I will ransom them from the power of the grave. (Hosea 13:14)

Hosea 13:1–13 sets forth the death of Israel in stark and graphic terms. Israel “died” at Baal Peor (v. 1). They pass away “as the morning cloud, and as the early dew that passes away, as the chaff that is driven with the whirlwind out of the floor, and as the smoke out of the chimney” (v. 3). Wild beasts tear them limb from limb (v. 8). And yet in the midst of this deathly, funereal atmosphere, the prophet is given a glimpse of the nation’s resurrection: “I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death.” What a death, but what a resurrection! What a ransom which delivers from death and the grave!

Sometimes, when God begins a saving work in a soul, He shows the sinner how his soul “died” through various sins he committed. We all have our “Baal Peors.” Then He impresses on the grieving sinner the brevity of life and the imminence of death. Wherever the soul looks, it sees life rapidly passing and death accelerating towards him—the morning cloud, the evaporating dew, the wind-blown chaff, the chimney smoke, all so brief, all so eloquent of life and death.

The terrifying grave opens its ghastly mouth for young and old. The soul is dead, the body is dying, the grave is gaping. But prayer is rising, “Have mercy upon me, O Lord; for I am weak: O Lord, heal me; for my bones are vexed. My soul is also sore vexed: O Lord, how long?…. Return, O Lord, deliver my soul: oh save me for your mercies’ sake. For in death there is no remembrance of you: in the grave who shall give you thanks?” (Ps. 6:2–5).

“Then he is gracious to him, saying, Deliver him from going down to the pit: I have found a ransom. His flesh shall be fresher than a child’s: he shall return to the days of his youth: he shall pray unto God, and he will be favorable unto him: and he shall see his face with joy” (Job 33:24 –26).

What a resurrection! And what a ransom! “The Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Matt. 20:28).

I will be your king. (Hosea 13:10)

Who wants to be a King of self-destroyed people? God does. Who wants to be King of people who consistently rejected Him and chose many inferior kings? God does.

“O Israel, you have destroyed thyself; but in me is your help. I will be your king: where is any other that may save you in all your cities? and your judges of whom thou said, Give me a king and princes?” (Hos. 13:9–10).

He does not say, “You have achieved a lot, therefore I will be your king,” but, “You have destroyed yourself, therefore I will be your king.”

He does not say, “You have chosen me to be your King, therefore I will be your King,” but, “You have rejected me, therefore I will be your king.” What grace and favor!

Do you not need a mighty King? Who can bring order into your chaos? You can’t; no one else can but God. Who can subdue your unruly passions and regulate your anarchic thoughts? You can’t; no one else can but God.

And yet, how much you resisted, didn’t you? Do you remember how many times you said, “I will not have this man to reign over me?” How many times the King drew near, and you said, “I will be king.” You resisted and rejected with all your might.

But then the day came when you heard with irresistible power, “I will be your King, I will be your King.” Your will bent, broken, and at last surrendered. You fell down in your soul and said, “Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” You worshiped and said, “O Lord, you are my God and King, you will I magnify and praise.”

And what a King He has been to you! Has He not guarded you? Has He not led you in many spiritual victories? Has He not brought you into His banqueting house and His banner over you was love? Do you not look forward to the day when you arrive in His heavenly Kingdom and He will say, “I am your King”?

Remaining rebels, lay down your arms. You cannot win. He will be your King. He will eventually rule you. He will rule you in heaven or He will rule you in hell. “I will be your King.”

I will again make you dwell in tents. (Hosea 12:9)

Listen to this for a proud boast: “Surely I have become rich, I have found wealth for myself; in all my labors they shall find in me no iniquity that is sin” (Hos. 12:8). It was for such proud self-confidence that Israel would be once again removed from its land and suffer Egypt-like bondage. And yet, here Hosea holds out hope for an Egypt-like exodus by promising a new celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles which commemorated that event: “But I am the Lord your God, ever since the land of Egypt; I will again make you dwell in tents, as in the days of the appointed feast.”

Israel’s festivals were all times of rejoicing, but the Feast of Tabernacles was especially marked by joy (Lev. 23:40; Deut. 16:15). This was partly because the feast celebrated the harvest of corn and grapes, but mainly because, by spending time in homemade tents in the desert, they were reminded of God’s miraculous provision for them when they lived as desert-nomads for forty years. What a comfort Hosea’s promise of restored festivals must have been to God’s people in exile. What hope this holds out to the repentant! God will restore our festivals and our joy if we repent.

Proud unbeliever, you have resisted God and rejected His mercy. You are self-confident and independent. You have no sense of your own sinfulness. But God is bringing you down. Your life has turned sour. You are not so sure of yourself as you once were, and you wonder if there is any hope for one who was so proud and defiant as you were. Be encouraged with this promise of mercy: “But I am the Lord your God, ever since the land of Egypt; I will again make you dwell in tents, as in the days of the appointed feast.”

Perhaps you are a believer who has been walking in your own strength and at a proud self-sufficient distance from God. But now you are miserable. You wish you could experience total dependence on the Lord again. Listen to God’s gracious promise: “I will again make you dwell in tents, as in the days of the appointed feast.” There is no frivolity or superficiality at the Lord’s feasts; this is serious and substantial joy.

I will place them in their houses. (Hosea 11:11)

God’s judgment of foreign exile for Israel was intended to have the same effect as a lion’s roar. It was to restore the fear of the Lord in them and then to restore them to their land. As Hosea puts it, “When he shall roar, then the children shall tremble from the west. They shall tremble as a bird out of Egypt, and as a dove out of the land of Assyria: and I will place them in their houses, says the Lord” (Hosea 11:10 –11).

The people of Israel were exiled to Egypt and Assyria because of their spiritual deafness and insensitivity. God said, “I will place them in foreign lands.” There they would hear God’s roar in this painful providence and begin to tremble before Him again, as a dove would upon hearing a lion nearby. Trembling is mentioned twice (v. 10, 11) in order to emphasize the predominant characteristic of God’s repentant people. This double trembling at God’s word would hasten their flight from captivity. Having returned to God, He would again “place them in their houses,” the place of security, comfort, and rest.

Our churches and nations are ripe for God’s roar. We have covered our ears and hardened our hearts. The fear of God is not before our eyes. Sometimes we hear the divine roar in the distance through terrorist attacks, floods, tsunamis, or earthquakes. We stop for a moment, listen for a moment, fear for a moment, then get on with our lives. Gradually, we grow harder and harder. How near does the roar have to get before we tremble as a bird, until we fly to Him as a dove? Oh, for more trembling in God’s people!

God’s roars are not intended to frighten us away from Him but to draw us to Him. Perhaps God is roaring in your life and you are beginning to tremble before His omnipotence and your impotence. Your life is all upside down, and everything is falling apart. May your trembling draw you out of sin and its disordering consequences to Christ and His order-restoring salvation. He can make all things well again for you. Peace, harmony, safety, and a sense of belonging are restored. “I will place them in their houses.”

I will not execute the fierceness of my anger. (Hosea 11:9)

What is your best hope of salvation? Some people hope that God will be just like them (Ps. 50:21). They hope that God is a compromiser like them, that He is a kind of changeable character, and they just hope that they will catch Him on a good day rather than a bad day.

But God says our hope should instead be based on His unlikeness to man. “I will not execute the fierceness of my anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man; the Holy One in the midst of you: and I will not enter into the city.” It is God’s dissimilarity that is our best and only hope. “For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore you sons of Jacob are not consumed” (Mal. 3:6).

Do you really want someone like yourself to be your only hope? What are you like? Are you not unpredictable, capricious, and changeable? Do you not judge one way one day, and another the next? Have you ever been fiercely angry and yet possessed the self-control not to execute the fierceness of your anger? Have you ever found a technique to turn away and exhaust your anger? No, you haven’t; because you are man and not God. Too much weakness and too little wisdom means that you will usually execute the fierceness of your anger.

Only God has the power and the wisdom to find a way of not executing the fierceness of His anger upon you. His power and His wisdom are found in Christ crucified. He is the power and the wisdom of God (1 Cor. 1:24). Having executed the fierceness of His anger upon Christ, God can then turn to you and say, “I will not execute the fierceness of my anger.”

And because He is God and not man, once He executes His anger, it is gone. He does not harbor a grudge or bear secret and bitter resentment against you. He is God and not man. Let God’s dissimilarity be your hope, your only hope of salvation.

I will go and return to my place till they acknowledge their offense, and seek my face. (Hosea 5:15)

In the previous verse, Israel is ravaged by the divine Lion. The nation is torn and taken away, and none can rescue. Now the angry Lion is portrayed as returning to His lair with its prey in His mouth. He drops the faintly breathing body and lies down in His place. His fury is partly assuaged; His prey is barely alive. And He says, “I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offense, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early.”

After some time, the body begins to groan and stir; the eyes open and slowly and fearfully focus on the angry adversary. Eyes meet. Time stands still.

“I’m so sorry,” stutters and stammers the aching body. “I provoked your anger. I understand and accept your just response. Thank you for sparing my life. Please pity me. Please help me.”

The Lion slowly rises and walks around the pitiful sight. He moves towards the face, pauses, opens His mouth, and…begins to lick the wounds and warm the fear-frozen limbs. The eyes open in wonder and, instead of seeing a bloodthirsty lion, behold a blood-shedding lamb!

Wounded, bleeding, barely breathing believer, has the Lord ravaged you? You provoked and provoked until His anger was justly roused. He tore you and took you away. Bodily disease, family disaster, business failure, or dark depression has left you barely alive. But you sense there is now a lull in the storm, some welcome days of relative peace.

This glimmer of comfort enables you to lift your eyes heavenward. And there you sense the root cause of all your troubles—the face of your God, justly angered by your backsliding and compromising. Eyes meet. Time stands still. Fight or flight? Or faith?

Faith neither fights nor flies but rather repents and casts all on the Savior’s mercy. Such faith and repentance transforms the bloodthirsty Lion into a blood-shedding Lamb. Look at the very next verse, “Come, and let us return to the Lord: for He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up” (Hos. 6:1).