Like a Father

1When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.2 As they called them, so they went from them: they sacrificed unto Baalim, and burned incense to graven images.3 I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms; but they knew not that I healed them.4 I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love: and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them.

5 He shall not return into the land of Egypt, but the Assyrian shall be his king, because they refused to return.6 And the sword shall abide on his cities, and shall consume his branches, and devour them, because of their own counsels.7 And my people are bent to backsliding from me: though they called them to the most High, none at all would exalt him.

8 How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee, Israel? how shall I make thee as Admah? how shall I set thee as Zeboim? mine heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together.9 I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger, I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man; the Holy One in the midst of thee: and I will not enter into the city.10 They shall walk after the Lord: he shall roar like a lion: when he shall roar, then the children shall tremble from the west.11 They shall tremble as a bird out of Egypt, and as a dove out of the land of Assyria: and I will place them in their houses, saith the Lord. <Hosea 11:1-11 KJV>

The father-son analogies in this chapter are deeply moving. The portrayal of the bereaved father yearning for his troubled child calls to mind Jesus' New Testament parable of the lost son (see Lk 15:11-32). In Hosea 11 God calls out to his rebellious people with all of the pathos of unconditional love. Theologian Kenneth Boa describes that unconditional Father-love:
To know God is to love him, because the more we grasp - not merely in our minds but also in our experience - who he is and what he has done for us, the more our hearts will respond in love and gratitude. 'We love because he first loved us' (1Jn 4:19). When we discover that the personal Author of time, space, matter, and energy has, for some incomprehensible reason, chosen to love us to the point of infinite sacrifice, we begin to embrace the unconditional security we longed for all our lives. God's love for us is spontaneous, free, uncaused, and undeserved; he did not set his love on us because we were loveable, beautiful, or clever, because in our sin we were unlovable, ugly, and foolish. He loved us because he chose to love us. As we expand our vision of our acceptance and security in Christ who loved us and gave himself for us, we begin to realize that God is not the enemy of our joy but the source of our joy. When we respond to this love, we become the people he has called us to be.
But Israel kept forgetting the nature of God's Father-love. Time after time the people turned away from their Father, leaving their 'home,' to hobnob with other nations, to spend prosperity and wealth God had given them on their own pleasures, and to declare their 'I can do it myself' independence. They kept forgetting that God's laws and his discipline, like those of any good father, were for their good, and not to restrict their freedom. So it is with all of us, especially when we are positioned in God's economy not only as children but as stewards. Dr. Boa continues:
As we grow to know and love God, we learn that we can trust his character, promises, and precepts. Whenever he asks us to avoid something, it is because he knows that it is not in our best interests. And whenever he asks us to do something, it is always because it will lead to a greater good. If we are committed to following hard after God, we must do the things he tells us to do. But the risk of obedience is that it will often make no sense to us at the time. It is countercultural to obey the things the Holy Spirit reveals to us in the Scriptures. Radical obedience sometimes flies in the face of human logic, but in these times our loving Father tests and reveals the quality of our trust and dependence on him.