August 13, 2024 | Be God's Light
Hosea's Reconciliation with His Adulterous Wife
Scripture: Hosea 3(NIV)
1 The Lord said to me, “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.”
2 So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley. 3 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 behave the same way toward you.”
4 For the Israelites will live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred stones, without ephod or household gods. 5 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.
Devotional
If things weren’t bad enough for Hosea, his promiscuous wife abandoned him and their shamefully named children for the arms of other men. Hosea not only went and got her, but he paid good money to pry her out of whomever she had given herself to.
While this sounds too crazy to be true, that’s exactly what God had done for the northern kingdom of Israel during their two-hundred-year history. Of their nineteen kings, all but one of them were noted for doing evil and leading the people to worship false idols. Yet God did not give up on them. He sent them prophets like Elijah, Elisha, Jonah, and now Hosea to warn them to turn away from evil and become faithful to God. For two centuries, the Lord had been the spurned husband ever pursuing His promiscuous bride.
And He does the same with us. He pursues. He loves. He forgives. He saves. In 2 Corinthians 6:2, Paul quoted another prophet when he wrote, “In the time of my favor I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.” We aren’t prepared for heaven because we are good, but because He is.
In Luke 15:1-7, some religious leaders were hassling Jesus for spending time with known traitors and sinners. So Jesus told them a story. Here it is.
“Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent.”
In what ways is this story similar to what Hosea did? What kind of people does God pursue? Do you believe that the Lord is pursuing you like that? Who is somebody you know that needs to hear of God’s gracious pursuit?
Poem
Love Like The Lord
Love like the LORD
Even though they’re unfaithful
Love like the LORD
Even while they do stray
Love like the LORD
Leave it to the Good Shepherd
To search, rescue, save them
To return to God’s way
Love like the LORD
Even when they betray you
Love like the LORD
When denial does come
Love like the LORD
And forgive with abundance
The blindness, the deafness,
The hatred they hoard
Love like the LORD
Even in disagreement
Love like the LORD
When they’re caught up in sin
Love like the LORD
Even when bold face lying
Remember we all bear
The stain deep within
Love like the LORD
Even though persecution
Love like the LORD
And continue in prayer
Love like the LORD
When hell grips your descending
And wait for the LORD’s
Resurrection at dawn
