The Prophetic Wisdom Of HoseaSýnishorn

God's Lawsuit: Hosea 2:1-23

Following this balanced account of his earlier family experiences, Hosea turned to God’s first lawsuit in his book, in chapter 2:2-23. As we usually expect with prophetic lawsuits, in chapter 2:2-13, God declared in the court of heaven that northern Israel was going to suffer his curses. Like Gomer and her worship prostitution, the Israelites had been unfaithful to God, and God was going to curse them through the rise of the Assyrian Empire. But unlike most divine lawsuits, this lawsuit didn’t end with curses from God. On the contrary, in verses 14-23 God also spoke of blessings that would come after Israel’s judgment.

Consider God’s hopeful words in chapter 2:18: 

I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety.

Here we see that God expressed the certainty of a grand future after judgment by promising to make a covenant with Israel — a covenant that later prophets also predicted. Jeremiah 31:31 speaks of this covenant as a “new covenant.” And Isaiah 54:10, and Ezekiel 34:25 and 37:26 all refer to it as a “covenant of peace.” Here, Hosea’s prophecy focused on how God’s blessings would restore nature — “the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground.” And God also promised the cessation of violence from Assyria. He would “abolish the bow, the sword and war.” And Israel would “lie down in safety.”