13:12,13
Ephraim is full of sin. At the time that he should be born he is not. He would be full of sorrow that a woman experiences when she is pregnant but fails to give birth to a living child. What does all this mean? Many years earlier God had taken Israel to the border of the Promised Land, the time to go in was ready, but Israel failed to enter into the Promised Land and so wandered in the desert for forty years. There are times in our lives when we are meant to enter into God’s promise. This will inevitable mean trusting Him to a new way, this will mean denying ourselves, not relying just on ourselves, but relying on Him. If we do so, then we will enter a new level of life. If we don’t, then we will suffer pain.
13:14
This verse is very difficult to interpret. Taken on its own its meaning is clearly that God will ransom them from death, which is what Christ has achieved for us, and this verse reminds us of Paul’s words in 1 Cor 15:55, “where o death is your victory, where is your sting”. However, in the light of the previous verse and the two verses immediately following this makes no sense. The ESV has in the margin “Shall I redeem them from death?” RSV has “Shall I redeem them ...” The end of the verse “Pity is hidden from my eyes” would seem to imply that RSV and ESV margin are nearer the mark. Death and destruction were coming from the Lord.
13:15,16
Ephraim may have seemed to be doing well among Israel as a whole, but destruction that he could not withstand would come from the Lord. Ephraim would be stripped of all her wealth and strength. In Hosea, Ephraim in particular is the focus of God’s judgement, among the tribes of Israel. Judgement would come upon Israel, and even the women and children would suffer greatly. We find this sort of thing hard to take, hard to comprehend in the light of a God of love. One thing we should note is that this sort of thing has happened in the past, and does happen today. So to dismiss it out of hand is almost certainly not the answer.
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