Harmonized Tension
“If someone has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey his father and mother, who does not heed them when they discipline him, then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his town at the gate of that place. They shall say to the elders of his town, “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.” Then all the men of the town shall stone him to death. So, you shall purge the evil from your midst; and all Israel will hear, and be afraid.”[i]
The Hebrew Bible has particular instructions for particular situations. Deuteronomy 21 details how parents – mother and father – are to deal with a "stubborn and rebellious" child.
The Hebrew Bible gets a bad reputation among Christians as the testament with a different type of god than the God of the New Testament, and texts like Deuteronomy 21 do not help prevent this heretical train of thought.
The truth is that our misconceptions about the Hebrew Bible, while it would be easy to blame God, are no one’s fault but our own.
We do not study the Hebrew Bible with the same regularity or urgency as we do the gospels and epistles. Less than 20% of my preaching over the past five years has been from texts found in the Hebrew Bible. Sure, I sprinkle a few references from the Hebrew Bible into my sermons, but that is to remind you that I spent two presidential administrations in seminary on your behalf.
The Hebrew Bible is complicated because we do not fully understand the context as we are thousands of years separated from the original events. There are names and cities we cannot pronounce. Our Sunday School classes and Wednesday night studies focus on the gospels. Most DIY devotionals focus on the gospels or the epistles. If they venture into the Hebrew Bible, they stay within the safe confines of the Psalms.
I mean, look to last Sunday if you do not believe me. Pastor Sara had to find a "church-friendly" translation for the scripture reading because what the prophet Hosea had to say was closer to Rated-R than PG-13. Had Pastor Sara not found a softer translation, the online recording of the worship service and the podcast of her sermon might have received an "Explicit" rating from the powers of the internet.
Because we so infrequently read the Hebrew Bible and because many do not fully understand the backstory, we often miss that the God of the Hebrew Bible is the God of the New Testament. The same God who ministered in Galilee, ate with his closest friends and sinners, and who seeks us today.
After presenting imagery of God’s forgiving love (1-3), and then a series of accusations and pronouncements of punishment (4-10), the Lord concludes the work of Hosea with a picture of the parental nature of God: loving and nurturing. God is the parent, and Israel is the child.
Out of Egypt, the Lord rescued Israel from slavery, but like many of us and people know, when God does something for us, it is not enough.
After escaping through the Red Sea and receiving the law at Mount Saini, many Israelites questioned God’s provision. They worshiped false gods, forgetting what the Lord had done for them, and promised to continue doing.
It is easy to point out the spiritual faults of others – thousands of years ago and today (some might consider this to be their fruit of the Spirit) – but the truth is that all of us do the same thing at one point or another throughout our lives.
But that is not the point of what the Lord is saying through the prophet. The point is not the spiritual shortcomings of ancient Israel or modern-day you.
Notice the “I” statements in verses one through four.
Verse one, “When Israel was a child, I loved him,
and out of Egypt I called my son.”
Verse two, “The more I called them,
the more they went from me;
they kept sacrificing to the Baals,
and offering incense to idols.”
Verse three, “Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk,
I took them up in my arms;
but they did not know that I healed them.”
Verse four, “I led them with cords of human kindness,
with bands of love.
I was to them like those
who lift infants to their cheeks.
I bent down to them and fed them.”
While we can focus on how we and others turn away from the Lord, the Hebrew Bible, the gospels, and the epistles emphasize God's actions. The focus of the entire Bible, from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:21, from “When God began to create the heavens and the earth,” to “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all the saints. Amen.” is on the actions of God. And the point of the prophet’s words today is that no matter the turning away of humanity, the Lord will not execute the justice we are all too willing to execute upon one another. The compassion of the Lord is never ending rather is continually increasing.
Through the prophet, the Lord is pointing out the reality that we proclaim weekly when we confess our sins but too often forget as we move about our week; when we turn away and our love fails, the love of God is forever steadfast. Contrary to what the world says and how many have been treated by their biological parents, the love of our heavenly parent – mother and father – only becomes more intense as we suffer the effects of sin, the sin we commit, and the sin committed against us.
The tension between texts like Deuteronomy 21 and Hosea 11 is undeniable.
We often turn toward God’s love or God’s justice. This leads us to the thought that the God of the Hebrew Bible and the God of the New Testament are somehow different – the God of the Hebrew Bible is focused on justice and vengeance, while the God of the New Testament is concerned with love.
Ignoring this tension ignores that tension reveals even more to us about God than we imagine. We know that God does not seek justice at the expense of love, nor love at the expense of justice.
Jesus holds this tension in perfect harmony.
He invites himself to dinner at the home of tax collectors who cheats their neighbors, extending grace and an invitation to repentance.
He drew in the dirt to disperse a rock-wielding mob and then told a woman to go and sin no more.
As he took his last breaths on the cross, Jesus extended forgiveness to the man next to him and invited the man to be with him in paradise.
That is gospel Good News. That is the good news revealed from Genesis 1:1 through Revelation 22:21.
From our human, sin rot point of view, we cannot believe the prophet’s words. How could God ever be justice-seeking and loving? We look for exceptions and asterisks beside the words of Jesus. We check for footnotes hoping to find something that is not there. But the prophet tells us God's justice and love are perfect, and God promises never to destroy God's people to seek vengeance or restitution. Bishop Ken Carter wrote, “Holiness does not destroy sin; through compassion and grace, it saves. Perfection does not destroy imperfection; through love, it heals."[ii]
We have been healed, and we are loved – for lives of justice and lives of love. For lives of mercy and grace.
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[ii] https://www.ministrymatters.com/preach/entry/3249/sermon-series-vital-elements-of-worship