Hosea 14:3

"Assyria shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses; neither will we say any more to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods; for in thee the fatherless findeth mercy."

"Assyria ..." This word is "Asshur" in the Hebrew text; but the two terms were almost synonymous. "The Semitic name served for the god Asshur as well as for the city and empire. In the present context, this dual meaning is particularly appropriate."[13]

"True repentance involves abandoning known sin; and here the double sins of relying on nations and idolatry are confessed."[14]; "We will not ride upon horses ..." is supposed to be a metaphorical way of declaring that, "neither can Egypt help us." Egypt was the principal source of the world's war horses in those times.

There are some further strong suggestions of the New Covenant in this verse: (1) the projected abandonment of idolatry, and (2) the mercy extended to the fatherless, perhaps a prophecy of the adoption of the Gentiles into the kingdom of God after Pentecost. In fact, the rejection of the reliance upon secular states may also be viewed as an ear-mark of Christianity, making three witnesses of the New Covenant in this single verse. We shall note each of them:

(1) The reliance upon having their own state with their own chosen rulers was the original sin of the Old Israel; and this passage indicates that in the period of the New Covenant, God's people would not set up their own governments, or rely upon states, Assyria and Egypt, cited here, being the greatest states of that era. Christ flatly declared that his followers would not trust in such things, saying, "It shall not be so among you" (Matthew 20:25,26). This has been a characteristic of Christianity throughout the ages. Christians have not set up their own earthly governments, but submitted to whatever government presided over the place where they lived. Only the Mormons, the apostate Church, and a few others ever departed from this. But how about secular Israel? This very day they are back again in the secular state business!

(2) The projected abandonment of idolatry would become in time a characteristic of the New Israel. Paganism has disappeared wherever Christianity is known. No Christian religion of any name or creed ever sanctioned idolatry; and even the consecration of sacred images has vanished from the earth wherever true Christianity abounds. The lapses of the Medieval Church in this particular do not deny the general truth.

(3) The mercy to the fatherless as a hallmark of the New Covenant has been fulfilled in two ways. Never before in the world's history has so much time, money, and thoughtful care been expended upon behalf of orphan children as by the saints of God's holy church. But there is likely something else also inherent here. The pre-Christian Gentiles were "fatherless" as far as their relation to God was concerned; but they were adopted "in Christ Jesus." Paul wrote to a Gentile church, saying, "Ye received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father" (Romans 8:15).

Could there remain any doubt of the pertinence of this chapter to "the kingdom of heaven in Christ"?