hosealesson5

The word heifer is one of the words used of cattle. It refers to the female of the herd. It is first referred to as a ‘heifer calf,’ then as it grows, as a ‘heifer’ until in maturity as a ‘cow.’

Stubborn is defined[1] as “having or showing dogged determination not to change one’s attitude or position on something, especially in spite of good arguments or reasons to do so: something difficult to move, remove, or cure.”

The Hebrew term translated ‘stubborn’ is ‘sarar.’ It refers to people who are stubborn or rebellious. It is used to describe ‘rebels.’ Hosea uses the word in drawing a picture of Israel as …

Hosea writes, “Israel is as stubborn as a heifer, so the LORD will put her out to pasture.” (4:16a) We see in this word picture a people who will not take direction from the Lord. Like stubborn cattle they put their heads down and charge off on their own. Hosea makes it clear to the people that the direction they are following in their stubbornness will take them to lands where they are not meant to be, away from God’s love. “The LORD says … ‘I will drive them from my land because of their evil actions. I will love them no more because all their leaders are rebels.’ ” (9:15b) Zechariah is reminded of this time some centuries later.

Then this message came to Zechariah from the LORD … “Your ancestors would not listen to this message. They turned stubbornly away and put their fingers in their ears to keep from hearing. They made their hearts as hard as stone, so they could not hear the law or the messages that the LORD Almighty had sent them by his Spirit through the earlier prophets. That is why the LORD Almighty was so angry with them.

Since they refused to listen when I called to them, I would not listen when they called to me, says the LORD Almighty. I scattered them as with a whirlwind among the distant nations where they lived as strangers. Their land became so desolate that no one even travelled through it. The land that had been so pleasant became a desert.” (Zechariah 7:8, 11-14)

Just as a stubborn young heifer would struggle against the yoke being placed on its neck and refuse to take its place in the team pulling the plough, so the stubborn people of Israel are resisting being fitted with the yoke of discipleship. This is understandable if they are confusing the yoke of religious duty the leaders are putting on them with the comfortable yoke of a restored relationship with the Lord. The badly fitting yoke of religious duty chafes and rubs leaving the wearer with sore spots. The Lord’s yoke fits neatly, making it a pleasure to wear in his service. This is why Jesus says to us …

“Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle, and you will find rest to your souls. For my yoke fits perfectly, and the burden I give you is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30)

The Lord takes a serious view of stubbornness. Samuel had this to say to Saul after Saul had tried to rationalise his disobedience to the Lord.

“Rebellion is as bad as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as bad as worshipping idols. So because you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has rejected you from being king.” (1 Samuel 15:23)

Stubbornness that does not respond to rebuke and discipline calls for the death penalty, so seriously does the Lord see it. Among the laws under which the people lived, we find this one.

Suppose a man has a stubborn, rebellious son who will not obey his father or mother, even though they discipline him. In such cases the father and mother must take the son before the leaders of the town. They must declare, “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious and refuses to obey. He is a worthless drunkard.” Then all the men of the town must stone him to death. In this way you will cleanse this evil from among you, and all Israel will hear about it and be afraid. (Deuteronomy 21:18-21)

A stubborn people deserving of punishment. They will be taken into captivity by the armies of Assyria and Babylon. And eventually scattered among the nations of the world. But the invitation to repent and turn back to the Lord is always before them.

In his memoirs, Nehemiah writes of a time when the people did respond to that invitation. Those who had survived the years of captivity in Babylon were returning to their land. Under Nehemiah’s leadership they had finished the rebuilding of the wall around Jerusalem. October that year was set aside for a time a celebration and worship. The people asked Ezra to read to them from the Scriptures. He and several others took turns to read. And so “They read from the Book of the Law of God and clearly explained the meaning of what was being read, helping the people understand each passage.”[2] So great was the interest that on some of the days, “The book of the Law of the LORD their God was read aloud to them for about three hours. Then for three more hours they took turns confessing their sins and worshipping the LORD their God.”[3] It was during this time of spiritual renewal that, as several of the Levites led them in prayer and thanksgiving, the people were reminded of God’s grace and mercy always on offer to his stubborn and rebellious people. The people stood and shared in praising the Lord as the prayers were offered …

“You are the LORD God, who chose Abram and brought him from Ur of the Chaldeans and renamed him Abraham … you helped our ancestors conquer great kingdoms and many nations, and you placed your people in every corner of the land …

But when all was going well, your people turned to sin again, and once more you let their enemies conquer them. Yet whenever your people cried to you again for help, you listened once more from heaven. In your wonderful mercy, you rescued them repeatedly! You warned them to return to your law, but they became proud and obstinate and disobeyed your commands. They did not follow your regulations, by which people will find life if only they obey. They stubbornly turned their backs on you and refused to listen. In your love, you were patient with them for many years. You sent your Spirit, who, through the prophets, warned them about their sins. But still they wouldn’t listen! So once again you allowed the pagan inhabitants of the land to conquer them. But in your great mercy, you did not destroy them completely or abandon them forever. What a gracious and merciful God you are! (Nehemiah 9:7, 22a, 28-31)

The nation of Hosea’s time can be seen in those words. A people ‘proud and obstinate,’ who ‘stubbornly turned their backs’ on the Lord. A people being warned ‘about their sins’ by the prophet Hosea. But a people being given time to repent as Hosea keeps the invitation before them …

“Come, let us return to the LORD! He has torn us to pieces; now he will heal us. He has injured us; now he will bandage our wounds. In just a short time, he will restore us so we can live in his presence. Oh, that we might know the LORD! Let us press on to know him! Then he will respond to us as surely as the arrival of the dawn or the coming of rains in early spring.” (Hosea 6:1-3)

But for now the picture is that of a people ‘stubborn as a heifer.’ Next in the gallery of word pictures we see the people of Israel portrayed as being …

In this picture we see a lamb that has stopped listening for the voice of the shepherd and wandered off on its own. “She will stand alone and unprotected, like a helpless lamb in an open field.” (vs. 16b)

The lamb finds itself alone in a paddock that has been neglected for a long time. Weeds have taken over, the fences are broken down leaving it open to the wily foxes looking for easy meat like tender young lambs. The lonely lamb is far away from the shepherd. Like so many today. But the Messiah has come looking for them. When Zacchaeus, “one of the most influential Jews in the Roman tax collecting business,”[4] turned to the Lord and decided to return all the money he had dishonestly collected from the people Jesus said …

“Salvation has come to this home today, for this man has shown himself to be a son of Abraham. And I, the Son of Man, have come to seek and to save those like him who are lost.” (Luke 19:9-10)

Jesus’ first concern was for the people of Israel. It was to them that the disciples were first sent. Matthew tells us that …

Jesus travelled through all the cities and villages of that area, teaching in the synagogues and announcing the Good News about the Kingdom. And wherever he went, he healed people of every sort of disease and illness. He felt great pity for the crowds that came, because their problems were so great and they didn’t know where to go for help. They were like sheep without a shepherd. He said to his disciples, “The harvest is so great, but the workers are so few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest. Ask him to send out more workers for his fields.” (Matthew 9:35-38)

But then having asked the Lord ‘to send out more workers’ the disciples straightaway found themselves to be the answer to their own prayer, for …

Jesus sent the twelve disciples out with these instructions: “Don’t go to the Gentiles or the Samaritans, but only to the people of Israel—God’s lost sheep. Go and announce to them that the Kingdom of Heaven is near.” (Matthew 10:5-7)

It was left to Paul and the apostles to take the message on to the Gentiles. Paul writes to tell the people in Rome, for example, of his eagerness to visit them …

I want you to know dear friends, that I planned many times to visit you, but I was prevented until now. I want to work among you and see good results, just as I have done among other Gentiles. For I have a great sense of obligation to people in our culture and to people in other cultures, to the educated and uneducated alike. So I am eager to come to you in Rome too, to preach God’s Good News.

For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes—Jews first and also Gentiles. (Romans 1:13-16)

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep … I am the good shepherd. I know my own sheep, and they know me, just as my Father knows me and I know the Father. And I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep too, that are not in this sheepfold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. And there will be one flock with one shepherd.” (John 10:11, 14-16)

He is the shepherd Ezekiel wrote of—the one who would do what the leaders, the shepherds of Israel had failed to do. He is God, come in the person of Jesus Christ.

For this is what the Sovereign LORD says: “I myself will search and find my sheep. I will be like a shepherd looking for his scattered flock. I will find my sheep and rescue them from all the places to which they were scattered on that dark and cloudy day. I will bring them back home to their own land of Israel from among the peoples and nations. I will feed them on the mountains of Israel and by the rivers in all the places where people live. Yes, I will give them good pastureland on the high hills of Israel. There they will lie down in pleasant places and feed in lush mountain pastures. I myself will tend my sheep and cause them to lie down in peace,” says the Sovereign LORD, “I will search for my lost ones who strayed away, and I will bring them safely home again.” (Ezekiel 34:11-16a)

Mention of ‘good pastureland’ takes us back to the picture of ‘the helpless lamb in the open field.’ The field has been neglected for a long time. There is no good pasture there. The lamb has strayed far from the Lord who himself is the ‘good pastureland it needs. Jeremiah records the Lord’s account of his people’s wanderings.

“My people have been lost sheep. Their shepherds have led them astray and caused them to roam on the mountains. They wandered over mountain and hill and forgot their own resting place. Whoever found them devoured them. Their enemies said, ‘We are not guilty, for they sinned against the LORD, their true pasture, the LORD, the hope of their fathers.” (Jeremiah 50:6-7 NIV).

Jesus is the great Shepherd of the sheep by an everlasting covenant, signed with his blood. To him be glory forever and ever. Amen. (Hebrews 13:21)

The Messiah, our good and great Shepherd has come. We, like Peter, look forward to his return.

And now, a word to you who are elders in the churches. I too, am an elder and a witness to the sufferings of Christ. And I too, will share his glory and his honour when he returns. As a fellow elder, this is my appeal to you: Care for the flock of God entrusted to you. Watch over it willingly, not grudgingly—not for what you will get out of it, but because you are eager to serve God. Don’t lord it over the people assigned to your care, but lead them by your good example. And when the head Shepherd comes, your reward will be a never ending share in his glory and honour. (1 Peter 5:1-4)

The people’s love for the Lord is inconsistent. One day it is there, another day it has gone, causing the Lord to cry out in grief and despair.

“O Israel and Judah, what should I do with you?” asks the LORD. “For your love vanishes like the morning mist and disappears like dew in the sunlight.” (vs. 4)

A later portrait shows the people themselves, like their fickle love, also fading away. “Therefore they will disappear like the morning mist, like dew in the morning sun, like chaff blown by the wind, like smoke from a chimney.” (Hosea 13:3). Any influence the people may have had in bringing about change in the world eludes them.

The picture is of a people who are restless, given to mood changes, indecisive, opportunist, alternating between two positions. The people of Elijah’s day were like that. So much so that Elijah challenged them to make up their minds one way or the another.

Elijah stood in front of them and said, “How long are you going to waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him! But if Baal is God, then follow him!” But the people were completely silent. ( 1 Kings 18:21)

If you need wisdom—if you want to know what God wants you to do—ask him, and he will gladly tell you. He will not resent your asking. But when you ask him, be sure that you really expect him to answer, for a doubtful mind is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. People like that should not expect to receive anything from the LORD. They can’t make up their minds. They waver back and forth in everything they do. (James 1:5-8)

Elijah and James were both speaking to people who continually tossed back and forth between two positions.

The people of Hosea’s day made commitments that quickly disappeared, like the mist or dew of a cold morning. At best their love for the Lord was love that quickly evaporated in the heat of the day. It is in the heat of the day that our love for the Lord can quickly evaporate. How can our love remain constant ‘in the heat of the day’? Two factors are important …

The first is that love is maintained as we, like the trees of the forest, remain connected to a deep water supply.

This is what the LORD says … “But blessed are those who trust in the LORD and have made the LORD their hope and confidence. They are like trees planted along a river bank, with roots that reach deep into the water. Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought. Their leaves stay green, and they go right on producing delicious fruit.” (Jeremiah 17:7-8)

And secondly, to go to another word picture, our love remains as we stay within the protective shadow of the Lord. Isaiah writes …

Look, a righteous king is coming! And honest princes will rule under him. He will shelter Israel from the storm and the wind. He will refresh her as a river in the desert and as the cool shadow of a large rock in a hot and weary land. Then everyone who can see will be looking for God, and those who can hear will listen to his voice. Even the hotheads among them will be full of sense and understanding. Those who stammer in uncertainty will speak out plainly. (Isaiah 32:1-4)

They are all adulterers, always aflame with lust. They are like an oven that is kept hot even while the baker is still kneading the dough. On royal holidays, the princes get drunk. The king makes a fool of himself and drinks with those who are making fun of him. Their hearts blaze like a furnace with intrigue. Their plot smoulders through the night, and in the morning it flames forth like a raging fire. They will kill their kings one after another, and no one cries out to me for help. (vs. 4-7)

The inner life of the people is painted as being like the oven fire that is left burning all night so that the oven is ready for baking early next morning. The picture is taken from the work place of the village baker. The women of the village went to the bake house to bake bread for their families. Wight[5] describes one kind of oven that was used.

One such oven consists of a big earthen tube, about a metre in diameter and one and a half metres long. It is sunk into the ground inside a hut. The fuel is thrown into the tube and when the fire gets hot, and billows of smoke and tongues of flame come from the deep hole, the hut, without any chimney in it, begins to resemble an active crater.

In ovens like that the fire was left to smoulder away all night. It was then ready to be stoked up to full heat again in the morning. The people of Israel were pictured as being like that fire in the oven. The desire in their hearts kept smouldering away until it burst into destructive flames of passion.

Now the banked-up fire of verse 4, that pleasurable build-up of shared lust, bursts into a frightening blaze, as passions flare not merely into lechery (as in verse 4) but into murder (6-7), for when passion reigns there are no limits or loyalties. With such a fever running at every level of society, it was no coincidence that Israel’s last three decades were a turmoil of intrigue, as one conspirator after another hacked his way to the throne, only to be murdered in his turn. Of the six men who reigned in those thirty years, four were assassins, and only one died in his own bed.[7]

Can such smouldering fires exist even in religious circles today? James seems to have had reason in the first century to address this issue when he writes …

What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Isn’t it the whole army of evil desires at war within you? You want what you do not have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous for what others have, and you can’t possess it, so you fight and quarrel to take it away from them. And yet the reason you don’t have what you want is that you don’t ask God for it. And even when you do ask, you don’t get it because your whole motive is wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.

You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with this world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again, that if your aim is to enjoy this world, you can’t be a friend of God. What do you think the Scriptures mean when they say that the Holy Spirit, whom God has placed within us, jealously longs for us to be more faithful. (James 4:1-5)

Hosea adds this picture to the gallery. “Now they have become as worthless as a half-baked cake.” (vs. 8b) The cake Hosea has in mind as he sketches this portrait of the people would be the flat bread so familiar to them. John Thompson[8] describes it for us.

Loaves were probably round and fairly flat, much as they still are in the Near East. The dough is spread on the hot oven floor and turned over, rather than being put in a baking tin to rise into a rectangular shape as in western bakeries. The flour was usually mixed with olive oil and some form of yeast to make it rise, although at certain religious festivals including Passover ‘unleavened bread’, that is, bread without yeast, was eaten.

But the bread mix in Hosea’s word picture is not turned over, leaving it blackened on one side and uncooked on the other side. Something may have caused the baking to have been forgotten for a time—perhaps the cry of child, or the memory of some other household task needing to be done. As a result the half-baked bread is inedible and is discarded as useless for food. Derek Kidner[9] comments …

How better describe a half-fed people, a half-cultured society, a half-lived religion, a half-hearted policy, than by a half baked scone? The first line of this couplet, ‘Ephraim mixes himself with the peoples’, brings out the loss of conviction which left this people neither one thing nor the other, neither a light to the Gentiles nor an excusable product of paganism. The church in every age knows this temptation, and tends to meet it either by retreat into itself or by melting into its surroundings.

The picture depicts all those experiences which leave people with a half baked experience in life. A marriage can be a one sided, half baked experience when one partner takes a dominant position. “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ,”[10] is the Biblical ideal, with each person accepting the role the Lord has designed for them.[11] Church life can be of the useless half baked variety, overheating in one aspect of its life, a soggy uncommitted mix on the other. A person’s Christian experience may be seen as half baked when only one theme of the Scriptures is focussed on.

The picture is of an elderly person unwilling to admit a growing need of help as the Lord says of them …

“Israel is like an old man with greying hair, unaware of how weak and old he has become. His arrogance testifies against him, yet he doesn’t return to the LORD his God or even try to find him.” (vs. 9b-10)

Solomon writes of the weaknesses of old age when encouraging the young person to get to know the Lord while they are still young.

Don’t let the excitement of youth cause you to forget your creator. Honour him in your youth before you grow old and no longer enjoy living. It will be too late then to remember him, when the light of the sun and moon and stars is dim to your old eyes, and there is no silver lining left among the clouds. Your limbs will tremble with age, and your strong legs will grow weak. Your teeth will be too few to do their work, and you will be blind too. And when your teeth are gone, keep your lips tightly closed when you eat! Even the chirping of birds will wake you up. But you yourself will be deaf and tuneless, with a quavering voice. You will be afraid of heights and of falling, white haired and withered, dragging along without any sexual desire. You will be standing at death’s door. And as you near your everlasting home, the mourners will walk along the streets. (Ecclesiastes 12:1-5)

In his picture the people are seen as those who think that they are still in the prime of life, rather than those who have become like the elderly person Solomon describes. They are unaware of their declining state of spiritual health. Kidner[12] writes of their naivety …

This figure, of the man who thinks himself still in his prime, may recall to us the plight of Samson, his strength devoured by the aliens whom he loved and hated, while “he didn’t realize the LORD had left him.”[13] For Israel there has been as yet no rude awakening like this. To this people, if not to others, the decline is doubly imperceptible, unnoticed through its gradualness and invisible to their pride. Yet the pride itself is a tell-tale sign of it—almost like the hardening lines in a face—and a fatal obstacle to their even considering repentance … The victim, as our verse ten sadly observes, would rather not be helped.

In this portrait the picture is drawn of a people turning this way and that looking for help, as the Lord says of them …

“The people of Israel have become like silly, witless doves, first calling to Egypt, then flying to Assyria. But as they fly about I will throw my net over them and bring them down like a bird from the sky. I will punish them for all their ways.” (vs. 11-12)

The bird referred to is most likely the rock dove. Its Hebrew name is ‘yona’. It was caught for food but was also used for carrying messages. Sometimes the dove would lose its way, and so the message it carried would not reach the people it was intended for.

The people of Israel had become like that dove. They had lost their sense of direction in life, straying off course, and getting further and further away from the Lord. They were looking for security everywhere but with the Lord and the message they were entrusted with was never delivered to the nations. Kidner[14] sees the people in the picture like this …

So the darting diplomats, flying from patron to patron like birds from tree to tree, were to fly straight into the one peril they had overlooked, the net of Divine judgement.

As we look at this picture in the word art gallery we hear the Lord saying of his people …

“I trained them and made them strong, yet now they plot evil against me. They look everywhere except to heaven, to the Most High. They are like a crooked bow that always misses its target. Their leaders will be killed by their enemies because of their insolence toward me. Then the people of Egypt will laugh at them.” (vs. 15-16)

The bow and arrow were part of the weapons armoury of the Israel’s military forces. David’s warriors for example, are said to have been expert in their use. “All of them were expert archers, and they could shoot arrows or sling stones with their left hand as well as their right.”[15] R. P. Gordon[16] describes the bow and arrow for us.

The curved bow frame was made by bonding animal horn and sinew with strips of wood. Sometimes pieces of bronze were used to strengthen the bow. David mentioned this when he wrote of the Lord’s help for him. “He prepares me for battle. He strengthens me to draw a bow of bronze.”[17] To string the bow, the lower end was held down by the foot. The upper end was then bent to allow the string to be fastened to a notch in the bow. The arrows were usually made of reed and fitted with metal heads. They were carried in leather quivers, which held about thirty arrows.

The Hebrew word translated as crooked in the phrase ‘like a crooked bow that always misses its target’ is ‘remiyyah’, meaning ‘deceitful’ or ‘treacherous’ in its primary meaning. And so a ‘deceitful’ bow may be understood as being one that is not what it seems to be. It is not able to properly perform the function for which it was crafted. The arrow it releases always ‘misses its target.’ It may have become warped and therefore difficult to use. Or perhaps dry and brittle making it snap easily.

God’s people were meant to be shooting out arrows of truth. But the bow is malfunctioning. The arrows they released went wide of the mark. The poet Asaph said of them on one occasion …

Again and again they tested God’s patience and frustrated the Holy One of Israel … He brought them to the border of his holy land, to this land of hills he had won for them. He drove out the nations before them. He gave them their inheritance by lot. He settled the tribes of Israel into their homes.

Yet though he did all this for them, they continued to test his patience. They rebelled against the Most High and refused to follow his decrees. They turned back and were as faithless as their parents had been. They were as useless as a crooked bow. (Psalm 78:41, 54-57)

How different they were from one of the nation’s founders, of whom it was written …

Joseph is a fruitful tree, a fruitful tree beside a fountain. His branches reach over the wall. He has been attacked by archers, who shot at him and harassed him. But his bow remained strong and his arms were strengthened by the Mighty One of Jacob, the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel. (Genesis 49:22-24)

The picture is one of despair. The people have turned away from the Lord hoping to get help from others. We read of the futility of turning to people like the Assyrians for help when the Lord says to his people …

“When Israel and Judah saw how sick they were, Israel turned to Assyria, to the great king there, but he could neither help nor cure them. I will tear at Israel and Judah as a lion rips apart its prey. I will carry them off, and there will be no one left to rescue them. Then I will return to my place until they admit their guilt and look to me for help. For as soon as trouble comes they will search for me.” (Hosea 5:13-15)

They are not wanted by those they look to for help. The result is that “The people of Israel have been swallowed up. They lie among the nations like an old pot that no one wants.” (vs. 8)

How foolish it is to reject the love of the one who truly wants them, the Lord, he who can never forget them. When Israel complained, “The LORD has deserted us, the LORD has forgotten us,” he offers them this assurance.

“Never! Can a mother forget her nursing child? Can she feel no love for a child she has borne? But even if that were possible, I would not forget you! See, I have written your name on my hand.” (Isaiah 49:14-16a)

The Lord is the skilful potter who can take the unwanted piece of pottery and remake it. Jeremiah takes us into the potter’s work place.

The LORD gave another message to Jeremiah. He said, “Go down to the shop where clay pots and jars are made. I will speak to you while you are there.” So I did as he told me and found the potter working at his wheel. But the jar he was making did not turn out as he had hoped, so the potter squashed the jar into a lump of clay and started again.

Then the LORD gave me this message: “O Israel, can I not do to you as this potter has done to his clay? As the clay is in the potter’s hand so are you in my hand.” (Jeremiah 18:1-6)

Isaiah draws on the same word picture in leaving this timeless reminder, not only for his own people, but for all people as he talks with the Lord.

You welcome those who cheerfully do good, who follow godly ways. But we are not godly. We are constant sinners, so your anger is heavy on us. How can people be saved? We are all infected and impure with sin. When we proudly display our righteous deeds, we find they are but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves we wither and fall. And our sins, like the wind, sweep us away. Yet no one calls on your name or pleads with you for mercy. Therefore you have turned away from us and turned us over to our sins.

And yet, LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, and you are the potter. We are formed by your hand. Oh, don’t be so angry with us, LORD. Please don’t remember our sins forever. Look at us, we pray, and see that we are all your people. (Isaiah 64:5-9)

The remaking of our shattered lives is in the hands of the potter is a process. It has begun but it is not yet complete. The Lord is at work in our lives, shaping them with the skilful hands of a potter, with his plan in mind for us to become like Christ. Paul explains …

And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn, with many brothers and sisters. And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And he gave then a right standing with himself, and he promised them his glory. (Romans 8:28-30)

The process will not be completed until we meet the Lord at his return or at the time of our death. Paul explains …

Just as we are now like Adam, the man of the earth, so we will someday be like Christ, the man from heaven. What I am saying, dear brothers and sisters, is that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. These perishable bodies or ours are not able to live forever.

But let me tell you a wonderful secret God has revealed to us. Not all of us will die, but we will all be transformed. It will happen in a moment, in the blinking of an eye when the last trumpet is blown. For when the trumpet sounds, the Christians who have died will be raised with transformed bodies. And then we who are living will be transformed so that we will never die. For our perishable earthly bodies must be transformed into heavenly bodies that will never die.

When this happens—when our perishable earthly bodies have been transformed into heavenly bodies that will never die—then at last the Scriptures will come true:

For sin is the sting that results in death, and the law gives sin its power. How we thank God, who gives us victory over sin and death through Jesus Christ our Lord. (1 Corinthians 15:49-57)

John also writes of the transformation awaiting us when we meet the Lord at his coming.

See how much our heavenly Father loves us, for he allows us to be called his children, and we really are! But the people who belong to this world don’t know God, so they don’t understand that we are his children. Yes, dear friends, we are already God’s children, and we can’t even imagine what we will be like when Christ returns. But we do know that when he comes we will be like him, for we will see him as he really is. And all who believe this will keep themselves pure, just as Christ is pure. (1 John 3:1-3)

Feel like a piece of unwanted pottery? Let the master potter begin his work!

Don’t copy the behaviour and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is. (Romans 12:2)

Donkeys served a useful purpose in the life of the people. They could carry a large quantity of goods in baskets suspended from the saddle. At harvest time for example, the stalks of grain were cut and bundled into sheaves. These were then loaded on to donkeys to be carried to the threshing floor. Donkeys were also useful for travel. People could travel long distances riding on the back of a donkey. In times of peace important people such as members of the royal family were required to ride on donkeys. The reason for this was that to ride on horses indicated warlike rather than peaceful intentions.

It is significant that at his first coming Jesus entered Jerusalem riding on a donkey, indicating his peaceful intentions. Zechariah prophesied of this event when he wrote,

Rejoice greatly, O people of Zion! Shout in triumph, O people of Jerusalem! Look, your king is coming to you. He is righteous and victorious, yet he is humble, riding on a donkey, even on a donkey’s colt. (Zechariah 9:9).

The apostle John described the fulfilment some five hundred years later. He was an eye witness to the event.

The next day, the news that Jesus was on the way to Jerusalem swept through the city. A huge crowd of Passover visitors took palm branches and went down the road to meet him. They shouted, “Praise God! Bless the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Hail to the king of Israel!” Jesus found a young donkey and sat on it, fulfilling the prophecy that said, “Don’t be afraid, people of Israel. Look, your King is coming, sitting on a donkey’s colt.” (John 12:12-15).

The people of Israel however are likened to the donkeys in the wild, not to the domesticated donkey. The people were no longer involved in useful service to the Lord. They were running wild, unrestrained, independent of each other and of God. They had no sense of purpose, no goals to pursue. So much so that the Lord draws this picture of his people …

“Like a wild donkey looking for a mate, they have gone up to Assyria. The people of Israel have sold themselves to many lovers.” (vs. 9)

Robert Chisholm[18] sees in this word picture the spiritual adultery that is the dominant theme of Hosea’s thesis, as well as the independent spirit, pride, and disobedience, which characterised the life of the people at this time.

Israel’s attempt to ally with Assyria could be compared to the wandering of a wild donkey, an animal well known for its desire to be independent of all restrictions. Israel’s alliances were also compared to prostitution; like a harlot she had sold herself to lovers (i.e., foreign powers).

Sheep will stray from the security of the flock oblivious to the fact of its becoming lost. Not so the wild donkey. It leaps away delighting in the thrill and apparent freedom of running wild.

Zophar makes this practical application from his observations of the antics of a wild donkey …

An empty headed person won’t become wise any more than a wild donkey can bear a tame colt! (Job 11:12)

“Long ago I broke your yoke and tore away the chains of your slavery, but still you would not obey me. On every green hill and under every green tree, you have prostituted yourselves by bowing down to idols.

“How could this happen? When I planted you, I chose a vine of the purest stock—the very best. No amount of soap can make you clean. You are stained with guilt that cannot be washed away. I the Sovereign LORD have spoken!”

“You say, ‘That’s not true! We haven’t worshipped the images of Baal.’ But how can you say that? Go and look in any valley in the land! Face the awful sins you have done. You are like a restless female camel, desperate for a mate! You are like a wild donkey, sniffing he wind at mating time. Who can restrain your lust? Those who desire you do not even need to search, for you come running to them! Why do you refuse to turn from all this running after other gods? But you say, ‘Don’t waste your breath. I have fallen in love with these foreign gods, and I can’t stop loving them now!’ ”(Jeremiah 2:20-25)

Like a wild donkey! An accurate description of the picture Paul draws in his letter to Timothy.

You should know this, Timothy, that in the last days there will be very difficult times. For people will love only themselves and their money. They will be boastful and proud, scoffing at God, disobedient to their parents, and ungrateful. They will consider nothing sacred. They will be unloving and unforgiving. They will slander others and have no self control. They will be cruel and have no interest in what is good. They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God. They will act as if they are religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. You must stay away from people like that. (2 Timothy 3:1-5)

It was God’s plan that the people of Israel prosper but without a ‘but’ being added to the picture. One of the songs of the people includes these lines.

The people of Israel were meant to be like the “tender vine” the psalmist refers to—“like a luxuriant vine loaded with fruit,” (vs. 1a) And they were in fact becoming like that. But they had allowed ‘poisonous weeds’ to spring up in the vineyard.

But the more wealth the people got, the more they poured it on the altars of their foreign gods. The richer the harvests they brought in, the more beautiful the statues and idols they built … They spout empty words and make promises they don’t intend to keep. So perverted justice springs up among them like poisonous weeds in a farmer’s field. (vs. 1b, 4)

The people began to give credit for their prosperity to the idols they had set up instead of to God. They did not honour business agreements and fought with each other in the law courts. And so the fruit bearing vine began to change, so that by the time of Jeremiah the vine was spreading wildly but without the plenteous harvest of previous years. It was then that the Lord has this to say of them …

“What have you gained by your alliances with Egypt and Assyria? What good to you the waters of the Nile and the Euphrates? Your own wickedness will punish you. You will see what an evil bitter thing it is to forsake the LORD your God, having no fear of him. I the LORD, the LORD Almighty, have spoken! Long ago I broke your yoke and tore away the chains of your slavery, but you still would not obey me. On every hill and under every green tree, you have prostituted yourselves by bowing down to idols.

“How could this happen? When I planted you, I chose a vine of the purest stock—the very best. How did you grow into this corrupt wild vine?” (Jeremiah 2: 18-21)

The people were not heeding the warning Moses had left for them many years before—that they be careful not to forget the Lord in prosperous times.

The LORD your God will soon bring you into the land he swore to give to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It is a land filled with large, prosperous cities that you did not build. The houses will be richly stocked with goods you did not produce. You will draw water from cisterns you did not dig, and you will eat from vineyards and olive trees you did not plant. When you have eaten your fill in this land, be careful not to forget the LORD, who rescued you from slavery in the land of Egypt. You must fear the LORD and serve him. When you take an oath, you must use only his name. (Deuteronomy 6:10-12)

Some heifers were used for ploughing the fields in preparation for sowing the seeds. For this purpose the farmer carried his light plough to the place of work and hitched it to the heifer by means of the yoke fitted around its neck. Then with the heifer pulling, he walked behind pressing hard down on the plough to keep it digging into the soil.

In this word picture the people of Israel are drawn as being like a heifer that has been trained for threshing the grain after it was harvested.

Israel is like a trained heifer accustomed to treading out the grain—an easy job that she loves. Now I will put a heavy yoke on her tender neck. I will drive her in front of the plough. Israel and Judah must now break the hard ground; their days of ease are gone. (vs. 11)

The heifer in this word picture, rather than pulling the plough over hard ground, preferred the easier work of threshing. For this purpose the stalks of grain were placed on a section of level ground about fifteen metres in diameter. There the grain was separated from the stalks. Fred Wight[19] describes one of the ways this was done.

The oxen were driven over the layer of grain as it lay upon the threshing floor, and their hoofs did the work of threshing. This method was the most common method used by the Jews in Old Testament times. Many of the Fellahin today will say that this is the best way of threshing. This must have been the same in Bible days, for the Hebrew verb ‘to thresh’ is doosh, which has as its root-meaning ‘to trample down, to tread under foot.’

Another reason that the heifer preferred threshing to ploughing was that it was not muzzled and could eat some of the grain as it fell from the stalks, for the law said, “Do not keep an ox from eating as it treads out the grain.”[20]

The people had become like the heifer that desired the easier life threshing the grain. They preferred the frolicking gay abandonment of the threshing floor to the hard work out in the harvest fields. But the reality was that in choosing what they thought was freedom they were exchanging the yoke of fruitful service for a yoke of servitude. It would no longer be the well fitting yoke worn in the harder work of ploughing, but the harsh, ill fitting, heavy collar of slavery under a hard task master.

Wanting an easy path through life? It may turn out to be not as you thought it would be. Jesus challenges us to choose the harder way.

Then Jesus said to the disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must put aside your selfish ambition, shoulder your cross, and follow me. If you try to keep your life to yourself , you will lose it. But if you give up your life for me, you will find true life. And how do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul in the process? Is anything worth more than your soul?” (Matthew 16:24-26)

“You cannot be my disciple if you do not carry your own cross and follow me. But don’t begin until you count the cost. For who would begin construction of a building without first getting estimates and then checking to see if there is enough money to pay the bills? Otherwise, you might complete only the foundation before running out of funds. And then how everyone would laugh at you! (Luke 14:27-29)

It was by faith that Moses, when he grew up, refused to be treated as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to share the oppression of God’s people instead of enjoying the fleeting pleasures of sin. He thought it better to suffer for the sake of the Messiah than to own the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking ahead to the great reward that God would give him. It was by faith that Moses left the land of Egypt. He was not afraid of the king. Moses kept right on going because he kept his eyes on the one who is invisible. (Hebrews 11:24-27)

The picture here is of a people pretending to be what they are not—presenting themselves as delivering an honest account of themselves when all the time they are less than they would have people believe they were. As he calls on the people to return to the Lord the portrait he draws of them is graphic.

So now, come back to your God! Act on the principles of love and justice, and always live in confident dependence on your God.

But no, the people are like crafty merchants selling from dishonest scales—they love to cheat. Israel boasts, “I am rich, and I’ve gotten it all by myself! No one can say I got it by cheating! My record is spotless!” (vs. 7-8)

The word picture has its origin in the corrupt trade practices of the business people in Israel that Micah writes of …

Listen to what the LORD is saying: … “Will there be no end of your getting rich by cheating? The homes of the wicked are filled with treasures gained by dishonestly measuring out grain in short measures. And how can I tolerate all your merchants who use dishonest scales and weights? The rich among you have become wealthy through extortion and violence. Your citizens are so used to lying that their tongues can no longer tell the truth.” (Micah 6:1a, 10-12)

Drawn in the word picture as the ‘crafty merchants selling from dishonest scales,’ the life style of the people of Israel is seen to be not pleasing to the Lord, for …

The LORD despises double standards. He is not pleased by dishonest scales. (Proverbs 20:23)

The LORD hates cheating, but he delights in honesty. Pride leads to disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom. Good people are guided by their honesty. Treacherous people are destroyed by their dishonesty. Riches won’t help on the day of judgement, but right living is a safeguard against death. (Proverbs 11:1-4)

The security, which the people thought came from wealth and prosperity, lacked substance because times of prosperity do not last. Paul makes mention of this in his advice to Timothy.

Tell those who are rich in this world not to be proud and not to trust in their money, which will soon be gone. But their trust should be in the living God, who richly gives us all we need for our enjoyment. Tell them to use their money to do good. They should be rich in good works and should give generously to those in need, always being ready to share with others what God has given them. By doing this they will be storing up their treasure as a good foundation for the future so that they may take hold of real life. (1 Timothy 6:17-19)

“Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where they can be eaten by moths and get rusty, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where they will never become moth-eaten or rusty and where they will be safe from thieves. Wherever your treasure is, there your heart and thoughts will also be. (Matthew 6:19-21)

[1]Encyclopædia BRITANNICA.. Dictionary. Oxford University Press. Standard CD 2000.

[2] Nehemiah 8:8.

[3] Nehemiah 9:3.

[4] Luke 19:2b.

[5]Wight, F. H. MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF BIBLE LANDS. Chicago: Moody Press. 1953. p. 48.

[6]Kidner, Derek. THE MESSAGE OF HOSEA. Illinois: Inter-Varsity Press. 1981. p. 71

[7]The four assassinations are recorded in 2 Kings 15:10, 14, 25 and 30.

[8]Thompson, J. A. HANDBOOK OF LIFE IN BIBLE TIMES. Illinois: Inter-Varsity Press. 1986. p. 150.

[9]Kidner, Derek. ibid: p. 72.

[10]Ephesians 5:21.

[11]Refer to Ephesians 5:22-33.

[12]Kidner, Derek. ibid: p. 73.

[13]Judges 16:20b.

[14]Kidner, Derek. ibid: pp. 73-74.

[15]1 Chronicles 12:2.

[16]Gordon, R. P. THE ILLUSTRATED BIBLE DICTIONARY. Australia: Hodder and Stoughton. 1980. pp. 113-114.

[17]Psalm 18:34.

[18]Chisolm, Robert B. Jr. THE BIBLE KNOWLEDGE COMMENTARY (OT). Walvoord, John, F., Zuck, Roy B., Editors. USA: Scripture press Publications Inc. 1985. p. 1397.

[19]Wight, F. H. MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF BIBLE LANDS. Chicago: Moody Press. 1953. p. 183.

[20]Deuteronomy 25:4.