Book of Hosea Chapter 11 Vs. 4

 The Lord's Love for Israel

I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love: and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them. Hos. 11:4

I drew them... Wanton heifers such as was Israel, are drawn with ropes; but although Ephraim struggled against Me, I would not draw him as a beast, but I drew him as a man, (not a servant, but a son), with cords of love.

with bands of... The first and chief commandment of the law is not of fear, but of love, because He willed those whom He commanded, to be sons rather than servants.

I was to... As a careful husbandman doth in due season take the yoke from his laboring oxen, and takes off the muzzle with which they were kept from eating when at work, gives them time of rest and feeding: so did God with Israel.

I laid meat... Brought them provision in their wants, as the careful husbandman brings fodder and provender for his wearied laboring oxen. By which plain simile God doth inform Israel in Hosea’s time what ancient, tender, constant, and vigilant love he had showed to Israel, to their predecessors, and to them also. And hereby discovers their unheard-of ingratitude and wickedness, which began in their fathers, and hath continued with increase to the days of their final ruin.

These cords of a man mean that God had a hold on their guidance. God kept them close enough, that they could not completely wander away. All of this control that God kept over them was done in love. We see that even though God had controls on Ephraim, He still lifted the yoke, so that it would not be too heavy to bear.

Matthew 11:30 "For my yoke [is] easy, and my burden is light.”

Notice, I laid meat unto them. He blessed them with plenty to eat. God provided all their needs.

Which of us has not known this fatherliness of the Most High, exercised upon us, as upon Israel, throughout our years of carelessness and disregard? It was God Himself who taught and trained us then; -

When through the slippery paths of youth

With heedless steps I ran,

Thine arm unseen conveyed me safe,

And led me up to man.

Those speedy recoveries from the blunders of early willfulness, those redemptions from the sins of youth-happy were we if we knew that it was, He who healed us. But there comes a time when men pass from leading-strings to harness when we feel faith less and duty more-when our work touches us more closely than our God. Death must be a strange transformer of the spirit, yet surely not stranger than life, which out of the eager buoyant child makes in time the slow automaton of duty. It is such a stage which the fourth of these verses' suits, when we look up, not so much for the fatherliness as for the gentleness and humanity of our God. A man has a mystic power of a very wonderful kind upon the animals over whom he is placed. On any of these wintry roads of ours we may see it, when a kind carter gets down at a hill, and, throwing the reins on his beast’s back, will come to its head and touch it with his bare hands, and speak to it as if it were his fellow; till the deep eyes fill with light, and out of these things, so much weaker than itself, a touch, a glance, a word, there will come to it new strength to pull the stranded wagon onward. The man is as a god to the beast, coming down to help it, and it almost makes the beast human that he does so. Not otherwise does Hosea feel the help which God gives His own on the weary hills of life. We need not discipline, for our work is discipline enough, and the cares we carry of themselves keep us straight and steady. But we need sympathy and gentleness-this very humanity which the prophet attributes to our God. God comes and takes us by the head; through the mystic power, which is above us, but which makes us like itself, we are lifted to our task. Let no one judge this incredible. The incredible would be that our God should prove any less to us than the merciful man to his beast. But we are saved from argument by experience. When we remember how, as life has become steep and our strength exhausted, there has visited us a thought which has sharpened to a word, a word which has warmed to a touch, and we have drawn ourselves together and leapt up new men, can we feel that God was any less in these things, than in the voice of conscience or the message of forgiveness, or the restraints of His discipline? Nay, though the reins be no longer felt, God is at our head, that we should not stumble nor stand still. Upon this gracious passage there follows one of those swift revulsions of feeling, which we have learned almost to expect in Hosea. His insight again overtakes his love. The people will not respond to the goodness of their God; it is impossible to work upon minds so fickle and insincere.

In Hos. 11:4 Israel is compared to a work animal (cf. Hos. 10:11). The Lord is likened to a master who gently (in kindness and love; cf. Hos. 11:1) leads his animal and removes (or perhaps re-positions) its yoke so that it might eat with greater ease the food he kindly provides. The Lord treated Israel with compassion and love.