Hosea 14:1-9 (CLICK HERE FOR BIBLE VERSES)
Hi GAMErs!
Today’s passage is Hosea 14:1-9. Let’s go!
Hosea 14:1-3 (NIV)
1 Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God. Your sins have been your downfall!
2 Take words with you and return to the LORD. Say to him: “Forgive all our sins and receive us graciously, that we may offer the fruit of our lips.
3 Assyria cannot save us; we will not mount war-horses. We will never again say ‘Our gods’ to what our own hands have made, for in you the fatherless find compassion.”
On verses 1-3: Like a mediator between God and Israel, here Hosea suggests words that Israel can speak to God in repentance. Repentance means to agree with God that His way was the right way after all. He urges Israel to plead with God for forgiveness (v2). He also tells the Israelites to acknowledge that all those idols they had previously worshiped cannot save them (v3).
What can we learn from this? If we want our relationship with God to be restored, we must repent . Agree with God that His way was the right way after all. We must recognize that those idols that we had worshiped cannot save us and only God can save and satisfy us.
Hosea 14:4-8 (NIV)
4 “I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them.
5 I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like a lily. Like a cedar of Lebanon he will send down his roots;
6 his young shoots will grow. His splendor will be like an olive tree, his fragrance like a cedar of Lebanon.
7 Men will dwell again in his shade. He will flourish like the grain. He will blossom like a vine, and his fame will be like the wine from Lebanon.
8 O Ephraim, what more have I to do with idols? I will answer him and care for him. I am like a green pine tree; your fruitfulness comes from me.”
On verses 4-8: At the same time that Hosea encourages the people of Israel to repent and return to God (v1-3), Hosea also speaks of how God offers healing and love to Israel. In verses 4-7, God offers to heal them of their waywardness (v4) and love them freely (v4), for His anger has been turned away (v4). He promises that Israel will be blessed and be a blessing once again (v5-7). He confirms that, unlike the idols that Israel had worshiped, God is the only one who will answer Israel’s prayers and care for Israel’s well-being (v8). He is the source of their fruitfulness (“your fruitfulness comes from me” – v8).
What can we learn from this?
– In Hosea 14, and even more through Jesus Christ and His death on the cross, God presents Himself as One who is here to heal us and love us, having turned His anger away from us.
– God is incredibly gracious and forgiving. Despite all the ways we have turned away from God, amazingly God still reaches for us with the goal of restoring us and blessing us again.
– God is the reason we can bear fruit, be blessed and be a blessing. Just as God says in verse 8, “Your fruitfulness comes from Me”, so Jesus says in John 15:5, “…If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.”
Hosea 14:9 (NIV)
9 Who is wise? He will realize these things. Who is discerning? He will understand them. The ways of the LORD are right; the righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them.
On verse 9: The ultimate proof of a person’s wisdom or foolishness is in how they respond to God’s Word. Those who are wise will realize the truth of God’s Word and the rightness of God’s ways and decide to walk accordingly. Those who are foolish will reject or ignore God’s offer of love and healing. May God give us a wise and discerning heart to recognize the truth of His Word and to walk in His ways.
Father, thank You that at the end of the book of Hosea, Your mercy triumphs over judgment. When You had every right to disown Your wayward people, You still found, and to this day still keep finding, ways to bring Your people, including me, back to You. Thank You for Your unfailing, ever persevering love for us. In Jesus’ name, AMEN!
A Final Note on the Book of Hosea
That brings our look at the book of Hosea to a close. What were the most important lessons you learned from the book of Hosea?
For me, when I read the book of Hosea chapter by chapter, at first it seems like God can’t make up His mind about Israel — “Should I punish Israel or should I forgive Israel? Should I disown Israel or bring Israel back?” It almost seems as if with each new chapter, God is changing His mind about what to do with Israel.
What’s going on? Is God playing a game of “He loves me – He loves me not” with Israel? No.
The book of Hosea gives us an inside look at the internal struggle God went through when His people sinned against Him. Like a husband who is betrayed by a cheating spouse, or like a parent who is deeply hurt by a fully grown but immature and selfish child, God’s heart is deeply and personally tormented when His beloved children persist in sin against Him. On one hand, in the heart of God there is the desire to punish sin and reject sinners. On the other hand, there is also in God’s heart the desire to show compassion and forgiveness toward us, the creations He loves the most. It’s the closest thing to tension and torment that God knows.
Thankfully, that tension and torment in God’s heart was resolved not just in Hosea 14, but even more, at the cross where Jesus died. For it is at the cross where God’s wrath against our sin was satisfied, and where God’s mercy and forgiveness were poured out for us all. (So don’t ever assume that it was easy for God to resolve the tension between His justice and His mercy. After all, it cost Him the highest price: His own Son Jesus.)
Praise God that in the book of Hosea, and even more at the cross where Jesus died, mercy triumphs over judgment.
Copyright © 2021 Justin Lim. All rights reserved.
