“Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
Bring her into the wilderness
And speak kindly to her.
“Then I will give her her vineyards from there,
And the valley of Achor as a door of hope.
And she will sing there as in the days of her youth,
As in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.
Hosea is the first of many prophets (Isaiah, Joel, Amos, Jonah), of his time, to prophecy about Israel's punishment for their sins. Yet, like most other prophets, he also provides words about their restoration. In the above passage we see the that restoration of the nation spoken. God's discipline for them, as for us, is often taking us to the wilderness. It is interested that the words "allure" her to the wilderness are used. The use of the word "wilderness" here might be used in the context that God is going to strip away everything else they have to make sure He is the only one they can focus upon. Remember when they were called out of Egypt to the wilderness they complained they no longer had the food and safety of Egypt. God put them in a place where they needed Him for water, food, safety, shelter. In this wilderness, with all others voices silenced, we can hear Him speak "kindly" to us. And, despite it being a wilderness, God (and only God) can make a vineyard in the place. God can turn a "valley of Achor" (the symbol of no hope) into a place of hope. It is only when we are striped of all we own and have and are that we can see God do a work in our lives. Israel, like us, had disobeyed His Word and sought satisfaction in other gods. Yahweh would lead them to a place of nothing to give them everything. That, according to this passage, would solicit singing ... as when they had first experienced their freedom. There is nothing more celebratory than when we remember the first days of our salvation. Since that day Satan is a master of making our view cloudy and our memory fade. He wants us to forget the memory of freedom. God, in restoring His people, will take them to a place to restore them to that point in time that they sang for joy over the chains of Egypt destruction. Restoration might begin with a wilderness but it ends with singing.
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