Hos 3:1 Then said the LORD unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the LORD toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love flagons of wine.
The Lord told Hosea to love a sinful woman, strange? Very. Yet the reason why the Lord told Hosea this was because it mirrors the Love of God toward his backsliding people.
A wayward husband or wife-- who doesn't know about such things? Some know firsthand how it feels to be cheated on, others don't. Most people know someone who was cheated on. There are way too many divorces from this very thing for people not to know anyone at all who wasn't cheated on. Barring any personal experience with infidelity- either yourself, family members, relatives of any sort, friends, co-workers-- friends of friends … we have television, movies, and books that are filled with this sort of behavior. The truth is, you know about cheating even if you don't have experience with cheating.
Still, and I have to bring this up, right or wrong, many people live in relationships where they say it's fine to look (lust) upon others and find them arousing, as long as they don't touch (commit the physical act) of adultery. It's true, you hear about it all the time. Men will be men, women will be women, and it's all natural to do this, God made us this way, it's normal for human beings to lust after each other that's how the species keeps going, and so on.
When God told Hosea to find… no, that's not right, God told Hosea to go LOVE an adulteress He was telling Hosea to go LOVE a woman KNOWN to stray from her husband.
God's people then and still right now, are prone to adultery - straying from HIM and taking other 'gods' into their lives that they shouldn't.
The Book of Hosea tells of how Hosea's love of this adulteress and her continued cheating on him resulted in a very hard relationship. We are shown that Hosea's unrelenting love is just that- a love so deep it cannot be lost.
Am I saying a person should stay with a cheating spouse? I'm saying if that person desires to stay because they truly love that spouse even though that spouse is unfaithful- well, that's a personal decision the person has to make and no other.
God chooses to stay with His people. God chooses to have a people upon a corrupt earth filled to the brim with mostly cheating people- people cheating on Him. God chooses to believe there will be an adulteress people who will cease their adulteress acts and love only Him, a faithful people.
In the parable of the prodigal son we know that the wayward son returning was more joyous than anything to the father! But, the wayward son was not joyous to the father while he was being wayward, it wasn't until he returned, leaving his wayward existence.
It is extremely hard living in a world so full of evil that only a few out of the many will truly belong to God. We live in a time where God has been altered to fit into a sinful existence. Changing God to suit a sinful life makes it all the more harder to recognize sinning because we no longer recognize the adultery for what it is, we've made what was once considered adultery (straying from God) into something acceptable. Satan has done his job very, very well. We've erected false idols covered in the apparel of God and bow down to worship them fooling ourselves that we are worshiping God when we aren't. We don't recognize our adultery and this is why when our Lord returns He is going to tell many, many people that He doesn't know them.
Look at the God you are worshiping very, very closely. Go to God's word and study it like never before! Get on your knees and pray like your life depends upon it because it does. Seek God with all your heart! Search for God with all your heart! God will be found if there is even a sliver of sincerity in our searching, our seeking!
Don't lie to yourself, don't blind yourself to truth, don't stop up your own ears to keep from hearing truth because it might mean destroying the beloved idols of your life. Those idols whatever they are- will gladly holdfast to you all the way to non-existence.
Hosea was told to love an adulteress as God loves his people- God loves his people and wants them to be true to Him, to turn away from the adultery in their hearts, the idols they cheat upon Him with. God wants us wayward people to return to a true love of Him.
God please help us do this, please! Bring our hearts back to the true love of Your love. God, give us all we need to tear down and rid ourselves of the idols in our lives- especially the idols we've decked in the garb of Your appearance. Don't let us fool ourselves any longer that we are worshiping you in truth if we are not! Create in us clean hearts! Renew in us right spirits! Take us back into Your fold, let us filthy, desperate, prodigals come home, show us the way back to You and let us walk in that way while all around us the world wallows in the filth of deception. Let us not be deceived, help us! Save us! We know You love us with an unwavering love, You sacrificed all because You loved us, love us still and always!
In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, Yours is the glory, the praise, the honor now and forever! Amen!
