The whore.
We have so many other lovers, and God knows that. But He'll still do everything and anything he can to save us and love us, even though we in NO way deserve it.
Gomer, Hosea's wife, is the epitome of a whore. She has a loyal, amazing husband but still chooses to have affairs with other lovers. She even eventually sells herself into slavery. And through all this Hosea deeply and truly loves his wife.
In that day and age buying your wife out of slavery and still accepting her as your wife and the mother of your children was a HUGE deal.
Even today it would be.
It tarnished his reputation and was the subject of much gossip in Israel.
It RUINED him.
But he didn't care.
Why?
Because he LOVED his wife.
How many times have we cheated on God? How many times have we chosen our "other lovers" over him? Whether it's sex, pornography, alcohol, drugs, eating disorders, cutting, we put those things before God, our wonderful, loving, loyal husband.
We think it doesn't matter. That God will understand that we are set in our ways. That we can never change. But that's the furthest thing from the truth.
Yes, God loves us unconditionally. Through whatever lover we choose over Him, He still loves us. But just because you love someone doesn't mean you have to accept the things they do that you know are hurting them. It's for that very reason that you shouldn't accept that self-inflicted pain. That self-destructive behavior.
In the book of Hosea, God spends chapters 4-11 yelling at Israel for all the atrocities they've committed. He reminds them of the covenant He made with them when He brought them to the Promised Land that they would always serve and worship Him as their LORD and Savior. But look at what they did instead. They prostituted themselves to different lovers and idols and had completely forgotten the God who had saved them from their hardest moments. And as He is yelling at them all of a sudden in chapter 11, His tone changes. The damned harlots He was just punishing become his sons and daughters.
His children.
The ones He always loved.
The story of the rebellious, prodigal son is a familiar one in the bible. A story cherished for ages. But what we fail to remember is the Old Testament laws about rebellious sons.
In Deutoronomy 21:18 and 21 the law very clearly states that "if a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father...then all the men in his town shall stone him to death."
Stoning for being disobedient and rebelling against your parents?!?!?! That's a little extreme!! But the Jewish people followed that law because it was a law that Moses wrote and that God approved of. And yet in Hosea God does the very opposite. In chapter 11 He tells the tribe of Ephraim and Israel that He cannot and will not give up on them or hand them over.
Why?
Because they are His sons and daughters. His bridegroom. He loves them too much to give them the punishment they deserve.
God loves us just as He loved Israel and Ephraim.
God loves us just as Hosea loved Gomer.
God loves us just as Richard Gere loved Julia Roberts.
Even though we are prostitutes that have done nothing but cheat on Him and serve other lovers before serving Him, He is lovingly asking us to return to Him. He wants to "heal [our] waywardness" and "love [us] freely" (Hosea 14:4) because He is no longer angry at us for the things that we've done.
We are all Julia Roberts, but luckily God is Richard Gere.
He is thrilled to be our knight in shining armor.
Stretch limo and all.
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