Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
Hey, Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for The Bible Recap. Today we finished our 21st book of the Bible. Hosea continues today to prophesy to God's people, and he reminds them that there are consequences for their sins. Their hearts have wandered far from God, and it doesn't just show up in their religious practices. It shows up in their autonomous choice of leaders and how they don't consult God about those decisions.
It shows up in the way they look to other nations for help and pay tribute to pagans instead of trusting in God for their needs. Our relationship with God isn't isolated to where we spend our Sunday mornings. Nearness to God impacts every area of our lives. And so does turning away from Him. They tried to solve the problem by becoming more religious, but they were just adding false gods and pagan altars into the mix instead of turning to Yahweh.
He compares their actions to another tragic event we've read about. Remember back in Judges 19 when a man and his concubine were traveling home and stopped to spend the night in the town of Gebeah in the tribe of Benjamin? Then a bunch of the leaders of Gebeah kidnapped her, raped her, beat her, and left her for dead. God is saying that Israel as a whole has acted that way. Imagine a whole nation of people who just do whatever they want to please themselves, harm others in the process, and feel no remorse.
And you may recall that the wicked actions of those leaders in the tribe of Benjamin led to a major rift among the tribes. Sin brings division. As a result of the way God's people have abused his blessings and forgotten him, God says he will reverse their freedom. They will go back to Egypt and Assyria as captives and exiles. After all this time, they still haven't learned to trust God. And after all this time, they'll return to their original place of bondage in Egypt.
This will serve as discipline for them, training them to trust him. Chapter 11 is a beautiful poem where God compares his relationship with Israel to a father and a son. Verse 1 says,
This is clearly a reference to God's rescue of the Israelites from Egyptian slavery, but it also serves a secondary purpose that would only be revealed several hundred years later. This verse foreshadows God calling Jesus and his parents out of Egypt, where they'd been living for two years when Jesus was a baby and a toddler. And this verse is quoted in reference to Jesus in Matthew 2.15. Okay, back to Ephraim Israel.
God talks about raising them up, teaching them how to walk, healing them, feeding them, comforting them, easing their burdens. But they were bent on turning away from him. His heart burns with anger at their actions, and he promises to punish them. But then he has a shift in tone. His heart softens toward them, and he relents. God's emotions are so complex.
In chapter 12, Hosea recounts the story of Israel's patriarch Jacob, and he urges them to keep living out of the relationship God began with them all the way back then. He lets them know they're not alone and reminds them that God is the one who started all this and that God can be trusted to continue it. Verse 6 says, By the help of your God, return, hold fast to love and justice, and wait continually for your God.
Their hope lies in the fact that God will help them to do what he's called them to do. God will equip them with what they need to repent and remain faithful to himself. But Hosea knows they won't lean into this help. They'll continue to do things as they've always done them. They'll pursue wealth and independence. And as verse 13, 6 reminds us, abundant provision can make you forget the provider.
It says,
If our affection terminates on the gift itself, we're better off not having it. Because it's going to go away anyway. It's going to break or fade or be forgotten or just be a disappointment. Kind of like King Saul, the king they asked for and regretted. Hosea begs them to return to God, to break their foreign alliances and renounce their idolatry.
He promises they will be met with love. God initiated a relationship with them long ago. They've consistently broken the covenant he made with them, yet here he is, pursuing them again to renew the covenant. The story of Hosea and Gomer and the story of God and Israel both serve to show us that God's love is bigger than our sin. God's words to Israel apply to all of us. We're all like this more often than we're not.
And God's heart is to heal and save a people like us, meeting us in the midst of our sin with open arms. My favorite God shot for today came in 11, 7-9. That's where God is angry and he's saying he's going to cut off Israel. But then there's this really tender shift in verse 8 where God's compassion and mercy swoop in. Listen to this transition from verse 7 to verse 8. From his righteous anger to his gracious love. Verse 7 says,
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. And verses 8 and 9 say, How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? How can I make you like Adma? How can I treat you like Zeboim? 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. Because of Christ, God's wrath has a landing place. He received it. We don't. We get the relationship and all of its benefits, provision, hope, discipline, mercy, grace, and of course, joy, because He's where the joy is.
Do you have a friend or family member who speaks Spanish? We're excited to share that the Bible Recap is now available in Spanish, and we would love to have them join us. You can either search your podcatcher for La Sinopsis de la Biblia or click the link in today's show notes.