Recap

So far in Hosea we've read through the illustrative example of Hosea and Gomer, and started the list of ways Israel has been unfaithful. Hosea was a prophet to the northern kingdom of Israel during the reign of Jeroboam II. God told him to marry a prostitute to be a real life demonstration of God's relationship with Israel. So Hosea married Gomer and has three children with her, though two were likely from other men. These children were given names that were to be prophetic messages to Israel.

Israel was similarly accused of being unfaithful, chasing after foreign gods and idols rather than staying faithful to God. They didn't recognise God as the source of their flourishing and so ignored him. But God remains committed to his people and, after letting them experience the consequences of their actions, will bring them back to himself and cause them to flourish. Then back to Hosea it seemed that Gomer and returned to prostitution and had been caught up in debt slavery to another man. So God tells Hosea to redeem her and restore his marriage to her, which he does.

We then moved on to the second section of the book, focused on Israel's unfaithfulness. They swear, lie, murder, steal, and commit adultery. The people are caught in a vicious cycle where, the more they sin, the more they want to sin. They are unable to turn back to God themselves and so need to reach rock bottom so they recognised their need for God afresh.

Hosea 6-10

Hosea starts by encouraging the people to return to God so he can heal them and revive them on the third day. As Christians, when we hear that, it's tempting to see that as a prophetic look forward to Jesus' resurrection on the third day, and in some ways, it is. But it's also important to remember that the people reading this are hundreds of years before Jesus, and when they read it, they wouldn't have seen this phrase as prophetic.

When reading the Old Testament, always try to think "what would this mean to the people who first read it" before you bring in New Testament stuff. Hosea also encourages the people to know God, and to know him intimately, not just know about him.

What follows is a lament from God. A period of mourning the actions of his people. It's clear that despite Hosea's encouragement, the people did not turn back to God, and so God starts by asking what he should now do with this stubborn people. Hosea also includes the southern kingdom of Judah in this section.

Clearly, Israel has influenced Judah to be like them. God then lists specific examples of Israel's sinfulness. He notes places which are particularly wicked; Adam (it's a town, not the first Adam) and Gilead. God remembers the lengthy history of wickedness that Israel has followed. Their wickedness pleases their wicked kings and princes, and they burn hot with adultery. But they will burn themselves down with destruction and their kings and princes will be removed.

Rather than being set apart so they could be an example to the foreign nations, they mixed with them, taking on the worship of their foreign gods. Because of this, these foreign nations will consume them. They are like a frantic bird, flying to and through looking for some nation to help them. But God will catch them and discipline them, training them how to find home again, like a homing pigeon. So God mourns his people, because they do not cry to him. He is the one that strengthened and trained them, but they do evil in his sight.

This combination of accusation and God's response happens twice more in the book of Hosea, but the next two times will have a much more hopeful response. The focus of this second lot of accusations is simple; Israel have put their trust in their military strength and in their foreign gods, and it's not going well for them.

God challenges Israel for setting up kings he has not chosen and making idols out of silver and gold. God uses the specific example of the golden calf, pointing out that the calf didn't come from him. It came from their own craftsmen. Next, he says they are already as good as 'swallowed up'. They have gone to the likes of Assyria to buy their friendship and protection, but soon they'll have nothing left to give and then where will their friends?

Israel has taken the things used to worship God and turned them against him. They have sinned on the altars used for sin offering, and now though they may feel close to him, they are far from him. They do not know God's law and he does not recognise their offerings.

God then again challenges Israel for chasing after the help of foreign nations. He likens it to acting like a prostitute. He then says when he first founded Israel, it was to be fruitful like rich grapes. But now because they have sinned they have not been fruitful, they are like a woman who cannot have children (it's worth noting that God is using metaphors that they will understand and being barren was a great source of shame in these cultures. The reality is God has a lot of love for women who cannot have children. Throughout the Bible there are messages of how God will bring joy to barren women).

He then likens them to a luxurious vine that bore much fruit. But then they rejected God and his king, and now they are like poisonous weeds. Instead, they now put themselves to shame, worshipping a golden calf. He then likens Israel to a young calf that bounded around freely. Now God will put them to the plough and force them to plough righteousness and love. This is all because until now they have only ploughed sin and injustice and because they have put their trust in their military might. These are the accusations God makes against Israel.

Psalm 123

This psalm isn’t attributed to anyone in particular and is named as a psalm of ascent. These psalms were sung by worshippers as they ascended to Jerusalem for the three pilgrimage festivals (Passover, Festival of Weeks, and Festival of Tabernacles) or possibly by the Levites as they ascended the steps of the Temple. Psalm 120-134 are all psalms of ascent.

Psalm 123:1-2 - My eyes are on the Lord

Psalm 123:3-4 - Have mercy on us, O Lord

In our progression so far, we started with the psalmist in a foreign land in Psalm 120, journeying in pursuit of the Lord in Psalm 121, and arrive at Jerusalem, the seat of God’s presence in Psalm 122. Now, here before God the psalmist appeals to the Lord for help.

It is to the Lord the psalmist sets their eyes. They recognised the Lord as the one ‘enthroned in the heavens’. They look to the Lord as a servant might look to their master for support. The reason they need support is because they have been surrounded by enemies who scorn and treat them with contempt.

The journey of ascent has been about the psalmist travelling from a far to the Lord’s presence. Now that they are here, they start with recognising the Lord as their master and source of help.