Loyal Love
2/11/26 Bible Thought (Hosea 6)
Main Idea: The God of love desires love from His people.
A Look at the Text:
Our chapter today begins with a change of gears. Moving from prophetic denouncement and future promise, we see an exhortation to the people, “Come, let us return to the Lord” (Hos. 6:1a). For He is a God who is ever reliable. He is as faithful as the dawn and the spring rains (Hos. 6:3).
Dawn is taken for granted every single day. It is assumed the sun will rise and set every day because that’s what it does—it is faithful. You can count on it.
So it is with Yahweh. Just as you can count on the morning, you can count on Him. Even more, His faithfulness actually exceeds that of His creation, for He Himself preceded it! Thus, if His people returned, He would be right where they left Him.
Sadly, though, His people’s love faded like the morning dew. It was fleeting.
God sought steadfast love—hesed—the same word that is used again and again to describe Yahweh’s covenant-keeping loyal love (Hos. 6:6a). It is a love that is faithful to its promise. A love that doesn’t shift and change. Even more, God desired that they would know Him more than just perform burnt offerings (Hos. 6:6b).
The good news is that the people could return and be accepted.
The same God that brought wounds would bring healing (Hos. 6:1). The same God that brought judgment would bring salvation. The same God who chastises His wayward children will also hug them tight when they come home. The same God who kills is also a God of resurrection (Hos. 6:2).
As we saw yesterday, God simply wanted His people before He wanted their sacrifice. He wanted their hearts, not just their words. Most of all, He wanted them—undivided. He didn’t want to share them with every idol god of the Ancient Near East. He wanted them.
Bringing it Home:
The only reason that returning to the Lord is even logical is that He is a God who is gracious and merciful, who abounds in steadfast love (Ps. 103:8). He is a God whose mercy is inexhaustible. For even if His people stood under His judgment, they could again find forgiveness.
It is to this God that Hosea calls the people of his day, and even us today, to return to.
Yet, this returning isn’t supposed to be merely outward, superficial religion. It isn’t supposed to be lip service. It isn’t supposed to be adding God into our already altogether secular lives.
It is to be a heart-level transformation where we truly love the Lord who first loved us (see 1 Jn. 4:19).
We love Him for who He is. We praise Him for what He has done for us. We don’t serve, pray, study, or do any spiritual routines in order to get more out of Him as subtle forms of manipulation. We seek His face, not His hand.
Challenge:
Do I genuinely love God? Or do I just love what He does for me?
As always a good read, Josiah. I noticed the other day that the idea of mist or dew is used in the negative sense in ch.6 (your love is like morning dew) but it is used again in ch.14 in the positive. “ l will be like the dew to Israel; they shall blossom like the lily…” God is going to water his people and dwell with them again. What redemption!