day 6 - THE LOVE OF GOD

By: Dakota Backues

The book of Hosea shows the profound contrast between the love God shows to us, and the amount of love He is shown in return.In the book of Hosea, we read about a frustrated God who longs for his people to love Him, and we read about a man who is compelled by God to love a harlot.

“When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, “Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the Lord.”

Hosea 1:2

The kingdom of Israel at that time, was taken up by the spirit and culture of that day, and had turned their backs on their Savior in preference of idolatry. We know this was not the first time Israel had chosen expressly to entertain false gods and live beneath the call God had for them. Yet we do not see God choosing a different people, ones that would obey him in a more consistent way, and we do not see God changing himself to appeal more to Israel. Through the series of repeated mistakes Israel continued to make, we see God be angry and strict with His people, but we also see him calling them back and loving them with the same level of passion.

“But the more they were called, the more they went away from me”

Hosea 11:2

Hosea was commanded by God to marry what could be thought of as the lowest of society, to show us just how unique Gods love is for us. Hosea had to search for and find his wife whenever she ran away from him, and in the third chapter of Hosea, we read about God requiring him to buy her back from another lover of hers.

             So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley.”

Hosea 3:2

Just as Hosea bought back Gomer from the life she was returning to, Jesus has bought us back from the broken life of sin we came from and struggle to stay out of. Hosea chapter seven and verse three says God “longs to redeem us”. It was more than likely humbling for Gomer to be loved by an admired man of God, who had no part of her previous life. No doubt it was difficult for her to feel worthy of the love Hosea showed her because she couldn’t show it back. However it was with that exact principle, that God chose Hosea to showcase the love Jesus shows towards us daily.

             "Come, let us return to the LORD. He has torn us to pieces but he will heal us; he has injured us but he will bind up our wounds."

Hosea 6:1