The NIV 365-Day Devotional Reading PlanНамуна

Parable of Love

Hosea’s Radical Feelings for an Unfaithful Wife

As Israel was disintegrating, a word from God came to Hosea. Suffering people needed to hear a softer tone, and Hosea brought a hope-filled message of grace and forgiveness.

Most prophets focused on the audience and all the things they had done wrong. In contrast, Hosea shined the spotlight on God. How must God feel when his chosen people reject him and go panting after false gods?

As if words are too weak to convey his passion, God asked the brave Hosea to act out a living parable. Hosea married a loose woman named Gomer, who, true to form, quickly ran away and committed adultery. Only by living out this drama could Hosea understand, and then express, something of how God felt concerning Israel’s rebuff of his affections.

Poor Hosea lived a soap opera – like existence. Gomer sank so low as to sell herself into slavery, but Hosea purchased her back, forgave her and reclaimed her as his wife. The pattern hopelessly repeated itself. Gomer bore three children — but was Hosea really their father? According to the law, he should have turned his adulterous wife out on the street or have had her tried in court. What Hosea did — and what God did — was unprecedented.

Broken Heart, Broken Covenant

Hosea’s radical love for Gomer symbolizes God’s undying love for his people. Though Israel had dragged God’s name through the mud, still God welcomed her back. The book of Hosea, in fact, represents the first time God’s covenant with Israel has been described in terms of marriage. It shows that God longs for his people with the tenderness and hunger of a lover toward his bride.

In the covenant, Israel agreed to love and obey God, no matter what — “till death do us part.” But by Hosea’s time that flame of love had died. God’s heart was breaking. Yet God promised them another chance with a new covenant at a future time: “ ‘In that day,’ declares the Lord, ‘you will call me “my husband”; you will no longer call me “my master” ’ ” (Hos 2:16).

Life Questions

Hosea describes various stages in Israel’s relationship to God: courtship, engagement, honeymoon, unfaithfulness, separation. What stage are you in with God?

Taken from NIV Essentials Study Bible