God, to make his heart known to man, instructs Hosea to marry a prostitute for him to understand what it is like to love someone who is constantly unfaithful to you. The prophet obeys and marries the “wife of whoredom”: Gomer (1:2-3). We read that three kids later, Hosea is instructed to go and “love a woman who is loved by another man” (3:1) and he bought her back in order to be his. It is clear that the second command is deeper than the first in that he is telling Hosea to love the adulterous wife “as the Lord loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins” (3:1). After that we are left to observe the very heart of the faithful God through the prophetic words for the rest of the book.

As I was reading, I felt the pouring of God’s heart expressing his wrath and fury against his unfaithful people, the unconditional love that he still has for them, the folly of Israel’s unfaithfulness, the desperate state of Israel and the Lord’s admonition to them.

“They have forsaken the Lord to cherish whoredom, wine and new wine, which takes away understanding” (4:10), the Lord laments, “for the Spirit of whoredom is within them and they do not know the Lord” (5:4). God is exposing Israel’s heart for “[she] adorned herself with her ring and jewelry and went after her lover and forgot me, declares the Lord” (2:13). The Lord’s heart was against Israel because she “was determined to go after filth” (5:11).

You might ask how was Israel unfaithful to God to which I’d directly respond that they said “Our God” to the work of their hands (14:3) and “because they have transgressed my covenant and rebelled against my law.” (8:1)

With the most terrible words the Lord’s indignation is made plain in this book: “So I am to them like a lion; like a leopard I will lurk beside the way. I will fall upon them like a bear robbed of her cubs; I will tear open their breast, and there I will devour them like a lion, as a wild beast would rip them open.” (13:7-8) The Lord adds that “because they have rebelled against her God…their little ones shall be dashed in pieces and their pregnant woman ripped open.” (13:16)

Feel the Lord’s anger and jealousy expressed in these words. “Now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and none shall rescue her out of my hand”; declares the Lord.

Even though she’s unfaithful; the state in which she is in isn’t a good one. Though Israel isn’t returning to God from the heart, we observe a desperate condition; she is really not enjoying her condition, she’s hurting and partly because the god she turned to isn’t doing any good to her. “Ephraim is a cake not turned. Strangers devour his strength and he knows it not” (7:8-9) and again “Ephraim is like a dove, silly and without sense.”(7:11) “They wail upon their beds” (7:14).

In their unfaithfulness—which is not obviously an experience of extreme happiness for them—they experience shame and loneliness: “a wild donkey wondering alone, Ephraim has hired lovers” (8:9) and again “Israel is swallowed up…as a useless vessel” (8:8). Feel Israel’s desperateness and shame in that she “is stricken and their root is dried up” (9:16) and “this shall be their derision in the land of Egypt” (7:16).

The Lord, in spite of being cheated on, is willing to take them and love them again, He’s crying in love for the adulterous people: “I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her” (2:14). He says that even though they rebelled and went astray, He, from the beginning “taught Ephraim how to walk…led them with cords of kindness, with bands of love…” (11:3-4) and that “like grapes in the wilderness, I found Israel” (9:10). Being the one who found them, He therefore asks: “How can I give you up…how can I hand you over…my heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender” (11:8).

We can therefore trust in his unfailing love when he affirms: “I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord” (2:19-20)

Likewise we have been unfaithful to God (and still are) and in this book God sets the stage for us to feel his jealousy, the foolishness of our private pursuits—which are going to bring us nowhere— and therefore rest, finally, in his unconditional love toward us. Oh how deep is his love; the unfailing love of my God that will forgive my trespasses and pursue me in my helplessness.

Let us therefore hear the Lord’s admonition: “Sow for yourselves righteousness; reap steadfast love; break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord, that he may come and rain righteousness upon you” (10:12). He adds: “So you, by the help of God, return, hold fast to love and justice and wait continually for your God” (12:6). He summons them to return to him knowing our love is like a “morning cloud” and by his help hold fast to him because “…I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.”(6:6)

If you haven’t read the book of Hosea, I encourage you to and witness for yourself God’s merciful dealings with us….