I Will Love Them Freely

Hosea was called to speak to God's people about the fallen state of their spiritual lives.  Hosea would not only speak to them, but he would live out a living demonstration of the love of God by marrying a prostitute who would be unfaithful to him.  Hosea would go and seek out his wife and love her freely, even after what she had done.  So Hosea obeys God, and he marries a wife of harlotry named Gomer.  They have 3 children, and each of the children names speak to the nation of Israel of their lost condition before God.  Yet God promises He will once again gather His people back to Him, and once again they will be His people, and a place where Mercy is shown.  Israel and Judah broke the first and greatest commandment, which is to love the Lord with all their heart, with all their soul, and with all their strength.  They allowed their hearts to fall in love with many other things.  "...They became an abomination like the thing they loved."  Hosea 9:10.  "They sow the wind, and reap the whirlwind..."  8:7.  The sowing and reaping principle came into effect, and their enemies were overtaking them as a result.  They rejected knowledge, and were destroyed for their lack of knowledge.  "Harlotry, wine, and new wine enslave the heart."  4:11. Their love affair with idols, wine, harlotry, and everything the flesh could desire brought them to a place of brokenness and affliction.  "Their drink is rebellion, they commit harlotry continually, her rulers dearly love dishonor."  4:18.  Their life had fallen to the depths of rebellion, and now the Assyrians were going to take them captive.  But Hosea's book is a great revelation of the love of God, despite our behavior.  God calls for them to come return to the Lord.  He promises to come to them once again like the rain, the former and the latter rain to the earth.  Now they can turn their situation around, "Sow to yourselves righteousness, reap in mercy; Break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord, till He comes and rains righteousness on you." 10:12.  God will not hold back His love from us, no matter what we have done.  "I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely, for My anger has turned away from him."  14:4.  "I drew them with gentle cords, with bands of love..."  11:4.  What a beautiful picture of the love of God.  As Hosea sought out his unfaithful wife, so God seeks after those who have been unfaithful to Him.  "For the ways of the Lord are right; The righteous walk in them, but transgressors stumble in them." 14:9

Am I walking in the free forgiveness of the love of God?