Many, perhaps, think of spring beauty when they think of morning dew. They have memories of glistening blades of grass and flower petals on a spring morning. Others, perhaps, think of summer sports. Morning dew reminds them of sitting down to stretch in wet grass for baseball or football before the blistering summer heat arrives later that day. Morning dew does not last, and its fleeting, insubstantial nature is what drives Hosea’s words in 6:4. When speaking to the people of Israel, the Lord says, “Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes early away” (ESV). Their devotion to and love for the Lord glistened for one moment before evaporating.
With one major exception, Hosea 6–8 contains a series of relentless and bleak patterns of Israel’s fleeting and insubstantial commitment to the Lord. First, God’s people sinned in a general way by turning away from His covenant (6:7, 8:1–3). Second, they sinned in specific ways by engaging in idolatry, theft, oppression, conspiracy, unholy alliances, adultery, and others. Third, the Lord grew exasperated with their sin because of His deep love for them (6:4, 7:1, 13). Fourth, the Lord had begun to punish them and would continue (6:5, 8:13).
What are specific lessons we learn from the people’s fickle devotion and this general cycle? First, we see that sin is like a snowball: It grows with activity. Sin easily leads us to sin further. We lie to ourselves by saying, “I’ll stop gossiping after one more story.” “I’ll stop lusting after one more look.” Like Israel, the more we sin, the more we can blind ourselves to the nature and consequences of our sin.
A second lesson is one we’ve seen before in Hosea: the importance of godly leadership. The priests and officials were self-seeking and corrupt (6:9, 7:7), and kings were naive at best (7:5). Choosing wise and godly spiritual leaders is vital for healthy churches (1 Tim. 3:1–13), and corrupt leadership can wreak havoc among God’s people.
Third, we must not confuse outward acts of worship with the inward activity of our hearts. People were worshiping the Lord without devout hearts. God, however, looks for “steadfast love and not sacrifice.” Sacrifices, though required, were worthless if they did not arise from love toward God (Hosea 6:6; see also Matthew 9:13 and 12:7). Passion, musical excellence, or theological precision in what we sing and say on Sunday mornings are, likewise, worthless if our actions do not come from genuine devotion to God.
The exception to the cycle above is Hosea 6:1–3, where Hosea exhorts his hearers (and us) to return to the Lord. These verses challenge us to ask, “Are we truly seeking God?” If disobedience fills our lives, then we are obviously not. But it’s also easy to go through the motions and avoid conspicuous sins without pursuing living repentantly.
Hosea predicts that the Lord would raise His repentant people on the third day (Hosea 6:2). Christ was struck “that we might live before him” (Hosea 6:2), and Hosea’s prophecy points to the necessity of Christ’s death and resurrection. Repentance is a response to grace, yet must last longer than the morning dew.