The Covenant to the Unfaithful
Hosea 2:1-13, Deuteronomy 7:9, 1 Corinthians 10:31
These verses are a picture of God’s faithful and selfless love for us.
As mentioned in previous devotionals, the story of Hosea and his unfaithful wife is a symbol of Israel, God’s people, and their unfaithfulness to God. Right at the start of this chapter the author states, “for she is not my wife” (Hosea 2:2). God’s people represent the wife and are in a relationship with God. God speaks powerfully through Hosea in revealing that because of Israel’s sin and rebellion, this beautiful relationship has been broken. The same is true for all mankind. We were created and designed by the Father to be in relationship with Him. Whether we recognize it or not, our hearts long and yearn to be in relationship with the Lord, yet sin entices us away from this harmony. Paul states in Romans, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). No one is an exception to this. We have all fallen short and are deemed unworthy of being in God’s presence, because of His holiness.
But by His great grace, He gives us Jesus on behalf of our sins, to live the life we could never live and die the death that we so deserve. This is God’s ultimate display of selfless love “in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
Despite Gomer’s unfaithfulness in marriage, Hosea still provides for her. He does not fail to provide her with food and riches. Even knowing that she will be unfaithful and give these things to idols and other gods, Hosea continues in faithfulness to his wife. The same is true for our relationship with our Father. Despite the fact that we rebelled and broke the relationship between us and God, He still blesses us and provides a way back to Him. 2 Timothy 2:13 says, “If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.” Think about this: God gave us life and He gives us each day. He gave us the freedom to choose and the will to choose Him. He gave us the trees on this earth and the skill and strength to cut and craft the wood. And we chose to nail Him to a cross and He willingly stretched out His arms and died in our place. This is a beautiful picture in that even though it was our sin that nailed him to that tree, He continues to selflessly love us.
God gives us the air that we breathe. He gives us each day that we live. He gives us time and skill and passion to accomplish the tasks of our days. He gives it all to us and are we giving it back to His glory or are we unfaithfully taking it and giving it to our idols?
Where in your life are you acting as Gomer with unfaithfulness to God?
What has God blessed you with that you are not currently but feel convicted of giving to His glory?
