GOD "CALLS" US OUT - 11:1 - "I called my son [out of Egypt]" The verb "to call" has a double meaning to call as in "summon," but also to call as in "to name." In this verse the writer plays with both meanings: God not only summons Israel from Egypt, but also names Israel as an adopted son.

PARENTING GOD - Notice the nurturing words to describe this relationship: "it was Yahweh who "taught" Israel her first baby steps, who carried, healed, lead, lifted, and stooped down to feed the kid, Israel.

TEENAGE REBELLION - The next several verses describe a disowning of the Parent-God by the son who has been nurtured and cared for. The more God called him "son," the more he abandoned his parent and instead went to worship the surrogate parent, Ba’al.

I COULD KILL THAT KID - 11:8-9 - In the parent-child metaphor, God has about reached the threshold of Israel’s rebellion; God is now on the verge of destroying the son Ammi, yet recoils at the possibility. According to NIV, the implication in verse 8 is that God is about to turn the son over to be stoned. But the strange admixture of anger, love, abhorrence, and compassion leads to a very different decision: "I will not execute my fierce anger / I will not again destroy Ephraim," says Yahweh.

"Although [in ancient cultures] the parent had the legal right to have the son killed, compassion for and bonding with the child prevent God from doing so. God transcends human legal institutions, which enforce the death sentence for disobedient sons, proclaiming "for I am God and no mortal, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath." [1]

What a tender picture in this lesson of a father teaching a child to walk as a way to understand God’s nurturing love to us. God desires to guide us; our nature, it seems, is to wander.

How do you allow God to guide you and lead you step by step? What traits, attitudes and desires cause you to pull away from God’s guiding hand? What happens when you insist on having your own way? At what point do you turn and look for God?

If The Giving Tree, by Shell Silverstein is a story about longsuffering and kindness, then our passage in Hosea could well have been the story’s inspiration. It might be useful to review Silverstein’s wonderful story as a way to connect listeners with the God in Hosea who also demonstrates warmth and patient kindness to Israel.

Giving Tree plot - a review: a tree and a boy love each other

They enjoy a life long relationship-the tree provides the raw material for fun-bark for carving in, branches for swinging on, fruit to pick and eat, and shade to sleep in, etc.

As the child grows-the relationship stays relatively the same one-sided affair with the boy getting lumber from the tree to make a house and later, cutting the tree down to a stump to build a boat.

The last frame has the child now grown weary and worn into a wrinkly old man.

Listen to the final conversation between the tree and the old man:

Tree: "My apples are gone."

Man: "My teeth are too weak for apples"

Tree: "My branches are gone . . . you cannot swing on them--"

Man: "I am too old to swing on branches . . ."

Tree: "My trunk is gone . . . you cannot climb-"

Man: "I am too tired to climb . . ."

Tree: "I am sorry, I wish that I could give you something . . . but I have nothing left.

"I am just an old stump. I am sorry . . ."

Man: "I don’t need very much now, just a quiet place to sit and rest.

"I am very tired."

Tree: "Well," said the tree straightening herself up as much as she could,

"Well, an old stump is good for sitting and resting.

Come Boy, sit down. Sit down and rest."

And the boy did.

And the tree was happy. The End.

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[1] The New Interpreter’s Bible VII (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1996), page 278.