Hosea 6:3
"Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: His going forth is prepared as the morning; and He shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth."
There are many things that God does not reveal to His children. It’s like a father with his children. Many times, they may be full of questions about what’s ahead. One of the favorite questions that children like to ask is, “Why?” There may be some things that the father may tell the child to calm their fears or curiosity. However, there are other things that the father may choose not to say, and when the child asks, "Why?" the father may respond, “Because I say so, and I’ll let you know when I think you need to know.”
Imagine what Hosea would have felt when the LORD told him to take a prostitute as his wife. There were many things that the LORD did not explain to Hosea, but in obedience to God’s direction, he went and did as the LORD commanded. The LORD knows what He has purposed and who He will raise up to accomplish His will, but most times, it is a matter of trusting God’s sovereign direction, even though we may not see the result. “The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law” (Deuteronomy 29:29).
The LORD knows the end from the beginning because He has ordained the end as well as the means. Take the example of Lot in Sodom and Gomorrah. There were doubtless many days when Lot wondered why it was that the LORD had directed him to Sodom. The scriptures tell us that he vexed his righteous soul day and night at the wickedness that he observed and experienced (2 Peter 2:8). And yet, he was brought to see that the LORD had His hand on him the entire time and was brought to understand, as Paul wrote to Timothy, “Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are His. And, Let everyone that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity” (2 Timothy 2:19).
Our LORD told His disciples that there were many things that He could not tell them at the point when He was preparing to go to the cross for them and lay down His life (John 16:12). The reason given was that they could not bear them at that point. In time, they would be brought to see what things they would suffer for His Name’s sake (Luke 21:12). While the LORD Jesus was going to the cross to pay their complete sin debt and would finish the work, yet they would be called upon to lay down their lives. Too much foreknowledge of what was ahead would have been humanly impossible to bear, but they would know it in the LORD’s time and would be given grace at the appointed time to take up their cross and follow Him. Without giving them the details, the LORD nonetheless told them enough to prepare them: “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
This was the Word of the LORD to Hosea and what lay ahead for him and the rebellious nation of Israel. Historically, Hosea was raised up to prophesy in the days of Jeroboam II. Under his reign, Israel seemed to prosper, but inside the nation was a rot that was rife with idolatry, injustice, and false worship. The LORD raised the prophet Hosea to voice God’s displeasure with the nation and warned of impending destruction. Even though the nation ignored God’s impending judgment, the day would come when the LORD’S work would be made clear, in His time.
“Then shall we know if we follow on to know the LORD.” This is to say that when the LORD brought chastening upon the nation, although there would be those that the LORD would preserve—those that He had chosen and given to His Son—others would most certainly go away. It should not surprise us when the LORD sifts the chaff from the wheat. What should cause us wonderment is that the Lord delivers and keeps what He has given to His Son in electing and redeeming grace (John 6:37-40).
No matter the conflict or the persecution, the Promise of the LORD stands sure: “His going forth is prepared as the morning; and He shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.” Here is God’s promise not to destroy all the tribes of Israel, but to preserve a remnant because of His Promised Seed (Christ), who would come through the seed of David and save them in His redeeming work on the earth when He would come in the fullness of the time, by God the Father Himself (Galatians 4:4).
For “His going forth” to visit, deliver, and comfort His people, to manifest Himself to them, to refresh and save them in the coming of Christ in the flesh. His going forth before His people, in His gracious, faithful, holy, just, and wise providence, for their benefit and comfort, “is prepared as the morning”— As the dawning of a new day, so Christ, the Day Star, would arise and bring salvation and revival through His life, death, resurrection, and ascension (Luke 1:78).
"And He shall come unto us as the rain unto the earth”— The rain (a type of God’s grace in Christ) comes from heaven to earth. It refreshes it, renders it fruitful, beautifies it, and gives it new life. As the latter and former rain—the words may also be rendered, the harvest rain and the rain of seed-time—here is the fulfillment of what God promised from the beginning, but could not be fully revealed until in time, when He was brought into the world as the harvest rain of the seed-time. By His death, burial, and resurrection, He would harvest a great number of sinners to bring them to God by His precious blood shed unto death for those that the Father purposed to save (Matthew 13:1-58).
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