How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender. I will not execute my burning anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim; for I am God and not a man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath.
– Hosea 11:8–9
Wow, what language from God to His people in His holiness, in His justice. This sinful people, Ephraim, Israel deserve His just wrath. And this is good that God has wrath and anger. Holy anger, pure anger. He hates sin. He hates that which destroys His people and He is just. His good. The God Almighty is just, what if He were not? What if God who has all power in all the universe were unjust?
It would be a horrible thing for the supreme potentate overall to be unjust. So it is good that He is just and holy and righteous and that sinners deserve wrath. And yet here is God saying, I have warm and tender compassion for my sinful people, and I will not execute my burning anger. I will not pour out the judgment they deserve upon them. Instead, I will pour out my mercy on them. I will not come in wrath. I’ll come in mercy. This is the gospel, isn’t it?
This Verse Praises God for the Gospel
You and I and every single person on the planet has sinned against God and we deserve the holy, just, righteous judgment and wrath of God. But God so loved the world that He gave His one and only son to die on a cross to pay the price for our sins to rise from the grave so that anyone who ever believes in Him will never perish, will not experience His wrath, will experience everlasting life in heaven with Him.
Oh God, we praise you for this gospel. It doesn’t get old. It is glorious beyond comprehension. God, we praise you for your compassion, your warm tender, compassion toward us, toward me. Oh God, who am I? I deserve your judgment. We all do, and you have shown mercy in Jesus to us.
Hosea 11:8–9 Calls People to Trust in Jesus
God, I pray for anyone listening to this right now who’s never trusted in Jesus that they would put their trust in Jesus today. They might realize they’re under your judgment and you’ve made a way for them to be saved from it through Jesus.
God, help us to proclaim this love, this miraculous mercy to somebody else today. Help us to share the gospel with somebody today. We pray that they might experience your warm and tender compassion in Jesus. Pray for the Primanar people of India and Sri Lanka. Thousands upon thousands of them, hardly any followers of Jesus, if any followers of Jesus.
Hosea 11:8–9 Leads Us to Pray for the Spread of the Gospel Among Hindus
God, we pray for the spread of the gospel to this Hindu people group, this high caste Hindu people group. God, we pray that they would hear, receive, and believe the good news of your warm and tender compassion that they might trust in Jesus and be saved from the judgment they deserve. Saved from false gods that cannot save. By you, the one true God, we pray over the Primanar people of India and Sri Lanka. God, we love this picture of your character that you revealed in Hosea 11:8– 9. We praise you as we thank you for your warm and tender compassion toward us. We pray in the name of the one who makes all of this possible. In His name we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
