Project 119: Hosea 14
| Project 119 | Hayden Walker
One of the first songs many of us learned as children was “Jesus Loves Me.” The simple words capture the heart of our Christian faith. Beginning with our early years, it is not hard for us to grasp Jesus’ love for us, especially when we look to His sacrifice upon the cross. Unfortunately, people do not always have such warm feelings about God as he presents Himself in the Old Testament. Images of judgment, gloom, and doom may come to mind when picturing God before Christ’s birth. However, this dichotomy is not only false, it is dangerous. Pitting God against Himself may make His character more palatable, but only because we have begun to craft a god in our own image, rather than embracing Him as He has revealed Himself to us.
Our journey through the book of Hosea has covered plenty of chapters and passages about God’s impending judgment upon the wicked nation of Israel. You may have even recoiled a bit as God’s fierce anger was displayed. God’s intolerance for sin is undeniable. However, I do hope that you have been quick to notice God’s benevolent mercy within this book as well. Hosea ended his prophetic work with a plea for the nation to repent. He beseeched his people to return to God, to abandon their idolatry and obstinate attitudes (Hosea 14:1-2). Hosea even provided a scripted prayer of repentance (14:2b-3). Beginning in verse 4, God spoke again. His magnanimous character was presented once again. We see clearly that God Himself is the committed loving husband which Hosea mimicked in his own marriage to the harlot. Just as Hosea took Gomer back, God was ready and willing to accept His people again, following their repentance. God promised to cause the contrite remnant a future of flourishing (Hosea 14:5-7). A benevolent, healing, restoring, protecting, sustaining, and truly loving God is on display in this final chapter. It is this God who wants to heal us when we repent and turn to Him. It is this God of whom we can say, “He loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so,” not only upon the cross, but also in His loving Old Testament promises.
Hosea 14 (ESV):
A Plea to Return to the LORD
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.
3 Assyria shall not save us;
we will not ride on horses;
and we will say no more, ‘Our God,’
to the work of our hands.
In you the orphan finds mercy.”
4 I will heal their apostasy;
I will love them freely,
for my anger has turned from them.
5 I will be like the dew to Israel;
he shall blossom like the lily;
he shall take root like the trees of Lebanon;
6 his shoots shall spread out;
his beauty shall be like the olive,
and his fragrance like Lebanon.
7 They shall return and dwell beneath my shadow;
they shall flourish like the grain;
they shall blossom like the vine;
their fame shall be like the wine of Lebanon.
8 O Ephraim, what have I to do with idols?
It is I who answer and look after you.
I am like an evergreen cypress;
from me comes your fruit.
9 Whoever is wise, let him understand these things;
whoever is discerning, let him know them;
for the ways of the LORD are right,
and the upright walk in them,
but transgressors stumble in them.