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Love Divine and Unfailing: The Gospel According to Hosea

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'The Scripture is the means by which God reveals, not conceals, truth.' p xvii

The Hebrew experience of the kingdom dividing into the northern and southern kingdoms was relived by each generation as the legacy of strife and hostility continued to mar Israelite history. Yet God was not silent. The exodus, which was to serve as a commemorative display of God's election and deliverance of Israel, would soon be forgotten as a succession of false prophets repeatedly misdiagnosed ultimate designs which led to disillusionment with the theocratic rule, and brought about the historic exile. Israel's faithlessness would serve as a witness to the nations as God's unconcealed punitive 'recompense' (9:7) followed.

Conceding that Israel had now become an object lesson in unfaithfulness, how did love divine prevail in the end? Hosea, whose personal happiness depended on it, may for a time have wondered if it were at all possible. Certainly Barrett is not guilty of glibly providing the historical framework, as his abundant observations on this episode as 'a climactic point on the timeline of Israel's history' attest to. He continually brings to the fore how God's providential dealings with Israel through other nations are under God's direction. 'If Hosea's world was in God's hand, so is ours.' p 35

Hosea was thoroughly acquainted with God's position on infidelity, and the Lord's decision to share it with him experientially could not have been unprompted. Michael Barrett prudently instructs, 'Nevertheless, it remains an important step in the interpretation of a particular prophet to take the historical clues and factor them into his message.' p 21 This Hosea did handsomely in 4:1 'There is no hesed (covenant loyalty), no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land.' Barrett confides his confidence in Hosea's 'focus on the covenant'. Hosea's contemporaries had failed precisely where Hosea had succeeded, to appreciate the seriousness of a breach of covenant. Barrett argues that as the covenant bears witness ultimately to Christ, their actions be seen in a more serious light, which shapes into a theological argument for enforcing covenant sanction.

'Unfaithfulness and disloyalty jeopardize the union.' p 67

In 'A Marriage Portrait' the concept of analogy is put on view by its Author. We, as observers, are set as the goal of interpretation 'to determine the resemblance or point of correspondence between the analogy and the truth, the symbol and the reality.' p 60 Another caveat by Vos shows his enduring exegetical skill: 'The bond of marriage, as conceived by Hosea, was established through a spiritual process. God, after having created Israel, sought and cultivated her affection. Now this same idealization also appears in regard to the mutual exclusiveness of the covenant attachment.' Grace & Glory pp. 20-21 As in the NT marriage is metaphorical for Christ and His church, in the OT marriage was a tangible symbol of Israel's exclusive attachment to Yahweh. None more so poignant than Hosea's belabored marriage to Gomer. 'Fireproofed' in Genesis 2:24 and a confession of faithfulness to boot, Gomer did to Hosea what Israel did to God.

'She had the world in her heart.' p 81

Hosea's taking her back 'symbolizes God's forgiving and unfailing love for His sinning people.' p 85 Yet as amazing as Hosea's love was for Gomer, it pales in comparison to God's love for Israel. And even if they weren't willing to acknowledge this to be true, an unrepentant Israel was in need of salvation especially from themselves, or they would soon be delivered up to the foreign lands of the gods they tacitly admired and worshipped.