Hosea 14:9

Comment and Response

14:9 The final verse provides a proverbial ending to the book. It is a call to stand back, reflect, and consider all the words of Hosea. The sage will discern for himself the truth of the matter, which is that the Lord’s “ways . . . are right.” This connects the book with Proverbs, where wisdom is conceptualized as a path to follow. The upright walk that path of wisdom, for it is a safe and secure path on which we can flourish. But it is a path that requires a heart submissive to the Lord and his ways. To refuse to submit is to lose our footing, to stumble in the way and fall. In place of flourishing and life, those who avoid the Lord’s ways find only destruction and death.

Jesus ends his Sermon on the Mount with similar words. This is no surprise, for he is the ultimate manifestation of the Lord’s wisdom and ways; to heed his words and follow him is to walk upon this path of life with the Lord himself, experiencing all of the joy and peace that flow from that obedience. To change the metaphor, heeding Jesus’ words and following him provides a secure and stable foundation on which our life can rest solid and secure, come what may.

This is the very metaphor with which Jesus ends his well-known Sermon:

Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it. (Matt. 7:24–27)

The Lord has not created us to experience that kind of disaster; he has created us to know life and peace, which comes as we look to Jesus as our ultimate rock and foundation. Looking to him is true wisdom!