The BOOK – A Love Story

I was brought up as a Lutheran Christian. From very small age, I was taught to preach short sermons as part of Sunday school competitions. At that age, I never understood the theology what I was speaking. Even everywhere I heard the same theology, which I don’t think a normal unbelieving layman can understand. Most of the Sunday school and Youth competitions, I have got the topic “God’s Love” for preaching, and here are the things which they expect us to tell.

·         All the commandments put together in one word is Love

·         God’s love to mankind is Jesus Christ.

·         First in the fruits of the Holy Spirit is Love and so on…

I have heard and seen children preach like professionals. Same attitude I saw in different denominations and churches. But finally I saw them growing as adult, can preach with same intensity, and not living with the word they preach, which means they don’t understand what they preach. Even other than the Bible students, I don’t think anyone will be able to concentrate hard to understand it. The Bible is given to us to study it and implement it in our lives and to get encouraged with it.

God is Love and if you want to know more about him, and how he loves us, you need to read the book of Hosea. The Hero of this book, Hosea, is one of the greatest lovers in all literature. We find his love so strong that even the worst actions of an unfaithful wife could not kill it. We can see a bit of personal history of the prophet in Hosea 1:1. We hear God speaking his first words to Hosea himself (Hosea 1:2). We know little about Hosea other than that he had a very sad home life. The book pictures this man as gentle, frank and affectionate. He had a deep loving nature that made him attached to his home. Hosea was sent to the ten northern tribes called Israel. He prophesied in the reign of Jeroboam II of Israel. He lived in this Northern Kingdom when the splendours of Jeroboam’s brilliant reign of 41 years were beginning to fade into the black midnight of Israel’s captivity.

As chapter 1 opens, we see a young man marrying a girl unworthy of him. He loved her truly. God told him to do something that would have been very repulsive to him (Hosea 1:2, 3). It was a severe test. Hosea is told to marry a woman worthless in character, in fact, a harlot. God was using this for a sign to his people of how they remained the object of Jehovah’s love in spite of their sinfulness. This all seems very strange to us. But God was making this picture of his redeeming grace. Grace is unmerited favour.

Hosea obeyed God and married Gomer (Hosea 1:3). His name was hers. Home, reputation, God’s favour, comfort, was Gomer’s. All that he had he gave her. In return, Hosea’s name, domestic reputation, love, was all sacrificed on the altar of a shameful and worthless woman. How like our Lord Jesus this is! He not only came to us while we were yet in sin, but he also died the death of shame on Calvary for us that all he had might be ours (Titus 2:14).  Gomer ran away from home and left her young husband, Hosea, with 2 little sons and a daughter to care for. Lured away by the sin about her, she fell into the moral cesspool of the day and finally was carried off a slave. Through it all, Hosea was true to her. Still loving her, he tried everything to win her back to a happy family life. But she would not. What a sad picture of a person’s stubbornness! What a wonderful picture of God’s love!

Just as Hosea was married to an unfaithful bride, Gomer, so God was married to unfaithful Israel (New Testament Israel is the one who believes in Christ). This experience of Hosea helped him to understand God’s heart of love as he yearned over wayward Israel to come home to him. No doubt there were tears in his voice, for there was tragedy in his life. He had thrown himself worthy into his mission.

When you read Hosea 4 to 10 we see Hosea telling the people to return to the Lord as they went away from the Lord (Hosea 6:1). Hosea’s message was “Return to God and he will return to you”. We must understand God’s attitude towards sin. He says. “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows” (Galatians 6:7).

Hosea 14 is one of the best chapters in the Bible for backsliders. Read the wonderful words of the Lord to backsliding Israel in Hosea 14:4. “I will heal their waywardness and love them freely”. God’s great heart is bursting with love, but our sins keep him from telling us all that is there. As with Israel, you may know the joy of barriers broken down and love poured out. “I will be like the dew to Israel: he will blossom like a lilly” Hosea 14:5. The dew speaks of the presence of the Holy Spirit. Just understand how God portrays his abiding joy in his people after they are healed.

This love of God for Israel is given to us through Christ Jesus. Like Hosea in this Book, Christ is perfect and he gave himself for us who are imperfect like Gomer. I pray that you will understand this great love story of God and leave the sinful life and be Holy in Christ and live a faithful life.