The Extent of God's Mercy Goes Much Further Than Our Sin

Week one in the book of Hosea.

Some thoughts to share from last night...

The name Hosea is derived from the name Joshua, which in turn is the name Yahshua or Yeshua. Of course we know this name to be Jesus.

Is it a coincidence that Hosea and Jesus mean "to save" or "salvation?" Not at all. The story that is recorded by Hosea in his book is a story of salvation. It's Jehovah God's passionate love for His Bride, to call Her back from sin into righteousness. This we know to be true in our own life, for it is/was ultimately done through our Hosea, Jesus.

Some descriptions that depict Israel's unfaithfulness are pretty vivid. They include: a promiscuous wife, an indifferent mother, an illegitimate child, an ungrateful son, a stubborn heifer, a silly dove, and the list goes on. Hosea did not hold back in illustrating both God's righteous and holy wrath against Israel, nor His faithful love and mercy.

Our primary text that we studied was Hosea 1:1-3. Verse one was a review of all the history that was going on around Hosea's time. Verses 2-3 was when we hit the "meat" of the Word. It reads

2 When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, "Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.” 3 So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.

Now the temptation is to read this and say that it's a story "stuck" in that time. That it is not really relevant to us, because, well, we didn't/haven't gone out and married a whore.

But that is where the beauty is. We didn't go out and marry a whore, but Christ did. And Christ did so much more. In Revelation 19, we read that in the wedding of the Lamb (that's Jesus), the Bride (that's us) will be dressed in white. Not a spot or blemish on her. She has been washed clean. Pure. Christ is the one who dresses her. Christ is the one who dresses us. Christ takes His Bride, a former prostitute, and makes her beautiful. My friend, Christ has made you beautiful.

Praise God for his unfathomable love!

Love you.