“Therefore, behold, I will allure her and lead her to the wilderness, and speak to her tenderly.“Therefore behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her.Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her.Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her.
4 sermons cite this verse
… And in there, this is what God says when he comes to her. He says in Hosea chapter 2, verse 14, I am now going to allure her. I'm going to speak tenderly to her. And then verse 16, listen. In that day, declares the Lord, you will call me my husband. You will no longer call me my master, for I will betroth you to me forever. Now, here's what's going on. not master, but husband. Here's a picture of God saving this person by grace and then coming and saying three things. I'll put it this way. I don't want you simply as a remote inferior. I want you as a life partner. I don't want you simply to give me dutiful, even grateful service. I want your intimate love. I don't want you as a scullery maid. I want you as my bride. And so what we have here is, now look, oh my. Remember what I said in the very beginning, we cannot pit these images off against each other. Dare I say it this way, the one down on his knees before us is the high and lofty one. This is not like a human person, a human suitor coming and making a proposal. This is the high and lofty one. This is the majestic one. And yet, So you can't pit these things against each other. You can't say, well, we're equals. No, and yet, this is God, yet he dares even metaphorically use this kind of image. He says, I don't want you just …
So first, there are some who were given to Christ. We believe that it is clearly revealed in the Scriptures that long before this earth was created, the Lord looked forward upon the race of human beings that He intended to live upon it, and that out of them He chose unto Himself a people whom He gave to His Son to be the reward of the suffering He would endure on their behalf. Peter wrote to the elect strangers, "You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people that you should show forth the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light." And Paul wrote to Timothy, "The foundation of God stands sure, having this seal, The Lord knows them that are His." We do not know them, but He knows everyone of them and He counts them as His own peculiar treasure! "They shall be Mine, says the Lord of Hosts, in that day when I make up My jewels." These people have been given to Christ by His Father. Again and again, in that great intercessory prayer of His, He spoke of this Truth of God! In fact, the prayer begins with an emphatic declaration of it—"Father, the hour is come; glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You; as You have given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him." In our text Christ says that these people shall come to Him. "All that the Father gives Me shall come to Me." There is no question about whether they will come, or will not come—Christ says that they "shall come" to Him. "But," asks someone, "will God force them to come to Christ against their will?" Oh, no—He has a gracious way of making them willing in the day of His power. By His Spirit's Divine teaching, He will instruct them, illuminate them, persuade them, compel them so that everyone of those who were given to Christ will come to Him. "But they are blind," says another. The Lord says, "I will bring the blind by a way that they know not." "But they are very obstinate." The Lord says, "I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness and speak comfortably unto her." "But they are dead." Yes, that is true, but the Lord quickens those who are dead in trespasses and sins. Without violating our wills and leaving us to still act as free agents responsible for our own actions, He makes us willing to yield ourselves up to Christ—body, soul and spirit—to be forever His! …
And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt. In the context, the church of Israel is first threatened with the awful desolation which God was about to bring upon her for her dealing so falsely and treacherously with God; because though, in the bold language of the prophet, she had been married to God, she had yet gone after other lovers, and had committed adultery with them, “For she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread, and my water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink. ” Therefore God threatened that he would strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst, and that he would discover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and destroy her vines and fig-trees, and make them a forest. So the prophet goes on terribly threatening her to the end of the thirteenth verse. And those things were fulfilled in the captivity of Israel in the land of Assyria. But in the verse preceding the text, and in the remainder of the chapter, there follows a gracious promise of mercy, which God would show her in the days of the gospel. “Therefore, behold I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her. And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt. ” “I will allure her,” that is, I will court or woo her again, as a young man woos a virgin, whom he desires to make his wife. God, for her committing adultery with other lovers, had threatened that he would give her a bill of divorce, as verse second. “Plead with your mother, plead; for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband.” But here in the latter part of the chapter, God promises that in gospel times he would make her his wife again, as in the sixteenth verse. “And it shall be at that day that thou shalt call me Ishi;” that is, “my husband.” And so in verses 19, 20. “And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me for ever in righteousness, and in judgment, in loving-kindness, and in mercies; I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness.” Here in the fourteenth verse., God promises that he will woo her, and in the latter part of the verse, he shows in what manner he will deal with her when he is about to woo or allure her. He would first bring her into the wilderness; that is, he would bring her into trouble and distress, and so humble her, and then allure her by speaking comfortably or pleasantly to her, as a young man does to a maid whom he woos. Then follow the words of the text. …
8 One of these is Isaiah 50:10: “Who is among you that feareth the Lord, and obeyeth the voice of his servant, that walketh in darkness and hath no light? Let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay upon his God.” But how does it appear, either from the text or context, that the person here spoken of ever had light? One who is convinced of sin, “feareth the Lord, and obeyeth voice of his servant.” And him we should advise, though he was still dark of soul, and had never seen the light of God’s countenance, yet to “trust in the name of the Lord, and stay upon his God.” This text, therefore, proves nothing less than that believer in Christ “must sometimes walk in darkness.” 9. Another text which has been supposed to speak the same doctrine is Hosea 2:14: “I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her.” Hence it has been inferred, that God will bring every believer into the wilderness, into a state of deadness and darkness. But it is certain the text speaks no such thing; for it does not appear that it speaks of particular believers at all: It manifestly refers to the Jewish nation; and, perhaps, to that only. But if it be applicable to particular persons, the plain meaning of it is this: — I will draw him by love; I will next convince him of sin; and then comfort him by pardoning mercy. …