A caller on “Ask the Pastor” brought up Hosea 13:16 (14:1 in Hebrew and Greek). It reads: “Samaria shall bear her guilt, because she has rebelled against her God; they shall fall by the sword; their little ones shall be dashed in pieces, and their pregnant women ripped open.” In my response I stressed that the caller was right to be horrified by the text. In fact, the text intends to be shocking. I noted that it was admirable that he found this shocking and noted that the parallelism indicates that the last line “their pregnant women ripped open” is meant to go one step further than “their little ones shall be dashed in pieces.” After all, the pregnant woman being attacked means that two lives will be lost.
Then again, the purpose of this text – to shock the audience so that they will repent (see the next verse) – only works in a culture that values life from the womb.
Dashing infants and young children in pieces is a horrific picture. I cannot imagine such an end for my five month old or three year old children. Some time later, in the midst of another culture that did not have the same value for life as taught by Scripture, the ancient church would find itself rescuing infants left to die from exposure to the elements. That a culture would sanction such action is disturbing to say the least. Apparently this was not so disturbing in that culture – something that would change as Christianity continued to grow and influence the society. And thankfully God turned their sin into a blessing for those young children to be brought up to trust and obey Him by the Christians who found them.
But now we find ourselves in a culture that would find dismemberment of already-born infants by violence to be abhorrent but not the violent dismemberment of the child in the womb being ripped open. Part of the absolutely shocking nature of the second line “their pregnant women ripped open” is that the women are pregnant! In fact, while the first line is more generalized and could refer to the infant after birth all the way through very young children it could also refer to the child in the womb. Thus it is possible that the author intends to further specify who these little ones dashed in pieces are – that is, unborn children – by the second line about pregnant women being ripped open. Not only does parallelism normally strengthen the point from one line to the next but also it often gets more specific.
In any case, this text describes the coming judgment of God upon the people of God. I am calling them the people of God, as Scripture does, because they were members of the covenant community and not because of any assumption of their eternal salvation. This coming judgment of God for their rebellion against Him included a wicked nation invading Samaria and inflicting these plagues. God’s purpose, motive, and goal was completely good. The same cannot be said for the invading nation. Such horrific actions would quickly escalate until God would send judgment on that nation as well.
The text is a prophecy concerning the coming Exile. But the Exile is more than just not living in the Promised Land. The Exile is separation from God. The Exile of the living God from the people of God would not really end until He came to be with us in the person of Jesus Christ – and He came in the womb of the virgin Mary. To be sure, had Herod known earlier he would have jumped at the opportunity to rip open Mary when she was still pregnant. He did dash to pieces the little ones two and under in Bethlehem and in all the region (Matt 2:16). But the coming judgment would have to wait. It too would come at the hands of a wicked people (this time the Romans), but God’s purpose, motive, and goal was completely good. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ was the beginning of the final judgment – a judgment that we cannot describe in terms that are shocking enough.
Nevertheless, as people who have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, we should find Hosea’s portrait shocking. We should work to preserve the life of the little ones that some want to dash to pieces, whether they are in or out of their mothers’ womb. This includes adopting children that otherwise would be dismembered or left to be exposed to the elements. This includes protecting pregnant women from those who would assault them and/or the child within them. And this includes pronouncing the forgiveness of sins in the name of Jesus Christ to those who bear their guilt because of their rebellion against God. All of these things will lead to the church growing.
Hosea’s words are awful because the little ones in the womb are human beings made in the image of God. Let us carry these little children to Jesus.
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