Hosea 2:16 “And it shall be at that day, saith the LORD, [that] thou shalt call me Ishi; and shalt call me no more Baali.”
The English word master has gone through many changes throughout the centuries. It means many things to many different people. A slave owner is called a master, the owner of a dog is called a master. In the Western world we only use the word master in a marriage relationship as a joke, yet in some cultures a husband is a master to his wife. The most recent issue of the National Geographic Magazine shows a picture of a forty year old man being wed to an eleven year old girl in a less developed culture. Such a thing is repulsive to our thinking but fully acceptable to the mindset of a culture where the male dominates the female and women are virtual slaves to men.
I would like to focus on the word master as it is a word I hear repeatedly by Christians in reference to their relationship with God. As I said earlier, the word master can mean different things to different people. In its origins the word master expressed the idea of ownership in the sense that you have mastered or acquired ownership of a trade or skill. In education you go to undergraduate school where you are schooled in many different disciplines but after completion you then go on to obtain a master’s degree where you specialize in one discipline and master that discipline.
Yet, in our modern times we tend to use the word master to express the ownership of another person or an animal. In terms of people it is associated with the term of slave as a master to a slave. This is the first thing that comes to our minds when we hear someone call another person a master. We rarely use the term in relationship of a student to a teacher which was once a very common reference. A student would refer to his teacher as master, not because that teacher owned him or ruled over him, but because the student was recognizing that his teacher had mastered the disciplines that he sought to master himself.
That brings us to Christians who refer to God as their Master. Does God desire that he subject us to Him as a slave to a master? The only time in Scripture we have this relationship is when Paul speaks of himself as a bond servant. This is not a slave to master relationship where the master rules with a whip creating fear and intimidation, but a voluntary relationship where the master rules out of love and respect. I see nowhere in Scripture where God has to put us in chains and take a whip to us to keep us in line. In fact, Hosea 2:16 show very much the opposite of this.
Hosea has now brought his adulterous wife back into his home. She must now remain in his home and perform her duties as a wife because she is bound by law to do so. Any violation is grounds for Hosea to drag her off to the Sanhedrin where she can be convicted of adultery and stoned. She lives with the constant threat of death as her motivation to perform her duties as a wife. She is a slave and her husband Hosea is her master. The word used here for master is ba’al which means master in the sense of a slave to an owner. Indeed, Hosea had to purchase her, pay money for her to redeem her from her adulterous state. He could now do whatever he wanted with her for he owned her and by law she could not offer even a mere squeak lest Hosea could demand that she be put to death. There is another word in Hebrew rendered as master and that is rabbi. This is not a master in the sense of one who has life and death control and ownership but one that is respected for having acquired certain knowledge. That is why Nichodemus in John 3 refers to Jesus as rabbi which some translations render as master. Not that Nichodemus is subjecting himself to Jesus but that he recognizes Jesus as one who has mastered certain skills.
The word ba’ali comes from the root word ba’al which is the general Biblical term for the many false gods worshipped in pagan religions. It means to lord over, despise, possess, distain, to destroy and it also means to become a husband or wife in the sense of possessing someone. This is a marriage where the marriage is a marriage of convenience or an arranged marriage where there is no love. It is the marriage portrayed in the National Geographic Magazine of the eleven year old child being married to a forty year old man. There is no love there only a legal contract. Often this was the case in Eastern marriages where they were arranged and it was planned or hoped that one day this husband and wife would no longer be a ba’al but an ishi. Ishi is another word for husband or wife, but this one does not carry the sense of lording over, despising, possessing or destroying, but one of mutual respect and love. This is a rabbi type of master one that shows respect and honor for someone who deserves and earned that respect, honor and love.
Put into the English language of today what Hosea was saying was that his wife was calling him Ba’ali or her husband, master because she was legally obligated to him, her life was in his hands and she faithfully performed all her duties as a wife because she was under legal obligation at the cost of her life to do them. Yet Hosea longed for her to call him ishi my husband, where she performed the duties of a wife, not out of fear for her life, but out of love.
Many people become Christians out of fear of dying and going to hell and for their entire lives they call God master (ba’al), always fearful they may cross some line and God may send some affliction, tragedy, disaster or even send them to hell. Yet, like in Hosea 2:14, God is constantly taking you out to the wilderness to speak comfortably to you. Old King James really played down that word, comfortably, for in Hebrew it is the words al lavah which means to speak your heart, speak of the tender, longing loving feelings you have. It is with the hope that Hosea speaks al lavah to his wife in hopes that one day she will speak al lavah to him, that one day she will no longer call him ba’ali (my master) but ishi (my husband) and she will perform her duties as a wife not because she fears retribution but because she loves him.
So too, God longs for us to move beyond the fear of hell and calling Him ba’ali (my master) because you fear you may go to hell if you don’t obey and follow his rules, but that you will call Him ishi (my husband) because you obey and follow his rules out love. Every day He is taking you out to the wilderness to listen to his al lavah (words of His heart) in the singing and dancing of His birds, the colorful leaves of His trees, the glory of His flowers and majesty of His clouds and skies hoping, always hoping that you will speak al lavah (words of your heart) to Him and no longer call Him master, but my Husband.
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