20 July

‘Hosea is the prophet of love,’ writes Eugene Peterson. ‘But not love as we imagine or fantasise it. He was a parable of God’s love for his people lived out as God revealed and enacted it – a lived parable. It is an astonishing story: a prophet commanded to marry a common whore and have children with her. It is an even more astonishing message: God loves us in just this way – goes after us at our worst, keeps after us until he gets us, and makes lovers of men and women who know nothing of real love.’

Hosea was prophesying shortly after the time of Amos (c.750–722 BC). His marriage to Gomer was a kind of analogy for Israel’s relationship with God. God spoke to Hosea and said:

‘Find a whore and marry her.
   Make this whore the mother of your children.
And here’s why: This whole country
   has become a whorehouse, unfaithful to me, God’ (1:2, MSG).

Israel’s mistake was to chase after things (food, wine, fashion, jewellery and perfume) rather than God (2:5,8, MSG). They failed to see it was God who provided these things. All he asks is that we should seek him first.

God’s answer is to frustrate us when we chase after things rather than him, by not allowing us to obtain the things on which we have set our hearts. He says:

 ‘She’ll go on the hunt for her lovers
   but not bring down a single one.
She’ll look high and low
   but won’t find a one’ (v.7a, MSG).

God longs for you to be living in a relationship with him as close as a husband and a wife. He says, ‘I am now going to allure her’ (v.14a). He takes her into a desert (this is so often the place where God’s voice is heard) and speaks tenderly (v.14). ‘“In that day,” declares the Lord, “you will call me ‘my husband’… I will betroth you to me forever”’ (vv.16,19).

This foreshadows the relationship of Jesus to his church. God promises a new love relationship between him and his people (vv.19–20). They will know (acknowledge) the Lord.