“Even in these passages of terrible judgment, we are reminded that, while God’s character is revealed in both justice and mercy, he delights in showing mercy and compassion. Eight times in the Old Testament Yahweh is announced and introduced as in Psalm 86:15: ...a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness…He is not quick to wrath, quick to judgment…Instead, in Hosea we see that God is prone to sudden rashes of compassion. You never know when he will just suddenly burst out in unexpected mercy…”

“This passage also calls us to remember the past grace of God.  We can ensure proper relationship with God and avoid his condemnations by remembering; remembering, and not forgetting, what God has done for us. This is the purpose for many of the songs we sing, as we recall to each other, and to ourselves, the goodness of God expressed throughout the ages to his church. Our need and God’s power and goodness fit hand-in-hand. Our awareness of each grows in relation to the other. The more I am honest about the condition of my heart, the more I increasingly rely on God.  The more I am reminded of God’s goodness and mercy, the more I can afford to be honest with myself.”

“God’s explanation of his commitment to continue the covenant beyond the judgment is both passionate and profound: the unique holy quality of his deity. His disposition and behaviour distinguish themselves from what would be the normal human pattern. He is God, and not a man — so he has the ability to decide when and how to exact just punishment in his fierce anger.  Despite his terrible wrath, he has not lost control. If God was at the mercy of his emotions, Israel would be wiped from the face of the earth. But, thankfully, God is holy. He operates at a different level of action independent of human action and existence. And He has chosen to fulfill his sovereign plan that is guided by his love as well as justice.”

“Church, those who genuinely belong to God are ‘created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them’.  All genuine people of God are created to be the fruitful extension of Jesus’ life and ministry, commissioned to bear the fruit of love. Jesus is the true vine.  He is God’s promise fulfilled to Israel.  For a long time it looked like Israel was cut off from God, but Jesus is the shoot that came from what seemed like a stump. Grafted into Christ, people from every nation, tongue and tribe become the true people of God.”

“Many think they know God, but do not because their knowledge is derived from human opinions and is not informed by the whole counsel of God’s word…So what is our application today?  We have not (to my knowledge) bowed to a golden calf or applied to Egypt or Assyria for political gain…God is gracious to us church. He does not allow other things to fulfill the desire that we have for him who is the giver of all good things…These are the things we need to check ourselves in: Am I content with what God has provided through all the means he has granted to be at my disposal?  Is discontentment revealing that I am not finding my joy, hope and fulfillment in Christ?  When we look to other functional saviors, it reveals the deeper heart issue of things we have not truly believed in the gospel.  What is it about Christ that you have not found to be good? As Augustine famously wrote: You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.”

“Israel was in danger of losing - and indeed had lost their unique identity as God’s people…The inhabitants of the land are characterized by infighting, foolishly seeking foreign help, priestly plots, negligent leadership and false repentance. These have left Yahweh with no recourse but to announce the advent of his judgement - but he does so with great pain and no joy…At many times, and in many ways, Israel has rebelled against God and broken his covenant.  They have been faithless and loveless, both to God and each other.  But all of these things he would forgive.  What is damning, what will ultimately result in total judgment, is what they do not do: they do not confess and repent…The root of idolatry is believing a lie about God. Israel has believed the lie that they can sin without consequence….

And so today we must ask: What lies have we believed about God?  In what ways have we accepted false teaching or just filled in the blanks about God when we haven’t been taught the Scriptures.”

“…For God to say ‘I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings,’ is not to say that he no longer required obedience in the sacrifice and burnt offerings of the old covenant, but that those things had become distorted when they replaced knowledge of God and the real practice of ḥesed - the steadfast love of God. Without this relational aspect of their worship, their rituals became transactional or coercive towards God; a means of inducing him to act. This was one of the ways that Canaanite religion had corrupted the worship of God, that the worshippers thought that they could relate to God through sacrifice in order to obtain what they wanted without the loving and compassionate heart that comes from a transformational life with God.”

“This is our second foray into the section we visit this morning in Hosea 4:1-5:7.  Last time we ended with v.4:9, like people, like priest, which for Israel was a disaster - as we saw and will continue to see in our passage - but for those adopted as God’s people under the new covenant, like people, like priest is a great and eternal hope! Because our Great and High Priest is Christ Jesus himself.  We are ‘predestined to be conformed to the image of God’s Son.’ (Romans 8:29)”