Can we stop it with the punishment and reward conversations (Hosea 2:8)?
J. Hathaway
- 7 minutes read - 1307 wordsFor she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal.
Hosea 2:8, KJV
Do we believe this verse of scripture? Do we think that our God will give us all that he can, even when we are using those things to honor another God? Do we believe that God gives good to those who do wrong? Hosea challenges us to see the love of God and His everlasting hope for us.
Hosea 2 and the parable of the adulterer
So many adultery stories (voluntary intercourse between a married person and a person who is not the spouse) are told with quite a bit of resentment (bitter indignation at having been mistreated). I have watched or listened to my parents, siblings, and extended family share their stories of adultery and divorce. There is a real pain in the heart that the adulterer caused which takes time to heal. However, the resentment that arises is often more challenging to overcome than the pain. Resentment and pain are two different feelings that we should be careful to distinguish when dealing with adultery.
The parable of the adulterer in Hosea 2 is an excellent example of a God that harbors no resentment even as He suffers pain. Chapter 2 is difficult because we don’t want to discuss whoring, breasts, and adultery. However, we need to absorb this parable to understand the mercy and love of God in our lives.
Mapping the parable: Husband -> God and Wife -> Church
This parable describes a challenging journey but starts and ends with God’s thesis statement. In verse one, he starts by emphasizing that Isreal is ‘My People’ and that ‘She is Shown Mercy’ (see Robert Alter translation) and ends in verse 23 repeating, ‘I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God and ‘have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy.’
He starts and ends with His mercy that allows us to be His people even when we don’t want to be His partner. Remember that this parable uses the marriage metaphor to help us understand the relationship between God and His church that leaves Him for other gods.
| Verse | Metaphore | Application |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | My people (Amma) and She is Shown Mercy (Ruhamah) | God’s covenant church that has His merciful attention |
| 2 | She is not my wife; she dresses and perfumes to attract different men | While there is a covenant that He abides by, the church is actively seeking other gods and ignoring the covenant. |
| 4-5 | Children of whoredoms are not God’s. She has conceived for possessions, not love. | What are the children of a marriage between false gods and a church? These are false truths or teachings – not physical babies. |
| 7a | She follows after her lovers but never finds them | All false gods promise possessions and may be able to deliver those. However, false gods never return love to a church that seeks them. |
| 7b | she remembers her first Husband and how it was better than her current attempts | The church now remembers that the God of Isreal provides love beyond simple rewards. |
| 8 | her Husband provided for her even when she was using those provisions for other gods. | God will return good to his church even when it is estranged from Him. |
| 9 | The Husband removes those items He has given if it is a crutch to keep her from Him. | God wants to care for His estranged church and will provide even when it doesn’t ask. However, he will stop if the provisions mask understanding and cause more estrangement. |
| 10-13 | He withdraws his sustainment as she uses it to pull away from Him to other lovers. | Feel the pain that the church is causing God. He doesn’t withdraw sustainment to punish the church. He withdraws His sustainment because it has become the punishment. |
| 14-16 | He lures her back to him, and she gets all she ever had. In 16, she returns to calling him my Husband instead of the same thing as she called the other false gods (Baal) | The covenant church is always welcome back into the arms of their God. |
| 17-22 | While returning to her Husband, He still needs to help her realize that the other men did not provide love. He seeks to take Baalim out of her mouth. | When back with the true God, He now takes the time to correct the church’s false beliefs. We come to know, not only, that he is true and that the other Gods had no truth. |
| 23 | The beginning is the end. The whoredoms don’t need to be remembered. She is His, and He is hers. | We no longer need to remember when we were estranged from the truth. We can remember today as when we first covenanted with God as a church. |
Marriages focus on love, not punishments and rewards
In the parable of the adulterer, Hosea helps us understand that our relationship with Him starts and ends with mercy. He wants relationships, not transactions. I don’t see a God interested in doling out punishments and rewards based on our choices but a God interested in luring His people back into union with Him based on His vision of our potential. Hosea 6:6-7 sums up this parable well.
For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. But they like men have transgressed the covenant: there have they dealt treacherously against me.
He doesn’t care about sacrifices and burnt offerings. He cares about mercy and knowledge. I especially like Robert Alter’s translation of these verses, which uses the word ’trust’ instead of ‘mercy’ for God’s desires.
For trust did I want and not sacrifice and knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. But they like humankind breached the covenant, there they betrayed Me.
Hosea helps me feel a God pained by my choices but does not want to cause me pain because of my choices. As the One that understands the beginning from the end, He will give or take to provide me the most significant opportunity to come back into covenant with Him.
Adam Miller’s Original Grace gets directly at this point when discussing grace and justice.
As a sinner, I continually misread the world. I misread everything in terms of what’s deserved. I believe in myths like original sin. I mistake God for someone who doesn’t exist (a punisher). I mistake myself for someone who doesn’t exist (someone who deserves—or not—to be punished). And I mistake the world for something that it isn’t (a punishment or reward).
[This] model of justice is defined by the logic of original grace. Here, the aim of justice is to give whatever good is needed. The logic that executes this aim is always the same, regardless of what’s deserved: give what is good. Return good for good and good for evil. Rather than maintaining the status quo, the goal of justice is to continually redeem the world from all evil, empowering everyone in it to be more just. Justice is accomplished when evil things become good, good things become better, and better things become best.
Punishments for punishment’s sake
So, can we stop the punishment and reward conversations that often arise in our faith discussions about God? God’s justice and mercy always focus on bringing His children back into the loving covenant relationship. He does not punish because of some law of justice that demands an eye for an eye. As we see with the parable of the adulterer, He provides to lure us back to Him. Sometimes that lure is by subtraction, sometimes, that lure is by addition, but it is always a lure, not a retribution.
