Scripture Text: Hosea 11:8-11
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.
Hosea 11:8
Citizen Kane earned a place as one of the greatest films ever made by redefining the way a motion picture told its story. The title character’s life is shown out of sequence, beginning with the final word uttered from his deathbed. The camera’s focus often shifts dramatically from an object in the immediate foreground to something in the background. This clever use of depth of focus photography brings key details and characters to our attention with nuances that were impossible in a conventional presentation.
Old Testament prophecy routinely uses similar techniques to shift our focus in unexpected ways and to reveal surprising truths both in God’s plan for Israel and in the richness of His character. At a place in Hosea where we might expect God’s pronouncement of wrath to reach a climax of vengeance, the narrative shifts perspective and puts a twist in the timeline.
In today’s passage God forecasts His relenting judgment with a flashback in history to Admah and Zeboiim, the lesser-known recipients of the fierce judgment that destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah (Deut. 29:23). God wasn’t rescinding the judgment against Israel; He was indicating that His wrath would not be unleashed to its full extent and the punishment would not be permanent. If God’s wrath were fully poured out on Israel, their cities would have been completely destroyed, as the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah demonstrated.
God’s compassion for Israel stood in the way of the wrath that Israel fully deserved (v. 8). His holiness is beyond human understanding, as is His mercy that extended to Israel an exemption from the full measure of His wrath (v. 9). This was not God going soft, as the next metaphor makes perfectly clear. God was like a lion whose roar could be heard by other nations.
In His time, He would inspire fear in His wayward children and bring them shivering back to their home He had given them. Judgment wouldn’t be averted, but their promised return home was evidence that in His love and mercy, God withheld a harsher penalty.
God’s discipline is compassionate - never cruel!
Reflect
1. Why does God discipline us?
2. What would it mean to us if we never experienced His discipline?
Remember
God still loves us when we sin. When He must chasten us, He does it reluctantly and with great anguish.
His love won’t permit Him to leave us alone.
Read
Ezekiel 18:31-32; Psalm 81:11-13; Romans 3:25; Hebrews 12:5-6; James 4:6-8
Pray
Dear Lord, Forgive me for my sin; for showing arrogance and pride to You. I thank You for in Your love, You discipline me and make me the kind of child You desire me to be; like Your Son, Jesus Christ. Make me see always that whatever difficulties that I am facing is not cruelty but Your loving patience at play in me. In Jesus' Name, I pray. Amen.
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