"Christ is the faithful one. We are the ones who slip into flirtation and then into adultery with the world. We are loved by Christ Jesus, but we are drawn aside by our own desires and seduced from our love of Christ. Such a seduction is the worst of all transgressions since it is the sin against the love of Christ. He is faithful to the end, loving us when we were unlovely, and taking us through all steps of our wandering to the place of redemption and final attachment to Himself forever.
"Hosea did not act in this way because he was reflecting the love of God, and God never acts thus with those whom He has redeemed by His blood. Hosea took Gomer and led her toward their home, and as they went he said to her, 'Thou shalt abide for me many days; thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be for another man: so will I also be for thee.'
"Does God love us like that? Listen to the story as it is recorded in the third chapter of Hosea: 'Then said the LORD unto me, Go yet, love this woman, beloved of her friend, this adulteress, according to the love of the LORD toward the children of Israel.' Love her? 'Even as the LORD loves the people of Israel.' But Lord, she is a harlot, sold on the auction block as an adulterous slave! 'Go love her,' says God, 'love her, even as the Lord loves you.'
"Hosea and Gomer had three children, and God dictated the name for each, in order to illustrate the tragedy which their willfulness would bring. Of the first child God said, 'Call his name Jezreel,’ (scattered); and God has scattered the Jews all over the world. Gomer next bore a daughter, and God said, 'Call her name Lo-ruhamah,' (not pitied), 'for I will no more have pity on the house of Israel, to forgive them at all.' Hosea was instructed to name the third child, a son, 'Lo-ammi,’ (not my people); 'For you are not my people and I am not your God' (Hosea 1:4, 6, 9).
t several points in our earlier studies of the nature of Christian marriage, I pointed out that according to the Bible God has established marriage, not primarily to promote happiness among mankind or even for reproduction. He has established it primarily as an illustration of the relationship between the Lord Jesus Christ and His bride, the Church. Marriage is to show that when God joins a man or a woman to Jesus Christ in salvation He does so in love and in a bond that will endure forever.
