God was so deeply hurt by Israel's spiritual adultery that He said He would send His people into exile (Hosea 11:6). Yet, in the very next breath, He says, ″How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I treat you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboyim? My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused″ (v. 8). Again, we see God agonising over His people, like a father wrestling over the wayward child He loves.

Admah and Zeboyim were two of the cities God completely destroyed when He judged Sodom and Gomorrah (Deuteronomy 29:23). That's how strongly God feels about His people playing fast and loose with Him. But He also insists: ″I will not carry out my fierce anger″ (Hosea 11:9).

As we listen in on God, we see the conundrum at the very heart of His character. On the one hand, God cannot deny His justice, for He is just. On the other, He cannot deny His mercy, for God is love. And if He were to do either of these and not the other, He would be less than God.

Humanly speaking, there is no way out of this. That's why God says, ″For I am God, and not a man-the Holy One among you. I will not come in wrath″ (v. 9). The Roman poet Horace famously told his academy of poets: ″Never bring a god upon the stage unless your problem is such that it demands a god to resolve it.″ If God was going to be just and loving towards His people, God himself would resolve it.

Assyria will invade and God will be just (v. 10), but unlike Admah and Zeboyim, Israel will survive and one day, God will summon those He has scattered and bring them home. How can God do that? By personally intervening upon the human stage and, out of love, taking the full blow that His justice demands in our place.

Hosea anticipates Jesus' sacrifice. It is only at the cross that we find that God is both love and utterly just, and neither is compromised. The anger that we deserved for betraying Him, Christ suffered on our behalf, and all that remains is His love for us.

Heavenly Father, thank you so much for Jesus. Thank you for the cross, where wrath and mercy meet. Amen.