Guest post by author Lauri Lemke Thompson
“I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for My anger has turned away from them.” Hosea 14:4 (NIV).
“Once upon a time” (except this is a true story!) a God-appointed spokesperson named Hosea was told by the Lord to marry a prostitute named Gomer. What a surprise that had to be! It must have been hard for Hosea to understand, but he did as he was told.
Gomer repeatedly proved unfaithful to Hosea, spending time with many men. Eventually, she was rejected by all of them and ended up on the slave block. Then, wonder of wonders, Hosea buys her—not to be his servant but to be restored in the position of his wife.
Tongues must have wagged over both the initial marriage and the two of them getting back together. Many surely wondered why on earth Hosea would pay money to buy that despicable woman. It was a head-scratcher to their neighbors—and to us.
Salespeople sometimes say, “But wait! There’s more!” Well, I need to say that here because there is more. What makes this story so meaningful is that it goes way beyond two people.
Hosea represents God, and the prostitute Gomer represents wayward Israel—and Gomer also represents you and me. By sinning, we have demonstrated our unfaithfulness to God.
We leave the One who knows us best yet loves us most—and for what? For things that end up either controlling us, or becoming our idols? For things that ultimately do not satisfy? Yet God is always willing to take us back.
Gomer had to be shocked when Hosea brought her back into his home. After everything that had gone down, she may have thought she’d have to work hard to please him, but the Bible indicates Hosea accepted her as she was.
Jennifer Rothschild, in her Bible study guide “Hosea: Unfailing Love Changes Everything”, urges us to throw away our “to-do lists for God” and instead just “be” His beloved. He is the Lover of our souls, she reminds us.
“My chains fell off, my heart was free; I rose, went forth, and followed Thee. Amazing love! How can it be that Thou, my God, shouldst die for me?” These words, penned by Charles Wesley in the 1700s, move me.
In more modern days, Bill Gaither and Larry Gatlin composed a song that reminds us that each of us is a “Greatly blessed and highly favored, imperfect but forgiven child of God.” Let that sink in for a while.
“Take words with you and return to the Lord,” the Bible tells us in Hosea 14:2. Those would be words of confession, which just means agreeing with God about your sin.
If you think you’ve done something God could never forgive, you’re simply wrong.
“Grace is like being able to retrieve files you accidentally deleted, even though the techs say they’re gone forever.” –Fritz Ridenour
A Wisconsin native, Lauri Lemke Thompson appreciates living with her husband in the lovely Ozark mountains in Branson, Missouri. She is active in Christian Women’s Connection (Stonecroft) and the Ozarks Chapter of the American Christian Writers. Her two books, Hitting Pause and Pressing Forward, are collections of her articles and devotions. Her bimonthly column appears in the Branson Globe newspaper.