A Living Picture Of Unfaithfulness

A Living Picture of Unfaithfulness

When the LORD first began speaking to Israel through Hosea, he said to him, “Go and marry a prostitute, so that some of her children will be conceived in prostitution. This will illustrate how Israel has acted like a prostitute by turning against the LORD and worshiping other gods.”

Hosea 1:2

Then the LORD said to me, “Go and love your wife again, even though she commits adultery with another lover. This will illustrate that the LORD still loves Israel, even though the people have turned to other gods and love to worship them.” So I bought her back.

Hosea 3:1-2

Imagine that God picked out the person you are to marry. The reason he wants you to marry this person is because he knows he or she will leave you for not just one other person but for many—that this person will sell his or her body to other people and have children with them, even while being married to you.

This is the story of Hosea and his wife, Gomer, in the Old Testament. When we read it, we feel offended that God would ask such a thing of Hosea. But God wanted Hosea to understand what it is like to be married to an unfaithful wife before Hosea spoke God’s Word to Israel. Through this real-life illustration, Hosea would not only understand the betrayal, he would feel it. And we can too, if we are willing to see ourselves in this story and feel God’s broken heart.

We see ourselves in Gomer’s unfaithfulness, and we see the faithfulness of God in the love of her husband, Hosea. Or at least we should. But we don’t really want to see ourselves this way, do we? It seems too extreme. However, God knows we have sold ourselves to many other lovers in this world, and he is still wooing us to himself. He wants to envelop us in his faithful, redeeming love, saying, “I will heal you of your faithlessness; my love will know no bounds, for my anger will be gone forever” (Hosea 14:4).

DISCUSSION STARTERS

What does it mean to be faithful to someone?

In what ways are we unfaithful to God?

When we read about how Hosea bought his own wife back, how is this a picture of what God has done for us?