Does God Have no Compassion For Children?

Does God Have No Compassion For Children? (Hosea 2:4)

This is a rather tricky question, so let us look at the context of this passage. In Hosea 1, we meet the prophet Hosea. The Lord came to Hosea and requested of him to take a harlot wife, simply, a prostitute wife. Not a wife for lust, but one who fell into this sin of prostitution(Hosea 1:1-3). Hosea did as the Lord requested, taking a wife named Gomer and bearing a son.

The Lord requests Hosea to name his son Jezreel, for he will bring judgment upon the house of Israel. The name Jezreel means “Lord sows”.

She bores another whose name is Lo-ruhamah or “no pity”, and says he will no longer have compassion on Israel.

“Yet the number of the sons of Israel Will be like the sand of the sea, Which cannot be measured or numbered; And in the place Where it is said to them, “You are not My people,” It will be said to them, “You are the sons of the living God,” (Hosea 1:10 NASB1995). The number of Israel’s sons being plentiful goes all the way back to the book of Genesis where God established his covenant with Abraham, when he showed such faith as to even give his son for the Lord(Genesis 22).

The passage is using Hosea as an analogy for the feelings of God. He is with an adulterous wife, one who is not faithful. This so is too with God, whose wife is Israel. When one scoffs, saying, “You are not my people” or not God’s people, he will say: “You are the sons of the living God”.

We get to Hosea 3 and the tone has changed. “Then the Lord said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by her husband, yet an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the sons of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love raisin cakes(a likely reference to an eating before idol worship).” So I bought her for myself for fifteen shekels of silver, a homer, and a half of barley(a dowry). Then I said to her, “You shall stay with me for many days. You shall not play the harlot, nor shall you have a man; so I will also be toward you.” For the sons of Israel will remain for many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar and without ephod or household idols. Afterward, the sons of Israel will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king; and they will come trembling to the Lord and to His goodness in the last days,” (Hosea 3 NASB1995). The Lord reminds Israel where their mind should be, towards him and not of idols, and that they will return to the Lord.

In Hosea 6, we get Hosea preaching of the need to return to God. They have been harlots, but let them return after this time. The Lord will restore them, he will heal them. “Come, let us return to the Lord. For He has torn us, but He will heal us; He has wounded us, but He will bandage us. “He will revive us after two days; He will raise us up on the third day, That we may live before Him,” (Hosea 6:3 NASB1995). The Jews have transgressed the covenant of Abraham(Hosea 6:7), but it is time now to seek the Lord(Hosea 10:12).

Now why did I make us read all this context? Let us read this verse again: “Upon her children also I will have no mercy, because they are children of whoredom,” (Hosea 2:4 ESV). God is angry with Israel; even so, we see through Hosea God demands Israel for he loves them. These people of Israel must be judged for their wrongdoings, “I will punish her for the days of the Baals When she used to offer sacrifices to them And adorn herself with her earrings and jewelry, And follow her lovers, so that she forgot Me,” declares the Lord,” (Hosea 2:13 NASB1995). God will love them, but because of these great sins, ones even the children follow(Hosea 1:2), there must be reconciliation. One must not forsake the love of the Lord God. He is all-loving, but he too is all-just, and Israel needs a tough talking to.

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Image by Piron Guillaume on Unsplash