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- [00:00]
Marty Solomon
Foreign.
- [00:06]
Brent Billings
This is the Bama podcast with Marty Solomon. I'm his co host, Brent Billings. Today we conclude our examination of Hosea, finding out what actually gets the last word.
- [00:15]
Marty Solomon
Absolutely. We have arrived at the end of our Hosea series, another verse by verse journey. Brent, we did it.
- [00:24]
Brent Billings
We did it.
- [00:24]
Marty Solomon
Not quite as big of an accomplishment as, like, say, Matthew or John, but we did it.
- [00:29]
Brent Billings
Still good. Still good.
- [00:32]
Marty Solomon
Oh, goodness.
- [00:33]
Brent Billings
I dare say there are many words that we could have examined further, as is always the case. So, yes, no matter. No matter how short the work is, there's more work to do.
- [00:43]
Marty Solomon
Absolutely. Always. Always, Always. All right, well, I wanted to open this. I want to open this by asking you a question, Brent. We'll open this episode in a way that is unusual to Marty Solomon. What? Give me some of your favorite. I feel like Reed Dent right now. This is a move that Reed Dent would pull. Like, what are your favorite redemption stories, Bren Billings? What? What? Give me. I don't know if it's a movie, a play, a book, a folk tale. Like, can you think of any of, like, what's your favorite redemption stories?
- [01:13]
Brent Billings
I mean, there's the classic Shawshank Redemption. Just to get met up about that.
- [01:20]
Marty Solomon
Yes, Absolutely. Okay. Absolutely. 100%. Don't know why that wasn't coming to mind immediately. Absolutely. Go ahead. Yep.
- [01:27]
Brent Billings
I do. And I do like that movie. It's good. Gosh, I mean, there's so many, like the. The Star wars series, the original trilogy. It's. It's complicated, but sure. What a beautiful way to end that whole thing.
- [01:43]
Marty Solomon
Absolutely.
- [01:44]
Brent Billings
Yeah. I don't know. How many. How many examples do you want here?
- [01:47]
Marty Solomon
I don't know. I'm just trying to get our brains going. There's something about an amazing redemption. I love Shashank Redemption that is a great example. Makes me think of all my other. Like, there's a bunch of movies in that era and I'm. Your typical movie. Movie plot is going to be a plot of redemption on some level. I think of goodwill hunting. It's like one.
- [02:07]
Brent Billings
Yeah.
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Marty Solomon
I mean, golly, what a. Just one of my favorite movies of all time.
- [02:12]
Brent Billings
Golly.
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Marty Solomon
I'm trying to think of just some of my favorite movies and the redemption arc they have in them. Dead poet society, apparently. I was a Robin Williams fan. Big Robin Williams guy.
- [02:21]
Brent Billings
He's good.
- [02:21]
Marty Solomon
When I was growing up.
- [02:22]
Brent Billings
He's good.
- [02:22]
Marty Solomon
Yeah, Golly. But just some great, great redemption stories and always have been like, we have always had a fascination from the Greek Hellenistic period of theater and onward and before, with the redemptive ark. Like, this is how the way of the cosmos is. This is how God works. And that's what we run into here in Hosea. Hosea is a story of chuva. It's a story of return. It's a story of redemption. It's a story of hope and resurrection. Maybe not. And like, let's not get too poetic. Like, Hosea is a story of you're headed back to Egypt. Like, make no mistake about it, Hosea is on the front end of that prophetic window. There's a lot of trial, there's a lot of woe, there's a lot of destruction. There's a lot of people paying for their rebellion ahead of them. So it's not like everything's credits roll and the happy music is playing. But there's another one. Patch Adams. The soundtrack for Patch Adams came on my playlist today. It was on shuffle. Great movie.
- [03:33]
Brent Billings
Okay, well, then I gotta throw in one more too. I'm gonna say the Count of Monte Cristo.
- [03:36]
Marty Solomon
Oh, yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. We're all swimmin waters. It's Hosea. It's the Count of Monte Cristo. It's Patch Adams, of course. But yeah, Hosea is a story of Shuva, of return, of not going back, but of returning. And that's a distinction. We're not going back to where we started because you can't do that. History doesn't work in that direction. We can't go back. We can only. We can come back. We can return, but we can't go back in time. And that's what Hosea is a story of. Hosea is going to be a story of eventually. Unfortunately, they're not going to repent with the prophecy of Hosea. They're not going to just come back immediately. It's going to take them some time, and they've got some destruction on the horizon. But they will come back. And today's chapter is kind of an assurance, an insistence that when that day happens, God will be there. It's a story of finding our way again. No matter how bleak and dark and rebellious our story becomes, there's always an opportunity to come back. And God is there. So if you don't mind, Brent, give us the first few verses of this last chapter of Hosea.
- [04:45]
Brent Billings
Return Israel to the Lord your God. Your sins have been your downfall. Take words with you and return to the Lord. Say to him, forgive all our sins and receive us graciously, that we may offer the fruit of our lips. Assyria cannot save us. We Will not mount war horses. We will never again say our gods to what our own hands have made. For in you, the fatherless find compassion.
- [05:13]
Marty Solomon
Right? So we have this section here. One of my favorite verses. I've mentioned this before on the podcast. I just think the verse take words with you is just so such a powerful. I mean, especially from a Jewish perspective, just coated in bh mah goodness of. Take words with you. Take the text with you. Take God's Torah, his commandments, his covenant, whatever you want to call that, whatever that is, take words with you as you come back to God. Now, lest I'm reading too much or too poetically into that, it also plays well into what we said in the middle of our series. We talked about repentance. It would seem immediately, directly as you read this stanza, that the words they're taking with them are the words of confession. Like, maybe this is a reference to Torah in the text. I love to hear this verse that way. Oh, so good. But maybe it's also. Maybe it's both. Maybe it's not that. Maybe it's this. But like he says, take words with you and return to the Lord. So it's like. It's like I'm going back to God and I'm bringing with me words say to him. So I would imagine that the words I'm bringing with me directly in this passage would be these words of confession. Forgive our sins, receive us graciously. I love how there's mention of the fatherless finding compassion. Are they identifying with the fatherless? Are they realizing that those are the kinds of people they took advantage of? Whatever it is they've brought with them confession, they've brought with them God's words. They've brought with them God's covenant. They've brought with them whatever it is that they need to bring with them. They are coming back with the words of confession on their lips. And that was, if we remember the first of five steps that we reviewed a few episodes ago, our episode on forgiveness. The very first step of true repentance was confession. So what they're doing is they're coming back and they're beginning that process. They're beginning the process of true repentance here in Hosea, verse three, verse two and three. So I do love that. But do you see anything else there, Brent? You see?
- [07:19]
Brent Billings
Well, I'm thinking about, you know, the idea of what the take the words with you is. Where would this fall in the timeline of when they found the Book of the Law in the temple?
- [07:30]
Marty Solomon
Josiah. Josiah's gonna fall.
- [07:33]
Brent Billings
Josiah's gonna be Judah, right?
- [07:35]
Marty Solomon
Yeah, Josiah is going to be Judah.
- [07:37]
Brent Billings
And Hosea is up in Israel.
- [07:38]
Marty Solomon
Boy, it's going to be real close. Yeah, it's going to be real close. Historically speaking in timeline. That's a great question, Brent. It was a great question anyway, but I didn't realize how relevant historically that could be, timeline wise. That's. Yeah, it's going to be right on top of this. It may have recently happened. So fascinating. I'm actually learning. So. So here's a really. This is going to make a lot of people uncomfortable, but we're in season nine, so, you know, whatever. At this point, we're here for whatever.
- [08:12]
Brent Billings
Let's hope people have learned to live in the tension by now.
- [08:16]
Marty Solomon
So I'm taking this class at Xavier, this grad work, and the first class I'm taking is basically a biblical hermeneutics class, which, I mean, they go way further down the textual criticism line than I do. I know that I make a lot of people uncomfortable with what I'm willing to concede or how I'm willing to look at how the text was written in redactors and authors and dates, but they make fun of me because I hold onto my. I'm way too conservative for them in these textual criticism conversations. But there's a very dominant scholarly theory that I think El's talked about this, and I don't think she likes this theory, which seems to be consistent. But there's a scholarly theory that basically it was the northern kingdom of Israel that came up with a system of accountability for the temple cult or maybe between the temple cult and the monarch. And that's what I think it was, the Deuteronomist voice. When you think of, like, documentary hypothesis, that kind of four voice, the four voices that you find in Hebrew scripture, I think it's the Deuteronomist voice that they say has roots in the northern kingdom of Israel. And they think that somehow that got sent to the southern kingdom of Judah or taken or leaked or whatever. And they end up basing the Deuteronomist voice off of this, like, newfound accountability to power. So I'm even thinking about that. Like, I'm thinking about the word, the law, being found in the temple and historical criticism and textual criticism. And I'm just thinking about how they've discovered this new system of accountability. And God's saying, hey, take this with you. And I'm not saying I love the theory. I don't think I do. I'm just. I'm Thinking about all those things, thinking historically, thinking God's given them something that they need to learn from. Take this with you and walk it. Like, walk it out. Because this is how. This accountability is how we're going to pursue justice together. Because the violence, the injustice, the self interest is not working, which is, you know, that's the confession they have on their lips here in these opening verses. So it's a great question. It's a great question.
- [10:25]
Brent Billings
I just wonder if they have, like, a prophet club where they're sharing these stories. Yeah, like, hey, you won't believe what they just found in our temple down here. Have you guys heard of this thing?
- [10:35]
Marty Solomon
Yeah, totally. Totally. Yeah, 100%. I love it. All right, give us the next few verses, Brent.
- [10:40]
Brent Billings
I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them. I will be like the dew to Israel. He will blossom like a lily, like a cedar of Lebanon. He will send down his roots. His young shoots will grow. His splendor will be like an olive tree, his fragrance like a cedar of Lebanon. People will dwell again in his shade. They will flourish like the grain. They will blossom like the vine. Israel's fame will be like the wine of Lebanon.
- [11:12]
Marty Solomon
Yeah, so absolutely, we've got this. I mean, we've gone through a lot of Hosea. Like, it's been a lot of woe, a lot of God saying, I'm pretty angry. This isn't going to go well for you. A lot of, like, pretty depressing stuff, like episode after episode after episode. So I just like to get to the end here and say, this is how God chooses to end this. This prophetic book, like, he chooses to end. And I just kind of take a deep breath and go, oh, man. Okay, so here we are. This is how God. This is the last word that God wants to leave. It wasn't the first word. It's not all the words in the middle, all of those matter. But the last word he leaves us with here is this insistence God will. He is going to heal. God is going to love freely. It says he's going to be turned from his anger. There was a lot of anger in the last few chapters. There's plenty of anger, lots of anger. And God will be turned from that anger. He will love freely. He will heal like dew to Israel. And that dew ends up producing, like, this love, this anger that's been banished and this love that's given freely. And this healing from God is like this. This fueling. It's the fuel. It's the nourishing dew that's going to lead to their flourishing growth. And then there's all this language about growth and that man, that feels. I mean, we had some. There were some rough chapters there, right, Brent? Like, those were. There were some chapters where God wasn't like, ah, it's no big deal. Like, God was. God was pretty straightforward. Yeah. Am I remembering that correctly?
- [12:55]
Brent Billings
Yep, yep, Absolutely.
- [12:57]
Marty Solomon
So this. I mean, this is. This is. If we at all want to attribute these prophetic words and these prophetic books to God, as I do, this is God's. This is the word that God chooses to end with. This is what. This is the word that. This is the last word. This is what gets the last word for God. There's a lot of anger, there's a lot of accountability. There's a lot of destruction coming. But at the end of the day, at the end of the day, people will come back, people return. I will heal them. I will love freely. I will turn from my anger. Because my story is not a story of anger and judgment and wrath. It's a story of healing and freedom and flourishing. And then there's this verse seven, which is super interesting. The new NIV that you read said, people will dwell again in his shade. They will flourish like the grain, they will blossom like the vine. Israel's fame will be like the wine of Lebanon. So you can read this. That translation flows as if, okay, so they. I will be like dew. So God's going to be due and he will blossom like, so he would be his people. I'm assuming the people will blossom like a lily, like a cedar of Lebanon. He will send down his roots. This is God talking. So the I is God, the He is his people. So his people will send down roots. His people will be young shoots that will grow. The people's splendor will be like an olive tree. So God's going to heal and his people are going to become this. Just like we've seen in session two, just like we saw in session one. And the desert, like, it's the people that are going to be the healing. It's the people that are going to be the shade. It's the people that are going to be the fragrance, like a cedar of Lebanon. And then as it reads here, people will dwell in his shade. His shade would be the people. So now others are coming. This is very like parable of the mustard seed, right? That grows. And then the birds of the air come and nest in its branches. And the birds of the air are outsiders. Others, Pagans, Gentiles, the nations. So others are going to dwell in his shade. They, I would assume, is the others would flourish like the grain. They. All those others will blossom. So it's this cascading effect of God's healing causing his people to flourish, which causes blessings for everybody else. Now, it was the case that for a lot of translations, the esv, the old niv, and you found, like, a handful of others. How do they give me, like, choose the esv? Brent, tell me how the esv, verse seven reads. Because it changes it. I'm not sure either one is good or bad. But how does the ESV read?
- [15:41]
Brent Billings
They shall return and dwell beneath my shadow.
- [15:44]
Marty Solomon
Okay, so there it says, my shadow. So that would be God's shadow. So who's. And that just changes it significantly. It's a small change that changes. So now it's. So now it's. God will heal them. He'll be due. They will be like a cedar. They will blossom. Their shoots will grow. They will have fragrance like a cedar. But they will come and rest in his shade. So now it's still his people. So basically, the outsiders, the other nations, all the others are gone. If it's my shade, it's just his people flourishing, which we could then extrapolate and say, okay, well, our flourishing leads to the blessing of others. And that's totally true. But how it reads in Hosea changes to depending on whose shade it is. Is it the people's shade, or is it. So I went to Alter. I was really thinking Alter was gonna have a note, and Alter didn't have a note. He just had a great translation. So I really liked it. When I read it, I was like, thank you, Alter, for agreeing with my favorite translation. I always love it when a translator agrees with what I want him to say. Yeah, where is Elle when we need her? She's gonna be coming in the room to record another episode here in a moment. I'm gonna have to ask El what she thinks about all this because I don't have the expertise. I got in to see. And when I looked at it, it did look like a possessive. But based on what I can. El's going to be so ashamed of me because I should be able to tell and I should be able to know based on some quick research that I was doing. I can't. It's not possessive, but it almost looks like it could be possessive. So I wonder if that's where the translators are. Like. Well, it's not, but we think maybe it was supposed to be. There's a play on words, which, by the way, what did you see, I think was the net note. You had a note somewhere that talked about the play on words. Can you find that?
- [17:28]
Brent Billings
Yeah, it's in verse seven, people will reside. Again, it says Hosea uses the similar sounding terms Yeshuvu, Yeshve, the dwellers will return to create a word play between the roots shuv to return and yashav to dwell or reside.
- [17:47]
Marty Solomon
All right, so they're making a play. And what I love about that is it's a play on the word that we. We harp on so much here, which is Shuv. Shuva. This is a story of Shu. This is literally a story of returning. This is a story. And here the prophet is kind of poetically riffing on what that word sounds like in the original Hebrew, and we miss that in the English. But. Oh, let's see here. I'm going to read altar. I'm going to start here. His branches shall go forth. His glory be like the olive tree, and his fragrance like Lebanon. Those who dwell in his shade. So those who dwell on his shade, Little H, shall come back. They shall give life to new grain, and like the vine, they shall blossom. Okay, so that reads even a little bit differently. People. So the Niv says, people will dwell again in his shade.
- [18:41]
Brent Billings
I actually just found a copy of the old Niv, and it says basically the same thing. Instead of people, it says men, but.
- [18:47]
Marty Solomon
It still says his shade will dwell in his shade. Okay, okay. I don't know where I bumped into that, but I definitely bumped into a translation that said his shade, my shade, God's shade. And I was like, wait, what? Because that changes everything. So then that's what caused me to dive down this rabbit hole. So who knows what I was looking at? I may have been looking at esv.
- [19:03]
Brent Billings
Well, yeah, and esv, I think, is the most popular one that does that. But I think you asked me about that, and I hadn't looked over the whole thing, and I'm like, yeah, sure, okay. It could be this. Could be this. I'm looking at all the translations, and then I go in and I read the thing in order, and I'm like, I feel like this is so clearly the shade of Israel.
- [19:21]
Marty Solomon
Yeah, I read it that way. But even now, having altar. Okay, so the Niv that I see here, people will dwell again. So they've chosen to turn the word for return into again, which is a way that that word can be used. People will dwell again in his shade versus alter. Who says People who dwell in his shade will return. Very interesting. Which changes that, too.
- [19:46]
Brent Billings
Yeah.
- [19:47]
Marty Solomon
And then if it's like, okay, well, if that is the outsider. So many things going on potentially in this one verse, and I know I'm nerding out right now and totally messing up the flow of the poetry of Hosea 14. And yet these. I just want to give it to our listeners to grapple with and kind of do their own word study and consider all the different ways that this. How this sounds and how this reads, because it potentially is saying different things about what our return means, what God's blessing does. Does it do something just for us, or does it do something for us that then becomes something for others? And then is there an additional wrinkle that those others then go back? And is this. Do the ripples continue? Do they return to their world and continue to bless? Who knows? There's so many ways to read this, and I find the whole thing fascinating. But any other thoughts before we look at these last couple verses?
- [20:39]
Brent Billings
The ending of verse seven, the way I'm reading it is just, the people will dwell in his shade, as in Israel's shade. People will dwell in Israel's shade. And then I think that's, like, all it's talking about with the other people. Then it's back to Israel. They will flourish like the grain. They will blossom like the vine. Israel's fame will be like the wine of Lebanon, which. That connects it to the vine. And the vine is. I mean, I don't know if they're right next to each other. Does that necessarily mean they're connected? But I think it's just like you'll go back to that thing where you're being a blessing to people and your fame will become all this. But I think the beginning of verse seven is the only part that talks about other people.
- [21:26]
Marty Solomon
See, I don't know.
- [21:26]
Brent Billings
I like the idea of the. Of the continuing thing, but because it specifically names Israel at the end of verse seven, it makes me think that it wasn't actually moving on to another group.
- [21:39]
Marty Solomon
Yeah, unless it was. I mean, I'm not sure. I can't remember how the Hebrew works as far as direct subjects, because in verse seven, the direct subject would become the people dwelling in Israel's shade. They would still be the subject. The people will flourish. And so that's why Israel's fame. I mean, it's very Philippians 2 for me, like, because Christ chose to humble himself and empty himself and serve, then his name is exalted. So that feels kind of Philippians 2 to me. Here's what we're going to do. Everybody stay tuned after this episode, and we'll see if we can talk Ellen to a little postscript about how she translates this and what she sees when she looks at this.
- [22:17]
Brent Billings
Okay, I just noticed that the Net does not use the word Israel at the end of verse seven. It uses the word his. And normally when they make a change between a proper noun and a pronoun.
- [22:29]
Marty Solomon
Yeah.
- [22:30]
Brent Billings
Or vice versa, they will make a note of it and say, you know, it actually says this, but we're doing it like this to make it flow better or whatever.
- [22:37]
Marty Solomon
Sure.
- [22:37]
Brent Billings
They have no note on it. So it makes me think that Israel is not specifically named, but it's just referring to it. So I don't know. I don't know if I can stand. I might not be able to stand for very long on this idea.
- [22:53]
Marty Solomon
I'm looking at it right now. There is no Israel. It's not mentioned.
- [22:58]
Brent Billings
Okay. Darn you, Niv.
- [23:00]
Marty Solomon
Yeah. The Niv says, israel's fame will be like the wine of Lebanon, and the scent thereof shall be as the wine. Yeah. It just refers to the same he. So whatever the subject is, and that's the question, is what the subject is.
- [23:17]
Brent Billings
Okay.
- [23:18]
Marty Solomon
Is the subject Israel, or is the subject the people that are sitting in Israel's shade? And is the shade Israel's? I cannot wait to find out what Elle thinks. Not that it's the end of the conversation, but it'll be such a fun little question. We'll catch her off guard.
- [23:30]
Brent Billings
Yeah, we will. Going back to the beginning of this section, I like the idea of the do, and I'm relating that to the mana. Not that there's necessarily a direct textual connection there, but just the idea of, like, I'm going to give you this mana every day. On the last day, you're going to get a double portion so you don't have to get any on Saturday. But it's this daily thing where it's just enough for the day. And that's the same thing with the dew. We're not talking about an acacia tree where you're going to get a big flood and then go 10 years. You need to return to God daily. And when you do that, you blossom like the lily. You send down roots like the cedars of Lebanon. You have the splendor of an olive tree, the fragrance of the cedar, all this stuff.
- [24:18]
Marty Solomon
Yeah. Yeah. That's great. Yep. And that made me realize. Yeah, it's not the acacia image. This is a this is a. We talk about the fruit of repentance. This is. This is a. This is an. These are images of fruitfulness. Cedars and their fragrance. Olive trees, vine. The. The scent of the vine like the wine of Lebanon. This is fruitfulness imagery. I like that a lot. That's a really good point. Very good. Very nice. All right, give me the last couple verses, Brett.
- [24:47]
Brent Billings
Ephraim, what more have I to do with idols? I will answer him and care for him. I am like a flourishing juniper. Your fruitfulness comes from me who is wise. Let them realize these things, who is discerning. Let them understand the ways of the Lord are right. The righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them.
- [25:09]
Marty Solomon
All right, I think this closing section is not just like, yeah, let's put a stamp on it. I think there's some significant things in here in these last two verses. Notice the store. The story could easily end with this, like, super big poetic. God will heal. God will love freely, will bear a bunch of fruit. It will be great. Our fragrance will be like the wine of Lebanon. Roll credits. But it doesn't. It goes to this, like, call to consider. Like, don't. Just like this. Repentance isn't like, okay, I guess everything is great. God's like, no, no, no, no. I need you to, like, learn from. We talked a bunch in this series. Like, you have to learn from where you've come from. You got to learn from your past. What have I to do with idols? That's not just a toss away question. So at this point of their restoration, God says, I need you to consider. I need you to think about this question. What have I to do with idols? Nothing. The answer being nothing. God says, I am the thing that is evergreen. I need you to consider this. I need you to remember this. I need this truth after everything you've been through, to sink deep down into you. I need you to realize that your faithfulness comes from me. Your fruitfulness comes from me. So go back to verse seven and all the different nerdy things that we're all trying to figure out. Is it this? Is it this? Is it that person or this person? Is it God's shade or their. Doesn't even matter at this point in this verse because the overarching principle that we are supposed to learn through that little journey through those three verses is that our fruitfulness, wherever it comes from, comes from that do. Comes from that free love comes from that healing comes from God turning his anger away. His faithfulness is what's evergreen. Our faithfulness comes from his faithfulness. There is this discerning call to make sure we understand this. Well, quite frankly, the phrase in there is that the people who are discerning, they do understand this. The discerning folks, the discerning ones, they understand these truths. So are you discerning or are you just here in the fleeting moment, here for God's turned anger, here for God's healing? Or have you, like, have you sunk roots down in this nourishing morning dew that comes every morning? Have you actually considered this? Have you discerned this? And there's this call. And I think as we come to the end of our little journey through Hosea, I think our call, if there's an applicable reflection for us now, 2500 years later in our setting, who are we? Are we the discerning? When we think about this last chapter and God's amazing grace and the gospel truth that we celebrate all the time and how much God loves us, which is completely 100% true, and I'm saying nothing to knock that, but when we think about that, are we, do we have deep roots in that truth? Would we count ourselves among the discerning? If not, I think we ought to answer the call here of Hosea 14:8 and consider, keep considering, keep, keep thinking about where we came from. What have I to do with these idols? So I did have. Brent, you know what's coming, don't you.
- [28:36]
Brent Billings
Love it strikes again.
- [28:39]
Marty Solomon
One last paragraph, the only good one that I really liked in this whole section on Hosea 14. I don't know why I keep doing this, but every now and I'm like, yeah, I'll read that, I'll read that. Okay.
- [28:53]
Brent Billings
I imagine at the end of like this year somebody's going to be looking at their numbers and be like, why in the world have we sold dozens of Copies of our 1994 minister's name, please, everybody.
- [29:05]
Marty Solomon
No, you'll be so disappointed. Don't, don't. Just want to be honest about what I'm reading, that's all. All right, here we go. Here's what Roger says. I've quoted him so much now I talk about him on a first name basis.
- [29:16]
Brent Billings
First name basis, yeah, of course.
- [29:18]
Marty Solomon
Roger says this. The last word does not stop with broken things. Remember, Roger started this whole series talking about this whole series, the story of Hosea as a gospel for broken things. So he now comes back at the end and he says, the last word does not stop with broken things. The final words, reconciliation and redemption. Two beams that spam the chasm of any real brokenness. The first word is forgiveness. All the wrongs that make our journey so cumbersome and difficult are taken away. The second beam is love. That sturdy beam of kindness and grace provides our pathway to the future. And I think that is, in a lot of ways, where we may find ourselves today. Many things to be honest about, many things to learn from, Many things to be honest about, many things to confess, many things to repent of. Many idols, maybe for us in 2024 to be honest about. But there are these two beams that spam the chasm. He says there are these two ideas that pave the way to the future. God's love and forgiveness. If we don't think we need it, we're in a rough spot. And we will have to go through some of these earlier chapters of Hosea if we find ourselves in need of God's love and forgiveness for our Future. Well, Hosea14 offers us some very promising words about what that means for us. So those are some of the things that I got. But I assume maybe at the end of Hosea, maybe you have a question or two, Brent, that you would throw in there?
- [31:03]
Brent Billings
I have just one final question.
- [31:05]
Marty Solomon
Excellent.
- [31:06]
Brent Billings
Do we keep the image of Hosea from session two, or do you have a new word?
- [31:10]
Marty Solomon
Oh, goodness, I don't. Yeah. Since episode one of this series, Like, I haven't. I haven't loved that word as the image. It's still like a good prophetic image if we see it for the. For the picture that it is, for the metaphor that it serves, that living metaphor we talked about. If we realize that we are the adulteress that has participated in violence, we just have such a hard time doing that without scapegoating Gomer as the character in the story. So I don't know. What would the image be? A bird in a trap. I just. See, that's the problem. It's like the dominant image. The dominant metaphor that is being leveraged is that woman who has suffered violence.
- [32:01]
Brent Billings
And that's fine if that's what we're gonna keep.
- [32:03]
Marty Solomon
Yeah.
- [32:03]
Brent Billings
And just we say, hey, this is the image, but we need to be careful about how we use it.
- [32:08]
Marty Solomon
Yeah, yeah.
- [32:09]
Brent Billings
Or more careful, I guess I should say. I don't think we were necessarily being careless before, but.
- [32:14]
Marty Solomon
Yeah. Yeah. I got no good answers at this point. No good way to another quick, good question for L. Who knows? But I got. I got nothing better at this point to submit. But I do have, like, this, like. I don't like the flippant way that we toss that image around. So, I don't know. Good question. Good question. To leave us with.
- [32:33]
Brent Billings
Well, at some point we'll probably reboot session two, and so we'll have to figure it out by then, but for now we have a little bit of time to think about it.
- [32:40]
Marty Solomon
Sure. Yep. Absolutely. Yeah, that's a great point. Reboot will be a wonderful time, too. And we do have some time, so I will use it wisely.
- [32:49]
Brent Billings
I suppose we might get some suggestions along the way as well.
- [32:52]
Marty Solomon
I bet now that we've asked the question, the emails will come in. We did have, by the way, Brett, some resources that Lovett did recommend. Some of them seem like good ones. He has Tradition for Crisis by Walter Brueggemann, and I'm sure that's a younger Walter Brueggemann, but that can't be a bad recommendation, right? Brueggemann's our boy. Like, that's our. Like he's our. He's our guy. Like, we love that guy. So there's got to be a great. I mean, that's got to be great. So I don't know about his other sources. He recommended Amos Hosea. I bet that's probably a commentary by James M. Ward. These are all going to be dated because the Minister's manual itself was 1994, so who knows how old some of these other sources are. Hosea by James Luther Mays. So that's pretty great. And looks like he's doing a bunch of his contextual work from The Interpreter's Bible, Volume 6, published by Abingdon, 1956. So that one's dated a while ago. Probably hard to get your hands on all these. They're not necessarily my recommendations, but I saw a list of resources and said, oh, we'll all share those. We love resources.
- [33:57]
Brent Billings
Yeah, I'll see what I can find for those resources, and if there are links available, I will put them in the show notes.
- [34:03]
Marty Solomon
Splendid.
- [34:03]
Brent Billings
All right, well, that concludes our study of Hosea. You can find all of those show notes@bayamatasubstrip.com or in your podcast app. Thank you for joining us on this journey. Thank you for those of you who support our work financially, for making it possible for us to do things like this, to dig into the text in a deeper way, to do these verse by verse studies, to wrestle with these things. And it wouldn't be the same without you guys. Like, we need all of you listeners to wrestle with us because you find things that we don't find. You look at things from Perspectives that we don't have. So we're all working together to do what we're doing here. So thank you all for making that possible and thanks for joining us on the Bama podcast this week. We'll talk to you again soon.
- [34:52]
Elle Grover Fricks
Okay, I'm seeing they will return. And it's being. It's being clever because it looks like it's doing the Edenic motif. Returning. They will return. Right. But they've switcherood. The Masoretes made the call for us that it's not Edenic. So that's a participle. Why is the yud there? I wanna know. That is a mysterious yut there.
- [35:22]
Marty Solomon
That's what I was getting hung up on.
- [35:24]
Elle Grover Fricks
It defies, Defies expectation.
- [35:28]
Marty Solomon
Okay, that's why we're confused. All right, I was confused.
- [35:31]
Elle Grover Fricks
Yeah, for good reason. So it's definitely they shall return. They will return, whichever you prefer. And then we've got. The Masoretes have decided for us that it's dwell rather than return. Again. And it's he. And the verb tense is participle, so that's not a tense. Whatever dwelling. So sitting. However. However you want to translate that, but it has that yud at the end. And so sometimes you can use participles as nouns. Like on my walk to the park. Walk is a verb, but there you're using it as a noun. So the yud, as you know, Marty, problematically can indicate many things. It can indicate a semichut form, it can indicate possessive. But it can't be semichut because we have the ba. We have the In. In his shadow. That's right after that. So Smichut is out. That leaves possessive my, but it shouldn't. Yeah, so it could be possessive my. So it could be they will return. They will return. My dwelling. Okay, that's Jesus Eve. Right. I don't like it. To be clear, I'm not like, that's it. I'm right. That's the answer. But like, that's me piecing together why that yud is there.
- [37:01]
Brent Billings
Well, to give you some context, the ESV does take the my approach.
- [37:07]
Marty Solomon
Okay.
- [37:08]
Elle Grover Fricks
Okay. I like not to be stranded, but.
- [37:11]
Marty Solomon
Here'S my follow up question for you all. So the previous two verses are talking about Israel as a he. Right?
- [37:18]
Elle Grover Fricks
Right.
- [37:18]
Marty Solomon
He shall grow as the lily.
- [37:20]
Elle Grover Fricks
Right.
- [37:20]
Marty Solomon
His roots as Lebanon.
- [37:22]
Elle Grover Fricks
Right.
- [37:22]
Marty Solomon
His branches. His, his, his, his, his. And then they will return and dwell in either my or his shadow, which they would then be potentially outsiders or the nations, or so as the nations coming into. Because he's sprouting because he's flourishing.
- [37:44]
Elle Grover Fricks
Oh, yeah.
- [37:45]
Marty Solomon
Because of God's blessing and his due. And his. He's going to be like the dew to them and they're going to flourish.
- [37:50]
Elle Grover Fricks
Yeah.
- [37:51]
Marty Solomon
Or are they returning to dwell in God's shadow? Either way is cool. I was just curious if there's an extra layer of. There is a ripple effect to their repentance. Because the they seems weird to me because it's been his, his, his, his, his. So I don't know why all of a sudden it would be they dwelling.
- [38:06]
Elle Grover Fricks
In my shadow and that they is continued for the rest of that verse.
- [38:11]
Marty Solomon
Exactly. Because then that they would be more nations. He, he, he, he, he, they, he, they, they, they, he. And that feels like those pronouns would matter.
- [38:22]
Elle Grover Fricks
Right. Which to me, which verse 8. Then it's interesting to apply what do I have to do with Idols anymore To the nations. Right. Because that makes sense if they're just leaving their context.
- [38:35]
Marty Solomon
Oh, I didn't even think about that. Oh, stop it.
- [38:39]
Elle Grover Fricks
Here I am. Then it's fully showing that they're a part of the household of God and not just like living alongside we see in some of the other narratives.
- [38:53]
Marty Solomon
And then this reads, ephraim shall say, what have I to do anymore with idols? Interesting. So, okay, well, there you go. Some clarity and even more to ponder. Everybody, this postscript brought to you by L. Grover Fricks.
- [39:10]
Brent Billings
I hesitate to bring this up with El's presence, but the NIV has a footnote on verse 8. Instead of Ephraim, what more have I to do with idols? The Septuagint says, what more has Ephraim to do with idols?
- [39:26]
Elle Grover Fricks
Syntax is all made up anyway.
- [39:32]
Brent Billings
So, anyway, another interpretive wrinkle.
- [39:34]
Elle Grover Fricks
There isn't the word say. That's the. That's more of a wrinkle to me. It just says, Ephraim Mali. There could be a different manuscript than the one that I'm looking at that doesn't include a verb, but it just really says if I'm what for me anymore.
- [39:53]
Marty Solomon
Oh, okay. Fascinating. All right, well, thanks, Elle. Yay.
- [40:00]
Elle Grover Fricks
Happy to be here. Be here. Happy to be here.
- [40:05]
Marty Solomon
Half of the bear. With that, I stopped my recording.
- [40:09]
Brent Billings
Okay.
- [40:10]
Elle Grover Fricks
A bear.