"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.”
So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley. Then I told her, “You are to live with me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will live with you.”
For the Israelites will live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred stones, without ephod or idol. Afterward the Israelites will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the Lord and to his blessings in the last days.
Hosea 3:1-5
Imagine the Lord directing you to marry someone known to be unfaithful, and having to bear children with that person as they continue to be unfaithful! Imagine the sense of mistrust, betrayal, broken heartedness, as your life partner breaks covenant, over and over again!
How would you feel if you were Hosea, or more importantly, the Lord/ Bridegroom?
Yet this is what His Chosen People did...and sadly what His people are doing today! Not just Am Israel but so so many who are called to be His Bride. Who would be able to deal with such unfaithfulness and betrayal with such lovingkindness? I know what it feels like-I was married briefly right out of college, and had a Hosea experience.
But how He loves us! Taking us back over and over, He just keeps on loving us.
Hosea 3:3 declares a coming prophesy...that the Israelites-those of the natural branch, and those grafted in-will seek the Lord God and return to Him, trembling and seeking His blessings, just like a spouse who has realized what they have done.
How good and faithful God is, even when we have been evil, selfish, and faithless...
It truly is His lovingkindness that draws us to real and lasting repentance.
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