Rescued From Our Wandering Hearts

Hosea 3:1-5, 1 Peter 1:18-19, 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

This chapter of Hosea makes me cringe. Why would God continue to let Hosea go through this? Hasn’t he been through enough? You’re really going to make him buy back the wife that cheated on him? As I read this chapter I find myself wanting justice for Hosea and judgement for Gomer. Until I realize that I am no different than Gomer. 

God asked Hosea to do something unimaginable! Buy back the wife who cheated on him, betrayed him and continue to love her. Imagine how shocking that must have been to Hosea’s friends and family. He had every right to leave her, and yet he didn’t. He paid his own money to buy her back. And God did the same for us. 

Again and again we are running after other lovers. Our hearts are prone to wander, and yet the Lord wants to remind us that we are still loved by Him. Time and time again He rescues us, and redeems the things in our life that are broken. What God is pointing to in the story of Hosea is His own love. God is love. And if God is love, then that means God is patient, He is kind. He doesn’t envy, He isn’t proud. He is never self seeking, and He isn’t easily angered. It means that God always protects, always trusts, always hopes and always preserves. Gomer is marked with sin and shame, yet Hosea wants her. God looks at us with the same loving adoration, He wants us, He chose us, and we were precious enough to be bought with the blood of Christ. 

As you read this chapter this morning, ask God to reveal where your heart has wandered, confess that to your huddle, and begin praying for freedom and desire to be devoted to the Lord wholly.