• Paine
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    Hosea illustrates how different the views of the Kingdom of Heaven are between different Christian groups.

    Paul quotes Hosea 9:21 in Letter to the Romans 9:24 in order to support the inclusion of Gentiles to the expected change. It is helpful to read that passage in the context of the whole chapter:

    Israel's Infidelity, Punishment, and Redemption
    Plead with your mother, plead—
    for she is not my wife,
    and I am not her husband—
    that she put away her whoring from her face,
    and her adultery from between her breasts,
    or I will strip her naked
    and expose her as in the day she was born,
    and make her like a wilderness,
    and turn her into a parched land,
    and kill her with thirst.
    Upon her children also I will have no pity,
    because they are children of whoredom.
    For their mother has played the whore;
    she who conceived them has acted shamefully.
    For she said, “I will go after my lovers;
    they give me my bread and my water,
    my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.”
    Therefore I will hedge up her way with thorns;
    and I will build a wall against her,
    so that she cannot find her paths.
    She shall pursue her lovers,
    but not overtake them;
    and she shall seek them,
    but shall not find them.
    Then she shall say, “I will go
    and return to my first husband,
    for it was better with me then than now.”
    She did not know
    that it was I who gave her
    the grain, the wine, and the oil,
    and who lavished upon her silver
    and gold that they used for Baal.
    Therefore I will take back
    my grain in its time,
    and my wine in its season;
    and I will take away my wool and my flax,
    which were to cover her nakedness.
    Now I will uncover her shame
    in the sight of her lovers,
    and no one shall rescue her out of my hand.
    I will put an end to all her mirth,
    her festivals, her new moons, her sabbaths,
    and all her appointed festivals.
    I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees,
    of which she said,
    “These are my pay,
    which my lovers have given me.”
    I will make them a forest,
    and the wild animals shall devour them.
    I will punish her for the festival days of the Baals,
    when she offered incense to them
    and decked herself with her ring and jewelry,
    and went after her lovers,
    and forgot me, says the Lord.
    Therefore, I will now allure her,
    and bring her into the wilderness,
    and speak tenderly to her.
    From there I will give her her vineyards,
    and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.
    There she shall respond as in the days of her youth,
    as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.
    Therefore, I will now allure her,
    and bring her into the wilderness,
    and speak tenderly to her.
    From there I will give her her vineyards,
    and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.
    There she shall respond as in the days of her youth,
    as at the time when she came out of the land of
    Egypt.
    On that day, says the Lord, you will call me, “My husband,” and no longer will you call me, “My Baal.”(master)
    For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be mentioned by name no more.
    I will make for you a covenant on that day with
    the wild animals, the birds of the air, and the creeping things of the ground; and I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land; and I will make you lie down in safety.
    And I will take you for my wife forever;
    I will take you for my wife in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love, and in mercy. I will take you for my wife in faithfulness; and you shall know the Lord.

    On that day I will answer, says the Lord,
    I will answer the heavens
    and they shall answer the earth;
    and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil,
    and they shall answer Jezreel (God sows);
    and I will sow him for myself in the land.
    And I will have pity on Lo-ruhamah (on the not pitied),
    and I will say to Not my people, “You are my people”;
    and he shall say, “You are my God.”
    Hosea 2, NRSV

    The emphasis upon changing the cosmos itself is also central to Paul's vision. But Paul is expecting the faithful to transform into new creatures altogether. Quite a leap higher than changing the covenant with Israel and creation as Hosea describes.

    And both are very different roles from that of Jesus in the Gospel according to John where the Logos was co-present with God at creation.

    This chapter also puts the kibosh on Paul's attempt to place 'faith above works' into the scriptural tradition. Israel has to stop being a whore for the change to happen.

    And to follow up on the Marcion separation of the punitive and loving spirits, Hosea gives the lie to that proposition.

    Edit to add: I forgot to mention that it was a talk given by Jason Staples that brought the two passages to my attention.
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