He has torn us to pieces
but he will heal us;
he has injured us
but he will bind up our wounds.
After two days he will revive us;
on the third day he will restore us,
that we may live in his presence.
Let us acknowledge the LORD;
let us press on to acknowledge him.
As surely as the sun rises,
he will appear;
he will come to us like the winter rains,
like the spring rains that water the earth."
~Hosea 6:1-3
What an amazing picture of God's grace! Knowing the whole story of Hosea makes this passage even more powerful, because it's an incredible picture of God's unfailing love and grace to His people Israel; the same love and grace He pours on us today.
This is the story of Hosea. He had married a woman named Gomer, and they had two children. Well, Gomer decided that she was done with Hosea. And so she became a prostitute. A prostitute. Can you imagine going through that? Can you imagine just how incredibly sickening it must have been for Hosea to see his own wife choose that lifestyle? I can't. All I can imagine is that that must be one of the very toughest things that could ever happen to anyone.
But the story doesn't end there, and this is where it gets really mind-boggling. Read this:
The Lord said to me [Hosea], "Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods..." So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and 10 bushels of barley.
Wow. Here's Hosea--who for all intensive purposes is a widower because his wife was basically dead to him--making the conscious choice to love her still. And this is no cheap love. It's definitely not romantic, and I suspect it never was from then on. But it was still love, to be sure. He has to buy her back! He doesn't just say, "Oh yeah, I guess I love her, God." No, he has to buy her out of slavery!
The most exciting thing about this is that Jesus did the very same thing. We have prostituted ourselves to anything and everything. We've deliberately forgotten and even forsaken God. Yet He loves us so much that He sent His own willing son to die the death only we deserved. What love is this!
