Hosea & the Relentlessness of God

I am nearly nearing the end of preaching through Hosea and it’s been a tough slog. It’s not that it hasn’t been a good slog, but at times, it’s been a slog. My son noted, when I preached on other passages of Scripture, that it was good to focus on something other than sin and judgment! He meant well and Hosea has a repetitive nature to it that is very much deliberate. For the congregation going through Hosea, once you hit chapter 4, settle in for God’s anger over sin to continue all the way up to chapter 11 (at just one chapter a week that’s 8 weeks, nearly 2 months!). In chapter 11 there is a shift or a culmination where God expresses his love for Israel and promises not to utterly destroy them (the word utterly is the key, because, in one sense, he will destroy them).

The congregation cresting chapter 11 may feel a sense of relief only to crash down in the cold freezing water of reality. Sin is still present. Judgment is still coming. Chapter 12 starts a new lawsuit or controversy with the people of God, this time naming Judah as the one to receive God’s wrath, but throughout the rest of chapter 12 we get a further expansion of the lawsuit against Israel. One could be forgiven for thinking we left that behind at the end of chapter 11. But no, chapter 13 opens on the vista of Ephraim’s demise. He is dead. His descendants are like vapour. God stands over them like an animal drenched in the blood of his victim. Israel the nation will perish for their sins. Exile is coming, destruction is at the gates, and the fall of the northern kingdom will be terrible (see 13:15-16). 

In Hosea, we often focus on the first three chapters. These wonderful chapters that show a sinful people, committing spiritual adultery, find grace and mercy in a loving God. We the listeners are supposed to identify with them and see the wondrous ways in which God woos back his bride. To see the love God has that is greater even than his people’s sin (see chapter 11). Rightly so, chapters 1-3 (and 11) should influence how we understand the rest of the book. But we need to see how judgment and mercy intertwine throughout Hosea. 

Sin carries with it a whole host of problems. One of them being temporal punishment and temporal consequences. Israel will face up to their sins of violating the covenant of God. They will experience “death” like Adam and Eve, cast out of the present of God, from his land, and his favour. God will pursue them, like a lion charging after its prey. His prophet dogs them, his words, unrelenting. They cannot escape God’s words because no matter how much they ignore them they will soon come crashing down upon their heads. Those who survive, look on as their kinsman are slaughtered, their land stripped from them, and those who are left are taken to a foreign land. God will be vindicated. His words will ring forth as absolutely true. 

Wow. Even typing that I have to face up to how relentless God is. The writer of the book of Hebrews says that God is an ‘all-consuming fire’ (Hebrews 12:29). Think of the way that fire spreads, especially in forest fires. It burns, it grows, it consumes, it keeps growing and everything in its path is wiped out, charred to ash. Nothing stands in the way of these fires. How much more so is the holiness of God? This is a fire hotter than the sun. 

Has Hosea firmly established how bad sin is? Has he shown you the ugliness of sin? If he hasn’t, it’s time to go back and re-read the book. God will in no way clear the guilty. But throughout Hosea there is something else: the love of God. God is pictured as the groom coming for a bride that doesn’t want him. God is pictured as the loving father lifting the toddler to his feet all the while the child runs far from him. The book of Hosea is an extended meditation on the parable of the prodigal son. Can you repent? 

Can you, you who deserve God’s wrath?

Can you, you who deserve to be consumed by God’s burning holiness? 

Can you, you who are to be cast out from his presence for all eternity?

Can you, you who will experience eternal death forever and ever?

Can you avoid this fate? 

The answer is a resounding yes. 

12:6 “So you, by the help of your God, return,

hold fast to love and justice,

and wait continually for your God.”

14:1   Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God,

for you have stumbled because of your iniquity.

2 Take with you words

and return to the LORD;

say to him,

“Take away all iniquity;

accept what is good,

and we will pay with bulls

the vows of our lips.