God has smitten, but He will also resurrect us!

Hosea 6:1-2

‘Come, and let us return to the Lord! For He has torn, and He will heal!… He has smitten, and He will bind us up! After two days, He will revive us! On the third day, He will raise us up! And we shall live in His sight!… He shall come to us like the rain…. Like Adam, they have transgressed the Covenant…. (But) He has set a harvest for you!’ Hosea 6:1-11.

The two days refers to Christ’s time in the grave. Luther says this is what Paul refers to in the words of First Corinthians 15:4 — that Christ “rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.” He was raised the third day. So too shall we be — we who, like Adam, transgressed the Covenant of works. For God has nevertheless ‘set a harvest’ for us!

Calvin says in his Institutes III:3:2: “God, in tolerating and pardoning our iniquities…, (gives us)…paternal favour…. Clear too from the exhortation in Hosea (6:1)…: ‘Let us return to the Lord! For He has torn, but He will heal us! He has smitten, but He will bind us up!'”

Calvin also comments: “‘Come and let us return to the Lord! For He has torn; and He will heal!’… This mode of speaking, is very emphatic…. ‘After two days, He will revive us! On the third day, He will raise us up, and we shall live in His sight!’….

“This place, is usually referred to Christ — as declaring that God would after two days and on the third raise up His Church…. This sense, then, does not seem unsuitable…. The Prophet here encourages the faithful to entertain hope of salvation…. God would raise up His Only-begotten Son, Whose resurrection would be the common life of the whole Church….

“After two days, God will revive us’…. Let the two days pass, and the Lord will revive us!…. The Lord will, by His ineffable power, overcome whatever may seem to obstruct our restoration!…

“We are represented thus in Christ our Head…. Hence, let us gather material of confidence!… God’s face will shine again, after long darkness…. The faithful…may not doubt but that He will again look on them….

“(Formerly,) ‘they have transgressed the Covenant, as Adam’…. The word ‘Adam’…is taken indefinitely for men…. They had followed or imitated the example of their father Adam, who immediately at the beginning transgressed God’s Commandment…. (But) ‘He has set a harvest for you!’…. I am seeking to restore the scattering of My people!…

“Grant, Almighty God, that…we, being renewed by Your Spirit, may…advance more and more — and be established!… May we ever aspire to that life which is hidden for us in Heaven!… Grant that, being strengthened by the help of Your Spirit, we may continue in purity of faith…and never turn aside!… May we so devote our souls and bodies to You, that our life may in every part of it testify…to You in Christ Jesus our Lord! Amen!” God has smitten — but He will also resurrect us!