Faithful God (Part Fourteen): How Can I Give You Up?

Transcript

JROT 14
4/16/2023
Faithful God (Part Fourteen): How Can I Give You Up?
Hosea 11:1-11
Jesse Randolph

Well, Andy Stanley, is the pastor of North Point Community Church in Alpharetta Georgia, just outside of Atlanta. North Point Community Church is a large multi-site church. Stanley is a gifted communicator. He’s a compelling orator. He’s a powerful preacher, just like his father – Charles. He has a large following. North Point has something like 37,000 people attending any given Sunday, spread across its seven campuses, all over the greater Atlanta region. He’s been very effective, Stanley has, in using media and technology to get his insights across. To get his message across. I use that word intentionally, by the way, “his” message. See, Stanley, in recent days and recent years really, has made some comments of late, that suggest that he is not fully committed to biblical orthodoxy. For instance, he has made comments which suggest that he’s not committed entirely to the doctrine of biblical inerrancy. He has referred to the Bible’s account of God’s creation of all things in six literal days as a “creation myth.” He’s made comments in which he has stated that openly-practicing LGBTQ persons have “more faith” than he does as a Christian pastor. Then there’s the comment he made a few years ago, which is that it is time for Christians to “unhitch” themselves from the Old Testament. You heard that right. According to Stanley, it’s time that we send those 39 books of God’s divinely-inspired revelation packing. What we should really be focusing our energies on, as Christians, are the teachings of Jesus, and exclusively the teachings of Jesus in the New Testament.

Now, we as Christians, of course, do with rapt attention take in the inscripturated words of our Lord Jesus Christ. While we do recognize that our entire faith is anchored in what He did for us on the cross. We also recognize that the God who sent His Son to this earth to die on that cross, is a God who has revealed so much more about Himself. His work in history. His plan of salvation. His future plans, even, in all 66 books of the bible. Not just the 27 books or the New Testament. Well, Andy Stanley’s thoughts on “unhitching” from the Old Testament are, sadly, nothing new. You know, supposed “new truths” are often just, in reality, recycled “old heresies.” That’s the case here. See, Stanley’s arguments for “unhitching” from the Old Testament have much in common with the ancient heresy of Marcionism.

Marcion was a recognized heretic who lived from the years 85 or so A.D. until about 160 A.D. While Marcion advocated and promoted many heresies, which led to him eventually being excommunicated from the early church. The core heresy that he promoted was his idea that the God of the Old Testament was not the same God as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ revealed in the New Testament. The Old Testament, Marcion taught, was this vindictive law-giving creator-deity, who bore no resemblance to the merciful loving God revealed in Jesus Christ in the New Testament. Marcion could not believe that the God who made His people tremble on Mt. Sinai, could be the same God who so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever would believe in Him would not perish, but have everlasting life. So what Marcion did was he attempted to create an entirely new bible. An entire new set of scriptures. Since the actual bible didn’t have the God in it that Marcion wanted . . . Marcion decided that it was time to create a new bible, a “better” bible. He took out all the stuff about wrath and judgment. He left in only that material which fit his narrative. He left in only those parts of the bible that were cast in those more gentle and soft hues . . . which he though Christianity ought to represent. He wanted God to be who he wanted Him to be. He wanted to form God in his image. A contortion and distortion of reality, if there ever was one. See, some heresies simply refuse to die. Which highlights the fact that the “god of this world” . . Satan . . . continues to disguise himself as an angle of light . . . blinding the eyes and the minds of believers and unbelievers alike.

I bring up Andy Stanley, by the way, and this parallel between him seeking to “unhitch” from the Old Testament, with this old-school heretic, Marcion. Not because I want to go too far into Andy Stanley or Marcion this evening. But rather as a transition to our text for this evening. See, men like Andy Stanley and Marcion, men who want to “carve up” and “clean up” the bible, because they believe that the Old Testament and the New Testament essentially portray two different Gods. Men, who like Stanley, want to “unhitch” the Old Testament from the New, they always have a really tough time with two types of passages.

On the one hand, are the passages in the New Testament which clearly communicate the righteous anger and wrath of God. John 3:36, “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; but he who does not obey the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” Romans 1:18, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness.” Colossians 3:5-6, “Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience.” Of course, there are Jesus’ own words throughout the New Testament, throughout the gospels about “the fiery hell”, Matthew 5:22 or “the eternal fire” Matthew 18:8. Or the place where the “worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.” Mark 9:48 The place which is described as “outer darkness.” Matthew 8:12. Or the place where there “will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Luke 13:28. So how do they square those instances of the wrath of God, the anger of God, the righteous anger of God being portrayed in the New Testament?

But then there’s this other group of passages, that those who seek to “unhitch” the Old Testament from the New, have a real tough time with them. These are those passages in the Old Testament, which very clearly outline and showcase the love of God. Exodus 34:6-7, “The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; who keeps lovingkindness for thousands; who forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin.” Isaiah 43:1, “But now, thus says the Lord, your Creator, O Jacob, and He who formed you, O Israel, ‘Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are mine!’” See, passages like those don’t fit the theology of men like Marcion and Andy Stanley. Passages like those don’t’ fit the narrative of men like Marcion and Andy Stanley.

That brings us to our text for this evening, as we turn back to the book of Hosea. An Old Testament book, of course. We’ll be in an Old Testament passage where we’re going to see this powerful and moving expression of God’s love. Of divine love. Specifically of God’s love for His people, the people of Israel. Notwithstanding the many ways they had, up to this point, disappointed Him and grieved Him, and offended Him and forgotten Him and sinned against Him. Notwithstanding all of that, He loved them. He wasn’t going to give them up. That’s the title of the message this evening: “How Can I Give You Up?”

The title of the message comes from Hosea 11:8, which we’ll get to in just a little bit. But if you haven’t already, turn with me in your bibles to Hosea 11. We’re going to work almost to the end of the chapter. We’re going to stop at the end of verse 11 tonight. Because that’s where the actual section break is in the Hebrew text. We have one of the most unfortunate chapter divisions in all of the English Bibles, here tonight. Hosea 11 should really end at verse 11, not 12; 12 goes with chapter 12, which we’ll see next time.
With that, we’ll get into our text, Hosea 11:1-11. I’ll go ahead and read the entire thing, and then we’ll get into it. God’s word reads:
“When Israel was a youth I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son. The more they called them, the more they went from them; they kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning incense to idols. Yet it is I who taught Ephraim to walk, I took them in My arms; but they did not know that I healed them. I led them with cords of a man, with bonds of love, and I became to them as one who lifts the yoke from their jaws; and I bent down and fed them.”
“They will not return to the land of Egypt; but Assyria – he will be their king because they refused to return to Me. The sword will whirl against their cities, and will demolish their gate bards and consume them because of their counsels. So My people are bent on turning from Me. Though they call them to the One on high, none at all exalts Him.”
“How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I surrender you, O Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart is turned over within Me, all My compassions are kindled. I will not execute My fierce anger; I will not destroy Ephraim again. For I am God and not man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath. They will walk after the Lord, He will roar like a lion; indeed He will roar and His sons will come trembling from the west. They will come trembling like birds from Egypt and like doves from the land of Assyria; and I will settle them in their houses, declares the Lord.”

Praise God! We’re not “unhitching” from texts like these. Because what we have here in Hosea 11, is a magnificent picture of the patience of God. The mercy of God. The wisdom of God and of course, the love of God. There are these three natural divisions, or seams, in this text here this evening. These three divisions, these three seams are going to serve as our headings, our points for tonight’s sermon:

In verses 1-4, we have God’s Past Dealings with Israel.
In verses 5-7, we have God’s Present Dealings with Israel (meaning, what was the boots-on-the-ground scene there in Hosea’s day).
In verses 8-11, we have God’s Future Dealings with Israel. A simple outline for what is a very profound text. Let’s jump into it, picking it up in verse 1.

1. God’s Past Dealings with Israel
“When Israel was a youth I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son.” God is here, through the prophet Hosea, speaking in the first person . . . and as He does so, He’s recalling Israel’s early history . . . to contrast its past, with its present-day situation, there in the mid-8th century B.C. and Yahweh here recalls this early history, and as He’s doing so, He’s openly expressing His paternal love for Israel. This is a love that the Lord first displayed for Israel, as He called her out of Egypt. Deuteronomy 7:7-8, familiar passage, we’ve been there many times in this series. “The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which He swore to you forefathers, the Lord brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharoah king of Egypt.” We saw language similar to that, where Yahweh was reflecting favorably on when He first called Israel unto Himself, back in Hosea 9. Hosea 9:10, He says, “I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness; I saw your forefathers as the earliest fruit on the fig tree in its first season.” Now in Hosea 11:1 He says, “when Israel was a youth I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son.” See, the Lord’s relationship with Israel here, is pictured as that of a father to a son. This harkens back, all the way back to the days of Moses in Exodus 4, when God gave Moses instructions on how to deal with Pharoh, when he eventually would go to Pharoh and ask for the release of the Israelites from bondage there in Egypt. Exodus 4:21-23 it says, “The Lord said to Moses, ‘When you go back to Egypt see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders which I have put in your power; but I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go. Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Israel is My son, My firstborn.” So I said to you, “Let My son go that he may serve Me’.”
What this is telling us is that Israel was God’s chosen “son”, by adoption. That’s the immediate thought being communicated here in Hosea 11:1.

Now, if you have any degree of familiarity with scriptures, you do know that these words from Hosea 11:1 are often referenced in sermons given around Christmastime. Why? Well, because Hosea 11:1 is cited in that section of Matthew’s Gospel which deals with the birth and earliest years of the life or our Lord Jesus Christ. You’ll recall that after the birth of Jesus, and after the visit of the Magi, Joseph was warned by an angel of the Lord, in a dream, to take Mary and Jesus down to Egypt. To flee to Egypt. In fact, turn with me, if you will, to Matthew 2. Matthew 2, and we’ll pick it up in verse 13: “Now when they had gone, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, ‘Get up! Take the Child and His mother and flee to Egypt and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is going to search for the Child to destroy Him.’ So, Joseph got up and took the Child and His mother while it was still night and left for Egypt.” Look at Matthew 2:15, “He remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet [that’s Hosea]: ‘Out of Egypt I called My Son’.” Those words – “Out of Egypt I called My son” – are a reference back to Hosea 11:1; our passage for this evening. What’s interesting here is that looking at Hosea 11:1 from the prophet Hosea’s vantage point. What Hosea the prophet was writing about was not prophecy in the sense of it being predictive. He instead was writing of God’s calling Israel our of Egypt during the exodus. Matthew, though, however, who was a Holy Spirit-guided author just like Hosea was, built on the understanding that was to be given Hosea’s words. See, Matthew appropriated the experience of the Israelites who were called out of Egypt in Hosea’s day. To highlight the fact that the Messiah of Israel, Jesus Christ, was, like them, called out of Egypt. Matthew was, I believe, identifying Israel’s Messiah here, with the nation of Israel . . . through their common experience of having been called out of Egypt. Israel was God’s chosen “son” as it says here in verse 1 of chapter 11 of Hosea. They had been called out of Egypt at a very specific earlier point in history. Well, Jesus is the Son of God. He also was called out of Egypt . . . in His time. In His day. So, while Hosea’s statement, was a historical reference to Israel’s deliverance, Matthew related Hosea’s words to the call of the Son, the Messiah, out of Egypt. In that sense, he “heightened” Hosea’s words to a more significant event . . . that of the Messiah’s return or the call out of Egypt . . . and in that sense, that scripture was “fulfilled.”

Now, turning back to Hosea 11, and these were sweet times in Israel’s history. When “Israel was [it says] a youth” and when “out of Egypt [He] called [His] son.” However, things soured really quickly after that. We see that picked up in verse 2. It says, “The more they called them, the more they went from them.” God had called them out of Egypt. He had called them unto Himself. He had entered into this covenant with them at Sinai. A covenant which included rewards for obedience and punishment for disobedience. But the people rejected Him. No matter how many prophets God sent. No matter how clear and compelling the messages of those prophets were. The people of Israel always, at some level, and to some degree, rejected the clear words of warning that God gave them through His prophets. That’s what’s being said here in verse 2. “The more they [meaning the prophets] called them, [meaning the people of Israel] the more they [meaning the people of Israel] went from them [the prophets]” and “they kept [on] sacrificing to the Baals and burning incense to idols.” So, Yahweh continued to beckon them. He continued to summon them. He continued, through His prophets, to “call” them. He’s pictured here, God is, as this loving Father, who as an expression of His love, repeatedly warns His wayward child of the peril that awaits them. But the wayward child, Israel here, ignores Him. They thumb their nose, they turn their back, they run headlong into danger, anyway. Of course, that is the underlying storyline of the Old Testament, is it not? That God had given His people His law, in which He had told His people the things they were to do. The things they were not to do. But the people broke His Law. They rejected His Law. They made a mockery of His Law. So God had to send His prophets. Men like Isaiah and Micah and Amos and Habakkuk. Men like Hosea. To not only rebuke the people for their violation of God’s Law. But to warn the people about the punishments and the judgments that would come if they continued to violate His Law. I mean, that’s what’s said in Jeremiah 7:25-26, it says, “Since the day that your fathers came out of the land of Egypt until this day, I have sent you all My servants the prophets, daily rising early and sending them. Yet they did not listen to Me or incline their ear, but stiffened their neck . . .” The people didn’t listen. They rejected the stern messaging and the warnings of the prophets that God had sent them. Not only that though, the people not only rejected the prophetic warnings. They took it a step further by continuing to turn to false gods and worshiping these false deities in place of worshiping God Himself.

We see that in 2 Kings 17 and other places. I’m going to read a section of 2 Kings 17:13-17, just to give you a color or a feel, a taste for what this looked like. It says: “Yet the Lord warned Israel and Judah through all His prophets and every seer, saying, ‘Turn from your evil ways and keep My commandments, My statutes according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you through My servants the prophets.’ However, they did not listen, but stiffened their neck like their fathers, who did not believe in the Lord their God. They rejected His statutes and His covenant which He made with their fathers and His warnings with which He warned them. And they followed vanity and became vain, and went after the nations which surrounded them, concerning which the Lord had commanded them not to do like them. They forsook all the commandments of the Lord their God and made for themselves molten images, even two calves, and made an Asherah and worshipped all the host of heaven and served Baal. Then they made their sons, and their daughters pass through the fire, and practiced divination and enchantments, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking Him.” See, the problem was that Israel continued to forget their identity. They had been called by God. They had been liberated by God. They had been identified as “sons” of God. But they weren’t living that way. They weren’t acting that way. Rather, they continued to run for shelter, under the flimsy coverings offered to them by these so called “gods” of the land . . . as though they were some sort of vulnerable orphans, as opposed to “sons” of the living God.

Well, no matter how many calls to repentance. No matter how many threats of judgment that the prophets gave to the Israelites, it never worked. Because the people never listened. They had, as it says in Jeremiah 7:26, “stiffened their neck.” So, if verse 1 of Hosea 11 portrays a picture of the love and the affection of God for His people. Who He calls here His “son.” Verse 2 reveals how terrible and insolent this “son” had been toward their Father. By Hosea’s day, as it says here in verse 2, this was not just a reflection on some archaic historical account from long ago. No. By Hosea’s day, the people of Israel had been carrying on like this, in their wickedness, for hundreds of years. Meaning, God had shown them immense mercy and love by freeing them from their enslavement in Egypt. But Israel didn’t respond in kind. Israel didn’t reciprocate. Instead, they chose new “gods.” It says, “They kept sacrificing to the Baals [verse 2 here] and burning incense to idols.” Testing God’s patience. Tempting fate; and in doing so, violating the most basic principle which God had laid out for them in the Ten Commandments: “You shall have no other gods besides Me.”

Well, as we turn to verses 3 and 4. We’re still in this setting which describes Yahweh’s past relations with Israel. Look at verses 3 and 4, he says: “Yet it is I who taught Ephraim to walk, I took them in My arms; but they did not know that I healed them. I led them with cords of a man, with bonds of love, and I became to them as one who lifts the yoke from their jaws; and I bent down and fed them.” Yahweh’s goodness to Israel in the past is illustrated with even more color and detail here. Like a father patiently teaching a young child to walk, the Lord here had sustained Israel. Established Israel. He “taught Ephraim”, it says, which is just another way of saying, Israel . . . “to walk.” He had held His son’s hand. He had held His son in His arms. It says, “I took them in My arms.” Now, those of you who are parents know exactly what’s being referred to here. It’s that picture of the dad extending his arms to his toddler, who is just now learning how to walk. You can picture the dad and the bow-legged toddler, and the dad’s putting his pinky out there to give the toddler something to hold onto, as the toddler learns to walk. The dad, as an act of love, catches that toddler when the toddler falls. He scoops up the toddler when the little child gets hurt. He holds that child in the comfort and the safety of his arms, until that child feels better and is ready to give it a go again. See, Yahweh set Israel on their feet as a people, as a nation. It was He who took them up in His mighty arms and bore them all along. It was He who protected them and scooped them up when they fell. We see that truth not only here in verse 3 though, we see it in other places in the Old Testament. Deuteronomy 1:30-31 says, “The Lord you God who goes before you will Himself fight on your behalf, just as He did for you in Egypt before your eyes, and in the wilderness where you saw how the Lord your God carried you, just as a man carries his son, in all the way which you have walked until you came to this place.” Or Isaiah 1:2 says, “Listen, O heavens, and hear, O earth; for the Lord speaks, ‘Sons I have reared and brought up, but they have revolted against Me’.” Even though they would revolt against Him and even though He would be patient with them and ultimately restore them. They were so blinded by their sin that He was always the One who caught them. That they couldn’t see He was always the One who caught them. Who restored them. Who healed them. The people of Israel in this day, completely failed to acknowledge Yahweh’s assistance and intervention in their lives. That’s what’s meant here by yet “They did not know that I healed them.” That was utter folly, by the way, because God had declared to them so clearly, back at Sinai. Back in the days of the wilderness wanderings. In Deuteronomy 32:39 He had said to them way back then “See now that I, I am He, and there is no god besides Me; it is I who put to death and give life. I have wounded and it is I who heal, and there is no one who can deliver from My hand.” See, it didn’t matter to this generation of stubborn and stiff-necked Israelites. Just like they had forgotten that it was Yahweh who fed them. Just like they had given that thought that it was the false gods who were feeding them, back in Hosea 2:5, they had forgotten that it was Yahweh that healed them and restored them in their various afflictions.

As we turn to verse 4 though, the metaphor shifts from a father with his small child, to a farmer and his work animal. The imagery is now agricultural. He says: “I led them with cords of a man, with bonds of love, and I became to them as one who lifts the yoke from their jaws; and I bent down and fed them. ”That’s similar to what Yahweh said to the people of Judah, through Jeremiah, in Jeremiah 31:3, where he says, “I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness.” In Hosea’s time, notwithstanding her many failures and her rejection of Him, Yahweh continued to show Israel great compassion and love. We see it next with this very tender image of Yahweh leading this animal gently, with human cords, “cords of a man” it says and “bonds”, or ropes of “love.” Then, just as he had patiently and lovingly taught the child how to walk in verse 3, he makes the animal of verse 4 more comfortable by graciously removing their yoke. It says, “And I became to them as one who lifts the yoke from their jaws”, so that they could eat. “And I bent down and fed them.” See, God here is likened to a master who gently, in kindness and in love, leads his animal, and then removes, maybe he repositions its yoke, so that it might eat with greater ease, the food that he’s kindly providing it. He wasn’t a harsh or a brutal taskmaster. Rather, He fed them and cared for them in gentleness, because He loved them. Again, this is very beautiful and relatable imagery. Highlighting the love of God for His people. At the same time, what it really does, is it highlights the ingratitude of Israel toward God. Their obstinacy in continually opting for the harsh yoke of sin, over the loving and tender yoke of Yahweh.

You know, in our home, there is an offense that will not only draw the ire of mom and dad. But will draw the more severe punishment. That’s the failure to give thanks. The failure to express gratitude. The failure to have a grateful heart. And why? Well, as we train up our children in the ways of the Lord. We want them to know that that not only grieves the heart of mom and dad, but it grieves the heart of God. The failure to give thanks is right at the top of the list of sins and griefs against God. The God who has provide all. Yahweh had been to Israel, like that farmer who is kind enough to adjust that yoke away from his animal’s jaws, so that they can eat. Yahweh had been continually gentle and kind, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love toward them. He had led and protected and fed His children. He had provided for His children. But they didn’t care. They didn’t acknowledge Him. They failed to give thanks to Him. Well, “that was then”, verses 1-4. As we turn to verses 5-7, the prophet is now going to, in a sense say, “this is now.” So, we’ve seen God’s Past Dealings with Israel in verses 1-4. Now, as we go to verses 5-7, we’re going to talk about:

2. God’s Present Dealings With Israel

Verses 5-7 says, “They will not return to the land of Egypt; but Assyria - he will be their king because they refused to return to Me. The sword will whirl against their cities, and will demolish their gate bards and consume them because of their counsels. So My people are bent on turning from Me. Though they call them to the One on high, none at all exalts Him.” Yahweh had called Israel out of Egypt initially. “Out of Egypt I called My son.” But they weren’t going back to Egypt. We remember at various points in the exodus, especially when they were complaining about manna in Numbers 11. They would always want to say, ‘I want to go back to Egypt, where I had fish and leeks and onions and all the rest.’ But they weren’t going back there. People of Israel were not going to be allowed to go back to Egypt. The place where Joseph was sold into slavery. The place where Joseph confronted his brothers. The place where Moses was born. The place where the Israelites had served for those years before the exodus. No, they weren’t going back there. That’s what it says in verse 5, “They will not return to the land of Egypt.” Instead, it says, “But Assyria – he will be their king.” Now, going back to the days of Judges and Samuel, Israel had always wanted a king. Thay had many wicked kings. Now, they were going to get another king. They were going to get an Assyrian king. An uncaring foreign ruler. They were trading the benevolent fatherly care of Yahweh, for a cruel and malevolent tyrant. They were exchanging the gentle yoke of Yahweh, for the harsh yoke of Assyrian servitude. Why was this happening? He tells us in verse 5, at the end of it there, he says, “Because they refused to return to Me.” “I’d given them chance after chance to turn to me, I’d given them opportunity after opportunity to repent. But they refused to do so. In fact, they wouldn’t even acknowledge Me. And not only that, they’ve turned their attentions and their affections to other gods. So, I, Yahweh, am done with them.” Then look at this vivid description of warfare, brought about by these Assyrian invaders, in verse 6. It says, “The sword will whirl against their cities, and will demolish their gate bars and consume them because of their counsels.” The language of destruction here is vivid. The sword of the Assyrians here are pictured as dancing through the streets. Slashing through the cities of Israel, wiping out cities with unmitigated fury. The “sword” that’s pictured here, though wielded by Assyrian invaders, ultimately is Yahweh’s sword. As He metes out His perfect, divine justice, through the means of these Assyrian invaders, bringing deserved judgment upon His own people. This is in fulfillment of passages like: Leviticus 26: 25, where he had said many centuries before, “I will also bring upon you a sword which will execute vengeance for the covenant.” It was a terrible fate. It was an awful fate. But Israel, ultimately could not blame the awfulness of such a fate on Yahweh, or His human agents, the Assyrians. They had nobody to blame but themselves. Also in verse 6, the “sword” is described as taking out the main source of security for these cities. The “gate bars.” Literally, the “cross beams.” Those would be crumbled. Those would be destroyed. Then with their security being taken out. With the Assyrian sword whirling its way through the cities. These cities of Israel would be ravished. The people of the cities, it says, would be “consumed”, killed. That word, interestingly, “consumed”, is the same word that we see back in verse 4, when it speaks of Yahweh bending down and feeding them. What that does, is that puts into contrast God’s past blessing of Israel, when He had given them food to eat; and now, His impending judgment of Israel, where He was going to send swords, to actually eat up or devour Israel. What we see though here in verse 6, is that the Israelites were about to be conquered by Assyria in this bloody war. One would think that that fact, that reality would motivate the people of Israel to finally wake up and repent. But that’s not what we see at all.

Look at verse 7, it says, “So My people are bent on turning from Me. Though they call them to the One on high, none at all exalts Him.” Let’s start with those words “So My people are bent on turning from Me.”
Though they were threatened with destruction and destitution and oppression and exile at the hands of the Assyrians, the people of Israel still refused to repent. They were bent on their apostasy. They were bent on turning from God. They were impaled and hung on the hook of sin. In their pride and in their stubbornness, they refused to wriggle themselves off. The verse continues: “Though they call them to the One on high, none at all exalts Him.” Though “they”, they are the prophets here, call “them”, that’s referring to Israelites, “to the One on high, none at all exalts Him.” In other words, this is yet another reference to Israel being called by the prophets to repent and their rejection of that call. “None at all exalts Him.”

Well, amazingly, God wasn’t done with Israel. Their history was undeniable. Both positive, in terms of Yahweh’s love for them, and also negative, in terms of Israel’s rejection of Him. Destruction and exile were coming. But Yahweh still loved Israel. Yahweh still loves Israel today. As we’re going to see, Yahweh still has a plan and a future for Israel. So, we’ve seen God’s Past Dealings with Israel. We’ve seen His Present Dealings with Israel in verses 5-7. Now, we turn to God’s Future Dealings with Israel in verses 8-11.

3. God’s Future Dealings With Israel

Look at verses 8-11. He says, “How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I surrender you, O Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart is turned over within Me, all My compassions are kindled. I will not execute My fierce anger; I will not destroy Ephraim again. For I am God and not man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath. They will walk after the Lord, He will roar like a lion; indeed He will roar and His sons will come trembling from the west. They will come trembling like birds from Egypt and like doves from the land of Assyria; and I will settle them in their houses, declares the Lord.” In the book of Hosea, there are a number of shifts from Yahweh’s message of judgment. We’ve seen many of these already. To a message of hope and salvation. You can have whiplash reading this prophecy. Because he’s going back and forth, back and forth. You know, in Hosea 1:10 – 2:1, we see one of those transitions. In Hosea 2:14 – 3:5, we see another one of those transitions. In Hosea 5:15 – 6:3, is yet another one of these sudden transitions. But by far the most sudden and stark shift that we have seen in this prophecy is this one. “How can I give you up, O Ephraim?” “How can I surrender you, O Israel?” These are incredibly powerful words. I don’t want them to be lost on us. Especially when we consider the depths of the depravity and the apostasy that we have seen called out in the first 10 chapters of this book! Especially when we consider the hundreds of years of rebellion that Israel had been openly engaged in up to this point. Turning its back, thumbing its nose at God for decades and for centuries. God had every reason to divorce Israel. He had grounds to divorce Israel. But He wasn’t going to divorce Israel. He loved her. He had covenanted with her. In keeping with His character, He could not give her up. I mean, what a word, what a picture of commitment, for our divorce-happy culture. Sadly, for all the divorce-tolerant churches that are out there.

Note, Yahweh here, is not saying that He was going back on what He had said about bringing judgment upon Israel. That was still going to happen. Because His word is always true. His promises to bring judgment and retribution to Israel would be fulfilled. But those words . . . “How can I give you up oh Ephraim? . . . “How can I surrender you oh Israel?” Those looked ahead to a future time when Israel would actually be in exile. Facing their punishment. Sitting in the land of their captors. Missing their homes. Missing their families. Missing their ceremonies and festivals and celebrations of worship in the land. It’s into that context, looking further ahead, further down the timeline. That the Lord promised here that He would not entirely forsake them.

Now, let’s start, as we work through this verse by verse, line by line, taking a look at these first four rapid-fire questions in verse 8:

“How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I surrender you, O Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim?”

As God reflected on the severe judgment that His wrath would bring upon Israel, He gives these questions in rapid-fire format. These questions are rhetorical. The answer to the question, “How can I give you up, O Ephraim?” Is, He can’t. He won’t. The answer to the question, “How can I surrender you, O Israel?” Is, He never would. He never will. Though He would follow through on what He said He would do, by sending them off into exile. Giving them their just and righteous punishment for their wickedness and their wrongdoing. He wasn’t going to renege on the covenant promises He had made, back to Abraham, all the way back in Genesis 12. He would never . . . and He will never . . . desert the original people with whom He had covenanted.

Now, what about those references to Admah and Zeboiim? He says, “How can I make you like Admah?” “How can I treat you like Zeboiim?” Those were cities that were along with Sodom and Gomorrah, annihilated, leveled. In Deuteronomy 29: 22, God threatened, back in those days, when He gave the second giving of the Law, to lay waist to Israel. Not only like He did in Sodom and Gomorrah, but like He did in Admah and Zeboiim. These were representative cities of complete divine destruction. Here in Hosea 11:8, Yahweh is saying that Israel would not be completely “overturned” as these cities were. Rather, there would be a “turning over” in His heart, in Yahweh’s heart. That’s a very expressive word that we see here in verse 8, when it says, “My heart is turned over within Me.” It’s describing upheaval or turmoil. God is communicating here, that His heart is being moved in its depths. That’s what He’s saying here, when He says, “My heart is turned over within Me.” Not only that, He says, but “All My compassions are kindled.” Literally, “growing warm.” That’s the meaning here.

Now, this is the point at which, and I recognize it, that the real theological minded ones in the room, the armchair theologians, throw the “red flag” and say, “Wait a minute.” “God doesn’t change.” “In fact, you, Jesse, last summer in our Summer in the Systematics Series, taught us that God is immutable.” “He isn’t like us.” “You used a big word, like anthropomorphism or anthropopathism to express that emotive language is sometimes ascribed to God, as a way for us to better understand Him.” That’s all true – theologically speaking. But let’s not lose the main point here. Let’s not lose sight of the focus of what’s being described here. Which is the power and the reality of the love of God for His people. God’s love for Israel. God’s love for us, here today, is not some barren, emotionally-devoid truth. It’s a vivid reality. That’s pictured here at the end of verse 8: “My heart is turned over within Me, all My compassions are kindled.” Amazing love. Unrivalled love. Indescribable love is what we see here. As a result of that love, He says in verse 9, “I will not execute My fierce anger; I will not destroy Ephraim again.” The burning flame of God’s anger would be replaced, by the fire of His compassion. The result was that Ephraim (or Israel) . . . once exiled, would never again experience this judgment of God. He wouldn’t exterminate His people. He wouldn’t violate His covenant promises. He would preserve a remnant. All of which would be in fulfillment of what He said many centuries earlier, in Leviticus 26:44, “Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, nor will I so abhor them as to destroy them, breaking My covenant with them; for I am the Lord their God.” Back to Hosea, God adds His signature to His promise here at the end of verse 9. He says, “For I am God and not man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath.” He’s set apart from them, He’s “the Holy One.” Yet He is still “in [their] midst.” He is both transcendent and He is imminent. He is entirely unlike those He created. “For I am God and not man.” We see that statement in other places, where God says things like this. Numbers 23:19, “God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent.” Or 1 Samuel 15:29, “the Glory of Israel will not lie or change Hs mind; for He is not a man that He should change His mind.” But what’s really being stressed with this statement here, in Hosea 11:9, “For I am God and not man . . .” Is that God’s decisions about the future fate of Israel are perfectly balanced. Because He operates, as God, with perfect wisdom. If God were merely a man, like us, He might make a different decision about Israel’s fate. I mean, think about it, if we were given the responsibility of deciding Israel’s fate; having read ten chapters of Hosea. Forget that having read one chapter of Hosea, what’s the likely decision we’d make? Right? We would be so fed up with Israel’s nonsense, by that point in this narrative. That our sense of justice would override our sense of love. Israel would be wiped off the map. Well, thank the Lord, He’s not like us. He’s different than us. He’s “other than” us. If, like a man . . . His sense of justice and righteousness could somehow override His divine love, guess what would happen? Not only would Israel be wiped off the map, but every single one of us in this room, we’d all be smitten. But He says, “I am God and not man.” He would not give up on His people. They would go into captivity, yes, but He would not cast them away and be done with them forever. He is God, not man.

With that, we turn to our final two future-oriented verses of this section of Hosea. Verses 10-11, He says, “They will walk after the Lord, He will roar like a lion; indeed, He will roar, and His sons will come trembling from the west. They will come trembling like birds from Egypt and like doves from the land of Assyria; and I will settle them in their houses, declares the Lord.”

So, Israel was soon to go into exile. The northern kingdom to whom Hosea’s writing here, did eventually go into exile. But exile was not the end of the story. The exile, instead, was a period of chastisement and discipline that Yahweh was issuing to His people. A means by which their hearts would eventually be turned to Him. As we get into verses 10 and 11, we see pictured here, Israel’s return. We see here pictured this period of national restoration. A day on which Israel would “walk after [it says] the Lord.” You have to remember, back in Hosea 2:5, it says that Israel was “go[ing] after [or walking after] their lovers.” The false gods. Now, in verse 10, it says, they are “walk[ing] after the Lord.” Quite the change in narrative. Quite the reversal of course. It actually follows the pattern of events predicted in Deuteronomy 4:29-31, which says:
“But from there [meaning exile] you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul. When you are in distress and all these things have come upon you, in the latter days you will return to the Lord your God and listen to His voice. For the Lord your God is a compassionate God; He will not fail you nor destroy you nor forget the covenant with your fathers which He swore to them.”

In other words, a day was coming, after the exile, when Israel would turn back to Yahweh. “They will walk after the Lord.” They will be brought about because He . . . meaning God, says here in verse 10, “will roar like a lion.” That lion-like roar, which is more often associated with judgment and destruction, like we saw back in Hosea 5; will now be, for Israel, a summons to return to Yahweh. The people of Israel will hear this roar. They’ll heed this roar. Look at the rest of verse 10. It says, “Indeed He will roar, and His sons will come trembling from the west.” An earlier generation of Israelites had trembled when they experienced seeing Moses there at Mt. Sinai in Exodus 19. A new generation, a future generation, of Israelites would now tremble before Him. A generation whose pride had finally been broken. Whose stiff necks had finally been straightened out. Note what it says in verse 11, “They will come trembling like birds from Egypt and like doves from the land of Assyria.” Earlier, you might remember in Hosea 7, Israel had been called a “silly dove.” Silly, for flitting back and forth between Egypt and Assyria and seeking to forge alliances and partnerships with those other nations. Here, they’re called doves, as they’re being commended for the swiftness with which they’ve returned to Yahweh. At the end of verse 11, it says, “I will settle them in their houses; declares the Lord.” Back in Hosea 9:17, you may remember, it was said of the people of Israel, that God would cast them away. Because they hadn’t listened to Him. They would be “wanderers among the nations.” But now they are being described as being brought back. Settled in the land. In their homes. Which again, takes us all the way back to God being faithful to His promises to Abraham and to all the other patriarchs, including the promise of Genesis 17:8, where it says, “I will give to you and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession.”

Now, some of the commentators will point out, correctly, that these final two verses that we’ve just worked through, verses 10 and 11, are referring to Israel’s post-exilic return to the land. Of course, that’s true. We do know from books like Ezra and Nehemiah that a new generation of Israelites did return to the land after their period of exile into Babylon and Assyria. So there is some sense of nearer fulfillment being anticipated by Hosea in these verses. Meaning, there was a day that was coming where actual Israelites would return from their captivity, from Assyria, from Babylon. I don’t think there’s any question that Hosea here had a further, more future fulfillment in view here. What I mean by that is, at a later date which Israel would be regathered in its land. The reason, one of the key reasons I think there is further future fulfillment in view here . . . is a verse I sort of glazed over earlier, verse 10. When God speaks of the return of the people of Israel to the land, at the end of verse 10, He says that “His sons will come trembling from the west.” The Israelites who are taken into captivity into Assyria and to Babylon, and then were brought back in the days of Ezra and Nehemiah. They were brought back from the east. Those lands are to the east of Israel. Hosea then, appears to have some other event in view. As he looked to a more distant mountain peak on the prophetic range, the prophetic timeline, when he mentions here that “sons will come trembling from the west.” That further-future event is the return of Jesus Christ, the Messiah of Israel. A still yet-future date, when He sets His foot on the Mount of Olives and ushers in His earthly millennial reign. It’ll be when those events arrive, that God’s sons from “the west” will be brought back to the land.

We know this from places like Isaiah 11:11-12, where it says, “Then it will happen on that day [this is a millennial passage] that the Lord will again recover the second time with His hand the remnant of His people, who will remain, from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. He will lift up a standard for the nations and assemble the banished ones of Israel, [and get this] and will gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.” North. South. East. West. Those are the events. Brought about by the ushering in of Christ’s Millennial Kingdom. Which God spoke of, through Hosea here, and also back in places like Hosea 2:23, where He says, “I will sow her for Myself in the land, I will also have compassion on her who had not obtained compassion, and I will say to those who were not My people, ‘You are My people!’ They will say, ‘You are My God!’” Amen

Let’s pray. God, thank You for Your word. Thank You for the truth it contains. Thank You that we can unearth it, and unpack it, and with study and with prayer and with help, we can understand what You have revealed to us for all time. Thank You for the prophet, Hosea, and the ways in which You worked through him. The revelation You gave him. What we can still glean from this precious truth. Thank You that we are a people who are committed to not “unhitching” from the Old Testament. But rather, seeing it as part of the entire council of God. Part of the written record of revelation that You’ve given to us. We dare not detach ourselves or cut ourselves off from or “unhitch” ourselves from, what You have given to us for all time. God, I do pray that this truth from this text, would remind us, not only of Your faithfulness, that You are a faithful God. But also, of these future promises. Future promises related to Israel, which we, by extension, and by a grafting in, will have the ability to partake in and witness. To see You bring Your people in through a roar! To see You call Your people to repentance. To see Israel restored. Thank You, for the truth of Your promises. Thank You for the truth of Your word. May we go from this place, charged up. Encouraged and hopeful. Knowing that You are the same God, yesterday, today and forever. It’s in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen