TEXT [Commentary]

black diamond   6.   Hosea’s advice: return to the Lord (6:1-3)

1 “Come, let us return to the LORD.

He has torn us to pieces;

now he will heal us.

He has injured us;

now he will bandage our wounds.

2 In just a short time he will restore us,

so that we may live in his presence.

3 Oh, that we might know the LORD!

Let us press on to know him.

He will respond to us as surely as the arrival of dawn

or the coming of rains in early spring.”

NOTES

6:1 Come, let us return. The LXX (cf. NRSV) inserts the word “saying” (Gr. legontes [TG3004, ZG3306]) before this exhortation, thereby making the prayer to be that of the people. Such a position, however, is without textual support. Rather, it is Hosea who prays on behalf of his people. The prayer assumes an attitude of true repentance. As Garrett (1997:158) notes, “Returning to Yahweh is a major theme of the book.”

6:2 In just a short time he will restore us. Lit., “after two days he will revive us, on the third day he will raise us up.” The NLT properly renders according to the sense but obscures an important biblical motif regarding three-day time periods (see commentary below).

6:3 Oh, that we might know the LORD. Failure to know God was “one of the primary failings of the people (4:1)” (Garrett 1997:159). Isaiah (Isa 54:13) looked forward to the day when Israel would be taught by the Lord.

as surely as the arrival of dawn or the coming of rains. Once again, Hosea’s love of picturesque similes is seen. God’s response to his people’s repentance can be counted on as surely as the regularity of dawn and the arrival of the seasonal rains.

COMMENTARY [Text]

Building on the Lord’s statement that it is only when God’s people realize their hopeless position that they will search for God, Hosea prays vicariously on behalf of all Israel. He urged them to join him in heartfelt repentance and recognition that their present troubles are divinely sent. Because it is God who ordered them, only he can alleviate the situation. This he will do if only his people turn once again to him. Once this is done, in his set time he will restore his people to his favor and they will live in his blessed presence (Isa 54:1-8).

Hosea’s presentation of his assurance of God’s forgiveness and restoration of Israel is accompanied by the motif of the third day. From the beginning of Israel’s redemption, the third day plays an important part. God appeared to Israel on Mount Sinai on the third day (Exod 19:10-16). The third day was a day of crucial decision (1 Kgs 12:12; Esth 4:16; 5:1). It was also a day of healing and sacrifice (Lev 7:17-18; 19:6-7; Num 19:12, 19-20). Accordingly, it was a day fit for Hezekiah’s recovery (2 Kgs 20:8).

The third day, of course, is also significant for the capstone of Jesus’ saving work. Jesus often told his disciples of a coming third day when, after his death, he would rise again (Matt 16:21; 17:23; 20:19; Luke 9:22). And so it came to pass, for Christ was gloriously raised on the third day (Luke 24:21; 1 Cor 15:4). All along the way, it would seem, God was preparing people for the great climactic event: the granting of new life and the institution of a new covenant with believers through the death and resurrection of his Son and our Redeemer, Jesus Christ.

The emphasis in this passage on the crucial importance of knowing God intimately reminds believers that such a quest is continuously theirs. Paul declared that, by faith in the resurrected Christ, the believer can really know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead (Phil 3:10). He went on to point out, however, that this task consumes a lifetime. Accordingly, he remarked that his focus was on forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead—the prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us up to heaven (Phil 3:13b-14).

May we therefore be “third-day Christians”—those who have put implicit faith in the one who was crucified for our sins and raised on the third day (1 Cor 15:4) to make us right with God (Rom 4:25). All Christians may join in Paul’s journey to know God with ever increasing intimacy. For such is the opportunity available to them through the power of the resurrected Christ. In union with him they may live out the new life he has granted in all its fullness (Rom 6:4, 10-11; 1 Pet 2:24).