Hosea: Unfaithfulness (XI)

How Can I Give You Up? How Can I Surrender You? (11:1-12)

Neal Pollard

Israel and Judah have betrayed God and given Him up for far inferior and worse alternatives. Their wanton pursuit of such love interests was met by violence and mistreatment from their misguided choice. What utter folly in exchanging the perfect, providing, and protecting God for the perverse, pitiless, and pompous world and its idols!

Despite their resolute determination to forsake Him, God’s perfect love cannot be extinguished. That does not mean He will change His mind about their judgment and punishment, but He does not do so with out of control rage and jealousy. He does so, as it were, with audible weeping and restraint. These are His people, and He loves them so much. 

He recalls the love He had for the nation at its beginning, when He led them out of Egypt (1). He calls Israel His son, the very way He refers to the nation to Moses (Ex. 4:22). The ultimate fulfillment of this prophecy, according to Matthew, is when Joseph and Mary take Jesus from hiding in Egypt to settle in Nazareth (Matt. 2:15,19-23). In the context, though, God is recalling the beginning of their relationship. Yet, in such recall, He remembers how their idolatry and unfaithfulness started even back in this formative stage (2). While God was teaching them to walk, taking them in His arms, leading them with bonds of love, lightening their burdens, bending over and feeding them, they refused to return to Him (3-5). For that reason, God says, they will return not to Egypt but instead go to Assyria (5). 

He will allow them to have the consequences of their own choice. They will experience the sword of the notoriously cruel Assyrians (6). Their property and bodies will be demolished (6). Why? Because they turned from Him and none exalted Him (7). Despite how God felt about Israel, He would not make them love Him and be faithful to Him. He allows us to go the way we prefer to go, even if it is disastrous for us. 

But do not miss the heart of God! It is vividly depicted in the last five verses. He says, “My heart is torn within me, and my compassion overflows” (8b, NLT). This is why He cries out to the nation, “How can I give you up…How can I surrender you…How can I make you like Admah…treat you like Zeboiim?” (8). The cities mentioned here are the lesser known towns in the Valley of Zoar that were destroyed with the better known dens of wickedness, Sodom and Gomorrah (Deut. 29:23). He will not execute His fierce anger or come in wrath (9). He speaks of a future where they would return to Him and resettle (11), even as they were presently walking in treachery before a God who is faithful (11b). This reminds me of something Paul will say later about the steadfast character of God: “For if we died with Him, we will also live with Him; If we endure, we will also reign with Him; If we deny Him, He also will deny us; If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself” (2 Tim. 2:11-13; cf. Rom. 3:3).

He desires our faithful devotion (see Hos. 4:1). But even when we refuse to come to Him, He loathes to let us go. If we persist, He will do so. Yet, He does so not with gritting teeth or clinched hand. He does so with weeping and wailing, devastated at the very loss.