Judah’s leaders
are like those who move boundary stones (Hosea 5:10).
While chapters 1-3
tell the story of Hosea and Gomer, chapters 4-14 detail Israel’s crimes in the
form of lawsuits wherein God is the plaintiff. Israel’s chief crime? Adultery.
Not that wives were cheating on husbands as in the opening chapters, but that
Israel was chasing after foreign gods like an adulteress chases after her
lovers.
Sometime after
Israel’s fall to Assyria in 722 BC, this writing made its way south to Judah
where the people saw themselves in Hosea’s story and the succeeding lawsuits.
Since Judah is addressed in these chapters, we might ask if Hosea wrote about
Judah (which seems unlikely) or if those references were later for a Judean
audience.
One complaint
directed at Judah: Judah’s leaders are like those who move boundary
stones. Ancient property lines
were marked with stones, easy to see but equally easy to move. Do
not move an ancient boundary stone set up by your ancestors (Proverbs 22:28). In other words, don’t
change the rules.
God calls his
followers to be faithful. Even in the 21st we are tempted to follow after other lovers.
They may not be named Baal or Molech, but they’re just as dangerous and just as wrong. You shall
have no other gods before me (Exodus 20:3). This is just as much for us as it was for Israel in the
time of Moses… or Hosea.
When they’re not
convenient, do you try to change the rules?
TODAY’S MEDITATION
What ancient boundary
stones should you leave where they are?
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