“DOES GOD WANT ME BACK?” HOSEA 11:1-11.
HOSEA 11: 1-2, 3-4, 5-7, 8-11.
PLEASE OPEN YOUR BIBLE TO HOSEA 11.
If you ever had the feeling that you had failed God, your first impulse was either to run to God or to run away from Him. Today, do you view God as a loving Father diligently looking for His prodigal child to return home as described in Luke 15: 20-24, or is your concept of God that of a stern despot harshly imposing His rule upon His subjects?
The Bible does teach that God disciplines His people, but it also explains that He always disciplines on the basis of love in order to restore the broken fellowship caused by sin. When we face or succumb to temptation, the wisest and only appropriate course of action is to turn to God who loves us and wants the best for us.
Many people are haunted by their past sins and failures. Perhaps they can’t forgive themselves; perhaps they can’t understand God’s mercy. Either way, God’s desire is to overcome the past and set the course for a God-pleasing future.
In today’s lesson you will see in one of the most beautiful chapters in the O.T. how Hosea described God’s continuing love for His wayward people Israel. They had greatly sinned against the Lord and deserved punishment. Yet in an amazing turn of events, God promised to restore them completely. What He did for Israel, God still does for all who return to Him. His desire is to overcome the past and set the course for a God-pleasing future.
PLEASE READ HOSEA 11: 1-2.
When a list of the greatest chapters of the Bible is made, Hosea 11 qualifies. The Book of Hosea is a mountain peak of God’s process of revealing Himself and chapter 11 shows why. Much of the O.T. magnifies the righteousness and holiness of God and His wrath against human sin. Occasional glimpses of His heart of love are revealed, but Hosea 11 shows us clearly that God’s deepest desires it to love people by forgiving their sins.
Early in the book this revelation was made through showing that God was like a husband who loved his unfaithful wife and sought to win her back. Hosea 11 compares God to a loving father who was forced to discipline a rebellious son with the hope that tough love would win him back.
There is no contradiction between God’s love being described as that of a husband and that of a father. Both of these depictions teach the same basic truths, and both communicate the love of God in terms with which people can identify.
God is the speaker throughout ch. 11. Dr. Ironside says ‘it is plain, from a consideration of Matt. 2: 14-15 that says, “That very night Joseph left for Egypt with Mary and the Baby, and stayed there until King Herod’s death.” This fulfilled the prophet’s prediction, in Hosea 11:1 “that I have called my Son from Egypt.” God had in view His own Son, our Lord Jesus Christ.
And yet a careful reading of the first few verses of this chapter will make it equally clear that the prophet Hosea himself, doubtless, had none other than Israel nationally before him when he spoke the words quoted. He was dwelling on Israel’s past deliverance from the house of bondage, when Jehovah loved him and called him, as His son, out of the land dominated by the Pharaohs. Hence Matthew wrote by divine inspiration when he declared that Hosea’s words prophetically foretold the coming up of God’s Son out of Egypt.
Notice the personal pronouns I and My. Child suggests an immaturity akin to helplessness, the inability to bear the responsibilities of adulthood. My son communicates the intimate relationship that God intended for Israel. The verbs loved and called are key words. Back in Exodus 4: 22 the Lord described Israel as “My Firstborn son”: Hosea’s opening words in vs. 1 portray God’s deep affection for Israel.
The main theme in the chapter is the love of God. This is seen in the use of the word, but in many other ways. The use of this Father-son relationship goes back to the period of the exodus. God told Moses to tell Pharaoh in Ex. 4: 22-23, “Thus saith the Lord, Israel is my son, even my firstborn: and I say unto thee, Let my son go, that he may serve Me: and if thou refuse to let him go, I will slay thy son, even thy firstborn.”
The Lord already considered the Israelites to be His children. This is based on the promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But He called them when He delivered them from slavery in the land of Egypt.
Called out of Egypt, Jesus was ever the One in whom the Father found delight. In this how blessedly opposite to Israel! Redeemed by power from Egyptian tyranny, they went far from Him, though He called them in tenderest love. Turning away, they sacrificed unto Baalim, and worshiped images of man’s design.
The Bible emphasizes that Israel’s departure from Egypt was not a human escape engineered by Moses and others. It was a deliverance by the power of God. The Israelites were helpless slaves of the world’s super power of that day. Only God could deliver them. God led the Israelites to Mount Sinai, where He declared in Ex. 19: 1-6 that they were His special people.
Why did God choose Israel to be His son? They were helpless slaves. He could have chosen a powerful nation, but He chose little Israel. When Moses dealt with that question, the answer in Deut. 7:7-8 was that God chose Israel because He loved them and had made promises to the patriarchs.
God exercised His sovereign ability to choose whom He would call to be His son in a special way. “God’s love for Israel is the romance of the ages.” He did not choose Egypt with her years of wisdom and culture, nor Assyria with her military might. God chose a slave people to be His son; He called a child to be His hope for the future.
When He brought Israel from the womb of chaos and bondage and set her under the guidance of the Law (which was given at Sinai), He acted as creatively as when He ordered light to come out of darkness.
No other explanation exists for Israel’s existence than God’s grace, His great love in action. Certainly, God did not love and select Israel for His own because the nation was religious, for other nations were religious as well. It not because of Israel’s strength; other nations were much stronger. And God did not love the Israelites because of their economic potential; other nations possessed greater potential. God said in Deut 7:7-8, “The Lord was devoted to you and chose you, not because you were more numerous than all peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples. But because the Lord loved you.” We are God’s children because He first loved us and called us to Himself.
The N.T. shows that God’s plan was to be the Father of all people who will love and serve Him. He intended for Israel to be a missionary nation through which to share His love for all people. This required them to have a close relationship with their Father in order to be missionaries to others. Hosea 11:2 shows that they were far from being a missionary nation.
Israel’s history in a nut-shell is found in vs. 1-2. God loved them and called them to be His son, but the people went from Him. Their response was to turn to pagan idolatry. Baalim is plural; it means “Baals.” Baal worship was a fertility religion practiced widely in Canaan and other nearby countries. Israel also burned incense to graven images.
Shortly after accepting God’s covenant, the people made a golden calf and worshiped it.
While nearing Canaan, in Numbers 25 they were lured into Baal worship at Baal-peor. This pattern of worship continued until after the exile.
The chapter 11 opens as though God were a parent complaining about the actions of a rebellious child. Vs. 1-5 focus on the exodus and warn that God will in effect undo the exodus by sending Israel to a new Egypt, Assyria, and to a new Pharaoh; the Assyrian king.
In vs. 2, God spoke with deep feelings about Israel’s refusal to change and respond to His persistent kindness. God expressed the essence of the Israelites rebellion in two ways (1). They refused to obey God’s call, and (2) in spurning that call, they turned to idols specifically forbidden by the law.
God mercifully called them, but the Israelites rebelled----even yearning for Egypt and thus committing apostasy. Their sacrificing to idols began in the wilderness with the golden calf in Ex. 32 and continued to the time of Hosea.
We Join Israel’s sin when we look to anyone or anything other than the true Creator and Provider. Drifting away from devoted love from God is a grievous wrong! How dos God show His love for us? He shows His love by calling us to Himself and by continuing to love us when we drift away from Him in sin.
PLEASE READ HOSEA 11: 3-4.
These verses add to the description of God as Father to Israel as His child in vs. 1. Vs. 3 lists three acts of love of a father for His child. The first act of love was to teach the people to walk. Any parent can identify with this task. Parents see their children go through the stages of turning over, sitting up, crawling, standing alone, and finally by taking steps on their own.
The parent’s role in this process involves patience, encouragement, and demonstration. What a moment when the child walks on his or her own! On the spiritual level, God was like a father teaching His people to walk. The Bible often speaks of living for God as walking.
In a book that repeatedly warns of God’s destructive judgment, this reminder of God’s gentle and loving care is significant. God is not some harsh taskmaster for His people who torments those under His authority. Instead, He lovingly cares for His people and extends His protective arms to guide and help them.
The persistent and rebellious rejection of God’s love by His people evokes His discipline—but even that is evidence of His love and desire to bring His children back to Himself.
Taking them by their arms can be translated, “I took them in My arms.” The picture is similar to the comparison of God to a shepherd in Isaiah 40: 11: “He shall feed his flock like a shepherd: he shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently led those that are with young.” The Heavenly Father does more than teach His people to walk. When they grow weary, He picks them up and carries them cradled in His arms. God cares for and nurtures His children.
Even though God led Ephraim or Israel by the arms and taught them to walk, the Israelites remained ignorant of who loved and provided for them: “But they never knew that I healed them.” How could Israel not know that they owed everything to the Lord who loved them?
As difficult as it may seem from our perspective, the O. T. is replete with accounts of the Israelites behaving as if they had never experienced God’s love and mercy. But how often have we experienced God’s protection and care one day only to awaken the next day filled with anxiety as though God had abandoned us?
In Hosea 5: 13 the prophet presented the plight from which they needed to be healed. Only the Lord could heal them of their sins. Therefore the call from Hosea 6: 1 was “Come and let us return unto the Lord: for he hath torn, and he will heal us.” Yet the people continued in sin when called to let the Lord heal them. Hosea 11:3 says that God had been like a concerned parent or a carrying physician, but “they knew not that I healed them.” This shows how the two themes of God’s love and Israel’s sin are intertwined throughout Hosea 11.
The reference to God’s healing of the Israelites may allude to an event that occurred following the exodus from Egypt as recorded in Ex. 15: 22-25. When Moses led the Israelites to Marah, they could not drink the bitter water. After God instructed Moses to throw a tree into the waters, the water became sweet and drinkable.
At that time God said to the people of Israel, “If you will carefully obey the Lord your God, do what is right in His eyes, pay attention to His commands, and keep all His statues. I will not inflict any illness on you I inflicted on the Egyptians. For I am the Lord who heals you.” V26. When the Israelites disobeyed God’s commands, they suffered the consequences for acting as if they did not know that the Lord was the One who had healed them.
In vs. 4 the metaphor changes form the picture of God as a human father to God as a herdsman of cattle. Israel had experienced pampering care as God led them with human cords, with ropes of kindness. God restrained His people, but the restraints were cords of love that preserved and protected the Israelites rather than deprived them of freedom. Furthermore, God carefully eased the yoke from their jaws, likely picturing the action of a compassionate herdsman who lifted the yoke from the ox’s shoulders so the yoke would not slide forward and impede the ox when it bent down to feed.
The imagery of oxen pulling a heavy load may be outdated for those who live in a society where there are no animals such as oxen. But God’s character, described by this image, is not outdated. Today when His people’s burdens are heavy and the way is long, He bends down to ease the yoke, caring for our needs with His grace and presence. How does the Lord love us? He picks us up on His arms and eases our burden even when we are insensitive to His loving care.
PLEASE READ HOSEA 11: 5-7.
In this passage God came to a decisive point in His message to Israel. The people’s refusal to turn from their wickedness placed them in great peril. The sins described in vs. 2 and 3b resulted in the judgments described in vs. 5-7.
In vs. 5 God would remove the Israelites from their land and send them back into captivity. However, they would not return to the land of Egypt. Rather, they would go to Assyria. Hosea previously identified Egypt as the place of the nation’s coming exile. But now we understand that Hosea used Egypt as a metaphor for Israel’s coming captivity.
Hosea introduced a word play when he pronounced Israel‘s sentence. Return can mean “to repent” as well as “to go back.” Because Israel had refused to repent, God would return them to serve a foreign king. In contrast to the days when God blessed Israel in tender and compassionate ways, the days ahead would bring the fulfillment of God’s promised judgment. Because of the Israelites’ disloyalty to the covenant, God would send them back into bondage.
God had been patient with Israel in her stubborn refusals to love and obey Him. Now His judgment was sure to come. In vs. 6 the Assyrian army would conquer Israel in a bloody war. The prophet spoke of coming war depicted by a sword slashing down the bars of the gates that secured Israel’s cities from attack. The dominating and devastating power of the Assyrian army would destroy the cities by breaching the fortified walls and killing the inhabitants. God had fed His people faithfully throughout their history, but now the sword would feed on them. The word “sword” signifies the death and destruction that would come with the defeat by the Assyrians. God wanted the Israelites to understand that their coming suffering was because of their schemes.
The use of the word counsels in vs. 6 implies that these leaders had given the nation poor advice. No conquerors up to that time were so brutal as the Assyrians. They left pyramids of skulls outside a conquered city. The mention of their name was enough to strike terror into the hearts of the people of that day.
In Vs. 7 God restated Israel’s utter spiritual infidelity as bent on turning from Me. The people had determined to turn from God. Israel feigned a relationship with God through worship. Although they called to Him on high in worship, the Israelites depended on an apostate theology in which they mixed true worship of the Lord with the cults of the land. Because of continued rebellion, the Lord would not exalt them at all.
We behave like Israel when we refuse to heed the warnings of the Lord. God still graciously extends an offer for us to return to Him and enjoy His blessing: but the offer is on the Lord’s terms, not ours. God will not compromise on sin, nor will He allow anything or anyone to share His rightful place. How could Israel commit such sins in light of the love God had shown them? They did this because God created people with freedom of choice, but the human heart is inclined toward sin. The Israelites were bent to backsliding or “determined to turn from” the Lord.
Does a time ever come when even love abandons its own? Yes, if abandonment is the only way God can bring about His people’s repentance. But even God’s abandonment is an act of tough love because it is His way to effect justice and reconciliation.
Paul’s haunting words in Rom. 1: 24 “God gave them up” fit the fate of the Israelites. The suffering they experienced at Assyria’s hand is history. How does the Lord love His people? He abandons us to His discipline so we will repent and turn back to Him. Even in our determined rebellion God’s tough love will not let us go.
PLEASE READ HOSEA 11: 8-11.
In these verses the Lord expressed the anguish of a loving parent who must discipline a disobedient child. His love directed that He act in the best interest of the defiant child even as His love stirred His compassion. Vs. 8 is one of the most tender and most moving passages in the book. It gives insight into God’s heart of love.
The first two questions in vs. 8 express the same though in different words. The Lord debates with Himself about giving up on and surrendering Israel to the impending judgment mentioned in vs. 6.
The next two questions express the same thought in different words. Admah (Ad muh) and Zebolim (zih BOY im) were two cities associated with Sodom and Gomorrah. According to Deut. 29:23 both cities were destroyed----along with Sodom and Gomorrah ----by God in His anger. So the Lord questioned how He could treat Israel in the same way that He had dealt with those immoral cities.
The struggle described in vs. 8 was not over whether or not Israel deserved such severe judgment. The struggle was in the compassionate nature of God Himself. As a loving parent, the Lord desired to bless His children. But their apostasy required His discipline.
In vs. 8 I have had a change of heart appears to mean that God changed His mind and chose not to inflict the destructive judgment on Israel.
Although this statement could mean that God’s judgment was delayed, it likely refers to the intensity of the Lord’s love and compassion for His people. Other ways to translate this part of the verse are that God’s “heart” was “turned over within” Him and His “heart churns within” Him. God’s compassion for His people was stirred or kindled to help them in their misery.
God’s compassionate love for His people meant that He would be merciful even in judgment. He promised not to vent the full fury of His anger. The Lord’s righteous anger against Israel’s sins was entirely justified, but He would restrain His anger for the sake of His people. Israel would not be entirely destroyed, for the Lord is God, and not man. As the Holy One among His people, the Lord must judge Israel’s sins. But He would not come in rage.
God’s judgment was not prompted by an angry explosion. Rather, it was the result of His deliberate hatred of sin. God could have obliterated Israel as He had Admah (AD muh) and Zebolim (zih BOY im) in His anger, but He wanted to restore His wayward children to a faithful relationship with Himself. Therefore, judgment would be severe but not absolute.
God would restrain Himself because He is God and not man, the Holy One who is not vindictive in anger, arbitrary in His passions, or forgetful of His promises. Because He is God, He must act consistently with His nature. Humans seek revenge, but God works salvation. Because God is not a man, grace prevails over law, love over hate, and discipline over destruction. Because of who God is, we have reason to hope, even for the worst of us.
The Israelites were conquered by the Assyrians in 721 B .C., and were scattered throughout the Assyrian Empire. Nevertheless, God promised that one day He would return His people to their homes. He would roar like a lion and His children would come trembling from the west. This is a picture of a chastised people coming back to the Lord.
God’s judgment was intended to cause His children to repent and return, not to annihilate them. Even in the midst of promised judgment, the Lord mercifully offered the hope of future restoration.
God is merciful, gracious, and loving: but He does not spare the guilty. God’s decision in vs. 9 did not save the rebellious sinners among the people; neither did it keep the nation from defeat. His decision was to not give up working with and through Israel to accomplish His will and to forgive the sins of individuals who return to Him.
God offers restoration to His people---even when they do not seek it or deserve it. How does God restore us from our repeated failures in a relationship with Him? He loves us with a tough love that will not give up on us. Thank God.
NEXT SUNDAY WE CONCLUDE OUR STUDY OF HOSEA BY ASKING IN CH. 14 “CAN GOD FIX THIS?” OR “CAN GOD MAKE ANYTHING MEANINGFUL OUT OF THE MESS I’VE MADE OF MY LIFE?” A.V. DAUGHERTY <altav@swbell.net>