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Hosea
Hosea 14:1-9

Today we're beginning a new preaching series for the summer - the Minor Prophets. Twelve weeks, twelve prophets, twelve words of comfort - 'major comforts from Minor Prophets.'

We use the word 'comfort' in a variety of ways. If we are cold, or would like to have a sense of warmth and security, we could pull a 'comforter' over us. The reality of cold winters and drafty houses in upstate NY might lead us to install 'Comfort Windows.' If a loved one dies, or if we are going through distressing times, the words and expressions of others can be a 'comfort' to us. If we feel at ease and restful on a couch we are 'comfortable,' just as we are on an 80 day in a hammock under a shady tree with a book and an ant-free glass of lemonade.

When we talk about 'comfort' from a biblical perspective, we are talking about that which reassures; that which gives strength; that which renews hope; that which gives encouragement - even if it is exhortative in nature.

I've been steeping in the Minor Prophets for a few years now. I've read them several times. I've led a Bible Study through them all - some twice. I've written a full-fledged commentary on Zechariah, that I would love to see published someday. And it's from the overflow of God's blessing to me that I hope this summer will be a time of great comfort and refreshment to you spiritually. The LORD's charge to the prophet Isaiah has, in a sense, become my charge this summer, 'Comfort ye, comfort ye My people' (Isaiah 40:1, KJV). The Minor Prophets, though they sounded the alarm of judgment against Israel's idolatry and unfaithfulness under the Old Testament from about 840 to 415 BC, also gave tremendous words of comfort.

Listen again to the comforting words of God through His prophet, Hosea:

I will heal their apostasy, I will love them freely, for My anger has turned away from them. I will be like the dew to Israel; He will blossom like the lily, and he will take root like the cedars of Lebanon. His shoots will sprout, and his beauty will be like the olive tree and his fragrance like the cedars of Lebanon. Those who live in his shadow will again raise grain, and they will blossom like the vine. His renown will be like the wine of Lebanon. O Ephraim, what more have I to do with idols? It is I who answer and look after you. I am like a luxuriant cypress; from Me comes your fruit - Hosea 14:4-8

Comfort is basic to the character of God. The Bible refers to God as the Father of mercies and God of all comfort' (2 Corinthians 1:3). Comfort originates with God. He Himself is the source of all comfort.

Comfort is basic to the ministry of the Holy Spirit. When Jesus returned to heaven, He sent the Holy Spirit to be 'another Comforter' to His disciples (John 14:16). Even as Jesus led His disciples to know the gospel comforts of God the Father, so the Holy Spirit would apply all the benefits of Jesus' salvation to His people.

Comfort is basic to the substance of prophecy. The Bible says, 'One who prophecies speaks to men for edification and exhortation and consolation' (1 Corinthians 14:3). Since the Triune God is and gives comfort, it follows, then, that His Word is a central means by which He extends His comfort to His people. Hosea, and his eleven colleagues whose prophecies are filed at the back of the Old Testament, were but a means God used to comfort His people.

Comfort is basic to the lifestyle of believers. After Paul presented the great truth of the resurrection and eternal hope of God's people, he said, 'Comfort one another with these words' (1 Thessalonians 4:18). I.e., it is the responsibility of God's people, as they hear and receive His Word, to speak that to each other as a means of mutual comfort.

And so that really gives the direction for our summer. We see the triune God as a God of comfort, who gives us His word of comfort, in order that we may comfort one another.

Now let's look at the text. The comfort God extends to you is found in the three 'I will' statements of vv.4-5:

I will heal their apostasy. I will love them freely. I will be like the dew to Israel.

1. He will heal your apostasy (v.4a)
'Apostasy' or 'falling away' refers to a heart departure from God. A concise summary is found at 11:7, 'My people are bent on turning from Me. Though they [the prophets] call them to the One on high, none at all exalts Him.'

Notice the subjects of apostasy - 'My people.' Notice the departure from God - 'turning from Me.' Note the intensity of it - 'they are 'bent on turning.' Note their refusal of correction - 'though the prophets call them.' And note their withdrawal from their chief end - 'none at all exalts Him.'

Apostasy is a leaving of God. Like Israel, apostates are those, who despite warning and admonition, are bent on turning from God and the worship of Him. An apostate knows the truth, but turns from the truth to pursue his own things. Apostates may not always do this openly, though. They may do it secretly, so they think, as Paul spoke to Timothy of those 'holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power' (2 Timothy 3:5). Apostates, though perhaps professors of salvation in the eyes of men, are not possessors of salvation in the eyes of God.

We could illustrate apostasy by considering Harvard or Yale universities. They began as seminaries for the training of Reformed pastors. Now they are bastions of humanism and anti-Christian bias. Harvard's original 'Rules and Precepts' of 1646 read, 'Every one shall consider the main end of his life and studies to know God and Jesus Christ which is eternal life.' Imagine putting that before the entering and graduating classes today! In fact, every Ivy League School founded before the mid-1800's is an apt illustration of apostasy - they have turned from, and no longer support, their beginning cause.

Apostasy characterized Israel. There she was, having fled from God, going after the sins of the nations - ignorance, swearing, deception, murder, stealing, adultery, and coveting (Hosea 4:1-2 / 7:14). Their Law forbade these things, but they turned away from God to them. There they were, running in the lush, easy paths of sin. But after a point, every step they took in that direction became a cutting of their arms on the briars, a slicing at their legs from the thicket. The sun burned their backs. The heat and dusty winds dried their mouths. Their sweat stung their eyes. Their feet stumbled over rocks and they became greatly injured. There they were running in a lush, easy path, but arriving with gashes and wounds in a dry and lonely place without any water to strengthen them, without any bandages for all their wounds.

But Israel's apostasy illustrated something greater. It illustrated that in Adam all have fallen away. It was but a wallet size picture of humanity's fall and apostasy in Adam.

You once stood with Adam in righteousness and holiness. But when your father Adam fell away because of sin, you fell away because of his sin. And you've spent many a day wandering in the hot, lonely, empty desert of sin. Perhaps some of you are still there. It started by going beyond the limit. But when you found that you were beyond the limit, everything seemed just the same. So you went further, and further, and further. And there you are now, like Israel, battered by your own sin - weary, thirsty, bleeding, helpless.

Is there anyone who can help in that desert? Surely, for Israel, no help came from the nations to which they looked! The nations used Israel, just as men use a prostitute. People today look, as it were, to a desert pile of rocks, or a dried stick, or a clump of sand when in reality there is nothing in the worldly desert that can help their miserable soul. There is nothing there to heal a heart that has defected from God. Entertainment can't. Religions can't. Money can't. Possessions can't. Relationships can't. Things can't.

So is there anyone who can help the garden-fled, weary sinner in his arid wasteland?

There is - the God from whom he ran. What a major comfort! Of all people you would expect to meet! The One from whom men run is the one who, surprisingly, meets them at the other end - God - 'I will heal their apostasy.'

But He doesn't go to all the healthy people walking around in the desert (and surprisingly, there are many). He doesn't go to the thirsty person who is expecting the cactus to give him a drink. He doesn't go to the sun-baked who are expecting the cool night air to refresh them. He doesn't go to those with broken legs but instead shout to Him with a wave, 'I'm alright, just give me a minute or two. I'll be fine!' He doesn't go to those paralyzed who are too busy yelling to others for help. He doesn't give His help to the group by the crusty tree that is confident 'they'll get through it soon.'

He goes to those who are utterly incapacitated, needy - and knowing it. He goes to those who are sorrowfully eager to return to the garden once again. God is there. And He looks upon these desert wounded and says, 'I will heal their apostasy.' God here reveals Himself as the Great Physician; the LORD who 'heals the brokenhearted and binds up all their wounds' (Psalm 147:3). As Hosea said earlier in his prophecy, 'He has torn us, but He will heal us. He has wounded us, but He will bandage us' (Hosea 6:1-2). And even as Isaiah said, 'I have seen his ways, but I will heal him; I will lead him and restore comfort to him' (Isaiah 57:18). For those of you with ears to hear, the God who wounds is the God who heals. The God who chastens is the God who comforts.

Do you consider your departure from God in Adam as a grievous wound or a mortal disease? That is what they are. If God doesn't heal you, you will die in the desert of sin. Are you merely yelling to other desert wanderers in your brokenness or paralysis? The true confession of the sorrowful desert wanderer is seen at vv.2-3, 'Take away all iniquity [not just forgive it, take away all iniquity - not just some of it] and receive us graciously in order that we may present our lips as bulls. Assyria will not save us. We will not ride on horses. Nor will we say again, 'Our god,' to the work of our hands; for in You the orphan finds mercy.' And he finds it in God alone, a new Father through the Lord Jesus Christ, which leads to a second comfort:

2. He will love you freely (v.4b-c)
What is the moving cause for any good thing God does? It is love. The first comfort revealed God as a Healer. This second reveals God as a Lover.

God shows a love of benevolence to all men in that He blesses them with good things. He gives children to parents. He gives toys to children. He gives adults and children happy and memorable experiences. He allows for fun vacations. He gives good weather - either for the planting of the garden, or for the watering of the garden (like He's done this Memorial Day Weekend). In this sense God loves all people, at every time, in every place, in many ways.

But the love God announced through Hosea is a special love, shown to special people, in a special way, in connection with a special Person. As it was said earlier in the prophecy, 'When Israel was a youth I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son' (Hosea 11:1). The love of God which heals apostasy is a redemptive love. It is a love that overcomes sin. It is a love that overcomes sinners and even the love they have for their sin. It is a love that removes them from the dominion and oppression of sin, even as Israel was removed from the dominion and oppression of Egypt.

And what is so comforting about this word of God through Hosea is the manner in which God loves. God says, 'I will love them freely.' The same word is used at Psalm 68:10 to describe 'plentiful rains' - rains that were very full and constant; 'heavy rain' we might say. The idea is an abundant, extensive, far-reaching love of God that brings true, thorough comfort for sinners, as Israel was comforted upon leaving Egypt. 'I led them…with bonds of love,' God said (11:4).

It is a love that stretches back into the very halls of eternity. For there God the Father 'in love predestined us (who believe) to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved' (Ephesians 1:4-6). Isn't that marvelous?! 'In love…adoption…freely bestowed!' And it's all 'in the Beloved.'

Brothers and sisters in Christ, it is a comfort of comforts to know that the love of God for us is of the same extent, intensity, and freeness as it is to His very own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ! Do you doubt that? Do you believe that God loves Jesus in a more special sense or way than He does you? Think on that very deeply! If you are a believer, does God love you any less than He loves Jesus? Is the love of God 'only so' free and plentiful toward you? Or is it all consuming?

The love of God for redeemed sinners is no different than His love for His very own Son! Listen to what Jesus prayed. He prayed for the unity of His people with Him and the Father, 'that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them (His disciples), even as You have loved Me' (John 17:23). To be 'predestined to adoption as sons' means that we are given full family rights with the Father. Are adopted children inferior to the parents' biological children? May it never be! Woe to any parent who makes a distinction that God Himself does not make. God said, 'I will love them freely.'

It is a love so free and plentiful that what God spoke through Jeremiah to Israel of old is true for you believers today, 'I have loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore I have drawn you with lovingkindness' (Jeremiah 31:3). The love of God for His people is not only from eternity to eternity, it not only predestines to adoption, but it is the basis on and means by which God draws sinners from their apostasy and sin - 'I have loved you…Therefore I have drawn you in lovingkindness.' Surely, God has 'loved us freely!'

But you may say, 'How can God heal the apostasy of some who withdraw from Him? How can He freely love them for that?'

Note the reason given in the passage, 'for My anger has turned away from them.' God can (and does) freely love some who have apostatized from Him 'because His anger has been turned away from them.'

But how did He do that? He can't just blink it away, can He?

God, being jealous, is angry at sinners. God, being holy, must punish sin. God, being just, did punish sin (and apostasy) in the death of Jesus Christ. The Bible calls the satisfying of God's just and holy anger against sin a 'propitiation.' Jesus, as the High Priest, made 'propitiation for the sins of the people' (Hebrews 2:17). As John said of Christ, 'He Himself is the propitiation for our sins' (1 John 2:2). 'In this is love, not that we loved God' - surely not; we ran away from Him! - 'but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins' (1 John 4:10). That is the love Hosea announced God would give, and for this reason, 'freely.'

And knowing these things as true, propelled by this very free love of God, 'Jesus, knowing that His hour had come that He would depart out of this world, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end' (John 13:1). 'I will love them freely.' And even in the shadow of the approaching cross, after the departure of Judas for his wicked deed, this same One got up from supper, laid aside His garments, took a towel, poured water in a basin, and began to wash the feet of His disciples' (13:4-5). What amazing, abiding, abundant, intense, and free love!

Although the love God gives to His people is given 'freely' (as it is translated) the word could also be rendered 'voluntarily' - 'I will love them voluntarily.' It is the word used for OT words like 'freewill offering' or 'willingly' (Leviticus 7:16 / Psalm 54:8). At Psalm 110:3, those who come to Messiah in the day of His power are characterized by 'willingness;' freedom of the will (if you have ears to hear).

In light of the free love of God in Christ at Calvary, as noted, it is helpful to consider this sense of the word. God, in a special way, to people He sees as special, loves voluntarily. He is not obligated to love in that way - they forsook Him! But because of His purpose in Jesus Christ, He has bound Himself to those people and so loves them that way. And so He sent Jesus as a Savior. It was entirely of love - free love, voluntary love.

Jesus said, 'The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sheep…I lay down my life…No one has taken it from Me, but I lay it down on my own initiative' (John 10:11,17-18). As the Apostle Paul said often, 'He gave Himself' for His people (Titus 2:14 / 1 Timothy 2:6 / Galatians 1:4; 2:20). The death of Jesus, a demonstration of free and plentiful love, was also a voluntary death.

No wonder why the Apostle John could say, 'We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us' (1 John 3:16). Or as Jesus said, 'Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends' (John 15:13). There is no freer love of God than through the greatest love possible shown in the death of Christ.

Hosea said just that: the free love of God comes through the voluntary death of Christ. He spoke of Christ - Christ, who by His death turned away God's anger against us, Christ who by His death opened the fountain of God's love for sin and impurity, Christ who healed our apostasy! 'He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things' (Romans 8:32)? May God open our hearts and minds that we may 'know the things freely given to us by God' (1 Corinthians 2:12).

And this leads us to a final, major comfort of God. He will heal your apostasy. He will love you freely. And finally:

3. He will bless you profusely (vv.5-8)
God is a Healer, a Lover, and according to this statement, a Benefactor. He blesses those He has redeemed by the blood of Christ. Those who once wandered in arid deserts He brings to live in a fruitful land. Notice the delicious imagery of vv.5-6:

'I will be like the dew to Israel' - God will refresh and revive the dry, thirsty soul. 'He will blossom like the lily' - Life will come where there was death and dormancy. 'He will take root like the cedars of Lebanon' - There will be permanence and stability. 'His shoots will sprout' - Fruit will form and be evident. 'His beauty will be like the olive tree' - What sin made ugly will become beautiful and prosperous. 'His fragrance will be like the cedars of Lebanon' - You will be 'a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing' (2 Corinthians 2:15).

But I draw an additional point from vv.7-8. Israel was to be a light to the nations. They were to reflect the covenant love of God so that the nations would receive a like blessing (see Psalm 67). But Israel's sin meant that 'the name of God was blasphemed among the Gentiles' (Romans 2:24). How could blessing come to them? Can a clogged hose deliver water to the flowers?

But if God has done a work of restoration in you through the gospel of Christ, the nations - 'those who live in Israel's shadow,' v.7 - should receive the blessing of the gospel. As it says, 'They will again raise grain. They will blossom like the vine.' It should be our expectation that, as God has spoken, people will come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ in connection with what God has done in and for us. Note that at the end of v.8. God says, 'I am like a luxuriant cypress; from Me comes your fruit.' Fruit does not come from us. Jesus put it similarly:

Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing….You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain (John 15:4-5, 16).

Do you expect that? Do you expect people to come to a knowledge of Jesus Christ through your witness? And if you do, how do you show that in your day to life? Do you take opportunities to befriend the lost? Do you pray for them and opportunities to share the gospel? Do you walk in faith through those opportunities when they arrive? Do you look for the profuse blessing of God not only toward you or in you, but through you to others? It is God' purpose that 'the desert be glad and the southern desert rejoice and blossom like the crocus profusely to rejoice with shouts of joy to see the glory of the LORD and the majesty of our God' (Isaiah 35:1-2).

What shall we say to these things? There are major comforts through the Minor Prophets. And your comfort should consist in knowing that God has healed your apostasy. God has loved you freely. God has blessed you profusely. 'Freely you have received, freely give.'