HOSEA 11.1-11
GOD LOVES YOU!
This morning, you will be glad to hear, I am not going to attempt to preach through both chapters 11 and 12 of Hosea. Instead I want to concentrate on chapter 11 verses 1-11. Over the past two weeks we have heard how Ephraim has chased after other gods and the warning of the coming judgment of God on them for their idolatry and immorality. Chapter 11 verses 1-11 are the balance to those two chapters and to chapter 12. Chapter 12 once again paints the picture of a sinful, wayward and wandering people. If you removed chapter 11 you would have a continuous accusation of immorality and idolatry against the people of God. So turn with me now to Hosea 11 and let us hear this morning the amazing story of God’s grace towards this sinful, wayward and immoral people.
Verses 1-7 A wayward Son?
“Is everything normal?” is one of the first questions many parents ask at the moment of a child’s birth. From that moment on however they never want their child to be normal again. They want them to talk and walk before all their contemporaries do. There is such excitement when a child begins to walk. All the concentration, the taking of them by the hand and leading them on those first few faltering steps. The letting go as they take those steps and tumble forward. It is a picture of love, of care, of pride and of hope. Just such a picture is painted of the people of God here in Hosea 11.
Look at verse 1. God refers to Israel as His child. The literal translation is as His adopted son. God called them out of Egypt, out of the land of bondage and slavery. In Exodus 4.22 Israel is described as ‘God’s first born son’ to Pharaoh. Whilst they were in Egypt God loved them and provided a deliverer, a saviour, for them – Moses. God led them out of slavery and fed them on the journey to the Promised Land. He was a loving and attentive father towards His children. How did Israel respond to such love and blessing from God? Look at verse 2. The more God called them the further they turned away from Him. Their stubborn hearts and self-pride led them to worship Baal. The more God, out of love for them, called them to come home the more stubborn they became and persisted on their path of idolatry and immorality. Some of you know how painful an experience that can be with children who do not listen to advice and wander far from the path of God. You know the amazing thing is that when they were in slavery in Egypt they called out to the living God and did not worship the gods of the Egyptians. They remained faithful to God in Egypt but when they entered the land of Canaan, the land flowing with milk and honey they became an adulterous people. Why? How come? Because they thought they had arrived and that there was nothing left for them to do. The same is true of many Christians who think that all that matters is that you make a commitment to Christ Jesus, that you are born-again. That is only the beginning, an important beginning, but only the beginning. You see if you are truly an adopted child of God you take on the family likeness and obey your Father. You live according to His ways.
In verses 3 and 4 we see the tenderness and relentless compassion of God toward His people Israel. Look at the picture painted here of a loving father who has helped his children grow and often without their knowledge. The father was there to help when the child took those first faltering steps. He was there to pick him up when he fell down. He was there to heal the hurts and mend what was broken. He did all this out of selfless love for the wellbeing of the child. The people had forgotten or taken for granted all that God had done for them. They failed to appreciate his tender mercy in lifting the yoke of slavery from off their necks and of his condescension in bending down to feed them. Let me read some verses to you from Psalm 121.3-8 and Isaiah 40.11. That is the tender compassion and love that God has towards these people and towards you this morning. In Isaiah 42.3 he says that a bruised reed he will not break and a smouldering wick he will not snuff out – that is the gentleness he shows towards you. Here he tells the people he lifts the yoke of slavery from off their necks and not only sets them free but he also provides sustenance and nourishment for them. When we come to the NT we see this love displayed in Christ Jesus and his death on the Cross. By Christ’s death and resurrection God lifted the yoke of sin from our lives. By sending the Holy Spirit he gave us the spiritual sustenance and nourishment we need to daily live for him.
Yet in verses 5-7 we see the consequences of the determination of the people to go their own way, a way other than God’s way (verse 7). The rhetorical question of 5a is answered by 7a. The people will not turn to God because they are determined to turn from him. The result will be they will return to a life of slavery, as in Egypt, under the rule of the Assyrians. God makes it clear because of their refusal to repent they will endure captivity. Friends listen to that warning this morning. If you do not repent of your sins and turn to God in Christ then you will be carried off into captivity. That is one of the saddest things about people who persist in their sins. They often make comments about ‘rules and regulations’ of Christian living and yet they are the people held captive in their sins. Ruled and regulated by their desires and impulses. Ruled and regulated by their addictions and by others. Know that this morning. Understand where sin leads this morning – to captivity. But even more horrifying is that death will come to all who are taken captive – the sword flashes in their cities (verse 6). They had put bars on their gates and laid all sorts of plans to live in security, of their own making. But such plans and such bars proved futile in the face of the Assyrians. Such plans and such bars that you put up in your life to protect your life from ‘whatever’ will prove futile when God comes in judgement on your life. The things that you thought made you secure simply splinter under the hammer blow of the coming judgement, like the bars on the gates of Israel’s cities before the advancing Assyrians. Yet even such a warning provoked no response other than stubborn determination to do their own thing from the people of Israel. In their apostasy they remain stubborn. The end of verse 7 may seem strange to us. We could never envisage God not answering his people but you must not lift it from its context. The context is that these people are stubbornly remaining in their sin and idolatry and refusing to repent. God has told them, time and again, that they are to turn from their sin and to turn to him but they will not listen. So God tells them he will no longer exalt them even if they cry out to him to do so. It is not a cry of repentance but a cry for God to exalt them, to deliver them from the Assyrians who have invaded their cities. It is not a cry of repentance but a cry of ‘help, get us out of here.’ You have done that haven’t you? You have cried out to God for deliverance but with no repentance for the sin which led you into the captivity in the first place?
Well in verses 8 and 9 we see the resolve of the Father and the tender mercy and relentless compassion of God for his people. Here we see how much God loves these sinful people. Here we see how much God loves us, sinful as we are. These verses are really a window into the heart of God. Look at verse 8. Four times God asks “How can I….?” Each time the expected answer is “I cannot.” The picture here is of God weeping over the very thought of the total destruction of his people. His anger towards them because of their sin turns to grief at the coming judgment because of their sin. Admah and Zeboiim had been destroyed along with Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 10.19 and 19.24-29. Then we hear some of thee most tender verses in all of Hosea – 8b. Can you hear Hosea saying these words to Gomer? His anger roused towards her unfaithfulness, wanting judgment to fall upon her but yet his love for her will not let him see her utterly destroyed. His love for her rouses his compassionate heart. How much more is the heart of God, the One whose love is perfect, roused to compassion towards his people? The idea of abandoning his people to their fate and to extinction rouses compassion in the heart of the Father. So how did these events unfold? In 722 BC the Assyrians took the people of Israel off into exile but a faithful remnant had travelled south to Judah and these are the people who were taken captive by the Babylonians (1 Chronicles 9.1-3), people such as Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abidnego. In verse 9 God gives three reasons why he will not utterly destroy Ephraim – He is God and not man, He is holy and his love for his people is inexhaustible (I will not come in wrath). Even when God comes in judgment his love is leading. When he called Adam and Eve in the garden his love was leading. When he was allowing his Son to take the punishment for sin on the cross his love was leading. God’s love leads him to have compassion on these wayward people. Listen to these words from Isaiah 57.17 and now listen to the next verse, verse 18. God will punish sin but he will also heal and restore those who repent and turn from their wicked ways.
Verses 10-11 The welcome homecoming.
There is nothing like coming home when you have been away a long time? Some of you know the experience of relatives who have emigrated coming home. The welcome, the excitement and the sheer joy. Jesus spoke of such joy of coming home to the Father in the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son. God speaks here of a time when the people will follow the Lord and not the gods of Baal. When will such a thing happen – when the Lord calls, when the lion of Judah roars his people will come to him. The roar of a lion is heard by all for many miles around. It is a clear call of authority. It strikes fear into all the other animals of the plains and yet the other lions respond to that call and come towards him. But if you watch them coming they come timidly and with humility before the lion who rules over them. The same will be true of the people of God when God calls them to assemble before him. They will not come with arrogance or pride but with humility and timidity but they will come. It is like that moment in The Lion, the witch and the Wardrobe where C S Lewis has Aslan roar and all tremble before him. It is a magical moment in the book surpassed only by the final scene in the Last Battle – but you will have to read the book to learn that.
Look at these two verses. They will come from the all the nations around them. From the west, from captivity in Assyria and Egypt the people of God will come to follow the Lord God. Out of Egypt, where they spent years of bondage God’s people will come. Out of Assyria, where they endured captivity, God’s people will come. When they come they will no longer be a nomadic people, carried off here and there by every nation of power but God will establish them in their own homes. When God calls them they will come out of every nation because as Christ says in John’s gospel his sheep will recognise and obey his voice. When they come they will find permanent security in the presence of God. Let me read a few verses to you from Revelation 21.3-4. That is what Hosea was prophesying here in these two verses. The day when God calls his people and they dwell together in the new Jerusalem. A little earlier in the book of Revelation John described those people as a multitude that no man could number from out of every tribe, nation and language on this earth. Are you going to be in that multitude?
The last two Sundays the chapters have been of dire warning and of coming judgment. This chapter speaks of judgment but it is outweighed by God’s love for these people. Just as Hosea’s relationship with his wife Gomer is governed and guided by his love for her – so God’s love directs all his dealings with the people of Israel, and with us. God will not let them go and in punishing them he will not destroy them because of his great love for them. Hosea longs for Gomer to come home to him which is an illustration of how God longs for his people to repent and come home to him. This morning he longs for you to come home.
Amen.
