Hosea 13:5 - Meaning and Application

We can see here, first, how much God had provided for Israel and how seasonably he had cared for them (Hosea 13:5). “I knew you in the wilderness” means, I watched over you, took account of your need, and supplied you in a dry and helpless land, when you were in great distress and no ordinary help could be found. See this wilderness described in (Deuteronomy 8:15) and (Jeremiah 2:6). The God who knew them, owned them, and fed them there was a true friend, a friend in need, and a fully sufficient friend. He could feed such a large people when every normal source of supply was shut off, and if miracles had not been their daily bread, they would have died.

Help given in a time of need places a special debt on us, and we should never forget it. God not only cared for them in the wilderness, but also brought them into Canaan, a good land, a wide and rich pasture. Then, according to their pasture, they were filled (Hosea 13:6). God gave them both plenty and rich food, and they did not hold back. After being long kept on manna, they fed themselves to the full when they came into Canaan.

That was not a good sign. It would have been better if they had stayed modest and self-controlled in using their abundance. It would have shown more wisdom if they had learned self-denial. But the result was this, they were filled, and their heart was lifted up. Their comfort and luxury made them proud, bold, and careless. Moses gives the best explanation of this in (Deuteronomy 32:13-15), where he says Jeshurun grew fat and kicked. When the body was stuffed with plenty, the soul swelled with pride.

Then they began to think religion was beneath them, and they could not bring themselves to humble themselves in its duties. The wicked person, because of the pride of his face, will not seek God. When they were poor and weak in the wilderness, they felt they needed to stay close to God. But when they were full and settled in Canaan, they thought they no longer needed him. “Their heart was exalted; therefore they forgot me.” Worldly success, when it feeds pride, makes people forget God. They remember him only when they need him. When Israel was filled, what more could the Almighty do for them? So they said, “Depart from us” (Job 22:17). It is sad when the very gifts that should make us thankful and careful turn us careless and forgetful of God. We should know that we live by God even when we live by common providence, though not, as Israel in the wilderness, by daily miracles.

Here we also see God’s just anger against their base ingratitude, in (Hosea 13:7-8). The earlier warnings in (Hosea 13:3) said that all good would depart from them. These warnings go further and show all evil breaking in upon them. God, who had once been their helper, now turns against them and fights them. He says, “I will be like a lion to them and like a leopard.” A lion is strong, and no one can resist him. A leopard is known for craft and watchfulness. “Like a leopard by the road I will watch over them” means he would lie in wait through his judgments, just as a beast of prey waits by the roadside to seize travelers. God had once watched over them for good; now he would watch over them for harm, as in (Jeremiah 44:27). He would miss no chance to speed up or deepen their ruin, as in (Jeremiah 5:6).

Some read the line as, “I will be like a leopard on the way to Assyria,” and the Hebrew can bear that sense. Then the meaning is that God’s judgments would surprise them just as they were going to Assyria for shelter and help. He also says, “I will meet them like a bear robbed of her cubs,” which shows fierce anger and deadly force, as in (2 Samuel 17:8) and (Proverbs 28:15). God had been greatly provoked, and he would make them feel it. “He will tear the covering of their heart” means he would strike at the inward life itself. As a lion aims at the heart of its prey, so God would bring judgments that would reach their very spirits and consume their strength.

Their heart had been lifted up (Hosea 13:6), but God would take strong steps to bring it down. “The wild animals shall tear them” means the picture is not only symbolic. It would also happen in fact, because wild beasts are among the severe judgments God sends against a rebellious people (Ezekiel 14:15).

This teaches us, first, that abused goodness becomes greater severity. Those who despise God and treat him badly when he is caring for them like a gentle shepherd will find him, even among his own flock, as fierce as a beast of prey. Those whom God has long borne with patience, and to whom he has shown much kindness, may at last become, in their stubbornness, vessels of his wrath (Romans 9:22). Spurned patience turns into fury.

Second, it teaches that when God’s judgments come against unrepentant sinners, they cannot be resisted and are very fearful. They tear at the heart, fill the soul with confusion, and break it apart. We are as unable to stand against them as a lamb is against a roaring lion, for who knows the power of God’s anger? Knowing the terror of the Lord, let us be persuaded to make peace with him, for are we stronger than he?