DECLARATION OF THE TRIAL God revealed to Israel its position in His heart as the bride He loved and to whom He presented all the possibilities to live with Him, yet this bride betrayed Him and broke the covenant. He opens the door of hope several times to her, namely through repentance especially in the Messianic era. With great love, He does not give her any commands, but enters with her into a conversation, a debate, and even a trial, not to overcome, but rather to proclaim His loving fatherhood and to make it clear to her that He is the non-despotic groom. In this chapter, He starts by declaring a trial against Israel, and in particular, against its corrupt religious leadership. 1. Declaration of the trial 1 – 3 2. The priests’ rejection of knowledge 4 – 10 3. The pagan abominations 11 – 19 1. DECLARATION OF THE TRIAL: God brings charges against the children of Israel, calling them ‘land’ or ‘the inhabitants of the land’: “Hear the word of the Lord, O Israel; for the Lord has a charge to bring against the people of the land: There is no good faith or mutual trust, no knowledge of God in the land, oaths are imposed and broken, they kill and rob; there is nothing but adultery and license, one deed of blood after another.” (Hosea 4: 1, 2) Having connected themselves to the love of earthly objects and affairs1, they became ‘land’ themselves. The accusation is: First: On the negative aspect, He says, “no good faith or mutual trust, no knowledge of God in the land”. Israel entered into the trial, being a land that lost its unity with the heavenly groom, because it has no truth, mercy, or the knowledge of God. Without this inseparable trinity in the life of man, he would go down to the mortal earthly nature. He starts with the faithfulness or ‘truth’, about which the lord Christ in His farewell prayer said: “Consecrate them by the truth; thy word is truth” (John 17: 17). They have rejected the truth by rejecting the word of God, although it is not far from them: “The word is near you: it is upon your lips and in your heart. This means the word of faith which we proclaim” (Romans 10: 8). This truth should be welded with mercy, so that the word of God or the faith in it would not be just words known by bare mental thought, but should rather touch our life. As the truth in us turns to work, our knowledge of God would grow, and our insight would accordingly, be more enlightened. That is how the truth reacts with work and knowledge. The three of them represent interacting aspects that concern our life in Jesus Christ. Second: Having lost this trinity; faith, work, and spiritual knowledge, Israel produced corruption: “Oaths are imposed and broken, they kill and rob; there is nothing but adultery and license, one deed of blood after another” (Hosea 4: 2). This list of sins proclaim their breaking of the Ten Commandments (Commandments 3, 9, 6, 8, and 7); namely breaking the covenant with God. As to saying: “breaking all restraint”, it means the use of violence, which is contrary to the meek Spirit . 1 ا رجع تفسیر هوشع 1 :1 43 of God. It probably also means, violently crossing their limits with God, or that they challenge the mind, the conscience, or the law by through their sins; not out of weakness, or lack of strong will, but deliberately and violently. As to saying: “one deed of blood after another”, He probably means shedding the blood of Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest, who was stoned at the commandment of king Joash, in the court of the house of the Lord (2 Chronicles 24: 21). His innocent blood was mixed with that of the animal sacrifices, which they used to offer with a spirit far from being straight. Third: He ends His charges against the children of Israel by saying: “Therefore the land shall be dried up, and all who live in it shall pine away, and with them the wild beasts and the birds of the air; even the fish shall be swept from the sea” (Hosea 4: 3). By breaking the covenant of God, Israel will turn into a wilderness that knows no joy or peace, but only mourning and disturbance. It will have no fruits, but only draught and dryness. Even the beasts of the wilderness, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, will find no food. Everything will waste away. The fruits of breaking the covenant are a complete desolation that prevails over the whole land, with its beasts, birds, and fish. He says: “The land shall be dried up”. If the ‘land’ refers to our body, for whose sake and pleasure we commit evil, then the fruit of this evil will be the body’s deprivation of comfort and joy, to remain mournful! This is the fruit of breaking the covenant with God, the Grantor of peace, whereas unity with Him grants man true peace. Father John of Kornstadt says, “When Christ dwells in the heart by faith, peace and joy would likewise dwell in it. It is not without cause to say that God is Holy and finds comfort in His saints1”. He also says, “With the eyes of my heart, I see how, I can mentally breathe Christ in my heart… How when He enters into it, He promptly grants it peace and joy. Therefore, do not let me dwell alone without You, O Grantor of Life, my breath and my joy! It is difficult for me to be forsaken by You2”. “All who live in it shall pine away”. All the energies and talents of man would waste away and scatter, just as what happened to the younger brother who scattered his wealth in a wasteful way and ended up like a valueless and lifeless body. Whereas the real believer would truly praise: “Thou dost visit the earth and give it abundance, as often as thou dost enrich it, brimming in their channels,… leveling its ridges, … the pastures in the wild are rich with blessing and the hills wreathed in happiness, the valleys mantled in corn, so that they shout, they break into song.” (Psalm 65: 9-13) It is as though he says to God: “Although I am a dry land, yet You take care of it, make it flow with holy abundance. You sanctify the talents You have given me and You increase them. You fill my life with the water of the Holy Spirit that flares all the energies to the account of Your kingdom. You bless my inner produce, which are Your fruits in me. You make my life fruitful, filled with joy and gladness, to utter praises and spiritual songs”. Saying, “And with them the wild beasts and the birds of the air; even the fish shall be swept from the sea” refers to the corruption of man’s life on all aspect: the land with the beasts, the air with the birds and the sea with the fish. It is an overall desolation, that even the animals that are used to live in the barren wilderness are unable to survive the severe drought, the birds find nothing to feed on and the fish migrate to far away waters. 1 My Life in Christ. Jardanville 1971, vo; 1, P 15. 2 Ibid P. 20. 44 On the one hand, God probably intended by this trial to reveal the serious consequences of sin and the extension of the desolation even to the irrational creation like the beasts, the birds, and the fish. This is the way it happened at the beginning of human life, when the earth was cursed because of the sin of Adam and Eve, to bring forth thorns and thistles. On the other hand, the beasts probably refer to the carnal life, the birds to the mind, which is supposed to soar up with heavenly thoughts, and the fish of the sea refers to faith1. It is as though man destroys his life on all aspects (body, mind, and spirit) by forsaking his heavenly groom, and so looses everything. 2. THE PRIESTS’ REJECTION OF KNOWLEDGE: God also confirms the trial of the priests and the false prophets, as being responsible for everything the people have reached. He says: “But it is not for any man to bring a charge, it is not for him to prove a case and your people are like those who quarrel with a priest. By day and by night you blunder on, you and the prophet with you. Your mother is destroyed.” (Hosea 4: 4, 5) He probably means that everyone is responsible for himself. No-one should justify the actions of a priest, just because he is a priest. The priests stumble during the day, and the false prophets during the night through vain dreams, and so all of them partake of the desolation of Samaria, the capital of their mother Israel. The wicked priests have joined forces with the false prophets to stumble together, destroying the whole people. Some believe that the talk here is addressed to the people, as God demands from those who truly rebuke to keep quiet and stop their endeavor, because nobody head their rebuke. Everyone rejects guidance, even when directed by a priest. Everyone is against an outspoken priest and may even persecute him, just like what Joash and his people did when they stoned Zechariah the son of Jehoiada the priest in the Lord’s house, because he uttered the words of God (2 Chronicles 24: 21). God addresses His talk to the priests, proclaiming to them that they have destroyed the people because of their lack of knowledge: “My people destroyed for lack of knowledge. You have rejected knowledge, and I will reject you from serving me as priest.” (Hosea 4: 6) What is meant by knowledge of God was already clarified in the introduction to the book. It was also explained how it is connected to the holy pious life in the Lord. The priests have forsaken the life of fellowship with God and preoccupied themselves with their own interests, and so they lost the pious knowledge and became as though in the darkness of ignorance. He did not say, “Because you are ignorant”, but said, “You have rejected knowledge”. As though He says to him: You have no excuse, because knowledge is available to you, and the light is set before you, but it is you who reject the knowledge, and do not want to receive the light. “To God they say, ‘Leave us alone; we do not want to know your ways’” (Job 21: 14). The secret of their rejection of knowledge is that they have forsaken the word of God and His commandment: “You have forgotten the teaching of God, and I, your God, will forget your sons” (Hosea 4: 6). Here, He connects the knowledge of God with the law of God, the latter being its source. Father Kronstadt says, “The Holy Book is the center of God’s wisdom, His word, and His Spirit. In it, He proclaims by Himself: “The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they . 1 ا رجع الكنیسة بیت الله، 1983 45 are life” (John 6: 63). In the Holy Book we see God face to face, and see ourselves as we actually are. We know ourselves through it and perpetually walk in the God’s presence1.” If we take it on the allegorical side, who is the priest, whose people would be destroyed because of his rejection of the knowledge of God? Who is that priest whose children will be forgotten by God, because he forgets God’s law? He is the heart, that, instead of being the center of the God’s kingdom in man, it is bound to the world and the temporal things. This heart loses its purity and becomes unable to behold God. It is as though, becoming in a state of spiritual blindness, with no living knowledge, it would forget God’s commandment. This heart, rejecting knowledge through purity, would cause the destruction of the whole people, namely, the entire body with all its energies and possibilities. Forgetting the divine commandment, the commandment would have no fruition in it, and would thus become as though it has forgotten his children. By this, we reconfirm what we have previously said, that knowledge is not acquired by reading alone, but through the holy pious life of worship in the Lord; through the inner priest in man, the pure heart that intercedes for the whole body before the Lord. The Lord goes on admonishing the priests, saying: “The more priests there are, the more they sin against me; their dignity I will turn into dishonor. They feed on the sin of my people and batten on their iniquity. But people and priest shall be treated alike. I will punish them for their conduct and repay them for their deeds: they shall eat but never be satisfied, behave wantonly but their lust will never be overtaxed, for they have forsaken the Lord” (Hosea 4: 7-10). Because they depended on their great number, or on the quantity and not the quality of their work, “the more priests there are, the more they sin against me”. Instead of their inner sanctification and their true testimony of God before the people, they sinned more against God. Because they preoccupied themselves with the pagan banquets and fell into abominations, they will be judged with no partiality together with their people. “They feed on the sin of my people” which means that they eat up the sacrifices of sin offered by the people. They do not care for the repentance of the people or for their return from evil, on the contrary, they are happy about the sacrifices offer, for the sake of their enjoyment of those sacrifices. The more the people sin, the more would be their portion of the sacrifices they offer! Therefore, because they only cared for filling their bellies with the meat of the sacrifices at the expense of the sanctification of the people, they shall eat, but not have enough. Moreover, because they commit harlotry through taking concubines, blessing will be taken away from them. Such a horrible portrait does not fit for the priest. Father Kronstadt warns us saying, “As the priest is an angel, more than being a man, it is fitting for him to cast every worldly thing away from him and behind his back. “Let thy priests be clothed in righteousness” (Psalm 132: 9). Let them always remember the greatness of their call. Let them not fall in the snares of this world, and of the devil, but get away from “worldly cares and the false glamour of wealth and all kinds of evil desire” (Mark 4: 19) entering into their hearts2”. 3. THE PAGAN ABOMINATIONS: After declaring the trial of all the Israelis, especially the religious leaderships, He reveals the abominations in which all of them have fallen: 1 My Life in Christ. Vol 1, P2. 2 Ibid P 25. 46 First: “Prostitution, new wine and old embolden my people” (Hosea 4: 11). Their deviation from the worship of God to that of the Baal is caused by their bodily lusts. St. Augustine said that behind every atheism, there is a lust left with no control. The lusts of the body would corrupt the heart, kill in it every longing toward God as the groom of the soul; and would make man flee from God, considering Him as a suppressor of his breath and a destructor of his personality. Second: When people let themselves fall into the enjoyment of bodily lusts with no control, they go down into unbefitting and unacceptable behaviors like the works of magic, which were connected at that time with the worship of Baal. God says, “They ask advice from a block of wood and take their orders from a fetish” (Hosea 4: 12). Instead of resorting to God for counsel, they turned to the idol of Baal and the works of magic to show them the way and inform them about the future. Everyone who forsakes the word of God and resorts to the world and to men, would be like someone asking counsel of a piece of wood or a staff. Third: They rush to-idol worship: “You men sacrifice on mountain-tops and burn offerings on the hills, under oak and poplar and the terebinth’s pleasant shade” (Hosea 4: 13). There were mountains on Israel, that should have been a “holy mountain” (Jeremiah 31: 23), toward which those who seek salvation should flee (Genesis 19: 17). Mountains, on which the heavenly groom would come leaping (Songs 2: 8) and on which the city of Jerusalem would be set (Matthew 5: 14) and could never disappear. On those mountains, the Lord Christ would ascend (John 6: 3), which will let those mountains drip of new wine and incessant spiritual juice (Joel 3: 18). Instead of all that, those mountains turned into the account of the devil, and defiled altars were built on them. Other than those mighty mountains that turned to the account of the Baal, Israel also had smaller souls, namely smaller hills, on which the Lord Christ should have come leaping (Songs 2: 8). These became corrupt as well and bore the smell of abhorrent incense. The same thing that was said about the mountains and hills is also said about the oaks, poplars, and terebinth’s trees that became centers serving the kingdom of darkness, instead of glorifying God. The Jews chose the high places like the mountains and hills, not to raise their thoughts above the earthly things, but assumed that, on them, they were closer to heaven. What actually happened was that they slid down to the pit. They chose the dense trees believing that their great shade would help them in their spiritual contemplations, instead of resorting to the cross and finding comfort in the pierced side. Finally, Hosea presents a horrible portrait of the extent of harlotry and adultery in their life, mentioning the following features of their defiled life: a. Both, the unmarried girls and the married brides, committed this sin. It is as though it became a general thing among all women, that they do not feel ashamed of. b. It is as though God despaired in them. They commit sin, out of neither weakness, nor ignorance, but they sin continuously and shamelessly, with their own free will, God no more chastens them. That is the worst punishment that man may come under; namely, to be denied the fatherhood of God, who refuses to chasten him, saying, “I will not punish your daughters for playing the wanton, nor your sons’ brides of their adultery” (Hosea 4: 14). Father Theodor says, “God is like an able Physician, who used all the possible ways to cure, and has nothing more to apply. He became fed up of their 47 oppression, had to stop His gentle chastisements and tend to expose them, saying: “Then I will abate my fury, and my jealousy will turn away from you. I will be calm and will no longer be provoked to anger” (Ezekiel 16: 42) 1.” St. Jerome also said, “Lucky is the man who becomes chastened in this life; As “God’s affliction will not rise up a second time” (Nahum 1: 9). How great would be the wrath of God, when He stops punishing us here, and keeps us like bulls for slaughtering. He says to Jerusalem, ‘because of its many sins and great evil, He will no more be jealous on it, or angry against it’ (Ezekiel 16: 42).” In other words, He says, ‘When you were a mere harlot, I loved you, and I was jealous on you, but when you came to be with many lovers, I despised you and stopped being jealous on or angry with you’. He will say no more: “I will visit your transgression with the rod” (Psalm 89: 32), but will say: “I will not punish your daughters when they commit harlotry” (Hosea 4: 14) 2. c. What the girls and the brides do is a natural fruit of the horrible things done by the men, about whom He says: “Because your men resort to wanton women and sacrifice with temple-prostitutes. A people without understanding comes to grief.” (Hosea 4: 14). Because men go to the altars of Baal distributed all over the country, “go apart with harlots” and offer evil sacrifices with the priestesses, who dedicated their life to the account of Baal. They behave with no understanding and fall under such horrible sin that God delivered their daughters and brides to these lusts, saying: “Therefore your daughters play the wanton and your sons’ brides commit adultery” (Hosea 4: 13). That is the bitter way, God chastens the adulterers to let them recognize the horror of their behavior, like what He did when He punished David by defiling his wives (2 Samuel 12: 11). d. God likens Israel to a stubborn calf (Hosea 4: 16) that refuses to be under yoke, but stumbles and goes backwards, instead of forward. The people rejected the yoke of the commandment of God and went madly after their own will, which grabbed them backwards instead of forwards. They set forth to the locations where harlotry and idol-worships prevailed, like Gilgal and Beth Aven (House of vanity). They behaved like the lambs that feed in a spacious pasture to be prepared for slaughter, “grows fat and kick” (Deuteronomy 32: 15). e. He says, “Ephraim, keeping company with idols, has held a drunken orgy” (Hosea 4: 17). He so bound himself to idols that he became their fellow and carried their features. His heart became of stone, just as the idols are of stone and he delivered himself to perdition and vanity, because the idols are nothing but false and fake. Ephraim was so connected to the idols and became as if he was chained to their servitude and could not set himself free of them and could no more listen to any sound advice. This is the nature of sin, and as said by St. Anthony the Great, “When the soul is ignorant of the sin, she loves it, and in its bondage it becomes captivated” 3. f. When will all this end? How will this bitter drinking end up? “They have preferred dishonor to glory. The wind shall sweep them away, wrapped in its wings, and they will find their sacrifices a delusion” (Hosea 4: 18, 19). They dearly loved dishonor, namely, corruption and earned shame. Finally, when they will be carried away 1 Cassion: Conf. 6: 11. 2 On Ps. Hom 51. . 3 الفیلوكالیا، ص 32 48 by the wind, as though on the wings of evil to captivity to bring them over to the humiliation of bondage, they will then be ashamed because of their pagan sacrifices that could not save them. Having long lived by the spirit pf the Gentiles and worshipped their idols, they will get their heart’s desire and be carried away as captives to where those idols are, where there is deprivation of Jerusalem, and the temple of the Lord. They will taste the bitterness of their doing.
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