The Book Of Hosea. Day 33, Resettling

The Lord has been talking about how He called Israel out of Egypt, referring to Israel as His child. He talked about how He had taken care of and raised Israel as a father raises a child, yet the people turned away from Him when they were grown, so to speak. He has vowed to bring judgment for the people's idolatry and, although the judgment could very justly be as harsh as that which He poured out on exceedingly sinful cities such as Sodom and Gomorrah, we learned in our last study session that His heart is too moved with compassion to destroy the nation. 

He is going to allow the Assyrian Empire to conquer Israel and take the majority of the citizens captive to other lands but in time the Neo-Babylonian Empire will conquer Assyria and then the Medo-Persian Empire will conquer the Neo-Babylonian Empire. Cyrus the Great of Persia will issue an edict allowing all the captives to return home if they wish. That is what is being spoken of in today's passage.

The Lord says, "'They will follow the Lord; He will roar like a lion. When He roars, His children will come trembling from the west. They will come from Egypt, trembling like sparrows, from Assyria, fluttering like doves. I will settle them in their homes,' declares the Lord." (Hosea 11:10-11) 

Many scholars believe that quite a few people from the northern kingdom of Israel fled to Egypt for refuge when it began looking like invasion from Assyria was unavoidable. When Cyrus issues the decree to allow the captive people in Babylon to go free, many will go home from there and many will also go home from Egypt.

I love the way the Lord depicts Israel following after Him like a little child toddling after its father. He has been using the analogy of Himself as a parent to Israel. He said earlier in Chapter 11 that He "taught Israel to walk" and that He took them by the arms as a father holds the arms of a child that is learning to stand and to take its first steps. He said He drew them with cords of love, which is a reference to the way a parent or nursemaid would hold or tie one end of a cord to themselves and place the other end in the child's hands, thus giving the child something to hold onto while it follows them around the room. That would be the next step after the child learned to stand and walk a little without its arms being held. But by the time Israel should have been able to stand firmly in faith, the people backslid. They stumbled due to the introduction of the calf-idols at Bethel and at Dan. This led to them falling deeply into the sin of idolatry, which led to them committing many other sins as they failed to maintain fellowship with the Lord and as they eschewed the reading of His word and the meditation upon His word. 

A stumble doesn't have to lead to a terrible fall but it can if we don't reach up for the Lord's hand---the hand He is extending to us---to be helped back onto our feet. If we don't correct the problem right away, we tend to stumble more and more until we've fallen headlong into a sin we could never have imagined ourselves committing. I speak from experience because it's happened to me. I didn't go from zero to one hundred in a split second; most of us don't. It was a gradual decline. It was a failure to correct small stumblings before they turned into a shocking fall. I found myself in a situation in which I never could have pictured myself. If somebody had ever told me I'd commit that particular sin, I'd have though they were crazy. I'd be willing to state that the Israelites never foresaw themselves falling into idolatry, and it didn't happen overnight, but it was a more gradual decline. The Lord gave them opportunities for several hundred years to correct their stumblings, sending them prophet after prophet to confront them with their sins, but most of them ignored His warnings. Now, like any good father, He must take corrective action. But also, like any good father, His corrective action is not intended to destroy the child. He will restore the nation of Israel and He will make it possible for the people to return there.