majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of
him in Hosea 3:1,
"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.'"
The Lord expresses himself through Hosea as a man who loves an
adulterous wife. The Lord had Hosea marry Gomer, who would be
unfaithful to him to portray Israel's unfaithfulness to the Lord. In
this verse, following Gomer's adultery, the Lord has Hosea take Gomer
back again to demonstrate how the Lord would one day restore Israel as
his people. Hosea actually has to pay to get his wife back! "So I
bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about a homer and a
lethek of barley." Verse 2.
So much of the heart of our Lord is on display in this book! Israel
deserved to be cut off from the Lord for her unfaithfulness. Israel
here is emblematic of all mankind, in that all mankind, whom the Lord
created, has turned his collective back on his Creator to go his own
way and displace the Lord with his own devices.
Through Hosea and Gomer, the Lord expresses his desire and intention
to redeem Israel and restore her once again as his people. This will
take place following a time when, "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 3:4-5. It is my
perspective that today we stand just prior to this great event that
will change forever the course of the world. Paul takes up this theme
in Romans 11:25-27, "I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery,
brothers, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a
hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in.
And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: 'The deliverer will
come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. And this is
my covenant with them when I take away their sins.'" As Paul points
out earlier, in verse 23, this will be contingent upon a renewed faith
by Israel in her Lord, "If they do not persist in unbelief, they will
be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again."
In this coming restoration of Israel, she is yet again emblematic of
what God will accomplish with all mankind. As the Lord has Hosea
redeem his wife, to take her back again following her unfaithfulness
to him, so the Lord has provided redemption for all mankind, to pay
the price for all mankind's unfaithfulness to him. He accomplished
this through the cross of Jesus Christ. All he asks is that mankind
return to him, expressed in an embrace of faith in him.
What strikes me this morning is the heart of our Creator who has such
a place in his heart for us that he would seek us out, pay the
redemption price for our unfaithfulness toward him, and make us his
very own!
Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share
your thoughts of worship with us from your Bible reading today. We'd
love to hear from you!
Trevor Fisk
trevor.fisk@gmail.com
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