Hosea 2:14-23--The LORD's Mercy on Israel

Hosea 2:14-23
English Standard Version

The LORD's Mercy on Israel
14 “Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
    and bring her into the wilderness,
    and speak tenderly to her.
15 And there I will give her her vineyards
    and make the Valley of Achor a door of hope.
And there she shall answer as in the days of her youth,
    as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt.

16 “And in that day, declares the LORD, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ 17 For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. 18 And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety. 19 And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. 20 I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the LORD.

21 “And in that day I will answer, declares the LORD,
    I will answer the heavens,
    and they shall answer the earth,
22 and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil,
    and they shall answer Jezreel,
23     and I will sow her for myself in the land.
And I will have mercy on No Mercy,
    and I will say to Not My People, ‘You are my people’;
    and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’”

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God promises that He is willing to forgive and forget and "reset" everything between Himself and His people Israel.  He will lead them back out into the wilderness like when they wandered through the wilderness before they entered the Promised Land and He would restore the covenant with them there.  The LORD will in that day make the animals and the Land a part of that covenant agreement so that the beasts will no longer cause damager or harm and the Land will not be at war, but will provide safety and shelter for His people.  Heaven and earth will act in concert for the peace and blessings of this covenant to come upon His people.

The LORD will remove the name of the Baals (and all other false gods) and the people will call Him "My Husband" and they will be His Wife (this is after the consummation of the Marriage of the Lord Jesus with the people of God for now He is called the Bridegroom and we are called the Bride as we await this marriage).  We will know his righteousness, justice, steadfast love , mercy., and faithfulness.  We will know that He is the LORD, it is He who has saved us, and we are His.

The earth will produce good grain at the LORD's command and the land will produce both wine and oil (these were signs of great wealth in that time).  He will reverse all curses like what happened in the Valley of Achor (the Valley of Trouble where Achan sinned and brought trouble on all of Israel).  Also, the Valley of Jezreel will no longer be a place of war, but a place of great fruitfulness.

The LORD will sow produce Himself so that it will grow where no man has planted, and He will have mercy on those whom He had once called No Mercy and declare to them "You are My People" though He had once called them "Not My People," and they will say to Him, "You are My God."  This is a picture of the perfect kingdom that is to come in the New Heaves and the New Earth, but Israel continued to look forward to this kingdom in the here and now and thought this was the reason Messiah came the first time.  This is what they were looking for from Jesus and they did not understand and got angry when He told them that He did not come for this reason, but for a greater reason--to defeat sin and death.  Only once sin and death and the curse associated with them were defeated could this New Covenant be made without fear of the same issues of sin and rebellion leading to death and destruction and judgment and condemnation.