The LORD said to me,
“Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the LORD loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.”
Wanna try to get inside Hosea’s brain now?
So. You obey God and marry a woman of unfaithfulness. He has already told you she will break your heart. You courageously love her anyway. You make a life together and she has your children.
Then she runs away.
Back to her lovers. Back to all she thought would give her freedom.
What must have been going through his mind? Do you think, like us, he struggled with whether or not he’d heard God correctly? Think he wanted to just leave her gone? Let her suffer?
Wonder if he talked to others about it? What must his family have said? Think anyone said I told you so?
What must he have thought looking at Jezreel, Lo-Ruhamah and Lo-Ammi? Perhaps then he most felt the full force of the meaning of their names. It is easy to feel not loved and abandoned when your heart is broken.
I wonder if he held his little girl and wept? What did he tell her when she asked when mommy would be home?
How about the boys? How do you think he felt in front of them?
With no judgment (I have no room to pass any!), I was wondering…how about you? What do you run back to? When things are hard or when they’re good, in what ways do you run away?
How does that affect those you love?
So here he is. Hosea is alone and obviously long enough for his wife to be loved by another. And what does he hear?
“Go, show your love to your wife again…”
Was he relieved? Do you think he had been wanting to go after her, but wasn’t sure of God’s plan? Or was he angry and hurt and obeyed completely for obedience sake?
“So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley.”
Did you notice? He had to buy her back. We don’t know if she was another man’s personal, legal property at this point or serving as a temple prostitute. Either way, she was a slave.
Our idols do not love us.
They cannot. They weren’t created to fulfill us and they certainly aren’t worthy of our worship.
Idols steal our dignity.
Jesus always restores it.