REJECTION OF THE PHYSICIAN The Lord debates His people frankly and clearly, approaches them as a physician intending to heal their wounds after uncovering, and proclaiming them to the patient, which should convince him (the patient) to accept the treatment. Unfortunately, they rejected the true physician and His treatment. 1. The Physician proclaims the ailment 1 – 2 2. The ailment of the leaderships 3 – 7 3. The ailment of the people 8 – 12 4. Rejection of the Physician 13 – 16 1. THE PHYSICIAN PROCLAIMS THE AILMENT: As God approaches the souls as a physician intending to heal them, He has to declare the nature of the ailment and reveal its extent and danger to convince the patients to receive His treatments: “When I would heal Israel, then the guilt of Ephraim stands revealed, and all the wickedness of Samaria; they have not kept faith. They are thieves, they break into houses; they are robbers, they strip people in the street” (Hosea 7: 1). By healing Israel, He revealed the corruption of Ephraim, the tribe that occupied the foremost position in evil; and exposed the wicked deeds of Samaria, the capital. As a physician, He does not compliment or flatter, but He exposes the ailment, in order to stretch His hand with the scalpel and cut, firmly but with love. He proclaims the iniquity of the most evil tribe, and the most corrupt city, with no partiality on the expense of healing them! The type of decease that inflicted them was that “they have kept no faith” (Hosea 7: 1). This is the most dangerous ailment that could inflict man, namely, to deceive others, probably himself, his conscience, and to assume that he can deceive God as well. His heart is full of robbery, while his attire is priestly. His city is like Gilead, embraces men of God, “the Levites”, yet in the truth, they are “a haunt of evildoers” (Hosea 6: 8). Israel masked its iniquity by presenting offerings and sacrifices to God, and practicing rites of worship, while its heart was apostate and far away from God. Israel intended to deceive others by outer appearances, yet its inner corruption was also reflected upon its apparent behavior. It was destroyed from both the inside and the outside: “They are thieves, they break into houses; they are robbers, they strip people in the street” (Hosea 7: 1). Decease crawled like a thief to the inside and the hidden depths, so the door was wide open to the invaders and robbers from the outside. Man has become corrupted as a whole. On the one hand, his heart, mind and intention need to be healed from inside; and on the other hand the apparent behavior and dealings from outside need healing as well. The most serious side in their condition was not their ailment itself, but rather their disregard of it and their assumption that it was not a big deal. They thought that their sin is not worth remembering or caring, not even by God: “Little thinking that I have their wickedness ever in mind. Now their misdeeds beset them and stare me in the face.” (Hosea 7: 2) If their iniquities are hidden from their eyes or do not preoccupy their minds, yet they are in front of the face of God. He remembers their sins in order to take them away. They might ask: Why should God reveal the iniquity of Ephraim and uncover the wickedness of Samaria? To this, He answers: “Now their misdeeds beset them” (Hosea 63 7: 2). It is as though He says to them: ‘Do not get offended against Me, because I reveal your weaknesses, but you should rather be offended against yourselves, because of your wicked behavior. If I expose your wounds, it is to heal them, whereas you are making your ailment incurable by disregarding it. 2. THE AILMENT OF THE LEADERSHIPS: In the fourth chapter, God declared His trial of the priests because of their lack of knowledge and it was explained how they represent the impure heart, which cannot behold God and would bring the whole body into the darkness of ignorance and lack of knowledge. Here, He judges the king and the princes. The king refers to the corrupt, evil human will, which would direct man as a whole toward corruption and evil. The rulers refer to leadership centers in the soul and the energies and talents that it bears. He says, “They win over the king with their wickedness and princes with their treachery” (Hosea 7: 3). This is the most horrible portrait of leadership, which is not only evil, but is also glad with the wickedness and lies of others… “King after king falls from power, but not one of them calls upon me” (Hosea 7: 7). Their gladness is temporal and temporary, and thus does not fulfill their life or support their souls, but makes them fall and deprives them of resorting to God. It makes them lose the true source of their life and joy. He describes those kings and princes (namely, man’s inner leaderships), as being: “lecherous all of them, hot as an oven over the fire which the baker does not stir” (Hosea 7: 4). The defiled soul becomes like a heated oven, ignited by evil lusts and uncontrolled emotions. St. Jerome describes this soul: “A heated oven that would not be quenched by God’s mercies, together with intense fasting (because of their lack of repentance); and like “fiery darts” (Ephesians 6: 16), by which the devil wounds men, and make them as though on fire. In such a fire, the king of Babylon put the three young men, among whom a fourth appeared in the image of the Son of God. He calmed down the horrible fire, and made the heated oven cool1”. St. Jerome believes that this fiery oven, flared by evil lusts, cannot be quenched except by the fiery Holy Spirit of God, who would consume the corrupt fire and flare the holy fire of God in the heart instead. He says, “The heart cannot overcome the lust, unless it is flared by the Holy Spirit, which flares the heart and consumes the fire of lust2”. About the Holy Fire, he says, “Let us pray to the Lord, to transform any cruelty in us into compassion, and to wipe out our sins, so that we become like fire that amputates the coolness of the devil from our hearts, and we grow in the warmth by the Holy Spirit3”. Not only them, but also their evil plans and hidden plots have become like a heated oven: “While they are relaxed all night long their passion slumbers, but in the morning it flares up like a blazing fire” (Hosea 7: 6). Those wicked people go to sleep all night after throwing around their fuel of evil counsels, to find out in proper time that the oven has became a flaming fire, just like the baker throws the wood inside the oven, goes to sleep all night, and wakes up in the morning to find it a flaming fire. 1 Ep. 130: 10. 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid. 64 “They all grow feverish, hot as an oven, and devour their rulers.” (Hosea 7: 7). They have devoured the few remnants of good judges who used to condemn their evil deeds… They turned into a consuming fire, not for the evil, but for the just judges. 3. THE AILMENT OF THE PEOPLE: Having revealed the ailment of the leaderships, who became as an oven heated by the fire of evil lusts, consuming their good judges, He also reveals to the people their ailment, saying: a. “Ephraim and his aliens make a sorry mixture; Ephraim has become a cake half-baked” (Hosea 7: 8). The boundaries that separate Ephraim from the pagan nations have been removed, although God’s prior confirmation: “I see a people that dwells alone, that has not made itself one with the nations.” (Numbers 23: 9), “They mingled with the nations, learning their ways” (Psalm 106: 35). It is a bitter portrait of the church, which embraces the world’s spirit in it, living with a temporal earthly mind and not realizing its commitment of leading people to the kingdom of heaven. It is indeed befitting for the church not to separate itself from the world in pride or take a position of self-justification. It shall rather bow down with love and wash every foot, like its Lord. It shall open its heart and show compassion toward everyone, in order to lift all people to the heavenly life rather than taking itself down to the carnal earthly thoughts. As to saying that it “has become a cake half-baked”, it refers to the bread, whose upper side would become leavened, while its lower side would not, because it was not turned over before being put in the oven. By doing this, its upper side would be well done, while its lower side would remain raw. Ephraim is like this bread, as it has a religious appearance because of the sacrifices it offers and the worship it practices, while its hidden face bears an apostasy from God. Hypocrisy makes an evil man like unturned bread”. What the face shows is contrary to what the hidden heart bears. An evil person, especially a hypocritical person resembles the unturned bread. In this case, the devil is like a baker who brings over the person into his oven, which is heated with the fire of lusts. While the Lord Christ enters with His holy body into the oven of his divine love, bears in His body the wounds of love and the signs of the cross, to offer it to us as “the bread which came down from heaven” (John 6: 41). On the contrary, the devil intends to catch us, take us into the oven of his evil and make out of us an unturned cake, which he covets, plays with and despises! b. “Foreigners fed on his strength, but he was unaware” (Hosea 7: 9). Those foreigners represent the nations’ kings, on whom the people of God have leaned. Those kings devoured them and took away their riches instead of saving them, like “all the rest the king of Aram had destroyed and made like dust under foot” (2 Kings 13: 7). The Pharaoh of Egypt and the kings of Assyria did likewise as well. Whoever does not return to God, his savior, would become a spoil for foreigners. Those foreigners are also the devil, his demons and his works (the sins). When the soul opens the door to them, they captivate it and take away its most precious possession, i.e. its eternal life. That way, the devil is counted as an alien or a foreigner, because he refers the world to himself although he has not created it, and wishes to possess every soul, bring it over into his heated oven, turn it into “an unturned cake”, devour and play with. 65 c. “Even his grey hairs turned white, but he was unaware” (Hosea 7: 9). They entered into a state of spiritual aging and were about to vanish away (Hebrew 8: 13). Father Moses said, “Many have crossed over to old age, because of their slothfulness1”. The believer’s heart, on the other hand, never gets old, but “Though our outward humanity is in decay, yet day by day we are inwardly renewed” (2 Corinthians 4: 16); “my youth is ever new like an eagle’s” (Psalm 103: 5). Such a person does not bear the aging of the hair or of the heart, which indicate the deterioration of the body and soul, but carries the gray hair of wisdom, according to the words of the wise Solomon: “Understanding is gray hair for anyone, and a blameless life is ripe old age” (Wisdom 4: 9). The dignity of old age is not shown by the gray hair of the head, but rather by the wisdom of virtuous life, and reaching the road of perfection in our Lord Jesus Christ. d. They were proud and had self-esteem, instead of leaning on God: “So Israel’s arrogance cries out against them; but they do not return to the Lord their God nor seek him, in spite of it all.” (Hosea 7: 10). God had already rebuked them for that in (Hosea 5: 5). e. “Ephraim is a silly senseless pigeon, now calling upon Egypt, now turning to Assyria for help.” (Hosea 7: 11). The kingdom of Israel was always perplexed by forsaking its true nest (the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem). It once set a temple for itself in Samaria according to its own desire, and now it joins forces with the Pharaoh of Egypt against the king of Assyria, and vise versa, while actually both of them use it for their own account. It is a silly dove, with no dignity or wisdom, and it does not have the heart where it shall bear the spirit of love for God, who would take it to heaven without perplexity. On the other hand, the true church is the one about which God says: “My dove, that hides in holes in the cliffs or in crannies on the high ledges” (Songs 2: 14). It hides in the Lord Christ, the Rock of ages, walking in dignity and wisdom, and bearing a heart that loves both the heavenliest and the earthliest.2 Let us not be like that silly dove that knows no resting place, but let us rather resort to the Lord through His holy altar to encounter Him in His sacrifice, which grants salvation. Let us all say with David: “Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow has her nest, where she rears her brood beside thy altars, O Lord of Hosts, my Kind and y god. Happy are those who dwell in thy house; they never cease from praising thee” (Psalm 84: 3, 4). 4. REJECTION OF THE PHYSICIAN: They did not accept the revelation of their wounds by the divine Physician or his declaration of the ailment on the level of both the leadership and the people, and they proclaimed their rebellion: “Woe betide them, for they have strayed from Me! May disaster befall them for rebelling against Me!” (Hosea 7: 13). He tried to heal them, but they counted Him as an enemy, fled from Him like a silly dove that flees to go astray, having no place to rest. By that, they insulted God, their Shepherd, and transgressed against Him. Because they paid back His love with rebellion, and His compassion with animosity, He admonishes them, saying: “I long to deliver them, but they tell lies about me.” (Hosea 7: 13). When they fell under anguish, they reacted by telling lies against 1 Cassian: Conf. 2 On Ps. Hom 11 66 God. They returned to Him only to have their anguish taken away and not by truth. They came to God, for the sake of His temporal gifts, while their hearts were far away from Him: “There is no sincerity in their cry to me; for all their howling on their pallets and gashing of themselves over corn and new wine (because of the lack of rain), they are turning away from me.” (Hosea 7: 14). They cried out with their lips, while their hearts were far away from God. They forgot how God listened and responded to Moses and to the cries of his heart, although he did not utter a word with his lips (Exodus 14: 15). “Though I support them, though I give them strength of arm, they plot evil against me.” (Hosea 7: 15). That is why they do not return to God or seek Him from their hearts; on the contrary, they only pretend to be doing that. They have become “like a bow gone slack” (Hosea 7: 16). They assemble and cry out, but instead of striking their enemy with the sword and the bow, they destroy themselves and their inner energies: “Their talk is all lies, and so their princes shall fall by the sword” (Hosea 7: 16). Then they resort to the Pharaoh of Egypt, where they will be in derision, because God has forsaken them.
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