“I led them with ropes of human kindness, with ties of love.”
(Hos. 11:4, NLV)
To then return to the question that we are currently trying to answer: How does God draw people to Him? The prophet Hosea (11:4) offers an important key to this matter: “I led them with ropes of human kindness, with ties of love.” (NLV).
How easily a translation with the best intentions can miss the central meaning of this verse, becomes clear from the following examples:
- “I stretched them with the bonds of my affections …” (ABP)
- “I led them with kindness and with love, not with ropes …” (CEV)
- “I will draw them with the cords of Adam …” (DRB)
- “I led them with leather cords, with leather ropes …” (NET)
- “I led them with kindness and love. I did not lead them with ropes.” (NIRV)
[Over time believers should start realising that every translation (and paraphrasing) of the Bible carries with it the theological perspective of the translators. The original text is thus tinted with their particular worldview. We must remember that translation, and especially paraphrasing, remains the work of human hands, and much is lost in translation. (Try to figure out what is amiss with the translations offered above, as a type of exercise.)
The following three more correct translations offer a more accurate articulation of the depth of this verse:
- “who was guiding them on through human means with reins made of love …” (CJB)
- “that I was leading them with human ties, with leading-strings of love …” (NJB)
- “I led them with ropes of human kindness, with ties of love.” (NLV).]
The entire book of Hosea offers a prophetic treatise that relates the gospel of Jesus Christ in important core truths and beautiful metaphors. The name of the prophet, hôshêa‛, means “salvation” in Hebrew, and is derived from the yâsha‛ (Brown-Driver-Briggs’ Hebrew Definitions), from which one can clearly note the Name of the Saviour, Yashua. Thus, one could clearly read Hosea in typological terms, as one that represents Jesus the Christ. It is interesting that He is referred to in Hos. 1:1 as “the son of Beeri”, and that the latter’s name means “fountained” (Strong), or “my well or welling-forth” (Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible). In the Old Testament, the fountain is clearly a symbol of “the Lord, the fountain of living water”, and in the New Testament it points to the Holy Spirit’s manifestation from within the Spirit-filled person, “a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4:14).
Since Isaac started digging the wells in Gen. 26:19, until he found “a well of running water there”, the search for this is presented throughout the Bible. In Song of Songs 4:12 the Bride is characterized as “A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse A spring shut up, a fountain sealed,” and in verse 15: “A fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, and streams from Lebanon.” In Rev. 7:17 we read of “the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and lead them to living fountains of waters”, and later in Rev. 21:6 Jesus the Christ, “the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End”, is presented as “the fountain of the water of life”. In the last chapter of the Bible the Fountain becomes “a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb” (Rev. 22:1)!
When one reads of “the fountains of the great deep” in Gen. 7:11, one starts to suspect that much more hides in fountains than we necessarily realise. The hidden fountains from which, amongst other things, the primordial waters burst forth (or: the primordial waters that were the origin of the fountains – we are not entirely sure what the order of events were), are certainly linked to the Bride’s corporate identity.
In 2 Pet. 3:5 the apostle explains that people wilfully forget “that by the word [Logos] of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water”. From John 1:3 we thus know that “All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.” But if the Christ as rhema words was then already hidden in Jesus, the Logos, then all things had to be created in and through the Bride of Christ, and then the primordial waters of Gen. 1:2 offer an image of that identity. Heb. 11:3 (AMP) explains it as follows: “By faith we understand that the worlds [during the successive ages] were framed (fashioned, put in order, and equipped for their intended purpose) by the [rhema] word[s] of God, so that what we see was not made out of things which are visible.” (My additions.)
Gen. 1:2’s reference to the primordial waters (= Christ) with the Spirit “hovering, brooding” (AMP) over it, immediately has one realise, with 2 Cor. 3:18 in the background, that it is in truth the Lord Jesus who is the Spirit! What a lovely image of Jesus and His Christ, right at the beginnings when all things were created!
If one then starts to notice the appearance of fountains in Scripture, it often appears when someone’s fate begins to crystallise, or when life-changing decisions need to be made. In short: it is most likely a symbol of calling or purpose. A few examples:
- “Now the Angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, by the spring on the way to Shur.” (Gen. 16:7)
- “And this day I came to the well and said, ‘O Lord God of my master Abraham, if You will now prosper the way in which I go,behold, I stand by the well of water; and it shall come to pass that when the virgin comes out to draw water, and I say to her, “Please give me a little water from your pitcher to drink” … But before I had finished speaking in my heart, there was Rebekah, coming out with her pitcher on her shoulder; and she went down to the well and drew ’” (Gen. 24:42-43& 45)
- “She answered, ‘Give me a blessing; since you have given me land in the South, give me also springs of water.’ So he gave her the upper springs and the lower springs.” (Joshua 15:19).
- “Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus therefore, being wearied from Hisjourney, sat thus by the well. It was about the sixth hour.” (John 4:6).
If we see Hosea in typological terms, as a representative of Jesus the Christ, and he is called “the son of Beeri”, or: “welling-forth”, it is clear that when we start interpreting Hos. 11:4 as a key, our position in terms of our purpose in Christ is of utmost importance. In the next teaching this mystery unfolds further.
- Selah: Has your fountain been opened?
- Read: 6-11
- Memorise: 11:3 (exquisite synchronicity!)
- For a more in-depth understanding: Examine the validity of the Bible translation you use most often.
