Today we begin reading from the prophet Hosea. Hosea lived in Israel, the Northern Kingdom, and began his prophetic career in the last years of Jeroboam II (786-746 BC). Some Biblical scholars believe that he was a priest, others that he was a local prophet, but the only reliable information we have on his life comes from this book.
He was a man of great feeling and could go from anger to extreme tenderness. The book is built around his difficult marriage to Gomer, and this affected and deepened his teaching. Gomer was guilty of adultery, which Hosea uses to symbolize the sinful Israel. Just as Hosea could not give up his wife, despite her infidelity, so neither can Yahweh abandon Israel, who was betrothed to him, despite her faithlessness and treatment of the poor. There would be punishment, but its purpose was to heal and restore the first love. Hosea was the first biblical figure to describe the relationship between Yahweh and Israel in terms of marriage, and this is taken up in the New Testament by Paul and John.
Today’s passage (Hosea 2:16,17‑18,21‑22) is full of tenderness and a spirit of reconciliation. In the verses just prior to today’s reading, God speaks to Israel, his chosen people saying: “I will now allure her and bring her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her…” (Hosea 2:14). In the eyes of Hosea, like Amos before him, the years the Israelites spent in the desert were idyllic times when the people had a particularly close relationship with their Lord. Israel was childlike then, knowing nothing of pagan gods. They were loyal to Yahweh, whose presence was manifested in the cloud.
Now Israel has abandoned God, but in the future, Hosea tells them that Israel, “…shall respond as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt” (Hosea 2:15). Just as Gomer has maltreated her husband, Israel has maltreated God, behaving like an unfaithful wife. In the future, Hosea sees that Israel coming back to Yahweh, her spouse, who has always been faithful to her. Hosea, in today’s reading, says, “On that day, says the Lord, you will call me “my husband,” and no longer will you call me “my Baal.”
For a long time, the word ‘baal’ meant ‘master’, and it was applied both to wives following their husbands and to humanity following God. It had been, from ancient times, an element in certain proper names, without any idolatrous significance. Yahweh was the ‘master’ to whom the bearer of the name was thus dedicated. But after the corrupting influences of the Canaanites, the word ‘Baal’ came to be identified with the Canaanite gods. There was such a vigorous reaction against that worship that this Hebrew word for “master” was no longer used when referring to the Lord. He says: “For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be mentioned by name no more. Only then will the Lord take Israel back, …and I will take you for my wife forever; I will take you for my wife in righteousness and in justice…”.
Yahweh takes back his unfaithful wife with the fervor of first love and showers her with spiritual gifts – with righteousness and justice, with love and mercy. ‘Righteousness’ and ‘justice’ are two terms dear to Hosea and are used by him especially to condemn the popular social injustice and corruption of the legal process. Here they mean right conduct in general.
In ancient times, the word ‘love’ refers to a bond between men and women, a contract. Later, the nuances of friendship, union, loyalty, especially when these are the outcome of a treaty or formal agreement, developed. It is in this context that God’s love refers to his faithfulness to his covenant and the kindness he shows his chosen people (Exodus 34:6). Used by Hosea, in the context of married love, the word assumes, and from then on retains, a still warmer relationship: it means the tender love God has for his people and the benefits deriving from it.
But this divine love calls for corresponding love in man towards Yahweh. This love consists of self-giving, loving trust, abandonment, deep affection, piety, a love that is a joyful submission to the will of God and an active charity to fellow men. This ideal is expressed in many of the Psalms.
Hosea continues: “I will take you for my wife in faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord.” ‘Know’ here means much more than intellectual knowledge. It implies a deep and intimate relationship of love and unity. God ‘makes himself known’ to us when we engage with him in covenant. Similarly, we ‘know God’ when we loyally observe God’s covenant, show gratitude for God’s gifts, and return love for love. In the wisdom literature, ‘knowledge’ in this sense and ‘wisdom’ are practically synonymous. The two words ‘know’ and ‘love’ are closely interlinked.
Hosea is laying the groundwork here for describing the love of God for us that will be shown in such a dramatic fashion by Jesus, the Incarnate love of God. The whole of the Gospel is suffused with this love, and we are called to be filled with that love, which is extended to us by God, to every person without exception. Even to us.
May God Bless You and Grant You His Peace!