I’m too young to have every been the victim of infidelity, but I know others that have been. I’ve heard enough stories to know how devastating it is for a committed partner of love to abandon and humiliate the person they’re supposed to be loving. I grieve with those that know that evil thing firsthand. I can imagine how difficult it can be to even consider the idea of forgiveness.
But Hosea the prophet knew infidelity, and he somehow managed to forgive. God had instructed him to marry a woman named Gomer, fully knowing that she would be unfaithful and forsake him. But he bought her back anyway, an astonishing act of loving grace in order to accomplish astonishing redemption. God used this as a demonstration of his own grace for his people the Israelites. They were likewise drastically unfaithful against their loving God and deserved full judgment, and yet God was astonishingly gracious to buy them back, love them just the same, and redeem them in beautiful ways. From the example of Hosea, we see just how amazing God’s amazing grace really is.
Better yet, even as he redeemed his own wife, Hosea describes exactly how God would redeem his people. They would have renewed hearts of faithful love for their God, not just as dutiful servants but as a faithful wife whose husband dignifies her. They would walk in righteousness and justice and obedience, and they would enjoy the Lord’s perfect peace—a mutual overflowing of love, just like in any good marriage. They would thrive in restored relationship, and all creation would rejoice. Let no man say the Old Testament God has only wrath on his mind!
We say often that we can only grasp the fullness of grace when we grasp the fullness of sin. We all like sheep—or better yet, like unfaithful spouses—have gone astray. And yet God has called us home and called us his beloved bride even still. We are now the people of Hosea’s fulfilled prophecy. We are the Lord’s betrothed. And we are waiting in the in-between of God’s successful reconciliation through Jesus and his final abolishment of all unrighteousness. We, like Gomer, are recipients of truly amazing grace. Praise the Lord.
