9 You are destroyed, O Israel,
because you are against Me—
against your helper.

10 Where is your king now
to save you in all your cities,
and the rulers to whom you said,
“Give me a king and princes”?
11 So in My anger I gave you a king,
and in My wrath I took him away.

12 The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up;
his sin is stored up.
13 Labor pains come upon him,
but he is an unwise son.
When the time arrives,
he fails to present himself at the opening of the womb.

14 I will ransom them from the power of Sheol;
I will redeem them from Death.
Where, O Death, are your plagues?
Where, O Sheol, is your sting?

Compassion is hidden from My eyes.

REFLECTIONS

Written by Gus Cameron

If anyone wants evidence that God judges sin, we need to look no further than death. Many of us try to ignore it and just not think about death – and with our amazing health care and endless safety measures, many people manage to delay death until old age. But as Hosea says, our sins are stored up before God (v 12) – or as the NIV puts it, our sins are “kept on record.” That means sinful people must bear their guilt (v 16).

Verse 14 briefly holds out the hope that God might rescue people from the grave. But – at least in Hosea’s time – that glimmer of hope is crushed when God declares that he will not have compassion.

Thankfully, that glimmer of hope bursts to life again in the New Testament, because God has always had an answer: Christ Jesus. Death is not the end for those of us who trust in Christ, because he died on the cross and rose to defeat death. That’s why in 1 Corinthians 15:55 the apostle Paul quotes Hosea, without anything to crush that hope again:

“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Corinthians 15:55-57)

Hosea forces us to face the horror of our sin and the punishment we deserve, but in doing that it shows us even more clearly how beautiful it is to know Christ Jesus and the victory over death that he has given us.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Gus is our Senior Assistant Minister.