Untitled Sermon (70)
When the Lord is not acknowledged as God (4:1), then some other god will take that place.
Canaanite fertility cult.
The theme of this unit is the people’s fascination with the fertility cult, specifically the cult of Baal
Baalism, the Canaanite fertility cult with which the Israelites had become involved. The word “Baal” is a title which means “lord, master,” but it came to be used as the name for the most active of the male deities in the Canaanite cult. Various female deities are known from Canaanite sources: Astarte, Anath, Asherah
MENTIONED most often in the Bible is Asherah; note, for example, 1 Kings 18:19 which refers to prophets of both Baal and Asherah. “Asherah” may also refer to a hand-made wooden object representing the goddess, which could stand next to Baal’s altar (Judg. 6:25; 2 Kings 23:6) but which was absolutely prohibited in Israel (Deut. 16:21).
Cultic practices were based on the notion of imitative behavior. The participant in the cult entered into a sexual relationship with a cult prostitute, thus imitating the action of Baal and his mate and helping to bring this union about. In this way the action of the participant in the cult is ultimately understood as an aid to restoring fertility in nature
Reading 4:11–14 against this background we discover three practices associated with the Canaanite fertility cult. Asking questions of a “thing of wood” apparently refers to making inquiries of the wooden Asherah which stood next to the altar (Judg. 6:25). The parallel statement, “and their staff gives them oracles,” suggests the same practice, condemned for those who worship Yahweh. Second is the reference to sacrifices “on the tops of the mountains,” that is, on the “high places.” A portion of the sacrifice would be left for the worshipers to eat. We can imagine a time of socializing, with a group of participants picnicking together in the shade of the oak, poplar, and terebinth trees.
4:11b–14. The scope of the accusation widened to include the people in general. Sensual pleasures had robbed them of their senses, leaving them without understanding. They engaged in pagan worship practices, including divination (seeking answers by a stick of wood), sacrificed to false gods, and engaged in cult prostitution (cf. 5:4). The Canaanite shrines, which Moses had commanded Israel to destroy (cf. Deut. 12:2–3), were located on hills and/or under shady trees (oak, poplar, and terebinth) throughout the Northern Kingdom (cf. 2 Kings 17:10–11). Here many young women (daughters) of Israel took part in sexual rites with male cult prostitutes (cf. Deut. 23:17–18; 1 Kings 14:24). The intent of such acts was to ensure human and agricultural fecundity by making the fertility deities Baal and Asherah favorably inclined to their offerings and prayers. However, these women would not be singled out for divine punishment because the men frequented the shrines as well (Hosea 4:14). In response to such an obvious failure to grasp and apply the most basic principles of covenant life, the Lord cried out, A people without understanding (cf. v. 11) will come to ruin!
After the prayer for Judah, Hosea gives his first threefold alarm in the form of three negative commands. Although the Bible mentions a number of sites called Gilgal, it appears that the Gilgal of this verse is the location near the Jordan that Joshua made his first base of operations after crossing into Canaan (Josh 4:19). There the men of the nation were circumcised in preparation for Israel’s first Passover in the land (Josh 5:7–12), and from there Jericho was taken. Gilgal was on Samuel’s annual circuit (1 Sam 7:16), and it is the setting for much of the story of Samuel and Saul (e.g., 1 Sam 11:14–15). The people of Judah welcomed David back at Gilgal after the war with Absalom (2 Sam 19:15). A group of Elisha’s disciples resided there (2 Kgs 4:38). Thus one can say that Gilgal was a place of great significance in the spiritual history of Israel, and the people had every reason to consider it sacred. Unfortunately, it went from being a shrine for pilgrims to a center of apostasy, and by the eighth century not only Hosea but Amos as well was counseling people to stay away from there (Amos 4:4; 5:5).
Beth Aven is almost certainly Bethel; Amos also associates Gilgal with Bethel, and employing the same pun that Hosea uses, he declares that Bethel would become “nothing” (ʾāwen). Amos ministered in the reigns of Uzziah of Judah and Jeroboam II of Israel and thus overlaps and slightly precedes Hosea. It appears that Amos’s use of this wordplay is original, and that Hosea is following patterns Amos had already set.
Bethel was, if anything, even more sacred than Gilgal. Abraham camped there (Gen 12:8), and while sleeping there Jacob saw his vision of the stairway into heaven and gave the place its name, “house of God” (bêt-ʾēl; Gen 28:11–18; 31:1–15). Later God revealed himself to Jacob as the “God of Bethel” (Gen 31:13). Jacob confirmed the status of the site by building a memorial pillar and an altar there. Jeroboam I took advantage of the sacred traditions associated with Bethel to turn it into a shrine to rival Solomon’s temple in Jerusalem. He thereby put an end to his people’s religious pilgrimages to Jerusalem (1 Kgs 12:29), an act immediately condemned by the prophets as apostasy (1 Kgs 13). The term ʾāwen basically means “disaster,” “nothingness,” or “deception,” and it is a polemical term used by the prophets to describe idolatry (e.g., Isa 66:3). Psalms often speaks of the “doers of ʾāwen,” and this term may refer to idol makers or sorcerers. Hosea’s wordplay implies that the house of God had become the house of deception—the deception being the religious fraud that is idolatry.
The third warning is distinctive
The line “Ephraim is joined to idols” (which implies that Israel has formed a political alliance with idols) could instead be rendered, “Ephraim is spellbound of idols.” The latter interpretation implies that Israel is bewitched by idols, and it is preferable.113 Following such an interpretation, “Leave him alone!” implies that the nation is in a trance from which no one may arouse them.
The result of Israel’s sin would be judgment. The first line of this verse reads literally, “the wind has enveloped her with its wings,” suggesting that she soon would be swept away.
The people of Judah should abandon religious shrines and practices of Israel because they had become hopelessly defiled by paganism. The Israelites were like a stubborn cow in their apostasy—entranced by idols, debauched, in love with their cults, but destined to be swept away as by a storm and to be sadly disappointed by the failure of their gods