Hosea 6
1 “Come, let us return to Yahweh. For He has torn us, but He will heal us; He has struck us, but He will bandage us. 2 He will make us alive after two days; He will raise us up on the third day, That we may live before Him. 3 So let us know, let us pursue to know Yahweh.
Here, God is prophesying what Israel will say when they will eventually turn back to God, after He has afflicted them. You see here a resurrection on the third day. You saw this as well in Jonah. And Christ, the true Israel, was Himself raised up on the third day.
In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul expounds that the Gospel went as it was prophesied in the Scriptures:
3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures
When Paul says that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, he must be chiefly referencing Isaiah. And when he says that Christ was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, he must be chiefly referencing Hosea, and perhaps Jonah.
4 What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah? For your lovingkindness is like a morning cloud And like the dew which goes away early. 5 Therefore I have hewn them in pieces by the prophets; I have killed them by the words of My mouth; And the judgments on you are like the light that goes forth.
God's judgment is like the sun that chases the morning clouds away. His prophets, His words can kill. That is the power of the Law. The Letter kills, as Paul says.
6 For I delight in lovingkindness rather than sacrifice, And in the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.
This is an important enough verse that Jesus cites it twice in Matthew. "Go and learn the meaning of this" He said. Burnt offerings, holocausts, have to do with judgment, and so it is fitting that the Covenant of the Law should be characterized by them, with it's priests and repetitive sacrifices. But the New Covenant does not consist in these, but in lovingkindness, grace and mercy. Which covenant are you under?
7 But like Adam they have trespassed against the covenant; There they have dealt treacherously against Me.
One of my favorite Total Depravity verses. It can either be translated as "like men" or "like Adam" but the meaning is the same. As Adam sinned and broke covenant with God, so do all men. Like father, like son. There are some who deny that God made a covenant with Adam, but I invite them to read the text more carefully. If God did not make a covenant with Adam, then why does Hosea say that Adam trespassed against the covenant?
One of the deep rabbit holes that I believe in is something called republication theology. That is, the covenant given to the Hebrews at Sinai is a republication of the covenant given to Adam in the beginning. Adam broke the covenant, and condemned all his posterity, as in Romans 5. Israel could have succeeded where Adam failed, but like Adam, they broke the covenant. Thus, the Adamic Covenant and the Mosaic Covenant do not confer life, but death to those who are in them. But Christ, the true Adam and the true Israel, kept the covenant, and those who are in the New Covenant are conferred life. Which covenant are you under? Are you still under the Law? Or are you now under Grace?
