Hosea 11:4

"Yet I taught Ephraim to walk. I took them by their arms, but they didn’t know that I healed them."

Key Reflection

In Hosea 11:4, God reflects on His patient guidance of Israel, teaching them and supporting them with care as a parent would with a child. Despite this healing presence in their lives, the people remained unaware of the extent of God's salvific actions, much like a child does not fully comprehend its parents' efforts to help it walk.

From the Scholars: Barnes' Notes

I drew them with the cords of a man -o: “Wanton heifers such as was Israel, are drawn with ropes; but although Ephraim struggled against Me, I would not draw him as a beast, but I drew him as a man, (not a servant, but a son) with cords of love.” “Love is the magnet of love.” : “The first and chief commandment of the law, is not of fear, but of love, because He willeth those whom He commandeth, to be sons rather than servants.” : “Our Lord saith, ‘No man cometh unto Me, except the father who hath sent me, draw him.’ He did not say, lead ‘him,’ but ‘draw him.’ This violence is done to the heart, not to the body. Why marvel? Believe and thou comest; love and thou art drawn.

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