Session 10 Hosea 14:1-9
HOSEA 14:1-9
MEMORY VERSE: HOSEA 13:4
Some of the greatest words we can ever hear said to us are “you’re forgiven.” This is the reason the gospel is good news. It is a call to sinners to turn from their sin and be forgiven. God is a holy and just God who, because of His nature, must judge sin. At the same time, He is a compassionate and merciful God who is ready to forgive sinners. Given that sin leads to death and turning to Christ in repentance and faith gives life, the wise thing to do is to respond in faith to Him.
(In PSG, p. 91)
In Hosea 11, God recalled what His relationship with Israel was like in the past. He was a loving Father who delivered His son out of Egypt. Though the Lord healed them, guided them, provided for them, and protected them, Israel rebelled against God and turned away from Him to worship Baal (Hos. 11:1-4). Therefore, God declared His decision to punish Israel with bondage under a new master, Assyria. The Assyrian armies would come and destroy Israel’s cities because of the nation’s disloyalty and refusal to repent (11:5-7).
God revealed His heart as a loving Father who must discipline His children but takes no pleasure in doing so. He is a just God who must punish sin, but at the same time He is a merciful God who shows compassion. Therefore, He declared that He would not utterly destroy His people but instead would one day deliver them from their captivity and restore them as they responded to His call (11:8-11).
In Hosea 11:12–13:16, God directed His attention to Israel and Judah’s unfaithfulness to Him. Judah wandered around with other gods. Israel had become deceitful, feigning loyalty to God. At the same time, they served other gods and sought alliances with godless nations who would ultimately turn on them and destroy them. Their activities would come to nothing but despair.
Once again, God compared Israel to Jacob, known for his deceitfulness when he was young. Jacob struggled with the Lord, and he literally struggled with the angel at Peniel. Nevertheless, Jacob found God at Bethel (“the house of God”), the place Israel had made into Beth-Aven (“the house of wickedness”). Israel needed to return to God as Jacob finally did. Then they would once again receive the blessings of the covenant God had promised to Jacob at that location (11:12–12:6; see Gen. 28:13).
In spite of all God had done for Israel, the nation refused to listen to His warnings and continued their worship of Baal (12:7–13:16). Though God’s judgment would be severe, He promised to show compassion and not utterly destroy them (13:14). In chapter 14, God promised He would restore His people.
EXPLORE THE TEXT
1 Israel, return to the LORD your God, for you have stumbled in your iniquity.
After having delivered numerous indictments against Israel, Hosea began this final discourse with an exhortation: return to the LORD your God. As Israel’s covenant God, He alone was their rightful God. Once again, Hosea called the people to repent. This demonstrates that even though God is just and therefore must judge sin, He desires to pour out His mercy instead of His judgment. Even after all the evidence of Israel’s sins against the Lord had been stacked up against them, God still offered His rebellious people another opportunity to return to Him. It is much like what God had Hosea do when Hosea urged his wife Gomer to leave her lovers behind and reestablish her covenant of marriage with him, her husband (Hos. 3).
Hosea summarized what Israel had done by repeating two words He had already used in his addresses to Israel. These words are stumbled and iniquity. To stumble means to fall in disgrace. Hosea had already declared that the priests and prophets would stumble (4:4-5), and he spoke of Israel, Ephraim, and Judah all stumbling because of their iniquity as well (5:4). It was Israel’s iniquity that caused them to stumble. It was their sin that had brought them to ruin. Sin will always rob people of what is God’s best for them.
2 Take words of repentance with you and return to the LORD. Say to him, “Forgive all our iniquity and accept what is good, so that we may repay you with praise from our lips. 3 Assyria will not save us, we will not ride on horses, and we will no longer proclaim, ‘Our gods!’ to the work of our hands. For the fatherless receives compassion in you.”
Bible students have understood the imperative to take words in various ways. One way to understand it is that God did not want them to offer sacrifices to Him because they had developed a wrong understanding of sacrifices in their practices at their high places. But Hosea did not necessarily denounce the practice of offering sacrifices. Another possibility is that Hosea was communicating he wanted them to make vows. More likely, he was exhorting the people to bring the words of repentance in verse 2 to the Lord. Hosea’s intention was to guide the people in what they should say to the Lord if they truly wanted to repent.
First, they needed to ask God to forgive them of all of their iniquity so they could once again offer acceptable praise to the Lord. The first step in renewing one’s relationship with the Lord requires honestly admitting the sins that broke fellowship with Him. This is what is good. Hosea did not tell them they needed to perform some religious ceremony or sacrifice to do what is good. Instead, they needed to come clean before God, confess their sin, and seek His forgiveness.
This is reminiscent of David’s confession in Psalm 51:15-17. This is what God wanted from them, and it is what He wants from us today when we stumble because of our sin. This is the way to reconciliation with God. The apostle John would later write, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). It is only when the people’s sinful, unclean lips have been purified that they will be able to offer acceptable praise to the Lord.
The second part of their prayer was to be a renunciation of their misplaced faith. They needed to turn away from the foolish notions and practices that led them away from God. There were three aspects to renouncing their misplaced faith. First, they needed to admit they were wrong to trust in a foreign nation like Assyria to save them. Second, the statement, we will not ride on horses means they needed to admit they were wrong to trust in their own military to save them. Third, they needed to admit they were wrong to believe that they could trust in their false gods, the work of their own hands, to save them.
The people’s admission of these wrongs was an essential part of true repentance toward God. Returning to the Lord means being specific in confessing one’s sins to God. Moreover, Israel needed to realize that the only one who would truly show them compassion and help them in times of distress was the Lord. They also needed to know that no matter how great their sin had been, God was ready to receive them and forgive them if they would return to Him in repentance and faith.
(In PSG, p. 93)
4 I will heal their apostasy; I will freely love them, for my anger will have turned from him. 5 I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like the lily and take root like the cedars of Lebanon.
God promised to heal their apostasy, literally “heal its turning.” Their apostasy needed God’s healing interven-tion to correct. Ephraim mistakenly thought it could find healing from Assyria (Hos. 5:13; 8:9-10) or that it could save itself (10:13). Hosea’s message was that God alone could save them. Apart from God’s mercy and grace, they would be incapable of returning to Him.
When the people returned to the Lord, they would be able to enjoy the fullness of His covenant love for them. The Lord’s promise to freely love them hearkens back to Hosea 2:14-23, where God promised He would not only lead the Israelites into the wilderness but would also woo them back to Himself that their covenant relationship might be renewed. The word freely emphasized all of this would happen because of God’s grace. They were incapable of doing anything themselves to earn it.
God also pronounced, my anger will have turned from them. This statement echoes the words of David concerning the Lord and His people in Psalm 103:8-9: “The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love. He will not always accuse us or be angry forever.”
Using agricultural pictures, the Lord began describing His restoration of Israel and the blessing they would experience from Him. The first image is dew, the moisture that forms into water droplets on the earth in the cool of the night. The most important resource in the ancient Near East was water. Dew was most essential during the dry season of summer. Without it, people would have suffered greatly, and its absence could be attributed to God’s judgment (Hag. 1:10). Consequently, the presence of dew was a symbol of God’s blessing and provision for life (Gen. 27:28). It represented refreshment from God (Deut. 32:2; Ps. 133:3). When God healed their apostasy, He would be like dew to them.
The second picture is that of the blossoming of a flower. The Hebrew word translated lily appears to be used for a variety of flowers in the Old Testament. Whatever the actual flower to which it refers here, the meaning is clear. Without water, there is no flower. But when the Lord is Israel’s dew, Israel would be a beautiful flower drawing its nourishment from Him.
Israel would not only be a beautiful flower, it would also have deep roots like the cedars of Lebanon. The writers of the Old Testament wrote of the cedars of Lebanon as the first among trees. They described them as strong, durable, high, graceful, beautiful, fragrant, spreading wide. They were the trees in which eagles made their nests and perched (Amos 2:9; Isa. 9:10; Ps. 80:10-11; Ezek. 17:3-5,22-23, Song of Sol. 4:11; Jer. 22:23). Cedar wood played a role in the purification rites of Israel (Lev. 14:4; Num. 19:6), and kings used it as a symbol of majesty and wealth (1 Kings 10:27). Overall, the cedars of Lebanon symbolized growth and strength (Ps. 92:12). The description in verse 5 not only pointed to the endurance Israel would have but also to its future attributes in its longevity.
6 His new branches will spread, and his splendor will be like the olive tree, his fragrance, like the forest of Lebanon. 7 The people will return and live beneath his shade. They will grow grain and blossom like the vine. His renown will be like the wine of Lebanon.
In verse 6, the Lord continued His agricultural metaphors concerning Israel. New branches that spread means the nation would thrive and increase like budding trees in the spring. What must be understood is that these will be new branches springing forth from trees that appeared to be dead from a long winter. This is a picture of renewed life. Israel had become spiritually dormant and unproductive when it turned away from the Lord and turned to other gods, to foreign nations, and to their own military strength. But their covenant God was not going to allow their demise to be their end.
What’s more, Israel’s splendor would be like that of the olive tree. Some olive trees in Israel have flourished for thousands of years. Olives were an essential part of Israel’s life. They served as food, fuel, medicine, and were used for religious and royal anointing. Above all, the olive tree in the Old Testament was a symbol of longevity, blessing, prosperity, and holiness. All of these words describe what the Lord was promising for Israel’s future. Still more, Israel’s fragrance would be like the forest of Lebanon. Since ancient times, people have appreciated the fragrance of cedar and oils derived from it. This describes an Israel that had the odorous stench of death removed from it and replaced with a pleasant aroma renowned in that region of the world. The same image is found in the Song of Solomon, in which the groom describes the pleasant fragrance of his bride (Song of Sol. 4:11). Israel would once again bring pleasure to the Lord.
Saying that the people will return assumes they would be displaced. This refers to their time of exile, and it is a promise that their captivity would not last forever. This echoes the Lord’s promises in Deuteronomy 30:1-10, given to the Israelites as they were about to cross the Jordan River and enter the promised land. Even though the Israelites had abandoned their obligations to the Lord, He had not forgotten His promises to them.
The Lord promised four things would happen when the people returned from their captivity. First, they would live beneath his shade. This implies the nation would be a refreshing, protective shelter for those who return, just as the Lord is for those who seek Him (Ps. 36:7; 57:1; 91:1; Isa. 25:5; 30:2; Ezek. 17:23).
Second, they will grow grain. The work of their hands would be productive, and they will be a source of sustenance and life for others. This would ultimately be fulfilled with the coming of Jesus, “the bread of life” (John 6:35).
Third, they would blossom like the vine, giving joy to others like the fruit of the vine. The fertility Israel would enjoy would make them wonder how they could have rejected the Lord and turned to Baal and his fertility cult.
Finally, Israel’s renown will be like the wine of Lebanon. Although the Old Testament does not speak of the wine of Lebanon anywhere else, it was well-acclaimed throughout the ancient Near East. The meaning of this statement is that Israel’s renown would spread to the nations. Israel would be a blessing to the nations by showing them what happens when God’s covenant people faithfully serve Him. This again echoes God’s covenant with Israel, when Moses said Israel’s faithful obedience to the Lord would show the nations how great the Lord their God is (Deut. 4:6-8). Israel would once again put on display to the world their great God—just as they did in the days of Moses.
(In PSG, p. 96)
8 Ephraim, why should I have anything more to do with idols? It is I who answer and watch over him. I am like a flourishing pine tree; your fruit comes from me. 9 Let whoever is wise understand these things, and whoever is insightful recognize them. For the ways of the LORD are right, and the righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them.
God concluded His message with a rhetorical question suggesting He has said all He wanted to say about Israel’s false gods. There was nothing more to say. God was done talking about them. The statement, It is I who answer and watch over him, suggests God was watching Israel to see what their response to Him would be.
Next, the Lord used the metaphor of a pine tree to describe Himself. In the ancient Near East, the evergreen tree was a symbol of royalty, fertility, and divinity. Israel had attributed these characteristics to Baal, but the only one who truly has these attributes is the Lord. In English idiomatic expression, one could say God told them they had “barked up the wrong tree.” Everything they sought could be found only in the Lord.
Hosea’s final exhortation was a wisdom saying using the common motif of choosing between two ways. It would require wisdom and insight to understand his message. The person who was wise would recognize that the ways of the LORD are right and that those who were righteous would walk in them. Walking in the ways of the Lord means submitting to Him as Lord. Life and satisfaction come from faith in God and humble obedience to Him. In contrast, those who live in rebellion against God will stumble and be consumed by their rebellious ways.
(In PSG, p. 98)
God the Father
God as Father reigns with providential care over His universe, His creatures, and the flow of the stream of human history according to the purposes of His grace. (See Isaiah 64:8; Matthew 6:26.)
Use other Scripture to help understand a Bible passage.
Hosea 14:1-9 outlines how God would bring Israel back to the land after they returned to Him. God had foretold of these things. Read Deuteronomy 30:1-10. Compare God’s description of what He would do when He re-stored Israel from captivity with how He described it in Hosea 14:1-9. Note the similarities and differences in these passages. What does God reveal about Himself in these texts?