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Week 32, Day 3 — Hosea 11-13

Jeremy Paschall
08/04/24 - Podcast

And now, a minute with the Word…

We have previously described Hosea’s “almost unrelenting indictment,” because God’s compassion, mercy, and grace also appear abundantly throughout. These are no more evident than in Hosea 11, where the Father’s heart for His prodigal child (Israel), or the Husband’s heart for His adulterous wife, is laid bare. He has loved, rescued, taught, led, sustained, and chastened; so now, “How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? . . . My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender. I will not execute my burning anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim . . . and I will not come in wrath” (verses 8-9). Despite God’s unrequited love and Israel’s desperate need of discipline, God’s wrath is not unbridled (as might be a man’s), and He will not annihilate His own.