Yet I will show love to Judah; and I will save them—not by bow, sword or battle, or by horses and horsemen, but I, the LORD their God, will save them." – Hosea 1:7

Today's Scripture Reading (February 20, 2023): Hosea 1

Love. It is something for which most of us yearn. Those who are lucky have found relationships that have fulfilled their need for love. We have found them in parents and then spouses. We have those needed love relationships with our children. And if we are really lucky, we have found those relationships in some close friends.

But, while I believe that real love is supposed to be unconditional, often, that is not our expectation. Maybe the most common question I hear is, "why would someone love me?" And frequently, it is an unanswerable question. Maybe there is no reason why we should be loved, and yet we are.

Once again, I feel like we have a bit of a translation problem in this verse. When Amos says that God "will show love to Judah," the phrase might be better translated as God "will show mercy to Judah." The Hebrew word translated as love here, rāham, could also be interpreted as mercy. And mercy seems to be a better fit. For whatever reason, from our human understanding, likely because of their lengthy disobedience, God loved Israel, but he did not show mercy to them, at least not in a way that we can understand. But to Judah, God was willing to love them, and he would show them mercy.

Another reason that I like the word "mercy" over "love" is because we can never earn mercy, while sometimes we feel we can earn love. If God had found a reason for mercy in Judah, then it would be more of a matter of justice than mercy. Mercy is only given to the guilty, and Judah was guilty despite the presence of good kings like Hezekiah who wanted to do what was right in the presence of his God. And yet, God showed mercy to Judah, even though they didn't deserve it.

And in God's mercy, he would deliver them from the Assyrians in a completely unexpected way. It wouldn't be with the help of a great warrior like David. The skills of the chariots and the speed of the horsemen would not deliver them. God would do it, and when he did, there would be no other answer than that God's mercy had come to their aid.

The author of Kings tells us the rest of the story.

That night the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies! So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there (2 Kings 19:35-36).

We have tried to explain the death of a hundred and eighty-five thousand soldiers in a single night. Rats and disease have been suggested as the reason. But for Judah, there was only one cause of the defeat of the Assyrians; God and his mercy.

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Hosea 2 & 3