The Lion's Roar and the Homeward Birds Text: Hosea 11:10-11
Introduction: The Sound of Inevitable Victory
We live in an age of whispers and whimpers. Our political discourse is a cacophony of shrieks, our academic halls are filled with the nervous murmuring of compromised philosophies, and many of our pulpits, tragically, have been reduced to offering the quiet, gentle suggestions of a therapeutic deity. The modern world, in its rebellion, wants a god who speaks in a voice that can be safely ignored, a god who offers options, not commands. They want a kitten, not a lion.
But the God of Scripture is not a tame God. He is not safe, but He is good. And when He decides to act, when His patience has ripened into judgment and His judgment has given way to a determined grace, His voice is not one that can be trifled with. The prophet Hosea, after pages of describing Israel's spiritual adultery and God's heartbroken fury, pivots to a promise of restoration. And this restoration is not initiated by a committee meeting, or a vote, or a polite invitation. It begins with a roar.
This passage is a profound disruption to our timid, pessimistic, and defensive forms of Christianity. Many Christians today view the world as lost territory, a sinking ship from which we must rescue a few souls before it all goes under. They hear the roar of the pagan opposition, and they mistake it for the roar of victory. But Hosea tells us of another roar, a divine roar, that will shake the nations and call God's children home. This is not a picture of a scattered, beaten remnant hiding in the catacombs. This is a picture of a global, triumphant ingathering, a fulfillment of the Great Commission that is as certain as the rising of the sun.
What we have in these two verses is a compact prophecy of the age of the gospel. It is a promise that God's covenant faithfulness will overcome His people's covenant unfaithfulness. He will not abandon the children He disciplined. He will summon them, and they will come. This is a promise that should put steel in our spines and a song in our hearts. It is the sound of inevitable victory.
The Text
They will walk after Yahweh;
He will roar like a lion;
Indeed, He will roar,
And His sons will come trembling from the west.
They will come trembling like birds from Egypt
And like doves from the land of Assyria;
And I will settle them in their houses, declares Yahweh.
(Hosea 11:10-11 LSB)
The Compelling Call (v. 10)
We begin with the cause of this great migration:
"They will walk after Yahweh; He will roar like a lion; Indeed, He will roar, And His sons will come trembling from the west." (Hosea 11:10)
The first clause is the result: "They will walk after Yahweh." After chapters of them whoring after the Baals, running after political alliances, and walking in their own counsel, the day is coming when they will walk after their God. This is a prophecy of repentance and obedience. But what causes this radical change of direction? It is not their own ingenuity or a sudden burst of moral resolve. The cause is the roar of God.
God is likened to a lion, the king of beasts. The lion's roar in Scripture is a symbol of terrifying power and undisputed authority. It can be the roar of judgment (Amos 3:8), but here, it is the roar of summons. This is the irresistible call of the gospel. When Christ roars, His people hear. This is not a suggestion. It is a creative, commanding call that accomplishes what it demands. It is the voice that said, "Lazarus, come forth!" and a dead man got up and walked out of his tomb. When the Lion of the tribe of Judah roars, the spiritually dead hear His voice and live.
Notice the emphasis: "He will roar; Indeed, He will roar." This is not a half-hearted mumble. This is the full-throated declaration of the lordship of Jesus Christ. Through the preaching of the gospel, the Holy Spirit carries this roar to the ends of the earth. And what is the result? "His sons will come trembling from the west."
They are called "sons." Despite their rebellion, God has not disowned them. His discipline was the chastisement of a father, not the vengeance of a tyrant. And they come "trembling." This is not the trembling of a slave before a master who might kill him. This is the trembling of awe, the holy fear of a son who has been a prodigal and is now overwhelmed by the majesty and grace of the father he offended. It is the fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, but it is a blessed thing to be gathered by those same hands.
And where do they come from? "From the west." For Hosea's audience, "the west" was the Great Sea, the Mediterranean, representing the far-flung places of the Gentiles. This is a hint that this restoration is not just for ethnic Israel, but for the people of God scattered throughout the nations. This is a postmillennial picture. The gospel goes out, the Lion roars, and the nations begin to stream toward Zion.
The Global Gathering (v. 11a)
Verse 11 expands on the scope and nature of this return.
"They will come trembling like birds from Egypt And like doves from the land of Assyria..." (Hosea 11:11a)
The imagery shifts from the cause of their coming, the roar, to the character of their coming. They come "trembling like birds... and like doves." A lion roars, and birds take flight. It is a picture of sudden, urgent movement. When God calls, there is no dawdling. But it is not just any bird; they come like doves. The dove is a symbol of peace, but also of skittishness and vulnerability. It is a picture of people who recognize their own weakness and are flying to their only refuge.
And look at the geography. They come from Egypt and Assyria. In the Old Testament, these were the two great superpowers that constantly threatened and eventually devoured Israel and Judah. Egypt represents the world's house of bondage, the place of slavery to sin. Assyria represents the world's brutal violence, the place of exile and judgment. For God to say He will call His sons out of the very jaws of these two beasts is a staggering promise. It means there is no political power, no ideology, no system of oppression so great that it can hold God's people when He decides to call them home.
This is not just about a historical return from exile. This is a prophecy of the success of the gospel. The kingdom of God will plunder the kingdom of man. From every nation, tribe, and tongue, from every "Egypt" and "Assyria" that has held men captive, the sons of God will hear the roar and fly to Christ. This is the great fulfillment of the Great Commission, where the nations are discipled and brought into the household of God.
The Covenantal Settlement (v. 11b)
The prophecy does not end with their flight. It ends with their arrival and settlement.
"...And I will settle them in their houses, declares Yahweh." (Hosea 11:11b)
This is the language of covenant security. God does not just rescue His people; He restores them. He does not just call them out; He brings them in. He will "settle them in their houses." This is a promise of peace, stability, and permanence. In the ancient world, to be without a house was to be a vagrant, an outcast. To be settled in your own house was to have a place, an inheritance, and a future.
This is what Christ does for us. He doesn't just forgive our sins and leave us to wander in the wilderness. He brings us into His household, the Church. He gives us a place at His table. He settles us. This is a promise that the Church will not be a nomadic tribe of refugees forever, but will take root and build. We are to be about the business of building Christian civilization, of establishing households of faith that will endure for generations.
And the promise is sealed with the most powerful signature in the universe: "declares Yahweh." This is not a maybe. It is not a possibility. It is a divine declaration. The covenant-keeping God, the great I AM, has spoken it. Therefore, it will be done. The Lion will roar. The sons will tremble and come. And they will be settled. This is the promised trajectory of history.
Conclusion: Hearing the Roar Today
So what does this mean for us, here and now? It means we must tune our ears to the right frequency. The world is roaring its defiance, its blasphemies, its threats. It is easy to become discouraged, to think the battle is lost. But the roar of the world is the roar of a caged and dying beast. The roar that is shaping history is the roar of the Lion of Judah.
That roar is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Every time the Word is faithfully preached, every time a father leads his family in worship, every time Christians sing the psalms with gusto, the Lion is roaring. And that roar is having its effect. All over the world, in places seen and unseen, sons and daughters are trembling and coming home. From the secular "west," from the pagan "Egypt," from the oppressive "Assyria," they are flying like doves to their refuge.
Our job is not to cower in fear. Our job is to be the mouth of the Lion. We are to proclaim the lordship of Christ over every square inch of creation. We are to declare His victory at the cross and the empty tomb. We are to live as though we believe this promise, building faithful households, churches, and communities. We are to live as those who have been settled by God, secure in our inheritance.
The day is coming when the knowledge of the glory of the Lord will cover the earth as the waters cover the sea. That is not wishful thinking; it is a divine declaration. It begins with a roar, it continues with a trembling flight, and it ends in a settled home. Let us therefore be confident, and let us be bold, for the Lion has roared, and who will not prophesy?