Dive into the tender, parental love of God revealed in Hosea 11's imagery.
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Under the fig tree
Love can be difficult to know.
This is especially when it’s between us and a God whom we cannot see, and the full extent of God’s love surpasses knowledge (Eph 3:19).
But regarding this most important relationship that we can ever have, God helps us understand through various images and parallels that the Bible makes.
Reading Hosea 3 earlier, we can feel the pain of the broken relationship between God and His disloyal people through the image of a cuckolded husband and his unfaithful wife. Hosea’s unexpected obedience reflects how God is faithful even when we remain faithless (2 Tim 2:13).
In Hosea 11, God approaches this faithfulness through a parent who cannot bear to stop loving his disobedient child. God deepens our understanding of the exodus story by revealing how He saw the Israelites: “out of Egypt I called My son” (Hos 11:1, with my emphasis).
Though God’s people had worshipped idols in Egypt (Jos 24:14), God redeemed them because He saw them as His precious child.
Then like a grieving father bearing his heart, God recounts how He lovingly brought up His precious child:
“I taught Ephraim to walk,
Taking them by their arms;
…
I drew them with gentle cords,
With bands of love,
And I was to them as those who take the yoke from their neck.
I stooped and fed them.” (Hos 11:3-4)
As a society, we sometimes lament how children take their parents for granted (when was the last time we spent quality time with our parents?) Israel took God their Father for granted too.
Despite God’s parental love and many actions of love … the Israelites went to idols instead, even failing to recognise that God healed them (Hos 11:2-3).
But just as many parents cannot help but love their children who have hurt them, God cries out:
“How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? … My heart churns within Me; My sympathy is stirred.” (Hos 11:8)
Even as children of God, we may wander from God. We may be plagued by weaknesses that disgust us.
But God bears His heart here to remind us just how incredibly deep His compassion and love for us is.
You and I have become children of God by His great mercy.
Let us not lose heart (2 Cor 4:1, Tit 3:5).