Song of Solomon is the one most people point to when someone asks for a love story, or sometimes Ruth or Esther, and while yes, they are, Hosea is beautiful because it shows us as we really are and God as He pursues us.
For those of you not familiar with the events of Hosea, God instructs Hosea to marry a prostitute, Gomer, and to love her and to start a family with her. Probably not the bride he may have had in mind, but he obeys. She bears him three children before completely turning to other men, either for hire or for free. Hosea pursues her, buys her back, and she returns with him.
Not a happy home, one would assume.
But think about it.
Yes, Gomer is a picture of Israel, but I think she's a picture of us, too.
We are not incapable of wandering. ("Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall." - 1 Corinthians 10:12)
We are capable of making idols. ("Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’" - Matthew 22:37)
We have earned nothing. ("For by grace you have been saved through faith; and [a]that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast." - Ephesians 2:8-9)
This is what God had to say about Israel's wandering:
Say to your brothers, “Ammi,” and to your sisters, “Ruhamah.”
“Contend with your mother, contend,
For she is not my wife, and I am not her husband;
And let her put away her harlotry from her face
And her adultery from between her breasts,
Or I will strip her naked
And expose her as on the day when she was born.
I will also make her like a wilderness,
Make her like desert land
And slay her with thirst.
“Also, I will have no compassion on her children,
Because they are children of harlotry.
“For their mother has played the harlot;
She who conceived them has acted shamefully.
For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers,
Who give me my bread and my water,
My wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’
“Therefore, behold, I will hedge up her way with thorns,
And I will build a wall against her so that she cannot find her paths.
“She will pursue her lovers, but she will not overtake them;
And she will seek them, but will not find them.
Then she will say, ‘I will go back to my first husband,
For it was better for me then than now!’
“For she does not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the new wine and the oil,
And lavished on her silver and gold,
Which they used for Baal.
“Therefore, I will take back My grain at harvest time
And My new wine in its season.
I will also take away My wool and My flax
Given to cover her nakedness.
“And then I will uncover her lewdness
In the sight of her lovers,
And no one will rescue her out of My hand.
“I will also put an end to all her gaiety,
Her feasts, her new moons, her sabbaths
And all her festal assemblies.
“I will destroy her vines and fig trees,
Of which she said, ‘These are my wages
Which my lovers have given me.’
And I will make them a forest,
And the beasts of the field will devour them.
“I will punish her for the days of the Baals
When she used to offer sacrifices to them
And adorn herself with her earrings and jewelry,
And follow her lovers, so that she forgot Me,” declares the Lord.
Hosea 2:1-13
Sounds terrifying, doesn't it?
And rightly so.
But that's not the end of the story for Gomer, Israel, or us:
Therefore, behold, I will allure her,
Bring her into the wilderness
And speak kindly to her.
“Then I will give her her vineyards from there,
And the valley of Achor as a door of hope.
And she will sing there as in the days of her youth,
As in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt.
“It will come about in that day,” declares the Lord,
“That you will call Me Ishi
And will no longer call Me Baali.
“For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth,
So that they will be mentioned by their names no more.
“In that day I will also make a covenant for them
With the beasts of the field,
The birds of the sky
And the creeping things of the ground.
And I will abolish the bow, the sword and war from the land,
And will make them lie down in safety.
“I will betroth you to Me forever;
Yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and in justice,
In lovingkindness and in compassion,
And I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness.
Then you will know the Lord.
Hosea 2:14-20
If that's not one of the most beautiful pictures of mercy, grace, forgiveness, and love, I truly don't know what is.
And I really want to bring attention to this one part that's lost in English. "That you will call Me Ishi
And will no longer call Me Baali.
Do you know what that means?
"Baali" means "my master". I'm no scholar of Hebrew, but that almost sounds begrudging to me.
But Ishi... "Ishi" means "my husband". It's not just a label, it's a term of affection.
God loves us, even when we run.
He pursues us, even when we push Him away.
He may let us fall, but He is there to pick us up again.
And yes, He is our Master and Lord... but He is also our Ishi.
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