So, after all, does a miracle convince? As it turns out, not everyone and not always. Faced with manifestations of God's power, the power of the Kingdom, that Jesus made entirely obvious to everyone, it would seem impossible not to believe in the miracle. But apparently one can bear witness to the Kingdom, yet it is impossible to prove its reality to someone who does not want to believe. The Pharisees, for example, invent ever new explanations for something that, in essence, needs no explanation at all but only needs to be accepted. They have no wish to accept it, and therein lies the whole problem.

One might think that the Pharisees, of all people, since they professed messianic hope, should only have rejoiced at the appearance of the Messiah and the Kingdom in the world. And they probably would have, had Jesus acted as the Messiah was supposed to act according to those same Pharisees' ideas. But the problem was precisely that Jesus did not conform to those ideas and had no intention of doing so.

Then what could not fail to happen did happen: the logic of opposition demands escalation, and eventually escalation came. Previously the leaders of the Pharisaic movement had tried to explain Jesus' miracles and healings in more or less neutral terms. Now they move to direct and very serious accusations, in effect accusing the Savior of paganism and demon worship. The calculation is simple: if you strike, strike with all your strength and without restraint; if you accuse, make the accusation as difficult as possible to answer.

Nor is this merely a desire to rid themselves of Jesus. His accusers, it seems, are trying to convince not only others but themselves that they are right. To do so they need the gravest possible accusations, and it no longer matters how plausible those accusations are. In such a situation the mind will accept any argument as long as it justifies rejecting what cannot reasonably be rejected. They seek to frighten not only others but themselves, and to frighten themselves so thoroughly that there can be no road back and no one will even dare think that this Man might be from God.

Such intimidation requires a taboo that blocks, even at the subconscious level, every attempt to view the situation differently. The accusation of demon worship was just such a taboo—a taboo that became the last refuge of religiosity opposed to the Kingdom.

Constant fatigue, or, as today's reading says, exhaustion, is the ordinary condition of modern people. A hard, tense life, constant problems, and the struggle to survive force a person to gather all strength into a tight fist.

And sheep without a shepherd are a very exact image of how a person behaves in such a situation. Rushing from side to side, not finding the road, falling into the wolf's teeth, crying out in terror, not finding the way, running without knowing where - anyone who has seen lost sheep knows how quickly they lose all their calm.

A person left alone with himself sooner or later falls into the same existential panic before a cruel and frightening world whose laws he does not understand and cannot understand. Only by lifting his head and acknowledging his connection with God and his need for communion with Him does a person receive the help and support that give strength to live.

Today's reading again turns to the theme of Israel's apostasy, and here the threat of the country's defeat and the people's scattering is stated directly (vv. 7-8). It is worth noting that the threat of military defeat and absorption of the Northern Kingdom by the rapidly growing Assyrian Empire was quite real at that time, and although nothing of the sort happened during Hosea's lifetime, soon after his death the Kingdom of Israel was in fact destroyed and its population scattered throughout the territory of that enormous empire.

This scattering, according to the prophet's testimony, was not an accidental event; it clearly became the consequence of a whole chain of spiritual events. It all began when God's people rejected God and the Torah (the Law), in essence ceasing to be God's people despite all their declarations and ostentatious religiosity (vv. 1-3). It would seem that in such a situation repentance and conversion would have been the most natural and logical step, but nothing of the kind occurs. Understanding that with their chosen way of life they can expect no support from God, the inhabitants of the country begin to arrange things for themselves according to their own human laws and notions (v. 4); and this, it appears, concerned both spiritual and religious life ("the calves") and social and political life.

It should be noted that the laws of the Northern Kingdom, judging by everything we know about them, corresponded little to the norms of the Torah, and the religious policy of that state's authorities essentially encouraged the paganism characteristic of the majority of its population. The result of this choice was that Israel indeed almost ceased to differ from the nations around it, at least in matters of spiritual life. And then God leaves it to the mercy of its historical fate, which, given the military and political situation then taking shape in the Near East, was bound to be very sad.

Of course, the attraction of both the authorities and the people to paganism was due in no small measure to the fact that many associated it either with the benefits of civilization or with military and political power. It is no surprise that these many people hoped to attain both by securing the support of foreign gods (vv. 10-14). And then God steps aside, letting His people drink to the full of what had seemed so attractive from a distance. Under God's protection, even the pagan world, cruel and merciless in essence, could seem reasonable and beautiful to the Jews: they saw it not in itself, but as part of God's world, in which everything is beautiful. But once God stepped aside, all the beauty of paganism disappeared, and the evil with which it was permeated, like the whole fallen world, came crashing down upon them, leaving them completely defenseless. Then it became clear that without God Israel is nothing, that wiping it from the face of the earth costs nothing, and that all its prosperity and security had been provided by its God, whom the country's inhabitants, alas, so often forgot.