Bible Blog?

Hmm, I think this blog needs to die and be reborn as something else.

Thoughts? Votes?

Hosea 5:8-15

What does God look like in this passage?

Where is the law at work, and where is the gospel, in this part of the story of Hosea?

What's the deal with Ephraim? (historical context, betrayal, what is the "vanity?")

Have we drifted from the intial story/context of Hosea?

Some stuff to chew on this Wednesday morn...

"Blow the horn in Gibeah,
the trumpet at Ramah.
Sound the alarm at Beth-aven;
look behind you Benjamin!
Ephraim shall become a
desolation
in 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 judgment,
because he was determined to
go after vanity.
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."

Holy Shittim! Hosea 5:1-7

Well, I thought I'd just grab your attention with that title. And then, in this passage, what captured me, is the hiddenness of God, the unknownness of God, even to the priests and rulers of Israel. How corruption can befall (and often does) those in power or of pious standing. Thoughts?? I know a lot of Hosea is repetitive, but I really think that's to make a point to thick-skulled people. (Not that I need to defend the biblical text: "Stop picking on Hosea, guys!!!" - said with a whine - ok, now I'm talking to myself...)

"Hear this, O priests!
Give heed, O house of Israel!
For the judgment 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.
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 4:15-19

"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 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 thier altars."

More Response Hosea 4:12-14

Therefore your daughters play the whore,
and your daughters-in-law commit adultery.
I will not punish your daughters when they play the whore,
nor your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery;
for the men themselves go aside with whores,
and sacrifice with temple prositiutes;
thus a people without understanding come
to ruin."

I thought about this passage again and realized it doesn't necessarily need to identify only with religious forms of corruption, prostitution.

[Although that was the context it was referring to. Remember? The Israelites enveloped some of the Canaanite traditions, one being sexual orgy-like rituals - even in the temple - to bring about fertility, rain, good fortune for good crops. And even though this practice is heinous enough, you could even imagine this being abused: "No really, I had fertility in mind....I was thinking of the common good," the Priest says, after being caught in the act.]

Anyway, remembering this context, I also thought of our own contemporary context. We live in such a lopsided world, and our own lopsided nation. the poor continue to grow poorer and the rich more and more wealthy. Politicians, in their filthy-richdom, ask social justice activists, on good days when they're not avoiding the truth, "How do I do this? How do I advocate for the poor? I don't even know any poor people?" And in our ignorance - gradations of ignorance reflecting variations of wealth - we help the chasm grow.

In some of the politics of the extreme Right, women rich and poor are scolded for working when they have children at home: as if the two weren't intrically connected, as if there were some other magical option. Poor, single mothers must work to provide for their families.

Or I think of sex workers; a profession that has persisted for at least thousands of years. Why does it exist, persist? If we continue to forge a culture that provides benefits and breaks for those who don't even need them, then the poor have to forge their own - somewhat dangerous, somewhat primitive - way. This has often involved drug-related or sex-related career paths.

I'm not saying it's a good idea -- we know about the harmful aftermath of such professions and the unsafe effect on homelife.

But what I am saying is that we're in need of "Jubilee," which was a regular practice in the Old Testament times. An opportunity to cancel all debts and start over. If you never get to start over, you continue to fall back -- how can you ever catch up? Despite what movies like to show, it is very hard to go from an uneducated prostitute mother of three to a salary-earning, college (or even high school) educated professional. There are so many kinks to work out.

So maybe the blame should not be on the victims of the web of "whoredom," but instead, on the manufactures who built the web. Who built the web?