Word of Jehovah, poetry

Revised Edition: LukivPress (Victoria, BC), 2022.

Introduction

"Go, take to yourself a wife of fornication," Jehovah says to Hosea (who in 804 BCE begins his 59-year career as a prophet). He marries Gomer, and they have a son (Jezreel), but her next two children, apparently, are illegitimate: Lo-ruhamah (a daughter) and Lo-ammi (her second son). Why would Jehovah tell Hosea to marry such a woman? Do their marriage and her adultery prophetically describe a larger drama?

Yes, they do. Lo-ruhamah and Lo-ammi refer to Jehovah's eventually withdrawing mercy from the ten-tribe northern kingdom of Israel (referred to as Ephraim). They also refer to his eventual rejection of the nation for its spiritually adulterous choices.

Note, too, Jehovah's "early" forgiveness of Israel's apostasy from true worship and rejection of the Mosaic Law that prohibits murder, theft, fornication, and any form of false worship such as devotion to the Baals and calf idols (spiritual fornication) finds reflection in Hosea's taking back adulterous Gomer. But Jehovah's forgiveness would come to an end; he would allow Assyria to devastate, to conquer, "Ephraim" in 740 BCE, in line with Hosea's prophecy in chapter 13, verse 16: "Samaria [referring to Israel (also called Ephraim)] will be held guilty, for she has rebelled against her God. By the sword they will fall, their children will be dashed to pieces, and their pregnant women will be ripped open." What a tragic end-the result of the Israelites' gross lack of appreciation for their heavenly father for over two centuries (997 to 740 BCE).

Why does Jehovah tell Hosea to marry a woman of fornication? One reason: as a warning to Israelites of the northern kingdom to abandon their apostate, rebellious, disobedient choices, and repentantly make better ones.

Do they listen?

An excerpt

9.

Upon a divan of thorns,
He sits-

Upon a table of thistles,
He rests his elbows-

Upon a pillow of nettles,
He lays his weary head-

And his children wear
Garments of prickles
That gnaw their skin-

And the brambles
That fill the walls,
His wife weaves into
Cloth for her skin,
Even his-

And he is happy in his sleep,
And daily thoughts of
Food and wine,
Because he has traded
Abraham's way for a sort
Of intercourse with Baal-

And so he is happy
To choose his own path,
His own green path,
Just as Eve, his mother,
Too, chose hers-

The author

Dan Lukiv, published in 19 countries, is a poet, novelist, columnist, short story and article writer, and independent education researcher (hermeneutic phenomenology). As a creative writer, he apprenticed with Canada's Professor Robert Harlow (recipient of the George Woodcock Achievement award for an outstanding literary career), the USA's Paul Bagdon (Spur Award finalist for Best Original Paperback), and England's D. M. Thomas (recipient of the Cheltenham Prize for Literature, Orwell Prize [biography], Los Angeles Fiction Prize, and Cholmondeley award for poetry). He attended The University of British Columbia (creative writing department), the acclaimed Humber School for Writers (poetry writing program), and Writer's Digest University (novel writing program).