O Israel, return unto Jehovah thy God; for thou hast fallen by thine iniquity.
Hosea ends a book of appeals, warnings and mercy with one short call to a nation that had wrecked itself. Why does God name their own sin as the cause of the fall, and how can such a fall end in an invitation rather than a judgment?
The call comes at the very end of the prophecy, and that place is no accident. The writers quoted here use Jehovah, the older English form of the LORD's name.
Hosea 14 winds up the prophecy in the most beautiful way. It is what ought to be here and nowhere else — the final working and effect of divine grace on the long-guilty, long-hardened people of God. The appeals, the memories, the warnings and the mercy are no longer in vain. At last God pours His Spirit into the heart of Israel, and they bow to that gracious Jehovah whose patience had waited on them many days. Then comes the blessed time of Israel's restoration to their God in their own land. So at the end, and certainly not in vain, comes the call: "Return, O Israel, to the LORD your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity."
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The verse names the cause of the fall, and it points at the people themselves. One writer takes up an older rendering of the previous chapter, which sets the same charge next to God's own answer.
Israel's sad history can be summed up in one short but complete sentence: "O Israel, you have destroyed yourself." Yet at the far end of that history we meet a magnificent display of the grace, mercy and faithfulness of Jehovah, the God of their fathers. His heart of love tells itself out in the sentence He adds: "In Me is your help." The whole matter is wrapped up in these two strong sentences: "You have destroyed yourself" — "But in Me is your help." The first is the sharp arrow for Israel's conscience. The second is the soothing balm for Israel's broken heart.
The chapter opens with a summons rather than a promise, and that order matters.
What tender pleading! What gracious assurance! What glorious promises of a future redemption! It is Jehovah begging His people, those who had forsaken Him, outraged His holiness and despised Him. First is the call to return. God's hands are tied as long as His people stay away from Him and do not return to Him in true repentance. His people cannot know true salvation and deliverance without a true return of heart to Him. This is what He looks for and waits for.
The turn commanded here is not something the people generate on their own.
Israel, returning to Jehovah, acknowledges his iniquity and turns to the grace of his God. Only so could he offer Him acceptable worship. His heart is now taught and cleansed. It refuses the help of Assyria — help he had sought in his unbelief, when he rejected the God who searched his ways... God was only waiting for His people to return. That return was one He Himself had worked in their hearts by His grace, once the chastening was over — chastening needed for His moral glory and for the people's good. Then God Himself would heal their backsliding; He would love them freely.
Others note the same order at the level of the conscience: the reply of grace comes only after the people know where they are.
Look at the way the conscience is at work there; there is the full sense of what they had run after instead of God, how they had turned to the schemes of this world instead of Jehovah. Afterwards, in verse 4, you get God's reply... but before that, there is the sense of their whereabouts, there is the true work of God in the conscience, and it always is so.
The one told to return is not left to compose his own plea; the next verse hands him the wording.
Then the Lord Himself puts His word and a prayer into their mouth. He loves to provide everything... Could their poor, darkened, mistrusting hearts ever have imagined asking Him for such a thing? Their consciences were defiled; the burden of guilt was on them. But Jehovah does not mention their sins and their guilt; He tells them simply to pray for forgiveness and for a gracious reception... And we too, as His people, when we have gone back in our spiritual life, can find our comfort here.
One writer treats the chapter as the pattern of any recovery, and quotes verse 4 from an older translation.
Read the closing chapter of Hosea, because I think God gives us there, in other words, the way the soul gets back to the Lord... The two things that always lead the soul back to God are the sense of His grace and His mercy. And now, what is God's answer? "I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for my anger is turned away from him." What could be more blessed than this? What could better encourage a returning backslider? It is love's victory.
- Fall. The verse puts the cause of the ruin on Israel. The sharp arrow for the conscience is "you have destroyed yourself"; the balm beside it is "in Me is your help."
- Wait. Nothing moves while His people stay away. God looks and waits for a true return of heart before deliverance comes.
- Work. God commands the return, and God works it — He puts it in their hearts by grace, once the chastening has done its work.
- Words. He does not leave them speechless — He puts the prayer in their mouth, and never mentions their guilt when He does it.
- Freely. God answers that return by healing their backsliding and loving them freely. A book of warnings ends in restoration.
Take with you words, and turn to Jehovah; say unto him, Forgive all iniquity, and receive [us] graciously; so will we render the calves of our lips.
Hosea's final chapter turns from a long record of failure to a call home. God does more than tell Israel to come back. He hands them the very words to say when they arrive. Why does a returning people need words put in their mouths? And what does it mean to pay God with "the vows of our lips"?
A note on wording: the writers quoted below use an older translation. It reads "receive us graciously; so will we render the calves of our lips." The ESV reads "accept what is good, and we will pay with bulls the vows of our lips."
The people do not know what to say to God. He fills that gap Himself.
Notice, when God is pleading for His people He leaves nothing undone to persuade them to return. He will put the words in their mouth; He will tell them what to say. We do not know what to say to our God? Then He puts the words on our lips.
And what He tells them to ask for is more than they would have dared ask on their own.
He would not leave them without a suitable word to say to Him, for He loves to provide everything. He would put no words less than these on their lips: "Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously." Would they have dared to ask so much? Lord, teach us to ask from You — we need this — as well as to act for You.
The prayer God gives them lists no sins.
Could their poor, dark, mistrusting hearts ever have imagined asking this of Him? Their consciences were defiled; the burden of guilt was on them. But the LORD does not mention their sins and their guilt. He just tells them to pray for forgiveness and for a gracious welcome. He tells His wayward people to pray, to turn to Him, to ask forgiveness. He assures them that He hears. He assures them of a gracious welcome. And He will never fail.
One writer reads verses 2 and 3 together and finds four kinds of words in the prayer.
He directs them to take words with them as they turn to the Lord. First, words of prayer and confession. Second, words of promise: "So will we render". Third, words of refusal: "Assyria shall not save us". Fourth, words of confidence: "In you the fatherless finds mercy". These verses show the work in the heart that fits anyone seeking restored fellowship with God.
What Israel brings back to God is not livestock but speech.
"So will we render the calves of our lips." Word for word this is "we will pay our lips as young oxen." That is, we present the prayers of our lips as a thank offering. We will be worshippers. This is the result of a real return to the Lord, with sins forgiven and fellowship restored.
One writer reads the two halves of the verse as two offerings in order:
I believe Hosea 14:2 links worship with the peace offering: "Take away all iniquity" [sin offering], "and receive us graciously; so will we offer the calves of our lips" [peace offering]. The same thought seems to appear in Hebrews 13:15: "let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name."
Another sees in it a shift in what God finds acceptable at all:
Later in Israel's history one of their prophets said, "Receive us graciously; so will we render the calves of our lips" (Hosea 14:2) — recognising that something coming out of their hearts through their lips would be more acceptable than the mechanical presentation of an animal.
The turning these words express is itself God's work.
Israel, returning to the LORD, acknowledges his iniquity and turns to the grace of his God. Only in this way could he offer Him acceptable worship... God was only waiting for His people to return. That return He Himself had worked in their hearts by His grace. He waited until the discipline was over — discipline needed for His moral glory and for the people's good. Then God Himself would heal their backsliding; He would love them freely.
Gaebelein notes that these words have served individual Israelites and later generations of Jews. They serve God's people whenever they have drifted. And the remnant of Israel will use them at the close of this age. Another writer speaks straight to the wanderer:
Remember all the while that the blessed Lord looks on you with eyes of unchanging love. Your sinful wanderings have not made His faithful love for you any smaller. Think of this. Turn the thought over in your mind: "He loves me, despite everything." Then carry your confession into the presence of God, holding that true, strong, tender, eternal love in mind.
- Words given. God does not wait for a well-worded apology; He dictates the prayer, so no one can plead that they did not know what to say.
- Words asking everything. The prayer He supplies asks for all iniquity removed and a gracious welcome. That is more than the guilty would have dared ask — and He names no sins in it.
- Words of turning. Prayer, promise, refusal, confidence — the words they carry drop every other rescue they had trusted.
- Words as offering. What returns to God is not cattle but speech. Prayers become the thank offering; lips are paid as young oxen.
- Words with a future. The same prayer fits the believer who has drifted today, and the remnant of Israel at the end. God's answer never changes: healed backsliding and love freely given.
Assyria shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, [Thou art] our God; because in thee the fatherless findeth mercy.
Hosea's last chapter puts words into Israel's mouth, and verse 3 is where the nation lets go. It drops the great power it courted, its war-horses, and the gods it had made — and it names the one confidence that takes their place.
Israel does not compose this confession. God dictates it, phrase by phrase, and He explains what each phrase gives up.
Notice, when God is pleading for His people He leaves nothing undone to persuade them to return. He will put the words in their mouth; He will tell them what to say. Do we not know what to tell our God? Then He puts the words in our lips. He says: "Assyria shall not save us" — that is, the powers of the world. "We will not ride on horses" — the power of Egypt, as you have it in the thirtieth of Isaiah. "Neither will we say any more to the work of our hands" — idolatry — "you are our gods; for in You the fatherless finds mercy."
The refusal to ride is not a comment on animals. Among Israel the horse belonged to the battlefield, and reaching for one had a history behind it.
Israel used the horse only for war, either in chariots or in what is now called cavalry. But using it showed a failure of confidence in the Lord: see Hosea 14:3. They had been forbidden to multiply horses, Deut. 17:16; and at first they hamstrung the horses and burned the chariots of the Canaanites. Joshua 11:6, 9.
The verse drops foreign help and home-made gods in the same breath. One writer names idolatry as the root of both — the trouble at home and the pride shown to the world.
Now they judge everything rightly, because they judge self before the God who brings them near Him. Their repentance is genuine and the fruit of grace. All their vain resources are now abandoned for ever. Idolatry had let all the trouble in at home, and it had let pride out toward the world.
Losing every support would leave Israel with nothing. The last clause supplies what takes their place, and one writer traces the whole turn: what Israel refuses, and where it now goes for refuge.
Israel, returning to Jehovah, acknowledges his iniquity and turns to the grace of his God. Only in this way could he offer Him acceptable worship. His heart, now instructed and cleansed, refuses the help of Assyria. He had sought that help in his unbelief, when he rejected his God who searched his ways. He will no longer lean on human help or on human strength, and he throws off the false gods to whom he had bowed the knee. His refuge would be with Him in whom the fatherless find mercy.
The verse ends with the orphan, which the writers call "the fatherless." It is the language of a child who threw away his own father and has no one left — and one writer says the day for those words is still ahead.
No longer will they trust in their own strength and in the strength of their horses. No longer will they turn to idols and call them "Our God." Instead they will acknowledge Him in whom the fatherless finds mercy. Israel was God's firstborn son. Israel had been like the son who ran away from home, and was fatherless, yet the Father's love never gave them up. But now that son returns and knows there is One in whom the fatherless finds abundant mercy. All this true repentance will be shown at the close of this age, when the remnant of Israel turns to the Lord.
The chapter moves in order. One writer places verse 3 exactly: after the call to confession, before God's answer.
Verses 2 and 3 are a call to full confession. They call Israel to give up all trust in human sources of strength, and to give up the sin of idolatry. In verse 4 we have the gracious response of the Lord.
What brings a person back is not fear of loss but who God is.
The two things that always lead the soul back to God are the sense of His grace and His mercy.
- Given words. God does not wait for a polished apology. He puts the words of verse 3 into the mouths of the people who wronged Him.
- Given up. Three props go at once: the foreign power, the war-horse God told Israel not to multiply, and the god its own hands had made.
- Given for ever. Israel drops every one of those resources "for ever" — a final break, not a temporary retreat.
- Given mercy. In place of all three stands one confidence: the orphan, with no protector left, finds mercy in God.
- Given an answer. Verse 4 answers verse 3 with the Lord's gracious reply, and the sense of His grace and mercy is what draws any wanderer home.
I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely; for mine anger is turned away from him.
Hosea's prophecy ends with God replying to a people who have just confessed their sin and turned back to Him. Where the ESV says "apostasy", older translations say "backsliding", and that is the word the writers below use.
Verse 4 answers the confession just before it. There Israel gives up human help and throws away its idols. One writer shows whose work that return really was.
Israel, returning to the Lord, acknowledges his iniquity, and turns to the grace of his God... he will no longer lean on an arm of flesh, nor on human strength, and he casts off the false gods to whom he had bowed. His refuge would be with Him in whom the fatherless find mercy. God was only waiting for His people to return. That return was His own work in their hearts, by His grace, once He had ended the chastisement — a chastisement needed for His moral glory and for the good of the people. God Himself would heal their backsliding; He would love them freely.
The first promise treats the wandering as an illness. One writer names the cures people reach for instead of God.
But when God's people become diseased in their feet, they stop running well. They may try various remedies to recover themselves — ritualism, revivalism, the union of churches, and so on. Every one of those remedies is a "physician of no value." "Restore to me the joy of your salvation," wrote a well-known backslider. It is the Lord who says through His prophet, "I will heal their backslidings."
"Freely" is the key word. It means the love has no cause outside God Himself. That is striking, because Israel had been anything but faithful.
What mercy in the face of wayward inconstancy and hearts only firm in rebellion! What tender love as well as mercy! Here is love, free and full, and its motive is in God Himself! He once struck His people in anger. Now He will be as the dew to them — and they were so long without one drop of moisture to refresh them!
Free love also rules out the idea of earning it. One writer draws out what happens if we try.
God's mercy is free. To set up merit is to destroy mercy. Nothing can deserve mercy, nor force it. We may force God to punish us, but not to love us. "I will love them freely" (Hosea 14:4)... Do not say, then, I am unworthy; for mercy is free. If God were to show mercy only to those who are worthy, He would show none at all.
The verse ends with a reason: His anger has turned away. That is more than a mood passing. One dictionary entry sets this promise beside the New Testament's words about forgiveness.
All this rests on the sacrifice of Christ. God no longer holds those who have faith in Christ's blood as guilty before Him. More than that, His favour is towards them. "I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more." Hebrews 10:17. So all sense of imputation of guilt is gone from the mind of God... So in the Old Testament, "I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely." Hosea 14:4.
One writer counts the promises here and in the next verse. Their order is not random.
Three times the Lord says "I will." This is the word of sovereign grace... The three "I wills" are: (1) I will heal their backslidings; (2) I will love them freely; (3) I will be a dew to Israel. They are arranged in a most blessed order. First mercy, then love, then gracious refreshment that leads to fruitfulness and beauty — such is the order. The past is wiped out, the present is love and the future is glory.
The writers apply this promise first to Israel as a nation. They also apply it to any believer who has drifted. What comes after recovery is not a smaller life.
My dear friend, perhaps you have kept your distance from the Lord and turned away from Him. Do not suppose that it is all over with you, and that you cannot be restored. Oh, no — there are brighter and better days in store for you, if you return. I believe God brings us back to something far better than what we lost by slipping away. We get into deeper and fuller communion with the Lord.
- Free to heal — God treats the wandering as a disease. Every cure people invent is a physician of no value.
- Free to love — the love has no cause outside God. Merit cannot earn it, and nothing can force it.
- Free to forgive — His anger has turned away, so God no longer counts their guilt against them.
- Free to promise — three "I wills" run in order: the past wiped out, the present love, the future glory.
- Free to restore — God worked the return in their hearts. He brings people back to something better than they lost.
I will be as the dew unto Israel he shall blossom as the lily, and cast forth his roots as Lebanon.
God has just called His people back with words of confession, and promised to heal them and love them freely. This verse shows what that healing looks like: He gives Himself as refreshment, and new growth follows.
Why does God speak like this? The reason is not in the people. It lies in Himself.
What mercy toward people who kept drifting away, whose hearts were firm only in rebellion! What tender love as well as mercy! Love free and full, and its motive is in God Himself. He once struck His people in anger. Now He will be like the dew to them, who were so long without one drop of moisture to refresh them!
Earlier in this book God described Himself in terrifying terms. The change of picture is not a change in God. It answers a change in His people.
Yet He is the God of peace. The agents of His power do His bidding. Whatever is contrary to His own nature and to the blessing of His people is destroyed. But the goal is that we may rest for ever in all that He is in infinite love, and that He may rest in the joy of His own beloved ones. So we hear the still small voice in Hosea 14. The very One who said, "I will be to them like a lion," now says, "I will be like the dew to Israel." He has His people before Him in a true condition of soul. They are repentant and depending on His mercy. So all His love can flow out in its freeness and fulness.
A reader today may miss how much weight this small word carried. Dew marked God's favour right through Israel's history, and it stands for a work that still refreshes God's people.
Dew was the familiar token of God's favour. It was largely the source of the land's fertility. Without it the land would be parched and barren. Isaac uses this figure when he blesses Jacob (Gen. 27:28). Moses repeats it in his closing blessing on the tribes (Deut. 33:28). Elijah shows God's judgment on the land by declaring that dew would not fall (1 Kings 17:1). We know that all refreshing, whether for Israel or the Church, comes by the Holy Spirit. The divine dew is His blessed influence, bringing refreshing and help. Just as the land would stop being fruitful without dew, so without the Spirit's unhindered work there can be no fruit. Barrenness will be the result.
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God makes three promises here, each beginning "I will." Their order carries meaning.
Three times the Lord says "I will." This is the word of sovereign grace. The three are: (1) I will heal their backslidings; (2) I will love them freely; (3) I will be like the dew to Israel. They are arranged in a most blessed order. First mercy, then love, then gracious refreshment. The result is fruitfulness and beauty. That is the order. The past is wiped out, the present is love, and the future is glory. Israel is to be like the lily, like Lebanon and like the olive tree. The lily means beauty; they will be clothed in the beauty of holiness. Lebanon stands for strength and stability; they will become a nation of power that can never be moved.
The verse ends with two very different pictures. One is fragile and visible. The other is hidden and firm.
"He shall blossom like the lily" — in grace, purity and humility. "He shall take root like the trees of Lebanon" — firmly rooted and established in the grace of God. "His branches shall spread" — a means of blessing to others. What a loving interest He takes in His own! How He delights in them and loves to see the beauties and graces of Christ in them!
Writers apply this to any believer who has wandered. Coming back does not mean settling for less than before.
My dear friend, has there been distance and departure from the Lord? Do not suppose it is all over with you, or that you cannot be restored. Oh no — there are brighter and better days ahead of you if you return. I believe God brings us back to something far better than what we lost by slipping away. We come into deeper and fuller communion with the Lord.
- Dew, not thunder. The God who called Himself a lion now calls Himself dew. What changed is His people: they have returned, repentant and depending on His mercy.
- Free love first. The motive of the healing lies in God Himself. It is not found in a people whose hearts were firm only in rebellion.
- Growth follows the gift. Mercy first, then love, then refreshment by the Spirit. Only then come fruitfulness and beauty: the past wiped out, the present love, the future glory.
- Fragile and unshakable. The lily speaks of purity and humility. The roots of Lebanon speak of strength, so nothing can uproot what blossoms.
- Spreading branches. The refreshing does not stop with the one who receives it. Spreading branches make a restored people a means of blessing to others.
His shoots shall spread, and his beauty shall be as the olive-tree, and his smell as Lebanon.
Hosea's final chapter ends a long book of warning with a picture of growth. God answers a people who have just confessed their sin, and He describes them in three pictures: spreading shoots, the beauty of an olive tree, and the scent of Lebanon.
The growth here does not begin with the plant. It answers God's promise to heal and love His people, and one writer traces these pictures back to that love.
What mercy toward people who kept turning away, whose hearts were firm only in rebellion! What tender love as well as mercy! Love free and full, whose motive is in God Himself! He once struck His people in anger. Now He will be like the dew to them — and they were so long without one drop of moisture to refresh them! How Israel will then flourish! Like the lily for shape and graceful beauty. Like Lebanon for stability. Like the olive that never fades, for beauty — and with the fragrance of Lebanon.
Another writer follows the order of God's three promises, and says what the olive tree stands for.
Three times the LORD says "I will." This is the word of sovereign grace. The three "I wills" are: (1) I will heal their backsliding; (2) I will love them freely; (3) I will be like the dew to Israel. They come in a most blessed order. Mercy, love and gracious refreshment resulting in fruitfulness and beauty — such is the order. The past is wiped out, the present is love and the future is glory. The lily denotes beauty; they will be clothed in the beauty of holiness. Lebanon stands for strength and stability; they will become the nation of power which can never be moved. Then they shall once more be the olive tree; the branches broken off will be put back (Rom. 11:16, etc.).
The pictures move outward: dew, blossom, root, spreading shoots, beauty, scent. One writer takes them one phrase at a time.
"I will be like the dew to Israel" — refreshing and fertilising grace and blessing from the Lord Himself. "He shall blossom like the lily" — in grace, purity and humility. "He shall take root like the trees of Lebanon" — firmly rooted and established in the grace of God. "His shoots shall spread out" — a means of blessing to others. "His beauty shall be like the olive tree" — beautiful in the eyes of the Lord. What a loving interest He takes in His own, how He delights in them and loves to see the beauties and graces of Christ in them! "His fragrance like Lebanon" — how acceptable and delightful to the Lord is the fragrance of Christ in His people!
Spreading shoots sound like something a plant does on its own. One writer points to the only place where such growth happens.
See how He shows His ways in Hosea 14. See how He tells them the one place where they will grow: in His presence. They confess their sin and their weakness. Then He says, "I will be like the dew to Israel" — then "he shall blossom like the lily, and take root like the trees of Lebanon; his shoots shall spread out, and his beauty shall be like the olive, and his fragrance like Lebanon." May we be among the wise to understand these things and know them.
Commentators apply this chapter in two ways: to Israel's future as a nation, and to any believer who has wandered from God. One writer speaks straight to the second.
My dear friend, do not think that if you have drifted away from the Lord, it is all over with you and you can never be restored. Oh no, there are brighter and better days in store for you, if you return. I believe God brings us back to something far better than what we lost by slipping away. We get into deeper and fuller communion with the Lord. I think His grace brings us into a deeper, fuller, and more blessed place in His affections than we had ever known before.
- Grace — growth starts with God's free love and healing, not with our effort. The order runs mercy, love, refreshment, and only then fruitfulness and beauty.
- Root — to take root like Lebanon is to stand firm in the grace of God. Lebanon means strength and stability that nothing can move.
- Reach — spreading shoots make the restored one "a means of blessing to others." Recovery never stops with the one recovered.
- Fragrance — the olive's beauty and Lebanon's scent show how the restored look to God. He sees in them the graces and fragrance of Christ.
- Return — all of this grows in one place: His presence. Grace brings the returning heart into something fuller than it lost.
They shall return and sit under his shadow; they shall revive [as] corn, and blossom as the vine the renown thereof shall be as the wine of Lebanon.
Hosea closes with a people called back from ruin: they confess, they drop every other helper, and God answers with healing and free love. Verse 7 shows what that restored people look like — sheltered, reviving, fruitful, fragrant — and who else gains by their return.
The fruitfulness in verse 7 is not the first thing God says. It comes after three promises, and their order matters.
Three times Jehovah speaks "I will." This is the word of sovereign grace. The three "I wills" are: (1) I will heal their backslidings; (2) I will love them freely; (3) I will be a dew to Israel. They come in a most blessed order: mercy, then love, then gracious refreshment that brings fruitfulness and beauty. He wipes out the past; the present is love and the future is glory. … Verse seven gives the blessings of restored Israel in the millennium.
Translations differ here. The ESV has the people return and dwell under God's shadow. Older versions read that those who dwell under his shadow will return. On that reading, others shelter under the restored people — and one writer sees the gain spreading to the whole world.
They have now abandoned all their empty resources, for ever. … "Those who dwell under his shade will return; they will revive like the grain, and grow like the vine; their scent will be like the vine of Lebanon." When God receives Israel back, what will it be to all the world but life from the dead?
The same picture fits anyone who has drifted from God. One writer applies it to a believer at a distance from the Lord, and sees in it a promise of gain, not just repair.
Do not suppose, my dear friend, that if you have drifted away from the Lord, it is all over with you and you cannot be restored. Oh, no, there are brighter and better days ahead for you, if you return. I believe God brings us back to something far better than what we lost by slipping away. We get into deeper and fuller communion with the Lord. … "They shall revive like the grain, and grow like the vine: the scent of it shall be like the wine of Lebanon." These are wonderful pictures of the brightness and freshness of a restored soul.
Lebanon was a real place. Its slopes grew the grain and the wine the verse names.
Many villages sit on the small plains in the mountains, with patches of grain growing here and there. People grow vines there too, and make excellent wine from them.
Translations render the last line two ways: their fame, or their scent. Either way, something spreads from this people. The line describes more than health — it describes how God receives them.
What a picture of a happy state of soul before the Lord! What a wonderful thing that His people should be so acceptable to Him!
If they revive under a shadow, place matters as much as growth. One writer draws the same lesson from the chapter: there is only one place where God's people grow.
Hosea 14 shows how God works. He lets them know the one place where they will grow: in His presence. They confess their sin and their weakness, and He says, "I will be as the dew to Israel." … May we be among the wise who understand these things and know them.
- Return first. Grain, vine and fragrance all come after confession and the giving up of every other helper. Restoration starts with coming back.
- Grace supplies. God's three "I wills" are healing, free love, and refreshment. He wipes out the past; the present is love, the future is glory.
- Shade shelters. Older versions read that those who dwell under his shadow return. On that reading, a restored people shelter others, and their return means life from the dead for the world.
- Fruit revives. Coming back is not a patch-up job. It leads to deeper communion — the brightness and freshness of a restored soul.
- Fragrance rises. Like wine from Lebanon's vineyards, such a life carries a scent others notice. It is a happy state of soul, acceptable to God, and it grows in His presence and nowhere else.
Ephraim [shall say], What have I to do any more with idols? (I answer [him], and I will observe him.) I am like a green fir-tree. -- From me is thy fruit found.
Hosea's book ends with a promise to Ephraim, a people this prophet had described as joined to their idols. The closing verse reads like a short exchange between two speakers.
Several writers read the verse as a conversation between Ephraim and the Lord. Older translations put the opening question in Ephraim's mouth: "Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols?"
First we have the effect of grace on the heart of Ephraim, who says, "What have I to do any more with idols?" Then the Lord, who always delights to mark the action of His Spirit on the hearts of His people, speaks: "I have heard and observed him." The next clause again is the language of Ephraim: "I am like a green fir tree." And then once more the Lord speaks, to remind Ephraim of the source of his new-found blessing, and says, "From Me is thy fruit found" — a needed instruction for God's people at all times.
That back-and-forth is itself part of the blessing being described.
What a blessed change for Ephraim! and what communion with their God!
Forsaking sin means throwing it out for good, not cutting back on it.
A man forsakes his sin when he throws it out and bolts the door on it, meaning never to open it again: "Ephraim shall say, What have I to do any more with idols?" … Forsake all or none; keep one lust, and you lose your soul.
An idol need not be a carved image.
An idol is anything which takes over in our hearts the supreme place which belongs to God alone.
Commentators differ over who speaks the middle line. One writer reads it as Ephraim's own words, and finds there the reason the idols went.
Ephraim, the cake half turned, Ephraim, of whom it was said, he is joined to idols, now rejects the idols. And why? I hear and I look upon Him! The vision of the Lord turned the stubborn heart. It is so still; the great power is to hear Him, to look upon Him. In that day Israel will look on Him whom they pierced, the great turning point in their future history. Then the nation will yield the fruit through their fellowship with Him.
Then the Lord speaks: "It is I who answer and look after you." Older translations read, "I have heard him, and observed him." He had His eye on Ephraim long before the confession came.
Who first saw the grey hairs and the turning away of heart? The Lord. Who saw the first symptoms of returning? The Lord. "I have … observed him." Who was the first to notice the departure of the prodigal and to miss him from the family table (Luke 15)? Who was on the look-out for his return? — "But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran."
Ephraim compares himself to an evergreen tree — a cypress in the ESV, a fir in older translations.
Note that the fir is an evergreen. It does not fade or wither. This is a beautiful picture of the grace of our God, that fruitful principle of divine favour. It is nothing like the withering influence of legality, which only "bears fruit for death." Grace is the one blessed principle which can both produce such fruit for God and keep that fruit always fresh. "Your fruit shall remain."
God's last word answers the pride in that comparison.
But we may be occupied with our blessings and become proud of them. Is there any pride like spiritual pride? Ephraim says, "I am like a green fir tree." There is not a single grace or mercy that does not come directly from the heart of God (James 1:17); we have nothing apart from Him. So the Lord answers Ephraim — "From Me is thy fruit found."
Fruit grows as we keep near to Him.
We are the branches, true, and the fruit shows on the branch. That is a great privilege for us. But fruit comes only as the life and sap of the tree itself flows freely through the branches. The question is whether we keep near to the Lord in our hearts, and lean on Him as having all our springs in Himself, so that His grace works in our souls in practice.
This promise speaks to anyone who has drifted.
Do not suppose, my dear friend, that distance and departure from the Lord leave you finished. You can be restored. Oh no, there are brighter and better days in store for you, if you return. I believe God brings us back to something far better than what we lost by slipping away.
- Dialogue — The verse alternates between Ephraim and the Lord: a confession, an answer, a claim, a correction. Restoration ends in conversation with God.
- Renounced — Ephraim's break with idols is total, the door bolted behind him. An idol is whatever takes the place in the heart that belongs to God.
- Observed — God saw the drift. He also saw the first sign of return, like the father who spotted his son a long way off.
- Evergreen — The fir does not fade. Grace, not law, both produces fruit and keeps it fresh.
- Sourced — Every mercy comes from God, so pride has no ground left. The one who wandered can come back and find something better than he lost.
Who is wise, and he shall understand these things? intelligent, and he shall know them? For the ways of Jehovah are right, and the just shall walk in them; but the transgressors shall fall therein.
Hosea spends thirteen chapters exposing Israel's unfaithfulness and one chapter promising healing. Then the book stops short with a question. Everything turns on it: is anyone wise enough to read God's ways? The same road that carries the righteous forward trips up the rebel.
The book does not end with prediction. It ends with an appeal. One writer shows what the whole prophecy has been building toward: God pressing Israel's own condition on their conscience.
In the rest of the prophecy the Holy Spirit appeals to conscience in indignation at Israel's growing evils... It closes with more than a call to repentance. It closes with the Lord's final assurance to Israel of His mercy, love, and rich blessing. So the two divisions end alike: Israel blessed inside and out on earth, to the praise of the Lord their God. The whole is wound up with a moral appeal and a warning at the close of it all.
"These things" is not vague. It points back over everything Hosea has recorded: the sin, the discipline, the restoring. The subject of that record is how God governs His own people.
We take the last verse to be a lesson drawn from the whole book. It speaks of the Lord's ways in governing His people. To understand them you need wisdom from God. And it is a blessed thing to say with the prophet, "The ways of the LORD are right, and the upright walk in them."
Two great principles run through Hosea, and this verse carries the second of them.
The prophecies of Hosea show the two great principles of God's dealings... redemption from the power of death (Hosea 13:14), and the governmental dealings of God (Hosea 14:9).
The verse describes one path, not two, and two kinds of people on it. What holds the righteous upright is what knocks the rebel down.
The last verse teaches us... that this history makes known the ways of God. The wise, taught by God in the heart, will understand them at once. "For the ways of the LORD are right." His path of action runs straight on, however great His mercy may be. God's strength holds up the just, and they can walk there. But the transgressors fall on that same road, brought down by the very power at work in it.
Older translations say transgressors "fall" on the road, where the ESV says they "stumble" in God's ways.
Whoever wants this understanding must want God's will first.
May this wisdom be given to us, that we too may understand Himself and His ways! "Whoever does the will of God abides forever." Where that is the desire, he "will know whether the teaching is from God." "None of the wicked shall understand, but those who are wise shall understand."
Where that wisdom is missing, the record still does its work. It warns. One writer applies the verse to the collapse of Israel's royal houses:
In less than fifty years the first two dynasties of Israel's kings had come to an end. Every member of their families was wiped out. God meant their doom to be an example to all who would later live ungodly lives. In these records they stand as warning lights, steering rulers and subjects clear of the rocks they struck, which ruined them for ever.
The verse warns, but the book it closes is a book of recovery. One writer reads this last line in the light of who God is.
Spiritual dry-rot has set in deep. Yet when God deals with His people, He always has the last word, and the last word is love, for God is love. So the book of Hosea ends gloriously.
This has a direct use for anyone who has drifted.
God give each of us grace to heed His word, and notice how tender His ways are, especially with backsliders. Friend, if you are one, be as hard on yourself as you like. But remember: God's heart is full of the tenderest love towards you, and it seeks only to bring you back to Himself.
- The question — Hosea ends with a challenge to the conscience: a moral appeal and a warning at the close of everything.
- The subject — "These things" is the whole book. Its theme is God's ways in governing His own people, and it takes wisdom from God to read it right.
- The road — One path, straight and right, however great God's mercy along it. God's strength holds the just upright; transgressors fall on that very same ground.
- The condition — Understanding follows the will to obey. Those who want God's will come to know; the wicked, however plain the record, do not.
- The last word — The warning stands, but the book closes in love. God's ways are tender toward the backslider, and His aim is restoration, not ruin.