He cut us into pieces. Let’s return to his love.

He cut us into pieces. Let's return to his love. Say what? He has torn us to pieces and injured us? And we should return to him? To his love? Huh?

If this was about a father doing this kind of thing to his family, the guy would be in prison. And it would be a sick kind of love.

And yet, this is about a father.
And this father is doing things to/for his kids.

However, there's something missing here.
Something's missing that's really important.

Here's part of what's missing.

He cut us into pieces. But not really?

Israel Unrepentant

...

Hos 6:4 “What can I do with you, Ephraim?
What can I do with you, Judah?
Your love is like the morning mist,
like the early dew that disappears.

Hos 6:5 Therefore I cut you in pieces with my prophets,
I killed you with the words of my mouth;
my judgments flashed like lightning upon you.

...

OK. You see now that this is about God.  While that knowledge alone will set some of you off, please stick around.  There is more to this.

First, we see that cut you to pieces wasn't literally cut, like with a knife.  It was about words, warnings. God warning His people (his kids, so to speak) to wake up and start listening to Him.

Second, we see that the injury was "killing" with words again.  This time, an acknowledgement that the words from the prophets were in fact God's own words.

Before that though, we also get a feel for how God's kids treat Him.  They love Him. A little bit. For a little while. Then, like the mist in the early morning, that love is gone.  And they're off doing the very things God told them not to do.

Oh.

Not what you expected, was it?

This is just part of what follows about the "kids". God's people.

Hos 6:6 For I desire mercy, not sacrifice,
and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings.

Hos 6:7 Like Adam, they have broken the covenant—
they were unfaithful to me there.

Hos 6:8 Gilead is a city of wicked men,
stained with footprints of blood.

Hos 6:9 As marauders lie in ambush for a man,
so do bands of priests;
they murder on the road to Shechem,
committing shameful crimes.

Hos 6:10 I have seen a horrible thing
in the house of Israel.
There Ephraim is given to prostitution
and Israel is defiled.

And there's more ...

We now see that short-lived love is an incredibly understated way to put things.  These "kids" were killing people.  Even the priests of God had blood on their hands and feet.  It's awful.

Earlier, I said the father would have been in prison for what we thought he did to his kids.  Turns out, what the father did was paint a picture.  It was a picture painted with words, not actions with real knives and actual physical injuries.

But now, we know the problem is the kids, They'd be in jail with the keys thrown away.  Hopefully.

After some back and forth, with the kids still not getting the lesson, we read this.

Hos 14:4 “I will heal their waywardness
and love them freely,
for my anger has turned away from them.

Hos 14:5 I will be like the dew to Israel;
he will blossom like a lily.
Like a cedar of Lebanon
he will send down his roots;

Hos 14:6 his young shoots will grow.
His splendor will be like an olive tree,
his fragrance like a cedar of Lebanon.

Hos 14:7 Men will dwell again in his shade.
He will flourish like the grain.
He will blossom like a vine,
and his fame will be like the wine from Lebanon.