God’s Call to Repentance

Hosea 6:1-11 

1 Come, and let us return to the LORD;
For He has torn, but He will heal us;
He has stricken, but He will bind us up.

2 After two days He will revive us;
On the third day He will raise us up,
That we may live in His sight.

3 Let us know,
Let us pursue the knowledge of the LORD.
His going forth is established as the morning;
He will come to us like the rain,
Like the latter and former rain to the earth.

4 "O Ephraim, what shall I do to you?
O Judah, what shall I do to you?
For your faithfulness is like a morning cloud,
And like the early dew it goes away.

5 Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets,
I have slain them by the words of My mouth;
And your judgments are like light that goes forth.

6 For I desire mercy and not sacrifice,
And the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

7 "But like men they transgressed the covenant;
There they dealt treacherously with Me.
8 Gilead is a city of evildoers
And defiled with blood.

9 As bands of robbers lie in wait for a man,
So the company of priests murder on the way to Shechem;
Surely they commit lewdness.

10 I have seen a horrible thing in the house of Israel:
There is the harlotry of Ephraim;
Israel is defiled.
11 Also, O Judah, a harvest is appointed for you,
When I return the captives of My people.

God’s call for His people to repentance is vividly clear here.  The Old Testament had predicted the coming of Christ (Messiah) Jesus who would be broken for all His chosen people to heal us eternally and was wounded for us that our souls may be healed in His righteousness alone.  What a foretaste of glory divine!  How these very verses of scripture were likely heard on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-14, 26-27) as the Lord explained Himself in the scriptures from the fall of man to that present time when He walked and talked with them along that narrow way!  He even spoke of the resurrection of the just and unjust to come in the latter days with a promise to raise Himself from the grave on the third day after His sacrifice.  He died so we can live and expect the same resurrection with Himself as proof, being Himself the first fruit of His deliverance of us from death to life (John 5:24).  What are all listeners then and now told to do in light of these things?  We are to run after knowing God (John 6:29) as our only work of salvation and our ongoing sanctification as we are transformed by Him (Romans 12:2) into the image of Christ (2 Corinthians 3:18), God’s Son and our divine Savior (Titus 2:13).  As we run after knowing Him because we are known by Him (1 Corinthians 8:3, Galatians 4:9), we do so in perfect expectation of His return as promised here.  God’s people had turned away and He called them to turn back in repentance through faith to Him.  He made it clear that it is all by grace and His sacrifice, not our own works and sacrifices, by which we are restored and reconciled.  Knowing God and seeking the scriptures to know Him ever more means infinitely more than our works attempting to earn His favor ever could.  Though we all sin (Romans 3:20, 23) and fall ever short of earning an entrance into heaven before His face, His grace has bought us and brought us into that promised land to come to worship Him alone before His face!  The LORD judged Israel and Judah but offered these things when He returned to them as a picture for all His called and chosen in Christ Jesus our Savior and Deliverer from our spiritual death sentence earned by disobedience and disbelief.  What grace to tell us these things before He set foot on earth and walked on that road to Emmaus and then through the apostles to explain even more.  Now we have Him living in us as the Holy Spirit who continues to teach and show us wonderful things unwrapped and made clear from all His word (Psalm 119:18) as we continue to seek Him and confess ongoing sins as we are conformed to Him!  God calls in repentance and saves His called ones as always planned from eternity (Hebrews 4:3, Ephesians 1:4). This is our certain hope of eternal life.  May all who read and have ears to hear turn from sin to Him, from darkness to marvelous light, according to these promises.  Amen.