For the past week or two I have been studying the book of Hosea and dwelling on the steadfast love of God. When I think about how far away from God Israel had gone and how much God still loved them and held off punishing them, I'm amazed. I cannot imagine still loving someone and showing them mercy after all that they put Him through, but then, I'm not God and that is a good thing.
The story of Hosea is a great parable of God's never-ending love. Hosea was a prophet who warned the people to turn back to God. One day, God spoke to him and told him to take a specific woman to be his wife. God knew that this woman would not be faithful to Hosea in their marriage, but he told Hosea to marry her anyway. Things seemed to be pretty good at first, and they even had a son. But soon, Gomer became unfaithful and Hosea knew it, yet he did not turn her away or divorce her. He took care of her and even raised her next two children who most likely were fathered by another man.
Before long, Gomer's discontentment led her to leave Hosea. She had found something better, or so she thought, and was happy until she ended up as a slave who was being sold to the highest bidder. Then, no one wanted her...except Hosea. He came and bought her for a very low price, but bought her nonetheless. You see, Hosea still loved Gomer and had never divorced her, even though she had left him and turned her back on him.
God's relationship with Israel started out good, but soon they began to stray from Him and started to look for other gods to serve. As they walked away, God sent prophets to warn them of what would happen if they didn't turn back to Him, but they would not listen. God put off punishment as long as He could, but when it could wait no longer, He allowed them to be taken captive by some of the other nations. It was only then, once they had hit rock bottom, that they remembered God and turned back to Him. And because God is a loving God, He brought them out of captivity and back to their homeland.
Just like Israel, we sometimes stray from God and do not give Him the love that we should. We allow other things in our lives to become higher priorities than God. We neglect to spend time with Him each day, we start missing church services, and maybe even get to the point where we do not think about Him very often. No matter what we do to hurt Him, God still loves us and is waiting for us to turn back to Him and love Him the way we should. Sometimes God has to punish us because we are too stubborn to realize we need Him without being reprimanded, but even then, He is waiting for us with open arms. All we have to do is call out to Him in repentance.
