God as a Parent (July 31, 2022) Hosea 11.1-11

We are continuing in our series on the Prophets. We have met Amos and last week we met Hosea. Both prophets spoke a message to the Northern Kingdom of Israel during a time of relative peace. But behind that peace there lurked something ominous. The empire of Assyria was flexing its muscles and putting small kingdoms like Israel on alert that they could become a tributary of the empire and pay a yearly tribute or they could be wiped out entirely. Both situations do not sound good but for the moment Israel took the first option. The problem with this option was that taxes were raised to be able to pay the tribute. These taxes fell on the lower classes (some things never change) and this was where Amos took up his call against the condition of the poor by the rich.

Hosea spoke, or acted, about another aspect of life in the Northern kingdom. His was against the idolatry that was flourishing in the land. The people had added other gods to the worship of the God of Israel. The god whom they specifically followed was Baal, the fertility god of Canaan. God was not impressed by this adding of gods to worship and showed the nation through the names of Hosea’s children what would happen to them: The nation would fall to military might, they would not be pitied and they would no longer be called God’s people.

This is all in the opening verses of the first chapter of the book of Hosea. Throughout the following chapters God again and again, through Hosea, calls the people back, warns them of the coming danger and tells them that when they call to God, their calls will not be answered.

One would think that the people would listen. That they would understand just what is at stake for them. That they would turn from the idolatry that so pervaded the nation that anyone who was a part of that society was a prostitute just by association with the culture. But they do not. And so, God resorts to metaphors of farming and how God took care of Israel a one takes care of the animals. Then we come to today’s scripture and there is a new metaphor.

God opens by saying that God loved Israel when the nation was just a child. That God called them out of Egypt, the land of slavery where they were in bondage to a foreign power. But there were…issues with Israel.

The more that God called to them the more they turned away. The more that God wanted to have a relationship with them, the more that they would go to other gods or, even worse, to themselves. This is seen in the wanderings in the wilderness when they make the golden calf, Moses’ brother and sister want more influence, and when the people rebel against Moses. God had to punish them as a parent does a wayward child, but they keep going back to where they did not belong.

God reminds them that it was God, not Baal that taught them to walk. Think back to when your children were small and you were helping them to walk. You were most likely bent over and holding their little arms as they tried to take those first steps. Then came the day when you were sitting in the floor away from them encouraging them to walk and reaching out your arms to them. They took those first steps. Tentative at first, then with more confidence, a big grin on their face. And then, splat, they face plant in the floor. You hurried over to them and picked them up, soothing them as they cried over the little hurt that occurred just then. You held them in your arms until they calmed down and then, maybe, tried again.

That is what God is saying God was like with Israel. They tried to walk on their own and when they fell, God picked them up and held them in God’s arms, soothing and healing them. But the nation did not know or care that it was God who did this. All they knew was what was before them and what they cared about: the good times and the “fact” that Baal was the one who brought those times.

God continues. God says: “I led them with cords of human kindness, with bands of love. I was to them like those who lift infants to their cheeks. I bent down to them and fed them.”[1] Here God is taking on the role of a certain parent. We all know of God as Father. We state that every week when we say the Lord’s prayer or when we say the Apostles’ Creed. We know it when we read the Gospels as Jesus constantly refers to God as his father. But have you ever thought of God as a mother? In the ancient world the man of the house had very little to do with the raising of a child unless it was something to do with discipline or something that the father wanted done. The mother was the one who took the children and nurtured them. She was the one who gave affection to those who were in her care. And so, God is stating here that God is like the mothers who were tending to their children. God is tending to them with tenderness and care. Giving bands of love and cords of human kindness. Lifting infants to their cheeks. Do you remember lifting you children up just to hold them close to your cheek? Maybe even your grandchildren and in some cases great grandchildren. God is like this. God has held the nation close to God’s cheek and is giving them the affection that is given when one loves a child so much that one will do anything to keep them safe and to raise them.

God also states that God bent down to feed them. Feeding a child is a chance to see just how good your back is. If standing when the child is in a high chair one still must bend over and feed the child. One’s back aches when this job takes longer than expected. Even when sitting down, one must lean into the feeding of a child. It is like this with God and Israel. God bends down, gets on our level to feed us. Calvin states that “As nurses commonly do with infants, God is wont in a measure to ‘lisp’ in speaking to us.”[2] God stoops down and accommodates us in our limited capacities. Think of it as God’s baby talk until we are ready to speak clearly on our own.

But the people still turn away. And so, they must be punished. They must face the consequences of their actions. They will be returned to Egypt and Assyria will rule over them. Egypt was a byword for oppression and slavery to the nations of Israel and Judah. When one wanted to express the bad things that were going to happen or from where something bad came, one always turned to Egypt.

God is telling the people through Hosea that they will return to bondage. That means that their lives will never be the same. That they will live in hopelessness and see their children not as children but as ones who are bent by toil and who have hopeless lives of their own. Their cities will be burned and the gates will be smashed to pieces. The sword will ravage the cities and consume the priests that have told them that only good things would come about to the land. All will come about because the people will not return to God.

But there is another side to all of this. God states this in verses 8-9: “How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender. I will not execute my fierce anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim; for I am God and no mortal, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath.”[3]

God is stating the there will be an end to the punishment of Israel. God’s heart goes out to them, so to speak. God is saying how can God hand them over to the punishment and not love them. Would God treat them as God did Admah and Zeboiim, two cities that were utterly destroyed? No. God’s heart shrinks back from that kind of wrath, there is warm and tender compassion that is felt (going back to the metaphor of a mother.) Divine mercy overcomes divine wrath. God is God and no mortal. The punishment of God is not meant to be retributive, but restorative. It is meant to bring the people back into a loving relationship with the one true God, to show them how misguided they were in following Baal.

God states that God will summon them as a lion roars to summon cubs or a mate. It is not an aggressive roar but one that calls to those who know the one roaring. If you have seen The Lion King, there is a scene toward the very end where Simba roars after he has defeated Scar (if this is a spoiler for you, where have you been since 1994?) calling all the lions to him as he is the true king. They come with an attitude of respect and awe of the true king. That is what God is saying will happen when God roars like a lion. The nation will return like a homing pigeon does to its base. The nation will come back and return to its homes. There is hope once again but only after the pain of separation.

Disney and Pixar have some great movies and short films (stay with me here. This will all make sense.). One of those is named Bao. It is about a woman who becomes a mother to a little dumpling that she made. Now, she cares for the dumpling and loves it unconditionally. The dumpling in turn follows the mother and loves her as well. But then comes the day when the dumpling wants to do his own thing. He goes away from the mother who tries to bring him back. He in turn continues to “do his own thing.” The mother tries to persuade him to come back by fixing his favorite foods or doing favorite things, but he decides to go with his friends. We would call this growing up but it is a perfect metaphor for what is happening with Israel. Finally, the mother has enough and tries to force the dumpling to stay home. The dumpling struggles and finally is eaten by the mother who is heartbroken by what she has done. In the final scenes of the short we see the mother grieving over what has happened and we realize that she cast her own son out because of his choice. But then we see the son come back and all is forgiven. There are tears shed by both parties (and by me, every time) and reconciliation occurs.

This is what happens when God will call back Israel. There will be reconciliation. But first there must be the pain of the punishment that must occur. Think of the parent who sends a child to rehab, but still prepares a room for when they come home. Or of the one who testifies against a friend but makes time in the calendar to visit that friend in jail. Or of a father who waits, looking everyday for the child who has gone off to a far country. God is like that parent, loving unconditionally, willing to let us face the consequences of our actions, but forgiving us when we come home.

We have our own idols. I have stated them before. Anything that takes our focus away from God, that we put before God, whether it be a person, a thing or an idea is an idol. Calvin says that the human mind is a perpetual factory for creating idols. We can and do make idols and commit idolatry wherever we go. So, we are like the nation of Israel. But God still loves us and calls us to return. Listen and come back. The parent, both father and mother, is waiting. Amen.

[1] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989. Print. [2]John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, ed. John T. McNeill, trans. Ford Lewis Battles (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1954), 1.13.1. [3] The Holy Bible: New Revised Standard Version. Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1989. Print.