7 So My people are bent on turning from Me. Though they call them to the One on high, none at all exalts Him. 8 How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I surrender you, O Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart is turned over within Me, all my compassions are kindled. 9 I will not execute My fierce anger; I will not destroy Ephraim again. For I am God and not man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath. – Hosea 11:7-9

The glories of this text are beyond human words. I am convinced that when we get to heaven we will have perfect minds but not infinite minds. We will have perfect emotions but not infinite emotions. And for all eternity we will be taking in the glories of God’s love for His own and never exhausting it. You will never get to the end of it. For all eternity, with perfect verbiage and perfect articulation, we will be praising Him but never getting to the end of the glories of His love. Here God has peeled back the veil between the eternal and the temporal and given us another part of His treasure.

God’s love for us is an undeterred love because of His holy purposes. Hosea describes Israel’s sin in verse 7 and how they don’t call on Him and keep turning to Baal and to idols. But what is God’s response? Verse 8 answers, “How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I surrender you, O Israel?” What a statement! The sin of Israel calls for God’s wrath to fall on them, and God says, “How can I give up on you?” For God’s holy purposes He chose Israel as His own people and in unmerited favor He says I am not going to abandon them. He sent His prophets to pronounce their sin with penetrating clarity and precision, to write out the weightiness of their vile rebellion. But in the midst of all that, He will not surrender them to destruction. What a God! God wanted to save a people, in this case Israel. In saving them He would demonstrate His love, His grace, and His mercy. Once God ordained that purpose for Israel, nothing, not even the wretched depths of rebellion, will keep God from bringing that to fruition!

God’s love for us is undeterred because of His holy passion. This truth so stirs us and brings our hearts to a quiet and holy hush. Notice the passion of God’s heart in verse 8. He says, “My heart is overturned within Me.” Now, if anyone had violated you day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, even generation after generation, you would not "turn your heart over" to have compassion for them. Even the most sanctified among us would struggle with vengeance, bitterness, anger, and unforgiveness. But God says in this setting I am going to turn My heart over. He turns His deep passionate heart of tenderness and mercy toward Israel.