Princeton Presbyterian Church (EPC) Sermon # 1645
July 21, 2024
Hosea 6.1-6 Click here for audio worship.
Dr. Ed Pettus
“The Prophetic Desire”
“Come, let us return to the Lord; for he has torn us, that he may heal us; he has struck us down, and he will bind us up. 2After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him. 3Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.” 4What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes early away. 5Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets; I have slain them by the words of my mouth, and my judgment goes forth as the light. 6For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
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The Prophetic Call
Today we begin a journey through the minor prophets. Do not let the title of “minor” trick you, these are minor only by size, not by power of theology or message. Hosea begins our journey, a prophet during a time of turmoil, which does not distinguish Hosea among any of the prophets because all the prophets spoke God’s Word during times when Israel had forsaken God or sinned in some fashion through idolatry or amnesia over what God had done for them in deliverance and forgiveness and showing His steadfast love in many ways. I note that all the prophets spoke during difficult times because it is not as important when they spoke but that they spoke. What was their message for God’s people? So, today we take up one of those messages from Hosea in chapter 6.
A common call among the prophets is for people to return to the Lord. To return obviously means that they have gone astray. Now is the time to come back, to repent, to turn in the right direction, returning to God. One of the things that is awesome about the Bible is how it points us to Jesus Christ. The prophetic call is not only echoed in the gospels, but is also directly the call of Jesus. He first preached the call to repentance, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4.17). Jesus gives other prophetic calls like, "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden..." (Matthew 11.28).
This first imperative from Hosea 6 is a call to come or come back to the Lord, to repent, to find healing, and a call to life. Jesus is the agent of healing and life, the One to whom we go to receive life in abundance. God has called us all in Jesus, for healing and hope, for life and wholeness. Some commentators believe that Hosea 6.2 is a direct foreshadowing of the resurrection of Jesus, to be raised up on the third day. This verse speaks of God tearing down and binding up. It is like a doctor who sometimes has to break a bone in order to heal the bone. Whether it is God who breaks us down or some other circumstance, God is the only One who can heal. The whole testimony of the Bible points to the healer God, to Jesus Christ who Himself was wounded for our transgressions that we might be healed. Exodus 15.26 states, “If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments and keep all his statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord, your healer.” The call of the prophet and the call of Christ is to return to the Lord.
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The Prophetic Command
This next call, the command of Hosea 6.3, is to know God, with emphasis to press to know the Lord. There is in the prophetic command a sense of urgency and a sense of intimacy as well. Know the Lord, not just knowing about the Lord, but knowing the Lord in a relationship. "To press" implies that it takes some work to know. It takes energy and time and determination. It is more than just going through the motions of "church stuff", but an intensity of desire to get to know the Lord. That may mean more time in prayer, more time in Scripture, more time in contemplation, more time in fellowship with other believers about knowing the Lord.
Knowledge, in this sense of relationship, was a primary difficulty in the book of Hosea. In Hosea 4.6 we read that God’s people had rejected knowledge and thus the relationship, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.” This is a typical problem with Israel as they would forget God and His law, forget the history of God’s deliverance, and so Hosea commands that we press to know the Lord.
This is also a command in the gospels, to know the Lord, to know Jesus Christ. In the same way that Israel rejected knowing God, so too the world did not know Jesus. “He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him (John 1.10). But for those who know Jesus, who have a relationship with Him will be set free, forgiven, saved, and have eternal life. “...and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free” (John 8.32). What is it to know the truth? It is to know Jesus Christ who is the truth, the way, and the truth, and the life (John 10.10).
The knowledge of Jesus is revealed in the metaphor of the Good Shepherd as in John 10.14-15, “I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me, just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.” Here is the connection of knowledge truly being not just knowledge about God but knowledge in relationship, just as the Father knows Jesus and Jesus know the Father. We cannot get a greater example of close relationship than that.
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The Prophetic Cry
Hosea 6.4, 4What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes early away. Here is relationship deeply broken. God’s passion is on full display with the yearning of a parent for a child. Israel has broken covenant and God is pining over what to do with Israel. Imagine the parent who so deeply loves his child and yet cannot stand rebellion. The same yearning is in Hosea 11.8, “How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender.” Admah and Zeboiim were places treated like Sodom and Gomorrah, falling under the judgment of God. The prophetic cry is that God does not want to destroy Israel because of the relationship they share as God the Father of the nation of Israel. The prophetic cry reveals God’s deep love for His people and the pain in God’s heart for their love that has evaporated like the dew that vanishes in the early morning.
Jesus also shared a prophetic cry over Jerusalem, Luke 13.24-35, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! 35Behold, your house is forsaken. And I tell you, you will not see me until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’” Ultimately Jesus’ prophetic cry is expressed on the cross as He gave His life for those whom He loves and calls and commands.
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The Prophetic Desire
Hosea 6.6 is also quoted by Jesus in Matthew 9.13, “Go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” In Hosea 6.6 we learn something about God and His desires. He desires that we practice steadfast love over sacrifice. He desires knowing God more than presenting offerings. This is an admonition to sincerity in faith and relationship. Israel would simply go through the motions of sacrifice without concern for acts of mercy or love. The more we love God, the more we want to know God and the more we know God, the deeper our love will grow.
Come, know the Lord, love the Lord, and know His great love for you, for He knows all about you. Show the mercy that He has shown you. He knows your days, the number of hairs on your head, your going out and your coming in. So we seek to know as we are known. We seek a personal covenant relationship with God.
The Hebrew word for steadfast love is sometimes translated as mercy or loving kindness. While mercy and love are not strictly synonyms, we might agree that to show mercy is to show love and to love is to show mercy. Sometimes Hebrew words include larger meanings than one English word can convey. This is the case with the Hebrew word Hesed. Hesed can mean steadfast love in Hosea and mercy in the gospel of Matthew because the term includes God's faithful love, mercy, kindness, loyalty, and other acts of devotion. Translators will select the closest meaning to the context in order to bring it into English.
For our thoughts today we focus on what God desires. The prophetic desire is steadfast love. This is love expressed in action, not a romantic type of love, but as we have noted, a love that may be expressed through acts of mercy or grace or kindness. This love has a depth that goes way beyond what the world defines as love. We are also helped to learn of that depth as we seek to love God and love neighbor through acts of mercy and grace.
The next desire of Hosea 6.6 is knowledge of God. 6For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. This is not just knowledge about God, not just knowing about His character, works, or history, but knowledge in relationship, knowing God in Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit. We have already covered this in the prophetic command to know God in 6.3. It is a knowledge built from God's revealed Word, and through prayer and worship. It is a relational knowledge nurtured in awareness and communion with God and God's people. It is about knowing God and being known. Of course, our knowledge of God is limited because we simply cannot process the vast nature of God (Isaiah 55.8-9). But, while we cannot comprehend all of God's glory with our cognitive limitations, we can love God with all our mind (Matthew 22.37). We do not have to know fully to love fully.
These two desires are contrasted with what is not desired, sacrifice and burnt offerings. What God desires is not what we do for God (in the sense of burnt offerings) but more what we do with God. God's desire is to have His people sharing in the covenant relationship of love and knowledge that moves us into ministry with God, into mission with God, into loving God and neighbor as God has loved us in Jesus Christ.
Once again we see the prophetic word in the New Testament, “And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life” (1 John 5.20). This is the prophetic desire, that we know Him, Jesus Christ, who is true and the Truth. That we know the love of Jesus, the mercy of Jesus, the prophetic call and cry and command and desire of Jesus Christ, the prophet, the King, the Lord, the Savior of all who have been called by His name. The prophet Hosea points us to the Savior, who calls, commands, cries out, and desires that covenant relationship with us. Let us press on to know Him and His great love. Amen.
