(REFLECTIONS ON Hosea 5:1-15)

In today’s Scripture, the Lord declares that the deeds of Israel will not allow them to return to their God, but even if they did try to return, they would not find Him. The reason that they would not find Him is because He has withdrawn from them.

Instead of the Lord, however, Israel seeks Assyria for the healing of their wounds. Rather than healing, Assyria will be their ruin.

Even the princes of Judah have been caught up in all this by moving their boundaries to take advantage of the chaos in the north. However, rather than conquerers, they have been enveloped in the conspiracies of the north. In all this upheaval, the Lord will go away and the land will be left without His glory until He returns,

15 I will go away and return to My place
Until they acknowledge their guilt and seek My face;
In their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.

The people have been corrupted, the land has been defiled, and the glory of the Lord will leave this place, leaving it exposed, until the day He returns to bring healing and restoration to the land and His people that earnestly seek Him.

What is required though is that Israel acknowledges their guilt and in their affliction earnestly seek the Lord. Today’s Scripture outlines what will happen to Israel and Judah moving forward. God does not withdraw because He delights in abandoning His people. Rather, His withdrawal exposes the emptiness of every false refuge so that His people will finally seek Him with repentant hearts.

We know that Israel will eventually be conquered by Assyria, while Judah will be exiled to Babylon. There will be a remnant that returns to Jerusalem to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem and the temple of the Lord. The glory of the Lord that left will return and His glory will be with His people pointing to the promise of Christ.

One of the important things we need to understand as Christians reading the prophets though, is that although Israel understood the prophets to be speaking primarily about themselves, the earthly Jerusalem, and the temple, we must remember that Jesus did not come merely to restore Israel as an earthly kingdom, but to establish God’s kingdom by bringing Jews and Gentiles together into one new humanity.

As we have just wrapped up our series on Revelation in our Sunday sermons, it should help us to understand that what we read from the prophets in the Bible and what we see in Revelation isn’t just talking about the world, the nations and governments of the world, but the day when the spiritual and physical, that is the heavens and the earth will come together as one Kingdom.

Israel and Judah’s rejection of God and His covenant with Him will not find true healing except through Jesus Christ, who is not only their Lord and Savior, but the Lord and Savior of the world and all of creation. This is where the future of Israel and of the Church become one, and we together seek His face, and rather than being withdrawn, the Lord will draw us near to Him through Christ by the Holy Spirit.

Pastor Michael Lu
Enduring Word Bible Commentary: Hosea 5