The Compassion of God

Hos 11:1-9 When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt. 2 As they called them, so they went from them: they sacrificed unto Baalim, and burned incense to graven images. 3 I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms; but they knew not that I healed them. 4 I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love: and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them. 5 He shall not return into the land of Egypt, but the Assyrian shall be his king, because they refused to return. 6 And the sword shall abide on his cities, and shall consume his branches, and devour them, because of their own counsels. 7 And my people are bent to backsliding from me: though they called them to the most High, none at all would exalt him. 8 How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee, Israel? how shall I make thee as Admah? how shall I set thee as Zeboim? mine heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together. 9 I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man; the Holy One in the midst of thee: and I will not enter into the city.

Ps 145:8-9 The LORD is gracious, and full of compassion ; slow to anger, and of great mercy. 9 The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.

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Now that we come to the last four chapters of Hosea, we find an interesting change in subject matter and in layout. Here is a good time to review what we have learned thus far, as it will help us better understand the current lesson. Hosea is a unique book in that the beginning and the ending is quite different from the middle. In the first three chapters, we find the story of the prophet's life, his marriage to a woman who proved unfaithful, and the curious command of God to buy her back after she had wasted her life and body away so that she was only worth half the price of a common slave. Hosea's taking back of his unfaithful wife and loving her and restoring her as the woman of his household, mirrored God's love to Israel that had been unfaithful to Him. The first three chapters of Hosea are unique in that the story of the prophet is intertwined with the story of God and His people.

Beginning in chapter 4 and continuing on through chapter 10, we find a lifetimes worth of preaching from Hosea about the sins of Israel, and the coming judgment of God as a result of those sins. In chapter 4, we learned that Ephraim, or the northern tribes of Israel had joined themselves to idol worship in the golden calf of Samaria. The prophet thundered a warning across the border to the southern region of Judah: "Ephraim is joined to idols; leave him alone." In chapter 5, we find that because of their idolatry, God has departed from Israel, and even though His presence is absent, He has held off the judgment for a short while to see if they will still repent and turn back to Him. Chapter 6 begins with one of the most beautiful calls and appeals for repentance in scripture with Hosea urging the people to come back to Jehovah God for "He will heal us." The rest of chapter 6 outlines the greatest "difficulty of God" in that the people made a show of repentance after this great preaching but really did not change, and their "goodness was as the morning dew" therefore putting God in a difficult situation, wanting to answer their prayers but unable to because they were not faithful long enough for Him to do so. Chapter 7 outlined the root of the problem with Israel was a failure to be "real" with themselves about their need of Him and God used the concept of "they have gray hairs and knoweth it not" to point out the irony of their need for God that they neglected to see. In Chapter 8, Hosea pointed out that the nation of Israel had "mislaid God" or removed Him from His proper place and revealed to us the signs of a nation that has mislaid God, which we found chillingly mirrored the issues of modern day America. In Chapter 9, we find a spirit and an attitude that rose up among the people because of their sinfulness that disregarded the true man of God as a little too extreme and overboard and they said "the prophet is a fool, the man of the spirit is mad." We discussed how that this attitude of "the prophet is mad" has always arisen in every generation against a true man of God with a message from the Almighty. In Chapter 10, we find that Israel is compared to a "degenerate vine" that has everything that it needs to produce good fruit for God, but uses the blessings of God to produce what it wants rather than the perfect will of God. And so we have had seven lessons based upon seven middle chapters of the problems of Israel and the judgment that would come as a result of their sinfulness and lack of faithfulness.

Now in the last four chapters there is a change in focus from the judgment of God to the love of God. And it is presented in a unique way with Jehovah God speaking directly and then the prophet Hosea speaking, and so forth in alternation. Jehovah God will speak of His love for Israel, and then Hosea will break in and point out their sins and their shortcomings only to be followed by the prophet again and so on. There are seven such alternations in these last four chapters and for the record the divisions are like this:

11:1-12:1 Jehovah speaks

12:2-6 Hosea speaks

12:7-11 Jehovah speaks

12:12-13:1 Hosea speaks

13:2-14 Jehovah speaks

13:15-14:3 Hosea speaks

14:4-9 Jehovah speaks

The book ends, as all stories will eventually end, with God having the last word! A quick glance shows that all of chapter 11 is Jehovah God's direct speech about Israel. Without any further discussion, let's get to the verses of our text.

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After seven chapters of judgment and calls of repentance from the prophet, God begins in chapter 11 to reminisce and think back to His dealings with Israel.

Hos 11:1-2 When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt. 2 As they called them, so they went from them: they sacrificed unto Baalim, and burned incense to graven images.

There have been 750 years that have gone by since Moses led the people of Israel out of Egypt. This is where God begins and He sums up that despite all that He has done for this people, when the idolaters called to them, the left Jehovah God and began to worship idols.

Hos 11:3-4 I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms; but they knew not that I healed them. 4 I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love: and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them.

Here God remembers how good that He has been to Israel. He was their nurse and protector teaching them to walk and guiding them as they slowly grew in spirituality and as a nation separated unto God. He was their healer and the binder up of their wounds, although they did not even realize that He was doing so and they did not become aware that the reasons things always seemed to work out right in the end was because God was secretly fighting for them.

In verse 4, we find that God says "I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love" a metaphor that He was their husband who loved them and cared for them and nurtured them, cherishing the time that He spent with His beloved. He then goes on to say "and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws" a figure of speech which calls to mind oxen returning at sunset to the barn after a hard day's labor and having the halter and the yoke and bit removed off of them and being given a good rub down with hay and being fed and watered and provided a quiet, safe place to rest throughout the night. God said "I removed from them the yokes that were heavy and labor some from this people who were slaves in Egypt and slaves to their sin." "I was their caretaker." And then the final thought, was "and I laid meat unto them." In other words, "I was a servant unto to my people, providing for their most basic needs and everyday cares and desires."

How true it was that God had been good to His people and had been faithful and everything that the needed! The result? His people had turned from worshipping Him in truth and to worshipping idols. In verses 5 and 6 of this verse we find that even some of them had been talking about "returning to Egypt" for a better life. Just 750 years after God had wrought great miracles through the hand of Moses to answer the people's cry for help as slaves in Egypt and has brought them to the promised land, a good land flowing with every blessing that they could possibly want and this people, the objects of God's affections and care and blessings had sunk so far that there were some thinking of returning to the land in which they had first been slaves. Time and carnality, it would seem, has a way of making people forget how horrible it was to be a slave. And as God sums up the history of the people of Israel, He finishes by the sad statement:

Hos 11:7 And my people are bent to backsliding from me: though they called them to the most High, none at all would exalt him.

God's sad words are: "despite all that I have done for my people, they are bent on backsliding and going the opposite way." This is God taking stock of His precious people with truthfulness after 750 years of a cycle of unfaithfulness. I don't know if God can be depressed or not, but there is certainly suffering in these words. God is suffering for His people's lack of devotion and faithfulness and love. He has done everything that He could and all that was possibly needed and here, the objects of His affection and love have turned their backs on Him once again. They have once again chosen immediate physical gratification to replace spiritual relationship. They have once again done whatever they felt like doing, rather than being faithful to the God that has given them everything from the food on their table to the breath to wake up and eat. God is suffering because despite hoping and believing in the best of humanity, He has once again been greeted with total disregard and irreverence for His feelings and care. If God was a husband to Israel, He has been totally humiliated by an unfaithful wife. If He has been the Good Shepherd, then His sheep who have everything that they could possibly want, have responded by doing everything that they can to get out of the fold and away from Him. God is suffering because the bright object of His affection cares less about Him!

Let's think for a moment just how sinful and bent on backsliding Israel has always been. Merely weeks after being delivered from Egypt in the time of Moses, they were complaining in the wilderness "did you bring us into this wilderness to die? At least we had onions and garlic and water in Egypt!" And when they finally laid eyes on the Promised Land, rather than believe God and take the land that was shown them, they doubted and chose to die in the wilderness. After the next generation took the land and moved into the wonderful blessings that God had provided, they neglected to drive out all of the inhabitants of the land as God has told them and their negligence led to them being influenced by the idol worshipping Canaanites. That God's people who had experienced the miraculous power of God unlike no other people would turn to worshipping idols of stone and wood was amazing, but Israel did time and time again throughout the judges and into the times of the kings. There were some bright times, sure, especially under Samuel's rule and the reign of King David, but for the most part, Israel had spent the 700 years or so after their exodus from Egypt in various stages of backsliding or slowly coming back to God. And now, in the time of Hosea, God has sent a fireball preacher of truth to passionately pull with his sermons and his life story to Israel to repent and they have this time refused to come back. We have had decades of preaching from Hosea and yet God has to admit that this people is "bent on backsliding." They will rather worship their gods of Baal and Molech than the true living God who redeemed them out of Egypt.

I'm painting you a dark picture, and the picture gets even darker when you begin to study the religions of Baal and these other idols to which Israel was worshipping. I have a friend in Mississippi who is taking a Biblical Archeology course in a local seminary. Recently he shared with me what he had learned about the idol worship of the Canaanites.

They worshipped their idols in groves of trees and nearby their hillside "temples" were what were called "tophets." There are no tophet remains in Israel today to find because Josiah did just as the Bible says that he did and destroyed all of the groves and all of these tophets, but outside of Israel there are plenty of tophets to Baal and Molech and so from studying these we can get a better idea of exactly what kind of idol worship, Israel of old was involved. What is a tophet? A tophet was the cemetery erected for the purpose of burying the ash and the bone remains of the infants and children that were offered as living sacrifices into the fires of the idols of Baal and Molech and Asherah. My friend told of one tophet that they have found in Carthage as being about two football fields in size and packed with layer upon layer of human ashes and bones from children. The archeologists that discovered the site estimated that in any given year there were up to 10,000 babies offered to this god and then buried in this cemetery. This particular tophet was in active operation for 600 years. You do the math. It's so horrible that is sounds unrealistic, but it happened and we have found some of the remains.

There were many such tophets in Israel during the time of Hosea. Now perhaps you can better appreciate just how evil the idolatry was among the Canaanites. Their worship was two-fold: open prostitution and fornication, and the resulting babies were then offered live into a hot fire as a human sacrifice to their false gods. That is why God was so harsh in ordering the Israelites to kill all of the Canaanites lest they learn their ways. Not only did Israel not obey God, but by the time of Hosea they had gotten to such a place where their conscience was so seared that they could go on the Sabbath and offer a lamb to Jehovah God holding their new born baby that would be offered the following day to an idol. I could preach to you an entire message of how it is always the children that suffer most from false religion! But for now I want you to see just how horrible and how far the nation of Israel had sunk by the time of Hosea. No wonder that God had spent seven chapters of messages outlining the horrible judgments that awaited them unless they repented and to me it is even a wonder that God gave such people a chance at repentance at all! And now that they have utterly and completely rejected their opportunity to repent and to receive mercy, surely that judgment will fall with even greater ferociousness!

Now I am not God and will never claim to be. I'm like the little old lady who declared at the end of her life that she only knew two things for sure: 1. That there is a God and 2. "I'm not He!" But for the sake of this message and the point that I'm trying to get across, let's place ourselves in the great "what if I were God." How would I respond to such a people, that had repeatedly turned their backs on my word and blessings despite me giving them everything and making everything available? To me -- to my human mind thinking by logic alone -- this people of Israel deserves to be toasted. Failing to go into the Promised Land the first time was bad enough, and offering your babies as sacrifices to idols is reason enough, but they also rejected the anointed and to-the-point plea of Hosea to repent and turn back to God? If I were God, I'd push the little red button. I know that He's already promised that He'd never destroy the earth with water again like He did when He started over with Noah's family, but He could get creative. To me this would be a good time to beam Hosea and his family to another continent, reach down and tweak a comet or star just enough to that it landed about where Jerusalem is, and get rid of this bunch of faithless, ungrateful, baby-killing, fornicating people!! Start over with Hosea and Gomer. It would be a good story for preachers to preach about later on, and would make every self-righteous person feel justified in hammering those more sinful than you, and besides that, why waste your time with a bunch of people who were delivered from a Pharaoh who wanted to kill their babies and who now are doing so voluntarily?!! The voice of intellect and of human logic would say that these people are a waste. Toast em all! Give the angels lightening bolts and put a grand prize for the best shot! In my mind, if there were ever a reason to get rid of a particular race of people because of sin, then God has it here. "Toast em God!!" And I'll bet Hosea felt exactly like some of what I have just expressed.

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BUT, that's NOT what God says. In fact, despite the suffering of God over their unfaithfulness, a most remarkable attitude emerges from the thought process of God. Look carefully at verse 8 of our text:

Hos 11:8 How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee, Israel? how shall I make thee as Admah? how shall I set thee as Zeboim? mine heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together.

How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? How shall I deliver you to the enemy to be destroyed, my beloved child, Israel? And then God makes an even more interesting statement. He says: "how shall I make thee as Admah? how shall I set thee as Zeboim?" God mentions two cities that I'll bet you off handedly aren't familiar with. They are only mentioned in scripture two other times, but they were nearby villages to Sodom and Gomorrah that were destroyed when God rained down fire upon those wicked, homosexual cities in Abraham and Lot's day. They are mentioned as being destroyed only by the phrase "and the surrounding cities and plains" were destroyed. Admah? Zeboim? It's been 900 years since Sodom and Gomorrah were burnt up, and nobody even remembers that the towns of Admah and Zeboim were destroyed. Nobody except Moses (Deuteronomy 29:23) has even thought of those little towns that were toasted since then, but God has not forgotten. He is still thinking about the fact that He destroyed them and what a horrible fate it was. Oh, they deserved the punishment and God was justified in His judgment and God didn't make a mistake. But, the fates of those people that everyone else has let slip in their memory, God has not forgotten. In His heart, He is still mourning that it got to the place that they had to be destroyed, because they were His people, made in His image, and His beloved creation.

And so there is a great revelation of the character and mercy of God here. He continues on to say "mine heart is turned within me" or literally "my thoughts are in a turmoil." And the He says "my repentings are kindled together." That is an unfortunate translation because it obscures the meaning of what God is trying to say. The word translated here "repentings" is always translated in the rest of scripture as "compassion." Listen quickly to some of the other translations:

Hos 11:8b My heart recoils within Me; My compassions are kindled together. AMP

Hos 11:8b My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused. NIV

Hos 11:8b My heart recoils within me, my compassion grows warm and tender. RSV

Hos 11:8b My heart is torn within me, and my compassion overflows. NLT

God will not take the attitude that we have expressed and toast Israel! His mercy will be involved, not because of something that Israel has done, but because of His great compassion! Look at what He says in the very next verse:

Hos 11:9 I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man; the Holy One in the midst of thee: and I will not enter into the city.

Listen to how many times God uses the word "I!" "I will not execute the fierceness." "I will not return to destroy." "I am God." "The Holy ONE." "I will not enter into." If I heard someone use "I" that many times in such a short statement, I would think that they were "full of themselves." And yet the only time that we find God "full of Himself" is when it comes to His mercy and compassion! God's most selfish sounding statement is actually a great revelation of unselfishness! If God is going to be overboard to a fault about something, then is will be in being merciful to His precious people!

They're idolaters God and they have proven time and time again that they are unfaithful to you. "Yes, but they are my people, and as I think about destroying them, my compassion is stirred up and my mercy begins to consume me!" But God, they care less about your word and your prophet and even less about being real with you. "Yes, I know, they are going to experience judgment because of their sin, but I can't bring myself to completely destroy them and start over, because I still love them." But God, they are killing babies, taking the life that you have given them, worse than almost any other generation and doing it in worship to false gods that they themselves have created. "I know it and I hate their horrible sin, but I love them more than they even realize. I'll let Assyria come in and punish them, but I just can't bring myself to destroy them and stop dealing with them because my compassion moves me!" "I'm still thinking about the cities of Admah and Zeboim, and what if I had just sent one more prophet to them?"

Such compassion and love for us goes beyond our ability to comprehend. It goes beyond our emotions and intellect and ability to rationalize. God, you see, loves you so much more than you will even be able to understand! The Psalmist was trying to put in words when he said in our other text:

Ps 145:8-9 The LORD is gracious, and full of compassion ; slow to anger, and of great mercy. 9 The LORD is good to all: and his tender mercies are over all his works.

Our words can't really describe it, but let's just say that God is "full of compassion!" He is of "great mercy!" "He's good to all! and His tender mercies are over all his works!" In other words, even when God doles out judgment, His mercy is there moving Him and affecting that judgment! Even when God is vindicated and justified in destroying such a wicked generation, yet His mercy allows punishment for sin, but refuses to implement the maximum. Why? Because God has great compassion that goes far beyond anything that you and I would ever be able to even understand. He'll let Assyria and another kingdom deal out judgment to Israel for their sins, but He will not Himself come against them and destroy them. They deserve it, but God's mercy is greater than their guilt!

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And so I close this message with two simple thoughts based upon practical experience in mine own living for God.

First, if you live for God any length of time, you will one day come to a point where you stand face to face with how horrible you are compared with God's holiness. This comes somewhat at Repentance before you were baptized, but I'm talking more about a later revelation that comes when you have been striving for perfection and righteousness and in trying to fulfill the will of God, you are constantly reminded of how sinful you are. It seems that just when you have prayed and fasted and worked on this area enough to get it right, then another area pops up upon which God needs to work. And just when you finally get that area in subjection, then all of a sudden another area of deficiency, which you thought was not a problem in your life, all of a sudden arises. And just when you and the Holy Ghost and the Word of God get that in subjection, then all of a sudden you find that the first area that you thought you had conquered, needs some realigning again.

In all of this, it's easy to become discouraged and give up. It's easy to realize that "I'm not quite as good as I thought I was." It's not always pleasant to be the clay on the potter's wheel. But when you are discouraged and feel like "throwing in the towel," that's when you need to remember the great, wonderful, beyond comprehension of the compassion and mercy of God! If He would hold back His wrath and give the evil people of Hosea's day a chance to repent, then He will forgive you if you do likewise! That's not a license to sin willfully, but it is a license to get back up again and try to move forward and overcome your flesh one more time! If you do, you'll find that God's compassion and mercy is greater than you can even imagine. Some of you have made mistakes since you came to God that you can't forget and that you can't mentally get over. You need to be reminded that the compassion and the love and the mercy of God for His people goes beyond your ability to think it out! Therefore, you need to stop trying to resolve the issue in your mind and understand it and allow His forgiveness and compassion that is beyond compare and human logic to give you the strength to get up again!

The second simple lesson, is that there will be times in living for God that everything is going smoothly and that you have reached a spiritual level that you have never achieved before. There is a tendency there to get proud and look down on someone who is battling something that you have at this point overcome. There is a tendency to be like Hosea and need God to speak to you and remind you of His great love and compassion and mercy for such people. When you have all of your ducks in a row, you'd better learn to be merciful to someone else that isn't so fortunate, because there will come a day that the tables will change and that you will be hurt and vulnerable and that other brother or sister will be spiritually on the mountaintop. Remember when you are flying high and everything seems to be going your way, there will come a time that you will need mercy from the very ones that need mercy from you! And so at such times of victory and achievement, you too need to be reminded of the compassion of God. It goes beyond your comprehension. He loves the unloveable. He loves the down and out. He loves the losers of this world. He still thinks about the people of the forgotten and wicked Admah and Zeboim! And if that is true, He continues to love and be very much interested in the person in His kingdom that trips. Get a revelation of the compassion of God and allow it to temper your reactions to those who are living more sinful than you. His compassion goes beyond human logic. We truly serve a great and a merciful God!

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How these words must have shocked the prophet Hosea as he penned them under the anointing of the Holy Ghost. Just as adamant and as fervent as He was against sin and against idolatry, so is God toward giving you a second chance and of tempering His judgment with mercy! I don't know who named Hosea, maybe it was God or just a whim of his father and mother. But his name, along with his story and messages of God's mercy touches forward to the greatest show of compassion of God in history. "Hosea" you see, means "Jehovah has become salvation." It is the same name that would be given to a baby boy that would be born to Mary, even though we commonly call Him by His name transliterated from the Greek. That's right "Jesus" is "Hosea" in Greek! "Jesus" means "Jehovah has become salvation!" And unlike, Hosea, Jesus fulfilled His name completely and totally because He really was "Jehovah God come to earth to bring salvation!" He really was the Emmanuel or "God with us!"

God would allow the generation of Hosea's time to reap the wages of their sin. Assyria would come in and carry many of them off into exile never to return. But despite their wickedness, God could not bring Himself to annihilate them; to cut them off completely! He said in Hosea "I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man; the Holy One in the midst of thee:."

And now listen to the words of the demons in the unclean man in the synagogue who cried out loud to Jesus Christ and who knew who He was:

Mark 1:24 Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God.

Now times have changed and the plan and compassion of which we get a great and glorious albeit brief glimpse in Hosea is fully revealed! The Holy One has not simply refused to turn His back upon His people in Hosea's time but in Jesus Christ, the Holy One has come to be among the same people to save them! And though born in Bethlehem, Jesus has been raised in Nazareth to the north and will spend the vast majority of His time ministering in Galilee to the north, in the land that once in Hosea's time was referred to as "Ephraim." Realize the implications of what God says:

"I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man; the Holy One in the midst of thee:."

No, God you will not return to destroy Ephraim, but you will return to save Ephraim! And no, you are not man, yet, but you shall be when that "holy thing" is born of Mary! And that Holy One that is walking about Galilee healing the blinded eyes and casting out devils is both God and man, God become a man, literally Hosea, literally Jesus, "Jehovah become salvation!" And so we find hidden even in the words of the prophet Hosea, a glimpse of the ultimate revelation of God's great compassion and mercy. Instead of visiting them with the wrath and judgment that their sins deserves, He will visit them with mercy and salvation and will willingly lay down His life for our sins! What compassion and what love! It's perfectly acceptable to live your life in awe of the great compassion of God! His mercy goes beyond anything that we can comprehend! Hosea caught a glimpse of something that we can look squarely at and marvel: the compassion of God!