Year 9, Day 204: Hosea 2-3

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Hosea 2 & 3 tells us an unthinkable story.  In the end, God tells Hosea to go back to Gomer and take her as a wife.  She has been unfaithful.  She has gone off and acted in adultery.  She has tired of Hosea and is off pursuing her dreams through other men.  God tells her to go and bring her back home and love her.

Our natural reaction is to wonder why.  How could Hosea take her back after she went off and was blatantly adulterous?  More to the point, how is it that God could even ask Hosea to do such an unthinkable act?  How can a righteous God think that it is a good idea for Hosea to take his wife back after all the unfaithfulness she has knowingly done?

That’s actually the point.  This is why God is holy, or different, from us.  Our first impulse is to wonder how God could ask such a thing from Hosea.  We wonder how Hosea will ever trust Gomer again.  How could he possibly love her without fearing what she might do again?  God’s first impulse is to love.

This is how God views us.  We are rebellious.  We chase after our own desires all the time.  We promise devotion to God, yet we stray at the first opportunity that we are tempted with our heart’s desire.  We are as unfaithful in our hearts as Gomer was unfaithful to Hosea.  Yet God takes us back.  He promises to restore us just as Hosea was asked to take Gomer back.

What’s interesting is that I can understand the words.  I can understand what God does.  I can understand God’s overarching plan from Abraham, through Egypt, through the exodus, through David, through the period of the kings, through the exile, through the redemption, and ending in Jesus.  While I can understand everything, I can’t necessarily live it out without His help.  He is forgiving even when He knows we will rebel.  He looks at those dwelling in sin and sees them as the redeemed they could be.  He continues to take humanity back even while we continue to pursue our own ego.  I get what He does; I struggle to know how He is able to do it consistently and perfectly all the time.

<><