The story of the Hosea is the beautiful redemption story for each one of us as well as for God’s people whom He loved so dearly.  Before redemption, they were lost.  They left their first love and did everything not of God (the husband) in a wild and wooly search for popularity and significance.  They gave away precious pieces of their hearts, minds, bodies, and souls to gain from the world what was missing—real love.  But the world could not satisfy because it did not have what it takes. The world could not fill the space meant for God without God.  The world would not because it was too busy grabbing all, using all and exploiting all for their own selfish desires.  Their insatiable appetites for self-fulfillment through unholy behaviors could not be filled.  Life without God left them in the ashes as ugly nobodies.

God told His prophets (not just Hosea) the way back to Him with a plan to renew and restore his relationship with His “bride”—God’s Chosen. The plan began by getting rid of all that stood between God and His people—namely the sin of worshiping other gods and selling their souls for perversion, all that is not God.  But God’s love for His people never changed.  He knew, as the parable indicates clearly, that His bride had worn herself out looking for love in all the wrong places.  So, God stepped in.  “Party time is over. I’m calling a halt to the whole business, her wild weekends and unholy holidays.”

I’ll take her back to where our love began, says God and remind her of the love I have for her.  I’ll show her the way back to Me. “I’ll turn Heartbreak Valley into Acres of Hope.  She’ll respond like she did as a young girl, those days when she was fresh out of Egypt”.  Our relationship will be restored. 

I’ll say to Nobody, ‘You’re my dear Somebody,’ and he’ll say ‘You’re my God!’”

God makes a way where there seems to be no way back to Him.  Our part is to look up, let go of our greedy grasp on what is destroying our relationship with Him.  When we do, we will see and watch with wonder, God doing what He does best–the improbable and impossible!  God picks up nobodies from the ashes, restores, renews and reclaims us and calls us somebodies who are His beloved and brings us into His Kingdom! 

This is how God redeems us and brings us into an intimate, loving, growing relationship with Him.  God sent Jesus, a part of Himself, to earth to seek and to save the lost who had never known or heard of Him and for those who had forgotten Him and turned to a life of merely surviving each day.  Jesus took special interest in people the world deemed “nobodies” and made them who God created them to be—His beloved “somebodies.”  To all who say yes to Jesus. all are redeemed.  We do not deserve it or earn it.  We believe, accept, repent with no turning back to receive this gift.  We are redeemed forever.  There is no expiration date.  This is made possible because of God’s mercy and grace provided by His relentless love for each one of us.

God did that for me.  He will do it for you. 

This is what God is saying through Hosea,

     “I want you back and I’ll make a way for you to come home.”

Hosea 2, The Message

“Rename your brothers ‘God’s Somebody.’
    Rename your sisters ‘All Mercy.’

Wild Weekends and Unholy Holidays

^2-13 “Haul your mother into court. Accuse her!
    She’s no longer my wife.
    I’m no longer her husband.
Tell her to quit dressing like a whore,
    displaying her breasts for sale.
If she refuses, I’ll rip off her clothes
    and expose her, naked as a newborn.
I’ll turn her skin into dried-out leather,
    her body into a badlands landscape,
    a rack of bones in the desert.
I’ll have nothing to do with her children,
    born one and all in a whorehouse.
Face it: Your mother’s been a whore,
    bringing bastard children into the world.
She said, ‘I’m off to see my lovers!
    They’ll wine and dine me,
Dress and caress me,
    perfume and adorn me!’
But I’ll fix her: I’ll dump her in a field of thistles,
    then lose her in a dead-end alley.

She’ll go on the hunt for her lovers
    but not bring down a single one.
She’ll look high and low
    but won’t find a one. Then she’ll say,
‘I’m going back to my husband, the one I started out with.
    That was a better life by far than this one.’
She didn’t know that it was I all along
    who wined and dined and adorned her,
That I was the one who dressed her up
    in the big-city fashions and jewelry
    that she wasted on wild Baal-orgies.
I’m about to bring her up short: No more wining and dining!
    Silk lingerie and gowns are a thing of the past.
I’ll expose her genitals to the public.
    All her fly-by-night lovers will be helpless to help her.

Party time is over. I’m calling a halt to the whole business,
    her wild weekends and unholy holidays.
I’ll wreck her sumptuous gardens and ornamental fountains,
    of which she bragged, ‘Whoring paid for all this!’
They will soon be dumping grounds for garbage,
    feeding grounds for stray dogs and cats.
I’ll make her pay for her indulgence in promiscuous religion—
    all that sensuous Baal worship
And all the promiscuous sex that went with it,
    stalking her lovers, dressed to kill,
And not a thought for me.”
    God’s Message!

To Start All Over Again

^14-15 “And now, here’s what I’m going to do:
    I’m going to start all over again.
I’m taking her back out into the wilderness
    where we had our first date, and I’ll court her.
I’ll give her bouquets of roses.
    I’ll turn Heartbreak Valley into Acres of Hope.
She’ll respond like she did as a young girl,
    those days when she was fresh out of Egypt.

* * *

^16-20 “At that time”—this is God’s Message still—
    “you’ll address me, ‘Dear husband!’
Never again will you address me,
    ‘My slave-master!’
I’ll wash your mouth out with soap,
    get rid of all the dirty false-god names,
    not so much as a whisper of those names again.
At the same time I’ll make a peace treaty between you
    and wild animals and birds and reptiles,
And get rid of all weapons of war.
    Think of it! Safe from beasts and bullies!
And then I’ll marry you for good—forever!
    I’ll marry you true and proper, in love and tenderness.
Yes, I’ll marry you and neither leave you nor let you go.
    You’ll know me, God, for who I really am.

* * *

^21-23 “On the very same day, I’ll answer”—this is God’s Message—
    “I’ll answer the sky, sky will answer earth,
Earth will answer grain and wine and olive oil,
    and they’ll all answer Jezreel.
I’ll plant her in the good earth.
    I’ll have mercy on No-Mercy.
I’ll say to Nobody, ‘You’re my dear Somebody,’
    and he’ll say ‘You’re my God!’”

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

God wants us to love him back and to come home to all that He wants to provide for us.

Our response?  Come home. 

Lord,

What a beautiful story explaining your redemption of our lives!  How beautiful you are to love us this much.  You are indeed my God.  I trust in you alone.  Thank you, dear Jesus, for saving my soul.  Thank you, Holy Spirit for making me whole by teaching me, correcting me, comforting, and encouraging me.  To you be the glory for salvation through your relentless love for us.

In Jesus Name, Amen