Woe to them, for they have strayed from me! Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against me! I would redeem them, but they speak lies against me. They do not cry to me from the heart, but they wail upon their beds; for grain and wine they gash themselves; they rebel against me. Although I trained and strengthened their arms, yet they devise evil against me. They return, but not upward; they are like a treacherous bow; their princes shall fall by the sword because of the insolence of their tongue. This shall be their derision in the land of Egypt.
The majority of the book of Hosea is God’s expression of desire for relationship with His people and their desire for everything but Him. There are scenarios expressing this opposite desires:
“I would redeem them but they speak lies against me.”
The seeking of everything except God:
How is it that those whose generations were delivered from slavery in Egypt, given the Promised Land for eight hundred years, been protected from the marauders through those centuries and had godly prophets, priests and kings who encouraged them to draw near to God, have any of these legitimate charges raised against them by God? What have they lacked that was needful for life with the LORD? How is it that truth be told, God says, “I would redeem them but they speak lies against me” and they still blame God for the consequences?
Do we ever have such charges against the LORD or such behavior apart from Him? Do we ever turn every which way for help, wisdom, truth, favor except upward toward Him? God has not changed in His desires to draw us near Him but sometimes we distance ourselves. But God would redeem if we would welcome Him.