1 “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.
2 But the more they were called, the more they went away from me. They sacrificed to the Baals and they burned incense to images.
3 It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by the arms; but they did not realize it was I who healed them.
4 I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love. To them I was like one who lifts a little child to the cheek, and I bent down to feed them.
5 “Will they not return to Egypt and will not Assyria rule over them because they refuse to repent?
6 A sword will flash in their cities; it will devour their false prophets and put an end to their plans.
7 My people are determined to turn from me. Even though they call me God.
Most High, I will by no means exalt them. Hosea 11:1-7.
It’s no surprise that Hosea 11:1-7 uses metaphor to depict the divine-human relationship because Hosea if filled with metaphors about God. Hosea begins with familial imagery, with God as the parent and Israel as the beloved child whom God rescued from slavery in Egypt: “When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son” Hosea 1:1. The poem describes God’s care for Israel in verses 3–4 with tender language (“loved him,” “took them up in my arms,” “bent down to them,” “lifted to the cheeks”).
As a father loves a son, so God loved Israel and saved His people from slavery in Egypt. They turned from God to serve idols, but God still loved them and cared for them Hosea 11:1-4.
In settings in which such actions are associated with mothers, these verses offer implicit feminine imagery for God (compare Isaiah 66:13). Yet Israel’s response to this devotion is rebellion. Rather than acknowledging their divine parent, they worship other deities like the foreign storm god Baal (Hosea 11:2). God’s threatened response of abandonment and violent reprisal seems harsh (verses 5-7), but within the world of the metaphor, it is born of the deep pain of a rejected parent, who can only watch helplessly as the child makes poor choices that will ultimately harm them.
In a contemporary context, there are many application only you can fill in.
Take time in prayer today and consider your parents and children and friends. Pray for them. In what ways was God’s love present or absent?
Pray: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me a sinner.
From the Bible:
“For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt” Hebrews 6:4-6.
“There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death” Proverbs 14:12.
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” 1 John 1:9.
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