Hosea 6: On The Third Day...

Hosea 6 picks up right where the last chapter left off.  The opening verses are the cry of the Israelites as they seek to return to the Lord their God.  And tucked inside of them is an eye-opening revelation, a reference to something yet to come.

"Come, let us return to the Lord; for it is he who has torn, and he will heal us; he has struck down, and he will bind us up" (vs. 1).   With this profession, the people have reached a point of spiritual understanding where they recognize that their troubles are a direct result of their disobedience.  They have made God their enemy through their idolatry (adultery in God's eyes) and they have been punished severely for it.  But they also realize that any hope of restoration will come from repairing their relationship with the Lord.  If He has had the power to injure them, He can heal them; if He can scourge, He can also protect.

Their cry goes on, "After two days he will revive us; on the third day he will raise us up, that we may live before him" (vs. 2).  OK.  Does this sound like anything we will hear more about in the New Testament?  What else involved a raising up after three days?  If you answered the Resurrection, you win the prize!  In a feat of prophetic utterance, Hosea hints at the promise of a return to life and being raised up after three days.  Unknown to be referring to Jesus at the time, how appropriate in retrospect is it that God planted a seed of prophecy in the Old Testament about His Son that would only be understood in due time.

This opening section ends with a beautiful image: "Let us know, let us press on to know the Lord; his appearing is as sure as the dawn; he will come to us like the showers, like the spring rains that water the earth" (vs. 3).  Aside from the references to the Lord's appearing and mentioning the season of spring (which is when the Resurrection occurred), this verse also answers one of the fundamental problems in Hosea.  In chapter 4, the prophet had claimed that God's people were being destroyed by a lack of knowledge (4:6) and that there was no knowledge of God in the land (4:1).  Now, however, the people are pressing on to know the Lord - something which we can do since Jesus has been sent from the Father.