How do you feel when someone you love breaks your heart? How do you feel when, in spite of your best efforts, he or she turns away from you, expressing love for someone else instead? As hard as it may be for us to believe, that’s how God feels when we sin against Him.

For having looked at Hosea chapter 11, we can’t deny that God loves His people. Verse 1 reminds us that He called them out of their bondage in Egypt, lifting the yoke from them as verse 4 says. Verse 4 goes on to remind us that all the time God’s people were in the wilderness, He fed them with manna, miraculous food from Heaven.

But here we also remember why they had to wander so long in the wilderness – in spite of God’s grace, they refused to trust Him. Verse 2 says that, no matter how many loving things God did for them, they kept worshipping false gods. And even after God led them into the Promised Land, they would not return to Him, as verse 5 says. Verse 7 goes so far as to say that they were intentional in their infidelity.

So, how do you feel when someone breaks your heart? Don’t you get angry with them, precisely because you love them so much? That’s how God dealt with His people in verses 5 and 6. He allowed them to fall into the hands of the pagan countries whose false gods they were worshipping. Because verse 7 says God’s people didn’t want to have anything to do with Him, God in His anger gave them what they wanted, withdrawing His protection from them, and allowing the sinful nations around them to conquer them.

No, far from God’s anger being a contradiction of His love, it shows the intensity, the jealousy of it. For let’s face it – you don’t get angry when someone you don’t care about turns away from you. You just don’t care. The opposite of love is not anger – it is indifference.

But verse 8 shows us something else about God’s love – it is as relentless as it is intense. It is as unconditional as it is jealous. Regardless of our infidelity, God continues to love us, to desire a relationship with us. That’s why verse 9 says that God determined to come to His people – not in wrath, but in self-sacrifice, not to destroy us but to redeem us. It was this relentless, jealous love that drove God to the cross itself.

Isn’t a love like this worthy of our love in return? Even though its fierceness may make us tremble, shouldn’t we come to the One Who roars like a lion for us, the One Who gave Himself up for us?

Hosea 11:1-11 (NASB)

When Israel was a youth I loved him, And out of Egypt I called My son.
2 The more they called them, The more they went from them; They kept sacrificing to the Baals And burning incense to idols.
3 Yet it is I who taught Ephraim to walk, I took them in My arms; But they did not know that I healed them.
4 I led them with cords of a man, with bonds of love, And I became to them as one who lifts the yoke from their jaws; And I bent down and fed them.
5 They will not return to the land of Egypt; But Assyria– he will be their king, Because they refused to return to Me.
6 And the sword will whirl against their cities, And will demolish their gate bars And consume them because of their counsels.
7 So My people are bent on turning from Me. Though they call them to the One on high, None at all exalts Him.
8 How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I surrender you, O Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart is turned over within Me, All My compassions are kindled.
9 I will not execute My fierce anger; I will not destroy Ephraim again. For I am God and not man, the Holy One in your midst, And I will not come in wrath.
10 They will walk after the LORD, He will roar like a lion; Indeed He will roar, And His sons will come trembling from the west.
11 They will come trembling like birds from Egypt, And like doves from the land of Assyria; And I will settle them in their houses, declares the LORD.