Hosea 14:1-9--A Plea to Return to the LORD

Hosea 14
English Standard Version

A Plea to Return to the LORD
14 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.

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The book of Hosea calls for the people of the LORD to repent.  Iniquity is high-handed sins of rebellion.  Remember that there is no sacrifice in the sacrificial system for this save the scapegoat of the Day of Atonement.  Other than that, we see the writers of the Old Testament cry out for mercy and ask the LORD not to remember their iniquities and to not count them against them.  Essentially, these authors are asking the LORD to write off their bad debt.  Debt does not just disappear though, when it is written off, it must be taken on by the one to whom the debt is owed (in this case, the LORD)--He takes the debt upon Himself and pays our penalty for us.  That is exactly what Jesus did and part of the meaning of His words from the cross, "It is finished."  It partially means, "The debt is paid in full."

The people still imagine that there is something good about themselves that the LORD could accept, but there is nothing good about us.  That is where the gospel starts.  No, God loves us despite our having nothing lovely to draw Him unto us.  This brings Him even more glory when He loves those who are unlovely.  The people vow to make sacrifices to the LORD again if He will forgive them once more and just forget everything they have done wrong, but the LORD knows their hearts and knows these words are fals--they will not stop this rebellion unless they go into exile.

They promise to no longer look to Assyria for salvation (they had better not look for salvation from them, because that is where death and destruction are coming from).  They will stop looking to Egypt for horses and chariots (military might) and they will trust the LORD for their protection.  They promise to stop worshiping idols like the Golden Calf and calling them Our God (they called the golden calf The LORD, even though the LORD told them He was the invisible God and they could not make any image of Him).  Only Jesus would make the invisible God visible to us.

The LORD calls them apostates because they once believed and turned away from that truth to follow idols.  He will hate their sin of apostasy, but will continue to love them.  He will turn from His fierce anger and will once again give them the blessings of the covenant (symbolized by the dew of heaven).  Beauty and strength will return (like the lily and the cedars of Lebanon).  They will be like a vibrant olive tree (along with the vineyard/vine, this is one of the symbols of Israel still used to this day to represent the nation).  They will rest and take shelter under his wings like chicks that find safety and warmth under the wings of a mother hen.  They fear nothing because they are close to their mother.  They will blossom and flourish because He will cause them to do so.

Why should the people wait for their return from exile to get rid of their idols?  They should repent and get rid of them right now (but they will not).  The southern kingdom of Judah will go through much of the northern kingdom and destroy their idols for them.  They must learn that the LORD is right in all of His ways and all of His words--even if everyone else speaks the opposite, they are all wrong.  The righteous man hears and obeys, but the wicked man will not hear and stumbles in the darkness of heart and mind that he lives in.  How can those who stumble in darkness be a light to the nations as they were called to be? God's Light will have to be revealed in some other way--something better.  This is where the gospels pick up, with light bursting forth from the darkness and God showing up Himself to save His people from their sins.  We feel like we are left hanging, waiting for redemption and restoration, and that is finally fulfilled by the birth, life, death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus.