Israel's rebelliousness 11:1-7

Again this section, which is all divine speech, begins with a reference to something in Israel's history to contrast the past with the present (cf. 9:10; 10:1, 9).

"The passage at its outset has similarities to the form of the legal complaint made by parents against a rebellious child (Deut 21:18-21; cf. Isa 1:2-20 where hope is held out that the child [Israel] may yet repent and receive compassion rather than death)."⁷¹

 Proof of rebelliousness 11:1-4

11:1 The Lord reminded His people that when Israel was in its early days as a nation, like a youth, He loved the nation (cf. Exod. 4:22-23). As often, loving refers to choosing (cf. Gen. 12:2-3). God chose Israel for special blessing among the world's nations and in this sense loved him. He called and led His "son"Israel out of bondage in Egypt (cf. Deut. 14:1; 32:6; Isa. 1:2-20; 3:9; Jer. 3:19, 22; 4:22; 31:9, 20).

Matthew wrote that Jesus Christ fulfilled this verse (Matt. 2:15). Jesus did so in that as the Son of God in another sense God the Father called and led Him out of Egypt when He was a child. Matthew did not mean that Hosea had Jesus Christ in mind or predicted His exodus from Egypt when he wrote but that Jesus' experience corresponded to what Hosea had written about Israel. He saw the experience of Jesus as analogous to that of Israel. Jesus' experience completed the full meaning of Hosea's statement and in this sense fulfilled it.⁷²

11:2 God continued to call the Israelites after they left Egypt. He did so through His prophets. But the more the prophets appealed to the people to follow the Lord, the more the people turned aside from following Him. They kept sacrificing to Baal and kept burning incense to idols (cf. Judg. 2:11-13).

11:3 Israel demonstrated this ungrateful apostasy even though it was Yahweh who taught His son Israel to walk (behave, cf. Deut. 1:31; Isa. 1:2), provided tender loving care, and healed him when he needed restoration.

11:4 The restraints that the Lord had placed on Israel in its youth were cords of love designed to protect and preserve the people rather than robbing them of freedom. The Lord freed them from oppressive bondage and made special provision to feed them. The image of a loving herdsman taking care of his animal is in view here. Often a cattleman would lift the yolk from an ox's shoulders so when it bent over to eat it would not slide down over its face and impede its feeding.⁷³

 Punishment for rebelliousness 11:5-7

11:5 Because Israel refused to return to Yahweh after so many appeals by His prophets (v. 2), He would send the nation back into captivity. Yet the place of exile would not be Egypt but Assyria. In other messages Hosea identified Egypt as the place of Israel's future exile (cf. 8:13; 9:3, 6), but here it becomes clear that He was only using Egypt as a metaphor for a place of captivity. Assyria would be the geographical location of Israel's exile.

11:6 Enemy soldiers would swarm around Israel's cities and break down the gate bars that secured them against foreign attack. They would consume the Israelites because of the decisions the Israelites had made to depart from the Lord (cf. Mic. 6:16). These were the result, in part, of false prophets' advice. Yahweh had fed His people (v. 4), but now the sword would feed on them (cf. Isa. 1:19-20).

11:7 The Israelites' resolve to abandon Yahweh was firm. In spite of the prophets' appeals to return to Him, none of them exalted the Lord by doing so.⁷⁴