[skipping some redundancies]
Come, let us return to the Lord;
for he has torn, that he may heal us;
he has stricken, and he will bind us up.
After two days he will revive us;
on the third day he will raise us up
that we may live before him.
...
What shall I do with you, oh Ephraim? [in northern monarchy of Israel]
What shall I do with you, oh Judah? [southern kingdom, centered on Jerusalem & Temple]
Your love is like a morning cloud,
like the dew that goes early away.
Therefore I have hewn you by the prophets;
I have slain you by the words of my mouth;
and my judgement goes forth as the light
for I desire steadfast love, not sacrifice;
the knowledge of God, rather than burnt offerings.
...
[8]
They made kings, but not through Me;
they set up princes, but without my knowledge.
With their silver and gold they made idols
for their own destruction.
I have spurned your 'calf' [depiction of Yahwey as a bull], oh Samaria!
(My anger burns against them.
How long will it be till they are pure in Israel?)
A workman made it;
it is not God.
...
[10]
The days of punishment have come;
the days of recompense have come;
Israel shall know it.
The prophet is a fool;
the man of the Spirit is mad
because of your great iniquity
and great hatred.
The prophet is the watchman of Ephraim,
the people of my God,
yet a fowler's snare is on all his ways,
and hatred in the Temple of his God.
They have deeply corrupted themselves
as in the days of Gibeah;
He will remember their iniquity;
He will punish their sins.
-----
[More about this soon....]
2 comments:
"For He has torn, that He may heal us." Analogous to surgery?
"On the third day..." Possibly a hint that stuck out, to Jesus' eye, suggesting what fate he could expect?
Priests say: "Sacrifices. Lots of sacrifices!" Prophets tend to disagree about that.
----
Either Jeremiah or another of his persuasion probably collected these verses, & his partisanship towards centralized worship in Jerusalem (which shows up over and over in these prophetic books) may have influenced some of this. (Or not. It just seems odd, the way that Jeroboam's revolt against the Jerusalem regime received prophetic endorsement when it happened-- but thereafter, all these subsequent prophets came out so strongly against the decentralized worship that followed from (& probably preceded) that revolt.)
"The prophet is the watchman of Ephraim,
the people of my God,
yet a fowler's snare is on all his ways,
and hatred in the Temple of his God."
Much the kind of reception Jesus received, yes? People asking questions "in hopes of catching him out." Much what any prophet might expect in unfaithful times...
---------------
and this:
"They have deeply corrupted themselves
as in the days of Gibeah."
This points to that utterly nasty incident, echoing the Sodom/Gomorrah theme, which led to the other Israelite tribes nearly destroying the tribe of Benjamin. Which later produced Saul, David's northern rival for kingship.
So is that concept of 'the two moralities' of any use in this particular material.
One, the "Strict Father" morality, seems to be an implicit background to all these denunciations and prognoses...
Is it so? Is this an aspect of God's nature?-- or of human projections?
God does "get them for that." Hosea gets to say, "I told you so."
But one thing definitely implicit here: People, even people whose profession is knowing God, can be mistaken about what God wants. "Not sacrifices!" What is a priest to make of that?
And what God does want: "steadfast love"!
Even though the means look superficially like punitive "Strict Father," the goal is strictly "Nurturant Parent"!
Hmmm, is this some twisted sort of love?-- "Israel didn't love me so I had to beat her to death"?
See, this is where human analogies break down. God needs human love for our sake, not God's. We can't reach lasting happiness or our own true nature without first groping into right relationship to the God who lives us...
Knowing God... seeking God... realizing that the Big Abstraction we'd thought securely in our grasp is actually The Great Wow!-- and has us by the neck, not the other way around... takes different experiences for different people, sometimes involving more test strain than generic human beings are rated for.
Does it take "separation from God" to reach reunion?
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