6-3-1 Appendix: The Love of God in Hosea

The words of God as recorded in Hosea- both through the acted parable of Hosea’s love life, and in actual statement- are passionate and contradictory. The love of God in Hosea is a classic example of Bible paradox. God speaks with a raw anger rarely seen elsewhere in the prophets; and yet He says the very opposite of those things, in the love that He has towards her. And it’s not that God uttered words of judgment and then, years later, when Israel repented, softened His attitude. No, within the very same prophecy, God changes His position. In the midst of free-flowing wrath, He remembers mercy. This shows for one thing His passion as a personal being. Further, it shows that we can legitimately see within our own personal relationships a real reflection of the feelings of Almighty God. There is within every valid valid relationship an element of love/hate, patience/frustation, anger and yet also the tenderest love. And so it really was and is in God’s relationship with Israel. His love, patience and tenderness are, however, the dominant emotion; and it is these which are brought together in that wonderful final chapter of Hosea. There as we read, once we perceive what is going on, we feel caught up in the passion of God’s love for His people. He has expressed the love and anger, the justice and grace, the truth and mercy, throughout the book. And now He pours out that love, contradicting His former angry judgments, picking up the words He has used and turning them right around. He has told them He won’t love them any more. And now, He concludes- that He will love them freely. He would give them the valley of Achor, symbol and epitome of their miserable failure toward Him, a place best forgotten in their history, as a door of hope. And she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, when she came up out of Egypt (2:15). And so as you cough and hack your way through the routines of this monotonous life, know that there is a God above who passionately watches for your every move towards Him, who woos you to Him, as He seeks to allure Israel back to Him (2:14). When you decide or don’t decide to make that effort to get up earlier to pray more, to read, to meditate; when you weigh up whether or not to give something of ‘yours’ to Him; He is there watching as it were on the edge of His seat. This is the thrill of a living relationship with Him.  

Even within the space of a few verses, God says one thing in judgment and then appears to change it: “I will utterly take them away…yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea” (1:6,10), i.e. the Abrahamic promises would still be fulfilled to them. This is the love of God in Hosea. 

The key verse in all this paradox of the love of God in Hosea is perhaps 11:9. Exactly because God is God and not man, He will not punish His people according to what He had said He would do. His “repentings were kindled together” (11:8), alluding through the same Hebrew words to how Joseph’s innermost being “did yearn upon his brother” (Gen. 43:30), in prophecy of how God would accept Israel in the last days. And chapter 12 explains how God’s relationship with Jacob, who brought God to change His judgment concerning him, is the pattern for us all- for in those incidents, “there he spake with us”. 

Consider the ‘contradictions’ in God’s statements about His beloved woman Israel. They indicate if nothing else that He is a passionate God, with deep feelings. And the wonder of it all is that these are the feelings of God Almighty towards His tiny creatures who crawl this earth. This is just how important He has allowed us to be for Him. 

In similar vein, Mic. 2:9 clearly states that God would “take away my glory for ever”; yet Ez. 48 and other passages picture the glory of God returning to the temple from which it had departed. One can find these kinds of things all over the Bible. They are profound witnesses to the depth of God’s passion for us. We live in a passionless age. Within our community, there's a culture of well-speak arising, which masks a legalism and disregard of the person and the individual. The well-speak culture whilst of course good in a sense, leads to a community and people lacking in any passion, obsessed with keeping a status quo, and that will never grow. Judging how something is said / presented rather than WHAT is said or done appears typical of what is the case in the world at large. Passion, emotion, genuine feeling, hot blood, are all somewhat despised. But these are very clearly the character traits of the God in whose image we seek to be. And they are brought together beautifully in the love of God in Hosea.