Hosea 1 – 4
Hosea is a pretty confronting book… A guy is instructed by God to marry a prostitute. Surely this would be a time where the guy was thinking “surely not Lord!”. Yet amazingly, he is obedient. Hosea takes Gomer to be his wife…
Why? Because God’s judgment is falling upon Israel for their unfaithfulness and adultery against God. Israel has prostituted themselves to other gods and forsaken the one who is their husband. Keep reading in the rest of Hosea to hear God’s charges against Israel.
BUT God doesn’t just leave it there. God restores his people, his adulterous “wife”, to himself…
“I will plant her for myself in the land; I will show my love to the one I called, ‘Not my loved one’. I will say to those called ‘Not my people’, ‘You are my people’; and they will say, ‘You are my God’.”
Sounds a bit familiar… check out 1 Peter 2:9-10. God’s people are truly restored only in what Jesus did on the cross. God’s love was completely shown in Jesus. Praise God for his mercy that turns us from being an adulterous prostitute (please don’t be offended!), wallowing in our sin, to be his bride, dressed in Jesus’ righteousness… pretty amazing…
Leave a Reply