Hosea 2

It's pretty easy to jump on the bandwagon of putting down the unfaithful Israelites from our comfortable vantage point here in the 21st century. But as with all other Bible passages, God included this in His Word because He intended to use it to speak to us today. But what does this kind of unfaithfulness to God really look like in a literal sense. Without the wild partying adulterer analogy. Are we much different?

When I look across this Christian nation, my church, and my hometown, I think we easily live as wild and far from God as Israel did. We take advantage of His goodness. We forget His mercy. We neglect proper and regular worship. We let our hearts be entertained and captivated by other things. We spend our money to support our own selfish interests. Just because there isn't anyone named Baal in the picture doesn't mean we aren't idolaters.

But the end of the chapter is so sweet. When we are unfaithful, God is still faithful. He reached out to us in self-sacrificial love even while we wallowed in our sin and shame. He calls us His loved one. His people. He betrothed Himself to us. Wow. He committed to love us in advance. Hundreds and thousands of years in advance. Even knowing how unfaithful our hearts would be.

Only one response to this kind of compassion and commitment makes any sense at all. Total and complete obsession. A crazy zealous obedient love. That is what I want to offer Him.
You are my God.