~Old Testament Scenarios~
Hosea
The LORD said to me, “Go, show your love to your wife again,
though she is loved by another and is an adulteress.
Love her as the LORD loves the Israelites,
though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.”
Hosea 3:1 (NIV)
"We Are Twice the Lord’s"
Could Hosea have thought, “What in the world... First the Lord tells me to go marry a woman that will be a prostitute, then after she leaves me and our children for other men (becoming sick, broken, and a slave), I am to go get her back and love her?” Are you kidding me here?
Wow, makes you wonder if Hosea had to swallow down a huge gulp of air after hearing that command as he stood stunned in disbelief. At any point did Hosea want to run the other direction (I think most of us would), or did he remember that if the Lord sends or asks, then He equips? Notice the Lord did not just say, “Go get her”, but He says, “Show her love”. Don’t miss that! This is the beauty of the restoration that God is all about- with our relationship to Him and our relationship to others!
These are the times where we have to be obedient and remember that God gives us the grace, through His Holy Spirit, for whatever job that needs to get done. Who has the Lord told you to show compassion, restoration, and basically love on... again? It may be true that there's nothing in your human flesh, or desire, to be able to do it, but God’s will is above ours. If we have truly faced the Lord and understood His heart then we would want whatever was His desire for restoration in all relationships - Period. We only need to fix our eyes on the cross and what Jesus did for us when we were unlovable to be able to walk out in His love!
Hosea was a prophet living in Northern Israel 753-715BC. During this time of four different kings and the country’s decline, the capital city Samaria fell to Assyria’s King Shalmanessar in 722BC. The Lord was using Hosea in a symbolic way through his life and marriage to be a public example of what Gomer, his wife, and the nation of Israel were choosing to do in a private way. The nation of Israel had fallen into idolatry as she had gone after lesser things. Israel turned her back on God and began to mix the surrounding nations’ false gods into their worship with the One Living God. Although God had entered into a covenant relationship (like a marriage contract) with Israel, He was going to punish them for their unfaithfulness by allowing them to be taken into bondage until they had completely repented.
What flashing danger sign would the Lord be using in your life to warn you of any habitual sins, constant idolatry with lesser things, and not placing Him first in your life? God is still using the life of Hosea for us today. We see how far God will go to bring the ones He loves back to Himself. God is jealous for us and the Hebrew name is “Qanna”. He’s jealous for our love and that is so beautiful!
In God’s holiness, in His compassion, and by the way He loves us, He will discipline when we “miss the mark”. But know when we have repented and turned around, He always forgives and restores the broken. Israel will once again prosper as a nation. They will again be beautiful and strong! Hosea went in love to purchase and buy back his wife. We also “twice” belong to God. Twice because He made each of us and again as He sent His only Son, Jesus Christ to earth to die in our place for our sins so that we’ll be with the Lord for all eternity. Jesus sacrificed Himself. He stepped in and paid our debt completely upon the cross so that we would become the bride of Christ.
This is your life, God has given it to you. What will you do with it? By the grace you’ve been given, to whom should you be extending that same grace?
"For it is by grace you have been saved,
through faith — and this not from yourselves,
it is the gift of God— not by works,
so that no one can boast."
Ephesians 2:8-9 (NIV)