Ladies, can you imagine being in labor, but your child decides not to come out?
Hosea 13:13 speaks of this: The pangs of childbirth come for him, but he is an unwise son, for at the right time he does not present himself at the opening of the womb.
No matter how hard you push, that baby just sits there, “Nope, sorry mom, not coming!” You know as well as I do what would happen: the mother would die!
Ephraim is an unwise son. He refuses to come out.
And so God asks, Shall I ransom them from the power of Sheol? Shall I redeem them from Death? O Death, where are your plagues? O Sheol, where is your sting? Compassion is hidden from my eyes.
God says, no. I am not going to rescue Ephraim. Israel is going to die. In Hosea this is a call for Sheol and Death to triumph over God’s people. Do you see that in Hosea 13:14? God is saying that he will not ransom his people. He’s going to hand them over to death.
Paul quotes this in 1 Cor 15 as a description of how death has lost its sting! Is Paul just ignoring the context of Hosea? No. Hosea’s whole point is that God is the only Savior, but that now is not the time of salvation. In 1 Cor 15 Paul is saying is that what God did not do in the days of Hosea, he now has done in Jesus.
The sting of death fell upon Israel in Hosea’s day, but because it has now fallen upon Jesus, therefore the sting of death and the grave will not fall upon those who are in Christ.
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