I Will Allure Her

             Ancient Israel was like an unfaithful spouse. During the days of the prophet Hosea, God’s people had abandoned him for the worship of foreign gods. The Canaanite fertility god, Baal, was especially popular. Despite the fact that King Jehu had wiped out the temple of Baal in Samaria and slaughtered every priest and worshipper of Baal he could find (2 Kings 10), Baal was thriving roughly one hundred years later. Hosea even spoke of the people confusing God with Baal – “no longer will you call me ‘My Baal’” (Hosea 2.16)!

In order to help his unrepentant people understand the personal devastation he felt by their idols, God instructed his prophet to intentionally marry a “wife of whoredom” and start a family. Hosea married Gomer, had three children with her, but their life quickly unravelled when she became adulterous. However, instead of discarding his wife to find a more faithful one, Hosea’s story takes an unexpected turn. God tells him to go search for Gomer, pay off the debts she’s accumulated, and accept his wife once again. This too was designed to picture God’s relationship with his people.

Through their idolatry, Israel shattered the covenant God made with the nation at Mt. Sinai when the law was given through Moses. But after a period of punishment, God’s ultimate intentions were restoration. He promised to vigorously pursue her like a young man woos the lady of his affections. “I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her. And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband.’ And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord.” (Hosea 2.14, 16, 20). The power of this message is just as potent today as it was then because you and I are Gomer. Unbelievably, despite all of our sins, God wants to call us “my people,” as Jesus’ apostle Paul explained in Romans 9. He vigorously pursued us by sending his own Son into our world to buy us back from spiritual debts we could never begin to repay. And he expects us to pursue others the same way.

Seeing the heart of God through Hosea can alter the shape of our hearts. When we feel wronged, our natural response is to retreat instead of pursue our offender in love. After we are hurt in a conversation, we’re tempted to refrain from future conversations with that person or even sever the friendship altogether. We live in a culture where covenant relationships are ended easily and frequently. And restoration work can certainly involve prolonged labor and complications, as the story of God and Israel demonstrates. But the scope of Scripture shows us the peace and glory found in the temporarily harder path. May he give us the strength to take it.    ~Nathan Combs