God Is Faithful

God Is Faithful

I will be faithful to you and make you mine, and you will finally know me as LORD. –Hosea 2:20

Imagine that God picked out the person you are to marry, and the reason he wants you to marry this person is because he knows she will leave you for not just another man but for many other men—that she will sell her body to and bear the children of other men even while she is married to you. This is the story of Hosea and Gomer, and it is shocking. When we read it, we’re a bit offended that God would ask such a thing of Hosea. God wanted Hosea to understand what it is like to be married to an unfaithful wife before he spoke God’s Word to Israel. Through this real-life illustration, Hosea not only understood the betrayal, he felt it. And we do too if we enter into this story, if we look closely enough to see ourselves in it.

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. To describe ourselves as whores is going way too far. But that is what we are. God himself is our spiritual husband and lover. And every time we sin, every time we give ourselves to lesser lovers in this world, we commit spiritual adultery. “The spirit of harlotry has caused them to stray, and they have played the harlot against their God” (Hosea 4:12, NKJV). To fully understand the nature of God’s faithfulness toward us, we must see our own unfaithfulness to him for what it is; we must feel his broken heart.

While it is shocking that God would ask Hosea to take a wife he knows will be unfaithful, it is perhaps more shocking that Hosea reclaims Gomer from the auction block, buying back what is already his, taking her back home to start over like young lovers (Hosea 3:2). But once again this is an illustration of what our faithful God does. God woos us tenderly to himself knowing we will fail him; he promises us hope and safety knowing we will not keep our promises; he starts over with any who will come to him; and he offers us the most intimate and pleasure-filled relationship possible. God knows we have sold ourselves to many other lovers in this world, yet he is wooing us to himself where he wants to envelop us in his faithful love, saying, “I will heal you of your idolatry and faithlessness, and my love will know no bounds, for my anger will be gone forever!” (Hosea 14:4).

My faithful, divine Lover, I have known your unrelenting pursuit, your unending patience, and your unflinching acceptance, yet I run to other lovers. I return to you as a harlot, asking you to take me back, to love me once more.

DIGGING DEEPER