How does God's response differ from a human response? Above all, it is precisely this: when He acts in a concrete situation shaped by human sinfulness, He never makes spontaneous decisions...
How does God's response differ from a human response? Above all, it is precisely this: when He acts in a concrete situation shaped by human sinfulness, He never makes spontaneous decisions. Of course, reading about God's wrath can seem strange to a person with a purely spiritualist mindset.
Indeed, are all human emotions really characteristic of God? Still, we should not forget that behind human emotions there often stands a very concrete attitude toward one person or another, toward one event or another, a concrete and often fully conscious intention. And attitudes and intentions, unlike emotions, are characteristic not only of human beings but also of God, as they are characteristic of every person. Then God's wrath becomes quite understandable: plainly, what is being described is something that would make a human being angry if he could see the situation through God's eyes and evaluate it as God evaluates it. But then the differences begin, because unlike God, who restrains His wrath, fallen human beings often find it very difficult to restrain theirs. Why is that? Is it only because human beings do not know how to control their own emotions? Not only that.
The issue is also the fallen person's attitude toward the concrete situation and toward the people involved in it. Plainly, the fallen person's response to a situation is precisely a reaction, spontaneous and immediate. A person usually sees only the nearest prospect, the nearest consequences of the situation that has developed, and evaluates chiefly or exclusively those. God looks at the matter differently: He sees not only the whole prospect connected with the situation that has developed, from the nearest to the most distant, but also the potentials connected with it, above all the spiritual potentials.
He sees every possibility, even the most unlikely, of a good resolution and a way out of the difficult situation, and He is ready to use them. And of course, unlike a human being, He is not going to apply sanctions to those who have done wrong for the sake of sanctions, or punish for the sake of punishment itself, even if the punishment consists only in letting those who sinned feel the consequences of the sin they committed.
If God does something of the sort, it is only when He knows that it will later make it possible to put into action one of the possibilities He sees for escaping the difficult situation into which His people have driven themselves by their sins. And as for breaking the alliance-covenant once made, that is out of the question: even if only a remnant of the faithful remains from the people, God will preserve faithfulness to the covenant even for the sake of that remnant. In fact, this view and this attitude are what Hosea calls mercy. It is the mercy on which the people can only hope after all the sins they have committed.
11 Upbraidings, threatenings and promises mingled, Hos 11:1-11.
A commendation of Judah, Hos 11:12.
11:1 Was a child - In the infancy of Israel.I loved him - Manifested my tender and paternal affection to him.Called my son - Adopted him to be my son, and as my son, provided for him, and brought him out of servitude. Out of Egypt - But Israel, the first adopted son was a type of Christ the first - born. And the history of Israel's coming out was a type of Christ's future coming out of Egypt.
11:2 They - Moses and Aaron, and other prophets.Called - Persuaded, intreated, and urged by exhortations, the whole house of Israel. From them - From the prophets counsel and commands.Baalim - In the desert they began this apostacy, and held on with obstinacy in it.
11:3 I taught - As a mother or nurse helps the child.Taking them - Supporting and bearing them up.They knew not - They would not see nor acknowledge me in it.
11:4 Cords of man - With such kindness as best fits and most prevails with a man. I was to them - As a careful husband - man in due season takes the yoke from his labouring oxen, and takes off the muzzle with which they were kept from eating, when at work. I laid meat unto them - Brought them provision in their wants.
11:5 He - Ephraim. Shall be king - Shall rule them with rigour and cruelty. They refused - The reason of all is, their obstinacy in idolatry.
11:6 His branches - The lesser towns and villages.Their own counsels - Which they have followed in opposition to all the good counsels the prophets gave them from time to time.
11:7 They - The prophets. None at all - Scarce any one would hearken and obey.
11:8 Give thee up - To utter destruction. Admah and Zeboim were two of the four cities which were destroyed with fire from heaven.My repentings - Not that God is ever fluctuating or unresolved; but these are expressions after the manner of men, to shew what severity Israel had deserved, and yet how divine grace would be glorified in sparing them.
11:9 Return - Conquerors that plunder the conquered city, carry away the wealth of it, and after some time return to burn it; God will not do so.Not man - Therefore my compassions fail not. The holy One - A holy God, and in covenant, though not with all, yet with many among you.Enter into the city - Utterly to destroy thee, as I did Sodom.
11:10 They - The remnant shall hear and obey the Lord.Like a lion - The word of the Lord, so saith the Chaldee, shall roar as a lion. Christ is called, The lion of the tribe of Judah: and when he cried with a loud voice, it was as when a lion roared.The voice of the gospel was heard far, as the roaring of a lion; and it was a mighty voice. Tremble - The spirit by its power awakening them to a sight of sin, shall make them fear and tremble.From the west - From the ends of the earth.
11:11 They shall tremble - At their return into their own land, some shall hasten, yet with solicitude, out of Egypt, whither they fled for shelter; others like doves shall hasten out of Assyria, but with fear and trembling. I will place them - A seasonable and comfortable promise.
11:12 Ephraim - Most of the people of Israel.With lies - Play the hypocrite with me still. Judah - The two tribes.Yet ruleth - While idolaters are slaves to the devil, the true worshippers of God, like princes, rule with God. Faithful - Retains purity, at least truth of worship, and comparatively is faithful.Judah adheres to God's holy prophets, priests, and other saints of God.