Hosea 11:1 - Meaning and Application

Here we see, first, how gracious God was to Israel. He had done more for them than for any other people under heaven, and he gave them many special gifts. The Lord does not use these gifts to shame them, because he gives without grudging, but to remind them of his kindness. That reminder should make their sin look worse and should lead them to repent.

God loved them when they were still young. “When Israel was a child, I loved him” means that when Israel first began to grow into a nation in Egypt, God set his love on them (Hosea 11:1). He chose them because he loved them, and because he would love them, as Moses says (Deuteronomy 7:7-8). When they were weak, helpless, foolish, stubborn, and exposed like abandoned children, God still loved them. He pitied them, showed them favor, and cared for them like a nurse cares for a nursing child.

People who have grown up, and even people who have grown old, should often look back on God’s goodness to them in childhood. God also delivered Israel from the house of slavery: “Out of Egypt I called my son.” He called them his son, even his firstborn, when he demanded their release from Pharaoh. Those whom God loves he also calls out of the slavery of sin and Satan into the freedom of his children.

These words are also said to point to Christ. After Herod died, Jesus and his parents were called out of Egypt, which Matthew says fulfilled this passage (Matthew 2:15). So the words look back at Israel’s history and forward to Christ at the same time. Israel’s rescue was a pattern of Christ’s later coming, and it was also a pledge of the greater blessings God still had for that people, especially sending his Son into the world and bringing him back into the land of Israel.

God also gave them careful training and care. “I taught Ephraim to walk” pictures a child learning to walk with help. In the wilderness, God led them with the pillar of cloud and fire, showed them the way, and held them up with his strong care. He taught them to walk in his commandments through the ceremonial law, which served as guides for a people still under age. He took them by the arms so they would not wander, stumble, or fall.

God’s spiritual Israel are also held up in this way. “You have held me by my right hand” is the same kind of care (Psalm 73:23). When anything was wrong with them, or even slightly out of order, God acted like their physician. “I healed them” means more than simple care, because only God can truly heal and set things right. He is the Lord who heals his people and removes their troubles (Exodus 15:26).

He brought them into his service by gentle means. “I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love” means that God draws sinners to himself, and no one comes unless he draws them (John 6:44). He dealt with them in a human, reasonable, and mild way. He did not drive them by force, rule them harshly, or hold them by violence, but won them with kindness.

He also eased the heavy load they had long carried. The picture of taking the yoke from their jaws comes from the care of a good farmer who is merciful to his animals and does not overwork them. Israel in Egypt had been restrained and forced into hard labor, but God relieved them and removed their burden (Psalm 81:6). Liberty is a great mercy, especially when God brings someone out of bondage.

He also supplied them with food. In Egypt they had a hard life, but once God brought them out, he fed them. He sent manna around their camp, bread from heaven, and food fit for angels. Other creatures must seek their food, but God laid food before his own people, as a father or mother feeds children.

Second, here is Israel’s great ingratitude toward God. They would not listen to his voice. He spoke to them through Moses and the other prophets, calling them from their sins and calling them to their duty, but they turned away as if the voice had no claim on them. The more urgently the prophets pressed them toward good, the more stubborn they became in evil. They were acting out the foolish resistance that sits in the hearts of children, who often go away from the very ones who call them.

They were also drawn to idols and worshiped them. They sacrificed to Baal after Baal, and burned incense to carved images, even though the prophets kept warning them not to do the hateful thing God detested. Idolatry was the sin that clung to them most stubbornly from the beginning.

They were also careless toward God and blind to his kindness. They did not know that he had healed them. They looked only at Moses and Aaron, the human agents of their rescue, and when trouble came, they blamed them. They did not look through them to God, the one who had actually helped them.

When God corrected them and kept them under severe discipline, they did not understand that it was for their good. They did not see that he was healing them, and that the pain was needed to finish the cure. If they had understood this, they would have been more willing to accept the way God dealt with them. Ignorance is at the root of ingratitude (Hosea 2:8).

They were also strongly inclined to turn away from God. This is the darkest part of the charge against them: “My people are bent to backsliding from me” (Hosea 11:7). Every part of that statement is serious. They backslide, they have no steady hold on God, and they seem to move toward him only to slip back again, like a dishonest bow that does not shoot straight.

They backslide from me, from God himself, the highest good and the fountain of life and living water. They turn away from the God who never turned away from them, and who was never a desert to them. They are bent to backslide, meaning they are ready to sin. There is a natural pull in them toward evil, and even at their best they hover between God and the world. A small temptation can draw them the wrong way, and they are quick to give in.

This also means they are stubborn in sin. Their hearts are firmly set on evil, and the pull in that direction is strong. They keep on backsliding, no matter what is said or done to stop them. Yet they are still called my people. They bear God’s name and claim to belong to him. He has done much for them, expects much from them, and has nourished and raised them like children, and still they turn away.

In our repentance, we should grieve not only over our outward backslidings, but also over our bent to backslide. We should lament not only the sins we commit, but also the corruption within us, the sin that lives in us, the fleshly mind.

They were also strangely unwilling to repent and change. Two expressions show their stubbornness. First, they refused to return (Hosea 11:5). They were so bent on turning away that, even after finding by experience how foolish their rebellion was, and how much worse life became when they left God, they still kept going in the wrong direction. “I have loved strangers, and after them I will go.” They were commanded to return, urged and pleaded with to return, and promised a kind welcome if they did, but they refused.

Second, even though they were called to the Most High, they would not come. God’s prophets and ministers called them back to the God they had rebelled against, the Most High God, from whom they had fallen into such misery. They called them away from idols, which were far below them and made them less honorable, and called them to the true God, who was far above them and whose worship was their true honor. They called them from earthly things to high and heavenly things, but it was useless. None at all would exalt him. They would not acknowledge that he is the Most High God, nor give him the glory his name deserves.

Or, they would not lift themselves up. They would not rise out of the state of rebellion and misery into which they had thrown themselves. They chose to stay there and would not lift up their heads or their hearts. God’s faithful ministers have often labored for backsliding people, calling them to the Most High, but nothing moved them. None at all would exalt him.

Now God shows his anger, and it is a just anger. These are the signs of his displeasure against Israel. First, since he brought them out of Egypt to make them his own people, and they would not be faithful to him, he would bring them into a worse condition than the one he first found them in (Hosea 11:5). He would not send them back to Egypt, though that was already a harsh place of bondage. Instead, they would go into a harder service, for the Assyrian would be their king, and he would treat them worse than Pharaoh ever did.

They would not return to Egypt, which was near, where they might often hear from their own land and hope to go back soon. Instead, they would be carried into Assyria, which was much farther away. There they would be cut off from all contact with their land and lose all hope of returning. This was right, because they refused to return. Those who will not return to the duties they have left should not expect to return to the comforts they have lost.

Second, God had given them Canaan, a good land and a safe, comfortable home, but he would bring his judgments on them there, making their dwelling unsafe and miserable (Hosea 11:6). The sword would come upon them, the sword of war, the sword of a foreign enemy, victorious over them and triumphing over them. This judgment would spread far. The sword would strike their cities, those places where people lived and wealth was stored. It would also reach their branches, whether that means the country villages, the people themselves, the city gates and bars, the different parts of their wealth and income, or the children, the branches of their families.

It would last a long time. “It shall abide on their cities.” David thought three months of fleeing from enemies was the only one of three judgments worth objecting to, but this sword would remain much longer than three months on the cities of Israel. Because they kept rebelling against God, God kept his judgments on them. It would also make a complete end. It would consume their branches, devour them, and leave everything waste. This came because of their own plans, that is, because they insisted on following their own schemes. In righteous judgment, God gave them over to those schemes. The ruin of sinners comes from their own planning. God’s plans would have saved them, but their own plans destroyed them.