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Hosea Redeems His Wife
3 And the LORD said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the LORD loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins.” So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley. And I said to her, “You must dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore, or belong to another man; so will I also be to you.” For the children of Israel shall dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or household gods. Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the LORD their God, and David their king, and they shall come in fear to the LORD and to his goodness in the latter days.
(ESV)
Hosea 3 Commentary
by Brad Boyles
What impacts me the most about this short chapter in Hosea 3 is the fact that God makes the first move. Scripture tells us in Romans 5…
“But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Romans 5:8
While we were still whoring around like Gomer, Christ died for us. Think about that. Nothing was going to change in our lives until Christ made the first move. Jesus stepped forward and said, “I want to love you despite the fact that you flirt with every other pleasure on this Earth.” He committed to loving us through our adultery. It’s a scandalous offer.
God makes the first move, and it costs a high price just like it did for Hosea. In the same way, it costs us a high price to follow Him today. The fascinating point to consider is that many of us are ashamed to go all in for Jesus. It may not seem like it because we put on a good front. But deep down, there are costly sacrifices we would struggle to make for His Name. There’s always a cost, but Jesus wasn’t ashamed to come find us while we were still giving away our hearts to sin. He not only made the first move in saving us, but He made the first move in exemplifying what obedience to the Father really looks like. It costs everything.
This is why Jesus urges believers to count the cost. He doesn’t want us to be uninformed about sacrificial living.
Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?
Luke 14:27-28 ESV
Let’s think honestly and practically about this chapter. Who would ever really do what Hosea did without the Lord revealing it to them first? Who would love the unlovable and forgive the unforgivable in their own flesh? Who would actually take back their spouse after they had become a whore, selling their body to whoever desired them? Not one of us would think that was logical or worth it in the end. A love like this is not of this world. And yet, while we were still sinners, that’s exactly what God did for us.
Through that love, we have the power to follow. When we struggle with the thought of forgiving the unforgivable or loving the unlovable, then I would imagine we haven’t really understood what’s been done for us. If we did, we would realize the hypocrisy of accepting forgiveness for our own prostitution while continuing to hold the same charge against others. Yes, it is difficult. Yes, it may even seem impossible. But the truth remains. While we were still sinners…
God reveals that not only are we Gomer in the story, but because of his Son, we are now Hosea as well. Jesus, today let us find Your truth and grace in Gomer’s story and Your unrelenting obedience in Hosea’s story!