Hosea 6:1

‘“He has torn us to pieces, and He will heal us”’
(Hosea:6:1)

For some of us it’s not difficult to feel ‘“torn… to pieces”’ by life – which God, of course, is ultimately in control of (although our troubles typically have proximal causes, even ourselves). For others, on the more puffed-up end of the spectrum, this being ‘“torn… to pieces”’ might be exactly what we need, before a more solid, wholesome life can emerge. Either way, or if we’re somewhere in between, God has the answer – the One who we can turn to, ‘“and He will heal us”’.

The Israelites of Hosea’s time were certainly in ‘“pieces”’ already, and potentially facing worse to come. For generations, the northern kingdom, which Hosea primarily addresses, had followed ‘the sins of Jeroboam… son of Nebat’(2 Kings 15:9,18&24). He’d formed a breakaway ‘“kingdom”’(1 Kings 12:26ff.), establishing a hybrid religion corrupted by idolatry and all manner of other ‘abominations’(2 Kings 16:3) – such practices even plagued the more faithful southern remnant of ‘Judah’(2 Kings 16:1ff.) at times.

They had become the typical broken society, in pieces both morally and spiritually, characterised by ‘“cursing, lying, murder, stealing… adultery”’(Hosea 4:2ff.) and the like, and consequently deserving of being ‘“torn”’ apart further, in judgement. So God’s message to them, via Hosea, was that He would ‘“cut them to pieces… with… words”’(Hosea 6:5), ‘“like a lion”’(Hosea 5:14), and that persistent unfaithfulness would eventually reap a ‘“whirlwind”’(Hosea 8:7ff.) of judgement, which sadly came to pass, as they were ‘carried away’(2 Kings 17:23ff.) into oblivion.

It doesn’t have to end that way, which is the point here – there’s an offer of healing, with a heart-felt appeal: ‘“Come! … return to Yahweh [i.e. God]”’(Hosea 6:1), and ‘“He will heal”’. Whilst it’s true that ‘the word of God is… sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing’(Hebrews 4:12), His judgement can be received like a surgeon’s knife, rather than slashes from an enemy. As the proverb advises, ‘don’t despise Yahweh’s discipline, neither be weary of His correction’(Proverbs 3:11), because although such ‘chastening seems… grievous… it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those’(Hebrews 12:11) who co-operate with His loving, healing intent.

The mechanism behind this healing is even more amazing. The next verse in this prophecy from Hosea gives some pointers: ‘“After two days He will revive us. On the third day He will raise us up, and we will live before Him”’(Hosea 6:2). Isaiah adds more clues regarding how this works: ‘He was pierced for our transgressions… by His wounds we are healed’(Isaiah 53:5ff.). Such prophecies foresaw Jesus’ work on the cross, as Paul explained later: ‘Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures… He was buried… He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures’(1 Corinthians 15:3-4, cf. Luke 24:44-47). That’s why, from the cross, Jesus referenced the prophetic psalm that begins, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’(Psalm 22:1ff., cf. Matthew 27:46), which also describes metaphorical ‘lions tearing prey’(Psalm 22:13), alongside much more that He went through there, and achieved, i.e. ‘He has done it’(Psalm 22:31, cf. John 19:30) – finished, completed, full cure available.

So, amazingly, through ‘faith’(Romans 3:25; Hebrews 11:39ff.) all of God’s faithful people, throughout history, can be healed in this way, through being ‘united with Him’(Romans 6:5) in His death and resurrection, symbolised now in baptism, as Paul explained to the Romans, and Colossians: ‘having been buried with Him in baptism… you were also raised with Him through faith in the working of God… You were dead through your trespasses… He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven… all our trespasses’(Colossians 2:12-13).

However, this healing doesn’t simply bless us with a ‘forgiven’ status, in the eyes of God, leaving us otherwise unchanged. There’s more, again as Paul explains: ‘all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death… We were buried… with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead… we also might walk in newness of life’(Romans 6:3-4) – ‘transformed’(Romans 12:2). As Peter puts it, ‘He… bore our sins in His body on the tree [i.e. the wooden cross], that we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness. You were healed by His wounds…’(1 Peter 2:24) in that sense too, or should have been, if truly cured/healed/saved – although it’s a healing journey, never fully complete until eternity dawns. Thankfully though, we’re given this status ‘perfected’(Hebrews 10:14) in God’s sight, even now, ‘in Him’(2 Corinthians 5:21).

So our full restoration awaits this dawn, when we’ll ‘“live before Him”’(Hosea 6:2) forever, and ‘what is written will happen: “Death… swallowed up in victory”’(1 Corinthians 15:54ff, cf. Hosea 13:14, Isaiah 25:8 & Revelation 7:17&21:4).

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