John Calvin Commentary Hosea 6:1

"Come, and let us return unto Jehovah; for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up." — Hosea 6:1 (ASV)

In the last chapter, the Prophet said that the Israelites, after having been subdued by chastisements and judgments, would again turn back from following error to seek God. But since terror drives people away from approaching God, he now adds that the measure of afflictions would not be such as to discourage their minds and produce despair. Instead, it would inspire them with the assurance that God would be propitious to them. To illustrate this more effectively, he introduces them as saying, Come, let us go to the Lord: and this way of speaking is very emphatic.

But we must understand that the reason given here, why the Israelites could return safely and with sure confidence to God, is that they would acknowledge it as His role to heal after He has smitten, and to bring a remedy for the wounds He has inflicted. The Prophet means by these words that God does not punish people in such a way as to pour out His wrath upon them for their destruction. On the contrary, He intends to promote their salvation when He is severe in punishing their sins.

We must then remember, as we have observed before, that the beginning of repentance is a sense of God’s mercy. That is, when people are persuaded that God is ready to give pardon, they then begin to gather courage to repent; otherwise, perversity will continually increase in them. However much their sin may frighten them, they will still never return to the Lord. For this purpose, I have elsewhere quoted that remarkable passage from Psalm 130:4: With thee is mercy, that thou mayest be feared; for people cannot obey God with a true and sincere heart unless a taste of His goodness allures them, and they can be certain that they will not return to Him in vain, but that He will be ready, as we have said, to pardon them. This is the meaning of the words when he says, Come, and let us turn to the Lord; for he has torn and he will heal us; (Hosea 6:1) that is, God has not inflicted deadly wounds on us, but He has smitten so that He might heal.

At the same time, something more is expressed in the Prophet’s words: God never deals so rigidly with people, but He always leaves room for His grace. For by the word torn, the Prophet alludes to that heavy judgment of which he had spoken before in the person of God. The Lord then portrayed Himself as being like a cruel wild beast: I will be as a lion, I will devour, I will tear, and no one shall take away the prey which I have once seized. God then wished to show that His vengeance against the Israelites would be dreadful.

Now, though God might deal very sharply with them, they were not yet to despair of pardon. Therefore, however much we may find God to be like a lion or a bear for a time, yet, as His essential role is to heal after He has torn and to bind the wounds He has inflicted, there is no reason for us to shun His presence. We see that the design of the Prophet’s words was to show that no chastisement is so severe that it should break our spirits; instead, by entertaining hope, we ought to stir ourselves to repentance. This is the main point of the passage.

Furthermore, we should observe that the faithful here, first, encourage themselves, so that they may afterward lead others with them; for that is what the words mean. He does not say, “Go, return to Jehovah;” but, Come, let us return unto Jehovah. We then see that each one begins with himself, and then they mutually exhort one another. This is what we ought to do: when anyone sends his fellow believers to God without going himself, he neglects his own spiritual welfare, since he ought rather to show the way. Let everyone, then, learn to motivate himself, and then let him stretch out his hand to others, so that they may follow. We are also reminded that we ought to take care of our fellow believers, for it would be a shame for anyone to be content with his own salvation and thus neglect them. It is then necessary to combine these two things: to stir ourselves to repentance, and then to try to lead others with us.