Hosea 3 and God’s unfolding revelation
I
recently had a brief conversation on Facebook with some XA disciples, in which one
of them referenced my teachings on how to interpret the Bible. He quoted my
teachings, saying, “It can never mean what it never meant.” It was gratifying
to know that someone was listening and that he still remembers! But, it also
revealed my own growth as a biblical scholar and theologian, since I no longer
agree with what I used to teach! (This enables me to give grace to politicians
who change their views – though I have no plans to extend that grace to anyone
who is currently running for office!)
The
quote was saying that, when one is interpreting the Bible, the meaning of the
text for the original audience is THE meaning. So, when Jesus told the parable
of the lost coin, he was talking about a lost coin and not about Syrian refugees or Taylor Swift's latest boyfriend. Whatever the text meant to the original audience is still, by far, the
best place to start in interpreting the Bible. BUT, the conversation doesn’t end
there. As such, I feel the need to write my old friends back and explain that I
don't hold as strongly to that as I used to. The reason is that I’ve grown in
my understanding of Biblical Theology and the firm belief that the later books
in the Bible reveal and explain God’s plan, intentionally, with greater clarity
than the earlier books. So, even though we can see salvation by grace in
Genesis, we see it much clearer in Ephesians. And once we’ve read Ephesians, we
will forever see Genesis in a different light. The amazing aspect of this is
that God knew, all along, that the day would come when Ephesians would influence
what I see in Genesis. He knew that! In fact, when Jesus preached, he knew that
his audience was made up of first century farmers and fishermen – but he also
knew that I would one day read the same sermon. God was preaching to them in
their time and to me in this time at the same time. Therefore, limiting the
text to the incomplete perspective of the original audience unnecessarily limits
God's "unfolding revelation."
I
realized early on (even as I was teaching the limited methodology) that such a
limited perspective of interpretation completely negated the possibility of
prophecy. So, I changed the quote to say, “It can never mean what it never
meant … except for prophecy.” Unfortunately, that limits God, too, for the
entire Bible is prophecy. It's like when movies or video games put in
"Easter eggs." Those are fun little clues that reveal that there is a
unified author often telling apparently disconnected stories. Pixar movies are
full of references to other Pixar movies; e.g., in the dentist’s office of
Finding Nemo, there is a Buzz Lightyear doll on the floor and a little boy is
reading an “Incredibles” comic book. Also, in nearly every Pixar movie, the
same Toyota Pizza truck can be seen and the number A113 is in all of them. In a
similar way, God has put parts of the N.T. in the O.T. -- not to mention that
Jesus is the subject of all of it.
With
that in mind, we come to my own devotional reading from a couple of days ago.
It is Hosea 3:1-5: "The Lord
said to me, “Go, show love to your wife again, even though she loves another
man and continually commits adultery. Likewise, the Lord loves the
Israelites although they turn to other gods and love to offer raisin cakes to
idols.” 3:2 So I paid fifteen shekels of silver and about seven bushels
of barley to purchase her. 3:3 Then I told her, “You must live with me
many days; you must not commit adultery or have sexual intercourse with
another man, and I also will wait for you.” 3:4 For the Israelites must
live many days without a king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred fertility
pillar, without ephod or idols. 3:5 Afterward, the Israelites will turn
and seek the Lord their God and their Davidic king. Then they will submit to
the Lord in fear and receive his blessings in the future. (NET)"
From
my N.T. perspective, I see 3 things:
1.
V 1-2: Hosea had to pay a
"redemption" price to get his wife back. Somehow, in her sin and
idolatry, she got into debt (perhaps to a pimp or maybe she was in jail for a
DUI -- it's easy to get into debt when you live without boundaries) and Hosea
had to pay the price to set her free. How difficult it must have been for him
to have to pay for her, knowing full well that she was guilty. This makes me
think of Jesus, paying the price for us, out of his love for us, knowing full
well what shameful harlots we are. You could say that Jesus isn’t in the text,
but I would beg to differ. God commanded Hosea to return to his unfaithful wife
as an example of God’s love for His people. God planned this out intentionally.
It is not coincidental that Hosea had to pay a redemption price for his
unfaithful wife and we cannot overlook that God paid a very costly redemption
price for us. He who orchestrated this story did so as a prequel to the even
more tragic story to come.
2.
V 3-4: Hosea withheld having times of
intimacy with his wife as an illustration that a time would come when God's
presence would not be with His people. They would not have a King or a
priest--before a Davidic King would come. I look at this and see the 400 years
without prophecy, before Jesus (the Davidic king and Priest in the order of
Melchizedek) came. It would be very unlikely that the original audience would have
had the same interpretation, since they lacked the information that we
currently have.
3.
V 5: After this long time without God's
intimate presence, there would come a new time of intimacy in which the
previous rebellious people would become God seekers. A Davidic King will reign
over them and they will willingly submit to the Lord. This is clearly (from my
N.T. perspective) referring to Jesus and the character transforming ministry of
the Holy Spirit. It is, again, unlikely that the original audience could have foreseen
this fulfillment. What is very likely is that the original audience could only
see the general outline that God would not reject them forever and that the
Davidic dynasty would not be wiped out. All of that is true, but we now know
how it came to be fulfilled.
So, proper biblical interpretation
recognizes the interpretation of the original audience (as much as we can
surmise it) and also brings clarity to it with an awareness of, and insights
from, God's unfolding revelation.
