God’s Love (Hosea 11:5-9)

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. ⁸ “How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I treat you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboyim? My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused. ⁹ I will not carry out my fierce anger, nor will I devastate Ephraim again. For I am God, and not a man—the Holy One among you. I will not come against their cities.

Once again, Hosea gives us God’s thoughts (at least as he imagines them). This passage begins with a vision of the punishment awaiting Israel (whom he also calls Ephraim). God announces in verse five that they will return to Egypt although what he means is Assyria. Metaphorically they will return to Egypt for it acts throughout the Old Testament as a symbol of oppression by a foreign nation. However, the new superpower is Assyria and so it is Assyria with which they will fight a bloody war, and Assyria will defeat and enslave them. Note too, that when they were in Egypt, there was not yet a covenant between God and his people. So, they will return to a time when they did not have God’s protection.

But then suddenly in verse eight, God seems to change his mind. His rhetorical question “How can I give you up?” echoes what anyone who has loved feels. They have hurt him terribly and betrayed him yet, in the end, he cannot go through with Israel’s punishment. He cannot destroy completely those he loves more than all others. Note though that God is eternal and unchanging so how can he change his mind? He can’t, for he is always consistent, and his nature is that of compassion and love. So, the human writer here is trying to portray the fact that sometimes we suffer for our sins, but this does not contradict the eternally loving nature of God. He wants us to come back to him, to be good ourselves so that he can shower his love on us.

They must suffer because of what they have done but it will only be temporary. Israel will not be like Admah and Zeboiim, two cities destroyed with Sodom and Gomorrah because of their great sin. They were obliterated from the earth but this will not happen to Israel. God is completely good and therefore cannot tolerate evil. Therefore he seeks to abolish evil. But because he is love, he is full of compassion and cannot destroy those he loves. In verse nine, he announces that he can forgive the Israelites and bring them home because he is God, the Holy One and not human. He is not sinful and so his ways are above ours. He wants to rescue his people from the consequences of the terrible choices they have made.