Israel had become faithless to God and had left His law; even as Gomer had left her husband. God grieved for the sins of Israel; even as he had grieved for Gomer who had strayed from him. God loved His people, nevertheless; even as he loved Gomer, continually. God was prepared to take Israel back under His guiding and loving care, when Israel would repent of its backsliding and sinning; even as he did with Gomer.
From that day on Hosea's preaching took on a different form. He no longer scolded and condemned, but entreated and pleaded with his people:
"Return, O Israel, to the Lord thy God,
For thou hast stumbled through thine iniquity.
Take words with thee
And return to God.
Say to Him,
'Pardon Thou wholly iniquity
And receive (us) with favor.
Assyria will not save us,
We will not ride upon horses (to Egypt);
We will no more say to the work of our hands,
"Ye are our god."'"
And, in the fervor of his poetic soul, the prophet hears God's answer to repenting and returning Israel:
"I will heal their backsliding,
I will love them freely,
For my anger is turned away from them.
I will be as dew to Israel;
He shall blossom as the lily
And strike his roots deep as Lebanon.
His saplings shall spread out,
And his beauty shall be as the olive tree.
They shall return and dwell in my shadow,
They shall live well-watered like a garden,
They shall flourish like a vine,
Their renown shall be like that of the wine of Lebanon."
But such hopefulness and promise of divine love had no more effect upon the doomed people than did the attacks upon their sinfulness and wrongdoing.
The Judean prophet, Amos, it will be remembered, drew a picture of God as a stern judge and Israel as the criminal. Israel is proved guilty of all the prophet's accusations, and the Judge pronounces sentence.
The experiences that led the Samarian, Hosea, to prophesy were different than those of the Tekoan. Understanding the lasting love that dwelt within him for Gomer, and how he yearned for her return to him, he cried out to his people, from the depths of a wounded heart, speaking through the inspiration of a loving and merciful God:
"O my people!
How can I give thee up, O Ephraim!
How can I surrender thee, O Israel!
How can I give thee up as Admah!
Or make thee as Zeboim!
My heart asserts itself:
My sympathies are all aglow.
I will not carry into effect the fierceness of my anger;
I will not turn to destroy Ephraim.
For God am I, and not man,
Holy in the midst of thee;
Therefore I will not utterly consume.
Turn thou to thy God,
Keep kindness and justice,
And wait for thy God continually."
Although Hosea saw that he was laboring to no good effect, he did not for an instant give up. Time and again he recalled the early days of love and devotion between God and Israel. He recounted the times when Israel deserted God, from the Exodus on, but God always received Israel back, when the people repented of their sins and returned to acts of justice, righteousness and love.