NOTES for Hos 11:9

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.

All Israel’s sinfulness and unfaithfulness do not annul God’s love and faithfulness. It is characteristic of people to take revenge for offenses, and moreover not always to observe any proportion in retribution. But God is not man. His ways are not our ways. He does not come to destroy us; He sends His Son, a Child, into this world so that our sin may be destroyed on the cross and our heart may turn from hardness to mercy, for this is how our God acts (v. 8).

Once again, those listening to the prophetic speech are reminded of the people's ingratitude toward the God who loved them. It is impossible even to list all that the people received from Him over many centuries, yet the beloved children turn away from their Lord again and again. And now it is as though the moment has come when His patience is exhausted and He has acquired the right to destroy the apostates.

This is how one might reason when guided by human notions of justice. And how else, it may appear on a superficial reading, can His severe rebukes be understood? But let us notice that the Lord Himself does not intend to destroy the disobedient. Yes, such a punishment would be just, but the concept of justice has another, hidden meaning that is not grasped at once and is visible only to the One who sees all the circumstances concealed from us on earth.

The consequence of sins and apostasy will be not destruction, but enslavement by Assyria. And this will become the embodiment of Israel's dreams, for those who desired the triumph of pagan principles will receive pagan dominion. But the Lord will not abandon His people in their trials, and in the end the disasters through which the people must pass can be turned to their benefit.