The God who pursues us

This is definitely one of the more bizarre stories we see in scripture, God telling Hosea, one of his prophets, to get married to a woman who would be unfaithful to him.

As this story takes place, Jeroboam II is still on the throne in Israel, as is Uzziah in Judah. Hosea was primarily a prophet to Israel, but he had words for Judah as well.

And in this time of material prosperity, there was definitely a spiritual problem. The people were being unfaithful to God, following other idols, namely Baal.

And thus, the object lesson of Hosea to the nation.

Hosea marries this woman Gomer, and she soon bears him a son that God says to call Jezreel.

God told him to do so because of the massacre at Jezreel where Jehu went far beyond the words of God in committing bloodshed.

As a result, God warned that judgment was coming upon the house of Jehu and upon Israel.

Gomer then gets pregnant twice more, but the Bible never says they were Hosea’s children. The implication being that they were children born out of Gomer’s unfaithfulness to Hosea.

The first is named “Lo-Ruhamah,” meaning “not loved.” The second is named “Lo-Ammi,” meaning “not my people.”

The picture couldn’t be clearer. Hosea must have had a tough time loving these children that were not his, and could not call either child his own.

In the same way, because of Israel’s unfaithfulness to God, God could not call them his loved ones or his children. Instead, he would reject them and cause them to fall as a kingdom.

And yet even in the midst of this, God makes clear that this punishment would not last forever. The day would come when he would call them his people and his sons once again and would restore them.

But in chapter 2, he rebukes Israel for its unfaithfulness.

The people didn’t realize that all their blessings came not from the gods they were following, but from God.

And so God said the day was coming when he would cut off their blessings, and that he would strip them naked of every good thing.

Though they would pursue pleasure and happiness, they would not be able to find them. The only thing they would be able to find was shame.

And eventually, the time would come when they would be so desperate that they would have no choice but to return to God.

The amazing part of it all is that through all of Israel’s unfaithfulness to God, he would continue to pursue them. It says,

“Therefore, I am now going to allure her;
I will lead her into the desert, and tenderly speak to her…

I will make the valley of trouble (Achor) a door of hope.
There she will sing as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt.

‘In that day,’ declares the Lord, ‘you will call me “my husband”;
you will no longer call me “my master.”…

I will betroth you to me forever.
I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion.
I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the Lord…

I will show my love to the one I called “Not my loved one.”
I will say to those called “Not my people,” “You are my people.”’ (Hosea 2:14–16, 19–20, 23)

And to firmly imprint all of this in the minds of Israel, he told Hosea in chapter 3 to show his love to his wife once more, to buy her back from the one she was enslaved to, and to restore her to her position as his wife once again.

What does this mean for us?

No matter how far we fall away from him, God still loves us and pursues us.

He may discipline us. He may allow bad things to happen to us as a consequence for our sin.

But his main goal is to restore us. And all he does is out of his love and faithfulness towards us.

So as Hosea told his wife, let us not prostitute ourselves any longer to the world or the things in the world.

Rather, let us return to him and be faithful to the God who is faithful to us, and who loved us enough to redeem us by Christ’s death on the cross.