NOTES for Hos 8:1-14

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.

The warning about the repayment inevitable for unrepented sins becomes more and more threatening and severe. Everything being done among the people was being done not simply without the Lord, but in defiance of His will. The good that comes from Him has been rejected; instead of Him, turning to idols has become customary. But idols will not help. They will be destroyed. The Lord will not let triumph what tries unworthily to displace Him from hearts, so payment will inevitably have to be made for the outrages that have become habitual. Everything that tries to replace Him will collapse.

God's laws have been considered foreign, yet sacrifices have not ceased. Again and again the Lord brings us back to the fact that one can scrupulously fulfill ritual prescriptions, do everything "by the rules," but this will not be the fulfillment of the law if the main thing has been forgotten: truth and mercy.

Speaking about the fate of Samaria, Hosea uses the expression today known, probably by each: who sow the wind shall reap the whirlwind. Having gone out of this context, in which was initially used by the prophet, it means for the most of the users only one thing today: every person and every people reap the fruit of the made choice, in particular when this choice was far from being the most reasonable. Of course, the prophet also wanted to say the meaning very clear for each. But in the context of his sermon the image of the reaper sowing the wind and reaping the whirlwind, has additional semantic connotations. And it is above all about this aspiration of accusing God for the misfortunes falling on them, common among religious people, and which was also proper to the inhabitants of Samaria, being the contemporary of the prophet. The prophet with the so well known words today reminds them that the problem is not at all on God's will, but in their own choice.

But then arises the question: to what extent and to what degree can one speak about God's will according to the events occurring in the life of individuals and the whole nation? Where ends His will and begins what the theologians usually call omission? Of course, it is probably impossible to define a precise border here. And all the same there is a criterion: one cannot speak about God's omission when He intervenes not at all in these cause-effect links, which define the life of everyone in the fallen world.

For the not transformed world the cause-effect links are a determining reality, and after the fall they became at whole something self-restrictive. And the man under the power of these links, under the influence of these consequences, which entail his acts (generally, sinful), could wrest only by God Himself, and only by His direct intervention in the situation. Intervention, most radical and most definitive of which were the coming to the world of the Messiah. But it happens that man or an entire nation manages to successfully block all the attempts of God to intervene: because man is free, and God absolutely respects his freedom. Well then, to the one who sowed the wind, it will only remain to reap the fully expected whirlwind.

By making whatever decisions, by acting under circumstances, we use the simplest mechanisms of decision making. We try to act equitably, as we understand it, or for our own benefit, or "to affect the most strongly possible somebody.

Sometimes, the political or economic news suggest that global changes take place only because somebody did not please another, hostility turns out to be a much more powerful motor of history, than even common sense. In this term, the Bible becomes for us a book of the rational behavior. Vengeance out of respect for justice manifestly is not what God wants to teach us; because human justice is a one-sided justice.

We indeed, would not in general want from God justice for us, but only mercy. The Lord tries to teach us to never sow the wind. No matter how just from our point of view we would have made the decisions, it is always necessary to think of the consequences. Rancour doesn’t suit man, not only because God asked to return to Him vengeance. But also because it turns out that in the world, exists an immutable law: if we sow the wind, we shall reap the whirlwind, which cannot only cripple us, but also destroy us.

Why, properly, He gave us His commandments? Just like that, to say something? To complicate our life, to create extra problems to us? Or after all, as He tell us in the reading of today, His laws are important? Some people like to brush aside rules and commandments, by saying that the New Testament abolishes all which was before. But Jesus Himself says that He came "not to destroy, but to fulfill" (Matthew. 5:17). But we find His laws strange and useless …

“I wrote for him the important things of My law, but they were regarded as something foreign,” says the Lord. Why, in fact, did He give us His commandments? Simply so that He would have something to say? To complicate our life and create unnecessary problems for us? Or are His laws, as He tells us in today’s reading, truly important? Many people like to dismiss rules and commandments, saying that the New Testament abolishes everything that came before. But Jesus Himself says that He came “not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it” (Matt 5:17). Yet we regard His laws as foreign and useless...