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The Most Glorious Romance


Therefore I am now going to allure her;
I will lead her into the desert
and speak tenderly to her.
Hosea 2:14


He loves her; she loves him not. He loves her; she loves him not. She loves him, he loves her; she loves him not. It's an unending cycle of unfaithfulness, plaintive pleas for forgiveness, proclaimed love, and then unfaithfulness again.




In our day and age, we would tell the guy to give up on this kind of adulteress. She causes him pain with her every move. She disrespects his undying love for her and belittles his patience and adoration.


Unrequited love. It makes for a tragic love story, powerfully moving, but painfully disappointing. You know what it was like in High school when you had a crush on a guy and he didn't even know you existed? That pales in comparison.

I'm thankful I can say that I've never felt the sting of adultery. But, I know quite a few who have. It's ugly. The agony of being cast aside for a newer model is excruciating.


That's how God feels.


He pours out His love upon us day after day and day after day we don't even acknowledge that He exists. We bow down to our idols of selfishness, worldliness, and materialism and leave God out of the equation.


I'm not just talking about non-believers either. We who call ourselves Christians - we leave God out of our everyday lives too. We say our prayers in the morning and leave God there, in between the dusty pages of an old Book. We don't think about Him again until dinner prayers.


In Hosea's time, God wanted to get His beloved's attention. He saw that pouring out love and blessings upon His people wasn't causing them to respond with love towards Him. So, He acted drastically. He said He would strip them (literally) of all their blessings and leave them bare before the world. Though it pained Him to do this, He did it out of pure love.


God used Hosea's life as a living parable. Poor Hosea. He had to marry a harlot and keep bringing her back home and rescuing her from affair after affair. I can't even comprehend the depth of that love. Why didn't he give up on her after the first strike upon his heart? Or the second? The third? No. He continued to pursue her despite her repeated rejection of his love.


This is the most beautiful love story of all time. We long for someone to love us despite our failures; for someone to see past our weaknesses into our heart. God's love for us far surpasses the love from Cinderella or "The Notebook."


This God whose name is Love, will never give up on us. He will do whatever it takes to get our love. He will woo us, and call us and pursue us until we give into His love.


Go visit Heather at Titus 2 woman for more thoughts on this verse.

Comments

Karen said…
I like what you said about how God pours out His love to us and we don't even acknowledge that He exists. We shut Him out of our lives and wonder why He isn't blessing us. Sad situation that could be corrected if we would just let Him into our lives and listen to what He has to say.
lori said…
Heather....
I LOVE THIS! If you could see me sitting here shaking my head, you'd laugh! WE are like that adulteress...we turn from Him and HE continues to pursue us...Oh, I really like that...
I'm printing this one....it's great for my girls bible study....what a PERFECT analogy...

Wonderful thoughts...
thanks AGAIN for the blessing I seem to always leave with!
hugs,
lori
Autumn E. Keel said…
AMEN! We definitely ARE that adultress! And praise God He doesn't give up on us, as long as we are willing!

Thank you for sharing!

In Christ,
Audie
Autumn said…
A very lovely post :)
Thank you for visiting my blog today, it's nice to "meet" you,
AutumnRose xx
Denise said…
This was so awesome.
Melanie said…
Wow, Heather. What a humbling thought.. that God feels as someone who has been cast away by an adulteress when we put other things higher on our list. I totally agree with you, but never thought of it quite this way before. Thanks for your insight.
Shari said…
I've had the hardest time with this TIOW. I've listened to a commentary by J. Vernon McGee and even a 50 min. sermon about Hosea chapter 2. Your post has really helped me to understand this better. You said - "God used Hosea's life as a living parable." I couldn't understand why the first part of Hosea was about Gomer and the second part was about Israel. It's all starting to make sense to me.
Sita said…
Heather, I am smiling in tears right now. I have just been relearning about agape and did a post on it, and then I looked at Lysa's post about love, and said "wow"-same theme here--and then I came here--and double-wow-more on love. Thank you!
Vicki said…
This is so beautiful, Heather. I remember the first time it 'clicked' for me about Hosea. I mean, who in their right mind would keep on loving an adulteress, right? But then I saw that Gomer is every one of us.

Christ's love for me has become more meaningful than ever before. All of us, like sheep, have gone astray. Thank you for portraying His awesome, yet never-ending love.
Raine said…
i thank the Lord very much for His undying, unconditional, perfect love for me:) and i thank the Lord for you, for this beautiful reminder of that glorious truth. truly who can fathom the depths of His love! God bless you always! :)
Miriam Pauline said…
I love the book of Hosea because it is such a vivid parable. Your post conveys the love of the story so well. Bless you!
Heather - thanks for sharing your insight on this verse. It is such a blessing when I get a chance to read the posts on Tuesdays (except this is now Wednesday . . . . is that like 38? oops! I mean 37!!!) and God always uses the words of other women of faith to inspire me in my everyday discoveries. Thanks for this great post! Nina
PS thanks for stopping by my blog for a visit!

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