GOD, OUR REFUGE The pagan idolatry has caused Israel to lose every heavenly wisdom and become like a silly dove (7: 11), sometime seeking refuge in the Pharaoh of Egypt to protect it from the king of Assyria, and some other times in the king of Assyria to support it against the Pharaoh of Egypt. Actually, it is God alone who is its true refuge, who adopted it, cared for it while still in the womb, and supported it until He brought it over to the perfection of the true freedom. If the Pharaoh of Egypt or the king of Assyria have stretched their hands, it was to set snares and nets, whereas the Lord alone is the true support and help for the soul. 1. God’s care for His child 1 – 4. 2. Israel’s position toward God 5 – 8. 3. God is the only refuge 9 – 12. 1. GOD’S CARE FOR HIS CHILD: In the introduction of this chapter, God talks about Israel, His people, or about the human soul as a child beloved by God, whom He longs to set free out of the bondage of the Pharaoh of Egypt for being His own child. He calls on this child to accept Him as his Father, holds his hands like a compassionate governess to teach him how to walk along the way of truth and bandages every wound in his depths, which inflicted him during his servitude. God also draws him by the ropes of compassion, binds him by the bonds of love, lifts him up, caresses his soft cheeks and stretches His hands to feed him. It is an exalted portrait of compassion toward the human soul. God never let it in need of anything and raised it until He brought it up from the weak infancy to maturity. Here are the very words of the Lord Himself: “When Israel was a boy, I loved him; I called my son out of Egypt” (Hosea 11: 1). Israel was an unaware child and unable to offer anything on his part, so God loved him and called him out of the land of bondage, offering him His fatherhood. That is how God also loved Jacob, since he has been in the womb and has not still done good or evil (Romans 9: 11). Moreover, the Lord said to Jeremiah “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you for my own; before you were born I consecrated you” (Jeremiah 1: 5). The apostle Paul confirms that it is God who “loved us beforehand”. Although God loved His child Israel, and set him free from the bondage of Pharaoh, Israel’s heart stayed bound to servitude like a patient who loves his sickness or a prisoner, whose heart remains connected to the darkness of the prison. Although the Lord Jesus Christ set us free from the servitude of the devil – the true Pharaoh – granting us the childhood to the Father by baptism, yet our hearts often bring us back to the land of bondage and makes us covet the leeks and the onion of Egypt, the way the children of Israel did. They cried, “Think of it! In Egypt, we had fish for the asking, cucumbers and watermelons, leeks and onions and garlic. Now our throats are parched; there is nothing wherever we look except this manna” (Numbers 11: 5, 6). Their souls dried by the manna coming down from heaven, and coveted free tiny fish, cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions and garlic! There is no wonder, because when one is connected to the earth, he becomes earth, his soul gets bored by the heavenly things, and covets the earthly things. It sees dryness in the heavenly, and joy and gladness of heart in the earthly affairs. 89 The Evangelist St. Matthew saw in the divine words: “I called My son out of Egypt” a clear prophecy about the escape of the infant Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, to Egypt, which was one of the greatest centers of the world at that time. This was a symbol of God’s acceptance of all the Gentile nations, and of sanctifying our land. The place that was before a center of paganism turned into a place of comfort for the savior of the world. The Lord still enters our inner Egypt to turn it from its paganism to a sanctuary for Himself, where He would set His divine altar (Isaiah 19: 19). Let us recognize Him, and present to Him a sacrifice and an offering of love (Isaiah 19: 21) to hear the divine voice, saying: “A blessing be upon Egypt my people” (Isaiah 19: 25). Going back to God’s care for His child Israel, whom He called from the land of servitude to be His son, we see the reaction of this son to that care: “The more I called, the further they went from me; they must needs sacrifice to the Baalim and burn offerings before carved images” (Hosea 11: 2). Israel has been like a rebellious son, whom his father calls offering him every protection, but he refuses and flees from his father’s face to his enemy, the Baal, and the carved images. Israel has been rebellious against God since his years as a child, paying back God’s love with stiffness, and His care with arrogance. Despite that, God did not stop loving him: “It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, I who had taken them in my arms, but they did not know that I harnessed them in leading-strings” (Hosea 11: 3). He taught them like a governess who holds the uncooperative child’s hand to teach him how to walk, so that he grows and matures. He loved them: “And led them with bonds of love, that I have lifted the like a little child to my cheek that I had bent down to feed them.” (Hosea 11: 4). Is there any greater love?! He offered us all his love as our Father to enter into us, make us resort to Him and become one with Him. St. Jerome said, “Christ stands every day at the door of our heart, longing to enter. Let us open our heart wide to Him, so that He enters and becomes our guest, dwell in us, and dine with us1”. 2. ISRAEL’S POSITION TOWARD GOD: “Back they shall go to Egypt; the Assyrian shall be their king” (Hosea 11: 5). The Israelis have paid back God’s care with stiffness, although it was He, who brought them out of the land of bondage. They longed to return back there anew and take refuge under the shadow of Pharaoh from the king of Assyria. Yet, even if they manage to escape, they will be captivated by Assyria and will submit under its reign. This is a portrait of the humanity’s situation towards God, who called on people with love, but they disobeyed Him, and went further from Him (Hosea 11: 2). They stood with their backs to Him, instead of with their faces, and they sacrificed to the Baalim, instead of offering God sacrifices of love. That is, they sacrificed to one Baal, then to another Baal, then to a third one, and so on, never considering returning to God. That is why He admonishes them bitterly: “bent on rebellion as they are” (Hosea 11: 7). They have a strong tendency towards apostasy. God says that He sent to them messengers calling them to return to Him, but “the have refused to return to me” (5). Confronting such a resistance by Israel, God had to resort to chastisement: “How can I give you up, Ephraim, how surrender you, Israel? How can I make you like Admah or treat you as Zeboyim?” (Hosea 11: 8). Admah and Zeboyim were two cities in the region of Sodom and Gomorrah, that were consumed with fire because of their evil. 1 Pl 25: 917. 90 3. GOD IS THE ONLY REFUGE: Even at the moments of chastisement, God does not bear to see His people getting hurt: “My heart is changed within me, my remorse kindles already. I will not let loose my fury; I will not turn round and destroy Ephraim; for I am God and not a man, the Holy One in your midst.” (Hosea 11: 8, 9) If God is “like a roaring lion” (Hosea 11: 10) in His chastisement, which makes His children hasten in terror and flee to the Pharaoh of Egypt or the king of Assyria, yet He brings them back in mercy. He does not do that through their strength or sword, but in their weakness and helplessness: “They will come speedily, flying like birds out of Egypt, like pigeons from Assyria, and I will settle them in their own homes. This is the very word of the Lord.” (Hosea 11: 11). God would return them with love to their home, and they would be like a humble bird, which He takes from the enemy’s land back to its home. God is the refuge of the weak… He protects the bird, and supports the dove!
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