In this chapter we have some wonderful words where The LORD pleads with Israel to turn back to Him in repentance. We might have expected that they would be obliterated because of their waywardness, and they would get what they deserved, but it is so different. What a gracious and merciful God we have!
How important it is that we communicate with God. Repentance is not just a feeling but an attitude and requires confession of our sin before God. Hosea tells them to return to The Lord and ‘take words with you’. (v1-3) To ask Him to take away their sin and be gracious unto them. They were to recognise that other nations could not save them, nor could they save themselves. Only God could do it and they must come in humility and recognise that only God, in His mercy, could rescue them from their folly.
Paul expressed similar words in Romans 10:8-10 – “But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
The LORD could quite easily have responded negatively, but that’s not the God we have. He promised to love them and heal their backsliding (v4-7). He said that He would love them freely and His anger had been turned away from them. He would bless them, and they would grow, have deep roots and spreading branches, beauty and fragrance. Notice there is nothing in them to earn it, it would be His free love and care.
God promises to heal their backsliding. We often come across those who have backslidden. Notice that they are not condemned but restored. How we need to pray for those who have backslidden that they will be healed. David, in Psalm 51, asked God to restore the joy of his salvation. He hadn’t lost his salvation, but the joy of it.
I have seen several who had backslidden but been restored and healed and who are now serving The Lord. We are often ready to write them off and condemn them, but God doesn’t. Think of Peter, who denied His Lord, and within days, hours even, was restored and serving his Lord and Master. Are we correct in thinking that such people have to serve a period of punishment, inactivity or exile? I think not, provided there is obvious repentance. God didn’t just say that He would be thrilled by Israel’s return to Him, but that He would heal them, and they would become attractive and fruitful.
God’s people would ask themselves, what did they need idols for? They recognised that all they needed was to be found in their LORD God (v8). They would recognise that their wisdom was to be found in God and in His ways (v9).
It has been said that these final words of Hosea rank among the most memorable chapters of the Bible. Like a rainbow after the storm. Here we see God’s unfailing love for His faithless people. What assurance this gives to us today! Like them, we are often unfaithful, but God promises complete restoration. May we, no longer, wallow around in sin, nor think that there is no way back for God to use us when we have failed. He is truly the Great Physician. Let us come to Him in true repentance.
