Sermon: The Warm Compassion of the Holy God

Our sermon text for tonight comes from the Book of Hosea. I invite you to turn there now. It's on page 757 if you're using the Bible in your pew.

Before we turn to God's word, would you pray with me one more time?

Father, as the rain is falling outside and will not return to you void but will accomplish its purposes, we ask that your word would do the same. Would you use your word to illuminate our hearts and minds, that we might see more of who you are, that we might love you more, that we might worship you more, that we might live more rightly in light of the reality of your goodness and your justice, and your love and your mercy,

your glory, your sovereignty.

Father, we need your help. Would you show us yourself as we look into your word tonight? In the name of your Son, Christ, we ask these things. Amen.

We are going to look tonight at Hosea chapter 11 and the first verse of chapter 12. So listen now as I read, for this is the very word of God. "When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. The more they were called, the more they went away. They kept sacrificing to the Baals and burning offerings to idols. Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk. I took them up by their arms, but they did not know that I healed them.

I led them with cords of kindness, with the bands of love, and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws, and I bent down to them and fed them.

They shall not return to the land of Egypt, but Assyria shall be their king, because they have refused to return to me. The sword shall rage against their cities, consume the bars of their gates, and devour them because of their own counsels. My people are bent on turning away from me, and though they call out to the Most High, he shall not raise them up at all.

How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart recoils within me. My compassion grows warm and tender. I will not execute my burning anger. I will not again destroy Ephraim, for I am God and not a man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath. They shall go after the Lord. He will roar like a lion. When he roars, his children shall come trembling from the west.

They shall come trembling like birds from Egypt, and like doves from the land of Assyria, and I will return them to their homes,' declares the Lord. Ephraim has surrounded me with lies, and the house of Israel with deceit. But Judah still walks with God and is faithful to the Holy One. Ephraim feeds on the wind and pursues the east wind all day long. They multiply falsehood and violence. They make a covenant with Assyria, and oil is carried to

Egypt."

I encourage you to keep your Bibles open as we work our way through this passage. We've been going through the Book of Hosea for the past few months, and if you will recall, chapters one through three are an extended metaphor using Hosea's marriage to illustrate God's faithful covenant love in spite of Israel's unfaithfulness. Chapters four through 10 have contained repeated warnings and declarations of judgment against Israel

for their rebellion. While the theme of judgment certainly continues in chapter 11, there is a shift in these verses back to the focus of God and his love for his people. We are going to consider God and his love for his people in this chapter, with the first verse of chapter 12 tacked on, in three sections that will correlate with three different time periods. We're going to look at the past, the present, and the future.

In verses one through four, we'll look back at the past. In verses five through seven, we'll look at the present condition that Israel finds themselves in. And in verses eight through 11, we will consider the future which God promises to his people. First, in verses one through four, we have a look back at the past as we see God's fatherly love towards his people who reject him. God's fatherly love towards his people who reject him.

Having used the human relationship of marriage to picture God's love for his people in chapters one through three, God now turns to use another familial analogy. God is a father to his people, and they are a son to him. He recounts for Israel their history and reminds them of his paternal care and affection for them. When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt, I called my son. Here, God reminds the Israelites that hundreds of years

ago, before they were established as they are now, they had been in Egypt, mistreated and enslaved. They cried out to God in their affliction, and he heard their cries. He raised up Moses, through whom he was going to deliver his people from their bondage. And in Exodus 4, he instructs Moses to go to the Pharaoh of Egypt and say, "Thus says the Lord: Israel is my firstborn son, and I say to you, let my son go, that he may serve me."

And ever since, that is how they have been viewed. Israel was God's son, and God was their father. Why? What was the basis of this relationship? God explains this in Deuteronomy chapter seven. For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord

set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the Lord loves you. God was the father to Israel, and they were his son simply because God had chosen them. He set his affection upon them, adopted them as his own, and as their father, he loved them, and he rescued them out of Egypt.

How does Israel respond to God's love for them? The more they were called, the more they ran away. Picture a father calling his child who's getting too close to the street. "Come to me. Come back over here," pleading with the child, and the child turns and runs the other way. That is what Israel is doing. The more God calls to them, the more they run. Rather than coming to their God, they kept sacrificing to the Baals

and burning offerings to other gods over and over again, giving their allegiance and putting their trust in false gods who felt nothing for them and had done nothing for them.

Idolatry has been a recurring theme in Hosea as God confronts Israel with what he holds against them. It is also a recurring theme throughout Israel's history. Matthew Henry states that idolatry was the sin which from the beginning and all along had most easily beset them. Early on in their existence, shortly after being delivered from Egypt, the people worshipped a golden calf, and throughout their history, they just keep turning over and

over and over again to idols and false gods despite God's fatherly love and care for them.

Verse three continues to describe the way that God was a father to his people. He taught them to walk, took them up in his arms, he healed them. The image here is of patient instruction and gentle support. God showed them how to be his people. He carried them when they needed him and healed them when they were sick and broken, but they did not know that it was he who had done it. They did not recognize him, and they did not acknowledge him.

They were willingly ignorant of the great works of God on their behalf, and therefore, to borrow from Paul later in the scriptures, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him. They were ungrateful idolaters.

Verse four returns to the tender care of God for his people. The image changes to that of a farmer with his animal. God had led his people with cords of kindness, with bands of love. He directed them, and he guided them with loving kindness. He did not drive them hard, but lightened the burden upon them by easing the yoke, and he fed them, going so far as to stoop down himself to feed them by his own hand. They didn't have to wander to find food.

He brought it to them.

This provision of God for his people shows up again and again in their history, but this is a particular reminder, again, back to their exodus from Egypt, when he fed them for 40 years with bread from heaven that would appear every day.

These few verses paint a tender picture. They recount a remarkable history of Israel as a son who is loved by his good father. He called them and cared for them, healed them, relieved their burdens, provided for them, taught them, fed them, led them, and guided them, all with a condescending kindness and love. And how do they respond to such love and care? Ingratitude and idolatry. The contrast of these verses could not be more

stark. The beauty of such love as God had for Israel and demonstrated towards his people highlights the ugly horror of Israel's sin in rebelling against such love. Our own sin is no different. It is not only hideous in its own right, its grotesque nature is further revealed as it is held up against the glorious radiance of God's loving kindness toward us.

Over and over and over again, God's people reject the undeserving, tender love of God. The more he calls out to them, the more they run away from him. And it is this history that has led them to where they are in Hosea's day.

And that's what we see in verses five through seven. As we turn to these verses and to the present of when this book was written, the language and the focus shift from the past tense to their current predicament. These verses describe the present of Hosea's day, as we see the dreadful reality of God's judgment upon his hard-hearted people. God is declaring to his people what is about to happen to them. He is warning them, as he has for chapter after

chapter after chapter, that they stand on the very edge of destruction. Verse five introduces the section and can be a little difficult to interpret, I learned. If you look at the text, you'll see that it says, "They shall not return to Egypt." You'll also see there's a footnote that gives an alternative reading, "They shall surely return to Egypt." So either they shall not or surely will return to Egypt. These certainly seem like two opposite realities.

However, despite the lack of clarity about the language, the meaning is actually pretty clear. In one instance, Egypt is the geographical location to which they are not going to return. They are going to Assyria. In the other, Egypt is the symbolic representation of being enslaved, a state to which they are surely going to return. They may not be going back to Egypt, the nation, but they are going back to Egypt as it represents

enslavement for them. God is telling Israel that they are going back to being ruled by another nation, this time Assyria instead of Egypt. Because they refuse to return to the Lord, they are going to return to bondage. They had tried to make political allegiances with both Assyria and Egypt, but their relationship with those nations will not be one of allies, but of adversaries. Assyria will rage against them with the sword.

They will be consumed and devoured, and they will have no one to blame but themselves. Rather than listen to God, they trusted in their own counsel.

God accuses them not only of failing to heed his counsel, but says they are bent on turning away from him. It is not simply their actions that rebel against God, but every inclination of their heart is against the one who has been to them as a loving father. They are determined to run from God. They have done what is right in their own eyes, and the result is that they find themselves exposed, vulnerable, with the protective gates and bars of their city

removed, and they are headed toward imminent defeat. It has now reached the point where even if they do call upon God, he tells them he will not raise them up. He will not deliver them. He who heard their cries of anguish from Egypt will turn a deaf ear to them now.

This is where the people find themselves in the present of Hosea's day. God is slow to anger, but that does not mean that he will put up with sin forever. He has been long-suffering with Israel, but the time has come. Judgment is on the doorstep. The Father is going to discipline His son.

We have seen this again and again in chapters four through 10 of Hosea. But this time, God does something unexpected. He doesn't leave it there.

As we turn to verses eight through 11, they may stand on the cusp of judgment,

but God calls them to look beyond the immediate circumstances to a future hope, and we see God's compassionate promise to restore His people. God's compassionate promise to restore His people. And we have here a return to the fatherly tone of verses one through four. Compassion rises up in God's heart. He asks Himself a series of rhetorical questions which convey His love for His people, even in their rebellion, and His judgment against them.

How can I give you up? How can I hand you over? How can I treat you like Admah and Zeboiim? Admah and Zeboiim were two cities that were overthrown along with Sodom and Gomorrah. They were utterly destroyed. Israel is like these two cities in their sin, but they will not be like them in their desolation. Even in judgment, God promises that He will stay His hand from total destruction. God recoils from the idea of wiping His people out.

Compassion rises up in His heart that is warm and tender for His rebellious people.

Want to linger here for a minute and think about what exactly is happening in verse eight. There is a potential misunderstanding, perhaps even a common misunderstanding, about the character and the nature of God that can come out of a wrong understanding of this verse. Some read this chapter and others like it, and they see an internal war raging within God between the love of the compassionate Father and the holiness

of the just Judge. They see in these verses the victory of the love of God conquering the justice of God as He looks at the punishment that justice demands and His heart recoils at the thought. He cannot bring Himself to do it.

I want us to be clear tonight, that is not the God of the Scriptures. God does not vacillate. He never fluctuates. He is never unresolved or divided or indecisive.

God always knows what is right. He always wants to do what is right, and He is always ready to act on what is right. What then is happening as God wrestles in this verse? One commentator put it this way, "These are expressions after the manner of men which are designed to show the severity of sin and the glory of divine grace." God personifies Himself to help His people understand the horror of sin and the beauty of grace. God is

revealing, through human language and experience, the sinfulness of sin and the power of His holy love for His people. God's love is not more powerful or present than His justice, but the covenant love of the holy God is more powerful even than the sin of disobedient Israel. And so He goes on to declare, "I will not execute my burning anger. I will not again destroy Ephraim. I will not come in wrath." I will not. I will not. I will not.

For I am God and not a man. I am the Holy One in your midst. This statement, "I am God and not a man, the Holy One in your midst," is a statement of great hope and promise. Man can be divided. Man can be at war with himself. With man, there can be fluctuation and indecision, which is why it is such a wonderful declaration that God is God and not a man. We see here a distinction between man, for whom perfect holiness and

perfect love are impossible, and God, for whom all things are possible. God is not one of them, but He is the Holy One who dwells in their midst. He is their loving Father. He is the holy God. He will not abandon His people. He will be with them. And they will again move toward Him. They will stop running away, and they will come when He calls. He will call to them like a lion. He will roar, and they will come to Him.

This is not the first time that God has referred to Himself as a lion in Hosea. In chapter five, He declares, "For I will be like a lion to Ephraim, and like a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will tear and go away. I will carry off, and no one shall rescue."

Amazingly, the lion of judgment who carries away the people in chapter five is the loving father of chapter 11 who calls his people back to himself.

There is a wonderful illustration of how both of these things can be true in C.S. Lewis' book, "The Horse and His Boy," where the lion Aslan sometimes directs and sometimes protects and sometimes even wounds his children, but he remains the same at all times. In the same way, here again, we see that God does not have to choose between His just holiness and His loving mercy. He is both the one who disciplines, and He is the one who restores.

He had warned them that when they cried out to Him, He would not hear, but now He tells them that when He calls out to them, they will hear, and they will listen. They will stop refusing to return, and they will come trembling back to their Father. Like birds and doves, they will flock back to God. Again, this image is in contrast to earlier in the book when in chapter seven, Israel is compared with doves and birds who will be snared and trapped in a net.

Now, from the west and from Assyria and from Egypt, from bondage, they fly back to God, and God will return them to their homes, where they can dwell securely.

You may have noticed when I went through our sections, I did not include the last two verses that we read, chapter 11 verse 12 and chapter 12 verse 1. These two verses return back to the present for the Israelites, and many commentators struggle to fit these two in with chapter 11 or 12 and not sure exactly where they go. First, there is an honorable report of Judah, and second, there is a charge against Israel that they are vainly striving to

save themselves with earthly means, seeking to make allegiance with Assyria and Egypt. Their efforts are as worthless as seeking to nourish themselves with the wind.

Here we see that God does not leave Himself without a remnant. He always keeps for Himself a faithful witness. Even in the midst of all the judgment that we have heard in all of these chapters, there are some who are still faithful to Him. Although, if you know the story and if you come back next week, you will see that Judah quickly descends back to being rebuked. We are also reminded that any hope and any promised restoration is not

because of the worthiness of the people. Lest you think that, well, maybe God is restoring His people because Israel has turned and changed. That is not the case. This restoration, this redemption is not earned or deserved. It is freely given by God.

As we come to the end of our text for tonight, Israel's sin has brought them to the brink of destruction, but God has promised that He will not utterly destroy them, even in their own rebellion. He is their father and promises that He will restore them after He disciplines them. This is a wonderful, hopeful note in the midst of a book that has largely consisted of warnings and judgment. Hosea 11 demonstrates and beautifully

holds together the compassionate love of God and the just judgment of God. God does not change. He does not sometimes act in love and sometimes in holiness.

Some of you may be bent towards one or the other. Some of you may be like Jonah, who wanted the justice, at least for others, not so much the mercy.

Probably more common in our day is to be drawn to the love of God, but perhaps embarrassed by the justice and the right wrath of God. Don't like the God of justice, but you like the God of mercy.

God's justice is always loving, and his love is always just. You cannot separate these two. You must hold on to both. God's stance towards his people is unchanging. God is the loving father who nurtures his son. God is the loving father who disciplines his son. God is the loving father who restores his son. He is always their loving father and their holy God. And in this, we see the glorious complexity and depth of God's divine nature, and with it

ought to come the awe and comfort and hope and peace of knowing God as he is.

For the Israelites to whom this was written, these verses must have been a great comfort and hope in the years of their exile. They may not have understood how it was all going to work, but they knew that God would not abandon them, and that he would come in to their rescue. How much more comfort and hope for you and I, who see the full shining brilliance of this promise. They saw the shadow, but we have seen the substance. We know

that the Bible does not end with the Book of Hosea. Hosea's name means salvation, and it points to the one who was named Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins. There is an explicit connection when verse one of chapter 11 is cited in Matthew 2, as Jesus, the Son of God, is called out of Egypt.

Here are just a few other connections we see. Jesus is the one who calls his people to come to him, for his yoke is easy and his burden is light. He is the lion of the tribe of Judah who calls, and his people know his voice. He is the bread of life who feeds and nourishes his people. He has promised that in his father's house, there are many rooms, and he is preparing a place for you there where you will dwell secure in the presence of

the holy God. In Jesus, the love and justice of God meet and are both fully vindicated. He is God who became man, who demonstrated his love for his people by living a perfect life and dying a sinner's death so that God's justice could be satisfied.

So that God can say, "I will not come in wrath." God cannot simply ignore sin. He cannot simply overlook offense. But in Christ, that wrath can be satisfied so that God can come to his people in mercy.

Jesus rose victoriously over death to rescue you from the slavery of sin. God's promise of restoration is not simply a pity for sinners that grants them some sort of second chance while ignoring their sin. It is a power that sets free from bondage.

If you are a son of God through faith in Jesus, I encourage you to remember and rejoice in all that he has done for you. Perhaps you've been a Christian for a long time and you don't think often about how he saved you. Do not fail to acknowledge him as God or to give thanks to him. Do not forget who it is who has called you and sustained you and rescued you and healed you by his own wounds. Recount often his work and give him praise and thanksgiving and

glory. If you are here tonight and you are running from God, stop. Turn to him. He will not be patient forever. He will judge sin, and you will either bear that justice in your own body, or Christ will bear it for you in his.

If you are discouraged or weary tonight, trust in him. Cling to his holy justice and to his fatherly love. He will not abandon his people. He will restore what has been broken. Whatever things look like now, he is God and not a man. He is the Holy One who will dwell in the midst of his people. The end of the story is written, and it will be the story of God's faithfulness to his covenant promises. He who did not spare his son but freely gave him up for your sin

will surely not give up those for whom Christ bled and died. He is your loving father who nurtures, disciplines, and restores. Listen to his call and return to him again and again and again. Would you pray with me, please?

We praise you, Father, for your loving compassion, and we praise you, Father, for your holy justice. We praise you that you are God and not a man, that you are the Holy One.

We praise you that because of who you are, you can come to us who are enemies, and you can make us your friends. You can reconcile us to yourself. You can restore a right relationship between you and your children.

Father, would you help us to turn to you, to call upon you, to look to you, to trust in you? And would you be our loving Father who watches over us and protects us and keeps us for the day of Christ when you will restore all things. I ask these things in the name of your Son, Christ. Amen.