I will not carry out my fierce anger, nor will I devastate Ephraim again. For I am God, and not a man — the Holy One among you. I will not come against their cities. – Hosea 11:9

Today’s Scripture Reading (December 14, 2016): Hosea 11 & 12

Pablo Picasso said that “every act of creation is first an act of destruction.” Before anything new can be built, first the old has to be torn down. Occasionally we still find work of the Master Artists buried underneath the paint of other artists work. I still marvel that someone actually built a door into the wall that features Leonardo Da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” cutting out the feet of Jesus and forever destroying at least a section of the painting (and yes, I do understand that, at the time, the painting was desperately faded.) But creation always involves destruction. So the real question becomes this – will the new be better and more beautiful than the old. And who is it that gets to define what is beautiful.    

The Northern Tribes of Israel, Samaria, exited the pages of history in 722 B.C.E, defeated and exiled by the Assyrian or Neo-Assyrian Empire. We are not sure if Hosea lived to see the day of Samaria’s destruction. But he evidently saw the rebuilding of the nation even before the Assyrians placed the last nail in the coffin of Israel. He also saw a time when God would not allow her to fall again. But, either at the end of Hosea’s life or just after the death of the prophet, Samaria did fall, and her cities were destroyed. And we have not yet seen her rebuilding.

Hosea leans on the character of God to predict the return and success of Ephraim. There is some disagreement about the meaning of term Samaria. It is thought that it might mean Guardian and could be a reference to the mountains in the area as being the guardians of the nation against an attack by outside forces. But it has also been suggested that Ephraim (a name that here does not just include the tribe of Ephraim, but rather a name of inclusion for all of the ten Northern Tribes) might have seen themselves as the keepers or guardians of the true Israelite religion. Ephraim considered themselves to be the true witnesses of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It is an argument that the Hebrew Bible does not support. If they did believe that they were the keepers of the faith, it might be that God felt he had no choice but to destroy Ephraim so that something new could be created in her place.

But what is that something new? Some have argued that the something new might be the Christian Church - that maybe this prophecy applies to the Christians, the next generation of the believers in God. Or maybe we are just still waiting for the forgiveness and rebuilding of a nation that has been gone for over 2500 years. Whatever the solution, the truth is found in the very character of the God of Hosea. One who forgives through any sin and is faithful to hold us close, even when destruction is what we have deserved.   

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Hosea 13 & 14