This chapter is one of the
greatest in the Old Testament in what it expresses of God's love. It describes,
as far as human language can, the attitude and character of God and his
relationship with his people.
In verses 1-4, against the
background of the story of the Exodus, God is portrayed as a loving father,
showing the greatest affection, love and patience towards his child in spite of
the child's rebellious and unloving attitude to his father. Hosea shows,
however, that from the beginning of Israel's relationship with God, there was
the sinful capacity in Israel to rebel against God's love, even when Israel was
'a child'. This idea is also found at the beginning of Hosea's marriage; 1: 2
says that the prophet's wife will be unfaithful because in the young bride
there is the capacity to rebel. Hosea understands that deep in human nature
there is the capacity to rebel against God because human beings want to take
over the power which belongs to God (Genesis 3).
Verses 8-9 bring us to the
difference between God's love and human love. There are limits to human love, but
no limits to God's love. Although Hosea has used powerful human analogies in
speaking of God as husband and father, he knows that God is more than these.
God is the holy one whose love is perfect and without limits but who comes to
his ignorant and rebellious people with gentleness and humility. The two
sentences- 'POT I am God and not man. I, the Holy One, am with you. '¬reveal
Hosea's extraordinary understanding of the character of God and his relationship
with his people. God's holy perfection did not mean that God was remote from
the human race and unconcerned about them. God's relationship with his people
was as intimate, concerned and full of deep feeling, as the relationship
between father and child, husband and wife, yet going beyond these human
analogies. Hosea touches a mystery which is beyond human understanding.
Verses 5-7 illustrate the
consequences of stubborn rebelliousness. If man chooses to rebel, God will not
turn him back forcibly. If Israel insist on turning away from God, they will
finish up in exile, conquered by Assyria.
Hope returns in verses
10-11. When the lesson of being conquered and exiled has brought Israel to her
senses, they will return to God 'as swiftly as birds'. The two references to
Egypt in verse 5 and verse 11 do not mean that the people of Israel will be
conquered by Egypt but that they will experience a time of oppression and
suffering at the hands of the Assyrians, which will parallel the time of
oppression and suffering in Egypt before the Exodus. As they were brought out
of their suffering in Egypt, so they will be brought out of their suffering
under the Assyrians, by the God whose love for them has been so powerfully
expressed.
We should note that the
people of the northern kingdom did not in fact recover from the Assyrian
conquest; the future spiritual development of the Jewish people lay with the
people of Judah. But the great prophets did not lose sight of the idea of the
people of God united by the covenant faith and the name 'Israel' is very often
used of the people of God rather than of the northern kingdom. The hope
expressed in the book of Hosea points towards the hope of the New Testament and
the great theme of the new people of God.
Verse 12 illustrates the
prophetic understanding of the one united people of God whose political
division into two kingdoms was of no real significance when it came to the
proclamation of the word of God.