Pursuit of Other Lovers
These early words of Hosea 2 are haunting. Hosea’s wife has said that she will go after
other lovers. She will chase after other
lovers who will give her things. Oh how
the human heart is for sale! We chase
after the people who make us feel good.
Or we chase after the ones who give us things. Or we chase after the ones who pay attention
to us. We sell our affection and our
time to those who give us what we desire.
A few verses later we find truth.
Hosea’s wife will pursue her lovers, but she will not overtake
them. In other words, she will pursue
them, but she’ll never “have” them. She
thirsts and lusts for what they have to offer, but what they offer her will
always be just out of her grasp.
Isn’t this really true about the human experience? We see something that looks like fun. So we do it.
We become a master of it. And
then suddenly it doesn’t fulfill us like it once did. It slipped through our hands. So we either pursue it more, or find
something else to pursue. Yet, what ever
satisfies us completely? What can we
ever grasp onto that can satisfy us completely and totally forever? Well, except God. But I suppose that’s the point of these verses. Gomer runs after everyone but her
husband. Human beings run after
everything but God.
God’s Response
What is God’s response? God
says that she will uncover the impurity of His people. God will take all the gifts offered to His
people and allow them to decay and fade away.
All of the pleasant things that had come into the life of His people
would be taken away. They would be taken
away because the people did not recognize that it was from God’s hand that they
were truly given. They would be taken
away because the people did not turn to God and instead gave credit to those
who did not deserve the credit.
I can’t ever read the prophets and not think about my own
context. Are we any different? As a culture, how blessed are we? Do any of us truly deserve to live where we
live? Do any of us truly deserve to have
what we have in our life? How much
credit do we give to God for His blessing?
Do we even recognize it as God’s blessing? Or do we see it as the work of our own hands
and something to which we are entitled?
However, the response will not only be judgment. God says that when His people are torn down,
there they will realize what they had and who it was that gave it to them. Essentially, God is saying that it is in
their punishment that they will find the path back to Him. It is in the consequences of their choices
that they will find their way.
So that takes me back to a decade or two ago. I remember that educational philosophy that
said, “You can’t tell a kid they are wrong.
You might damage their ego.” I
see a culture that has developed out of that philosophy. It is a culture that no longer is accustomed
to learning out of the consequences of action.
It is sad. But the good news is
that it doesn’t have to be the end. God
can redeem. We simply have to relearn
the value of consequences and appreciating punishment for our negligence.
Forever
God then promises that to those who learn to appreciate God in the
midst of the consequences will be with Him forever. I can’t help but think of Christianity
here. What is the premise of
Christianity? We cannot save
ourselves. We are saved solely through
the act of Christ on the cross. When we
learn to embrace God’s grace and embrace learning through the consequences of
our sin, we will be God’s people. When
we are humbled before God by the many ways we turn away and run, we will be betrothed
to God forever. In our humbleness, God
will put away the war that He has with us.
When we submit to Him, God will come to us in peace and redeem us.
In that day we will know what it means to be given the name “Not
My People” but understand that God has made us “His people” anyway. In the day of our humbleness and submission
we will understand that those who deserved to have the name “No Compassion”
will be given the name “Received Compassion from God.”
Gomer and Hosea
Having given this promise of restoration, God tells Hosea to go
out and find his wife. He tells her to
buy her back. Her lusting after other
men has actually brought her into slavery – probably sexual slavery. Hosea must go to the one who has bought his
wife as a slave and buy her back.
Literally, Hosea must go and redeem her.
Imagine what the people thought of Hosea. Here is a man whose wife left him. Here is a man whose wife fell so far as to be
involved in slavery. What man in his
right mind would come and buy her back when he had all the legal grounds for
divorce so as to be done with her forever?
That’s God’s point. Hosea
redeems her as a sign of God’s love. God
has every legal right to divorce us completely and abandon us to our
humanity. But He does not. He comes, drags us out of the things to which
we have voluntarily enslaved ourselves, and he redeems us. That’s incredible.
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