Then We Shall Know

“Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the LORD: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.” Hosea 6:3

When I read this verse the other morning, Octavius Winslow, in his book, Morning Thoughts, only quoted this verse up to the point of the colon: that is, “Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord….” Above, I have shown the whole verse because it strikingly adds to my own observation on this passage.

For those who know me, I have frequently referenced Isaiah 46:10 as a statement made on God’s timeless attributes and Being; One Who inhabits eternity and presently sits on His heavenly throne and observes all that was, is and will be according to His eternal decrees. Indeed, “Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:”  Consequently, when I read Hosea 6:3, I was awestruck with the consistency that is to be found in God’s Word when the Spirit guides and illumines His truth in us. In this case, I found myself thinking about the sentence structure of Hosea 6:3, which began, ‘Then shall we know…,’ which is followed by, ‘if we follow on to know the Lord.’  I asked myself, ‘Why that particular order or arrangement? It could have been written: ‘If we follow on to know the Lord, then shall we know.’ Am I making something out of nothing? After all, the Old Testament was written in Hebrew, and I don’t know whether the order in Hebrew, then later translated in English, changed the arrangement. Besides, either way, doesn’t the verse mean the same thing? No, I believe there is a subtlety here.

I believe that there has been, is and always will be an order and consistency in God’s design; not only of the heavens but of everything on earth. Inasmuch as God inhabits eternity, (Isaiah 57:15) time itself is of His creation; thus time is subject to His authority and power. Consider the day that Joshua asked for and was given to prepare for battle against the Amorites (Joshua 10:12,13). Consequently, I took the liberty to merge Hosea 6:3 with Isaiah 46:10 to point out how  “God declared the end ‘or the then shall we know’ from the beginning.”  The particular event or end that Hosea spoke of was the life and death of our Lord as foretold in Hosea 6:1-2, but put into the present context. “Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up. After two days will he revive us: in the third day, he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.” Do you have any doubt that this verse referred to the coming of the promised Messiah? I certainly don’t.

As for the order written, if Hosea 6:3 was written in the traditional if/then proposition; e.g., ‘If we follow on to know the Lord, then shall we know,’ that the order would have placed emphasis on what man did; not what God had already declared and established in history; which was as sure as the morning sun and God’s sending of the former and latter rains on earth. In this concluding imagery, “…as the latter and former rain unto the earth,” here again we are presented with an image that chronicles earth’s historical timeline and our heavenly Father ‘declaring from the end the beginning; that is, from the latter rain, first; then to the former.

What does this mean to me? It means that God has set everything in order and what was, is and is to come is as sure an event as anything physically seen and validated can be certain. It is by faith that we take hold, and that by grace, of the things to come; even as God’s grace took us back to the cross. For Israel in Hosea’s time, they looked forward to the Messiah; Whose going forth was prepared as the morning.’ It is at the point of the cross that all generations by faith converge in the fulness of time, and look forward, prepared as the morning for a new and glorious day.