew worship featured a central image: a calf, tree, or holy relic of some type. None of these were seen as god or God, but as a psychological help in the act of prayer and meditation. Hosea is the founding father of all iconoclasts.

The iconoclast worries that we will confuse surface for substance. We will worship nature as god rather than as an expression of God. We pray to our favorite saint, rather than to God as expressed in the life of the saint. It is a reasonable concern. Reality requires digging deep. We often prefer skimming the surface.

Set the trumpet to your lips! One like a vulture is over the house of the Lord,because they have broken my covenant, and transgressed my law. Israel cries to me, ‘My God, we—Israel—know you!’ Israel has spurned the good; the enemy shall pursue him. They made kings, but not through me; they set up princes, but without my knowledge. With their silver and gold they made idols for their own destruction. (Hosea 8: 1-4)

When I was a little boy my cousins, friends, and I would play house. We would play army. We would play law court. We would create our own realities.

When I was in junior high school the play became considerably more elaborate. Along with a group of eight to twelve other boys, I was a citizen of the Kingdom of Rome.

My role in the Kingdom of Rome was to act as the religious leader: the Cardinal Bishop of New Wittenberg. In this role I wore a (cardboard) miter, flowing robes, and carried a tall walking stick surmounted with a cross.

At the beginning of every hike to our kingdom (unrestored mining land near town) I would intone "Adoramus te Christe et benedicimus tibi."

The religious impulse was not exactly false, but it was almost entirely self-absorbed. We built a chapel for the fun of it. We sang strange songs for the mystery of it. We practiced unusual rituals to reinforce our own hopes and desires.

Play is a great gift. I perceive that playfulness is a big part of God's intent for us. God's full reality is so far beyond us that playful exploration is a much more promising path than a false certainty in knowing the will of God.

But our playfulness should be focused outside ourselves. We play to become what we are not. We play to prepare ourselves for a life beyond our current experience.

Too often I still play at reinforcing my self-definition. Much better for me to play at imagining God's intent.

Above is an engraving from a Phoenician bronze bowl showing a ritual dance around divine representations of sun and moon (courtey of The Dance).

They do not cry to me from the heart, but they wail upon their beds; they gash themselves for grain and wine; they rebel against me. It was I who trained and strengthened their arms, yet they plot evil against me. They turn to that which does not profit; they have become like a defective bow; their officials shall fall by the sword because of the rage of their tongue. So much for their babbling in the land of Egypt. (Hosea 7: 14-16)

We feel pain. We blame another. We feel alone. We blame another. We wail over our sufferings and blame others.

I do not reach out to others. I do not seek the help of others. I do not turn to God, but pursue empty goals. And I may even rage at God.

When we are stubborn in this way - and wall ourselves off from God and others - there is no chance of help. Anger with others must make way for self-correction.

Stringing the bow of this era depended on bending back a very strong and reflexive curve. Unless done with care, the bow can suddenly recoil and might break the arm or take out an eye of the archer. The harm is, however, the result of a natural reflex caused by the error of the archer.

Ephraim has become like a dove, silly and without sense; they call upon Egypt, they go to Assyria. As they go, I will cast my net over them; I will bring them down like birds of the air; I will discipline them according to the report made to their assembly. Woe to them, for they have strayed from me! Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against me! I would redeem them, but they speak lies against me. (Hosea 7: 11-13)

I would redeem them, but...

In attempting to maintain its independence Israel would shift its alliances.

If Assyria menaced, it would seek the help of Egypt.

When Egypt threatened, Israel would ally itself with Assyria.

As a nation or individual we often perceive the need to be "pragmatic." Too often this is a euphemism for unprincipled.

To be truly pragmatic is to be firmly realistic. Realism requires an accurate understanding of how the world works and even why it works the way it does.

The realist does not lie to him or herself. The realist seeks the truth and attempts to act consistently with that truth.

The first words of this chapter, "When I would heal Israel..." suggests that God's truth might even be a catalyst for Israel's falsehoods and iniquities.

The religious person is especially vulnerable to self-righteousness. Religiousity combined with even a dollop of power can lead to a misplaced sense of divine favor.

"I would redeem them but they speak lies against me." The preposition translated as against can also mean about, upon, because, concerning...

When we twist fundamental reality there is no hope of redemption.

Ephraim mixes himself with the peoples; Ephraim is a cake not turned. Foreigners devour his strength, but he does not know it; grey hairs are sprinkled upon him, but he does not know it. Israel’s pride testifies against him; yet they do not return to the Lord their God, or seek him, for all this. (Hosea 7: 8-10)

The ethical and spiritual errors are bad enough. But the real problem is when we don't even realize our condition.

The Northern Kingdom is spiritually syncretic. But it considers itself faithful.

Ephraim feels itself rich and secure. But the prosperity is uneven and unfinished.

Israel sees its alliances with others as a source of strength. But this will contribute to its downfall.

But he does not know it. But he does not know it. But I do not know it.

Pride can be impervious. In a fog of pride we can easily lose our way and not even know we are lost.

Humility is the way to God. This is our only sure way.

Above is a bas-relief from Nineveh showing Assyrian soliders with Israelite prisoners.

On the day of our king the officials became sick with the heat of wine; he stretched out his hand with mockers. For they are kindled like an oven, their heart burns within them; all night their anger smoulders; in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire. All of them are hot as an oven, and they devour their rulers. All their kings have fallen; none of them calls upon me. (Hosea 7: 5-7)

My own regrets are more the result of restraint than passion. A cool heart rather than a burning heart is my challenge.

But the sin is largely the same. Burning ardor claims another or many others as possession. Cool correctness seeks to claim the self. Each are equally effective at excluding God.

Many a burning heart mistakes the object of desire. My cool heart mistrusts the source of desire. Both can cause a smoky, smelly smouldering.

We are to call upon God. Our ultimate object is to lose ourselves - and claim ourselves - in the passionate embrace of God.

I desire to accept my origins and fully live my life as a child of God.

When I would restore the fortunes of my people, when I would heal Israel, the corruption of Ephraim is revealed, and the wicked deeds of Samaria; for they deal falsely, the thief breaks in, and the bandits raid outside. But they do not consider that I remember all their wickedness. Now their deeds surround them, they are before my face. By their wickedness they make the king glad, and the officials by their treachery. They are all adulterers; they are like a heated oven, whose baker does not need to stir the fire, from the kneading of the dough until it is leavened. (Hosea 7: 1-4)

The seventh chapter is a divine indictment of Israel. They are corrupt... treacherous... wicked. They are as a heated oven that does not cool.

I have been re-reading "On the Road" by Jack Kerouac. Much of the novel whirls about the real character of Neal Cassady. Many considered the reformatory graduate corrupt. Certainly his girlfriends, wives, and eventually even Kerouac considered him treacherous. But Cassady was a white hot flame of ardent seeking, perpetual asking, and enthusiastic engagement with the world. He lit up the night - and not a few lives - with inspiration.

Cassady's passion seems entirely right. But the objects of his passion keep shifting, drifting, and suddenly evaporating. I am sure God wanted to restore the fortunes of Neal Cassady.

But at Adam they transgressed the covenant; there they dealt faithlessly with me. Gilead is a city of evildoers, tracked with blood. As robbers lie in wait for someone, so the priests are banded together; they murder on the road to Shechem, they commit a monstrous crime. In the house of Israel I have seen a horrible thing; Ephraim’s whoredom is there, Israel is defiled. For you also, O Judah, a harvest is appointed. (Hosea 6: 7-11)

When Abraham first arrived in Canaan he pitched his tent at Shechem beneath a great oak tree.

When Jacob returned to Canaan he erected an altar to God at Shechem.

Joseph was buried here.

Here Jacob collected the idols worshiped in his household and buried them under an oak tree, perhaps the same tree where Abraham had worshiped.

At Shechem Joshua gathered the tribes beneath a great oak tree and drew up the statutes of the Mosaic religion.

After the death of Solomon it was at Shechem that all the tribes gathered and from this meeting the Northern Kingdom was formed.

Shechem almost certainly remained a cult center for Canannite worship. The murder on the road to Shechem may be spiritual rather than literal.

The priests of God also served as priests of the ancient fertility cult. To worship a false understanding of reality is a monstrous crime.

Above is a Canannite fertility goddess.

What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes away early. Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets, I have killed them by the words of my mouth, and my judgement goes forth as the light. For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt-offerings. (Hosea 6: 4-6)

Two things God desires from us and for us:

Steadfast love - checed - love, loyalty, and kindness

Knowledge - da'ath - perception, understanding, and wisdom.

We should seek to know the source of all and we should love the source.

Everything else is elaboration, sometimes helpful, often distracting.

Come, let us return to the Lord; for it is he who has torn, and he will heal us; he has struck down, and he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him. Let us know, let us press on to know the Lord; his appearing is as sure as the dawn; he will come to us like the showers, like the spring rains that water the earth.’ (Hosea 6: 1-3)

We are torn apart from one another and from God. Many of us are struck down. We suffer physical, psychological, and spiritual hurts.

Hosea perceives God's tough love drawing us away from evil and toward the good. I join the author of Ecclesiastes in seeing that "time and chance happen to all."

But whatever the cause of hurt, God provides healing, binding, rejoining, and is the source and cause of rejoicing. I press on to know God.

I am far from any sort of Darfur. My suffering is light. The hurt that wracks me is, mostly, of my own creation... often of my own imagining.

My blessings are many, very much as a spring shower. Too often I neglect the showers and form within myself a desert of despair.

Help me God to open myself to your love and care.

Therefore I am like maggots to Ephraim, and like rottenness to the house of Judah. When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah his wound, then Ephraim went to Assyria, and sent to the great king. But he is not able to cure you or heal your wound. For I will be like a lion to Ephraim, and like a young lion to the house of Judah. I myself will tear and go away; I will carry off, and no one shall rescue. I will return again to my place until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face. (Hosea 5: 12-15)

In reading any text - but especially the Bible - I am influenced by Hans-Georg Gadamer. The German philosopher suggests that human understanding emerges from a "fusion of horizons." The horizon - experience, intent, aspirations - of the author interacts with the horizon of the reader.

Hosea almost certainly perceives a jealous and punishing God. I can imagine such a God. But I have not - yet - experienced such a God. Rather, even when God's reproof is deserved, I have received forgiveness and love.

As the text reads, I acknowledge my guilt. But Hosea's Hebrew - 'asham - is stronger than acknowledgement. I wonder if is related to the English ashamed. This is to be guilty, to grieve, and to engage in painful self-correction. I can do this. But I am also self-justifying and fully capable of deep denial.

We live in an area where cougars - a sort of North American lion - have been seen. No child, nor even goat, has been harmed. But the rumor of their presence has excited fear. There was news yesterday that a cougar has been shot and killed. We dislike being reminded we are vulnerable. If possible we will act to remove the source of vulnerability.

Whenever we open ourselves to the divine - whenever we truly engage reality - we come face-to-face with our own weakness. It is disconcerting. It is humbling. It can be cleansing and renewing. There are many lions about. We cannot kill them all. Many are of our own making.

Being aware of lions and the risk they pose, but choosing not to fear them and, perhaps, even learning to abide with them is one way to engage new horizons. The call of faith is one of expanding horizons. I seek to engage Hosea's horizon. I seek the horizon of my beloved. I seek the horizon of my enemy. I continue on the path that leads over the horizon to my God.

Above is the 6th Century BC Lion of Nebuchadrezzar II. Originally in Babylon, now in Berlin.

Blow the horn in Gibeah, the trumpet in Ramah. Sound the alarm at Beth-aven; look behind you, Benjamin! Ephraim shall become a desolation on the day of punishment; among the tribes of Israel I declare what is sure. The princes of Judah have become like those who remove the landmark; on them I will pour out my wrath like water. Ephraim is oppressed, crushed in judgement, because he was determined to go after vanity. (Hosea 5: 8-11)

Like Beth-aven, Gibeah and Ramah are border towns between the Southern and Northern Kingdoms. What is happening in Israel should be a warning to Judah and Benjamin.

A day of punishment is coming. In other translations it is a day of rebuke or correction. The Hebrew is towkechah. This is a formal indictment, an argument, a chastisement, or a reproof.

I will pour out my wrath - anger, fury, rage, excess - like water. Whether the pronoun refers to God or Hosea, it is the wrath of God that is foreseen.

Ephraim - the Northern Kingdom - will be violated, see violence, and be over-turned. From history we know this will come soon and the destruction will be total.

It is common to see in this punishment the active intent of a vengeful God. Israel has played the whore, God will exact punishment. Is this how it will play out with Hosea and Gomer?

The oppression is the result of choosing to follow a man's command -vanity, pride, and ambition - rather (it is implied) than the intent of God.

I am left wondering if God punishes or do we experience the consequence of choosing. Does the stove punish the child or does the choice of the child to touch the stove result in a burn?

Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God. For the spirit of whoredom is within them, and they do not know the Lord. Israel’s pride testifies against him; Ephraim stumbles in his guilt; Judah also stumbles with them. With their flocks and herds they shall go to seek the Lord, but they will not find him; he has withdrawn from them. They have dealt faithlessly with the Lord; for they have borne illegitimate children. Now the new moon shall devour them along with their fields. (Hosea 5:4-7)

Reconciliation with God is always possible, but it is not unconditional. A fundamental condition of reconciliation is to know God.

The Hebrew is yada. This is to reveal oneself and perceive the other. This is to have knowledge and to use it skillfully. This is to be intimate: physically and sensually entwined one with the other.

The priests and people of the Northern Kingdom no longer know God. How can we be joined with that we do not know... that we may refuse to even acknowledge?

The priests and people of Israel may, even in ignorance, set out to seek God. The Hebrew verb baqash can mean to search, desire, and ask. It is also to demand or exact. If the intent is to demand, they will not find.

Hosea explains that God has withdrawn (chalats). This is a verb entirely dependent on context.

In the psalms chalats is most often translated as delivered or rescued. In Psalm 50 we read, "Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I shall rescue (chalats) you."

In the book of Numbers the same verb most often means to arm with weapons. In Numbers 31 it is written, "Moses spoke to the people, saying, 'Arm (chalats) men from among you for war."

Is God ready to rescue or armed for war? It depends much on the intention we bring to seeking and knowing God.

Hear this, O priests! Give heed, O house of Israel! Listen, O house of the king! For the judgement pertains to you; for you have been a snare at Mizpah, and a net spread upon Tabor, and a pit dug deep in Shittim; but I will punish all of them. I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from me; for now, O Ephraim, you have played the whore; Israel is defiled. (Hosea 5: 1-3)

Hosea predates the Babylonian exile. In this period the Temple at Jerusalem was one of many places of sacrifice to God.

Mizpah, Tabor, and Shittim were prominent places of religious pilgrimage in the Northern Kingdom. Here tabernacles of God had been erected. In 1 Samuel 7 we read, "Gather all Israel to Mizpah and I will pray to the Lord."

In many places the tabernacles stood near ancient altars to other gods. In Numbers 31 we read, "While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with Moabite women, who invited them to the sacrifices to their gods. The people ate and bowed down before these gods. So Israel joined in worshiping the Baal of Peor."

The god of Moses is the particular god of Israel, but not - yet - understood as the only God. There is evidence that at some sites of pilgrimage the priests of one god would also offer sacrifice to other gods.

Hosea proclaims one reality, one source of value, and one God.

Above is an ancient representation of the Mesopotamian goddess Lilith.

Though you play the whore, O Israel, do not let Judah become guilty. Do not enter into Gilgal, or go up to Beth-aven, and do not swear, ‘As the Lord lives.’ Like a stubborn heifer, Israel is stubborn; can the Lord now feed them like a lamb in a broad pasture? Ephraim is joined to idols — let him alone. When their drinking is ended, they indulge in sexual orgies; they love lewdness more than their glory. A wind has wrapped them in its wings, and they shall be ashamed because of their altars. (Hosea 4: 15-19)

Judah and Benjamin were the two tribes - centered on Jerusalem - that had continued as the Southern Kingdom. Ephraim encompasses the ten tribes of the Northern Kingdom.

Gilgal means place of standing stones, probably a small version of stonehenge. It had been a center of ancient Canaanite worship.

Beth-Aven, meaning house of nothingness, was not far from Gilgal. Beth-Aven was named for the idols, especially of calves, that were worshiped there.

Gilgal and Beth-Aven were each notorious as centers of heathen worship, even their place names are reminiscent this historic role.

Both towns were in the mountainous boundary land north of Jerusalem that separated Israel from Judah. In Hosea they have become citadels of virtue.

The source of our separation from God, no matter how profound or long-held, can be transformed. A place of nothingness can become a sacred place.

Choices have consequences. But even the worst consequences may be overcome. Nothing is eternal but God and the love of God.