THE VAIN JOY Israel thought that it would rejoice like the other nations, if it set forth from worshipping the living God to the pagan worships. They did like the prodigal son when he demanded his portion from his father to join his friends and pass the days in pleasure and fun. That kind of joy is vain, and is accompanied by an inner bitterness and depression of the soul, because of the following reasons: 1. Their worship will turn like the bread of mourners 1 – 6. 2. The day of punishment has come 7 – 9. 3. They will produce no fruition 1– 14. 4. They will be driven out before the Lord 15– 17. 1. THEIR WORSHIP WILL TURN LIKE THE BREAD OF MOURNERS: “Do not rejoice, Israel, do not exult like other peoples; for like a wanton you have forsaken your God, you have loved an idol on every threshing-floor and winepress shall know them no more, new wine shall disown them.” (Hosea 9: 1, 2). The Israelis assumed that the surrounding nations with their pagan worship, characterized by several banquets and abominations, were happier and more joyful. Therefore, they longed to follow suit and walk their ways. Even if those nations rejoiced and had fun in their abominations, it is only an outer appearance accompanied by inner grief and depression. By imitating those nations, Israel was counted as an adulterer against its God, and will fall under bitter chastisement. God has chosen the Israelis as His own people, who should be committed to His holy law, so if they divert and play the harlot, they would be worthy of stoning. God deals the same way with us nowadays, so if a believer falls into sin, his chastisement would be quicker and firmer than that of an evildoer, because he was chosen by God to be His son and should be disciplined. The Psalmist says: “Do not strive to outdo the evildoers or emulate those who do wrong… Depend upon the Lord, and he will grant you your heart’s desire” (Psalm 37: 1, 4). Individuals sometimes assume that going after lusts would fulfill them: “I will go after my lovers; they give me my food and drink, my wool and flax, my oil and my perfumes” (Hosea 2: 5). This reward that one longs to get from the other gods, may look better in his eyes than the blessing of the Lord, “proclaimed in all the threshing floors”. By seeking the temporal reward, and not the perpetual blessing of the Lord in the storehouses of wheat that fulfill his soul, he would lose both. The threshing floor and the winepress will not feed him, and the new wine will fail him, although he thought that it would be his joy and gladness. Historically, this happened in the life of the Israelis, who hastened after the abominations of the surrounding nations. This happened specifically when they fell into the captivity of Assyria and were deprived of their freedom, possessions, the good produce of their land, as well as loosing their worship to the living God. They lost both the earthly pleasures and the spiritual blessings. Their deprivation of joy was a natural consequence of their playing the harlot against their God, who therefore rejected their worship, their wine offerings (a sign of joy), and their sacrifices, which did not please Him. Their sacrifices have turned to ‘bread 76 of mourners’ that returns to them to eat it in bitterness, instead of accepting it as a pleasing scent. The punishment was not only depriving them of fulfillment and joy, but it went far to an ultimate expulsion from the land of the Lord, that he had previously granted them as a promised land, that flows of milk and honey. “They shall not dwell in the Lord’s land” (Hosea 9: 3). They would be carried over to captivity, where they shall be deprived of everything: “They shall pour out no wine to the Lord, they shall not bring their sacrifices to him; that would be mourners’ fare for them, and all who ate it would be polluted. For their food shall only stay their hunger; it shall not be offered in the house of the Lord.” (Hosea 9: 4). In the land of captivity, they lived as though on a defiled land, and had nothing pure to offer to the holy Lord! They have been on the holy land of the Lord before, but when their hearts drew out of His house, and brought abominations into the sanctuaries, they were driven out of it and were deprived of the right to practice a pure worship accepted by the Lord. It is a bitter portrait of the unfaithful soul that the Lord does not bring it over to the Promised Land, but sets in it His kingdom, gives it His holy blood as a sign of its salvation and grants it His Spirit to dwell in it. Yet, in lack of faithfulness, this soul breaks the new covenant, and binds itself to the abominations, despising the exalted gifts of God. As said by the apostle: “If a man disregards the Law of Moses, he is put to death without pity on the evidence of two or three witnesses. Think how much more severe a penalty that man will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was consecrated, and affronted God’s gracious Spirit!” (Hebrew 10: 28, 29) Such a person loses God’s gifts to him, and the blessings of the new covenant would become the secret of judgment and a testimony against him. If such a soul offers worship, – whatever it is – God would reject it as long as the soul is persistent on its betrayal to the covenant and on the uncleanness of its heart. Its worship would be returned to it as bread of mourners. About this St. John Chrysostom said, “It is not fitting to offer a sacrifice of something unclean, as it would be counted as firstfruit of other works. I hope we would offer our hands, feet, mouths, and all our other organs as firstfruit to God in purity, which would please Him1.” St Cyprian also spoke about the sacrifices rejected by God, and returned to those who offer them as bread of mourners and said that they were the teachings, worship and baptism of the heretics. Specifically, he said, “Here He teaches us clearly about those who are bound to sin, and are defiled by the sacrifice of an evil priest2”. He said as well: “Here He teaches us about those who get united to judged leaders, being defiled together with them by their crimes3”. The priests of Israel offered sacrifices to the Lord, while their hearts were bound to the Baal, so God returned their sacrifices to them as bread of mourners and drove them completely out of His house by their captivation to Assyria. Lest the listeners might say that what the prophet says are just theoretical threats that would never really happen, He goes on to say, “What will you do for the festal day, the day of the Lord’s pilgrim-feast? For look, they have fled from a scene of devastation: Egypt shall receive them, 1 In Pom. Hom 20. 2 Ep. 67: 3. 3 Ep. 75: 9. 77 Memphis shall be their grave; the sands of Syrtes shall wreck them, weeds shall inherit their land, thorns shall grow in their dwellings” (Hosea 9: 5, 6). They may say: In every appointed day and in the feasts of the Lord, we assemble in the house of the Lord, rejoice by psalms and praises, and spend these days in joy and gladness, and not in grief or bitterness, so how can the prophet say that our sacrifices will be returned to us like bread of mourners? To this, the prophet responds by saying that he foresees the desolation coming swiftly from Assyria. The prophet continues to say that they would seek refuge in the Pharaoh of Egypt, flee to the land out of which the Lord had previously brought them, and die in its capital Memphis. Therefore, they would lose the promises of God to them, namely His word (the silver), instead of which they would inherit the nettles (the rust), and their tents (the houses) in the Promised Land will turn into wilderness that produce thorns and thistles. Although God’s promises to us are like silver that would never rust, and the spiritual houses he has set for us give us joy and security, yet the diversion of our hearts from Him would turn us from silver to rust, and from houses to a wilderness with thorns and thistles! Therefore, one would lose the inner peace of God, together with the joy and gladness of heart. He would even lose his life, be buried in ‘Memphis’ like a stranger, his life would turn into rust, and his inner tent into a wilderness! On a symbolic aspect, silver refers to the soul, and the tent to the body in which it dwells. By seeking the temporal joy and pleasure like the pagan nations, one’s soul would become rust, and the holiness of his body would fall anew under curse and produce thorns and thistles! 2. THE DAY OF PUNISHMENT HAS COME: Israel wrongly assumed that it lives in the pleasures and lusts of this world in joy and rejoice; and did not realize that: “The days of punishment are come; the days of vengeance are come” (Hosea 9: 7). The day has come, on which Israel shall be punished for its evil, and the prophets recompensed for their true testimony and for enduring the reproaches and sufferings: “Israel shall be humbled. Then the prophet shall be made a fool and the inspired seer a madman by your great guilt.” (Hosea 9: 7) The Israelis will know that the one they considered as a fool was the bearer of the spirit of wisdom, and that whom they saw as mad was the man of the Spirit! They will know that their great iniquity and hostility have blinded their insight from recognizing the prophet, the true man of the Spirit. On the other hand, they will realize that the false prophet who flattered them by his smooth words saying, “All is well” although “All is well? Nothing is well!” (Jeremiah 6: 14), was the real fool, who has given Israel false comfort at the expense of the truth! By that, the true prophet will be recognized, even though he may have inflicted wound by words of truth for the sake of edification from the false prophet, who is “a fowler’s trap by all their paths” (Hosea 9: 8). The day of recompense has come, for Israel to realize that they were lead “deep into sin as at the tie of Gibeah” (Hosea 9: 9). While a certain Levite sojourned in the remote mountains of Ephraim, he spent the night in Gibeah in the land of Benjamin.(judges19: 14) Then, the men of the city took his concubine, knew her and abused her all night. They let her go when the day began to break, so she fell down and died with her hands on the threshold of the house where her master was. The man took a knife, laid hold of his concubine, dismembered her into twelve pieces, and sent her throughout all the territory of Israel to let them know the horror that took place in that 78 place (Judges 20). If this event of Gibeah uncovered the evil, the day of punishment has also come to expose the hidden wickedness of the people! 3. THEY WILL PRODUCE NO FRUITION: Israel has lost the inner, spiritual joy for the following reasons: First: They sought the joy and the pleasure of the nations and committed adultery toward their God. Their worship turned into mourners’ bread (1 – 6). Second: The day of punishment has come, and they shall realize the falsity of their measures. The one, whom they assumed to be fool and mad, proved to be the true prophet, whereas he, who gave them false hope, was the mad and fool prophet (7 – 9). Third: The change that happened to the nature of Israel: “I came upon Israel like grapes in the wilderness, I looked on their forefathers with joy like the first ripe figs; but they resorted to Baal-peor and consecrated themselves to a thing of shame, and Ephraim became as loathsome as the thing he loved” (Hosea 9: 10). Instead of being joyful grapes to God in a dark wilderness, Israel delivered itself by its free will to Satan – Baal Peor, ‘the master of abomination’. Its nature turned from the state of fruition, joyful to God and to itself, into a state of barrenness; and from a joyful nature into one full of depression and bitterness of soul. Israel’s binding to Baal Peor destroyed their nature, took away their honor, and brought them over to shame and disgrace: “Ephraim became as loathsome as the thing he loved. Their honor shall fly away like a bird: no childbirth, no fruitful womb, no conceiving; even if they rear their children, I will make them childless, without posterity.” (Hosea 9: 11, 12). Because of its evil, Ephraim has become like a bird flying all the time, as it has no nest to settle down, lay its eggs or have offspring! It is a painful portrait of a person, who is taken away from his true nest (the altar of the Lord of hosts) by sin, and so flies around in the air with no place to settle down, spends the days of his sojourn with no comfort or security. Moreover, he would have no offspring, meaning that he would have no spiritual fruition to maintain his name in eternity. This barrenness is a natural product of fleeing away from the divine nest and departing from God, the Grantor of fruition. By departing from Him, He departs from Israel, and they would fall under the eternal woe: “Woe to them indeed when I turn away from them!” (Hosea 9: 12). Israel fell into a state of barrenness through their worship of Baal and Ishtarouth, believing that those were the gods of fruition and fertility. Hence, the prophet says: “Give them, O Lord – what wilt thou give them? Give them a womb that miscarries and dry breasts” (Hosea 9: 14). 4. THEY WILL BE DRIVEN OUT BEFORE THE LORD: Finally, what is bitterer than having a miscarrying womb and a dry breast instead of fruition and fertility, is that God would drive Israel out before His face, and deprive them of His holy house: “For their evil deeds I will drive them from my house, I will love them no more” (Hosea 9: 15). They shall bear no fruit. Moreover, if they bore children, God would kill the beloved fruit of their womb. He will cast them away, because they did not obey Him. They shall be wanderers among the nations” (Hosea 9: 16, 17). This is the portrait of the soul of every believer, who forgets the law of his God and seeks the pleasures of this world. He would lose everything and become a fugitive in the world with no goal or aim.
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