The God who can heal our unfaithfulness
Hos 2:14-23
When I was teaching at Bible college, a student of mine finishing his training for pastoral ministry was speaking at the last chapel service of the year. He described how he had drifted from God a year or two earlier. Somewhere, his desire for God and for serving Him waned. Feeling helpless to awaken his former commitment and realising that this was a poor start into pastoral ministry, he turned to the Lord and asked Him to renew his heart. As this student spoke, he testified to the change that God brought about in rekindling his passion to live for Him. It was a moving witness to the Lord’s willingness and power to transform. Today’s reading describes this process in some detail.
God’s restoration in the wilderness
In our last reading we have seen how God was bringing Israel to a recognition that what they believed to be the source of life and fulfilment was a false hope. Today’s passage gives the counterpart to this in helping them see where true fulfilment lies. The wilderness, where God will meet His people, His bride (Hos 2:14), evokes a place of devastation (Hos 2:3), of need and dependence. It also reminds Israel of their past when they came out of Egypt and had that first amazing experience of God’s saving love (Hos 2:15). The valley of Achor (‘trouble’) was the location where during the conquest the Israelite Achan was stoned because he stole from the spoil of Jericho devoted to God (Josh 7:24-25). It showed the unfaithfulness of God’s people. Yet the place that stood symbolically for trouble and sin at the entry into the promised land, will become the doorway of a new hope for a life of flourishing implied by vineyards (v.15). The relationship with God will be put on a new footing, purified of idolatry. Baali means ‘my master/lord’, which is an appropriate term for addressing a husband, but because of its association with other gods (Baals), Israel will call God (ʾishi, ‘my husband/man’) instead (Hos 2:16-17).
God’s initiative
It is striking that in this whole section, it is God who acts and heals the relationship. Moreover, God will bring creation (cf. Gen 1:20, 24-25) and history (wars) under His sovereign will (the covenant here probably means a unilateral agreement on God’s part), so that there might be safety for God’s people in the land (Hos 2:18). The expression to betroth someone in/with (Hos 2:19) is used to describe the bride gifts given on such an occasion. God’s gift for His people will be a right and just behaviour, loyal covenant love, compassion and faithfulness (Hos 2:19-20). Whether these are meant as attributes of how God will relate to Israel or attitudes with which the Lord will endow Israel is uncertain. Possibly the meaning is both. Knowing God (v.20) indicates intimacy and out of this close relationship will flow a healed and responsive connection between the different parts of nature, Israel (Jezreel) and God (Hos 2:21-23).[1] This moving picture that has cosmic proportions has no parallel in the past although we may see aspects of such renewal both in Israel’s postexilic story and in the unexpected inclusion of another group who were ‘not my people’: the Gentiles who believed in Christ (Rom 9:23-26).
The God who heals our unfaithfulness
Although none of us likes times of need, even devastation, it is often when the busyness and the good things of life are stripped away that we become more receptive to hear from God and seek Him. Nevertheless, such a ‘wilderness experience’ need not be outward. Sometimes, the recognition that life is empty without God can come at a time when everything is going swimmingly – externally at least. The encouragement of this passage is that God can heal our unfaithfulness and our relationship with Him. Not only is it true of our own state when we struggle with sin and wonder how we can ever escape its power, but when we think of loved ones who do not know Him or who have walked away from Him. Our reading also shows us the inter-connectedness of things. Sin destroys life on so many levels, in nature and creation but also in interpersonal relationships. Once again, only God can mend what is broken and bring us to say ‘you are my God!’ (Hos 2:23).
[1] Response here is not words, but actions. God will act on the heavens’/sky’s yearning to open up in rain, so that it in turn can respond to the need of the earth to be watered. This will allow the earth to respond to the plants’ need to grow and produce fruit, and such fruit will be a response to Jezreel’s need for sustenance (Hos 2:21-22). As one of Gomer’s sons with a symbolic name, Jezreel here likely stands for Israel in the same way as the names of the other children are alluded to and describe the experience of Israel in Hosea 2:23.
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