The Gospel of Hosea, Ch. 14: Grace and Wisdom

The Gospel of Hosea, Ch. 14: Grace and Wisdom.

“Return, O Israel, come back to Yahweh God (‘Elohim’), for you have stumbled because of your iniquity (‘avon’). Your sins have been your downfall.” (Hosea 14:1).

In Other Words. God is making His last-gasp effort, His final passionate appeal to Israel for their repentance. Please, I beg you, change your mind, He is saying. Do an about-face. Stop and change direction. Turn completely around and follow Me. When we read Yahweh-Elohim, it is read as LORD God. Yahweh is God’s personal name, His redemptive name, His name that implies relationship and covenant. Elohim is God’s transcendent name, God as universal Creator God. So the two names together pack the powerful meaning of God as personal and relational, as well as universal and transcendent. There are many Hebrew words for ‘sin‘ in the Hebrew Bible, about eight in all. Hosea was inspired to use “Avon” in this introductory thought to his profound conclusion. Avon specifically means to intentionally make crooked, to consciously bend what is right, to distort what is good on purpose, to warp what is true. So “iniquity” means something very particular to Hosea… a deep moral failing because of an inner, twisted heart. Yahweh is pleading for a sincere confession of their deliberate sinfulness, their twisting of pure God-worship by blending Yahweh-worship with Baal-worship, and in the process losing any sense of a moral compass. And after you change your mind and heart, come and follow Me, sys the Lord.