Covenant-Love-and-Faithfulness

And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband’… Hosea 2:16a

Dear Friends in Christ,

Our Old Testament readings last Sunday and this coming Sunday are from the Prophet Hosea. Hosea uses a metaphor of a husband’s love for an unfaithful wife to show the love of God for his unfaithful people. It’s a strange read; we’re not sure if the basis of the metaphor is a story or Hosea’s lived experience; the Hebrew poetry and references are less familiar to us, and the language moves back and forth between anguished judgment and yearning compassion.

The unfaithfulness of the wife is primarily found in her prostitution. Despite the efforts of Hollywood to present prostitution as a wholesome career, it is still a practice that degrades, dehumanizes and objectifies, that takes a gift of intimacy and fertility and sells it for cheap to strangers, like pawning a precious diamond for fifty bucks. It is self-destructive and destructive and part of the predatory and exploitative cycle of human trafficking. For the married, it also carries painful betrayal and contempt. This is the pain and anguish evoked by this metaphor--the kind of anguish God feels for his unfaithful people and the loss of blessing they could have had. In the ancient near east, prostitution was also often linked with worship of pagan fertility gods, so the metaphor does double duty: describing the pain of watching a wife turn away, and the unfaithfulness of idolatry. 

And yet, in this metaphor, the husband calls his unfaithful wife back to him. He seeks to restore her beauty and rekindle their covenant. His children were named "No Mercy" and "Not My People." But the Lord declares "I will have mercy on No Mercy, and I will say to Not My People, ‘You are my people’; and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’” (2:23).

This paints a picture of God's khess-ed, God's covenant-love-and-faithfulness, God's 'steadfast love' that he has for his people. If we have the courage to look at ourselves, we know we have been unfaithful to God, we've been destructive and self-destructive and in comparison to God's gift to us, we've sold ourselves for cheap. But God's love keeps calling us back--back to his loving arms where we can find healing and restoration and reconciliation again. Where we can find the life and vitality God wants for us in covenant with him.

This is the judgement and hope of Hosea, the judgment and hope that points to Jesus, who gave himself for us to reconcile us back to him.

How might you answer God's call to come closer this summer? How might you find restoration in the arms of the one who loves you best, with covenant-love-and-faithfulness?

Yours in Christ,

Tom