Seeking to Return (Hosea 6:1-11a)
Hosea, the prophet who functions as a prosecutor, announced God’s judicial verdict in the previous chapter. Yet Hosea still holds out hope if Israel will seek God’s face (Hosea 5:15). Will Ephraim repent? Will they return to the Lord? Will they seek God’s path rather than their own? Hosea 6 opens the door, but Israel’s previous path has hardened their hearts and dimmed their hope. At bottom, they are people more interested in their rituals rather than seeking God; more interested in sacrifices and burnt offerings than mercy and intimacy with God; more interested in the form than the meaning. As Jesus said, “Go and learn what this means,” quoting Hosea 6:6.
The People Speak: An Invitation (Hosea 6:1-3)
There is hope! There is an invitation! This is true despite the verdict rendered in Hosea 5.
“Come, let us return to the Lord” is the invitation. Just as Yahweh returned to the divine abode in Hosea 2:15, Israel is invited to return to God.
Such a return involves “knowing” God. Again, this knowledge is not primarily cognitive, though it does not exclude that. Rather, it is about intimacy with God along the analogy of a marriage or betrothal as earlier in Hosea 1-3. To return to God is to know God, that is, to renew covenant and relationship with God.
Healing, binding up wounds, and revival is the hope. Though Israel was suffered judgment—they have been torn, struck down, and killed—there is hope for healing and revival. These wounds were named along with an incipient hope in Hosea 2:13-15. The response is that healing is available if the people return to the Lord. Indeed, Israel is assured of this healing just like they anticipate the dawn or spring rains that enable agriculture in Israel.
This revival is pictured as a renewal of health or life itself. Hosea 6:2 has been read by early Christians as a picture of the resurrection of the Messiah. Some early Jewish Targums connected with an eschatological resurrection.
The revival is parallel with the “healing” and “binding up” in Hosea 6:1. It may refer to a recovery from an illness (like Hezekiah going up on the third day to the temple upon his healing in 2 Kings 20). At the same time, it may refer to the death (metaphorically) of Israel and the hope of the resurrection of the nation. The early creed that Paul recites in 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 may have Hosea 6:2 in mind as it identifies the “third day” according to the Scriptures.
It seems to me that Hosea has the resurrection of Israel in mind, much like Ezekiel 37 (can these dry bones live?). Hosea 2 has promised a renewal for Israel, a remarriage. This is pictured as a resurrection, a coming back to life. This, then, also serves the theological trajectory of the resurrection of the Messiah who is the redeemer of Israel. While Hosea does not have the Messiah in mind, the theological meaning of the text includes the future resurrection of the Messiah who represents Israel and gives life to Israel.
Yahweh Explains: The Primary Problem (Hosea 6:4-6)
God’s response seems rather harsh, even heartless. Will God receive this repentance and fulfill the hopeful expectations of Israel?
But it is not heartless because one hears to deep yearning for Israel and the lament for their status in the opening words. “What shall I do with you?” The tone is important. Is it angry, or is disheartening, disappointing. I think the latter. God would love to embrace Israel and wants to do so, but Israel’s heart is not in it. They may approach God in the forms (sacrifices) but they do not approach God with God’s own heart beating in their chest.
Yahweh’s disappointment is the temporary nature of Israel’s seeking. Their steadfast love (hesed) is like a morning midst. It is there for a time but disappears. They do not live life with hesed.
The prophets have “killed” them with God’s words (thus resurrection in 6:2)—they have prosecuted and convicted Israel time and time again. God’s judgment is righteous and just—it is like light in the darkness.
What is Israel’s fundamental problem? Hosea 6:6—one of the most important texts in Hosea—provides the answer. They approach God with sacrifices and burnt offerings, but their lives do not exhibit hesed (mercy, steadfast love), and they do not know God (no intimacy with God). If they knew God, they would act like God.
If they were in authentic relationship with God, they would reflect God’s values—God’s hesed—in their own lives. Instead, as we will see later in Hosea, they live lives of greed, theft, and violence. Hosea’s point, then, is that God continues to reject Israel because they don’t love mercy; they don’t have the heart of God. They have their forms and public shows, but they do not know what it means to live life with God.
The importance of Hosea 6:6 is illustrated by Jesus himself. According to Matthew, Jesus quotes this text twice in Matthew 9:13 and Matthew 12:7. In both instances Jesus is confronting Pharisees for their lack of mercy or steadfast love. In the first case it is there inhospitable dealings with “sinners.” In the second case it is their exaltation of the technicalities of the law over mercy.
Both times Jesus tells them this is about what God “means” in Hosea 6:6. If they had understood its meaning, they would not have questioned Jesus’s practices nor condemned those who participated. “Go and learn what this means” (Matthew 9:13), and “If you had known what this means” (Matthew 12:7).
How we read the Bible matters greatly. Do we read it through a lens of mercy or hesed, or do we read it through a lens of legal technicalities? Jesus said, “if you had known what this means. . .” How do we read? (Luke 10:26).
To love mercy (Micah 6:8; hesed) goes to the heart of the law—and, more fundamentally, the heart of God.
Yahweh Describes: Israel’s Sins (Hosea 6:7-11a)
The description of Israel in these verses is horrific; God has seen a “horrible thing” in Israel. They . . .
- transgress the covenant
- deal treacherously with Yahweh
- filled with evildoers
- tracking blood throughout the land
- thieves wait to pounce
- murderers, even priests, abound
- adulterous life (idolatry)
Consequently, “Israel is defiled.” There may be a specific religio-political reality to these verses. Perhaps it refers to the time of political intrigue since Israel had a series of assassinations in its closing history. It may reflect the chaos of those last decades of the nation. We don’t know the details, but we know the effect—horrible and defiling behavior on the part of the Israel.
There is a translation question regarding the word Adam (Hebrew: keadam, כְּאָדָ֖ם). Should it be translated “at Adam” (a geographical location named in Joshua 3:16) or “like Adam” (the Adam in the Garden of Eden). Some favor the former because place names abound in this section. It is in parallel with something that happened in Gilead as well as on the road to Shechem. This is also supported by the use of “there” as a geographical locater. Also, Adam is located on the east bank of the Jordan where Gilead is also located. That association seems to confirm the parallelism. However, some think this refers to Adam in the Genesis story. That is possible, but it seems more likely that this is geography rather than an allusion to Genesis.
Whatever may be the case with the use of the word “Adam,” the point is fairly straightforward. Israel has demonstrated its lack of hesed by the way it has lived as covenant-breakers. The heart of Israel is filled with greed and violence rather than the hesed of God.
At the end of this message, Hosea surprisingly addresses Judah. It seems this is a warning to Judah. They will experience a similar harvest if they do not keep hesed at the heart of their relationship with God and others.