Micah 3:1-8

Then they will cry to the Lord, but he will not answer them; he will hide his face from them at that time, because they have acted wickedly. (Micah 3:4)

It is time for the rulers of Israel and Judah to know justice, to understand how their choices have had terrible consequences for others.

The rulers have perverted their relationship with the ruled, oppressing them rather than serving them. Instead of seeking justice, the rulers have been sources of injustice.

The rulers' experience of justice will be painful, similar to the pain they have caused. They will cry out to God for help.

God will turn away. It is not suggested, at least here, that God is the source of pain. But in this case God will not intervene. There will be no mercy. The relationship with God was broken when the rulers' broke their relationship with the ruled.

Micah 2: 1-13

Alas for those who devise wickedness and evil deeds on their beds! When the morning dawns,they perform it,because it is in their power. They covet fields, and seize them; houses, and take them away; they oppress householder and house, people and their inheritance. (Micah 2:1-2)

What is translated as wickedness is more literally trouble or sorrow. Woe to those who intentionally cause sorrow. Woe to those who plan distress, misery, injury and wrong.

There is a particular concern for the nature of our economic relations. We have the power and ability to abuse others. We have the power to fulfill our desires on the backs of others. We will often do this unintentionally, even accidentally. We should be mindful of such unintended harm.

The greatest evil, though, is when we are entirely conscious of the harm to others we cause in fulfilling our plans and do not care or even celebrate. We are to love God and neighbor.

Micah 1:1-9

For this I will lament and wail; I will go barefoot and naked; I will make lamentation like the jackals,and mourning like the ostriches. For her wound is incurable.It has come to Judah;it has reached to the gate of my people, to Jerusalem. (Micah 1: 8-9)

While Hosea was prophesizing in Samara, Micah was active in Judea. Both focus on the spiritual promiscuity and perversion of the Northern Kingdom. Micah writes of Samaria:

All her images shall be beaten to pieces,
all her wages shall be burned with fire,
and all her idols I will lay waste;
for as the wages of a prostitute she gathered them,
and as the wages of a prostitute they shall again be used. (verse 7)

But while Hosea is preaching to the people of Samaria, Micah is preaching to the Judeans and especially the people of Jerusalem.

Hosea 14: 1-9

I am like an evergreen cypress; your faithfulness comes from me. Those who are wise understand these things; those who are discerning know them. For the ways of the Lord are right, and the upright walk in them, but transgressors stumble in them. (Hosea 14: 8-9)

The same ways that serve the upright cause transgressors to stumble. Without further study I perceive that traveling God's way without stumbling depends on a particular kind of understanding and discernment.

I am intrigued by the first line, the final sentence of verse 8. I would think faithfulness must begin with me and be extended to God. But there is something in how God's character is like an evergreen cypress that originates my faithfulness in God.

The original Hebrew translated above as faithfulness is peree meaning fruit or offspring or figuratively any creative outcome. To me this more literal meaning is much clearer than "faithfulness."

The wisdom referenced is chakam. This is a practical, skillful, even shrewd ability at problem-solving. Understanding and discernment are the same Hebrew word meaning to very carefully observe. The transgression referenced is pasha which is a prideful, expansive rebellion.

My creative abilities come from God. In creating I am - or can be - closest to God's intention for me and all of creation. But I will be tempted to create beyond my understanding and beyond God's intention. Such pride will cause my creating to separate me from God.

I am to be an acute observer and a careful listener. By focusing on that outside myself - God and neighbors - rather than on my own ambitions and fantasies, I am much more likely to create with wisdom and understanding.

Hosea 13:16

Samaria shall bear her guilt, because she has rebelled against God; they shall fall by the sword, their little ones shall be dashed in pieces, and their pregnant women ripped open. (Hosea 13: 16)

The fertility - the increase - sought through idoltry will be destroyed.

While the destruction is clear and awful enough, the immediate cause is not specified.

Is the cause an angry God or the absence of a loving God? Does the angry God intervene directly to destroy or is the loving God absent because of our failure to open ourselves to God?

Very bad things happen to very good people. I do not read in Hosea or elsewhere in scripture the possibilty of a sure-fire security contract.

But there is a recurring suggestion that our troubles are amplified by our self-chosen separation from God.

This verse is not assigned for the Sunday lectionary, but it falls between the Hosea passages assigned for Saturday and Monday. Above is a fresco of Hosea and the Delphic Sybil by Pinturicchio.

Hosea 11: 1-9

I will not carry out my fierce anger, nor will I turn and devastate Ephraim. For I am God, and not man — the Holy One among you. I will not come in wrath. (Hosea 11:9)

I will not flare my nose. I will not contort my face.

I am power among you, yet I am set apart. My purposes are not the same as yours, yet I am part of you.

When I come it cannot be as into a closely guarded place.

Translation and interpretation are two closely related but very different skills. In working across cultures we usually want a good translator who will give us what we need to intrepret meaning ourselves.

But there are times when even the best translator may have to explain what is being said is different - even the opposite - of its meaning.

I am amazed at what the Hebrew, translated above as, "I will not come in wrath", might also mean. The verb is bow' meaning to go in, come in, enter. It is different than arriving. There is a strong sense of merging with.

The noun is 'iyr which is derived from the word for a place that is guarded, defended, shut off.

What I hear is God will not enter into a place without being welcomed. God will not enter into a heart and mind that resists.

God is trying to seduce us. But God will not force our acceptance.

Hosea 10: 1:15

Sow for yourselves righteousness;reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground;
for it is time to seek the Lord,that he may come and rain righteousness upon you. (Hosea 10:12)

Scatter, produce, become pregnant with tsedeq: righteousness, justice, your true self, the self that God intended.

Harvest, gather, be impatient for checed: goodness, kindness, faithfulness, self-sacrificing love

Plow, shed light, open up your niyr: darkness, hardness, dryness, or anything that resists the seed, light or love of God.

Seek - darash - keep company with, consult, enquire of, pray to, study, follow, investigate question, call.

God will offer rain, light and love. But we must be open to God and active in our seeking. We must be ready and willing to receive what God intends