Come Home to Your Father
The last chapter is the invitation. Come back with words ready, admit that Assyria and horses cannot save, stop calling handmade things gods. Our Father promises to love them freely, to be like dew on them, and says plainly that their fruit comes from him.
14 1Return, Israel, to your Father; for you have stumbled because of your sins.
2Return to our Father with words ready; say to him: "Take away all our guilt and receive us with grace, that we may offer the fruit of our lips. 3Assyria will not save us; we will not ride on horses. We will never again say "our gods" to the work of our own hands, for in you the fatherless finds a father's compassion."
4"I will heal their waywardness; I will love them freely, for my anger has turned away from them. a a v4 Hosea closes where the Father always longed to bring his children: healed, and loved freely — not because they earned it, but because his heart turned toward home. 5I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like the lily and send down roots like the cedars of Lebanon. 6His shoots will spread out; his splendor will be like the olive tree, his fragrance like the cedars of Lebanon. 7They will return and live in my shade; they will flourish like grain and blossom like the vine, and their renown will be like the wine of Lebanon. 8Ephraim, what more have I to do with idols? It is I who answer and watch over you. I am like a flourishing cypress; your fruit comes from me."
9Whoever is wise, let them understand these things; whoever is discerning, let them know them. For the ways of our Father are right, and the righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them.
