November 17th | Hosea 1

“They hurt my feelings, I’m not gonna be friends with them anymore!” That statement was heard often around my house with my kids as they were younger. People don’t like it when others are mean to them. They don’t like being taken advantage of, and they don’t like getting their feelings hurt. We want good friends who will love us, stand by us, and stand up for us! Yet, sometimes these friends are hard to come by. 

In Hosea chapter one, we meet the prophet Hosea. He has been asked to do one of the hardest things any prophet is asked to do, namely, love a woman who will not love you back. Why would God ask him to do such a thing? Hosea’s marriage to Gomer would be a symbolic picture of God’s faithful and covenant love to the nation of Israel. 

At this time, Israel had flourished economically, but it had drifted far spiritually. They were worshipping false gods, making idols, and they had been unfaithful to the covenant God had made with them on Mt. Sinai. God had Hosea marry Gomer, and she bore him three children. God gave them symbolic names that were translated as 1) God will judge, 2) No compassion, 3) Not my people. These sound harsh. Yet, God was making a point. Judgment was coming for breaking the covenant. He would not have any more compassion, and they would not be His people. 

For us, we must recognize the seriousness of sin. It means a break between us and God. It destroys that relationship, and God must bring punishment. So if God “divorced” Israel, what would happen to His covenant people? Chapter one closes on a promising note. 

Hosea 1:10, “10 Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured or numbered. And in the place where it was said to them, “You are not my people,” it shall be said to them, “Children of the living God.” 

God’s mercy was out for this particular generation. The covenant of God that was made on Mt. Sinai was broken. God’s people did not keep the law, they did not love the Lord, so He was just to cast them out because they had broken the covenant! 

Yet, did you see the remark about the sand of the sea that cannot be measured? It is a reminder of a covenant God made far before Moses and Mt. Sinai. It was made with Abraham. A promise to make Him into a great nation. That he would love them and care for them.

Genesis 22:17, “17 I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore.” 

The covenant made with Abraham was not conditional, unlike the Sinai covenant. It was not based on Abraham’s obedience but on God’s steadfast love. Meaning God would never break this covenant. No matter how far God’s people ran, how terrible they strayed, God would uphold His end of the bargain. 

And God did just that when He sent Jesus. Christ died for our sins. He made us right before God. Therefore, the covenant is upheld by the works of Christ, not our own works. Nothing you could do could cause God to stop pursuing you and loving you. God truly loves the unlovely, and He demonstrated it on the cross. Would you rest in the unconditional covenant of God today and seek to love someone who might be unlovely? Love them the way Christ has loved you.