Hosea 2:16–23
16 2:16“And in that day, declares the LORD, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ 17 2:17For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. 18 2:18And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish1 the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety. 19 2:19And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. 20 2:20I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the LORD.
21 2:21“And in that day I will answer, declares the LORD,
I will answer the heavens,
and they shall answer the earth,
22 2:22and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine, and the oil,
and they shall answer Jezreel,2
23 2:23and I will sow her for myself in the land.
And I will have mercy on No Mercy,3
and I will say to Not My People,4 ‘You are my people’;
and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’”
Section Overview
The phrase “in that day” recalls the prophetic theme of the “day of the LORD,” an especially common theme in the Minor Prophets. Each prophet views it from a slightly different angle. To Joel, the “day of the LORD” is a terrible day, akin to a locust plague, a day of darkness and judgment, yet whoever calls on Yahweh will be saved (Joel 2:30–32). To Amos, it is a day that Israelites (Hosea’s contemporaries) should dread, not desire (Amos 5:18–20), as it will involve terrible climactic judgment. Similarly, Malachi asks, “Who can endure the day of his coming?” (Mal. 3:2), implying that it is a day to be dreaded. Zephaniah foresees a day so severe that nothing will survive (Zeph. 1:2–18).
In this chapter of Hosea, however, the focus is on positive aspects of that day. We read of a future time of wedded bliss between Israel and the Lord. A renewed marriage contract is envisioned that will last forever.
Two levels of meaning can be discerned in Hosea 2:16ff. On the one hand, the passage addresses historical Israel, the people who abandoned Yahweh in order to worship Baal. They are promised restoration as a religious-political entity on their traditional plot of land, which was fulfilled when Judah returned from exile. On another level, however, this passage is a picture of something much grander and more far-reaching. The scope of the new covenant is universal. According to Paul (quoting from this passage), it will encompass the whole earth and every people group (Rom. 9:25–26). Every Christian can rejoice in this fuller meaning, for he or she is a demonstration of its ongoing fulfillment.
Section Outline
Response
The tension in Hosea between the future punishment of unbelieving Israel and the future establishment of Israel as a worshiping community is echoed in the book of Romans. There, Paul struggles with how it can be that his beloved people have largely abandoned the salvation provided for them, while the barbarians and profane peoples who cared nothing for God—and were his enemies in times past by plundering and devastating the people of the covenant—are now taking Jesus as their own and enjoying a salvation never imagined or envisioned. Paul’s was an upside-down world, where those destined for glory found judgment, while those destined for judgment found glory.
Paul explains this by citing the book of Hosea, in which those who were not God’s people now are, while those who were his people no longer are:
What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? As indeed he says in Hosea,
“ Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’
and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’”
“ And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’
there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’” (Rom. 9:22–26)
As Paul goes on to say, the Gentiles experience such things because they have faith in Jesus (Rom. 9:30–33). It is only through him that we can know the Lord, enter into relationship with him, and boldly proclaim, “You are my God!”