A Word for the Leaders
A joint attack on both the religious and the political leaders mainly by allusion rather than by direct speech. Hosea wants to touch their hearts and consciences rather than argue with their minds or get involved in the details of what went wrong. Hosea and his hearers know that they have sinned before and they will sin again, but they also know that things were not always like this and don’t have to continue like this. Time to jog their memories.
Shittim was the last encampment of the Israelites en route from Egypt to Canaan and as such had a special significance. The very mention of it was enough to remind them that it was traditionally the place where they first succumbed to immorality and idolatry (Num 25). Tabor and Mizpah, similarly, were once sacred shrines; now they too were on a downward track. Fading memories and failing former friends and allies are having an effect on community life and leaders were not addressing the problems. To feel the force of the prophecy it might help to recall three similar sites, groups or events in your own national history.
Then, to the anticipated riposte that ‘it’s all you can expect from places and people like that’ Hosea proceeds to point out that the record is no better for favourites like Ephraim, Israel and Judah. There is no escape from our own responsibilities and failings by drawing attention to the failures of others, though the temptation is never far away.
Hosea then proceeds to make it clear that since it is all so obvious they cannot but be aware of it. They must know ‘it isn’t working any more’ — they are going through the motions but they are deriving neither results nor satisfaction. Why? Because God has withdrawn from them? Or is it they who have withdrawn from God? Either way, might it not be that their manner of life has created such a gulf between them and Yahweh that not even he can bridge it?