28. BIBLICAL EPIC: Notes

ccusation

Hosea 1: The LORD told Hosea, "Marry an adulterer for the land has prostituted itself." had sons. The LORD said, "You are not my people." Hosea prophesied chiefly to until just before its fall to in 722 BC. The book is one of the most auto- biographical of the Prophetic Books in that the opening account of Hosea’s own marriage and family form a vital part of his unique message. Hosea’s marriage will be used as a picture of what is happening between God and His people. God is shown to be the faithful husband who loves His people with undying devotion, despite their persistent adultery. We could summarize the book in this way: “Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the LORD loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins” (Hos 3:1). • 1:1. Introduction. Hosea’s career spanned at least 40 years, from the reign of Jeroboam II (793-782 BC) to (716-686 BC). Though the southern kingdom of was not neglected in his prophecy, his messages were directed primarily to the northern kingdom of Israel, often referred to as “” and represented by its capital . The name “Hosea” comes from the same verb as “Joshua” and “Jesus,” meaning “to save or deliver.” • 1:2-9. Hosea’s Wife and Children. Hosea’s initial call to the prophetic ministry began with perplexing instructions to find a wife among the promiscuous women of Israel (of which there were apparently many; 4:14). There is some debate as to whether Gomer was a prostitute when Hosea married her or whether her “whoredom” is a prediction of what she will do after they are married. The word translated “whoredom” throughout the book is a broad term for various kinds of sexual misconduct, and only in certain contexts does it refer to prostitution. In Hosea it generally refers to a married woman being unfaithful to her husband. Whatever the case may be, Gomer’s unfaithfulness to Hosea will be an image for Israel’s unfaithfulness to God. The use of marriage as an analogy of God’s relationship with His people, or Bride, is well-attested in both the OT (Ezek 16) and the NT (Rev 21:2). In a human marriage, adultery is an extreme form of unfaithfulness. With respect to God’s marriage to His people, such adultery is a picture of idolatry. It is no accident that the Mosaic covenant begins with the requirement to “have no other gods.” But Israel will prove again and again to be spiritually unfaithful to their God. In due time, Hosea’s wife bears children, and God gives them prophetic names. The first child, Jezreel, is explicitly said to be the son of Hosea, but the next two will be called “children of whoredom” (2:4). Continuing the enacted parable, God commanded that all three children receive abnormal (negative) names. The name Jezreel (“God scatters”) recalls the location of a great slaughter in Israel’s past (2 Kings 10:11) and predicts an even greater one in the future, culminating in the exile of 722 BC. A second child, a girl, is named Lo-Ruhamah, meaning “No Mercy,” which predicts God’s coming rejection of northern Israel for its idolatry and overall covenant unfaithfulness. The last child, another son, is named Lo-Ammi, meaning “Not My People.” The statement “for you are not my people, and I am not your God” parallels ancient divorce formulas and connotes divine rejection as predicted in the covenant curses of Lev 26 and Deut 28-32. • 1:10-11. Covenant Renewal. By grace, the divorce will not be finalized. The breaking of the Mosaic covenant cannot nullify the promises made to Abraham. After being exiled, God’s people will be reunited and restored (to new life), reversing the covenant curses of vv. 2-9. But return from exile and reunification will not be accomplished in OT times, but only in Jesus Christ. He is the “one head” who draws north and south, Jew and Gentile, into one people. : "Your mother has been unfaithful. I will expose her lewdness. Now I will speak tenderly to her. I will betroth you to me forever." • 2:1. Preliminary Appeal. In this chapter Hosea uses the legal process of an offended husband against his wife as an image for God’s plans to deal with Israel. Throughout the allegory, the children and the mother are simply ways of referring to Israel (children = citizens of the nation; mother = leaders of the nation). Hosea first appeals to the “children,” hoping they will respond to God’s promises made in chapter 1. Israel is entreated to anticipate a change in names when unity is restored and no longer will they be called “No Mercy” and “Not My People.” • 2:2-13. Divorce Proceedings: An Allegory of God and Israel. God now orders the children to plead with their mother to repent (emphasized by repeating “plead”), symbolizing the need for the people of Israel to bring about godly change in their nation, which God is currently in the process of “divorcing” through rejection and exile (“she is not my wife, and I am not her husband”). The divorce trial is based on Israel’s infidelity to the divine covenant, symbolized by her “adulterous look” and “unfaithfulness” described in v. 2. The LORD, like Hosea, proceeds as a husband not only wronged, but injured, by infidelity. God presents the evidence of Israel’s crimes (ways they have broken God’s covenant law), finds Israel guilty, pronounces the judgment sentence (various forms of deprivation and discipline, most commonly exile), and announces Israel’s future as a convicted covenant-breaker. Verse 2 contains the first command to repent in the book (4:15; 6:1; 10:12; 12:6; 14:1-2,9), followed by alternating verses of judgment (2:3-4,6-7,9-11) and indictment (vv. 5,8,12-13). It is perhaps best to read these divorce proceedings as a threat, rather than an actual divorce. Otherwise, Hosea would have no right to issue the warnings and threats that follow. The purpose of God’s punishment of Israel for abandoning Him was to restore them. It was designed to lead them to repent of idolatry, to forsake their other “lovers” (other gods/idols), which she thought could meet her needs. To accomplish this, the jealous Husband of Israel will put a “hedge” (v. 6) around his wife so that she is prevented from straying. Israel must have her freedom taken away so that she will have no choice but to “go and return” to the LORD, “my first husband” (v. 7). Through deprivation, Israel would come to realize that the prosperity lavished upon her was due to the generosity not of but of the LORD. Thus, the marriage between God and Israel has not ended; the covenant made with Israel contains provision for restoration, and Israel is urged to respond to that provision. So Israel’s divorce is not the end of hope and her punishment is not the last word (vv. 3, 19-20). • 2:14-23. The LORD’s Mercy on Israel. Hosea now turns to God’s plan to restore His “marriage” with Israel. The “therefore” of v. 14 (the third such “therefore” in the chapter; vv. 6, 9) introduces the final verdict and looks far beyond the punishments of exile and deprivation. In contrast to what has preceded, this verdict announces hope and promise. God’s merciful plan for His people includes redemption and restoration on a scale not found in any OT era but available abundantly in Christ alone (1 Cor 2:7-10). One meaning of the name Baal was “husband,” so God predicts the day when His people won’t say “Baal” anymore, avoiding the way of saying “my husband” that uses the word “Baal” and saying “my husband” via other Hebrew wordings. They will give God undivided loyalty and will reject the falsehood and folly that worship of the represented. This “new” covenant will change everything, bringing peace and safety, and bringing back the original idyllic harmony with nature once enjoyed in Eden (Gen 1:28-30). God will “betroth” His people in a covenant relationship so that they will finally “acknowledge the LORD,” as they should have been doing in Hosea’s time. This will lead to a glorious renewal in the new covenant age when God will undo and transform various facets of Israel’s prior corruption into good things, so that even the names of Hosea’s children (1:4-8) will be endowed with new meaning. “No Mercy” will receive mercy (cf. 1:6; 2:4), and “Not My People” will again be God’s people (cf. 1:9). In Rom 9:25-26 and 1 Pet 2:10, the expansive wording of v. 23 is shown not only to describe repentant Israelites but to predict the inclusion of converted Gentiles in the church. : The LORD said to me, "Go, love your wife again as the LORD loves Israel." So I bought her back. For Israel will return to the LORD. • 3:1-5. Hosea Redeems His Wife. This chapter contains a second symbolic action report, which, along with the one in 1:2-2:1, bookends the marriage allegory of God and Israel found in 2:2-23. Thus, marriage themes dominate the first three chapters of the book, after which other themes are introduced. The command of v. 1 to “Go again, love a woman” should be understood as most likely referring to Gomer, though she is not named specifically. If this is not a reference to Gomer, the analogy breaks down, for it is Israel, the adulteress, that the LORD pursues, not another people. Hosea is to retrieve his adulterous wife so that Israel will clearly know that the LORD still loves Israel, His spiritually unfaithful wife. That Hosea “bought” her refers to some kind of trade, which traditionally has been understood to mean redeeming Gomer from slavery. Hosea pays a price of 15 shekels and some barley, a price less than typical for slaves (30 shekels). This probably shows the desperate condition into which Gomer had fallen. In any case, Hosea pays the required price. In the New Testament, God also pays the required “price” to redeem His people, but this price is high indeed: the death of His own beloved Son (1 Cor 6:20; 7:23). The segregation of Gomer/Israel will lead to her purification, rededication, and renewal. It will be an extensive, though undefined, time of the absence of those things that constituted Israel’s apostasy (v. 4), namely, king and prince (who failed to keep Israel faithful), sacrifice or pillar (places of sacrifice to idols), the ephod (which had become a magic talisman), and household gods (idols). The passage describes a marriage without intimacy, in contrast to that of 1:2-9, as a prediction of Israel’s confinement via its coming exile, again using the human covenant of marriage to illustrate the covenant of God with His people. The LORD’s purging, however, far from being incompatible with His love, is a major aspect of it. The LORD God doggedly persists with His people during these trying times. But Israel must not “play the whore” (v. 3). The lesson having been learned, Israel will be restored beyond all expectation. After the punishments, including Israel’s exile, have ended, the return to the LORD in “the latter days” (the new covenant era) will include reunification of all of God’s people in Christ’s kingdom. Israel will have learned her lesson and will be restored to God in Christ in a way not yet experienced in the old covenant (Deut 30:5-6). Israel and Judah were politically and religiously divided from one another in Hosea’s day and had been so for two centuries, since the death of Solomon. The idea of reunification with David as their king may have seemed out of the question to Hosea’s contemporaries, but just as Israel and Judah had been united under the first David, they would again be united under David’s greater Son (Matt 22:41-45), Jesus, in fulfillment of God’s covenant promise to David himself (2 Sam 7:16). : The LORD has a charge against Israel: "There is no faithfulness. They have left God to play the whore. The rulers love shameful ways." • 4:1-19. The LORD Accuses Israel. As in ch. 2, this chapter pictures Israel on trial. This is more a general criminal trial than a divorce proceeding, but it is for the same sorts of crimes as summarized in the Ten Commandments: idolatry, polytheism, and related covenant violations. It is structured in such a way that the evidence for Israel’s covenant- breaking is interspersed with judgment sentences (verdicts) that are pronounced on the basis of that evidence. The sons of Israel have abandoned truth, faithful love, and the knowledge of God. Once again Hosea’s favorite metaphor for idolatry, “whoredom,” conveys the idea of infidelity to God’s covenant law, including the often alcohol-fueled (v. 11) pagan practices of idolatry and divination (v. 12), showing that they are “unfaithful” (v. 12). No citizen can rightfully “contend” or “accuse” (v. 4) against “mother” Israel (v. 5) because they are all guilty: the prophets have led the people away from the LORD, the priests have not taught the people God’s laws, and the people have followed their lead. Hosea’s symbols of Israel include a mother, children, and a bride. Israel was to be a nation of priests to the world (Exod 19:6), but their sins disqualify them. Both the temple priests and the people collaborated in ignoring and/or breaking God’s law, especially by condoning and practicing idolatry, so God will punish both people and priests (v. 9). Indeed, Northern Israel (whom Hosea often refers to simply as “Ephraim” since they are the dominant tribe) will fall to the Assyrians in 722 BC. In vv. 15-19, Hosea uses Israel’s guilt as a warning to Judah (the southern kingdom). Even though Hosea preached in the north, his message showed concern from time to time for Judah as well. He warns that Judah must stay away from the places and practices that corrupted and doomed northern Israel. The “whoredom” (idolatry) of northern Israel did not yet infect Judah as mortally as it did Israel. But in another century and a half, when Judah’s own sins would bring them into exile, Judah would “become guilty” (v. 15) as well. : "Hear this, O priests, O king! Israel shall stumble in his guilt. Ephraim is crushed in judgment. I will leave until they seek me." • 5:1-15. Punishment Coming for Israel and Judah. When a nation’s religious leaders (“priests,” v. 1) and government leaders (“house of the king,” v. 1) are corrupt, they help turn the population in general (“house of Israel,” v. 1) toward corrupt ways. Israel’s sins are not hidden. The LORD knows Israel, though Israel does not know the LORD (v. 4). And their pattern of sin keeps them away from the only One who can forgive them and restore them: the LORD. Since both northern Israel and Judah were practicing idolatry and false worship, it was unacceptable to bring sacrificial animals to try to mollify God by going through the motions of worshiping Him while also worshiping other gods. Not only are the leaders of the nation and the population in general guilty of disobedience so great that “their deeds do not permit them to return to their God” (v. 4), but Israel and Judah find themselves fighting against each other in a war (vv. 8-15) that represented God’s wrath on them like a flood of water (v. 10). In about 734 BC northern Israel and Syria (Aram) went to war against Judah because Judah refused to join them in a war against their common enemy Assyria (2 Kings 16:5-9). Judah’s king appealed to Assyria for help, in effect saying, “Israel and Syria are attacking us because we won’t attack you.” Assyria quickly intervened, invaded Syria and northern Israel, and annexed their territory except for the part of Israel that belonged to the tribe of Ephraim. Thereafter, northern Israel was often called just Ephraim. Too late, Ephraim “went to Assyria” (v. 13) and tried to patch things up by paying tribute (2 Kings 17:3), but Assyria soon conquered and annexed Ephraim anyway (2 Kings 17:5-6). “The great king” (v. 13) is most likely Tiglath-pileser III, also called Pul in the OT (745–727 BC). This formidable leader headed the neo- Assyrian Empire that ruthlessly subjugated the ancient Near East for over a century. Paying tribute to Assyria could not really heal Israel’s sores because God would exile them (“I will carry off, and no one shall rescue,” v. 14) for their continuing sins (“guilt,” v. 15), including the foolish notion that they could stop paying tribute once Tiglath-Pileser was dead and his son Shalmaneser reigned in his stead (2 Kings 17:3-4). Israel’s only future hope, as is ultimately the case with any person or nation, is to seek God’s forgiveness and His favor when in exile away from Him. : Come, let us return to the LORD. On the third day He will raise us up. "I desire steadfast love, not offerings. Israel is defiled." • 6:1-3. A Call to Repentance. Now Hosea includes himself in his imagining of humble submission to God’s discipline. His words, like all restoration promises in the book, are about future redemption after Israel’s exile. They remind Hosea’s hearers and readers that there is hope beyond the dire predictions of the immediate future. Like all the OT prophets, Hosea looks beyond the coming time of deprivation to the great era of the Spirit, the time of the new covenant, when God will “heal” what He has “torn” and “revive” and “raise up” His people that He has “struck” down. The promise that “on the third day He will raise us up” is part of what lay behind Jesus’ and the NT writers’ statements that Jesus’ resurrection “on the third day” was according to the Scriptures (Luke 24:46; 1 Cor 15:4; also Jonah in Matt 12:40). Hosea was not writing about the Messiah directly, however, but about the people of Israel. The NT use of this idea depends on seeing a parallel between Israel’s resurrection on the third day in this verse, and Jesus as the Messiah representing and embodying His people. The potential of Israel’s third-day resurrection is to be ultimately realized in the resurrection of the One who acted in Israel’s stead (cf. Matt 3:13–15). This picture of Israel’s death and resurrection thus sets the pattern for what eventually will be accomplished in and through Christ. • 6:4-11. The LORD’s First Lament. Sadly, both the north (Ephraim) and south (Judah) have shown a long history of “prostitution” (idolatry, polytheism), ignoring the warnings of God’s prophets and breaking His covenant. Israel’s sins are worse than simply violating the law: they repudiate the gracious covenant that is the foundation of their life and hope. The referent for “Adam” in v. 7 is disputed. It is best to understand “Adam” (v. 7) as the name of the first man; thus Israel is like Adam, who forgot his covenant obligation to love the LORD, breaking the covenant God made with him (Gen 2:16-17; 3:17). Verse 6 is quoted by Jesus in Matt 9:13 and 12:7, not rejecting sacrifice but rather ritualism and worship that is not accompanied by faithfulness and love and is not based on the knowledge of God. : "The sins of Ephraim are revealed. They are like a heated oven. They call to Egypt, go to Assyria. Woe to them for they have strayed!" • 7:1-2. The LORD’s First Lament (cont.). Lawlessness prevailed in the north under weak and immoral kings. In the chaos of such times, people can forget that God remembers “all their evil.” Healing of sin requires exposure of sin. • 7:3-12. Israel’s Corruption. Hosea compares Israel to an oven (vv. 4-7), a half-baked cake (vv. 8-10), and a silly dove (vv. 11-12), thus describing their passion for evil (the heated oven depicts their smoldering anger/passions), their foolishness (like half-baked cakes unfit for eating), and their uselessness (while the dove is often noted for admirable qualities, it here highlights Israel’s fickleness, particularly in their vacillating alliances with foreign nations). • 7:13-16. The LORD’s Second Lament. In a fourth simile, Hosea compares Israel to a treacherous bow (vv. 13-16). Israel’s leaders are like a faulty bow that could not send arrows to hit the mark. God would not allow His people to escape their well-deserved punishment for ignoring Him and disobeying His covenant, both over the centuries and during their last decades. Nevertheless, He always longs to “redeem” (rescue, reclaim, repossess) those who have turned away from Him (Rom 10:21). But for northern Israel in Hosea’s day, it was too late. : "A vulture is over Israel. The calf of Samaria shall be broken. The LORD will punish their sins. For Israel has forgotten his Maker." • 8:1-14. Israel Will Reap the Whirlwind. An alarm was to sound (v. 1) as God announces His judgment. Israel may claim to know and love the LORD, but their deeds prove otherwise. This section predicts the punishments that God would mete out to Israel for various covenant violations, including ignoring and rejecting God, political intrigue that relied on human maneuvering and not on God’s protection, idolatry, dependence on alliances with foreign powers rather than the LORD, improper worship, and trusting in material and military assets rather than God. In the political sphere, Israel had sought national stability by changing kings via assassination (e.g., 2 Kings 15:10, 14, 25, 30). God alone expected to choose Israel’s kings, who were to be obedient to His covenant. The last several kings of (northern) Israel, however, had been chosen by political intrigue of one sort or another without concern for such requirements. They also began relying on foreigners, who cared nothing for them, which was fatal for Israel and led to their complete conquest by Assyria in 722 BC. In the religious sphere, manufacture and worship of idols was being counted on to save the nation— something it could never do. The “sowing” of idolatry would be like planting “wind,” and the harvest would be nothing but a “whirlwind”— a storm representing divine judgment (v. 7). In vv. 8- 10, Israel’s end is pictured as discarded pottery, like a wandering donkey, and like someone who wasted all his money on prostitutes. Israel built altars to cleanse them from sin, but the altars only increased Israel’s sinning. The result: Israel would go into exile. The phrase “return to Egypt” (v. 13) is a metaphor for going into foreign exile. The results of trusting in anything other than God are always temporary; they bring false security instead of true refuge. : Rejoice not, O Israel! The days of punishment have come. "I will bereave them. I will drive them from my house." God will reject them. • 9:1-17. The LORD Will Punish Israel. As in 2:5, 8, 12, Israel attributed its successful harvests (a main source of wealth in any agrarian society) to its idolatry, and thus was forsaking God like a “whore or “prostitute” (v. 1). God’s blessing by abundant harvests in northern Israel will soon be a thing of the past, when their threshing floors and winepresses will lie empty and the people will be exiled to Assyria. God will punish Israel by sending her people away from the Land, to a place where they will not be able to make sacrifices to the LORD. Little was left of true religious practice once the Assyrians fully conquered Israel (vv. 5-8). Gibeah (cf. 10: 9), Baal Peor, and (vv. 9-13) exemplify places where false worship by Israelites flourished in past times. Israel’s history reveals that they have long been a nation that ignored their potential to love and serve the true God; instead they were typically rebellious and sinful. Hosea 10: Israel is a rich vine. The LORD will break down their altars. "Nations shall be gathered against them." It is time to seek the LORD. • 10:1-8. The Vine and the Calf. This section of Hosea’s prophecies concentrates on how God would destroy central factors in the life of northern Israel— its religion, its government, and even its capital city Samaria— in consequence of a long history of national sin. Hosea speaks in vv. 1-8. Although once a “luxuriant vine” (v. 1; cf. Isa 5; John 15), Israel only yielded fruit for itself. The word rendered “luxuriant” more often means “ravaging” (Nah 2:2), which it may mean here. Rather than producing fruit for harvest, they were devious and acted like poisonous weeds. Instead of using their agricultural success in Canaan to glorify God as the land prospered, the Israelites attributed it to polytheistic idolatry and built forbidden altars for the worship of pagan gods in violation of Deut 12:1-14 (cf. 2 Kings 21:3-4). In exile the Israelites will not have a king of their own but will suffer under foreign domination so complete that even if they had a king, he would be powerless. The people merely pretend to worship the LORD with “empty oaths” (v. 4). As a result, both their king and calf-idol will be removed from Samaria. What the people and the priests once rejoiced over, they will mourn for and the idol they worshiped will become tribute for the great king of Assyria. The “benefits” of sin are illusory and transitory. God’s coming judgment would cause people to wish for instant death by burial under “mountains” or “hills,” as will also be the case when Christ returns in judgment (:30). • 10:9-15. Israel’s Defeat Because of Sin. God speaks in vv. 9-15, noting that if disaster overtook the Benjaminites at Gibeah, how much more is Israel now in trouble. He calls Ephraim/Israel a “trained calf” (v. 11)—another allusion to Israel’s beginnings. The LORD spared Israel the yoke and she loved to thresh in His field. But that freedom was abused (v. 13). Therefore, the LORD must harness Ephraim. The idea here is in concert with Hosea restraining his wife, so that Israel would sow the seeds of righteousness and plow and reap a crop of steadfast love (v. 12). “Shalman” (v. 14) may refer to the Assyrian king Shalmaneser V who besieged Samaria from 725 to 723 BC. : "When Israel was a child, I loved him. But the sword shall devour them. How can I give you up, O Ephraim? I will bring them home." • 11:1-12. God’s Love for Israel. In one of the most endearing passages in Hosea, he uses another family metaphor, portraying the LORD not only as a husband but also as a father. At many places in the OT, God’s deliverance of His people from Egypt is remembered as a signature indication of His mercy and of Israel’s indebtedness to Him, as it is here. But the OT also tells the story of how the Israelites eventually squandered that mercy, rebelled against their Deliverer, and so were handed over to foreign oppressors, as Hosea predicts here. Although the immediate focus of this passage is Israel’s Exodus from Egypt (Israel is God’s “son”; Exod 4:22-23), Matt 2:15 shows us that it also has a future, typological focus: Jesus’ return from Egypt as a child identified Him with His people and their deliverance through Him. Jesus is the true “Son of God,” i.e., the heir of David who embodies Israel’s relationship to God. In vv. 8-11, Hosea reminds Israel of future blessing even in the broader context of predicting dire judgments. Restoration promises like these reveal how great God’s love is, since He is willing, according to His grace and not any deeds that the Israelites could perform, to redeem to Himself people who had once rebelled against Him in all sorts of ways. God’s holiness shines brightly here as well: Lest his audience think that the only thing in store for God’s people in the future is destruction and rejection, Hosea conveys God’s plan for restoration after the coming exile— not because His people will have made themselves holy, but because He will credit them with the holiness of His beloved Son. God’s people are no longer merely ethnic Israel but are “from the west” and “from Egypt” (the south) and “from the land of Assyria” (the east), all idiomatic ways of describing a worldwide people not limited by location or nationality. : " fought with God. Ephraim has said, 'I am rich.' But I am the LORD. I spoke through the prophets." The LORD will repay Ephraim. • 12:1-14. God’s Case Against Jacob’s Heirs. Using the image of wind, Hosea accuses Ephraim (and Judah) for depending on what is elusive and unprofitable. He recounts incidents from Israel’s past in order to display the LORD’s enduring kindness and Israel’s stubborn ingratitude. Hosea rebuked Israel by pointing out that although their namesake Jacob (whose name God changed to Israel) had once been a faithless, self-centered conniver, he met God first at and was later changed in the encounter at the Jabbok River. The people of Israel, on the other hand, met Baal at Bethel (Beth-aven) and, in effect, died (13:1). The specific mention of the LORD by His fuller name in v. 5 is joined with the prevailing of Jacob. The prophet once again calls his people to their divine calling and election, ratified by promises to the patriarchs. God’s election was the origin of Israel’s calling and the very reason that Israel can now be restored: by grace, Israel can return and exhibit the qualities of “love and justice” (v. 6). But Israel’s deeds and words (vv. 7-8) show they refuse to hold fast and wait continually for their God (v. 6). Their cruel and deceptive business practices oppress while they think of themselves as innocent. But God is not fooled. In vv. 12-13, Hosea picks up where he left off in v. 4, again mentioning Jacob so as to emphasize God’s grace in preserving His fugitive so that he would father the 12 tribes of Israel. Israel’s experience in Egypt is compared to that of Jacob in Aram. Both Jacob and Israel went seeking for refuge in a foreign land but ended up being enslaved instead. But whereas Jacob came out shepherding flocks (Gen 31:17-18), the nation was led like a flock by a shepherd (Moses, see Exod 13). Ephraim had preeminence among the northern tribes but threw it away through their contempt of God’s law. Their worship of Baal was a capital offense and incurred bloodguilt. Their crimes must be punished. : "They make idols of silver. But I am the LORD. I will tear them open. Ephraim's sin is stored up. Shall I redeem them from death?" • 13:1-16. The LORD’s Relentless Judgment on Israel. This section links Israel’s tragic fall from earlier faithfulness to God to the practice of idolatry especially and to a variety of related sins that violate the Mosaic covenant. The man- made gods that Israel worships are nothing compared to their actual God, who is living, active, and true to His word. And so the people have become nothing because of their idolatry, since idols are “nothings.” Those who are lulled into believing God is indulgent of our sins are shocked into reality by the picture in vv. 10-13 of God being like a lion, a leopard, or a bear, tearing, ripping, and devouring. Israel had no help but God, and God Himself had come to destroy. Likening Israel to an “unwise son” (v. 13), Israel has incurred God’s wrath by reason of willful disobedience. Yet God promises to rescue Ephraim from such consequences. If the LORD is their strong deliverer, then not even death will be able to terrify them or harm them (v. 14). God can bring life out of death, and as Paul notes in 1 Cor 15:55 (quoting v. 14), He has done so definitively in Christ. Sadly, in Hosea’s time Israel is rejecting the only power that can save her. In the same way, those who reject Jesus reject the only power that can save them from death. : O Israel, return to the LORD. "I will heal their apostasy. They shall blossom like the vine. Whoever is wise, let him understand." • 14:1-9. A Plea to Return to the LORD. Hosea finishes his book with a series of moving appeals to the wayward northern kingdom to return to the LORD and find healing and covenant renewal. Hosea’s prophecies are replete with predictions of doom for Israel in the immediate future, but by no means does this imply that the ultimate future must also be bleak. On the contrary, it will be glorious for all who repent, turn to God in faith, and place their trust in Him. Israel’s future words of repentance (vv. 2b-3) are followed by God’s promise of forgiveness and great blessing (vv. 4-8). The repentant Israelites of the future, i.e., all who are in Christ (cf. Rom 9:6-8; Gal 3:29), will acknowledge that neither human power (e.g., “Assyria”) nor military might (war-horses) nor idols (“the work of our hands”) nor any power except the one true God can save from sin and its severe consequences. In response, God promises to restore life and beauty to Israel as to a dead, abandoned garden. Israel would again be a blessing to the nations as it was originally intended to be (Gen 12:1-3; Isa 2:2-4), signified by the fragrant olive tree furnishing not only food, fuel, and medicine but also shade (Luke 13:18-19). Hosea concludes in v. 9 by exhorting readers to persevere in the study of his prophecy, so as to understand and recognize the things he had communicated.