"For it is you who light my lamp;
the LORD my God lightens my darkness." Verse 28
Hosea 3:1-3
In this passage, God tells Hosea to start over again with his wife, who has gone back to whoring. "Start all over: Love your wife again, your wife who's in bed with her latest boyfriend, your cheating wife. Love her the way I, GOD, love the Israelite people, even as they flirt and party with every god that takes their fancy." Then in verses 2-3, Hosea does just that. He actually has to pay for Gomer, the price of a slave, to get her back. But he is committed to doing what has been asked of him. He is committed to loving her and staying with her.
I think what is most startling to me about this passage is in verse 1. The comparison of God's love for us to that of the prophet's love for his cheating wife is amazing. God loves us even though we continuously run after whatever comes along next. Even our churches and pastors fall prey to the "next big thing" in ministry, running amok with man-designed schemes to make their churches more attractive to sinners. We pay more attention to George Barna than we do to God. Anyone else see what is wrong with this picture?
Some chase after sinful things, but manage to claw their way back to God, who receives them gladly and lovingly, just as the father of the prodigal son received his son back. God's love for us is unshakeable. And it is truly startling.
This knowledge should inspire us to be more faithful to God. It should also cause us to examine our relationships and see if there is someone in our lives that needs the kind of love that God displays here. Who, in my life, needs that? Who have I given up on? Boy, these are hard questions, because several people come to mind instantly.