First light at the eastern edge of the Nile delta: a dusty track leaves green fields and palms and runs out into the pale desert, its dust full of footprints, among them a child’s small ones.

Sowing the wind

Hosea 11

Have you ever loved someone who kept walking away?

12 verses≈ 3 minBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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Where we are

1–3Hosea’s marriageA wife, three names, and love bought back
4–6:3The LORD’s caseNo knowledge of God in the land
6–11Sowing the windMist, kings, calves, and a love that won’t let goChapter 11
11–14Return, O IsraelJacob’s story, death undone, and the last call

Out of Egypt I Called My Son

God

When Israel was a child, I loved him,

and out of Egypt I called My son.

Hosea 11:1

Tap to go deeper: meaning, history and related Scripture

God

God

But the more I called Israel,

the farther they departed from Me.

They sacrificed to the Baals

and burned incense to carved images.

God

A barefoot child of about one in a small undyed tunic, mid-step on unsteady legs in a farmhouse courtyard, both arms lifted toward someone just out of frame.

It was I who taught Ephraim to walk,

taking them by the arms,

but they never realized

that it was I who healed them.

God

I led them with cords of kindness,

with ropes of love;

I lifted the yoke from their necks

and bent down to feed them.

God

Will they not return to the land of Egypt

and be ruled by Assyria

because they refused to repent?

God

Gray morning at a hill-town gateway: heavy wooden doors scorched and hanging open, the great crossbar split and lying in the dust of the empty passage.

A sword will flash through their cities;

it will destroy the bars of their gates

and consume them in their own plans.

God

My people are bent on turning from Me.

Though they call to the Most High,

He will by no means exalt them.

Question

Quick question

Matthew quotes 11:1 when Jesus is brought back from Egypt (Matthew 2:15). Read the verse again before you answer.

Who is the son in Hosea’s own words?

God’s Love for Israel

God

An old man seen from behind on a high ridge in early morning, looking down at a column of dark smoke rising far off from the hazy plain.

How could I make you like Admah?

How could I treat you like Zeboiim?

God

My heart is turned within Me;

My compassion is stirred!

God

I will not execute the full fury of My anger;

I will not destroy Ephraim again.

For I am God and not man—

the Holy One among you—

and I will not come in wrath.

God

Early morning on a high rocky ridge above the Jordan valley: a maned lion stands broadside, head raised, roaring, mist in the valley below.

They will walk after the LORD;

He will roar like a lion.

When He roars,

His children will come trembling from the west.

God

Soft morning over the northern hill country: a scattered flock of gray rock doves flying low and fast toward a small village of flat-roofed stone houses on a terraced slope.

They will come trembling like birds from Egypt

and like doves from the land of Assyria.

Then I will settle them in their homes,

declares the LORD.

0:08

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Pray

Father, You called, taught, healed and fed, and Your people walked away. Thank You that Your heart would not give us up. Bring home today the one I love who is far from You, and make me come to You trembling and glad.

A father’s heart

Whiteboard

The first half earns the sentence. The second half is the LORD’s own heart, and it brings His children home.

God

Ephraim surrounds Me with lies,

the house of Israel with deceit;

but Judah still walks with God

and is faithful to the Holy One.

You’ve experienced

Hosea 11

0 of 14 chapters read

A verse to carry with you

When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called My son.

Hosea 11:1

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