Come Home to Your Father
14 1 Return, Israel, to your Father; for you have stumbled because of your sins.
2 Return 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. 3 Assyria 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. 5 I will be like the dew to Israel; he will blossom like the lily and send down roots like the cedars of Lebanon. 6 His shoots will spread out; his splendor will be like the olive tree, his fragrance like the cedars of Lebanon. 7 They 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. 8 Ephraim, 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.
9 Whoever 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.