Hosea

Hosea was a prophet... he was called by God to go and marry a prostitute... and he really did it... and she was unfaithful to him... he even went to get her back from off another man... and he had to BUY her back...

before I even start on the spirit side of this... let's look at the human side... have you ever had someone cheat on you and sleep with another person? there are not many things that are as devastating as that... it seems to go much deeper in you than the physical betrayal... it causes you to doubt your self worth... your looks.. your value in general... it also causes you to doubt that this person ever really cared about you to begin with... we can say that it is just a physical act but when you really love someone... it is hard to push that thought from the brain into the heart... and this man is called by God to go back and get her again... does he trust her? could he possibly? does he still love her? can you imagine the amount of love and commitment it would require to actually go through this?

now spiritually... this is what each and every one of us has done to the God that we supposedly love... we keep putting the calling He has placed upon our lives on hold so that we can continue doing what we really want to be doing... this is spiritual adultery... and we expect Him to be faithful... to be there every time we call on Him... we expect Him to love us despite what we do or do not do... but are we loving anyone in that same manner that we want to be loved...

it has been said that this didn't really happen... that it is just an analogy used to help us to understand what God feels about us sometimes... I don't believe that.. I believe that each and every one of us... in our relationships in life are living out an example of what goes on with God and man... but we don't see it that way... if we take the focus off of us and onto God... what would we see? how do we treat God in comparison to how He treats us...

the story never tells us if the woman changes her ways... it doesn't tell us that she ends up loving Hosea... he may have lived his entire life fathering children that were not his in the name of the Lord... he may have lived his life with a woman that never loved him... never wanted him.. to be an example of the love of God to God's people... how many of us love God this seriously?