Daily Bible Reading: Hosea 11-14 and John 7:25-53

Hosea 11 – “When Israel was a youth I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son . . .it is I who taught Ephraim to walk, I took them in my arms; but they did not know that I healed them” (11:1-3).

Hosea 12 – Referring back to the earliest origins of the Lord’s relationship with Jacob [later called Israel], Hosea says of him, “In the womb he took his brother by the heel, and in his maturity he contended with God. Yes, he wrestled with the angel and prevailed; He wept and sought His favor. He found Him at Bethel and there He spoke with us, even the LORD, the God of hosts, the LORD is His name. Therefore, return to your God, Observe kindness and justice, and wait for your God continually” (12:4-6).

Hosea 13 – The people were brought to the Promised Land by the Lord and were not to have any other God but Him; but as they became prosperous and satisfied, “their heart became proud; therefore they forgot Me. SO I will be like a lion to them; like a leopard I will lie in wait by the wayside” (13:6-7).

“Shall I ransom them from the power of Sheol? Shall I redeem them from death? O Death, where are your thorns? O Sheol, where is your sting?” (13:14).

“Samaria will be held guilty, for she has rebelled against her God. They will fall by the sword, their little ones will be dashed in pieces, and their pregnant women will be ripped open” (13:16).

Hosea 14 - Finally after rocking from fury to encouragement repeatedly, Hosea focuses entirely on the fruits of repentance:

“Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity. Take words with you and return to the LORD” (14:1). “I will heal their apostasy, I will love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them” (14:4).

Israel will once again take root “like the cedars of Lebanon, His shoots will sprout, and his beauty will be like the olive tree and his fragrance like the cedars of Lebanon. Those who live in his shadow will again raise grain, and they will blossom like the vine” (14:6-7).

John 7:25-53 - The people are afraid to speak of Jesus openly, thinking that they will get in trouble with authorities, but when these authorities do not stop Jesus from speaking, the people wonder if perhaps the authorities really do think he is the Messiah—because they refrain from doing anything to him (7:25-26).

The people are perplexed—they do not know if the Messiah will do more signs, if they will know “where he is from” (7:27). What kind of figure is this Messiah they have been waiting for? The Jerusalem Bible note here indicates that while there was a belief that the Messiah would be “born in Bethlehem” it was “commonly believed that he would lie hidden in some secret place . . . in heaven, according to some until the day of his coming” (161).

Does anyone doubt that the same uncertainties would arise in people at the “second coming,” or at the coming that the Jews still anticipate?? We cannot really know what such a thing might be like—uncertainty is at the very core of our dealing with the spiritual narrative we have here, but it is an uncertainty that invites faith and confidence that God’s story is not yet DONE.

The Pharisees, however, are sure about things.  It says they would have arrested him, “but his time had not yet come” (7:30). Jesus tells the people he will be with them a little while longer and then he “will go back to the one who sent me. You will look for me and will not find me: where I am you cannot come” (7:33-34).

They wonder if he is talking about going out to the “diaspora” Jews and maybe even the Greeks (7:35).

On the last day of the festival Jesus says, “Let anyone who is thirsty come to me, and let the one who believes in me drink” (7:37-38). He quotes the liturgy of the Feast of the Tabernacles, which echoes the promises of Zechariah and Ezekiel: “’[O]ut of the believer’s heart shall flow rivers of living water.’”

John tells us that these words are a promise of the Holy Spirit, “which those who believed in him were to receive” (7:39), but he says this Spirit was not yet among them “for Jesus had not yet been glorified” (7:39).

Again, some in the crowd speak of the expectations surrounding the Messiah; he will be descended from David and come from the town of Bethlehem (7:41-43), but they still do not feel sure about whether Jesus might be this figure or not. No one wants to lay hands on him to arrest him because they are not sure. 

The police report back to the chief priests and Pharisees that no one has ever spoken like this man, and the Pharisees think they too might have been “sucked in” by Jesus.

Nicodemus, a Pharisee who had gone to Jesus himself, advises them that everyone accused of a crime needs to be given a hearing.  And this causes them to accuse Nicodemus too of being a Galilean too – a supporter of Jesus. “Prophets do not come out of Galilee,” they argue (7:52).

The overall state of people at this point is confused and divided. No one is sure of who or what Jesus is.  Even he is not ready at this point to proclaim himself too openly—his hesitancy with his brothers, his secrecy in coming to Jerusalem. The crowds are divided, the police uncertain, the Pharisees squabbling still amongst themselves.

Daily Bible Reading: Hosea 7-10 and John 7:1-24

I over-posted yesterday - John 6:41-72 was supposed to be today. Just got carried away. Sorry for any confusion.

Hosea 7 – Hosea, continuing to speak the words of the Lord to Israel, complains that every time God has given them a new start, they have turned on him. They are “two-faced and double-tongued” (7:1). The kings and princes of the nation are “like wood stoves, red-hot with lust” (7:7).  None of the kings calls upon the Lord. Instead they seek strength in foreign alliances with Egypt and Assyria.

“I will spread my net over them; I will bring them down like the birds of the sky” (7:12). “I would redeem them, but they speak lies against me. And they do not cry to me from their heart when they wail on their beds” (7:13-14).

Hosea 8 – The Lord tells Hosea to “put the trumpet to your lips” (8:1) and let them know how they have transgressed. They have made idols, and because of this the Lords anger burns against them. “[T]hey sow the wind and they reap the whirlwind” (8:7). The Law God wrote for them is now “regarded as a strange thing” (8:12).

They will “return to Egypt” (8:13) – to slavery – for they have forgotten their Maker.

Hosea 9 – Israel has “played the harlot, forsaking your God” (9:1). “The days of punishment have come, the days of retribution have come” (9:7).

Hosea 10 – Hosea continues his rant against the people of Israel. Toward the end of the chapter, he turns to words of encouragement: “Sow with a view to righteousness, Reap in accordance with kindness; Break up your fallow ground, For it is time to seek the LORD Until He comes to rain righteousness on you. You have plowed wickedness, you have reaped injustice, You have eaten the fruit of lies” (10:12-13).

Because you have been so unfaithful, “a tumult will arise among your people, and all your fortresses will be destroyed” (10:14).

John 7:1-24  – Jesus avoids Judea, for people there are out to kill him there. He preaches in Galilee.

It is the time of the Feast of Tabernacles or Booths; his “brothers” tell him to go to Judea “for no one who wants to be widely known acts in secret” (7:4). Even his brothers don’t have faith in him it says (7:5). It’s a little puzzling who is meant by “brothers” here. Catholic interpretation is that Jesus had no biological brothers, but those called “brothers” were cousins or other male relatives. It also seems odd that the term here could be referring to his disciples, because earlier they have manifested great faith in him.

He tells his “brothers” that his time or hour has not yet come. They leave to go, and secretly he goes too. The “Jews” in Judea are looking for him, and the people generally are divided over him. Some think he’s a good man and others think he is “leading the people astray”(7:12). The “Jews” in these passages must be some small element of the Jewish population, because Judea is a Jewish town.

Jesus goes to the Temple and begins to teach. The “Jews” are astonished at his learning because he is not known as one with credentials to instruct others. His teaching, he says, is not from human knowledge. “My teaching is not mine but his who sent me; and if anyone is prepared to do his will, he will know whether my teaching is from God or whether my doctrine is my own” (7:17).

Those who speak on their own seek their own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and there is nothing false in him (7:18). Jesus asks them why they want to kill him.

Some of the people think he is “mad” because no one has said they want to kill him.

Jesus knows there are leaders who are furious with him for having healed a man on the Sabbath. He criticizes the rigid legalism some have. They accept that faithful Jews can circumcise on the Sabbath, so how can they possibly judge him for healing a man on the Sabbath. He accuses them of not judging with right judgment but only by appearances (7:24).

Daily Bible Reading: Hosea 4-6 and John 6:22-72

Hosea 4 – The condition of Israel is pitiful in Hosea’s eyes: “there is no fidelity, no tenderness, no knowledge of God in the country, only perjury and lies, slaughter, theft, adultery and violence, murder after murder” (4:1-2).

The priests and the prophets are denounced for their failure to guide. “My people perish for want of knowledge. As you have rejected knowledge so do I reject you from my priesthood” (4:6). They will pay for their misdeeds, more than those they have misled.

Hosea tries to tell the people of Judah not to sin as their brothers in Israel have.

Hosea 5 – It is the priests and the kings who are responsible for leading. If they have “a prostituting spirit” (5:4), they will father only bastards.

Because of the weakness this unfaithfulness has brought on the nation, the leaders have sought foreign alliances with Assyria, but they have “no power to cure you nor to heal your wound” (5:13). God intends to withdraw, “return to my dwelling place until they confess their guilt and seek my face; they will search for me in their misery” (5:15).

Hosea 6 – The people will realize that they can return to Yahweh. “He has torn us to pieces, but he will heal us; he has struck us down, but he will bandage our wounds; after a day or two he will bring us back to life, on the third day he will raise us and we shall live in his presence” (6:1-2). Beautiful words: “’Let us set ourselves to know Yahweh; that he will come is as certain as the dawn, his judgment will rise like the light, he will come to us as showers come, like spring rains watering the earth’” (6:3).

But the love the people have is passing, not steadfast. God does not seek superficial faithfulness, the faithfulness in outward things: “what I want is love, not sacrifice; knowledge of God, not holocausts” (6:6). The worship at Gilead and Bethel is not what God wants. 

John 6:22-72 - The crowd notices the next day that Jesus is gone. They go in boats after him. They too are perplexed as to how he got there; they know he was not with his disciples when they left and that the only other boat they had was still there in the morning. He tells them that they seek him not because of the signs they have seen but because of the food he gave them.

“Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you” (6:27). They ask him what they must do to perform “the works of God” (6:28). Jesus tells them only to “believe in him whom he has sent” (6:29).

They again ask him what “work” he is performing that can serve as a sign to them, that Moses fed the people with manna too. Jesus tells them it was not Moses who fed them but God. God is the one who sends bread from heaven that gives life to the world, and then he adds, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty” (6:35). But they will not believe. Jesus says it is his job not to lose any of what God has given him, but to “raise it up on the last day” (6:40).

                 

The Jews complain about these claims. Isn’t he just Jesus, son of the carpenter Joseph? They cannot see him for what he is. “No one can come to me unless drawn by the Father who sent me. Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me” (6:45). And again he tells them he is the bread of life, that “whoever eats of this bread will live forever; and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh” (6:51).

                 

The Jews dispute this -- to them -- outrageous assertion, and instead of mollifying them Jesus goes on to be even more outrageous: “[U]nless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you . . . .Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them” (6:53-56). At this even his disciples recoil. “This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?” (6:60) 

He says, “It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life” (6:63).

                 

The explanation does not satisfy some—some abandon him over it (6:66). He asks the twelve if they too will leave, and Peter says, “Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God” (6:69. Then Jesus predicts the loss of Judas, son of Simon Iscariot.

Daily Bible Reading: Hosea 1-3 and John 6:1-21

Introductory Information for Hosea: Hosea was a contemporary of Amos (8^th c. BC), and lived in the Northern Kingdom of Israel. His ministry began under the reign of Jeroboam II. He probably lived to see the destruction of the northern kingdom.

According to Lawrence Boadt’s Reading the Old Testament, the prophet Hosea “is unique among the prophets whose words have come down to us since he alone represents the thinking of a purely northern prophet.” His message is similar to Amos’ in that he lists the violations of justice, oppression of poor, and broken commandments that have alienated God from his beloved people over the years since the time of David; but there are differences too: “Hosea brings out the compassion of Yahweh and his sorrow at having to punish Israel for its sins . . .He really hopes that Israel will return to the Sinai covenant, and he uses many images taken from the desert wanderings to recall people’s memory to Yahweh” (320). He also uses legal language to exhort Israel to live up to its covenant agreement.

“For the first time, God’s relationship with Israel is described in terms of marriage, a figure most boldly chosen and passionately expressed by a prophet at once affectionate and fiery” (1135). The ruling classes are mostly to blame for the situation: the kings have degraded the nation; and the priests are leading the people to ruin. He thinks the “worship of Yahweh at Bethel is idolatrous worship; Yahweh is coupled with Baal and Astarte in the licentious rites of the high places” (1135). Yahweh is jealous and punishment is sure to come. But Yahweh is a god who “punishes only to save” (1135). He will welcome the people back when they repent.

The book is very influential with later prophets. “The wedding imagery of God’s love for his people is taken up by Jeremiah, Ezekiel, the second part of Isaiah and the Song of Songs. The New Testament and the early Christian community apply it to the union between Christ and his Church. Christian mysticism has extended the application to the individual soul” (1135).

Hosea 1 – The call of Hosea is framed in a striking way – shocking to modern readers perhaps since “his wife” – probably just a figure of the unfaithful people Hosea is trying to shame – is introduced as a whore. Yahweh says to him, “’Go, marry a whore, and get children with a whore, for the country itself has become nothing but a whore by abandoning Yahweh’” (1:2).

He marries a woman named Gomer and they three children: Their names are Jezreel, “Unloved” and “Not-My-People.” Jezreel was a city associated with a terrible crime of murder against the royal family of Israel by Jehu and his assumption of the throne; “Unloved” represents the Lord’s refusal to love the people of Israel because they are so unfaithful to Him, and “Not-My-People” also represents this same divide.

But despite the harshness of the images Hosea uses as “figures” of the terrible spiritual decay in Israel, Hosea injects a promise of change in the future. “’You are not my people,’ but the day is coming when [God] will say to them, ‘You are the children of the living God!’ The people of Judah and the people of Israel will be reunited. The will choose for themselves a single leader, and once again they will grow and prosper in their land” (1:10-11).

Hosea 2  - These children of the unfaithful wife are told to denounce their mother for her unfaithfulness. Hosea speaks his message in the context of this bad “marriage” but what he seems to be saying is that the leaders of the nation – those from whom the children are learning nothing but things that separate them from the love of their father – are deceived about where the good fruits of life flow from. They have brought idolatry into the religion of the northern kingdom, and God will make them pay. “I mean to make her [unfaithful spouse] for all the days when she burnt offerings to the Baals and decked herself with rings and necklaces to court her lovers, forgetting me. It is Yahweh who is speaking” (2:15).

But this will not be forever. One day “she will say, ‘I will go back to my first husband, I was happier then than I am today’.” When that day comes, “I will betroth you to myself forever, betroth you with integrity and justice, with tenderness and love”(2:21). And to the children of this troubled marriage will be seen differently. They will be loved again and people who truly belong to their Father.

Hosea 3 – God will take back his faithless wife and test her again. She will have to patiently wait during a time of uncertainty – compared by Hosea to a time in the future when the people of Israel will have to wait without a king and without the traditional worship they have known. But eventually they will “come back; they will seek Yahweh their God and David their king; they will come trembling to Yahweh, come for his good things in those days to come” (3:5).

And in the future “the number of the sons of Israel will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted.” They will be called “sons of the living God” and they will be one people, not two kingdoms.

John 6:1-21 - Jesus goes to the other side of the Sea of Galilee. A large crowd follows him because of the signs he has performed. He goes up a mountain and sits down there with disciples. It is near the feast of Passover. Jesus asks Philip where they can get bread to fee the people; he says this just to test him it says, for he actually knows what he intends to do. Philip answers that it would be very costly to buy food for everyone there. Andrew tells Jesus they only have five loaves and two fish.

But Jesus sits them all on "the grass" - all 5000 of them. Jesus distributes the loaves and fishes until everyone id satisfied. The "fragments" are then collected, twelve baskets full. When the people realize what he has done they say, “This is indeed the prophet who is to come into the world” (6:14). I love these stories of Jesus feeding so many with so little. To me it represents just how little of God's touch people really need to feel His presence and nourishment in their lives.

                 

Jesus withdraws to the mountain again when he realizes they intend to try and make him a king. That evening, the disciples get into a boat and start across the Sea without Jesus. The sea is rough.  When they are out about 3-4 miles, they see him approaching them on the water. They are terrified. He says, “It is I; do not be afraid” (6:20). They arrive immediately on the other side.