It's Not Impossible for God to Save

Hosea 5:1–2 (ESV) Hear this, O priests! Pay attention, O house of Israel! Give ear, O house of the king! For the judgment is for you; for you have been a snare at Mizpah and a net spread upon Tabor. 2 And the revolters have gone deep into slaughter, but I will discipline all of them.

God pronounces judgment on unfaithful Israel by calling out the leaders. In verses 1 and 2, the priests, the civic leaders (house of Israel), and the kings have led Israel into the idolatrous practices of the nations around them. Leadership is always in the line of sight with the Lord. He knows people are easily swayed to believe the loudest and strongest voice. When leaders fail His people, God comes against them. 

We should be glad about this. As we see in America, leadership can go too far and also seek to undermine the trust of the people while presenting themselves as noble and trustworthy. I'm glad to know God is never fooled. 

Hosea 5:3 (ESV) I know Ephraim, and Israel is not hidden from me; for now, O Ephraim, you have played the whore; Israel is defiled.

The next verse exposes the problem of sin. It not only corrupts the person from within, it enslaves the person so that they are powerless to escape. 

Hosea 5:4 (ESV) Their deeds do not permit them to return to their God. For the spirit of whoredom is within them, and they know not the LORD.

The problem again is made clear in the following versese. The upper classes and leaders of the people have blinded the whole nation; God has withdrawn.

Hosea 5:5–6 (ESV) The pride of Israel testifies to his face; Israel and Ephraim shall stumble in his guilt; Judah also shall stumble with them. 6 With their flocks and herds they shall go to seek the LORD, but they will not find him; he has withdrawn from them.

The only option the people will see is the very enemies at the gates to heal them. In their blindness they turn to Assyria to heal them. 

Hosea 5:13 (ESV) When Ephraim saw his sickness, and Judah his wound, then Ephraim went to Assyria, and sent to the great king. But he is not able to cure you or heal your wound.

The end result for Israel will be a tearing apart of all they thought was so secure. 

Hosea 5:14 (ESV) For I will be like a lion to Ephraim, and like a young lion to the house of Judah. I, even I, will tear and go away; I will carry off, and no one shall rescue.

We may be troubled by these descriptions of the Lord's own against His people, but we must look at this text in the context of Israel's history. By now the nation has spent 300 years going after the false idols of the nations around them, offering their children to pagan gods, and defiling themselves with all manner of disgusting immorality. God's patience has come to an end, and judgment will be utter terror to those who felt they were above it all. 

Yet even in this dark chapter, a glimmer of hope remains.

Hosea 5:15 (ESV) I will return again to my place, until they acknowledge their guilt and seek my face, and in their distress earnestly seek me.

How do we reconcile the points made in verse 4 and verse 15? Verse 4 suggests that sin has so utterly enslaved Israel, there's no chance at returning to God, and verse 15 suggests they can do so. If the writer was seeking to avoid contradictions, he sure did leave these two awfully close. But herein lies the mystery of God's saving work. What seems impossible to us IS possible with God. We see salvation from our point of view, but salvation is God's work for us. What the prophets wrote about was the struggle to comprehend salvation before the work of the Cross. Because of Christ, the Holy Spirit comes to convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment and turn many hearts back to the Father. 

If you are in Christ, rejoice, He has saved you and spared you from your own worst enemy: YOU.