God’s Desire for Reconciliation—Lectionary Reflection for Pentecost 8C/Proper 13C (Hosea 11)

Hosea 11:1-11 New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition

11 When Israel was a child, I loved him,
    and out of Egypt I called my son.
² The more I called them,
    the more they went from me;
they kept sacrificing to the Baals
    and offering incense to idols.

³ Yet it was I who taught Ephraim to walk;
    I took them up in my arms,
    but they did not know that I healed them.
⁴ I led them with cords of human kindness,
    with bands of love.
I was to them like those
    who lift infants to their cheeks.
    I bent down to them and fed them.

⁵ They shall return to the land of Egypt,
    and Assyria shall be their king,
    because they have refused to return to me.
⁶ The sword rages in their cities;
    it consumes their oracle priests
    and devours because of their schemes.
⁷ My people are bent on turning away from me.
    To the Most High they call,
    but he does not raise them up at all.

⁸ How can I give you up, Ephraim?
    How can I hand you over, O Israel?
How can I make you like Admah?
    How can I treat you like Zeboiim?
My heart recoils within me;
    my compassion grows warm and tender.
⁹ I will not execute my fierce anger;
    I will not again destroy Ephraim,
for I am God and no mortal,
    the Holy One in your midst,
    and I will not come in wrath.

¹⁰ They shall go after the Lord,
    who roars like a lion;
when he roars,
    his children shall come trembling from the west.
¹¹ They shall come trembling like birds from Egypt
    and like doves from the land of Assyria,
    and I will return them to their homes, says the Lord.

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The book of Hosea, the first of the books that make up the Book of the Twelve (Minor Prophets), begins with God telling the prophet to marry a prostitute and have children with her. This marriage serves as a metaphor, suggesting that Israel, like Hosea’s wife Gomer, prostitutes itself before foreign gods (Hosea 11:1-11). While I must say I’m rather uncomfortable with God’s decision to have Hosea marry Gomer simply for prophetic purposes, there are bright spots in the ongoing relationship. While the relationship offers a glimpse of divine judgment, it also offers us a picture of divine redemption.

As we jump forward in Hosea to chapter 11, we see a different image. While the opening chapter featured God as the abandoned husband, here in Hosea 11, it seems as if the image is that of a parent’s concern over a wayward child. The chapter opens with God proclaiming love for the child Israel, whom God called forth out of Egypt. Here is a reminder that God rescued the Hebrew people from slavery in Egypt. Though God freed Israel from slavery in Egypt, Israel did not stay connected to the God who liberated it. Instead, as Hosea records, God declares:  “The more I called them, the more they went from me; they kept sacrificing to the Baals and offering incense to idols.” God is expressing frustration and concern for the child Israel. We see God’s compassion revealed here, but it is unrequited.

God refers to Israel using another name, that of Ephraim. We see here that parental image, as God speaks of teaching Ephraim to walk. Parents will resonate with this image, as they remember teaching their children to walk. The next phrase will also resonate with parents, as God speaks of taking Ephraim into God’s arms and healing them. Here we see the image of the concerned parent taking care of a sick child. From this image, we move rapidly to another parental image, that of a parent leading a child with kindness and love. We can imagine here a parent reaching down and taking the hand of a child and leading the child on a path, offering both support and guidance. All of this is wrapped in kindness and love. It’s rather beautiful imagery. But Hosea is not finished. We hear that God has reached down and picked up the child to the cheeks of a parent and then bends down to feed the child. Yes, the imagery is beautiful. It speaks of intimacy. This is not a distant God. This is a loving and compassionate God who is deeply involved in the lives of God’s children, but they don’t seem to recognize how God is involved. We might say that this anthropomorphic imagery, and yet it speaks to the heart. It helps us better understand how God might feel when God’s people walk away. Parents understand that feeling. So, it resonates.

While the opening verses offer this vision of the loving parent reaching out to care for their children, we move to a word of judgment. Although Israel as a nation still exists, or that is the assumption, the future doesn’t look good. Before too long, the nation will disappear in the wake of the Assyrian invasion. Why will Israel cease to exist? They did not return to God. They walked away and suffered the consequences. We might choose to use the parable of the prodigal son here as a lens. Though the prodigal does return and is restored, Israel’s fate is sealed forever. Hosea offers a picture of the devastation that occurs in the wake of the Assyrian invasion. “The sword rages in their cities, it consumes their oracle-priests, and devours because of their schemes.”  In other words, because Israel refuses to abide by the covenant God established with it, Israel will suffer because they refused to repent (return). When we reach verse 7, the reading is difficult to interpret. The verse reads: “My people are bent on turning away from me. To the Most High they call, but he does not raise them up at all.”  The reading is challenging because it seems as if the people have turned from Yahweh, who calls to them, to the Most High, who fails to respond.

When we come to verse 8, it appears that Yahweh is not quite ready to give up on Ephraim/Israel. God calls out to Ephraim: “How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel?” In this parallelism, we hear God’s plaintive cry. Israel/Ephraim may not be willing to repent and return, but God will continue to pursue, as a parent is likely to do. God says to Israel that God can’t treat it like Admah or Zeboiim, two cities that had been destroyed (Deut. 29:23-24). God is not ready to let this happen to Israel. God’s heart recoils at this eventuality. Instead, “compassion grows warm and tender.” So, God will not act out of anger and destroy Ephraim. Here is the promise, “I am God and no mortal, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath.”  We see in these verses God’s inner turmoil, as both wrath and compassion come together, such that God rejects taking a step toward the destruction of Israel. Compassion overcomes wrath, for as the Psalmist declares, God’s “steadfast love endures forever” (Ps. 107:1).

Hosea 11 has twelve verses, but the lectionary reading ends with verse 11. The focus here is on the forthcoming destruction. God’s compassion may stay God’s hand, but perhaps not forever. Israel will be destroyed. The verse that is omitted, verse 12, speaks of Judah’s faithfulness. Since the reading focuses on the northern kingdom, perhaps that is why it is omitted. But it seems to make sense to take it forward, since it does lift up Judah’s faithfulness, something Israel cannot finally provide. Nevertheless, verses 10 and 11 do promise redemption and a return to the land. As Anna Case-Winters writes:

Waywardness and its consequences do not have the last word. God’s intentions are still redemption, restoration, and return. The ones who have turned away, become disoriented, and wandered from home are not left to their own devices. They are called home, and like lion cubs responding to the summons of the parent lion, like doves with their homing instinct, they will return (vv. 10-11). The wayward children are still beloved children of a God who bends down and lifts up.  [Case-Winters, “Theological Perspective,” Feasting on the Word, p. 296].

This is the good news offered to us by the prophet Hosea: We might wander off, but God will remain faithful, beckoning us to come home. 

 Image Attribution: Gogh, Vincent van, 1853-1890. First Steps, after Millet, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=55507 [retrieved July 27, 2025]. Original source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1890_van_Gogh_First_Steps_-_after_Millet_anagoria.JPG.