November 16-22
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Just to get ourselves straight in the chronological order of the Old Testament, let’s cover a quick timeline. We have read about Israel as a united kingdom under Saul, David, and Solomon. The kingdom splits into the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom referred to as Judah. The northern kingdom falls to Assyria first, and then Babylon later comes in and sieges Jerusalem a couple of different times when we have prophets Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel.
This week rewinds even more than Ezekiel and Daniel did. Scholars often place Joel early on after the kingdoms split into two before the northern kingdom falls to Assyria. Hosea comes after Joel, just before the northern kingdom (Israel) collapses.
The beginning of Hosea is interesting. Hosea is commanded to take an unfaithful wife so that his life can become a living example of God’s covenant relationship with Israel. There is debate about whether this actually occurred, but the symbolism and raw feeling of adultery in a monogamous couple can teach us a lot of things.
We’re going to talk about this as though it truly happened so that we can gain the full impact here.
Hosea 1:2 The beginning of the word of the Lord by Hosea. And the Lord said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the Lord.
Wow. Just wow. Think about that for a moment. Really think about that.
Imagine you’re dating someone in college. You’re happy and in love and having a good time, and you find out that this person has been going around and cheating on you, and you’re not even married yet! You choose what’s good for you and walk away. It hurts. It’s painful, but you’re not going to put yourself through that pain for the rest of your life.
You turn to the scriptures for comfort during this difficult time of having your heart broken, and you get this quiet, tiny prompting in the back of your mind.
“Marry them anyway.”
Excuse me?
The prompting gets louder.
Surely, you’re hearing the Lord incorrectly so you try to move on with your day. All throughout the day, you have that same urgent message. “Marry them anyway.” You start to wonder if it’s your errant heart reaching out for the relationship you had, but no. You don’t want this. It makes your stomach hurt to think about being with them again, but still, that prompting comes.
Okay…maybe this person has changed, and the Lord knows it, and I can trust the Lord.
You get back with the person who was already unfaithful to you, and you even take it a step further and get engaged. Another whisper starts to embed itself deeply into your heart, “This person hasn’t changed. They will cheat on you, but marry them anyway.”
I don’t know about you, but I would seriously start to question whether the Lord loved me at this point. Does He truly want my misery? Did I do something wrong that He would need to punish me for? Surely a loving God wouldn’t ask me to sacrifice my future happiness.
We’re going to pause that imaginary scenario right there because the emotional impact of what I’m trying to share has been reached.
Why would the Lord ask Hosea to do this? We don’t know for sure whether He literally did, but there is a deep lesson here.
There is another Bridegroom who chose to attach Himself to us. He was attentive. He saved us. He pulled us out of bondage. He is perfectly empathetic. He knows to push back when we need it. He invests quite a bit of His earthly resources to send missionaries out so that He can continue entering into these covenants with us. He is actively seeking covenants with us. He wants to attach Himself to us.
And He knew exactly what He was getting Himself into.
There wasn’t any shock when Heavenly Father asked Christ to sacrifice Himself on our behalf. No one was surprised when our older Brother offered to love us that deeply, to be betrayed by us, to be rejected by us, and to pay for us anyway.
Christ, more than Hosea, knew what He was getting into. He put on that suit, dressed up nice, showed up to make the covenant, and He knew. He knew who He was marrying.
AND HE CHOSE US ANYWAY.
Not only did He voluntarily come down to earth to lead us along in the midst of all our blind stumblings and stubborn defiances. Not only did His back to the smiters and His face to those who would spit on Him. Not only did He put up protections for our sake to keep us from straying from Him. Not only did He endure our anger and frustrations over His protections.
No. Not only that. He also paid for us when everything else left us bereft.
After we betrayed Him and left Him and got angry with Him for trying to protect us and nurture us and help us grow. After we attributed everything He gave us to our other lovers. After turning to Him only after everything else failed, He welcomed us back with love.
I really don’t think we understand the restraint and love that it took to do that for us. And it didn’t just happen once. He is constantly calling us back to Him despite our unfaithfulness, despite our distractions and unfair annoyances with Him. Every day, He shows us, spurns the idea of abandoning us completely and keeps calling us back to Him.
I adore my children but man…that’s hard. It’s hard to show up every single day for someone who doesn’t want you to help them. It’s hard to ground yourself in love and take care of them after betrayal. My children have not betrayed me to the extent of what Christ or Hosea went through (though sometimes I’m convinced they could rival the best of them in resisting my help haha), but that’s exactly my point. They haven’t betrayed me like I have betrayed Christ, and yet, I find it difficult to show up sometimes.
But there is Christ. Day after day, in all of His perfection and love. He is faithful. How grateful I am that He is faithful even when my heart is prone to wander.
I testify that Christ loves us. There are many things I could say beyond that, but that is at the heart of the matter. He loves us, and He wants us home no matter what we’ve done. He doesn’t care that you cheated. Come home.
