Yesterday, I wrote about "unfailing love," which stretches our modern view of it. Today, I intend to blow our view out of the water with the unbelievable kind of love Hosea was called on to show his wife, now get this name, Gomer (that name would be my first hurdle to get over).
"Gomer," by the way, means "completion." It signified that she was completely used up as a prostitute and then sold into slavery, which was parallel to the Children of Israel at the time whose adulterous behavior had brought them face to face with slavery.
As God stilled loved Israel and intended to buy them back from slavery, he told Hosea to buy his wife back from slavery, set aside the fact that she had left him for the life of prostitution and live with her again as husband and wife (see Hosea 3:1ff).
So, your wife leaves you in order to become a prostitute. Then, after she is so used up that she can no longer sell her services and must become a scrub maid, you go to her, pay off her debts and take her home. By the way, she hasn't asked for your help or told you she was sorry or even wrong when you made this choice. Really?
Yes, really! This is the kind of love God has for us and the kind of love to which he calls us: "...love your enemies....Be perfect as your Heavenly Father is perfect" (Matt 5:44-46). Loving those who have turned on us, hurt us and may not even love us is very challenging, to say the least. But it is the love to which we are called.
Can we love like that? Yes. Will we love like that? Maybe. Should we try to love like that? Absolutely! This kind of love is the kind that defeats Satan and wins the world. It isn't easy love, it is warrior love. It is the love that breaks down the prison bars of hell and sets captives free. Jus' Sayn.
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