Hosea 11:1-11, The Love of God

The story of Hosea and Gomer in Hos. 1-3 is a tremendous portrait of the love of God.  Hosea 11 is a tremendous teaching passage on the love of God.  It’s somewhat like the NT: in the Gospels the great portrait of God’s love is painted at Calvary; and then 1 Cor. 11 and 1 John 4 draws us to God’s love through the teaching of the Apostles. 

In Hosea 11 we see that God had always loved Israel (v1,4).  This love is God’s love and not the love of men (v9).  Therefore, God will not destroy Israel like he destroyed Admah and Zeboiim (v8).  Those two cities were destroyed the same time as Sodom and Gomorrah. 

·       The verb for “love” in the OT is ahab.  Yes, it is interesting that it is the name of the most wicked king of Israel.  The term is used 13 times in Hosea, including 5 times in Hos. 2 speaking of Israel’s “lovers” who actually hated her.  But then we come to 3:1: “Go again, love (v) a woman who is loved (v) by a lover (lit. “friend”) and is committing adultery, just like the love (noun, ahaba) of the LORD for the children of Israel, who look to other gods and love (v) the raisin cakes of the pagans.”

·       The feminine noun form is used 40 times in the OT, 3 times in Hosea (3:1; 9:15; 11:4).  In 11:4 God says, “I drew them with gentle chords, with bands of love, and I was to them as those who take the yoke from their neck.  I stooped and fed them.”  The word for “bands” deserves mentioning.  It refers to a cord, rope, chain, perhaps one that is braided.  In other words, it is strong!  In Ps. 2:3 the kings of the earth plot vain ways to break the “bands” that the Creator places around men.  God’s bands are “love” but the powerful people of earth don’t like to be controlled.  Psalm 118:27 reveals another “band of love” from our God. In a very Messianic context (cf. 118:22-24) the Psalmist says, “God is the LORD, and He has given us light: Bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar.”  How we praise God for binding His Son to the altar of the cross.  And one other aspect of God’s love is that He has “cut in pieces the cords of the wicked” (Ps. 129:4).

·       There is a masculine noun form (also ahab), used only twice in the OT.  One is in Pr. 5:19 where a husband is to be enraptured with the love of his wife.

·       Another masculine noun (ohab) refers to love as an “object,” Prov. 7:18: The immoral woman says, “let us delight ourselves with love.”  You will note in this passage another English word “love” which is a completely different term (Heb. dowd) and is the term used in Song of Solomon for “love” and “beloved” (39 of the 61 times it appears in the OT.

It is our hope that in the word studies we are encouraged by the manifold and manifest love of God!  How He has loved us.  May we respond with the love of all our hearts, minds, souls and strength!