By Fr. George Dorbarakis
1. The Prophet Hosea, whose name means “God saves,” is one of the twelve so-called Minor Prophets of the Old Testament. He ministered during the eighth century BC in the Northern Kingdom of Israel, whose capital was Samaria and which was finally brought to an end by the Assyrians in 722 BC. His book indicates that he did not live to see the destruction, although he prophesied and described it. We have little information about his life, but we know his teaching well from his prophetic book. The personal story of the prophet—that he married a woman named Gomer, with whom he had three daughters, who proved to be an unfaithful wife, yet whom he continued to love until he welcomed her back into his home after she repented—provides the prerequisite for understanding his book. Through his relationship with his wife, the prophet comes to understand the relationship between God—Yahweh—and His people, Israel. God loves this people, who prove unfaithful as they continually turn to idols. Yet God continues to love Israel, awaiting its repentance, and when Israel does indeed repent, He immediately accepts it, so that God and His people live in reconciliation.
2. Speaking about the Prophet Hosea, the Church’s Hymnographer first emphasizes his prophetic gift, that is, the enlightenment he received from God, through which he both rebuked the sins of the people of his time and described the coming of the Messiah, who would come into the world from a Virgin, suffer on the Cross, and rise again: “How exceedingly wondrous is the grace given to you by God, O divinely inspired Hosea, a grace filled with the Spirit, through which you, O Prophet, clearly foretold the Savior’s incarnation from a Virgin, His Cross and sufferings, and His august divine resurrection.” According to the Hymnographer, the prerequisite for his enlightenment by the Spirit of God was the purity of his soul. The Spirit of God, who bestows the gift of prophecy as the vision of God and of things to come, does not come arbitrarily or without prerequisites. The Hymnographer follows the words of the Lord: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God” (Matt. 5:8). “Having cleansed the faculty of vision of your soul from defilements, you were deemed worthy to foresee clearly the things to come and to foretell truthfully and excellently the things that would take place.”
The poet knows the Prophet’s book well, and therefore also knows his love for his wife as a type of God’s love for His people. For this reason, he does not hesitate to describe the Prophet as a symbol of God Himself. “O Lover of mankind, having betrothed our nature, which had formerly prostituted itself in its disposition, You delivered it from defilement, uniting it to Yourself in an indivisible union beyond the mind’s comprehension; and Your Prophet, having become a symbol of this, took back into his home, with chastity, her who had formerly been a harlot.” God’s love is thus presented with dramatic intensity, like that which one sees in a husband who is deeply in love. Indeed, it has been said that no prophetic book possesses the passion of Hosea. It is only in Saint John the Evangelist, now in the realm of the New Testament, the Evangelist of love, that we encounter a similar “infatuation” of God’s love for humanity. For this reason, it is no coincidence that Hosea has been called the “John of the Old Testament.” With Hosea, it is as though we are sailing in the waters of the New Testament. As the Service for the Prophet also says: “Moved by compassion, you taught us the long-suffering mercy and loving-kindness of God, through which He has regard for all, O wondrous Prophet.” From this perspective, we understand why our Lord Himself used the most famous phrase of the Old Testament to express what God desires from humanity, a phrase described as its “highest summit”: Hosea’s words, “I desire mercy and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” God desires love and knowledge of Him from humanity, not sacrifices of any kind, whether bloodless or involving the shedding of blood.
This knowledge of God, understood not as intellectual knowledge but as love for Him, together with love for one’s fellow human being, is precisely the essence of Hosea’s prophetic message. Without this twofold love, the Prophet sees that the individual, societies, and nations are destroyed. In other words, God allows people to undergo various trials until they repent. This means that human salvation comes from God alone. Whatever we do to achieve stability and prosperity in our lives, if we act outside our relationship with Him, we ultimately reach an impasse. This is what the Prophet emphasized, and it remains true to this day. “You foretold that Israel would be delivered not by war, bow, or armor, but in the Lord God Almighty, thereby signifying to us the Incarnation of the Word.” The salvation of humanity, the salvation of our homeland and of the world, comes not through turning to the IMF, nor through relying on other human powers, but through taking refuge in God, provided, of course, that we do so with genuine repentance. This is the most important and decisive truth that the Prophet Hosea reminds us of, yet, sadly, it seems that very few listen to it, and even fewer live by it.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
