"Then said the LORD unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the LORD toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love cakes of raisins. So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an homer of barley, and an half homer of barley." [Hos 3:1-2]
Perhaps the most glorious of God’s traits is His love. John tells us, by The Spirit’s inspiration, that “God is love.” [1 Jn 4:8] Among all of God’s high and lofty character traits, that which rises above them all is love, so that one might say, despite God being a God “full of compassion, and gracious, [and] longsuffering,” [Psa 86:15] that He “is love.” What magnificent heights of love – it is that wonderful fruit of God’s Spirit which Paul says, “constraineth us” to “not henceforth live unto [ourselves], but unto Him which died for [us], and rose again;” [2 Cor 5:14, 15] and of which He prays that God might grant us,
“[To] have full strength to overcome any obstacles in personally comprehending with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; to firsthand know the love of Christ, which is surpassing all experience, that ye might be filled to individual capacity with all the fulness of God.” [Eph 3:18-19]
God’s love is always pleasant to dwell upon, and never something to fear losing. For “perfect love is casting out fear;” [1 Jn 4:18] and, as it is also written regarding the immortal love of God toward us,
“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” [Rom 8:35-39]
The LORD’s love for us is everlasting; He says to us through the prophet, “yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.” [Jer 31:3] Though “all we like sheep have gone astray; [though] we have turned every one to his own way,” [Isa 53:6] yet The LORD loved us still, entering into our suffering to die for our sins. Jesus “first loved us.” [1 Jn 4:19] Even when we were “dead in trespasses and sins” and walking “according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, [satan];” [Eph 2:1, 2] yes, even in that sorry state, The Lord loved us and died for us. For though we were enemies of His kingdom, the scripture declares,
“But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath made us alive together with Christ, (by grace are ye saved).” [Eph 2:4-5]
May God always be praised for His act of love and passion, wherein He lowered Himself to take upon Himself human flesh and die for our sins. The love which He displayed was so strong that “for the joy set before Him, [He] endured the cross.” [Heb 12:2] Jesus’ redemption of our souls was not just out of duty, but out of joy and love; for “God so loved the world, that He gave His One-and-only unique Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” [Jn 3:16] And it was not just God The Father who loved us, but that same love which provoked God to give Christ His Son to us was present in Jesus as well. He was not given but by His own volition, for Jesus “gave Himself a ransom for all, the witness in His own timing;” [1 Tim 2:6] and, “Christ also hath loved us, and hath given Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling fragrance.” [Eph 5:2]
Our verse for today reminds us of this overflowing love, which came to us by the zeal of God (for regarding Jesus’ work it is written, “the zeal of The LORD of Hosts will perform this.” [Isa 9:7]). As The LORD said to Hosea, “go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of The LORD toward the children of Israel,” so too it could rightly be said of God’s love toward us Gentiles. For let us not be high-minded, thinking ourselves above the idolatrous mischiefs of Israel; as Paul admonishes, “let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall;” and again, “for if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.” [1 Cor 10:12, Gal 6:3] But even as Israel was a harlot, effectively being adulterous toward God, so too we were when we were in the world. For it is written regarding “fornicators” and “idolaters” and the like,
“And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of The Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” [1 Cor 6:11]
Even though we, like Israel, were dead in sin, without God and without hope, “fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath,” [Eph 2:3] yet God, as He did with Israel, loved us, redeemed us, and saved us. For in the account of Hosea’s life we see His love, and thus the love of The LORD toward us, when He, “bought [Gomer] to [himself] for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an homer of barley, and an half homer of barley.” [Hos 3:2] Gomer, the woman which The LORD told Hosea to love, was an adulteress. She was unfaithful to her husband and had run off with another man, even with multiple lovers. And to boot, she had sold herself into slavery; for we see that Hosea had to buy her back; that is, redeem her. Gomer had in lust for her sexual appetite and in treachery to her marital covenant, played the harlot, selling herself perhaps even for sexual use. And so, there she stood, most likely naked and ashamed in the market, having sold herself into slavery. If we could place ourselves into the situation, even into her heart and mind, surely we would hear her soft, sorrowful reflections to herself, regretting her decisions. Gomer probably would not have ever thought Hosea would take her back, let alone redeem her. But because Hosea was commanded of God, “go yet, love a woman…an adulteress, according to the love of The LORD,” he sought her out and loved her still. In mercy and in grace, as The LORD did for us, though we were equally shameful and adulterous and evil, Hosea redeemed Gomer for all that he had. For he did not just purchase her with silver; but, presumably spending all the coinage he had, resorted to barley – anything to retrieve his beloved bride. And in similar fashion, our Lord and true Groom, Christ Jesus God’s Son, “emptied Himself” and “became poor, that [we] through His poverty might be rich.” [Phil 2:7, 2 Cor 8:9]
Jesus’ love is beyond comprehension and comparison. When we were at our worst, unable to save ourselves, slaves to the world and to the flesh and to satan, it was then that The Lord Jesus, our Rescuer, our Redeemer, bought us and secured us forever. What love is this! What lofty heights Christ’s love does reach, and what plunging depths His arm did stretch that we might be plucked up from out of the pit wherein is no water; and what expanses His eyes did see across, when He saw us afar and lost, and ran to our aid in His meek and wonderful love. Praise be to Christ our King! His love is indescribable. As The Holy Spirit speaks in Romans,
“And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given unto us. For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God is demonstrating his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” [Rom 5:5-8]
May we ever be encouraged and prodded on to more passionate devotion because of Jesus’ love. Truly, His love and mercy toward us is great and overflowing. If Hosea, a mere man, could enact such gracious love toward his adulterous wife, the reality of God’s redemptive love must far exceed this. And this statement is not just supposition but truth, for The Holy Spirit tells us as much through Paul, who writes, “for now we see through a mirror, in an enigma; but then face to face…” [1 Cor 13:12] And again, “but we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of The Lord, are being changed into the same image…” [2 Cor 3:18] If we have seen and tasted of The Lord’s good love, then let us rejoice and take comfort that the realities of such a love are far, far beyond what we have presently experienced. There are yet oceans and vast expanses to explore and learn of, even as Paul speaks concerning God’s ever-growing and never-ending grace, writing, “…in the ages to come, [that is, for all eternity], He [will] shew the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.” [Eph 2:7]
There is no language available for us to properly describe and speak of God’s love. If we have thought God’s love to be above the heavens, it is yet a thousand more heavens in height; if we have thought it an ocean trench, we may estimate the reality to be so vast in comparison that the deepest ocean would be but the depth of a bathtub. Indeed, if God’s love is so great toward us that He would purchase us with His own blood, humbling Himself and emptying Himself to such a degree, then let us not fear. For we are of great value to our Redeemer and King.
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