And God said "Go marry a prostitute"

The book of Hosea is great.  Seriously, though, in verse two God tells Hosea that he is going to use him as an illustration of Israel's unfaithfulness, so he needs to go marry a prostitute...How Hosea must have felt when he received this command from God, I cannot even imagine.  The story continues, as Hosea's wife (Gomer...oh these names lol) has two children with Hosea, but then is unfaithful to him and bears a second son illegitimately.  Kind of like how we eventually turn away from God, even after He rescued us from a life of sin and shame.  Then verse seven reiterates the point that it is through no effort of our own that we will be freed from our enemies/sin.  

Another point that comes up in the first chapters is that we will never find true satisfaction in earthly things, even those that we or our society attribute the most value to.  "She doesn't realize it as I who gave her everything she has - the grain, the new wine, the olive oil; I even gave her silver and gold.  But she gave all my gifts to Baal."  - Hosea 2:8  God gives us so much, every breath that we take, every chance encounter that brightens our days, every incident that tests our faith so that we grow closer to God and our loved ones...and yet, we don't give God the glory for all that He has done for us.  How hurtful that must be for Him.  He lavishes his love and forgiveness and compassion on us, even as we rebel against His wisdom and sacrifice and attempt to make our own way in the world.  I know that it is so painful to pour all your love and effort into something and have it simply turn away, or even just not be all that you expect, and yet we do it to God every day.  

The passage in chapter two has God punishing Israel/Hosea punishing Gomer by taking away all the glorious gifts she has been given and "strip her naked in public" (verse 10), exposing her shame.  However, starting at verse 14, the Lord decides to forgive Israel and free her.  As Hosea says, "I will win her back once again, I will lead her into the desert and speak tenderly to her there." (v 14) and (my personal fav) "I will make you my wife forever, showing you righteousness and justice, unfailing love and compassion." (v 19).  So Hosea takes his wife back, to show that God still loves Israel and will restore His love for her.  The verses in the end of chapter two are such a beautiful song though, and were legitimately the first time I ever really thought of the Bible as God's love poem to us.  I mean, Song of Songs is definitely a love story, but when we went through it in church last spring, I definitely was focusing more on how it governed relationships between man and woman, not seeing that how men and women relate to each other are like how Jesus and the church are.  Also, the idea of submission to another's will, willingly and even joyfully, is still new to me.  I definitely grew up with the mentality that I was going to make it in life, all on my own, and whoever tried to hold me down or tell me what to do was obviously trying to inhibit or limit me in some way.  I've come to realize in a very recent growing pain (a good one) that we are given free will, but that God sets out guidelines so that we don't have to suffer pain...similar to the rule your mom has about not touching the hot stove.  He gives us commandments to abide by because He loves us so much.  

Also, the position I've come to embrace regarding women and men relating is totally different than the one I believed probably two years ago...but I've got nursery duty at church very, very early in the morning, so I'll save that for another day.

Be thankful for the blessings you have.  And if you can't think of any, count each breath that you take in today, and tally them all as individual blessings.  Aren't you such a blessed person???