“Come, let us return to the Lord, for He has torn, and He will heal us. He has struck, and He will bind us up. After two days He will revive us. On the third day He will raise us up, that we may live before Him” Hosea 6:1-2
Does Hosea 6:1-2 Suggest Jesus’ Return?
The prophet Hosea brought God’s message—His warnings—to both the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Southern Kingdom of Judah. He ministered in the middle of the eighth century BC, apparently before the Northern Kingdom was defeated by Assyria and taken captive in 722 BC. Does Hosea 6:1-2 suggest Jesus’ return? Read about the Rapture here.
Israel, both the Northern and Southern Kingdoms during Hosea’s ministry, was God’s Covenant nation. God promised to discipline His Chosen People when they rebelled and broke that covenant (Deuteronomy 28). In this Hosea passage, God’s prophet looks into the future and forecasts the time the unified nation of Israel will return to the Lord. This prophecy fits best with when the nation will welcome their Messiah as their Savior at Jesus’ Second Advent:
“And I will pour out on (Israel) a spirit of favor and supplication so that they look to Me (Jesus), whom they have pierced through. And they will mourn over him as one mourns for an only child and … as a firstborn” (Zechariah 12:10, see also John 19:37).
The nation rejected their Messiah, Jesus, at His First Advent. Jesus warned them that God had ‘struck them’ but promised that God would ‘bind them up’ when they welcomed Jesus when He returned. Jesus declared to the nation:
“Look, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you shall not see Me again until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord” (Matthew 23:38-39).
In this view, God’s ‘days’ each represent one thousand years. The Apostle Paul tells us that God sees time differently than we do:
“But, beloved, do not be ignorant of this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Peter 3:8, see also Psalm 90:4).
And in Peter’s context, he’s addressing the perceived delay in the return of the Lord, saying, “Scoffers in the last days (will) say, “Where is the promise of His (Jesus’) coming?” (2 Peter 3:3-4).
Many see in Hosea’s text a prophetic reference to a non-specific date–suggesting that God will discipline Israel for two thousand years before reviving them before the Millennium (when Jesus returns to earth to reign for a thousand years).
The starting date for this view is @30 AD, when the Jewish leaders rejected their Messiah, Jesus, by hanging Him on the cross. The ending date is the coming day when Jesus returns to earth.
Jesus said the exact time of His return is unknown:
“Concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only” (Matthew 24:36).
Jesus’ unknown and imminent return is in the air to rapture His Church (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). The rapture will happen before the seven-year tribulation. Then at the end of the tribulation, Jesus will return to rule over all the earth, from the New Jerusalem, with Israel restored to live before God as His people.
Jesus’ return to rapture His Church is imminent (imminent meaning no event must happen first). Jesus’ return to earth to save Israel—and this would be what Hosea had in mind–and establish His reign over the earth is not imminent because the rapture and tribulation, with its judgments and signs, must happen first.
Jesus does tell His people to look for His return:
“For the Son of Man is like a man leaving on a far journey who left his house and gave authority to his servants and to every man his work and commanded the porter to watch” (Mark 13:34).
Jesus wants His ‘porters’ to ‘learn the parable of the fig tree’ (Mark 13:28-31). He wants us to use wisdom to understand future events (Revelation 13:18). And as His friends, He wants to share His mysteries with us, as God did with His friend Abraham (Genesis 18:17; James 2:23). We won’t know the exact time of His return, but His porters will know it’s approaching—and the signs tell us it is.
It’s been almost exactly two thousand years—two days?—since Jesus died on the cross and rose again. Are we nearing the end of ‘day two?’
Some may also parallel this view (of a day representing a thousand years) with the seven days of creation. God created the heavens and earth in six literal days. Then on the seventh day of creation, God rested. The thousand-year Millennium is viewed as a time of rest, and some who’ve studied the chronology of the genealogies in the Bible suggest the earth was created about four thousand BC. And two thousand years have passed since Jesus’ death. That’s six days ago if a day equals one thousand years.
So, is that what this prophecy suggests? Maybe. The reference in Hosea is obscure and could be fulfilled in other ways. I wouldn’t build a doctrine on it. But it is an interesting thought. Jesus’ return is imminent, and we, as believers, hope and pray it’ll be soon.
(Jesus promised),“Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Even so, come Lord Jesus! (Revelation 22:20).
We invite you to watch the Great News Video below so that you can know Jesus as your savior. He is returning for all who believe in His name.