The first main emphasis of the book of Hosea is the metaphor of Hosea’s marriage with the harlot Gomer. Their three children were also metaphors. The son Jezreel symbolized that God would avenge the bloodshed of Jezreel (2 Kings 10:1-11) upon the house of Jehu and would bring an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel (2 Kings 15:10-12). The daughter Lo-ruhamah symbolized that God would no longer have compassion on the house of Israel. The son Lo-ammi symbolized that Israel was not God’s people. God used Hosea’s marriage to Gomer and his family to demonstrate how Israel as a wife to Jehovah had become unfaithful to her Husband.
The second emphasis in the book of Hosea is the evils of Israel as the unchaste wife of Jehovah. Once a wife becomes unchaste, all kinds of evils follow. Once we forsake God, we too can do any kind of evil. As the unchaste wife of Jehovah, Israel was stubborn in her unchastity. This stubbornness is described in detail in chapters eleven through fourteen. These chapters also reveal Jehovah’s unchanging love, and this is what we will consider in this message.
Hosea 11:1 says, “When Israel was a child, I loved him, / And out of Egypt I called My son.” Israel is depicted as the wife of Jehovah throughout the book of Hosea. But when God’s everlasting love is touched, Israel is called God’s son (Exo. 4:22-23), indicating that Israel has the Father’s life. Only real sons, not adopted sons, have their father’s life. Hosea 11:1 also indicates that Christ joined Israel to be the Son of God and that He was called out of Egypt by God (Matt. 2:13-15).
God’s everlasting love is not a love in affection, like the love of a husband toward a wife, but a love in life, like the love of a father toward a son. Love toward a wife is love in affection, but love toward a son is love in life. On the one hand, God loves us as His wife, and the Lord Jesus is our Husband. On the other hand, God is our Father, and we are sons of the Father.
Hosea 11:2a says that Jehovah called Israel by His prophets.
Verse 3 goes on to say that Jehovah taught Ephraim (Israel) to walk, taking them in His arms and healing them.
Verse 4a says, “I drew them with cords of a man, / With bands of love.” The phrase “with cords of a man, with bands of love” indicates that God loves us with His divine love, not on the level of His divinity but on the level of His humanity. God’s love in teaching Ephraim to walk and in taking Ephraim in His arms shows us that God’s love is divine but on a human level. If He loved us on the divine level, we could not touch His love. His divine love reaches us on a human level. He has come down to the human level in order to reach us. This is what it means to say that He drew Israel with the cords of a man, with bands of love.
The remainder of verse 4 says, “I was to them like those / Who lift off the yoke on their jaws; / And I gently caused them to eat.” This yoke was Pharaoh’s yoke, and this eating was the eating of the manna in the wilderness. Pharaoh had put a strong yoke on Israel, but God took off that yoke and gently caused them to eat by bringing them into the wilderness, where God fed them with manna in a gentle way morning by morning (Exo. 16:14-18).