Come and let us return unto Jehovah for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
After two days will he revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live before his face;
Hosea has just pictured the Lord withdrawing from His people until they own their guilt. Here a voice answers Him: a people counting the days until He heals what He Himself has torn. The verse raises two questions at once: whose revival is this, and why is it measured in two days and a third?
One writer reads these opening verses of chapter 6 as the words of a repentant Israel still to come, not of the prophet's own generation.
The division of the chapter at this point is unfortunate. Do not separate the three verses of chapter 6 from the previous chapter. Here we have the future repentance of the remnant of Israel, that is, during the great tribulation. In faith they will acknowledge His righteous judgment. They will express their faith and hope in His mercy, and in the promised blessings and restoration. They express what their great prophet Moses stated so beautifully in his prophetic song… "I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; neither is there any that can deliver out of My hand" (Deut. 32:39).
Faith can still appeal, because it knows whose hand did the striking.
Faith has always this resource, because it sees the hand of God, its own God, in the discipline, and can appeal to the mercy of a God it knows well.
One reading takes the days as the measure God needs to establish a case — first about us, then about Himself.
"After two days" — that seems to be witness enough. Then, "on the third day," the witness was complete, for "in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word shall be established." He first gives enough proof of what we are; then He will prove what He is, by raising His people up as a nation from the dead.
Others read the days as long stretches of national history.
"On the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him" — literally, before His face. They have been dead, both spiritually and as a nation. But when the two days of their blindness and dispersion are over, the third day of life and resurrection will come for them. Jewish interpreters have pointed out that with the Lord a day is like a thousand years. They say Israel will be scattered for two days, that is, two thousand years. Then comes the third day of Israel's glorious restoration.
All is plain and just if it applies to the national revival of Israel, in the same way as in Ezekiel and Isaiah. God will bring them out of their present condition of shame, though some of them will be allowed to show fatal wickedness and pride.
Others stress that the third day itself carries a fixed meaning across Scripture — Jonah brought up from the sea, Hezekiah told he would go up to the house of the Lord on the third day.
The third day is also stamped with the divine mark of resurrection by the prophet Hosea — "After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live before him."
Writers differ over how directly the verse speaks of Christ. One holds both sides together: the immediate subject is Israel, yet Christ is there too.
Can there be any doubt that the passage refers to the resurrection of Christ in an indirect and hidden, but real, way? He became the true Israel… Still, its plain and immediate bearing is on Israel rather than on the Messiah. It refers to Him only because the Holy Spirit must bring Him in everywhere in the Bible… The chosen people may grow, fade, or disappear; but He remains — sometimes behind clouds, the Sun that never sets.
One writer sees three things at once in this span of time.
It is the adequate time of the trial of the people. Literally, it was the time our Lord lay in the grave. But it is connected also with the future blessing of Israel.
The verse also describes an experience anyone who has drifted from God can recognise: repentance first, revival after a measured interval.
So a period of time is expected between the turning of their souls to the Lord and the revival and raising up that will come from Him. This time lets the soul pass through exercise, and tests whether it is real. But if the soul keeps its attitude of true contrition and self-judgment, the restoration is as certain as the forgiveness. We may be sure that God will not keep anyone waiting longer than is enough for the needed lessons to be learnt.
- Torn — the wound is God's own doing, and faith reasons from that very fact: the hand that struck is the hand to appeal to.
- Two days — the delay is not neglect. It is the sufficient witness to what we are, and the testing of whether repentance is real.
- Third day — the point where God stops proving us and proves Himself, raising a people up as from the dead.
- Christ — writers differ on how far the verse speaks of His rising. One holds the plain bearing is on Israel, with Christ underneath as the Sun that never sets.
- You — the same order runs through any restoration: return, wait, rise. God will not keep you waiting longer than the lesson needs.
and we shall know, -- we shall follow on to know Jehovah his going forth is assured as the morning dawn; and he will come unto us as the rain, as the latter rain which watereth the earth.
Earlier in the book the charge against Israel was that they did not know the Lord. One writer follows that charge through to its cure:
This too stood in the way of their return to God: "They have not known the Lord" (Hosea 5:4). But when repentance is worked in them, and they are raised up, and live before God, then they will know. They will "follow on to know the Lord" (Hosea 6:3). And they will learn that this pleases God more than anything else — "the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings" (Hosea 6:6).
Hosea 6:3, "Then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord." The Hebrew expresses no condition: "And we shall know, we shall follow on to know the Lord."
Others keep the conditional force and press it as an encouragement to go on with truth that costs something:
We are bound to know the whole mind of God — His entire revealed will… We must still not hold back from any statements, however hard they are on the flesh, however much they set us apart. Such statements are sure to bring fresh disclosures of the love and power of Jesus. For that word is sure: "Then shall you know, if you follow on to know the Lord."
The verse follows two others, and one writer reads all three as a single sequence. On that reading, the sunrise shows both God's readiness and the pace of the discovery.
The first verse shows the remnant of the Jews in search of the right Person. The second verse suggests that the right way to enjoy life is to follow Him into resurrection. The third verse shows that when we are joined to Him in life, there is a quiet, growing discovery of all that He is, if we follow on to know the Lord. His going forth is prepared — everything is ready on His side — for this revealing of Himself to you. It comes like the morning: a little light and the scattering of darkness, then more and more light until the perfect day.
The verse ends with a second picture: rain. One note prefers a rendering that ties the rain to what it does to the ground:
Hosea 6:3, "As the latter and former rain to the earth." Better: "as the latter rain which makes the earth fruitful."
Rain carried that weight because of terms God set for Israel long before. The land lived or died by its rainfall, and the rainfall answered to their obedience.
Deuteronomy 11:13-17 sheds light here. There God promised the people that if they honoured Him and kept His laws, He would give them a generous supply of early and latter rains, the early rains falling in autumn, the latter rains in spring. In a land so dependent on its rainfall, this was necessary for its very existence. But if they disobeyed God, turned from His laws and worshipped other gods, He would hold back the rain.
Though the confession belongs to Israel, one writer applies "follow on to know the Lord" to any believer. Years of walking with Christ are not the same as arriving:
The highest point mature believers reach is to know Him who is from the beginning. Many of us have been walking with Christ for some time. Years of journeying have passed, and do we not now know something about Him? Certainly. Yet let it still be the aim of our lives to follow on to know the Lord. Let us live face to face with Him, so that in close communion we come to know Him well enough to rely on Him for everything.
- Cause — Not knowing the Lord was Israel's disease. Repentance turns that same knowledge into their pursuit, and God values it above sacrifices.
- Gift — His going out is prepared. Everything needed for Him to reveal Himself is ready on His side, not ours.
- Pace — The dawn means growth, not a flash. First a little light, then darkness scattered, then more and more light to the perfect day.
- Supply — He comes as the rain that makes the ground fruitful. Israel lost that blessing by turning away, and He gives it back.
- Pursuit — Commentators differ: is this a promise or a condition? Both readings end in the same practice. Keep following on, and He keeps showing Himself.