The Book of Hosea

Hebrew Study

Explanation

God turns from courtroom to memory, and it is the memory of a father. He loved Israel as a little child and "called my son out of Egypt." He taught the child to walk, "taking them by their arms," and healed them when they fell, "but they knew not that I healed them." He led them not with a rod but with "cords of a man, with bands of love," easing the yoke on their jaws and stooping to feed them, "I laid meat unto them." Every image is tenderness itself.

And every image is answered by betrayal. "As they called them, so they went from them", the more God called, the more they turned away, running to "Baalim" and "graven images." So the discipline is set: since "they refused to return" to God, they will go into bondage again, this time under "the Assyrian." The sword will fall "because of their own counsels", the fruit of their own stubborn choices. The diagnosis is heartbreaking in its plainness: "my people are bent to backsliding from me." They are leaning, by settled habit, away from the God who loved them, and even when called "to the most High, none at all would exalt him." This is the wound at the center of the chapter: love poured out, and love spurned.

Gospel Focus

Look first at how God loves. He does not merely rule Israel; He raised her like a child, taught her to walk, healed her bruises, drew her "with bands of love." This is the heart of the God we preach, a Father whose kindness precedes and pursues His people long before they deserve it, "we love him, because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19). And notice how He draws: not by force but by love, the same drawing the Lord Jesus spoke of, "No man can come to me, except the Father... draw him," and "I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." The cross is the great cord of love by which God pulls sinners home.

But see also the danger of being "bent to backsliding." Sin is not only a series of acts; it becomes a bent, a leaning, a settled direction away from God, until turning back feels against the grain. That is why God's tender healing is met with such tragedy here, "they knew not that I healed them." Do not presume on the God who healed you. If you feel yourself leaning away, bent by habit from the Lord who loved you as a child, hear the cords of love drawing you still, and come home before the leaning hardens into a road you cannot find your way back from.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

Now the heart of God is laid bare. Justice has pronounced the sentence; Ephraim deserves the fate of "Admah" and "Zeboim," the cities overthrown with Sodom (Deuteronomy 29:23). But God cannot bring Himself to it: "How shall I give thee up, Ephraim?" Four times He asks how He could do it, and answers with His own overturned heart: "mine heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together." Then the great decision: "I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim." Why not? Not because the sin is small, but because of who God is: "for I am God, and not man; the Holy One in the midst of thee." His mercy is greater than man's; His holiness dwells among His people to save, not only to consume.

And so a future is promised. "They shall walk after the LORD", the LORD Himself will roar "like a lion," and at that roar the scattered "children shall tremble from the west" and come hurrying home, "as a bird out of Egypt, and as a dove out of the land of Assyria," to be settled again "in their houses." The chapter closes with a sober note, Ephraim still "compasseth me about with lies," while Judah for the moment still "ruleth with God", but the dominant sound is the astonishing mercy of a God who will not give His people up.

Gospel Focus

This is the gospel in the mouth of a weeping Father. "How shall I give thee up?" is the cry of a love that will not let go, and it finds its answer at Calvary. God did not give us up; He gave His Son up for us, "he that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all" (Romans 8:32). The wrath that Ephraim deserved was not merely set aside, it was borne. On the cross the fierceness of anger fell, and mercy triumphed, so that God could be both just and the justifier of the ungodly.

See why mercy wins: "for I am God, and not man." If God dealt with us as an offended man deals with those who wrong him, we would be undone. But His thoughts are not our thoughts; "he will abundantly pardon" (Isaiah 55:7-9). And see who this merciful God is, "the Holy One in the midst of thee." The Holy One did not stay far off. He came into the midst, Immanuel, God with us, and stood among us in the person of Jesus Christ, "the Holy One of God" (Mark 1:24). The same LORD who "shall roar like a lion" to gather His children is the Lion of the tribe of Judah (Revelation 5:5), whose voice still calls the scattered home. If you have wandered, He has not given you up. His heart is turned within Him; His compassions are kindled toward you. Tremble at His roar of love, and come home.