Hosea 5-6
Chapters 5 and 6 are concerned with
the forthcoming punishment to be poured out upon Israel
Chapter 5 begins by addressing the
priests, then the Israelites, then the ‘royal house’; it appears that their
status and social standing has given self-appointed licence to their sin, as
God describes them as being a ‘snare’ and ‘a net spread out’. Israel was, of
course, God’s holy nation, but verse 1 suggests that they were not merely
following idolatrous traditions of other cultures, but had become the
ringleaders.
God is furious, and often we find
this Old Testament anger difficult to match with the New Testament message of
God’s self-sacrificial peace. If we are to understand God’s anger in context of
His broken-heart, I think it starts to make more sense. It is not until v.15
that God really emphasises that Israel’s sin is not about law-breaking, but
about heart-breaking, as He desires the Israelites to seek His face in earnest,
not just offer legalistic sacrifices (Ch.6:6). Israel’s false repentance is the
topic of chapter 6, and it appears that God is being treated as a kind of ‘sure
thing’, like a big softy who will soon change His mind. God tackles this, and
it is the heart-wrenching v.10 that God says ‘I have seen a horrible thing in
Israel’. Repentance must come from the head and
heart, and the Israelites must begin to produce children of love and
faithfulness to God, not the illegitimate children of sin (5:7). This challenge
is just as relevant to us – do we repent only when our minds tell us to? Or do
we refuse to repent until we feel like
it? The Lord requires both – to ‘act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly’
(Micah 6:8), using head and heart.
(member of the congregation)