NOTES for Hos 7:1-16
Today’s reading continues the prophet’s denunciation of God’s people. But now a new aspect appears in it, directly connected with the theme of judgment. It concerns God’s attempts to heal the people spiritually, mentioned in Hosea’s preaching (v. 1). It is unsurprising that healing exposed all the people’s sins. Their reaction was entirely predictable. The people recoil from God, preferring to remain what they are and forgetting God in the hope that, by some incomprehensible means, everything will somehow work out and God will close His eyes to their sins. Yet God evidently remembers everything and has no intention of forgetting anything (v. 2).
One might think that the very idea that God could forget the sins of those whom He regards as His people, or that He could remain indifferent to human sinfulness at all, should appear at least strange to a believer. But in this case the issue seems not to be reflection on the situation but, on the contrary, wholly irrational behavior. In religious terms, the situation in the Northern Kingdom of Israel, where the prophet preached, was highly contradictory. On the one hand, its authorities encouraged de facto paganism under the guise of dual faith; this was the official religious policy of nearly all the kings who ever ruled in the North. On the other hand, they wished to present themselves as greater Yahwists than the authorities of neighboring Judea, the Southern Kingdom, where no official reforms had been carried out and Yahwism was formally preserved in the original form it had possessed in the still-united Israel under David and Solomon. But they had little success, for Jeroboam, the founder of the Northern Kingdom, had already broken completely not only with Jerusalem but also with the traditional Levitical priesthood, establishing an alternative religious center at Bethel and founding a new priesthood that had nothing in common with either the Torah or tradition.
“Political expediency” prevailed over both, while the prophets who opposed it were persecuted. The authorities could no longer simply abandon their religious policy: every king who ruled the country understood that if he took such a step, he would have to part with his throne. His subjects understood that they would have to live differently, so that many of those who had made their fortunes not merely by sinful but outright criminal means (vv. 3–5) would most likely lose everything. No one, it appears, was ready for such a development. Yet neither the rulers nor their subjects could justify their unwillingness to change, because everyone understood that both the Torah and tradition stood against them.
All that remained was to cling to any opportunity, however illusory, if it seemed to offer a way of solving the problems without changing anything essential (vv. 8–12). Such a position can lead only to a dead end, both spiritual and political (vv. 13–16). This is what the prophet warns his compatriots about; but neither he nor God Himself can change the choice of those who prefer to cling to what is theirs while pushing away God’s hand.