Charles Spurgeon Commentary Hosea 14:4

"I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely; for mine anger is turned away from him." — Hosea 14:4 (ASV)

I will heal their backsliding,—

"Nobody else can do it, but I can, and I will. I will not chide them any more, I will not keep them at a distance from me as unworthy to draw near to me; but I will heal their backslidings,"—

I will love them freely; –

That is a grand sentence. God could not love us any other way, for what price could you and I bring to purchase his love?

And if his love were not most free, it could never come to such unworthy ones as we are: "I will love them freely;" –

I will heal their backsliding,–

He can do it; he will do it, he evidently rejoices to do it. He soliloquizes with himself, as though it were a very pleasant thought to him: "I will heal their backsliding,"–

I will love them freely:

"Though there is nothing lovely in them, though they deserve my wrath—though, according to their own confession, they have gone after false gods, I will love them freely."

For mine anger is turned away from him.

"I have fully forgiven them, and I have caused my great wrath to pass away from them." Now, dear child of God, you to whom I spoke just now, who have fallen into a dull, dead, dreary sort of state, are you not encouraged to return to the Lord when he thus declares that he will heal your backsliding, and love you freely?

You shall have your joy-days back again; you shall have your old love restored; you shall have your old delight renewed; you shall again dance before the Lord for very joy of spirit.

I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely:

Listen to the heavenly music: "I will." "I will." When God says, "I will," you may depend upon it that he will do what he says he will. If you or I say, "I will," it must be with the proviso, "If it is God's will, I will do so-and-so," but God is the almighty king whose least word is a sovereign mandate: I will heal their backsliding: I will love them freely:

For mine anger is turned away from him.

If you have come back to the Lord with true repentance of heart, he is no longer angry with you, but he is ready to welcome you again.