Hosea

Chapter Introduction

Hosea concludes these poetic prophecies with a call to repentance. God offers a great promise of forgiveness and restoration. Anyone who understands the situation will run into His open arms and receive the love He alone provides.

Hosea 14:1-3

Hosea called for repentance.  It started with a recognition of the Lord and then an acknowledgment of their error.  Their sins had blinded them.  They couldn’t see the Lord or see the error of their ways.  They were to return to the Lord and didn’t need some great gift to pacify the Lord.  Yet, they could not come before Him with nothing.  They were to take words with them, the words of repentance.  This would be the sacrifice of their lips.  God didn’t want them to sacrifice an animal and make some religious offering.  He wanted them, by their words, to offer themselves to him.  Hosea even gave them an example of what these words might be.  They were to confess their past errors and trust in their God, the only God, who could save.

These words are the same idea Paul had in Romans 10:8-10.  These words are near, right there within reach.  Why is it so hard, then? 

Hosea 14:4-7

In the first chapter of Hosea, we saw the children of harlotry.  They were unfaithful, and from that life, they would experience an unfruitful and desolate existence leading to death.  But God never stopped calling to them.  He was their God and their hope.  Those who would bring the words of repentance would experience new life from a new birth.  They had the promise of healing and God freely loving them.  He would be their Father and they His children.  The promise is one of growth, a spreading out across the land.  In the Lord would be found fruitfulness, fragrance, abundance, and beauty.  To dwell under the shadow is to be in God’s love and care, trusting in Him.  Despite what was about to happen, and they wouldn’t, or couldn’t, believe it.  But these would be their words of hope when they were in captivity.  Revival was available in the Lord.

Hosea 14:8-9

Ephraim could be fruitful to his brothers if they separated themselves from idols.  The Lord looked forward to the day when Ephraim brought these words.    

Who is wise?  It’s he who realizes these things and understands them. 

Who is prudent?   It’s the one who heeds the warning and can see the righteousness and holiness of God and the wretchedness of man. 

It is wisdom that hears the call and answers.  We are called to God today.  Now!  We often think it wise or prudent to put this off, to delay it for a season.  Why do we do this?  Because we are deceived into believing we can hold onto our sin for a time.  Deep down inside, we know God will remove iniquity.  Often we have those iniquities like old friends we are so fond of and can’t imagine living without.  We hold our sins like a drug addict holding onto the thing that is bringing desolation and killing them. 

The Big Idea

God’s ways are right.  We tend to accept this statement when we can fully understand how that applies to our life, and we are assured it doesn’t look too hard.  But right is right, and trusting in the Lord means walking in these ways.  This is the walk of the righteous.  This same path will be a path of stumbling for the transgressor.  For us, we need a new heart with new desires.  The old heart wants to stumble and bumble along, holding fast to the idea that we can find a good and comfortable way.  But when we die to ourselves and trust in Christ, we are imputed with His righteousness.  Our eyes and ears are suddenly open. 

The sins of pride and self-righteousness bring death, but with new righteousness comes new life to dead souls. Praise God, we can find this in Christ.

"As where we have protection we owe allegiance, so where we have salvation, and hope for it, we owe adoration."  (Matthew Henry)

©2006 DOUG FORD; FURTHER STUDY AND REVISION 2016, 2024