Hosea 3:1-5 (CLICK HERE FOR BIBLE VERSES)
Hi GAMErs!
Today’s passage is Hosea 3:1-5. Let’s go!
In this passage the LORD tells Hosea to reach out to his unfaithful wife, in effect not only forgiving her but restoring her as his bride. These verses teach us some powerful truths about who God is and what His love for us is like.
Hosea 3:1 (NIV)
1 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.”
On verse 1: Here we learn that God’s love for you is unconditional. We see God’s unconditional love when verse 1 says “the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes” (v1).
God tells the prophet Hosea to love his wife, though she had cheated on him, with that same unconditional love: “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites” (v1). Though we don’t always love God, God always loves us. That’s the incredible, unconditional love of God for us.
Hosea 3:2 (NIV)
2 So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley.
On verse 2: God’s love for you is redemptive. What does it mean to redeem something? It means to buy something back, to regain possession of something you lost by paying a price for it. We see that in verse 2. Hosea’s wife had run away and become a prostitute, but Hosea finds her and pays 15 shekels of silver and about 330 litres of barley to buy her back.
In the same way, when we had run away from God, made a mess of our lives and become slaves to sin, God paid the highest price to redeem us, to regain possession of us. God paid far more than silver and barley to redeem us. The redemption price God paid for your life was the precious blood of His Son Jesus Christ. God our redeemer paid the highest price to get us back.
Hosea 3:3-5 (NIV)
3 Then I told her, “You are to live with me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will live with you.”
4 For the Israelites will live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred stones, without ephod or idol.
5 Afterward the Israelites will return and seek the LORD their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the LORD and to his blessings in the last days.
On verses 3-5: God’s love casts a new vision for your life. In verse 3, Hosea casts a new vision for Gomer’s future. He basically says, “No longer will you be a prostitute, or give yourself to someone else. Instead you will live with me many days and I will be faithful to you.”
Similarly, in verses 4-5, God casts a new vision for His people: instead of being unfaithful idol worshipers (v4), He says they will “return and seek the Lord their God and David their king” (v5). By the way, King David had died centuries before Hosea wrote down this prophecy, so who is Hosea referring to when he says, “David their king”? It’s a reference to the Messiah who would be born to David’s line and who would be their king one day – i.e. Jesus Christ the Son of David. As God’s people we were made to return and to seek God and His Son Jesus Christ.
Just as Hosea’s love gave him a new vision for his wife, just as God’s love gave God a new vision for the Israelites, God has a new vision for your life too. Instead of an idol worshiper, God made you to be someone who returns to God, who seeks Him, who fears God and who experiences His blessing and peace.
God’s love for you is unconditional, but God doesn’t want you to stay the same. He’s here to give you a new, God-centered vision for your life.
Father, thank You that there’s nothing I could ever do to make You love me more or make You love me less. Your love for me is unconditional! Thank You that Your love for me inspires me to pursue a greater, God-centered vision for my life, and empowers me to live out that vision. Thank You for the unconditional, redemptive, empowering love of Christ in my life. In Jesus’ name, AMEN!
Copyright © 2021 Justin Lim. All rights reserved.
