August 20, Hosea 11
Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk; I took them up by their arms, but they did not know that I had healed them. I led them with cords of kindness, with the bands of love, and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws, and I bent down to them and fed them."
- Hosea 11:3-4
Parents who have raised children can cherish fond memories of those sweet tender first years. How we loved them! We cheered and clapped and celebrated each first as they grew — first steps, first words. But parents also know the sadness and frustration of children who as they grow, want to express their growing sense of independence by disobedience.
Every father who loves his sons and daughters, even when they do things they shouldn't, can identify with God's great, compassionate heart as he expressed it in this passage. When a child is particularly stubborn and must be disciplined, it really does hurt us more to administer the needed punishment than it hurts them to receive it.
Maybe that experience can help us better understand the great heart of God for the people of Israel as he expressed it in Hosea 11. The phrase "out of Egypt I called my son" is both historical and prophetic. It is a fact of history that God redeemed Israel out of Egypt at the Exodus. But it's also a prophecy looking ahead to the time when Joseph and Mary would leave Egypt with young Jesus and return to Palestine after they heard that Herod was dead. But there's more still. The expression "out of Egypt I have called my son” is an allegory that expresses the beautiful truth of the gospel, that Jesus died and paid our sin debt to redeem us out of the Egypt of bondage to sin. What a rich combination of ideas in a single line!
After God miraculously moved to get the Israelites out of Egypt, their history was darkened by their lust for idols and their multiple departures from God. The redeemed people of God kept drifting farther and farther away from God who had rescued them. They knew what God commanded and required of them. That knowledge and blatant violation of God’s law multiplied their guilt. They failed to acknowledge God's hand and help after he had raised them up, supported them and restrained them from destroying themselves. He showed his great love and compassion for the people by easing their burdens and feeding them when they were unable to feed themselves. But they did nothing in return to acknowledge their gracious God and his call on their lives.
So Israel was headed back to captivity, not in Egypt, but in Assyria. They went back to bondage because they would not go back to God. They trusted in allies, their own counsel and their own strength, none of which could save them when God gave them over to the conquering Assyrians.
Not all Israelites went into captivity. Many Israelites died during the Assyrian conquest of the northern kingdom. God wouldn't answer their cries for help because they were hardened in their rebellion, and they waited too late. But their cries and suffering broke God's great heart. He loved these people and had compassion on them. He did not want Israel to be destroyed like the cities of the plain that perished along with Sodom and Gomorrah.
That same pity and compassionate love of God is evident in the gospel. God gave Christ to save sinners who were also defiant rebels against him. Our salvation is only possible because the grace of God intervened in our hopeless lost condition.
Some Jews would be among those who would return to God in the time of Messiah. They would return to God with tears from the places where they had been scattered. They would enjoy the blessings of being in the true Israel of God in Christ, along with Gentile brothers and sisters in God’s family.
God is a God of love. He wants to save and bless those who will come to him. His compassion intervened by offering the perfect sacrifice of his own Son for our sins as the only way of salvation. God help us and those we love not to be hardheaded and hardhearted like these Israelites who at last suffered the wrath of God when they refused and rejected his love.
Copyright © 2024 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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