Hosea 3:1-5 Redeemed
Hosea’s wife has left him for another man. Instead of washing his hands of her, God tells him to love her again. It cost HIM to bring her back.
God calls to Hosea to demonstrate unfathomable love; His kind of love. Hosea is to bring back into his home a wife who has wandered. One who is actually “loved by another man and is an adulteress” (verse 1b). He is to ‘walk out’ what God will do for Israel.
I was thinking about one of the most important words in our text; love. I was considering how many different ways we use, and misuse, this word. We say that we ‘love’ a certain food or activity. We use this word to motivate others, sometimes to do things they wouldn’t otherwise do. We, hopefully, lavish it on our family. We proclaim it to those we hold in highest esteem. But every use of the word doesn’t mean the same. And the word doesn’t mean the same thing to every person.
I have heard sermons preached on the different kinds of love that Peter and Jesus were speaking of when Jesus appeared to His disciples by the sea after His resurrection. The difference between agape love and philia love was the focus of these sermons. Agape love is God’s perfect love while philia is man’s brotherly love towards one another. While looking how to spell these Greek words, I cam across an article speaking about the four different kinds of love mentioned in the bible. It looks at how each of these kinds of love are used and what they actually denote.
I have a question to ask here. When Jesus and Peter were speaking, how did Peter not know the difference? I’m assuming that they were not speaking Greek to one another so there was no definite word difference. When the story was written, was it written in Greek? When did it dawn on Peter and all the others who told his story that there was indeed a difference in what Jesus was asking of Peter and what he was able to give? Did the disciples sit and discuss this encounter later? Did Jesus explain the difference Himself in a conversation that wasn’t recorded for us? Did the Holy Spirit bring an ‘ah-ha’ moment that made this clear to the disciples later on? I have NO doubt that Peter was unable to deliver the same deep love that Jesus was and was calling for.
Getting back to our story; Hosea will not be able to demonstrate the depth and breadth of God’s love for His people, but he will walk out a man’s understanding of it.
Gomer, Hosea’s wife, was taken from a life of prostitution into a marriage bond with Hosea. Hosea didn’t demand that she ‘clean herself up’ and learn how to be a wife before he took her as his own. Instead, he would walk with her through this process. He would cherish her and give himself to her fully. Her past didn’t matter.
Along the way, Gomer saw someone else that she thought had ‘more to offer’ her. We are not told what those things that she desired were. We can assume that they were ‘luxuries’ or ‘delicacies’ that she didn’t find in her new home. She loved them enough to leave what she had. According to the allegory, she would have expected to be able to keep what she gained from Hosea and take it with her and add it to what she believed she would receive from another. She would even begin to believe that the things she received from Hosea were actually from her new lover.
In my spirit, I was given an answer for what she might have thought she could carry with her, as well as try to attribute to her new lover. That answer was reputation and respectability. Hosea KNEW of his wife’s background. He took her from a life of prostitution and gave her the respectability of a wife. Her past was wiped away. But she still carried it in her own heart. She could have sought out someone who didn’t know of her sins and welcomed her, considering her worthy or untainted. She could have believed that THIS was her ‘new start’. But this lover KNEW ALL ABOUT her past. He pretended he didn’t in order to entice her away. He used her desire for respectability to entrap her.
Another thing that stands out about this passage to me is that Hosea PAID to get his wife back. Some would say that she was HIS wife and he could take her back from whomever took her in the first place. Hosea did not assert ownership. Instead, he exhibited a desire to free her completely from the one who ‘held’ her. He BOUGHT her freedom. She may not even have know that she was in bondage, but she was.
The one who ‘held her captive’ accepted ‘payment’ for her. He valued what Hosea had to give more than he valued her. He valued what he could get or even ‘extort’ from Hosea. This especially reminds me of God’s love for us. He “willingly” gave His only Son’s life to redeem us. Satan thought he was taking something from God; TAKING something God valued beyond all else. He was NEVER able to TAKE Jesus’ life. Only when GOD was ready did Jesus actually face death. Several times in Jesus’ life, Satan tried to grab God’s “ransom payment” from His hands. God made sure EVERYTHING was in order for this ‘exchange’. For it would be one that could NEVER be undone. Satan couldn’t come back and demand more, for this wasn’t Satan’s deal. It was GOD’S.
Satan also thought he got to KEEP his payment. Nope! God gave Him Jesus’ physical blood but NOT His TRUE LIFE. God pulled His precious Son’s life right through Satan’s fingers when He rolled the stone away that morning! And, Satan not only lost Jesus’ life, but he lost the life of EVERY PERSON WHO EVER accepted Jesus’ work on the cross as a substitute for themselves. Those who gave/give/will give their lives to Jesus for the purpose of ransoming them!
We don’t have to clean up first. We don’t have to be “worthy” of His work. All we have to do is take His hand and walk out of the enemy’s house. HE will walk us through ALL the changes that will bring our life into GLORIOUS example of His love and restorative power.
Father God, THANK YOU for considering me worth coming after! Lord Jesus, THANK YOU for ransoming me! I was not worthy and never will be of such a high price. But I am grateful beyond words. And I LOVE YOU with ALL my being! I willingly accept Your work and will walk ALL THE WAY HOME with You.
