Even though God called out to His rebellious people through His prophets, they did not listen. Israel’s heart had become so calloused that they had lost all memory of the Lord’s miraculous works on their behalf. As a result, they began to drift:

My people are bent on backsliding from Me.

Though they call to the Most High,

None at all exalt Him.

—HOSEA 11:7

In spite of all God had done for them, the people of Israel were deliberate backsliders. This jarring juxtaposition of God’s commitment to Israel and Israel’s contempt for God runs throughout the entire book of Hosea. But it reaches its climax here in the eleventh chapter where the dissonant concepts of commitment and contempt meet head-on in the same verses—something that should be impossible. How could there be such a rebellious response to such a perfect love?

More important is the question: How does God respond to Israel’s infidelity? How would you respond? At first God considers immediate judgment:

He shall not return to the land of Egypt;

But the Assyrian shall be his king,

Because they refused to repent.

And the sword shall slash in his cities,

Devour his districts,

And consume them,

Because of their own counsels.

—HOSEA 11:5–6

We can easily understand these expressions of wrath. It seems the natural response of a God who has been so good to an entire nation, only to receive every insult in return. The great preacher G. Campbell Morgan explains it this way:

What is to be done? There is only one thing to do, by all the laws of human conduct, and all the laws that are only laws of righteousness and equity and justice. Give them up, abandon them… I declare that when I see the Lover, teaching to walk, nursing with a tender care, healing… and then watch these people definitely, persistently, positively rebellious; I say there is only one thing to do with them: give them up.10

This reaction makes sense to us because it would be the typical human response. How many times have we dealt out some form of retaliation when we were wronged or betrayed by people close to us? When people do you wrong, you leave them. You divorce them. You sue them. At the very least, you turn your back on them until they have paid the price. It’s as if we want to apply the law of physics to the law of love: for every action, we want to render an equal and opposite reaction.

Verses 5 and 6 display the kind of response to Israel’s infidelity that we would naturally expect from someone who has been jilted. But Hosea goes on to show us that while the adulterous people must endure judgment—the natural consequence they have brought upon themselves—God does not pronounce final condemnation upon them. Deep and compelling love overrules any thought of putting Israel away from Him forever.

The Compassion of God’s Love