Just when we think that Israel's sin is so great and God so furious that the nation's end is certain, Hosea surprises us. In the final words of this chapter, hope begins to flicker once more.

Hosea cries, ″Pains as of a woman in childbirth come to him″ (Hosea 13:13). The suffering that Israel is about to endure from the Assyrian invasion need not be her death throes; they could be the pains of childbirth! The situation before God's people doesn't have to be terminal; life could still be snatched from the jaws of death. The only trouble is Israel's stubbornness: ″he is a child without wisdom; when the time arrives, he doesn't have the sense to come out of the womb″ (v. 13).

So, because Israel chooses the grave instead of being reborn, God says: ″I will have no compassion . . . An east wind from the LORD will come, blowing in from the desert . . . They will fall by the sword; their little ones will be dashed to the ground, their pregnant women ripped open″ (vv. 14-16). If only Israel would choose life and repent; instead, her stubborn refusal means this will be her last chance.

Yet, even though this generation chooses death, God will not give up on His people: ″I will deliver this people from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death″ (v. 14). Israel might be faithless, but God had committed himself to her at Mount Sinai (v. 4). And when He makes a promise, He keeps it, no matter what.

The apostle Paul knew this. As he writes about God's ultimate triumph over our greatest enemies of sin, death, and hell, it is with these words that he concludes: ″When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: ‘Death has been swallowed up in victory.' ‘Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?'″ (1 Corinthians 15:54-55).

Hosea knew in a deep and personal way that God's love for His people never gives up. Death and hell might seem to threaten it, but it is invincible. That is the grace of God, and therein lies our hope.

Heavenly Father, thank you for your love that never gives up and is unconquerable. In Jesus' name, amen.