From an early child I got to know my mum had eyes in the back of her head. Amazingly she saw everything. I’m thinking of that this morning as I read these next few verses:-
“As at Adam,they have broken the covenant; they were unfaithful to me there. Gilead is a city of evildoers, stained with footprints of blood. As marauders lie in ambush for a victim, so do bands of priests; they murder on the road to Shechem, carrying out their wicked schemes. I have seen a horrible thing in Israel: There Ephraim is given to prostitution, Israel is defiled.” (Hosea 6 v 7-10)
Adam was a place mentioned in Joshua 3 v 16 where the Jordan River was held back and the Joshua generation crossed over.
Something happened during Hosea’s generation that was similar to when some priests broke the covenant of God at Adam in Joshua’s generation, but we don’t have any information on this, there’s nothing in the Bible about it.
Gilead (known as Ramoth in Gilead) was one of the cities of refuge (Joshua 20) where people who had accidentally killed could find safety.
Shechem was also a city of refuge but had a historical claim to the fact it was here that Abram had built an altar of worship to the Lord (Genesis 12).
Something was happening in Hosea’s generation which was the opposite of what these cities were known for, but we don’t have any information on this, there’s nothing more in the Bible except God calls it ‘murder’.
There’s lots of things we don’t know. But God sees it all. The Bible history sits within the history of God.
He knows what no one else knows.
He says “I have seen a horrible thing …” He points his finger at the north and the southern kingdom of Israel. There isn’t anything that He doesn’t see. But what do we think the horrible thing is?
- Even in places of the miraculous (Adam) there can be hidden sins that God calls covenant-breakers.
- Even in places of refuge (Gilead and Shechem) the next generations can turn them into harmful places to be.
- The Church can have hidden sins and be places of harm. That’s the horrible thing.
Missions Paul 