This completes my study of the Book of Hosea. You may join Didymus VI by accessing http://handels-lyrics.blogspot.com/.

O Ephraim, what have I to do with idols? It is I who answer and look after you. I am like an evergreen cypress; your faithfulness comes from me. Those who are wise understand these things; those who are discerning know them. For the ways of the Lord are right, and the upright walk in them, but transgressors stumble in them. (Hosea 14: 8-9)

The ways of the Lord are right - yashar - straight, smooth, and pleasing.

Those who know God, who have found God's intention, and who recognize their common identity with God will walk these ways.

Those who rebel against God, who disdain God's intention, and who reject their common identity with God are drawn to other more difficult and circuitous paths.

The ways of God have their risks, heartaches, and suffering, especially where the ways of God intersect with the other paths.

But these troubles need not distract us from the way of God nor impede our good progress.

Above is the Hosea window from Augsburg Cathedral.

I will heal their disloyalty; I will love them freely, for my anger has turned from them. I will be like the dew to Israel; he shall blossom like the lily, he shall strike root like the forests of Lebanon. His shoots shall spread out; his beauty shall be like the olive tree, and his fragrance like that of Lebanon. They shall again live beneath my shadow, they shall flourish as a garden; they shall blossom like the vine, their fragrance shall be like the wine of Lebanon. (Hosea 14: 4-7)

Today hundreds - even thousands - will suffer a painful death they do not deserve. A few hundred child soldiers and prostitutes equally as young will be recruited. Many thousands will be displaced from their homes. Rape, murder, oppression... all the evil that man can visit on man will continue to burn and scorch.

I do not expect these evils to touch me... at least not today. I do not intend to contribute to these evils... at least not directly. I expect to have a nice breakfast, to meet interesting and pleasant people, and to engage in creative and satisfying work. With a glass of wine as company I will watch the sun set over the Pacific and go peaceably to sleep.

It is easy for me to read of beauty, blossoming, and fragrance and be left assured. But I do not deserve this life any more than the eleven year old Cambodian girl deserves her sex customers or the Sudanese mother deserves to bury her baby. God is not rewarding me or punishing them. God is not the cause of our varied conditions. Hosea might not agree with this conclusion.

But perhaps Hosea and I could agree that whatever the cause, God can very much be in the effect. What meaning should I derive from the reality I encounter today? Help me to find your meaning dear God. What action should I take - or avoid - to fulfill that meaning? Help me to know your intention dear God.

Whatever today's reality, how can I contribute to the beauty, blossoming, and fragrance of God's garden? Whether today brings tragedy or victory and more probably both, how can I participate with God in advancing the ultimate reality of a love that both embraces and transcends our conditions.

Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity. Take words with you and return to the Lord; say to him, ‘Take away all guilt; accept that which is good, and we will offer the fruit of our lips. Assyria shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses; we will say no more, “Our God”, to the work of our hands. In you the orphan finds mercy.’ (Hosea 14: 1-3)

In my opinion every Christian translation I have found mangles the second verse.

The 1917 Jewish Publication Society translation is: "Take with you words, and return unto the LORD; say unto Him: 'Forgive all iniquity, and accept that which is good; so will we render for bullocks the offering of our lips."

The last phrase is shalam par saphah. Shalam: to make whole, complete, bring an end of; Par: young bull, steer, calf; Saphah: lips, border, edge, shore.

The kissing of calves that so infuriated Hosea will be brought to an end and made whole. Even the most profound failure can be made whole by a loving God. Even the greatest pain can be redeemed.

There is cruelty. There is suffering. There is persecution. All of this is real. There is also healing, transcendence, forgiveness, and love. Love is the the more difficult, yet ultimately more powerful reality.

Although he may flourish among rushes, the east wind shall come, a blast from the Lord, rising from the wilderness; and his fountain shall dry up, his spring shall be parched. It shall strip his treasury of every precious thing. Samaria shall bear her guilt, because she has rebelled against her God; they shall fall by the sword, their little ones shall be dashed in pieces, and their pregnant women ripped open. (Hosea 13:15-16)

In 721BC the Assyrians invaded from the east, conquered the land, stripped the treasury, killed thousands, and exiled the political and social elite.

In the aftermath of the conquest thousands who did not share the stories of Moses, the Judges, David, and the prophets were relocated into what had been the northern kingdom. Overtime the newcomers intermarried with the non-elites who remained.

The faith of Moses persisted. The newcomers mostly adopted the religious traditions of the ten tribes and came to see themselves as sharing the story of Abraham, the Exodus, and worshiping the one and only God.

Samaritan religious practice, however, increasingly diverged from that of Jerusalem. The elites of the southern kingdom would experience their own conquest and exile soon enough. But rather than empathy this experience reinforced a deep sense of separation and mutual suspicion.

The northern kingdom was lost to history.

Above is an Assyrian relief which is believed to show high officials of Lachish, a Judean city, being skinned alive during an invasion in 701BC.

Ephraim’s iniquity is bound up; his sin is kept in store. The pangs of childbirth come for him, but he is an unwise son; for at the proper time he does not present himself at the mouth of the womb. Shall I ransom them from the power of Hell? Shall I redeem them from Death? O Death, where are your plagues? O Hell, where is your destruction? Compassion is hidden from my eyes. (Hosea 13: 12-14)

Life is ambiguous. We are drawn this way and then that way. At one hour we sin. The next hour we are a hero.

What is admirable in one generation is shameful in another. What is wise in one context is foolish in a different context.

To choose between contentious options is a matter of purpose. What is our definition of success? What is the goal of our choosing?

Hosea is sure that Ephraim has chosen badly. The people of the northern kingdom have chosen self-satisfaction instead of self-sacrifice. They have chosen supposed security rather than the risk of creative opportunity. They have chosen self-justification rather than justice. They have chosen comfortable illusions rather than rigorous reality.

The colorful language of childbirth used above is not required by the Hebrew. The second sentence can also read, "Becoming causes pain. An unwise child delays at the breaking-forth."

Hosea is proclaiming a time of decision. There is still - barely - time for Ephraim to choose differently, before the natural consequences of bad choices descend.

In our choosing we bring forth, create, and cause. What will we cause today? What will we create today? Will we choose the pain of becoming what God intends?

Saint Paul quotes this passage of Hosea in First Corinthinans 15: 54-55 and offers this exegesis: "The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved, be steadfast, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, because you know that in the Lord your labour is not in vain."

I will destroy you, O Israel; who can help you? Where now is your king, that he may save you? Where in all your cities are your rulers,of whom you said, ‘Give me a king and rulers’? I gave you a king in my anger, and I took him away in my wrath. (Hosea 13: 9-11)

There is a political reading of Hosea that has seemed to me mostly subtext. But here the anti-royalist - and perhaps anti-nationalist - message is made explicit.

When the twelve tribes demanded that their judge and prophet Samuel appoint a king, we read, "The Lord said to Samuel, Listen to the voice of the people in all that they say to you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them." (1Samuel 8: 7)

Saul, the first king, was a native of Gibeah and kept his capital there. This is the corrupt Gibeah of Hosea. Early in his reign Saul made an unlawful sacrifice at Gilgal, the same city so despised by Hosea for its idol worship. Is Hosea pointing to political motivation as the foundation of Israel's iniquity?

Despite exaltation of David and Solomon the prophets were deeply ambivalent regarding the nationalist ambitions and political principles of the royal houses. This was amplified in the case of the northern kingdom by their departure from the davidic succession.

Samuel warned, "Pray to the Lord your God for your servants so that we may not die; for we have added to all our sins the evil of demanding a king for ourselves." Royal pretension, national pride, and political posturing were seen by the prophets as a deep distraction comparing to idolatry.

For Hosea if there was any "original sin" it was political rather than sexual. The politics of the nation-state was for him a confused chimera. Politics offers a false-promise of self-assertion and control. Faith is a realization that we are not in control and are called to self-sacrifice.

Yet I have been the Lord your God ever since the land of Egypt; you know no God but me, and besides me there is no saviour. It was I who fed you in the wilderness, in the land of drought. When I fed them, they were satisfied; they were satisfied, and their heart was proud; therefore they forgot me. So I will become like a lion to them, like a leopard I will lurk beside the way. I will fall upon them like a bear robbed of her cubs, and will tear open the covering of their heart; there I will devour them like a lion, as a wild animal would mangle them. (Hosea 13: 4-8)

Humility is a very practical virtue. Recognizing and accepting the limits of individual influence is profoundly realistic.

Jim Collins, author of Good to Great and other management studies finds the most effective leaders are characterized by a paradoxical mix of confidence and humility.

These leaders recognize the power of externalities, of change, of randomness, of influences far outside their control.

Others accept success as their due becoming proud and forgetting what is real. Lack of humility is a significant vulnerability.

Without humility we are unnecessarily surprised and seriously threatened by the natural consequences of reality.

Above is a relief of a royal lion hunt from the Assyrian palace at Nineveh. The king is stabbing a lion.

When Ephraim spoke, there was trembling; he was exalted in Israel; but he incurred guilt through Baal and died. And now they keep on sinning and make a cast image for themselves, idols of silver made according to their understanding, all of them the work of artisans. ‘Sacrifice to these’, they say. People are kissing calves! Therefore they shall be like the morning mist or like the dew that goes away early, like chaff that swirls from the threshing-floor or like smoke from a window. (Hosea 13: 1-3)

What is the difference between kissing a silver calf or a golden crucifix?

What makes one action seem absurd and the other potentially profound?

For some each is equally ridiculous, an example of simple superstition.

But whether calf or crucifix the kiss reflects a believers faith, hope, and love for something beyond human limitation.

For Hosea kissing a calf - the empty work of an artisan - is clearly crazy.

For many kissing a crucifix honors the transcendent self-sacrifice of Jesus.

A symbol is a material object that represents the immaterial. It's power depends on whether the immaterial is True.

I spoke to the prophets; it was I who multiplied visions, and through the prophets I will bring destruction. In Gilead there is iniquity, they shall surely come to nothing. In Gilgal they sacrifice bulls, so their altars shall be like stone heaps on the furrows of the field. Jacob fled to the land of Aram; there Israel served for a wife, and for a wife he guarded sheep. By a prophet the Lord brought Israel up from Egypt, and by a prophet he was guarded. Ephraim has given bitter offence, so his Lord will bring his crimes down on him and pay him back for his insults. (Hosea 12: 10-14)

The prophet is one who is open to God and thereby able to receive the word of God and perceive God's intention.

Such openness is seldom self-cultivated. It is usually the outcome of an extended struggle with God. Prophecy extends this struggle to others.

Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel wrote, "Prophecy is the voice that God has lent to the silent agony, a voice to the plundered poor, to the profane riches of the world. It is a form of living, a crossing point of God and man. God is raging in the prophet's words."

The prophets do tend to rage. The God of prophets is typically angry, jealous, and ready for retribution.

The English word rage is derived from the Latin rabere. A mad dog has rabies, another derivation. It is a violent madness.

Can God go crazy? Is prophecy an expression of madness? Could prophecy be a form of divine psycho-therapy?

In the one case of full raging human madness I have experienced the cause was - it seemed clear to me - an inablity to otherwise speak the truth. Only under the cover of madness could the false forms of daily life be sufficiently put aside to permit a powerful, troubling, and sometimes frightening telling of the truth.

A trader, in whose hands are false balances, he loves to oppress. Ephraim has said, ‘Ah, I am rich, I have gained wealth for myself; in all of my gain no offence has been found in me that would be sin.’ I am the Lord your God from the land of Egypt; I will make you live in tents again, as on the days of the appointed festival. (Hosea 12: 7-9)

Successful, self-confident, and more than a bit smug Ephraim is separated from God. When we make ourselves the center of the universe we are wrong. As long as we persist in this unrealistic and inaccurate stance we will fail to understand the real and true.

"I will make you live in tents again," positions God as the agent of punishment. The Hebrew can also be read as, "You will live in tents again." The effect is the same. The cause may be different.

In my experience God does not punish. Pain has its origin in separation from God. Those who reap the whirlwind harvest pain for themselves and others because they are lost in error, confusion, and delusion.

Hosea perceives a cause and effect relationship. He sees his people separated from God and drifting toward disaster. Hosea perceives the disaster as God's purposeful - ultimately redemptive - punishment.

I perceive the same evidence and effect, but see a different cause. God loves us enough to respect our freedom of choice. If we reject, God will not impose. God will allow us the illusion of self-sufficiency and the reality of its effect.

Above is a weight used to ensure accuracy in trade. It is inscribed with the name of King Shalamanser, the Assyrian conqueror of Israel. Without a true weight the actual value could easily be confused.

But as for you, return to your God, hold fast to love and justice, and wait continually for your God. (Hosea 12: 6)

In the midst of raging against Israel and warnings to Judea, it is as if Hosea inserts this verse just for us.

וְאַתָּה, בֵּאלֹהֶיךָ תָשׁוּב; חֶסֶד וּמִשְׁפָּט שְׁמֹר, וְקַוֵּה אֶל-אֱלֹהֶיךָ תָּמִיד.

Turn back - shuwb - to God - 'elohiym.

Shamar - watch for, be on one's guard for, keep and preserve - checed - love, kindness, commitment, goodness, loyalty.

Hold fast to justice - mishpat - right and real relationships.

Wait - qavah - look for, hope, expect God continuously.

We are to be in relationship with God and one another, honoring and loving each and all.

The Lord has an indictment against Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways, and repay him according to his deeds. In the womb he tried to supplant his brother, and in his manhood he strove with God. He strove with the angel and prevailed, he wept and sought his favour; he met him at Bethel, and there he spoke with him. The Lord the God of hosts, the Lord is his name! (Hosea 12: 2-5)

Each morning I read a bit of text written 80 generations ago or more and try to discern its contemporary meaning. What does it say of the human condition? What does it say of divine intent? What does it mean for me?

The only reason we can read Hosea is because it was preserved by the priests and scribes of the southern kingdom of Judea. As above, I perceive that scattered throughout the text is evidence of their inclination to find and apply the relevance of Israel's experience to Judah.

Analogies can be wonderful. They are also potentially dangerous. The key to an effective analogy is to dig beneath superficial similarities of form and find common structures and functions. Fundamental to making meaning of Hosea is our shared relationship with God.

They shall go after the Lord, who roars like a lion; when he roars, his children shall come trembling from the west. They shall come trembling like birds from Egypt, and like doves from the land of Assyria; and I will return them to their homes, says the Lord. Ephraim has surrounded me with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit; but Judah still walks with God, and is faithful to the Holy One. Ephraim herds the wind, and pursues the east wind all day long; they multiply falsehood and violence; they make a treaty with Assyria, and oil is carried to Egypt. (Hosea 11:10-Hosea 12: 1)

Hosea is a purist. He is a separatist.

The religious practice of the northern kingdom has been corrupted by outside influences.

The social and cultural life of Israel has been polluted by international trade and politics.

The people of God need to return home and stay home.

Their purpose and fulfillment is in finding and valuing God's intention.

That is enough. That is all. The rest is illusion.

Above is the Antakaya Stela. This boundary marker was erected in the early 7th Century BC and summarizes a local treaty guaranteed by the Assyrian state.