Thursday
Thursday
The Message of Hosea
For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.
Hosea 6:6
If Amos was the prophet of God’s justice, Hosea was the prophet of his love. Moreover, the means by which each received his message from God was different. To Amos God spoke directly, “Go, prophesy to my people Israel” (Amos 7:15), but he revealed his message to Hosea through the pain of his broken marriage.
Perhaps the key sentence in the prophecy of Hosea is the command, “Go, show your love to your wife again…. Love her as the LORD loves the Israelites” (Hosea 3:1). This drawing of an analogy between Hosea’s love for his wife Gomer and Yahweh’s love for his bride Israel is crucial to our understanding. It is not entirely clear how Gomer had misbehaved, but it is evident that she had deserted Hosea, as Israel had Yahweh, and that now Hosea was to woo her back as Yahweh was seeking to bring Israel home again.
Israel’s unfaithfulness is called her lack of hesed. Often translated “mercy” or “loving-kindness,” hesed refers essentially to covenant faithfulness and so is well translated “steadfast love.” This was Yahweh’s will for his people: “I desire mercy [hesed]” (6:6). And this was his complaint: “There is no faithfulness [hesed], no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land” (4:1). What was there instead? “There is only cursing, lying and murder, stealing and adultery” (4:2). In other words, breaches of the covenant commandments. For “the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the LORD” (1:2) and in turning aside to her “lovers,” the fertility gods of the local shrines (2:13). So the call comes to her to repent and return to the Lord. For he is seeking her and promises, “I will betroth you to me forever” (2:19).
The same complaint and call are addressed to us today. As the Lord Jesus said to the church in Ephesus, “I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love…. Repent and do the things you did at first” (Rev. 2:4–5).
For further reading: Hosea 14:1–8