Faithful love

The first time the preacher saw her dark eyes he felt the magnetic attraction. He quickly fell in love. It wasn't just her hair though it was gorgeous! It was more than the beauty of her face, or the curves of her body. She knew exactly how to make him feel like he was the most wonderful man in the world, for she was practiced in the ways of seduction; which was exactly what concerned his friends. They warned him about her 'reputation,' but he was too far gone to hear any caution and he married her. In quick succession, two sons and a daughter were borne into their family.

And then - the preacher felt her slipping away. She disappeared for entire days and came home with smudges of make-up clinging to her face, evidence of her adultery that broke his heart. She complained outright to the preacher about what he provided for her, brazenly telling of other lovers who showered her with gifts. Then, she was gone. He mourned, his anger was powerful, but his love even stronger! Months past, and word came that his wife was being sold, a slave! When her beauty was ravaged by her promiscuity, when she no longer attracted the lovers who kept her, she fell into debt and was to be sold to settle those debts, so he went and bought back his own wife! With tenderness and forgiveness he brought her home, renewed their covenant. His love won over her unfaithfulness!

Recognize that story? It's true and it's from the Bible. Read it in the little book of Hosea. He is the prophet who loved a woman who prostituted herself, abandoned him and her children, who was nearly destroyed by her unbridled lust and selfishness. But Hosea loved Gomer and restored her though she was unworthy and even unrepentant, at first.

Why is such a sordid story in the Bible? To tell us about God's love for His people! Listen to Him mourn their unfaithfulness. “Oh, how can I give you up, Israel? How can I let you go? How can I destroy you...? My heart is torn within me, and my compassion overflows. No, I will not punish you as much as my burning anger tells me to. I will not completely destroy Israel, for I am God and not a mere mortal. I am the Holy One living among you, and I will not come to destroy. “For someday the people will follow the Lord. I will roar like a lion, and my people will return trembling from the west. Like a flock of birds, they will come from Egypt. Flying like doves, they will return from Assyria. And I will bring them home again,” says the Lord." (Hosea 11:8-12, NLT)

We need the stories! The theology that informs our mind must be wed with the stories that take hold of our hearts! When I combine John's declaration that "God so loved the world," with Hosea's story, I start to understand that God's love is more than a concept, more than a philosophy. He is my God, my lover, Who desires to know me. And, too, I begin to understand that my disobedience and my desire for the gods of wealth, success, fame, or sensuality rips at a covenant of love, causing God to mourn like a husband abandoned by his beloved wife.

Those who only see the raging God, who think that God is but a cruel Master, need to read this passage. Listen to the heart of our Lover. “And now, here’s what I’m going to do: I’m going to start all over again. I’m taking her back out into the wilderness where we had our first date, and I’ll court her. I’ll give her bouquets of roses. I’ll turn Heartbreak Valley into Acres of Hope. She’ll respond like she did as a young girl, those days when she was fresh out of Egypt. “At that time”—this is God’s Message still— “you’ll address me, ‘Dear husband!’ Never again will you address me, ‘My slave-master!’" (Hosea 2:14-16, The Message)

Do you love Him, Believer?
Or do you linger in your fantasies of other loves, pulling away from Him?
Do you spend time with Him, pursue Him, wait for His purposes in your life?
He loves you! Even if you're far away, even if you've given yourself to other loves, He will restore you.
That's the meaning of redemption through Christ Jesus. We were sold into slavery by our disobedience, but He paid the price to bring us home.

Believe it today! It is a life-transforming story.
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The love of God is greater far,
Than tongue or pen can ever tell,
It goes beyond the highest star
And reaches to the lowest hell;
The guilty pair, bowed down with care,
God gave His Son to win;
His erring child He reconciled
And pardoned from his sin.

Could we with ink the ocean fill
And were the skies of parchment made,
Were ev'ry stalk on earth a quill
And ev'ry man a scribe by trade.
To write the love of God above
Would drain the ocean dry;
Nor could the scroll contain the whole
Tho stretched from sky to sky.


ChorusO love of God, how rich and pure!
How measureless and strong!
It shall forevermore endure,
The saints' and angels' song.

The Love Of God- Lehman, Frederick M.
Copyright: Public Domain