Hosea 11:1-11
What Kind of Relationship Do You Have With God?

I. Do You React Differently to Different People?
1. We can often be more blunt with family because we know the bonds of the relationship can withstand it.
2. I respond much differently to how a child acts depending on whether that was my child or not.
3. The way we react to each other often depends on our relationship to each other.
4. A vending machine never develops relationships with customers. It treats everyone with perfect fairness.
5. Does God deal with people differently depending on the relationship? Is God relational or mechanical?
II. His Rearing of His Children (11:1-4)
A. God’s Relationship With Israel
1. He reared Israel, nurtured him. He called them to live His way, to be a “holy nation.”
2. He pictures that rearing, like a parent teaching a toddler to walk; holding his hands (11:3).
3. The parent, like God, takes care of the child if he or she gets sick because of the relationship.
4. You have a pet, like a dog or cat, to have a relationship with it, not like a donkey for work.
5. That tender rearing and gentle invitations should have created in Israel a relationship with the Lord.
6. “Generosity is God’s way of creating community.” God wants His generosity to create worship.
7. They thought the Lord was mechanical: offer to Him sacrifices, then He’ll return the blessings.
8. It’s not a relationship. It’s just a cold, impersonal, business exchange, they thought. It’s mechanical.

B. Jesus Is the True Israel
1. Israel is God’s Son. Our instinct today is to take “Israel” to refer literally to the nation Israel.
2. Matthew 2:15 quotes, “out of Egypt I called My Son,” for the infant Jesus returning from Egypt.
3. Now, with Jesus, that prophesy is “fulfilled,” meaning that was the ultimate purpose of Hosea 11:1.
4. God has a Son, He loved and brought out of Egypt: Israel. Is God a cosmic racist? No.
5. Jesus is the true Israel. The people whom God sees in Christ are the ultimate Israel.
6. God has sons and daughters whom He is rearing and calling from all nations.
7. The Father is rearing children through Christ who will tied to Him with cords of kindness.
III. His Rage at Not His People (11:5-7)
1. God turns to the “Not My People,” and pronounces His rage against them. They are not His Son.
2. They would not repent and worship and love Him alone. They did not want a relationship with God.
3. “The sword shall rage against their cities.” Swords don’t wield themselves. The Lord wields it.
4. These people are “bent” on turning away from the Lord, like a car with a bent frame.
5. Even if they should call out to the Lord, the Lord would still not raise them up (11:7).
6. God doesn’t have the kind of relationship with these people to heed them when they cry out to Him.
7. Some say, ‘That’s not fair!’ Fairness is not the issue. He doesn’t have to save anyone.
8. Why does the Lord turn some people back to Himself? Because of His relationship with them.
IV. His Roar (11:8-11)
1. In chapter one the Lord goes from saying an Israel is “Not My People,” another is His people.
2. He says He can’t treat them like Admah and Zeboiim, two suburbs of Sodom and Gomorrah.
3. “I will not execute My burning anger.” He won’t wield His raging sword against them.
4. If we were treated by someone like the God has been treated by these people, we would be enraged.
5. He’s gone from expressing rage at Israel to resolving never to pour out His wrath at Israel.
6. The Israel that He won’t raise up is different than the Israel that He resolves not to be angry against.
7. The Israel that He won’t give up is, first, His Son, Israel in the one Person of Jesus, then the church.
8. The Israel that He promises not to forsake, not to destroy, to keep to the end, is the true one, the church.
9. 1 Thessalonians 5:9, we “are not appointed for wrath.” He reared us not to destroy us with His wrath.
10. The supernatural Israel “shall go after the Lord.” They respond differently than natural Israel.
11. God’s children hear His voice as a roar. It moves their response. His children hear the roar.
12. They come trembling, in reverence and awe, knowing that they are sinners. They come from exile.
13. God has children scattered around the world, and He recoils at the idea of condemning them.
14. God roars for them, a call of irresistible grace. When His children hear that call, they are justified.
V. Invitation: Some are His children. Some are not. He doesn’t respond to us mechanically, as though we can get what we want out of Him if only we put in the right coins and push the right buttons. He has an only begotten Son who lived the perfect life we didn’t and took the wrath we couldn’t. If we’re in Him we’re also His children and He’s not appointed us to get eternal anger from Him but to have our home with Him forever. If you believe in Jesus, then you are the Father’s child. The question, then, for you, do you believe?