God's Problem (6 page)

In this context, obviously “meeting your God” is not a happy prospect. This is the God who starves people, destroys their crops, and kills their children—all in an effort to get them to return. And if they don’t, only worse things lie ahead. What could be worse than all that? The total destruction of their nation and their entire way of life.

One of Amos’s subsidiary messages is that it is only by proper behavior—not by cultic observation—that the people of Israel can be restored to a right standing before God. And so he speaks a word from the Lord:

Those who think they can be right with God by following the proper dictates for worship (God himself had commanded them to observe the festivals and to bring him offerings) without also working for social justice and fairness are deceived. The people of Israel have not followed God’s call for right living. Their plights came as a result. Sin brings the wrath of God, which will eventually lead to the destruction of the people: “all the sinners of my people shall die by the sword” (9:10).

In the book of Amos as it has come down to us, the prophet does hold out hope that God will return to his people after they have been sufficiently punished. Most scholars see this as an addendum, appended to the book after the predicted destruction had already taken place. Nonetheless, it fits logically, given Amos’s view that massive suffering comes to those who violate God’s will. Once those who suffer have paid for their sins, there can be a restoration:

This final set of predictions was never fulfilled. The northern kingdom of Israel in fact was not restored, and even what later came to be known as Israel (the southern kingdom of Judah) was destroyed, not just once, but repeatedly over the years. On the other hand, the direr predictions of Amos were fulfilled with a vengeance. Twenty or thirty years after Amos’s day, an Assyrian monarch named Tiglath-Pileazer III (745–727) became intent on extending his nation’s influence and decided to expand into Syria and Palestine. He was not himself responsible for the horrible events leading to the destruction of Israel, but his successors were. The events are described in the biblical book of 2 Kings. The Assyrian kings Shalmaneser V and Sargon II attacked the northern kingdom, laying siege to the capital city, Samaria, and eventually destroying it and many of its inhabitants. Many of those who were not killed were sent away from the land into exile, and people from other conquered nations were brought into the land, where they intermarried with the remaining local population. This was Assyrian policy: by relocating potentially disruptive people and creating intermarriages, they were able to break down any remnants of nationalism and, in effect, within a couple of generations, force a nation’s people out of existence.
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The nation and peoples of the northern kingdom of Israel disappeared from the face of the earth, never to reappear.

Hosea Son of Beeri

A younger contemporary of Amos was a prophet from the north who, like his southern counterpart, preached a message of coming destruction to the nation of Israel. In this case, too, we know very
little about the man, who calls himself the son of (an otherwise unknown) Beeri, except for what he tells us in his book. Hosea indicates some of what happened in his life, but scholars debate whether it is genuine autobiography or a fictional narrative used to make a point.
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In chapter 1 he says that the Lord told him to marry a woman of ill-repute (it is not clear if she was already a prostitute when they married or simply a woman of loose morals). This marriage was to symbolize Hosea’s entire message. The Lord was, in a sense, the husband of Israel. And Israel was not faithful to the relationship but “committed prostitution” with other gods. How would a man feel whose wife not merely had an affair but committed her entire life to sleeping with other men? That’s how God feels about Israel. He is outraged at her behavior and determined to punish her for it.

Hosea’s wife, Gomer, bears him several children, and God orders him to give them symbolic names. One is a girl called Lo-ru-hamah, which is Hebrew for “Not Pitied,” because, says God, “I will no longer have pity on the house of Israel or forgive them” (1:6). That sounds harsh, but no harsher than what happens next: Gomer then has a son named Lo-ammi, which means “Not My People,” so named because God has declared that “you are not my people and I am not your God” (1:9).

God’s rejection of his own people is stated in graphic terms throughout the book, in oracles of judgment. As he says of the nation:

And why does God treat his people this way? It is because:

Whereas for Amos the problem with the nation was that the wealthy had oppressed the poor and created enormous social injustice, for Hosea the problem is that the people of Israel have started worshiping other gods, especially Baal, the god of the other peoples in the land. Going after other gods, for Hosea, is like a woman going after other lovers, leaving her husband behind. The anger God feels toward this act of betrayal is palpable throughout Hosea’s prophecies. Because the Israelites have committed prostitution with the pagan gods, God will starve them and send them into exile:

At the same time, the idolatrous ways of Israel also involved acts of “wickedness” and “injustice,” which would lead to final destruction: “Therefore the tumult of war shall rise against your people and all your fortresses shall be destroyed, as Shalman destroyed Beth-arbel on the day of battle, when mothers were dashed in pieces with their children. Thus it will be done to you…because of your great wickedness” (10:14–15). Mothers dashed with their children? Yes, that’s the punishment Israel can expect for departing from the ways and worship of their God.

Nowhere is Hosea’s message stated more graphically than near the end of his book, where he indicates that because Israel had been the chosen people, its disobedience will turn God from the faithful shepherd who unerringly guided them on their way to a wild animal that tears them to shreds: