For my people are determined to desert me. They call me the Most High, but they don’t truly honor me.

Hosea 11:7

O Israel, stay away from idols! I am the one who answers your prayers and cares for you. I am like a tree that is always green; all your fruit comes from me.”
Hosea 14:8

Wendy, stay away from idols! They can’t help you. All good things come from Me. When you stay by me you will bear fruit.

But they delight in the law of the LORD, meditating on it day and night. They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season. Their leaves never wither, and they prosper in all they do.
Psalm 1:2-3

I love how these verses compliment each other!

They call to the Most High in a formal sort of way, but they did not exalt Him with their lives.

In this sense, it wasn’t so much the sin of Israel that got them into trouble. It was their stubborn refusal to repent after their sin. For that, God would make sure that destruction and exile waited for them.

God is remembering His long love for Israel.

• Imagine loving, sacrificing, serving, protecting, and providing for someone, only to have them hurt you, and never apologizing. Going back and forth in their devotion to you, yet continuing to call out to you for help.

Hosea 11 is about the LORD’s love for Israel. What does God’s Word say about those who aren’t of Jewish decedent, those who believed in Jesus?

• For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
  John 3:16 (ESV)
• But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
  Romans 5:8 (ESV) 
• For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”
  Romans 8:15 (ESV) 
• But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
  Ephesians 2:4-5 (ESV)

God:

• Loves both His chosen Israel, and His adopted children, those who believe.
• Didn’t give His chosen Israel, and doesn’t give His adopted children what they deserve.
• Continues to love, bless, protect, and provide, His chosen Israel, and His adopted children even though they call on Him, but don’t truly honor Him.

My people are bent on backsliding from Me or determined

What am I bent toward or determined to do?

Determined: resolute; staunch; decided; settled; resolved

Bent toward, be determined to walk closely with God and bear good fruit.