The Bible continues to astound me as I engage my heart more with the living words on its pages. In the book of Hosea, God displays His intimate pursuit of the hearts of mankind through his unyielding love of adulterous Israel. At the same time, Hosea’s life illustrates the love of Christ for His bride when he buys back Gomer, his wife, just as Christ bought back the souls of His creation from sin’s grasp.

Imagine being in the place of Hosea: a righteous person commanded by God to marry a promiscuous woman. His mind must have been racing with anxieties of his new bride and what others would think of his marriage. As the years passed, he spent time with her and took care of her. God grew a wildflower of love for Gomer within his heart. Yet, despite his passionate love she turned away from him to find love with other men. He must have been heartbroken by her actions. Beyond his hurt, imagine Hosea’s justifiable anger at Gomer’s abandonment of his love. He should have lashed out in frustration at her rebellion of his leadership. In the culture of Hosea’s time, he could have had her killed for an act of adultery. Yet instead of wrath, God fills Hosea with the same sort of compassion He shows His own children. Hosea buys back his defiled bride to offer not a fist, but a gentle embrace.

Before studying Hosea, I never made the full connection of the sin in my heart to a personal adultery against God. My resolve to subvert to idols in my life is deserting my first love. I realize now how I fit into the narrative of Hosea.

I was created to be the perfect bride of Christ; I was purchased from death to take my place once more in communion with the Holy God. He wove together a gown for me from His Holy grace, while lovingly reveling in my worship. At the temptation of a new love, I fled far from my groom, my beloved. When my empty, restless heart once again longed for the caress of my first found treasure, I realized the once white, lacy bridal gown was now spattered with filth and grime. I destroyed the dress once crafted for me by the King of the stars. I am defiled, unworthy of His gaze; I deserve His wrath, not His embrace. I am shattered, not mendable. Yet as I come to Him with a repentant heart and a bruised soul, His love remains. So consistently does His love remain He buys back my unworthy soul from the bonds of enslaving sin. My bridal dress is made new again, though I have done nothing to deserve another chance of this divine dance with my beloved. We are one again. Yet as time passes, again my heart becomes wayward; I run. Why do I hasten away? I do not know. When I consider the one who gave Himself to rescue this offensive sinner before I ever loved Him in return, I do not understand how I could ever look to another’s arms for love. But here I am again, in the arms of someone whose passion is full of empty words and unending scars. And again, when I return with an oppressed heart, He wraps me up in His arms to remind me my sin is scattered as far as the east is from the west. Who am I to deserve this affection? I am Gomer. I am the one who strays.

So often, my pride blinds me; I act as the righteous Hosea gazing upon “the Gomers” in my life. God has revealed to me that I am not Hosea so often as I am Gomer, the wretched whore who does not deserve the forgiveness offered to her. For the first time, with clarity, I am aware of the wayward tendency of my own heart. What remains even more captivating is the permanence of God's perfection as the gracious husband, portrayed by Hosea. Every day I detect the battle of choosing the Lord as my shepherd or rejecting His leadership to go my own way. He has shown me my inclination to place my own judgment before His own; I fight to mandate my own life and seek for His advice rather than His direction.

What wondrous love is this, that the designer of the stars should love and forgive this unworthy heart? Praise Him, for He has done great things for us!

“Let whoever is wise understand these things, and whoever is insightful recognize them. For the ways of the Lord are right, and the righteous walk in them, but the rebellious stumble in them.”

Hosea 14:9