Hosea 11:1-11, What Kind of Relationship Do You Have With God?

Hosea 11:1-11 and the Relational Character of God

Hosea chapter 11. Hear the word of the Lord. When Israel was a child, I loved him and out of Egypt. I called my son. The more they were called the more they went away. They kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning offerings to idols.

Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk. I took them up by their arms. But they did not know that I 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.

They shall not return to the land of Egypt. But Assyria shall be their king because they have refused to return to me. The sword shall rage against their cities can consume the bars of their gates and devour them because of their own Councils.

My people are bent on turning away from me and though they call out to the Most High He shall not raise them up at all. How can I give you up away from how can I hand you over? Oh Israel? How can I make you like Adma?

How can I treat you like Zeboem? My heart recoils within me. My compassion grows warm and tender. I will not execute my burning anger. I will not again destroy Ephraim. For I am God and not a man the Holy One in your midst and I will not come in wrath.

They shall go after the Lord. He will roar like a lion when he roars. His children shall come trembling from the West. They shall come trembling like birds from the Egypt and like doves from the land of Assyria.

And I will return them to their homes declares the Lord. May the Lord at his blessings his reading of his Holy Word. Oh, do you react differently to different people? Maybe two people will do the exact same thing, but you react differently to them.

Depending on who they are. Sometimes we're much more direct with family wife or husband then we would be with people outside the family. You know the spouse asks do you want to go to McDonald's for lunch?

Oh I never want to go to McDonald's. Don't you know that by now? Someone else asked that. You know, wherever you want to go is fine. One person might say well, that's a nice outfit on you and you just respond with thank you.

And another might say the same and we ask do you think it makes me look fat? Or maybe if your relationship's a little bad, you maybe wonder so you're saying my other outfits aren't any good. Is that what you're implying?

You probably won't ask someone you barely know, you know, whether you look fat in that we. We can often be more blunt with family. Hopefully not cruel or insulting because we know that the the bonds of the relationship can withstand.

The tension I know for me. I'd respond much differently to how a child acted depending on whether the child was my child or not. Once Mary was tutoring a child in our home and the kid decided to throw a fit dropping to the floor and and then slithering like a snake.

And I thought to myself and they were standing looking this kid slithering on the floor. I thought if you were my son, I'd pick you up by the scruff of your neck or maybe by your angles. Spank you in midair with along with some very high volume pointed words of criticism.

Instead since he wasn't my son. I Just walked off. The way we react to other to each other often depends on the relationship. We have to each other. Some people here will give Mary a free or discounted meal.

Won't name any names if you're at your Chinese restaurant. But you won't do that for just anyone who walks through the door. If you did you'd soon be bankrupt. Last week Mary and I went to Coco knee and I got a bottle of water from the man there and the owner and he Told me just take it for free.

Take it, you know. Don't have to pay and I thought well I should put two dollars in their tip jar for that. And Mary said don't do that because he's trying to maintain the relationship. Mary has done favors for them and he wants to return the favors to her to us.

People you have a relationship with you give and take Favors and by refusing to take a favor. It can be seen as Refusing the relationship like you just want to be. How cold and impersonal. Other people though, of course the man at Coco knee would expect for them to pay for their bottle of water.

He's not giving them out to everybody that comes through the door. How we respond to each other is affected by our relationship with each other. That's unlike a machine a vending machine never develops relationships with customers.

You know. You can buy a coke from the same machine every day of your life and it will never say, you know. This one's on me. You know, it's your birthday. It's not gonna say. Oh, it's your birthday. Let me give you a free drink.

No, it just never will. You can fix the machine. You can save it from the scrapheap and It still won't do you the favor of giving you a free drink. It treats everyone with perfect fairness. It never discriminates never shows favoritism.

It deals with all people equally. Now the question is God like us. Or maybe really the truth is war like God, but it's gone like us and he deals with people differently depending on his relationship with them or.

Is he a blessing and judging machine or his responses always Equal and fair like the way a vending machine reacts to the coins put in it. Is God relational or mechanical. We see exactly how relational God is here in Hosea chapter 11 in three parts first his rearing of his children then his rage at Not his people and finally his roar.

The Rearing of God's Children in Hosea 11

First his rearing that is his rearing of particular people. Here specifically Israel verse 1 begins when Israel was a child. I Loved him. He brought the nation out of Egypt called them to live his way to be a holy nation.

Called them to worship him and him alone. He pictures that rearing in verse 3 Said it's like a parent teaching a toddler to walk holding his holding him by his hands. So he doesn't fall just gently. Leading him you don't drag the kid along just very gently at his pace.

Holding his hands one step at a time the parent like God Takes care of the child if he or she gets sick. He heals the child takes care of it. So he gets well and the child takes that for granted is just part of the relationship with a parent here.

In the first three verses. He was a beautiful picture of a parent. Rearing a child the Lord here is saying that he reared Israel like that. Or in verse 4 to switch to an analogy with an animal. Israel was treated like a pet.

Not like a farm animal, you know, you have a pet like a dog or a cat. Probably not to do work. But have a relationship with it not like a donkey or an ox that you you have to do work here. He says in verse 4.

The Lord has eased their yoke of Israel, but he treated them like a pet he bit down. He fed them. Come to me. He says all you who are weary and heavy laden Burdened down and I will give you rest for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

That that tender that rearing that the gentle invitations should have created in Israel a yearning for a Relationship with the Lord so that they loved him and they returned to him like he's their father.

They shouldn't be tempted to sacrifice to bail because they should love the Lord with all their heart. There are their mind their soul because he reared them. He brought them out of slavery. He nurtured them from the very beginning.

He healed them when they needed it. He raised them up as I've said before. Generosity is God's way of creating community a Relationship here the relationship God wanted to create with generosity to them.

Was a relationship with him first of all that they would love him in return and from their hearts cry out Abba father that when he called them then they would come running to him in response. But instead the opposite happened in verse 2 the more they were called The more they went away.

The law that God used to to call them. Instead of instead of inviting them drawing them into the Lord the law provoked in them. Rebellion they reacted against the Lord like the way some rebellious children speak up.

You know more rudely more angrily and defiantly. Back to their parents than they would to anyone else. They'd never think to talk to a teacher or a coach like sometimes they talk to their parents here.

Israel was like that. They are they have been reared by the Lord and instead of that rearing creating in them gratitude and worship. Instead they offered sacrifices to the bales and other images sometimes images of the Lord like a Bethel.

But the Lord said don't use images in my worship again. It's it's not as though they forgot to worship the Lord, but it was that they forgot about the relationship they thought that the Lord was Mechanical that if you offer him the sacrifices he wants that he'll return back to you the blessings.

You want like today something, you know, if they give the right tithe, they go to church. They go through the motions. They say they believe the right things then God will return to me like the blessing machine.

They think that he is What I want for salvation. Many think if I say the right prayer. If I get baptized if I say I believe the right doctrine God then mechanically Gives me salvation. It's not a relationship.

It's just a cold impersonal business exchange. It's mechanical. Because they thought God was mechanical. They were grateful to him notice in verse 3. They did not know or realize the Lord says that I healed them.

No was the Lord healed them and they should have been grateful for that. They should have returned worship to the Lord for that, but they just took it for granted. Maybe they thought nature will take the course.

Okay, we Got better. We got grew up. We got stronger. It's just it's just nature. It's the way things are you're not grateful to the vending machine for giving you the coke if you put in the right coins.

You feel no sense of a relationship. No, no attachment. No Amazement at the grace that the coke machine has given you or the machine like cashier. He or she gives you something when you pay for it. This is why worship.

You know real worship. From your heart that is sincere. This is why it's important that we give thanks that we be Amazed at what God has done for us and we not just think well. Come on, we gave him what was required and we push the right buttons.

And so We should get what we want. Generosity to each other. It's God's way of creating community and our awareness of his generosity to us. That he's healed us that is by Jesus's stripes that we are healed our awareness of the incredible generosity of the gospel.

That he who was rich became poor for our sake so that we could become rich our awareness of that. Is God's way of making us? Worshipers. Does God treat different people differently. Is he in a relationship with some that is different than others.

Well, this passage has already answered that there there's one particular people that he loved and reared from the beginning. They are his people out of Egypt. I Called my son. I love them. I called them.

They're my son. Israel is God's son. Now our instinct today in it in a in an era of science. When words are all taken literally and have only one meaning is to take the word Israel. To refer literally and only to the nation Israel.

What's more? There's a major theological system today that tells people to always interpret the Bible what they call Literally and that sounds very reasonable. Sounds what like it let's take it literally means take it what it for what it should say that sounds proper.

But the problem is that is not how the New Testament teaches us how to interpret the Old Testament. Indeed Matthew chapter 2 verse 15 quotes the phrase here from verse 1 out of Egypt. I called my son and uses it not literally.

For the infant Jesus being returned to Israel from Egypt after they had fled Herod understand the child Jesus has returned from Egypt where his parents had fled to protect him from from Herod and Matthew quotes this phrase from from Hosea chapter 11 verse 1 out of Egypt.

I called my son and writes that now. With Jesus returning with Jesus that that prophecy is Matthew says Fulfilled fulfilled means that Referring to Jesus was the ultimate purpose of that prophecy of Matthew.

Excuse me of Hosea chapter 11 verse 1. This is what it was ultimately going to be about. It's about Jesus now. Realize that if if not for Matthew himself, you know being inspired and infallible. Writing scripture if if anyone other than a Holy Spirit inspired Bible author Had said that the ultimate purpose of the prophecy here Was Jesus was to refer to Jesus when everything literally looks like it refers to literal Israel.

Literally coming out of Egypt to the Exodus if anyone other than an inspired author of the Bible Had written that we'd say We'd say well, huh, you're wrong. You're a la guy rising or spiritual Isaac or whatever term that we make up to insist that come on.

Some people to say today Israel means Israel and that's all that it means. That's what we would do wouldn't we if it wasn't Matthew saying that Hosea chapter 11 verse 1 refers to Jesus and We'd be wrong, wouldn't we?

Matthew says that sure first refers to how the literal nation of Israel was brought out of Egypt. But the ultimate purpose of that phrase out of Israel I called my son is to point to Jesus now that then brings us back to our question.

Does God treat different people differently? Is he a is he in a relationship with some that he is not with others? Yes, he has a son that he loved and brought out of Egypt. Israel so is. Is he a cosmic racist that He just likes one particular ethnic group one kind of people the Israelites and he discriminates against all the others.

You know, do we Caucasians and blacks and Chinese do we have no chance because he only loves that ethnic group. No. But the literalist should say Well, you just said he loves Israel that Israel is his son that he brought out of Egypt.

Yes, and Matthew tells us that but by quoting this phrase from Hosea chapter 11 verse 1 that Jesus is the true Israel when Israel was a child I Loved him and out of Egypt. I called my son. Matthew tells us that's fulfilled by Jesus because Jesus is Israel.

Then the nation of Israel that the people who are as many as the stars of the sky Promised to Abraham and God made a covenant with him that nation that body of people are the people whom God sees in Jesus in Christ believers in Jesus are the the ultimate Israel the Israel that the Lord loves and he calls out of the world like Egypt and Gives each of them his Holy Spirit.

So they call back to him Abba father, so when they hear his voice my sheep hear my voice. Jesus says they come instead of rebelling and going the other way. He has sons and daughters whom he is rearing and he is calling from all nations.

You can call it the church. You can call it Israel. That's his people. Well, that's the rearing the father is rearing children through Christ who will not be the kind. That the more he calls them the more they go away.

Who will not serve other gods like mammon or ego or like just chasing the next thrill? But who will be sons and daughters of God tied to him. He says with cords of kindness with bands of love. Next is the Lord's rage.

The Lord's Rage Against Those Who Refuse to Return

Does God treat different people differently? Yes some he rears. Some he rages at. In verses 5 to 7 we see his rage how he deals with those who are not his people remember from chapter 1. There is an Israel that is not his people.

They're in chapter when he's thinking Israel. You are not my people both the Apostles Paul and Peter took that prophecy from chapter 1 and said that much of the the literal nation of Israel the ethnic group like like really much of of every unbelieving nation was not his people and what.

While the restored Israel it would be gathered from from all nations all ethnic groups that it would be declared that. Those people from all nations would be declared my people that they are. Peter and Paul say they are the church here in verses 5 to 7.

He turns to the others to the not my people and He pronounces his rage against them. They are not the son that he's called out of Egypt a Syria will rule over them. Not God's anointed King the Christ and this will happen in verse 5 because they have he says they have refused To return to me.

He's called them and instead of returning to the Lord responding to his call they go the other way. They would not repent and worship and love him alone. It's not as though they they they wanted to return to the Lord and the Lord wouldn't have them.

They did not want a relationship with the Lord so in verse 6 the sword shall rage against their cities. Of course swords don't wield themselves. Do they? You know someone has to to swing them. Here it will be the Assyrians.

But they don't wield themselves either. The Lord wields the the empires and the armies that loose the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword. The rage of the sword he wields he says will destroy their fortifications.

It will devour them. It will slaughter them because they trusted in their own advice. They trusted in what seemed right to them rather than following God's Word these people who are supposed to be God's people.

Called to be his people, but they rebelled they follow their own counsel. They he says they are they're bent on Turning away from the Lord. That is that they're like a car with it with a bit frame the wheels out of line.

You know bent on veering off course. If you drive it perhaps on the highway, you could perhaps keep it on the road with enough force. But if you just let go for a second leave it to itself it turns away crashes into the ditch.

That's what these Not my people Israelites and that's really what all people without God's grace are like they're bent. Since they're not really his people but are by nature Bent to turn away from the Lord that even if they he says even if they should call out to the Lord.

They they pray to him. They plead for mercy. They're looking upwards he says they're looking for looking to the Most High in verse 7 the Lord would still Not raise them up. He's not gonna listen to them.

He's not going to answer them. That is because of his relationship are really lack of one with these Not my people. Even if they even if they cry out to the Lord. It would be like to you. It'd be like some strange kid coming up to you asking you to To take care of his feeding all the time to give him to house him.

Put him through college. Buy her a car. You know for your kid. You might do that. You'll work and serve and sacrifice to give him or her what's needed. That's because of your relationship with them, but some someone else's kid.

Probably not you think you know, I don't have that kind of relationship with you. So here God says to these people I Don't have that kind of relationship with you with these people. They're not my people.

So I'm not gonna I'm not gonna heed it heed you when you cry out some disaster comes on you. There's a Syrian armies come besieging and destroying and killing and they decided to plead to the Lord. I'm not gonna listen God says because we don't have that kind of relationship.

So we won't raise them up. He won't save them. He will instead he says rage against them. Now we might think well, that's not fair. But what would we think of some strange kid, you know demanding that that we feed him or house him or pay his way through College buy her a car.

What would we think? Okay, maybe you plead to us. Well, I heard what you did for that other kid. You you fed him you housed him you gave him a car. Yeah. Yeah, but that was my kid. That was my son and he might say back.

Well, it's not fair. Because you paid for him. Your own son and we might say back something like. That's fairness have to do with it. You know, I I fed and housed my kid because he or she was my kid. I don't have to put any kid to college, but I put mine because of our relationship.

It's not fairness. It's a relationship. Why does the Lord here? Return some people back to himself. But call them and they respond give them gifts of repentance and faith call them out of the world. Love them give them grace to respond to his call.

So that not left to themselves, so they're not bent or they react against them. Why does he change the heart of? Some people so that they're not bent against him. But now that they have new hearts with a covenant written on them and with the Holy Spirit inside them.

So that when these people God's people when they call out to the Lord he saves them. Why does he respond differently? To different people. He's not a salvation machine is he. Because of his relationship with them.

The Roar of God's Irresistible Call

So first there's the rearing of his children. Then there's the rage at not his people and finally from verse 8 on there is the roar his call. Even if a still small voice his call is a roar. Notice here again like in chapter 1 where the Lord goes from saying that these people and Israel are not my people to saying that and Israel is his people.

Is the unloved Israel and there's the loved one. The the same thing is going on here in chapter 11 in verses 5 to 7 the the sword Wielded by the Lord. He says will rage the people will be devoured. They're they're bent on turning away from him.

He won't raise them up. Even if they do cry out to him then in verses 8 and 9 to in Israel suddenly He's changed. The whole tone has changed. Everything is changed. He says How can I give you up. He says he can't hand them over to destruction.

He can't treat them. He says like Adma and Zeboam which were two Suburbs of Sodom and Gomorrah there are towns around Sodom and Gomorrah that were destroyed along with them. The Lord says he can't do that to an Israel.

He says my heart recoils within me from wielding that raging sword against these people. No, God says I can't do it to you. He says my compassion grows warm and tender for these people. I will not execute my Burning anger he won't wield his raging sword against him.

He says I Will not destroy them then in verse 9 Says for because this is why he won't destroy them. This is the reason he's not destroying these people. I am God and not a man the Holy One in your midst and I will not Come in wrath.

People like like us if we treated. If we treated someone Like God here has been treated by these people. We would be we were being raged by them. But the relationship we would say the relationship it's over.

But because he's not like us his grace is amazing. He will have a redeeming love for these people steadfast love chesed and so He will not rage at them. But what's happening here? You know, he's just gone from expressing rage at Israel to resolving just in a couple verses to resolving Never to pour out his wrath at Israel.

Is he is he vacillated? He like an angry betrayed lover, you know. Like Jose has displayed the Lord's relationship with his people in the first three chapters. Is he is he like sometimes what happens in relationships like that that the Lord first rashly is shouting, you know, it's over.

It's storming out. Only later to simmer down and come back. Is that what's going on here? Is he going from rage in verses 5 to 7 to now in verses 8 to 10 saying basically I can't give you up. Like someone it's like someone's saying, you know, I can't live without you.

So I'm coming back. Is that what the Lord is expressing here? I will not come in wrath. Is he contradicting himself? Going is he going back from his threat of wielding a raging sword? No, it's like in chapter 1 the Israel that he rages against is Different than the Israel that he won't give up that his heart recoils from destroying the Israel that he won't raise up even if they even if they pray to him is Different than the Israel that he resolves never to execute his burning anger against the Israel.

That he says that he won't save is The literal one like all people left in their sins who are bent against the Lord the Israel that he that he won't give up. That he that he won't have eternal wrath against is well first he is the Israel that he called out of Egypt his son the Israel in the one person of Jesus and then The holy nation that the father sees in Christ the Israel of God the church again this isn't just my theologizing about it both Paul and Peter say the church is the my people Israel that deserves that that the Lord resolves Not to be angry at.

Now some people say about this. How can you interpret the Bible like that? You know how you're taking the same word and saying at one point it refers to one thing and went to another as Israel is Literal wouldn't live some didn't then it's a picture of the church.

Yeah, how do you know then which is the literal Israel and which is the true one? Actually, it's easy. The Israel that he wages against and calls not my people is The natural Israel natural people left in their sins.

The Israel that he promises never to forsake. Not to destroy to keep them until the end is. Is the true one the church. The Apostle Paul wrote in 1st Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 9 that we the church are not appointed for wrath so you look back here Hosea chapter 11 and you see here and Israel that he says he won't have wrath on and you know.

That's the church Not appointed for wrath. The natural unregenerate that's left in their natural condition. Israel like all natural people goes away from the Lord. The more they are called the supernatural Israel He says shall go after the Lord in verse 10 they will respond differently to the Lord than the natural Israel does because they Have a relationship with him.

Those with no real relationship with the Lord respond like in verse 2 by going away from him when he calls. But his children scattered here and there among all kinds of nations when they hear his voice.

They come. They might be a still small voice. Outwardly might be a shepherd's voice that the sheep hear and it moves their response. But to their ears. It's a roar. In verse 10 the Lord will roar like a lion.

To his people his sheep his voice has the thunder that breaks through. Whatever other noise is trying to fill our ears and when he roars His children he says in verse 10 notice verse 10 when he roars his children.

Hear that roar. The others can't hear it or maybe they maybe they just hear it as just another piece of noise in a very noisy world. His children though hear the roar and that roar produces in them the draw to come.

They don't go further away. Like they're not my people. They come. And they come trembling. He says in reverence and all. Knowing that they are sinners that nothing good dwells in me they think and they think rightly and so.

They ask themselves who will deliver me from this body of death and the roar Tells them the son whom the father loved and called out of Egypt. So they come and they come from far away and exile in the West.

They come trembling like birds coming out of refuge in Egypt or in captivity in Assyria. They come to him. When they hear the roar is God treat different people differently. Yes, he has children scattered around the world and he recoils at the idea of Condemning them.

Jesus said I've not come into the world to condemn it. He's come to save his people. He has compassion for them. It's warm and tender. They're not appointed for wrath and so he resolves that he will not have wrath on them.

But he roars for them a call of irresistible grace and he promises that when they come. When they hear that roaring call then they are justified. They will finally be all of them Glorified he promises at the end of verse 11 that for every one of these children of his Whom he is whom he's roaring for.

He says I will return them to their homes every one of them. No more wrath. No more discipline. No more exile. So yes, the Lord treats different people differently like us he's in a relationship with some.

Some he's not. Some he'll even ignore their pleas. Some are his children. Some are not. He doesn't respond to us. Mechanically as though we can get what we want out of him. If only we put in the right coins and push the right buttons.

He has an only begotten son a one-of-a-kind son whom he loved from eternity past whom he called it. Called out of Egypt to to live the perfect life. We didn't and to take the wrath that we couldn't if we're in him in Christ.

We are also His children and he recoils From pouring out his wrath on us. He's not appointed us to get eternal punishment from him, but to have our home with him forever. He will return us to our homes to live in relationship with him.

If you believe in him in Jesus, you really believe that he is Lord. He is your shepherd he's he's called you and you've come then you are the father's child. He will roar for you and you will hear and tremble and return home to be with him forever.

The question then for you is. Do you believe? Do you? Have a believing relationship with the father.