Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. (Hosea 3:1)On the surface, Hosea is the tragic story of a marriage ravaged by infidelity. Hosea's wife Gomer is a prostitute. The tale of the prophet and his wife parallels that of Yahweh and Israel. Yahweh is the husband, Israel is the wife, and Baal is her lover who threatens the marriage. The clear message is that God would be well within his rights to divorce Israel. He has been humiliated enough.
In a tender turn of events, God makes the choice to continue loving his wife. I am going to [romance] her; I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her (2:14). Likewise, even though Deuteronomy alludes to serving an unfaithful wife with a certificate of divorce (24:1), God tells Hosea to once again pursue his bride.
In what must have been a degrading response to his overtures of love, Gomer apparently demanded payment (a measure of barley and fifteen shekels of silver) before going home with her husband (3:2).
Hosea's message is that God loves Israel not because it deserves to be loved, but because that's the way God's love is. It's also a wonderful reminder to us of how faithful is God's love for us.
What if we loved others the way God loves us?
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