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Posts Tagged ‘Hosea’

Hosea is a torturous work, not chiefly for its unending textual complications but more immediately for the fearful conundrum in which its northern Israelite originator and its Judean stewards find themselves. We read time and again that YHWH has turned against Israel, has become its chief antagonist, has determined to wipe the slate clean of his troublesome, rebellious sons. (more…)

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The Bible wastes little time attempting to uncover the reason YHWH loves his renegade Israel or Christ loves his deeply flawed church. Time and again its pages stake the claim that the audacity and perseverance of such ardour defies logic. At the very least it outpaces any reason to which human beings have direct access. (more…)

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The words bear the weight of scandal:

I will destroy you, O Israel;
who can help you?
Where now is your king, that he may save you?

Where in all your cities are your rulers,
of whom you said, ‘Give me a king and rulers’?
I gave you a king in my anger,
and I took him away in my wrath. (more…)

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At the intersection of faith and culture, the greatest miscalculations occur when foolish minds equate prosperity with blessing. (more…)

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It is a good thing to find oneself in the care of a gifted physician. It is an oddly redemptive experience to know him also as one’s assailant.

This is the logic that is brought to bear by the Old Testament prophet Hosea, who finds promise in urging Israel to return to its convenantal Punisher in order to avail itself of his medicinal prowess:

Come, let us return to the LORD;
for it is he who has torn, and he will heal us;
he has struck down, and he will bind us up.

(more…)

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