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.