Hosea and the prostitute

Earlier this week I read the book of Hosea.  I keep thinking about it, even as I am continuing in my Life Journal reading.  So I thought I'd write about Hosea this morning.

God told the Prophet Hosea to go and marry a prostitute.  She was of course, unfaithful to him.  So God told Hosea to go after her:

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..."

Here's what I've been thinking about:

• The relationship God wants with me is as intimate as a marriage relationship.  God knows me, loves me, pursues me, forgives me, and accepts me.  How will I respond?  Will I spend time with Him, getting to know Him more?  Will I gladly receive the love He offers me, or will I take Him for granted?  Will I love Him in response to His great love for me?

• When I sin, and when I put anything else in life before God, it grieves Him.  To be sure, idolatry has always invoked the righteous anger of the Lord.  And that anger was poured out on the cross.  When I am unfaithful now to God, I believe it breaks His heart.  He wants the best for me, and He knows that He alone is the best for me!  It adds a new dimension to my understanding of my own sin to meditate on the analogy of God as the husband and God's people as the ungrateful prostitute.  My sin is really, really ugly.

• God's love for His people is incomprehensible.  We will never wrap our heads around it, we will not fully understand it; it is more than we can imagine.  But I want to spend the rest of my life growing in it, being transformed by it, and expressing my gratitude for it.