GOD’S CHASTISEMENTS AGAINST THEM Having submitted themselves to the ailment and rejected God as their physician, God committed them to anguish, so that once they feel the bitterness of their state, they might seek Him. 1. Chastising them by enemy attacks 1. 2. Destroying themselves by themselves 2 – 6 . 3. Deprivation of fulfillment and joy 7 – 10. 4. Delivering them to their past servitude 11 – 14 . 1. CHASTISING THEM BY ENEMY ATTACKS: “Put the trumpet to your lips! A vulture hovers over the sanctuary of the Lord” (Hosea 8: 1). God opened the insight of the prophet to realize the bitterness that would come over the people, because of their rejection to be treated on the hand of their true Physician. His soul moaned inside him and he did not know what to do. God commanded him to set the trumpet to his mouth, because the hour of warning was at hand. He commanded him to blow the trumpet to call the whole people to assemble, so that they watch the enemy coming down like a swift eagle against a prey. God confirmed that the enemy would come like “a vulture hovers over the sanctuary of the Lord”, so that the people do not assume that God would never allow their captivation, because they are the people elected by Him. It is as though He is saying to them: “I know that you are My household (Hebrew 3: 6), yet I allowed the enemy to come down against you like an eagle, because you have defiled My sanctuary. I do love my house, dwell in it, and keep it by My angels, but I shall send the enemy to come like an eagle against it to snatch and fly up, in case you dare to defile my sanctuaries.” 2. THEY DESTROYED THEMSELVES BY THEMSELVES: Although God allows what dwells upon them, yet it is they, who destroyed themselves by themselves. That is what God proclaims, explaining the reasons of their chastisement as follows: First: “They have broken my covenant and rebelled against my instruction.” (Hosea 8: 1). It is as though He says to them: ‘I have chosen you to be my bride, and set with you a covenant of matrimony, yet you broke the covenant and betrayed me. I have chosen you to be my children and provided you with my canon as a fatherly commandment, but you disobeyed My commandment and despised My fatherhood. Second: While betraying the covenant and disobeying the commandment, they masked themselves with the outer appearances of spiritless worship. God says to them: “They cry to me for help: ‘We know thee, God of Israel’.” (Hosea 8: 2). They reject Him with their deeds and hearts, yet they seek Him with their lips. They give Him their backs in their daily life. Nevertheless, they assemble in worship to say “We know thee, God of Israel”; as though they want to remind Him that they are His chosen people, whom He would never allow to be harmed, as they assume. Third: Their betrayal of the matrimonial covenant and their disobedience of the fatherly commandment are not out of weakness or by mere chance, but come out of an unclean heart, an evil will and an intense hatred for the holy life: “But Israel is utterly loathsome; and therefore he shall run before the enemy” (Hosea 8: 3). Having hated the 70 holy life, God delivered His house; namely, His people Israel, who were supposed to be holy to God, to the king of Assyria who invaded the northern kingdom. When Judah hated the Lord as well, He delivered Judah including the city of Jerusalem and His temple to the hand of Nebuchadnezzar. Anyway, if we reject God, He will deliver us to chastisement, even if He acknowledges us as His special people: “For you alone have I cared among all the nations of the world; therefore will I punish you for all your iniquities” (Amos 3: 2). Fourth: He adds the following transgression to their hatred for goodness: “They make kings, but not by my will; they set up officers, but without my knowledge” (Hosea 8: 4). In our study of the seventh chapter, we saw that the ‘king’ refers to the human will that reigns over man as a whole, and the princes or officers refer to his energies and talents, particularly those of leadership. Saying that “they make kings, but not by my will”, refers to their behaving according to their own will and controlling the things of their life without resorting to God or asking for His counsel. As to saying: “they set up officers, but without my knowledge”, means that their talents and energies did not support the Kingdom of God to the extent that they become aliens to God, did not know Him, and were not worthy to be known by Him. God loves us very much and wants us to return to Him in every thing. We shall not set kings or princes without His counsel, but rather do like ‘Jephthah’: “And at Mizpah, in the presence of the Lord, Jephthah repeated all that he had said” (Judges 11: 11), lest it would be said about us: “do not look to the Holy One of Israel or seek guidance of the Lord” (Isaiah 31: 1). St. John Chrysostom says, “He longs for us to perpetually take refuge in Him, ask Him for everything, and do nothing or utter a word without His consent. This is what those who love demand from their beloved ones1.” What we say concerning the kings and princes within the soul; namely, the human will, energies, and talents, we say also about the church as a congregation of believers. It is not befitting to set a bishop or priest without asking the counsel of the Lord. St. Cyprian wrote in one of his messages about the heretics: “There are among you bishops, who are not set according to the will of God, contrary to the system and tradition of the gospel. The Lord says through His prophet about them: ‘Oh, rebel sons! says the Lord, you make plans, but not of my devising, you weave schemes, but not inspired by me, piling sin upon sin’ (Isaiah 30: 1) 2”. In another message, he wrote, “Sometimes, unworthy bishops are ordained, not according to the will of God, but according to human ordinances, in a way which is neither legal, nor pious; something that brings grief to God, as He proclaims through the prophet Hosea3”. Carrying on His admonition of His people, the Lord says, “They have made themselves idols of their silver and gold” (Hosea 8: 4). By doing that, they lost the silver and gold they possessed, to acquire instead the wrath of God. As though they purchase with their silver and gold what would be for their destruction and perdition. Silver refers to the words of God purified seven times, and gold refers to the spiritual life, some people often misuse them for their perdition instead of their spiritual edification. It happens that way, when the word of sermon or the monastic life is 1Conc. Statues 3: 5. 2 Ep. 54: 5. 3 Ep. 67: 4. 71 practiced by some, not with the spirit of humility before God, but with an egoistic spirit in favor of their own dignity. He also says, “Your calf-gods stink. O Samaria; my anger flares up against them.” (Hosea 8: 5). He refers to the beginning of the revolt, when Jeroboam dissented from the kingdom of David and made two calves of gold, set one in Bethel and the other in Dan, because he feared that people’s hearts would turn back to Jerusalem and then they might kill him and go back to Rehoboam, king of Judah. Jeroboam then said to the people, “It is too much trouble for you to go up to Jerusalem; here are your gods, Israel, that brought you up from Egypt” (1 kings 12: 28). It seems that making calves was not meant to worship them as idols at the beginning, but they probably assumed that ‘Jehovah’ would dwell upon them1, but it turned gradually into actual idol-worship2. It also seems that the calf set in Dan was moved to Samaria, when it became the capital of the northern kingdom. Anyway, even if God allowed Jeroboam to consummate His counsel against Rehoboam the son of Solomon, as a chastisement for the sake of the sins committed by His father Solomon, yet Jeroboam was condemned for setting sanctuaries out of Jerusalem, the thing that turned into serious centers of idol-worship with all its abominations. The calf of Samaria was rejected and it lost its splendor even in the sight of its worshippers, as it could not save itself nor save them from the hands of the king of Assyria. “the calf of Samaria will be broken in fragments” (Hosea 8: 6). They made for themselves a god with their hands, which was destroyed and destroyed them, too. It is a bitter portrait of many of us, who set for themselves a god in their ‘Samaria’ out of their gold. They namely set themselves and their ‘ego’ gods in their corrupt hearts. This ‘ego’ that has become a god and occupied the position of the living God on their inner Jerusalem, will fall down from the height of its haughtiness and be “broken in fragments”. God’s “anger flares up against them” (Hosea 8: 5), because they took His gold, set out of it an ugly, breakable calf in their ‘Samaria’, instead of using it to the account of the glory of God. As they rejected the Holy God, He says to them: “Long will it be before they prove innocent” (Hosea 8: 5). 3. DEPRIVATION OF FULFILMENT AND JOY: After proclaiming to them that they will be chastised through the attack of the enemy, who will take away everything they possess; and after revealing to them the reasons behind this chastisement, He ends His talk by saying that evil would never give man fulfillment, nor bring him joy: “Israel sows the wind and reaps the whirlwind” (Hosea 8: 7). They labored much to sow, but they sowed the wind, and when they intended to reap, they reaped a whirlwind of worries and disturbances. Indeed, they “toil in vain” (Isaiah 65: 23), their “labor is all for the wind” (Ecclesiastes 5: 16), and “weary themselves for a mere nothing!” (Habakkuk 2: 13). The apostle also says, “If he sows seed in the field of his lower nature, he will reap from it a harvest of corruption” (Galatians 6: 8). “There are no heads on the standing corn, it yields no grain” (Hosea 8: 7). After so much labor to sow and plant, they did not reap grain that produces meal to feed on. 1 W. F. Aibright: From the Stone Age to Christianity, Corden City, 1957, P 299. 2 Jerome Biblical Comm, P 261. 72 They reaped ears of grains, thin and blighted by the east wind, as those seen by the Pharaoh of Egypt in his dream. “And, if it yielded any, strangers would swallow it up” (Hosea 8: 7). They have delivered themselves to foreign gods, who do not give but swallow, do not bless but defile! Not only was their sowing and reaping in vain, and their harvest swallowed by aliens, but they also lost their dignity by being despised by the nations whose gods they intended to worship and whose evil ways they imitated. “Israel is now swallowed up, lost among the nations, a worthless nothing. For, like a wild ass that has left the herd, they have run to Assyria” (Hosea 8: 8, 9). Assyria, from which they sought refuge, observed them as a wild donkey alone by itself. Having lost their compassion, love, gentleness by forsaking their God, the Grantor of the holy and virtuous life, they became like a wild donkey. Instead of bearing the spirit of love, which shall salt the earth, so that it does not get corrupted, they bore the spirit of isolation and have become themselves corrupted. They have become salt that “is now good for nothing but to be thrown away and trodden underfoot” (Matthew 5: 13). Sin takes away the spiritual splendor from the soul even in the eyes of the wicked, and creates in it the spirit of inner isolationism and selfishness, instead of the giving true love. “Ephraim has bargained for lovers” (Hosea 8: 9). This means that Ephraim offered much to the nations to gain their friendship and favor, however, his evil made him lose his splendor and spiritual beauty, even in the eyes of those he hired. When the right time came, those hired friends did not support Ephraim or Israel, but swallowed them up (Hosea 8: 8). Now, Israel did not need a human hand, but only God’s strong hand to save them from the cruel servitude: “I will now round them up, and then they will soon abandon this setting up of kings and princes.” (Hosea 8: 10). 4. DELIVERING THEMTO THEIR PAST SERVITUDE: As the Israelis intended to gain the nations’ friendship and favor, they made pagan altars in which they practiced abominations, beside their worship of God. Therefore, God rejected their worship and offerings and counted their sacrifices as mere flesh (meat) and food: “Though they sacrifice flesh as offerings to me and eat them, I, the Lord, will not accept them” (Hosea 8: 13). Because they have forsaken God, their Savior, and leaned upon the nations, God will forsake them to return to their past servitude, from which He had previously saved them: “Israel has forgotten his Maker and built palaces, Judah has multiplied walled cities; but I will set fire to his cities, and it shall devour his castles” (Hosea 8: 14).
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