DAY 202: Hosea 8–14

Welcome to 5-Minute Bible, your daily guide for your daily reading. Today's July the 21st and we'll be looking at Hosea 8 -14. Now yesterday Hosea revealed the covenant meaning of Israel's collapse. The northern kingdom had not merely chosen foolish rulers or bad policies, but Israel had betrayed the Lord like an adulterous wife abandoning her faithful husband.

And yet God promised to reclaim His bride in the future and reverse the names of judgment and gather Judah and Israel back together again under a single king. Well today Hosea brings that message to its conclusion.

Israel Reaps the Whirlwind of Covenant Rebellion

Israel has sown the wind and will reap the whirlwind. The idols and alliances she trusted are going to fall. Yet the Lord's final word is not abandonment. He remembers Israel as His son. He calls His people to return and promises to heal their apostasy and love them freely.

And in that way Hosea 8 begins with a trumpet blast announcing God's judgment is coming. Israel claims to know God while rejecting what is good. The people establish kings without seeking the Lord and worship the calf of Samaria.

And then comes the controlling image. They sow the wind and they weep the whirlwind. And in that way sin may appear small when planted but its harvest will be devastating. Chapters 9 -10 then announce the exile.

Israel treated covenant blessings as payment from their false god. So she's going to lose the land. She's going to lose the security that she corrupted. Israel is luxuriant. She's a vine producing fruit for itself instead of God.

And the more prosperous that she became the more altars that she built. Chapter 11 then gives one of the most tender passages in all of the prophets. The Lord remembers Israel as His son. Called out of Egypt He taught Ephraim to walk.

He took him in His arms and healed him and drew him with cords of love. And yet Israel continued turning away. And still the Lord asked how can I give you up Ephraim? Which is a tender look into the heart of God.

Judgment, Idolatry, and the Failure of Human Kings

And yet judgment is going to come but God's covenant purposes will never be destroyed. And then in chapters 12 -13 we return back to Israel's guilt. The nation trusts wealth forgets the Lord and runs towards Egypt and Assyria.

And Ephraim's idolatry and pride are finally going to bring her down to death. And no human king is going to be able to save her. Chapter 14 then ends the book calling Israel to return with words of repentance.

They must confess that Israel cannot save. That war horses can't deliver them. That idols are not gods. And then the Lord promises that when they do that I will heal their apostasy. I will love them freely.

Israel will blossom like the lily. Take root like Lebanon and bear fruit from the Lord. So as you read today I want you to ask the following question. Can the Lord restore a people who repeatedly reject his love and trust every refuge except for him?

Well Hosea 8 -14 answers that. That Israel's sin will bear its bitter harvest. Its idols, its alliances and wealth and armies and kings can't save. And they will bring consequences. Yet the Lord's grace reaches deeper than Israel's rebellion.

He calls his people to return. Promises to heal their faithfulness and actually gives them love that they could never earn. And in that way the central tension in all of these passages is between the deserved exile and the undeserved restoration.

Sin’s Harvest and the False Refuge of Assyria

Israel's sown idolatry. They've sown pride and political manipulation. They've leaned into and relied upon foreign powers and gods. Because of that she's going to reap the whirlwind that she has sown.

Because sin always produces more than it first appears to promise. A compromise becomes a habit. A habit becomes a loyalty. A loyalty becomes bondage. What begins as a breeze eventually returns back to you as a storm.

But Israel's trusted refuge has also become instruments of judgment as well. She runs towards Assyria for refuge. But it's going to be Assyria who becomes her captor. She looks back towards Egypt, the land from which God delivered her, and discovers that unbelief always leads her back to slavery.

Sin rarely introduces itself as destruction. It presents itself as relief, protection, survival, pleasure. It offers shelter from the cost of obedience and then builds a prison around the person who trusts in it.

God’s Compassion for His Wandering Son

But Hosea also reveals the astonishing compassion of God. The Lord remembers teaching Israel to walk and lifting the child into his arms, healing him and drawing him with cords of love. Israel has certainly forgotten the Lord, but the Lord has not forgotten Israel.

How can I give you up, God says. Which doesn't mean that justice is going to disappear, exile is still going to come, the whirlwind is still going to arrive, the consequences are going to land. But judgment can't overthrow God's love and covenant purposes.

Repentance and Restoration by Grace

Hosea 14 then shows what repentance sounds like. Israel must return with words and name the lies that she believed in. Assyria will not save us. We will not ride on horses. We will no longer call the works of our hands our gods.

Repentance isn't some kind of vague regret. It turns from specific false refuges to a specific confession of the living God. And restoration begins entirely in grace. The Lord says, I will love them freely.

Their healing grows out of his mercy and their fruit comes from him and from his love. And in all of that, Hosea 8 -14 points us directly to Jesus as the faithful son, the true Israel, the promised king, the conqueror of death.

Jesus as the Faithful Son and True Vine

Israel is God's son that was called out of Egypt, but that son repeatedly turns away. So in that way, Jesus retraces Israel's story. He is the son who was called out of Egypt. He's the one who passes through the waters.

He's the one who enters into the wilderness and remains faithful. Where Israel forgets her father, Christ obeys him completely. Israel is also the luxuriant vine producing fruit for itself, but Christ is the true vine who bears righteous fruit and gives his life for the many.

Hosea asks where Israel's king can be found to save her because human kings fail. They sponsor idolatry and they lead the people into exile. But Jesus is the true and faithful king who gathers the scattered people, destroys the idols, and brings his people home again.

Christ’s Victory Over Death

Hosea 13 places Israel beneath the power of death and Sheol. Paul later takes up Hosea's language in the triumph of the resurrection saying, Oh, death, where is your victory? Oh, death, where is your sting?

Language coming right out of Hosea 13. That victory, of course, belongs to Christ. He's the one who enters death under the judgment that his people deserve. He's the one who rises on the third day and breaks the grave's chains upon everyone who's united to him.

And therefore, God can heal apostasy without ignoring his justice. Christ bears the curse. He secures the forgiveness. He pours out the spirit on those who become his through his faithfulness. In him, the wandering son returns.

The adulterous bride is restored. Death is defeated and God's people are going to blossom beneath his freely given love. So as you read Hosea 8 -14 today, I want you to notice how every false refuge fails.

Israel trusts in idols, kings, wealth, Egypt, Assyria, but none of them save. And tomorrow, we're going to go back to Isaiah who will begin with the fading crown of Ephraim and then turn towards Jerusalem where Judah is repeating Israel's sin by seeking shelter in Egypt instead of resting upon the cornerstone that God has laid in Zion.

But with that, read your Bible carefully, devotionally, and joyfully, and may the Lord use his word to sanctify you completely, and we will continue our journey tomorrow. God bless you.