Good News!

It's good news today, which is a nice change of pace!

16. Therefore, look:  I myself will seduce her
    And cause her to go into the wilderness
    And I will speak to her heart.
17. And I will give her vineyards to her from there,
    And the Valley of Achor for a door of hope
And she will answer [there] as in the days of her youth
    As in the day she came up from the land of Egypt.

So far, in this long oracle, we've had lots of accusations (She said, "I will go after my lovers;" As for me, she forgot me) and dire consequences (I will strip her naked; I will take away her grain...and her new wine) for unfaithful Israel.  We've also had the word "therefore" twice in this prophetic speech, which is a little odd.  Usually, we'd only have one, but Hosea doesn't seem to be able to draw things to a close.  Instead, we now have a third "therefore."  It is to prove the final one in this oracle, as well.

Back in verse 8, God responds to Israel's infidelity by "therefore" blocking her path to her lovers, the other deities Israel was worshiping at the time.  That doesn't seem quite to do it, though.  Israel goes in search of other gods, but cannot find them; yet this does not satisfy God's pain at being cheated on.

So, in verse 11, God "therefore" takes away all of Israel's good things--grain, oil, and wine--the very staples of life.  This is the produce of the land of Israel, and some scholars seem to view this as a hint of Israel's exile in Babylon.  I personally have a hunch that Hosea is a little too early in history to be predicting exile; if I remember correctly, some 200 years stands between Hosea and the Babylonian capture of Jerusalem.  More likely, the prophet has drought and famine in mind.  In any case, this has a sense of final judgment--but Hosea isn't satisfied to stop here, either.

So now, in verse 16, God "therefore" does something unexpected.  Where we expect to hear more words of condemnation and ill consequences, we are told that "I myself will seduce her."  The "myself" here is a particular emphasis of the subject, completely unnecessary grammatically.  It seems to me that, while God has simply threatened bad news previously, God is now assuring that this final course of action is the one that will certainly be visited upon Israel.

And what a course of action it is!  God who started divorce proceedings back in verse 4, at the beginning of this oracle, is now firmly set on winning his love back.  Note:  Not dragging her back; not preventing her from going elsewhere; not cutting off her other lovers; not leaving her with no other options.  She is just as welcome as ever to go worship those other gods.  But YHWH God will make her fall in love with him all over again.

There are some interesting features in God's description of how he plans to seduce her.  "I will cause her to go into the wilderness" seems rather odd; to our ears, it suggests something bad, not something good.  But it hearkens back to the Exodus from Egypt, when God delivered his people from slavery.  The wilderness is a land of good news, where God provided abundantly for his people, sustaining them in their years of wandering.  It is a place that leads, finally, to the land flowing with milk and honey.  Or, in verse 17, to a land filled with vineyards--or as Amos will say, a land where the hills drip with sweet wine.

The Valley of Achor is obscure; some suggestions have been offered by various scholars, but none seem conclusive.  Most likely, it lies just on the western side of the Jordan river, forming part of the borderland of the Judean nation.  Calling it a "door of hope" is sort of like imagining the first drive down a highway that leads to a city to which one is moving; it is the gateway to the hope of a new stage in life.

This Valley of Achor also shows up in the book of Joshua, in chapter 7.  After defeating the city of Jericho, the armies of Israel are told to take all the spoils of war and put them into the religious treasury.  A certain man, Achan, can't help but keep some for himself.  As a result, God doesn't help the Israelites on their next excursion, at the city of Ai, and they are soundly defeated.  Joshua finds out what Achan has done, and he, the spoils he took, his family, his cattle, and his property are taken to the Valley of Achor.  There they are stoned to death, burned, and buried.  The Israelites are then able to defeat the city of Ai.

It's no wonder many faithful people get uncomfortable when they read Joshua.  In any case, the Valley of Achor is clearly understood as a symbol of God's punishment for Israel's disobedience.  And now, for disobedient and unfaithful Israel, God turns this symbol of punishment into a "door of hope."

One more note.  God says he will "speak to her heart."  It's a beautiful expression that shows up in a few other places, too.  Shechem speaks to Dinah's heart in Genesis 34:3--another pretty horrible story, but the deep connection between the two is clear.  So too, Ruth finds that Boaz "speaks to her heart" in Ruth 2:13.  It is an expression showing the deep, passionate love of the speaker to the hearer.

And so, all hints of punishment are gone.  God yearns and stuggles to reconnect himself to his wayward Israel, and seems to be willing to go to any means to do it.  All the previous threats, all the truly deplorable behavior that was suggested earlier, turns to smoke.  Ultimately, for Hosea, God is a God who loves his people, and that love is the impetus for any response he might have.  He can't bring himself to bring upon his beloved the destruction he prophesied.  Instead, there is only loving fidelity.  When we are unfaithful, God is steadfast.

This begs a few questions, which I'll leave for you to ponder:

1) If the results are loving constancy, and a renewed effort to get his people to fall in love with him again, then why did God first have to pronounce the threats?  Why did we need verses 8-15?

2) Calling upon the wilderness and upon "the day she came up from the land of Egypt" seems out of place.  Hosea is writing several hundred years after the Exodus, and several hundred before the Babylonian Exile.  Why go searching so far back for a symbol of God's love?

3) Joshua is a problematic book of the Bible.  How do you reconcile the God of Joshua, who is intent on destroying the innocent Canaanites in the land, with the God of Hosea, who speaks directly to Israel's heart?

4) This is nice and all, that God reconciles us to himself.  But what real bearing does that have on our lives?