Although every word of God is inspired and profitable, each book of the Bible has, as we might call them, key texts. These are passages that illuminate the rest of the text. Identifying these texts is a crucial aspect of any study of Scripture because it shapes your whole approach to the book.

What then are the key texts of Hosea?

We have noted that Hosea 1-3 are essentially the interpretive grid for the whole book. Chapters 1 and 3 compare Israel’s idolatry with the sin of adultery, and chapter 2 is God’s overall plan for Israel. 6:1-3 and chapter 14 are the book’s great goal for the reader: repentance, returning to the LORD and forsaking sin.

I would also add chapter 11 to that list. It is the conclusion to the first set of oracles in the book (chapters 4-11:11). Broadly speaking, this has been Yahweh’s case against Israel. Through vivid metaphors and similes, the LORD has been rebuking and warning His people. They were compared to an out of control oven, unturned cakes, a silly dove, a treacherous bow, grain with no head, young figs and palms, a luxuriant vine, and a trained calf.

Since the oracles are poetry, we should expect to find such verbal imagery, which is certainly a feature of Hebrew poetry. They are meant to be meditative and to linger in the mind longer than the more straightforward rebukes that surround them.

In this chapter, Yahweh uses another metaphor for Israel, one that puts His everlasting compassion on display.

MY SON // VERSES 1-4

When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.

This verse introduces us to the driving metaphor of the chapter. Israel was God’s son. Of course, this is not a new idea to Hosea. Yahweh told Moses to say to Pharaoh, “Thus says the LORD, Israel is my firstborn son” (Exodus 4:22).

Do you notice the rather ominous tone of the first line? It sounds like a father reminiscing over better days. The child has gone into error and debauchery, but the father still remembers holding his son’s hand while they walked and going into his room whenever he had a bad dream. That is the whole tension of the chapter in a nutshell.

Yet how can a whole nation experience childhood? The second line takes us back to the exodus, which is the narrative heart of the Old Testament. Israel’s start as a nation properly began whenever the LORD led them out of Egypt. That was their national childhood.

That thought is helpful as we read the Pentateuch. God’s paternal affection for Israel saturates the books of Moses. As we discussed in Leviticus, the great center of the Torah is that Yahweh desiring communion with His people. The Father wanted to be with His child.

Verse 2 also accurately describes the Pentateuch, as well as the rest of the Old Testament: The more they were called, the more they went away; they kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning offerings to idols.

Here is the tragedy of Yahweh’s relationship with His son: it was one-way. ‘Called’ does double work both here and in verse 1. It, of course, fits the metaphor. Fathers are always calling their children, especially since children wander and explore. But called is also the language of election.

Theologians traditionally distinguish between God’s general and effectual callings. Both appear to be pictured here. Verse 1 is the effectual call of God. He called them out of Egypt, and He brought it to pass with a mighty hand and outstretched arm. Here, however, we have His general call, where He is inviting Israel into a life of communion with Him. But they reject it. They only dive further and further into idolatry, worshiping Baals. Again, we should imagine a father who sees his son in danger and is crying out to him, yet the son only ignores the father and continues on his way.

Verses 3-4 then seal the emotion of the betrayal by poetically describing Israel’s childhood. God taught them to walk. God led them with kindness. He gave them their freedom. He gave them His law. He fed them in the wilderness with heavenly bread. His yoke was far lighter than that of Pharaoh. But again we see their ignorance at work, but they did not know that I healed them. Indeed, verse 4 gives us the image of the Almighty Creator stooping down, not in judgment as at Babel, but to spoon-feed his beloved child.

Hosea 11:1 is cited in Matthew 2:15 as being a prophesy of Christ. While Israel is metaphorically called God’s son, Jesus is truly the Son of God. As Gabriel spoke to Mary, “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High” (Luke 1:32). Matthew cites this Hosea whenever Herod tries to kill Jesus, so Joseph is told to take Mary and Jesus down to Egypt. Indeed, Matthew’s Gospel is somewhat structured to show Jesus as the son that Israel was supposed to be. For example, just as Israel was ‘baptized’ in the Red Sea and then spent forty years in the wilderness, Jesus is baptized and then spends forty days in the wilderness.

God treated Israel like His son, but they continuously rebelled against Him. Even the very best man in the Old Testament, Moses, still sinned against the LORD. In the end, Moses was “faithful in all God’s house as a servant” (Hebrews 3:5). But Jesus is greater by far. He is unwaveringly faithful. Sinlessly faithful. He is such a faithful Son to the Father that He is able to say, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).

Even as Jesus went through the crucifixion, we should notice His complete trust in God as His Father. When He prays in Gethsemane, He says, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will” (Matthew 26:39). Then after Peter struck off the guard’s ear, Jesus said, “Do you think that I cannot appeal to my Father, and he will at once send me more than twelve legions of angels” (Matthew 26:46)? And as He breathed His final breath, He prayed, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit” (Luke 23:46).

Interestingly, Jesus was quoting Psalm 31:5. He prayed the Psalms quite literally until His last breath. This brings us to an important point of theology regarding the Psalms. The Psalms are both hymns for private and public worship as well as model prayers for us to pray. That is why, at Western Meadows, we read and pray from the Psalms each Sunday. They are specifically written for worship, so to not include them in our time of worship would be neglectful to me.

Bonhoeffer wonderfully says that the Psalms are prayers that God Himself has given us in order to teach us how to pray to Him. Much like how a child learns to talk by imitating their parents.

Yet how to the Psalms chiefly refer to God? Yahweh. God’s holy name. And that fits with the theme of the Old Testament, especially the book of Exodus, which again is the narrative heart of the Old Testament. The purpose of Exodus is to reveal God’s name and, therefore, God’s nature and character. The patriarchs in Genesis knew that God was called Yahweh, but they did not know the meaning of that name. That was revealed through Moses. And the Psalms teach us how to pray in His name.

Why then do most Christians not pray to God as Yahweh? This seems like it should be quite a big deal, rather like the emphasis that the Old Testament places upon the Sabbath. We better have a pretty good reason for why we no longer observe the Sabbath on Saturday. Because the Sabbath is a creational ordinance, only something as great as a new creation could change it.

God’s name is the same. If the great revelation of the Old Testament is God’s holy name, we would need a mighty reason indeed for why we would pray any other way.

Jesus, of course, is that reason. He has given us a deeper revelation and a deeper prayer. The grace of God’s name in the Old Testament is still true, yet Jesus brings us grace upon grace. He taught us to pray: “Our Father in heaven…” Christ taught us to pray as He Himself prayed. This is because, as Paul says, “he predestined us for adoption as sons through Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 1:5). Or, in Romans 8:15-17, “you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs–heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ…”

There is a certain degree of intimacy in knowing someone’s name, but my daughters have a far better way of addressing me. They call me Daddy. So it is with us in Christ. Even though we were no better, no holier, than the Israelites, Christ has secured our adoption into the household of God. The metaphor has become a reality.

I think that J. I. Packer is correct in his assessment:

If you want to judge how well a person understands Christianity, find out how much he makes of the thought of being God’s child, and having God as his Father. If this is not the thought that prompts and controls his worship and prayers and his whole outlook on life, it means that he does not understand Christianity very well at all. For everything that Christ taught, everything that makes the New Testament new, and better than the Old, everything that is distinctly Christian as opposed to merely Jewish, is summed up in the knowledge of the Fatherhood of God. “Father” is the Christian name for God. (Knowing God, 201)

A BENT PEOPLE // VERSES 5-7

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the text ended there?

Israel was not simply Yahweh’s son; he was a wayward son. Verse 5 begins, as many of Hosea’s lines have, with a false note of positivity. They shall not return to the land of Egypt… But the second line dashes the hopes that God will relent of His judgment: but Assyria shall be their king, because they have refused to return to me. Their own king will be taken from them, and the ‘great king’ of Assyria would rule over them.

And it all could have been avoided if they had simply returned to the LORD.

Verse 6 continues the pronouncement. They will fall and be devoured by the sword because of their own counsels. They trusted in their own wisdom rather than in the wisdom of Yahweh. They rejected the counsel of His law, walking instead in the counsel of the wicked, standing in the way of sinners, and sitting in the seat of scoffers.

Verse 7 then gives us the great problem: My people are bent on turning away from me… As we said throughout our study of Exodus, God took Israel out of Egypt, but He did not yet take Egypt out of Israel. And that was insufficiency of the Old Testament. The people could not obey God. Not perfectly. They needed a circumcision of the heart rather than of the flesh. They needed a new heart and a new spirit. They needed the law to become internal rather than purely external.

And that is precisely what the New Covenant provides in Christ. We were not called out of Egypt, as Israel was. Christ has called us out of our sin. He worked the true and better exodus, redeeming us from the slavery of our own passions and desires. The Almighty came down to deliver us, and now He places His Spirit within us so that we may walk with Him.

Of course, Christ has not entirely removed our sinful desires. That will only come at Christ’s return as He gives us resurrected bodies like His own. But for now, He is still teaching us how to walk.

And even though Egypt has been removed, we still return to it. That is the struggle Paul expresses in Romans 7. We are each at war against ourselves.

For this reason, the mark of a Christian is not sinlessness but repentance.

THE HEART OF GOD // VERSES 8-11

Notice that verse 7 ends on a rather bleak note: and though they call out to the Most High, He shall not raise them at all.

But then the sternness breaks in verse 8: How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender.

This is the kind of compassion that a parent feels for their wayward child. Anger. Frustration. And then intense sorrow and pity. This is indeed a glimpse into the heart of God, who does not desire that any should perish. Admah and Zeboiim were cities that were very likely destroyed alongside Sodom and Gomorrah. In Deuteronomy 29:23, the LORD declares:

The whole land burned out with brimstone and salt, nothing sown and nothing growing, where no plant can sprout, an overthrow like that of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, which the LORD overthrew in his anger and wrath.

In fact, when God says, my heart recoils within me, the word ‘recoils’ is the same verb translated as ‘overthrew’ in Deuteronomy 29:23. Yahweh has every right to overthrow Israel as He did to those cities of wickedness. Yet the overthrow is occurring within His own heart. His compassion is overthrowing His wrath.

Despite Israel’s manifold transgressions, God still loves His son. He is not unlike David who wept bitterly over the death of Absalom. Rebellion doesn’t keep a parent from remembering when they used to hold their child in their arms and sing them to sleep.

But we cannot press the comparison too far. David’s grief over Absalom was ineffectual at best. Yahweh’s compassion for Israel is rooted in His deity: for I am God and not a man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath. His compassion is not at the whim of human emotion but rooted into His very nature: “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithful, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin…” His compassion is not a passing sentiment. It is an expression of who He is.

Yet Yahweh also “will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and fourth generation.” Assyria would certainly destroy them, and on that day the LORD would not spare them. But that day of judgment would not be the conclusion of Israel’s story.

Like a loving father, the LORD disciplines the one He loves. And their destruction was an act of severe and painful discipline. He would hand Israel over to be mixed with the nations that they longed to imitate. They would become Not My People.

But only for a time.

Verses 10-11 speak of Israel’s return from exile. Just as they were trembling for their exiled calf (see 10:5), they will tremble as they return home from Egypt and from Assyria. I take this to mean that they will finally learn to fear Yahweh. They will know that He is the true lion, not Assyria’s king.

And this promise of return is sealed with the only use of “declares the LORD” since chapter 2. Remember that chapter 4 began with an indictment from Yahweh. This seems to be closing that section, almost as if it were a kind of signature. 12:2 will introduce a new indictment and begin the final oracles of the book. 11:12-12:1 are something of a bridge between the two.

Yahweh has sealed these words with His own name. He will surely bring them to pass.

As New Testament believers, because we belong to God in Christ, we never need to fear that our suffering is the judicial punishment for our sin. Christ has fully borne that punishment. If we trust in Him, there is no condemnation remaining for us (Romans 8:1). But our Father does not leave us to ourselves. He uses our trials, afflictions, and tribulations to train us, mature us, and conform us more and more to the likeness of Christ, His beloved Son. We may not always understand what He is doing, but we can trust that He is working all things together for our good. Peter tells us that fiery trials should not be strange to us, and in our reading of Romans 8:15-17, we left off the final phrase. Here it is again with verse 17 completed:

you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’ The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs–heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.

Therefore, as we come to the Table, let us come in repentance and dependence upon the love of the Father, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.

Here we find the answer to the question of verse 8: How can I give you up? God would not utterly abandon His rebellious people. But consider what He has done to bring them home. Paul tells us in Romans 8:32, “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?”

In Hosea, God asks how He could give up His rebellious son. And yet, in the fullness of time, He gave up His own beloved Son for us. Jesus Christ, the faithful Son, willingly bore the judgment our rebellion deserved so that we might become sons and daughters of God. He was given up so that we might never be abandoned. He suffered so that we might be brought to glory with Him.

And that is what we remember as we come to the Lord’s Table. The bread and the cup proclaim the body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, given and shed for the forgiveness of our sins. So let us come, not trusting in our own faithfulness, but in the faithfulness of the Son who loved us and gave Himself for us. Let us fix our eyes upon Him, trusting the steadfast love of the Father, who has given His Son to adopt us as sons.

As we come, let us meditate upon the great comfort of God’s love through Christ, as powerfully proclaimed in Romans 8:31–39::

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,

“For your sake we are being killed all the day long;
we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.