Our 47th Word is Changed

The simple definition is to be turned upside down and come out different.

“How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused.” (Hosea 11:8)

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Lots of people, far too many, in fact, think of God as stony and unfeeling. His personality somewhere between Star Trek’s Mr. Spock and one of those expressionless guards in front of Buckingham Palace.

Those people are in for a rude, theological awakening when they get to the Old Testament book of Hosea.

Hosea, if you’ve forgotten , was the Jewish prophet told by God to do the unthinkable: “Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her.” The reason for this outrageous command? To hold up a mirror to the nation of Israel. To give God’s chosen people a scandalous picture of their own spiritual unfaithfulness.

Hosea, God love him, swallowed hard and said, “Okay.”

It was a stunning directive to be sure, but there’s an even bigger shock. Read the whole story and note what it reveals about the lord. This isn’t God, the passionless lawgiver. This is God, the shattered spouse. In Hosea, God is hurt and heartbroken. He feels angry and betrayed, just as every victim of adultery does.

Ready to give His people their walking papers one moment, lamenting His inability to let them go the next, He finally cries, “My heart is changed within me.”

The Hebrew verb describing God’s heart here as “changed” is elsewhere rendered “torn”, “turned”, or “turned over”. It is translated “recoils” in the ESV.

This colorful word is haphak, and it is used in its various forms more than a hundred times in the Old Testament. It’s used to describe a feeling of weakness or being overwhelmed. it describes a town being overthrown or destroyed, a loaf of bread tumbling down a hill, a hair turning white, a heart that’s flipped upside down.

In a few places, the Bible seems to suggest that God changes His mind, in addition to this verse in Hosea, see Genesis 6;6 and Exodus 32:14. Other passages insist that He does not because He is unchanging.

The idea in Hosea isn’t to portray God as wishy-washy or vacillating. It’s to demonstrate that He’s personal. He has feelings. What’s more, He’s relational, wholly committed to those He loves. Therefore, when God’s covenant people chase after other lovers, they’re not just breaking some arbitrary law; they’re breaking His heart.

Questions to Ponder

1. How does it alter your view of God to see Him as the book of Hosea describes Him?
2. In what ways, if any, is reading the story of Hosea like looking in the mirror for you?
3. The Hebrew word describing God’s heart as changed means torn or flipped upside down. This, the book of Hosea suggests, is how our sin affects God. How does that insight affect you?