Love as I have loved

Hosea Chapter 3 is short. Only five verses. And yet the story it contains is immense. There are no details, no descriptions, no elaboration. The truths here are stark and hard to understand on every level.

Verse 1

The Lord said to me, “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.”

Go and get your wife back. Even though she left. Even though she was unfaithful to you. Go and find her. Bring her back home. Not just that, but show your love to her. Love her as I have loved the Israelites, taking them back time and time and time again.  Restoring relationship over and over again. Forgiving their infidelity countless times.

Verse 2

So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley.

It cost Hosea to bring her back. He had to pay money to set her free from what she had got herself into. We cannot begin to imagine what it cost his reputation and cost him on an emotional level…

Verse 3

Then I told her, “You are to live with me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will behave the same way toward you.”

Hosea makes it clear what she now has to do for this relationship to work. Faithfulness matters. He is not demanding anything of her that he is not asking of himself. He will be faithful and so will expect her to stay faithful too.

Verse 4

For the Israelites will live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred stones, without ephod or household gods.

This is the same for the Israelites in their relationship with God. They have to prove to Him that they can stay faithful. They have to show that they can do without all the religious supports that they have come to rely on. And trust in God alone.

Verse 5

Afterward the Israelites will return and seek the Lord their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the Lord and to his blessings in the last days.

Then all will be good. Then the relationship will be fully restored. They will know their place before their God and come before Him with awe and respect. And they will recognise all the good things He has given them. They will count their blessings.

No one is ever beyond God’s reach.

God loves us all.

God never stops reaching out.

God loves us all.

No one is ever beyond help. Beyond rescue. Beyond redemption.

God loves us all.

God never gives up on anyone.

God loves us all.

God never washes his hands of anyone.

God loves us all.

Which is great news! Massive!

The challenge is that God calls us to do the same. To be the same.

To love as He loves.

Jesus says the same thing.

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”  John 13:34-35

In a sense this isn’t new. It isn’t new at all. God’s been saying this throughout the whole of history. God is love. If you want to know what love is, look at God. If you want to know how to love, look at God.

How willing are we to let someone back into our lives when they have hurt us? To give someone a second chance? (Now this is really complicated, I know, and I’m not saying that we should allow ourselves to be abused physically, emotionally or mentally over and over again. There have to be boundaries. We have to protect ourselves.) How many times are we prepared to forgive? How often do we care too much what other people think to do what we know in our hearts to do what God wants us to do? How often are we ruled by our resentment or desire for revenge rather than by love?

Love always finds a way to forgive.

Love always seeks reconciliation.

And God says ‘Love as I have loved.’