Deeper Commentary
Hos 14:1 Israel, return to Yahweh your God; for you have fallen because of your sin- Hosea on God's behalf now makes his final appeal. They were to "return" in order to avoid the judgment to come. They didn't, and so from exile they were also to "return" both spiritually and physically to the land of promise to reestablish the kingdom. But most of them didn't want to do that either. They were to accept that their "fall" was due to their sin; whereas Ezekiel was clearly up against the attitude that the exiles thought their punishment was unfair, and they were unjustly suffering the effects of others' sins. Their "fall" was ultimately because of their pride (s.w. Hos. 5:5); this human weakness which is glorified or at best shrugged off by society was what prevented their repentance and brought about their fall.
We are now at the end of Hosea. All his appeals to Gomer, and God's to Israel, have not been responded to. So, she must be judged; but still His saving love is there for her and He still wants it to work. She had dry breasts and a miscarrying womb, an old woman whose sons of adultery had been slain, the old prostitute who has run out of highway. And still Hosea loved her, and still she refused. As with Israel. And so He looks ahead to the day when at resurrection and re-creation, He can love them freely (:5) and their hearts will be for Him. It could be at this time that Israel have already been taken captive to Assyria (:3), hence they are asked to literally 'come back' to Yahweh with words of repentance (:2). Israel have fallen / stumbled because of their sin, they are helpless on the ground unable to rise, apart from by grace. They are as it were "dead", and God's plan therefore involved their literal and spiritual resurrection. "The Lord your God" suggests God from His side has already restored them in His mind. Hosea beings with "I am not your God", I am not Yahweh to you. But now on His own initiative, Yahweh says that He is their God. He begins talking like this in Hos. 12:9; 13:4, leading up to the amazing climax here.
Hos 14:2 Take words with you, and return to Yahweh. Tell him, Forgive
all our sins, and accept that which is good: so we offer our lips like
bulls- Perhaps the intention was that although Hosea knew Israel
would go into captivity and be unable to offer sacrifice there, he wanted
them to learn there that they could offer their lips and hearts instead of
bulls and animal sacrifice. "Accept that which is good" is AV "receive us
graciously". They were to cast themselves upon His grace, as their father
Jacob had done (Hos. 12). What God wanted was not the bulls of animals
sacrifice, but broken and contrite hearts expressed in words of
repentance. By being cut off from a temple and sacrificial system, their
judgment actually encouraged them towards this. We too may find ourselves
cut off from the externalities of church and religious life for whatever
reason; that we might make this same intended journey.
Again, as earlier in Hosea, we have God's fantasy that His people would
say these words. Just as Hosea fantasized about Gomer's return and
repentance.
"Take words with you" alludes to taking sacrifices to the sanctuary so that the people "do not appear before the Lord empty" (Ex. 23:15; Ex. 34:20); they were not to come to Him taking nothing with them. But all they could take was their words of repentance. They had broken the old covenant, they had no sacrifices to offer, they would be in captivity far from the temple or other ways of offering animal sacrifices. But the required sacrifice was repentance and declaration of loyalty to Yahweh.
Literally, "we will repay as young oxen our lips”. The idea was
that they would present the prayers of their lips as thank offerings. The
word translated "repay" or "offer" is applied to the sacrifice
offered in fulfilment of a vow (Dt. 23:22; Ps. 22:26; 50:14), and young
oxen, were used for thank offerings (Ex. 24:5). Their statement of
repentance was to be a thank offering. Because they had been forgiven
without repentance, they were to repent, just as the Lord ate with sinners
in order to bring them to repentance. And these words in the LXX are
applied to us all in Heb. 13:15 ["the sacrifice of our lips, giving thanks
to His name"].
Hos 14:3 Assyria can’t save us. We won’t ride on horses; neither will
we say any more to the work of our hands, ‘You are our gods!’- They
were to recognize that absolutely no human help could save them. They had
asked Egypt for help before (2 Kings 17:3,4), and that assistance was
likely imagined in terms of horses and chariots. But they were to totally
reject any human strength. All their idols were likewise a trust in the
works of their own hands. And here we see the relevance to us, we who do
not have literal idols of wood and stone. Quite simply, any trust in our
works, money, wealth or health is idolatry. The horses
allude to Egypt. They were to recognise that neither Assyria nor Egypt
could save. Is. 30:16 records their attitude: “No, but on horses will
we flee... And on swift steeds will we ride”.
For in You the fatherless finds mercy- See on 14:8 From Me you will acquire fruit. The prophecies of judgment and destruction consistently imply that there would be reformation and restoration arising out of those experiences. This was evidently not for those who were slain, but for the survivors and the orphans of the next generation. They would "find mercy", they would become the "Ruhamah" arising as it were as the resurrected form of Lo-Ruhamah, 'not finding mercy', the name of one of Gomer's adulterous sons who was to be slain by the invaders (Hos. 1:6; 2:4). Hosea had at one point disowned Gomer's sons whom she claimed were his, calling one "not my people". They the fatherless would "find mercy" in that Hosea would accept them, as God would accept Israel back. And so the prophecy links back to its beginning. A repentant Israel were intended to "find mercy" when they returned from captivity (Dt. 30:3; Is. 14:1; 49:10; 54:8; Jer. 30:18; 33:26). But most of them didn't want to return. This is the tragedy. And so the promise comes to be reapplied to those of our day who accept the new covenant in repentance, and "find mercy" both now and at judgment day (Is 60:10; 2 Tim. 1:18), and especially to repent Israel of the last days (Ez. 39:25; Rom. 11:31). Mercy being shown to those who had not found mercy (Hos. 2:23) is applied to Christian believers today (Rom. 11:30).
Hos 14:4 I will heal their waywardness- Israel are portrayed in Hosea as having an endless, insatiable psychological proclivity towards other gods, just as Gomer became a sex addict. The healing in view is therefore psychological; it is the gift of a holy spirit, a new psychology and worldview. But here we see God's love. Hosea tried all he could to make Gomer love him and be faithful- and failed. But despite divorcing Israel, the God who unlike Hosea can do all things, simply says that He will make them faithful. By His Holy Spirit working upon their spirit, as Jeremiah and Ezekiel later explain. Ps. 80:19 asks God to take this initiative: "Turn us again, Yahweh God of Armies. Cause Your face to shine, and we will be saved".
Healing is a major theme in Hosea. The other nations [cp. Gomer's lovers] could not heal Israel (Hos. 5:13), but Yahweh could, if they repented (Hos. 6:1 "Let us return / repent to Yahweh and He will heal us"). But He was hindered in that by their refusal to accept that healing (Hos. 7:1). The healing was in fact potentially done- they just had to accept it: "they didn’t know that it was I who healed them" (Hos. 11:3), they refused to accept it. Finally God simply states in Hos. 14:4 "I will heal their waywardness ["backsliding", "disloyalty"], I will love them freely", and they would again be fruitful. For Him. Despite 'healing' being predicated upon repentance (e.g. Jer. 3:22 "Return [repent], O faithless children, I will heal your faithlessness", Ps. 30:2 "I cried to You [in repentance] and You healed me", Is. 6:10 "Understand... convert... and be healed"). It's as if God scraps even that basic requirement and wants to force through His desire for them to have a heart for Him; just as Hosea fain would have done this to the heart of Gomer but lacked the power to do so. Just as so many unrequited lovers would do for the object of their love.
In Hosea 2, Yahweh and Hosea offer their women a remarriage under a new covenant, seeing they had broken the old covenant. The offer of a new covenant in Ezekiel and Jeremiah involves the gift of a new heart to God's people, His spirit, His mind, a heart solely for Him. Jer. 3:22 is clear: "Return [repent], O faithless children, I will heal your faithlessness". "I will restore... I will heal you... I will heal them and reveal unto them the abundance of peace [with God]" (Jer. 30:17; 33:6). The wonder of Jer. 30:12-15 is that the wounds which are "incurable" would be healed by God. He could do the psychologically impossible, through the gift of His spirit which would accompany the new covenant. This is available to us who have accepted the new covenant today. It's why and how believers are psychologically transformed.
This is the same idea as in Hos. 14:4. Their disloyalty would be healed, their unfaithful mind would be changed. We are helped to understand this by the Hosea-Gomer situation. He desperately wanted her to love him, to have a heart for him, and not constantly looking at other men and committing adultery. It was His hope that she would one day love him, and he would do anything to give her such a heart. Israel had a heart for the idols and not for Yahweh, just as Gomer is presented as a sex addict who is mentally enslaved to her addiction. But Yahweh earnestly wanted to heal their heart. This is Hosea's form of the offer of a new heart and spirit to Israel, which was part of the new covenant offered in Jeremiah and Ezekiel. That healing is offered to Israel, but they refuse. Until at the very end, in Hos. 14:4, God seems to as it were force through His plan with them. We who have willingly signed up to the new covenant have even more ample access to this spirit. If we want it- we will be given it. And we potentially have it.
I will love them freely- See on Hos. 9:15 Love them no more. The rent in God's heart between anger and love, judgment and mercy, His internal struggle (Hos. 11:8), comes down finally on the side of loving them freely, despite feeling at times that He could "love them no more" (Hos. 9:15). But the simple truth that "God is love" or "God loves Israel" was arrived at after the Divine struggles of heart and emotion which we cannot really enter into; although we see them reflected in Hosea's struggles of emotion over Gomer.
The free love of God means just that, love without even the condition of loyalty or repentance. He will be able to do so because His spirit has made them acceptable and loving and faithful to Him. Here we see the final resolution of the human problem, in all its moral, ethical and intellectual dimensions- of "How can man be just / right with God?", how can God "be" with us who are so weak and sinful. For all the clever explanations of Paul in Romans, we are left with the fear this is all a clever workaround. How can man be right with God. The answer is really in one word, "love". God forcing through the relationship, even through resurrection and imposed transformation, so that it works. How could Hosea get right with Gomer, how could Yahweh with Israel. Israel who had so sinned, we who have so sinned, can experience the "free" love of God because He will transform us. This is why we go on to read of the blessing of the Spirit. Yahweh will be to Israel a refreshing, enlivening dew (as He will be at the resurrection, "Your dead shall live; my dead body also shall arise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust; for your dew is like the dew of herbs, and the earth will cast forth her dead", Is. 26:19), leading to blossom. Resurrection has been in view in Hos. 13:14 "I will ransom them from the power of Sheol, I will redeem them from death! Death, where are your plagues? Sheol, where is your destruction?". The true Israel will be resurrected and changed; "we shall be changed... we shall be like Him". Oh how rich the promise. Resurrection and transformation by the Spirit was the only way to save Israel / Gomer, and ourselves. We won't get there it seems now. As Gomer had to die, Israel had to go into captivity and their sons fall by the sword in the land of the enemy, so we too must die; the wages of sin have to be death. But the answer is resurrection and transformation. We wonder at Paul's abandon of praise after reflecting that "And so all Israel shall be saved". The glory he speaks of is in their salvation by grace, not simply unity between Jew and Gentile. Possibly he entertains the view that indeed all historical Israel shall be raised, have unGodliness purged from Jacob until they become "Israel", and thus be eternally saved; even though that would on one hand contradict the clear teaching that salvation is only in Christ and there is no life outside of Him. But we are dealing here with a truly amazing grace beyond even Paul's ability to comprehend. And if so, Hosea will then have Gomer as he dreamt of her.
The 'free' love of God matches "the glorious liberty of God's dear children" which Paul speaks of. Intimacy on both sides. We too will love Him freely, without the fear of sin, the perception of the barrier that divides, and the cloud which so easily and quickly comes betwixt God and man. The word for "free" is usually used about the freewill offerings. This is our response even now to the "free" love of God. The same word occurs in Ps. 110:3, again with the ideas of dew, resurrection and future transformation: "Your people will offer themselves willingly [s.w. "free"] in the day of your power, in holy attire. Out of the womb of the morning, you have the dew of your youth".
We notice the seven "I will..." statements here, as if Yahweh,
who had initially said "I will not be [Yahweh]" to His people, now "is"
Yahweh again:
"I will bring my people back to
me. I will love them freely;
I will no longer be angry with
them. I will be to the people
of Israel like rain in a dry land.. I will answer
their prayers ... Like an evergreen tree
I will shelter them;
I will be the source of all their
blessings".
For My anger is turned away from him- The same words are used of how Moses turned away God's anger from Israel by his intercession and spirit of self-sacrifice (Ex. 32:12; Ps. 78:38). Israel's "preservation" by Moses has been alluded to earlier; see on Hos. 12:13. The mediator figure who ultimately does this is the Lord Jesus. God did not turn away His anger from Judah (2 Kings 23:26; Jer. 4:8) at that time; but He ultimately will, due to the work of the Lord Jesus. For man is only saved from wrath through Him, Paul teaches. So God is looking ahead to how things shall finally be, when His Son has atoned for Israel and His wrath is turned away, and He can love them freely. Hence Paul's implication that Israel shall be resurrected, ungodliness purged from Jacob so that Jacob becomes Israel. And so all Israel shall be saved. The natural sense is that "all Israel" means all Israel, and not 'Christ- believing Jews plus Gentile believers'. At the very least, we can conclude that all any of "Jacob" need to do is to say "yes" to the covenant and to take words of sorrow and repentance with them to God, and they shall be saved. All we have to do is say yes...
Hos 14:5 I will be like the dew to Israel. He will blossom like the
lily, and send down his roots like Lebanon- For Israel to be as a
flourishing tree, it had to be planted. The idea was that the people of
God would return from captivity and be planted in the land of Israel
permanently, where they would become a blessing to the nations around them
(:7). It is at the time of the restoration, the new covenant and
the Kingdom of God that Israel will be planted. "I will plant them upon
their land, and they shall never again be plucked
up from their land which I have given them" (Am. 9:15); " I will bring
them back to this land... I will plant them and not uproot them" (Jer.
24:6); "In the time to come Jacob shall take root and Israel shall bud and
blossom and they shall fill the whole earth with fruit" (Is. 27:6).
Clearly God's hope for reconcilliation with His people, as Hosea's for
Gomer, was now not in this life. It is the resurrection [already spoken of
in Hos. 13] and the Kingdom that is in view. And yet this was despite
their impenitence, leading us to ponder whether Paul's understanding that
"so all Israel shall be saved" could imply the resurrection and spiritual
cleansing of historical Israel. Unless we fall back to the assumption that
those who will be thus planted eternally in the earth and saved are those
who heed the calls to repentance. But that doesn't exactly fit the
context. Of course we stand here at the very frontier of human
possibilities to understand.
“Like the lily” refers to the white lily, which is very common in Palestine, “which is unsurpassed in its fecundity, often producing fifty bulbs from a single root” (Pliny). The picture is of fruitfulness. Gomer was an old, barren woman, still loved by Hosea, despite having "dry breasts and a miscarrying womb". It might seem it was now too late for her and Hosea to have the family and relationship Hosea had hoped for. It may seem too late for God and Israel, for Him and us. But now we have the language of fertility, joy and blessing, brought about only by His Spirit. That Spirit must be received. But even then, we have the implication that God will almost force it upon His people. He so wants to make it work.
Hos 14:6 His branches will spread, and his beauty will be like the
olive tree, and his fragrance like Lebanon- The language of branches
providing shade (:7) is that of the restored Kingdom of God, providing
shade and blessing to the surrounding world; Ephraim would indeed have
fruitful branches (Gen. 49:22). This could have come true after the return
from exile (Ez. 17:8,23), but it didn't. The few who returned mixed with
the nations, traded with them and in spirit became like them. They were
not a blessing to them. And so the prophecy is to be fulfilled in the work
of the Lord Jesus and His future Kingdom on earth (Mt. 13:32), through
which the Kingdom of Israel shall be reestablished (Ez. 21:25-27).
The language of blossoming and fruitfulness in :6,7 are taken from marriage blessings common at the time. Still the Divine dream, as Hosea's for Gomer, was that despite the divorce, the judgments, the shame... still, somehow, the remarriage and reconcilliation would happen. Even if it required thousands of years of death followed by resurrection.
"Branches" is literally 'saplings', the idea being of a slender plant growing up from the root of the cut down tree. The same word is used of the Lord Jesus (Is. 53:2 "tender branch"). The hint is that through resurrection, and on account of Messiah, the condemned, dead Israel would rise again. These branches / saplings are of an olive tree. The judgment of Jer. 14:16 would be reversed through resurrection: "Yahweh called your name, A green olive tree, beautiful with goodly fruit: with the noise of a great tumult he has kindled fire on it, and its branches are broken". They would be as originally intended. But the question of course is whether the actual unfaithful Israelites, like Gomer, would be resurrected and thus transformed; or whether this comes true only through a new olive tree, the believers. The logical force of the argument here in Hosea is that those who were slain in judgment by Assyria and Babylon would arise, as if historical Israel were to be resurrected. That begs many questions, only resoluble by the acceptance of God's love and grace.
Hos 14:7 Men will dwell in his shade. They will revive like the grain,
and blossom like the vine. Their fragrance will be like the wine of
Lebanon- As noted on :6, this is the language of the restored Kingdom
of God in Israel. The branches of natural Israel were broken off, and we
have been grafted in (Rom. 11:21). Right now, we should be a shade to
people from all nations through sharing the gospel of the Kingdom with
them. The 'revival' could have happened in the time of Hosea (see on Hos.
6:2). But the Israelites wanted to sleep with the Gentiles, pay them for
help, deceive them and fight with them, as Hosea has explained already-
rather than be a shade to them, an attractive scent to them, and giving
them a foretaste of the Kingdom of God. So much potential was wasted, as
it is in human life to this day. It could have happened at the
restoration (Jer. 31:5,12 use similar language), after Judah's 'death' in
captivity. But most of them didn't want to return, and Malachi and Haggai
explain that this fruitfulness didn't happen because they just didn't want
the new covenant offered.
The language of fruitfulness here implies the restoration of the grain, wine and oil. God had laid waste their vines (Hos. 2:1). The judgments were all to be reversed. These were all blessings associated with faithfulness to the covenant (Dt. 7:13, 11:14; Jer. 31:12). The idea is that they have returned to covenant relationship, but under a new covenant, seeing they broke the old covenant. This is was all hinted at earlier- if Israel like Gomer were faithful: “The earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil, and they shall answer Jezreel, and I will sow him for myself in the land” (Hos. 2:22,23). But here Hosea speaks as if these things will happen, regardless of the condition of repentance and loyalty to the covenant. God implies He is going to force it through. But I suggest what is implied is resurrection from the dead and transformation by the Spirit.
Hos 14:8 Ephraim, what have I to do any more with idols?- The idea may be that Ephraim will say this in repentance, and God responds. But we can also read it as God's address of Ephraim. As I have noted often, Israel were not so much building shrines to idols, but building altars to Yahweh and claiming that their idolatry there was in fact Yahweh worship. God for all time is marking that separation. No longer will His people serve their flesh under guise of serving Him.
I will answer, and will take care of him- Literally, I will show My face. God had turned His face away from Israel (Dt. 31:17), now He will look toward them in response to their exclusive, whole hearted commitment to Him.
I suggest that here we have a dialogue as
God and Israel fall in love:
Ephraim: What have I to do with idols?
Yahweh: It is I who answer and look after you.
Ephraim: I am like an evergreen cypress.
Yahweh: from Me comes your fruit.
I am like a green fir tree- from Me you will acquire fruit- The dried up tree of Israel would become God's own tree, and would again produce fruit; even though green fir trees don't produce fruit but only seeds. But this one would give fruit, by a miracle. Instead of worshipping evergreen trees in the hope of fertility blessings, they would worship Yahweh alone, and receive fertility from Him. This is perhaps Hosea's fantasy that somehow, this worn out woman with dry breasts and a miscarrying womb (Hos. 9:14) would somehow one day still bear him children of their own, and that in him “the fatherless [a reference to Gomer’s illegitimate children] finds mercy” (14:3). Those children had been slain, but would find mercy in that they would be resurrected. For how else could slain children "find mercy". This fantasy of Hosea’s, rooted in his amazing love for Gomer, love that was partly in pure and amazing obedience to God’s command that he love her (Hos. 3:1), is a reflection of God’s dream for Israel; His hope for Israel, which is "the hope of Israel". Such love and grace is in the background of that term. Hosea died with his dream unfulfilled. We are left with the question as to whether this similar loving intention of God for Israel will in fact be fulfilled, or whether it was what was potentially possible for Israel; or whether His fantasy for them will be fulfilled through a new Israel. If the latter, and we are that new Israel, then we can imagine what passionate joy the Father finds in our bumbling attempts to respond to Him and be His loyal and faithful wife. Whatever, the simple fact is that it all reflects an amazing grace, an ineffable love… and this God is our God, and Hosea who reflected all this is truly a pattern for ourselves in daily life.
Hos 14:9 Who is wise, that he may
understand these things? Who is prudent, that he may know them? For the
ways of Yahweh are right, and the righteous walk in them; but the
rebellious will stumble in them-
The appeal to "know" Yahweh is yet again repeated. “She did not know that it was I who gave her grain, wine, and oil” (Hos. 2:8), she was destroyed for lack of knowledge of Yahweh, and yet always was the hope, the fantasy, of Hos. 2:20: “I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know Yahweh”. This was God's hope as it was Hosea's, that Gomer would finally know him in all the fullness of intimacy that he hoped for. But despite the intensity of Divine hope, of Hosea's hope, there had to be that freewill movement. Hence this final, forlorn appeal.
Walking in the ways of Yahweh is the
language of keeping covenant (Dt. 8:6; 10:12; 11:22,28; 19:9; 26:17; 28:9;
30:16; 31:29). Verse 1 has begun by saying that Israel have indeed
stumbled, they are the rebellious, but by grace God will resurrect them
literally and spiritually from that fallen position. God's amazing grace
and willingness to save Israel 'anyway', however we understand that in its
practical outworking, should inspire us to be loyal to the covenant. The
wise will perceive that, rather than using grace as an excuse for sin and
disloyalty to that covenant. Despite the hint at Israel's resurrection and
transformation by the Spirit, either literally or at the proposed
restoration which most of them refused, Hosea cannot conclude without some
kind of notice about the conditionality of God's grace- even if those
conditions may be waived. Even if there were to be unconditional universal
salvation for "all Israel", then the conditionality of salvation must
never be ignored. That is the abiding and concluding paradox we are left
with by Hosea, by God, by His grace and love. It is the tension left
between "I will love them no more" and "I will love them freely". To press
further is to try to look beyond the veil. On the intellectual, exegetical
level... we are now at a brick wall. Lead there by following the line of
reasoning and language of Hosea. We cannot say more. Nor really think
more. But somehow, "so all Israel shall be saved".
Zion's King shall reign victorious,
All the earth shall own His sway;
He will make His Kingdom glorious;
He will reign through endless day:
What though none on earth assist Him!
God requires not help from man,
What though all the world resist Him!
God will realise His plan.
Nations now from God estranged,
Then shall see a glorious light;
Night to day shall then be changed,
Saints shall triumph in the sight.
See the Papal idols falling!
Worshipped once, but now abhorr'd;
Men on Zion's King are calling;
Zion's King by all adored.
Then shall Israel, long dispersed,
Mourning seek the Lord their God ,
Look on Him whom once they pierced,
Own and kiss the chastening rod,
Then all Israel shall be saved,
War and tumult then shall cease,
While the greater Son of David
Rules a conquer'd world in peace.
3. Daughter of Zion, the power that hath saved thee,
Extolled with the harp and the timbrel shall be;
Shout: for the foe is destroyed that enslaved thee;
Th' oppressor is vanquished, and Zion is free. [Chorus]
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