Summary of the Bible in 66 Days: 28. Scandal- Hosea 3:1

 Hosea 3:1 ESV

And the Lord said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins.” 


This verse might seem shocking and far removed from us, but it encapsulates how we are spiritually before the Holy One. As Gomer treated Hosea, so we often treat God. Every time we sin against him, we're committing spiritual adultery.

God calls us to love him and to love others as Christ loved us and gave himself for us. When we commit adultery, physically or spiritually, we're acting carefully towards our Saviour and Lord. God doesn't necessarily respond by fast-tracking us to hell. 

When the religious people asked Jesus about divorce, he interestingly didn't point them to Hosea, or even to Malachi, who said that God hates divorce. His point was the same though. We have no right to cut off what God has joined together.

If adulterers and even abusers should be separated rather than divorced horizontally, then even vertically, God doesn't want to abandon us. Even when we're unfaithful to him, he remains faithful to us. A word of warning though: Hosea's Israelite listeners were assimilated into oblivion by Assyria.

'Dear Lord, please don't condemn us as we deserve, but reconcile us to yourself, not just in name only, but in spirit and in truth. For your glory, amen'.


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