Hos 2:14 | KingComments | STEP | With this verse a description begins of what God will do to His people in the future. That description continues to the end of the chapter. After the judgments now follow the promises of salvation. The judgment that God must announce and also execute is not His last word to His people. The “therefore” with which the verse begins introduces the blessing, just as the “therefore” of introduces the judgment. The place God chooses to begin blessing is the wilderness. There the people, His wife, must learn that the false gods could not make her rich. In the solitude of the wilderness, alone with the LORD, she will learn where her sin has taken her. There she will feel the lack of the blessings God had given her in His land. This is God’s way with His people to do her well at last. This bringing her into the wilderness is what God does when He lets His people be deported by the Assyrians and scattered in “the wilderness of the nations” ( ). The wilderness is the place where the “youth memories” are reminisced. God can remind them there of the days of old, when Israel in her first love followed Him ( ). The word “wilderness” here in Hosea and the quotation of “Egypt” in the following verse point to a historical similarity with the time of Israel’s departure from Egypt. Just as God then commanded the people to leave Egypt, go into the wilderness, and begin the journey to the promised land, so will He do in the future. Just as in that time, the time of her first love, the people will be brought back into the “wilderness”. There God will test it, judge it and cleanse it, so that it will find the way of blessing and will regain possession of the land. Many will be judged. Only a remnant will effectively come there. This was also the case with the exodus from Egypt on the way to the promised land. The bodies of many have fallen in the wilderness. It is remarkable how this judgment of scattering is presented here, namely as a matter of divine love. God says He “will allure” her there and “speak kindly to her”, or literally “speak to her heart”. He “allures” her. He does not drag her into the wilderness. The word for “allure” contains the thought of “persuading by means of attractive benefits”. Behind the coercion of scattering, which is necessary because of her unfaithfulness, lies God’s love. God wants His people to be only for Him again. “To speak kindly” means to speak to someone in a friendly, encouraging, comforting way. The same expression is used in Isaiah 40 and Ruth 2, where it is also meant to put the other person at ease ( ; ). Just as for Israel the wilderness is a picture of scattering among the nations, for us the wilderness is a picture of the place where God tests and forms us. In our personal life, after deviating from the path with the Lord, restoration often begins because we end up in trial. We discover that life without God does not give the satisfaction we expected from it. We have disappointing experiences. Life starts to look like a wilderness. There is nothing ‘edible’ to be found, nothing that can really give a person satisfaction. But then we also discover that God has ‘allured’ us into that trial and wants to ‘speak kindly’ in it. This is how God does it, also with us, because He loves His own.

‏ Hosea 2:14

God Is Going to Allure His People

With this verse a description begins of what God will do to His people in the future. That description continues to the end of the chapter. After the judgments now follow the promises of salvation. The judgment that God must announce and also execute is not His last word to His people. The “therefore” with which the verse begins introduces the blessing, just as the “therefore” of Hos 2:6 ; 9 introduces the judgment.

The place God chooses to begin blessing is the wilderness. There the people, His wife, must learn that the false gods could not make her rich. In the solitude of the wilderness, alone with the LORD, she will learn where her sin has taken her. There she will feel the lack of the blessings God had given her in His land. This is God’s way with His people to do her well at last.

This bringing her into the wilderness is what God does when He lets His people be deported by the Assyrians and scattered in “the wilderness of the nations” (Eze 20:35-36). The wilderness is the place where the “youth memories” are reminisced. God can remind them there of the days of old, when Israel in her first love followed Him (Jer 2:2). The word “wilderness” here in Hosea and the quotation of “Egypt” in the following verse point to a historical similarity with the time of Israel’s departure from Egypt. Just as God then commanded the people to leave Egypt, go into the wilderness, and begin the journey to the promised land, so will He do in the future.

Just as in that time, the time of her first love, the people will be brought back into the “wilderness”. There God will test it, judge it and cleanse it, so that it will find the way of blessing and will regain possession of the land. Many will be judged. Only a remnant will effectively come there. This was also the case with the exodus from Egypt on the way to the promised land. The bodies of many have fallen in the wilderness.

It is remarkable how this judgment of scattering is presented here, namely as a matter of divine love. God says He “will allure” her there and “speak kindly to her”, or literally “speak to her heart”. He “allures” her. He does not drag her into the wilderness. The word for “allure” contains the thought of “persuading by means of attractive benefits”.

Behind the coercion of scattering, which is necessary because of her unfaithfulness, lies God’s love. God wants His people to be only for Him again. “To speak kindly” means to speak to someone in a friendly, encouraging, comforting way. The same expression is used in Isaiah 40 and Ruth 2, where it is also meant to put the other person at ease (Isa 40:2; Rth 2:13).

Just as for Israel the wilderness is a picture of scattering among the nations, for us the wilderness is a picture of the place where God tests and forms us. In our personal life, after deviating from the path with the Lord, restoration often begins because we end up in trial.

We discover that life without God does not give the satisfaction we expected from it. We have disappointing experiences. Life starts to look like a wilderness. There is nothing ‘edible’ to be found, nothing that can really give a person satisfaction. But then we also discover that God has ‘allured’ us into that trial and wants to ‘speak kindly’ in it. This is how God does it, also with us, because He loves His own.