Though His people may turn away from Him, God will not abandon them, even though He disciplines them, for He is true to His covenant and His promises. “If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself” (2 Tim. 2: nkjv).
God pleads with His people to return to Him and forsake the sins that were causing their downfall (Hos. 14:1). He had already told them to plow up their hard hearts and seek the Lord (10:12) and to turn to God for mercy (12:6), but now He talks to them like little children and tells them just what to do. The Lord gives them promises to encourage them to repent.
He will receive us (vv. 2–3). God had every reason to reject His sinful people, but He chose to offer them forgiveness. Instead of bringing sacrifices, they needed to bring sincere words of repentance and ask God for His gracious forgiveness. “For You do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it; You do not delight in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart—these, O God, You will not despise” (Ps. 51:16–17 nkjv).
He will restore us (v. 4). God restores the penitent to spiritual health and heals their backsliding (Jer. 14:7). When a person collapses with sickness, it’s usually the result of a process that’s been working in the body for weeks or months. First an infection gets into the system and begins to grow. The person experiences weariness and loss of appetite, then weakness, and then the collapse occurs. When sin gets into the inner person and isn’t dealt with, it acts like an insidious infection: it grows quietly; it brings loss of spiritual appetite; it creates weariness and weakness; then comes the collapse.
For example, when Peter denied his Lord three times, that sin didn’t suddenly appear; it was the result of gradual spiritual deterioration. The denial began with Peter’s pride, when he told the Lord he would never forsake Him and would even die for Him. The next stage was sleeping when he should have been praying, and then fighting when he should have put away his sword. Peter should have left the scene (“I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad” [Matt. 26:31; Zech. 13:7]); but instead, he followed to see what would happen and walked right into temptation.
When we confess our sins to the Lord, He forgives us and the “germs of sin” are cleansed away (1 John 1:9), but, as with physical sickness, often there’s a period of recuperation when we get back our strength and our appetite for spiritual food. “I will love them freely” describes that period, when we’re back in fellowship with the Lord and enjoying His presence. We see the smile of His face, for His anger is turned away.
He will revive us (vv. 5–8). Hosea pictures the restoration of the penitent as the emergence of new life in a dry field on which the refreshing dew has fallen. In the summer and early autumn in the Holy Land, the dew is very heavy and greatly appreciated (Ps. 133:3; Isa. 18:4). That’s what the word revive means: to bring new life. The rich vegetation appears, producing beauty and fragrance where once the farmer saw only ugliness and emptiness. The fallow ground becomes a fruitful garden!
The closing verse presents us with only two alternatives: rebel against the Lord and continue to stumble, or return to the Lord and walk securely in His ways. The first choice is foolish; the second choice is wise.
J O E L“I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore, choose life” (Deut. 30:19).
Joel in His Time Each prophet had his own unique approach to his own special message. Hosea’s message was an application of his sad domestic trials, emphasizing God’s jealous love; but Joel’s message was an interpretation of a national calamity—a plague of locusts and a drought—and emphasized God’s glorious kingdom.
Joel may well have been the first of the writing prophets; he probably ministered in Judah during the reign of King Joash (835–796 BC). You find the record in 2 Kings 11—12 and 2 Chronicles 22—24. Joash came to the throne at the age of seven, and Jehoiada the priest was his mentor. This may explain why Joel says nothing about the king, since Joash was learning the job.
Joel’s major theme is the “day of the Lord” and the need for God’s people to be prepared. “The day of the Lord” is used in Scripture to refer to different periods when God sent judgment to His people, but the main emphasis is on the future “day of the Lord” when the nations will be judged and Christ shall return to set up His glorious kingdom.
Joel refers to three important events, each of which he calls a “day of the Lord.” He sees the plague of locusts as an immediate day of the Lord (Joel 1:1–20), the invasion of Judah by Assyria as an imminent day of the Lord (21:27), and the final judgment of the world as the ultimate day of the Lord (2:27—3:21). In the first, the locusts are a metaphorical army; in the second, the locusts symbolize a real army; in the third, the locusts aren’t seen at all, and the armies are very real and very dangerous.