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.
after-note: DELETE not intended
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.