This last semester of college, I took several online classes. One of which was a class called the world Christian. The professor proposed this question to us:

"This question may be a difficult one for you to answer honestly. Our culture pressures us to minimalize the effects of sin and bad behavior. It also teaches us toleration of all belief systems. So, for this discussion you are challenged to respond to two things: 1. Who does God save? and 2. Who does God condemn. In your answer explain your views and be sure to provide Scripture to support your answer."

As the title to this post states, this is merely a tribute to the passage, it doesn't really fully explain the passage but it does illuminate the key message that this passage has to offer. The passage is Hosea 2:19
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1. Who does God save?

God saves all those who take on the attributes that are required to have relationship with God. In Hosea 2:19 God has just finished telling Israel that no matter what, he will pursue Israel. Unfortunately, due to Israel’s sinfulness, Israel does not have what it takes to be in relationship with God, so God declares that he will provide the necessary elements to them.

Hosea 2:19 – “I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion. I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the Lord.”

First, acknowledge is not a very suiting translation, a better translation is simply to know God, and as with human relationships, in order to know God you must be in relationship with him.

Second the attributes that God says he will bring to the table in order to have a relationship (to know) Israel are:

Righteousness – Sedeq, equality and fairness
- This is an attribute of our daily lives that we are to live out. It is also balanced state with God that we have when God enacts his Mispat upon us when we are fulfilling our part of the covenant.

Justice – Mispat, defense of the weak and poor against oppression
- This is also an attribute of our daily lives that we are to live out, though perhaps more specifically in our treatment of those who are disadvantaged.

Covenant Love – Hesed, loyalty to the covenants of God
- This is best illustrated by our love and loyalty to the death and resurrection of Christ on the cross. What does that mean specifically? Confession of faith is definitely part of this, as is repentance, as is baptism as is obeying the decrees of God.

Compassion – Rahamim, also consists of mercy.
- We must be a people who forgive; we must be a people of grace. Too often we are stingy with grace, yet Christ himself was not stingy with grace.

Faithfulness – Emuna, also synonymous with obedience
- God expects us to be obedient to him and to be faithful in that obedience.

2. Who does God condemn?

God condemns many people, but it is usually in response to their actions. As I said with the book of Hosea, God condemned Israel for not having the five attributes I detailed previously. However, those attributes are more than just attributes. They are principles by which we should react to God, human-kind and to the scripture itself, we can easily see how Jesus reacted towards those who did not exhibit an adherence to the principles that Hosea 2:19 lists. In Matthew 12, Jesus responds to the Pharisees (the same group of people he called “white washed tombs”) by reminding them of Hosea 6:6 where it says “For I desire mercy, not sacrifice.” This simple statement is loaded with theology, but what we can take from this is that, we must be guided by the principles of God and not by the peripheral things to which God rejects if it is not done with