In order to illustrate God’s troubled relationship with his people, he had his prophet Hosea marry a woman that would give Hosea nothing but trouble. He told her to marry a prostitute named Gomer and though Hosea seems to have loved her, his love was hardly returned. She continued seeing other men, and it would surprise no one if the children she gave birth to were not Hosea’s. Eventually she left him and continued her promiscuous ways. But her life choices resulted in disaster for her and she wound up getting herself sold into slavery.

At that point, God told Hosea to buy her back, to rescue her from the consequences of her bad behavior and bad choices—and to love her.

There is nothing in Hosea’s short book of prophesy to let us know if Hosea and his wife wound up living happily ever after, or if once again, she went back to sleeping around.

Love is rarely rational and it is easy to give our heart to a person who will not take care of it.

But Hosea’s love for his wayward wife, and God’s love for his wayward people, serve as an illustration of what love means to God. For Him, love is not a many splendored thing. Instead, it is merely painful and never fully requited. True love desires and works for the best of the one beloved, regardless of the response: the best most people ever come to it is in our relationship with our children. An infant does nothing but cry, demand immediate attention. It gives back nothing but sleepless nights and dirty diapers. Things don’t change all that much as they grow older–especially when they become teenagers. And yet, despite everything, we continue to love our children and want what’s best for them, no matter how they treat us.

God loves us more than we love our babies, more than the father loved the prodigal son (in Luke 15:11-32).

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