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Hosea: A Divine Betrothal

Published August 19, 2013 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
Tags: Hosea, Millennium, restoration of Israel

HOSEA 2

God’s love for Israel is hard to understand. Almost from the very beginning she had rebelled against Him, complained, and been guilty of spiritual adultery. Israel’s sin ran so deep; it was as though rebellion was in her DNA.

For their mother has committed adultery. She did a shameful thing when she said, ‘I’ll run after other men and sell myself to them for food and drinks and clothes.’ (Hosea 2:5 TLB)

But God’s love for Israel did not depend on her loveliness. In fact, God’s love for sinful man has nothing to do with sinful man.

In this act we see what real love is: it is not our love for God but his love for us when he sent his Son to satisfy God’s anger against our sins. (1 John 4:10 TLB)

Yes, God’s love is very difficult to understand. It’s agape love; a special love that is unconditional. God loves us as much as He can—He will never love us less, and He cannot love us more.

The allegory in Hosea illustrates this concept of God’s amazing love better than any sermon ever could.

I will bind you to me forever with chains of righteousness and justice and love and mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness and love, and you will really know me then as you never have before.

“In that day,” says the Lord, “I will answer the pleading of the sky for clouds, to pour down water on the earth in answer to its cry for rain. Then the earth can answer the parched cry of the grain, the grapes, and the olive trees for moisture and for dew—and the whole grand chorus shall sing together that ‘God sows!’ He has given all!

“At that time I will sow a crop of Israelites and raise them for myself! I will pity those who are ‘not pitied, and I will say to those who are ‘not my people,’ ‘Now you are my people’; and they will reply, ‘You are our God!’ ” (Hosea 2:19—23 TLB)

1. The manner of God’s betrothal

What exactly is a betrothal? Literally is means “to woo a virgin.” Or, we may say betrothal is the act of courtship. This is what God said He would do to Israel: He would court her. He would, in time, win Israel for Himself. This is God’s solemn promise to Israel that in the future she would be betrothed to Him forever. In that day, Israel will never again be estranged from God, as in Old Testament times.

How will God do this? This chapter of Hosea describes God’s technique for “wooing” Israel.

In righteousness

God would bind Himself to Israel in complete righteousness. His betrothal to Israel will be based on His perfect character and Israel’s real need. What is the thing that Israel needs most? She needs to be righteous. So what God is saying to Israel is that “in that day,” He would impute, or cover, her with His righteousness.

In justice

The betrothed, Israel, has been shown to be completely unworthy to be the Lord’s bride. She had been shown to be guilty of heinous and awful sins, completely covered in a sin-debt she could never hope to repay. How can she be made clean enough to be wed to God? God will deal with Israel is complete justice. Sin must be judged. Sinners must be paid their wages:

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23 NIV)

But, through the work of Jesus Christ on the Cross, God is able to deal with Israel (and, in fact, all sinners) in a perfectly just way:

He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. (1 John 2:2 NIV)

He is the one who took God’s wrath against our sins upon himself and brought us into fellowship with God; and he is the forgiveness for our sins, and not only ours but all the world’s. (1 John 2:2 TLB)

Sin and guilt must be judged and they have been judged in Jesus Christ. God’s eternal Son, in seeking to bind lost humanity to God the Father, took on its nature, bore its sin, and shed His Blood to cleanse us; to make it fit to be the betrothed.

In lovingkindness

This word has reference to the aspect of God’s covenant-keeping nature. His love for Israel will be manifested in His faithfulness to His Word or promise concerning her. This idea is expressed over 20 times throughout the Psalms. God promised some very specific things to Israel—things that have not come to pass yet—and His nature guarantees that those promises will be fulfilled.

In mercy

The word used here is ruhamah, or “compassion.” And God’s compassion for Israel is manifold! It is multifaceted.

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one pall things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth—in Him. (Ephesians 1:7—10 NKJV)

The mercy or the compassion of God is a strong motivational force that beckons us to completely yield ourselves to Christ. When you understand all that God did for you in Christ, don’t you want to love Him back? Isn’t that enough to compel you to live for Him?

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. (Romans 12:1, 2 NKJV)

In faithfulness

Finally, this proposed marriage will be made by God in total faithfulness. God’s faithfulness to Israel is what is in view here, but faithfulness is a two-way street. In the Old Testament, God had always been faithful to Israel but that faithfulness was not returned. Therefore, there was a necessary separation between Israel and God. However, in that great future day of the reconciliation of all things, a brand new relationship will be established by God; that separation will come to an end and Israel will be faithful to God for the first time.

When the people of Israel have finally received all that God has for them, they will finally know God and will finally be faithful to Him. This new relationship was on Jesus’ mind in the Garden as He prayed to His Father:

And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. (John 17:3 NKJV)

The simple fact is, the ability to “know God” is a gift from God. This gift is given to us as much as it will be given to Israel in that future day.

2. The purpose of the betrothal

The purpose of this betrothal is obvious: eternal union with God

That Israel may really know God

Israel certainly doesn’t know God today. As a nation, she is so secular she can’t get too much farther away from Him! But when their sin problem is finally taken care of, they will gain eternal perspective; they will finally see God for Who He really is and of course they will see Jesus Christ as their Messiah.

This kind of knowledge of God is not head knowledge, but rather heart knowledge. It is this heart knowledge that results in salvation.

The day will come, says the Lord, when I will make a new contract with the people of Israel and Judah. It won’t be like the one I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a contract they broke, forcing me to reject them, says the Lord. But this is the new contract I will make with them: I will inscribe my laws upon their hearts, so that they shall want to honor me; then they shall truly be my people and I will be their God. At that time it will no longer be necessary to admonish one another to know the Lord. For everyone, both great and small, shall really know me then, says the Lord, and I will forgive and forget their sins. (Jeremiah 31:31—34 TLB)

But this “change of heart” is not something Israel will be able to do for herself. God will do it; He will give her a new heart.

I will give them hearts that respond to me. They shall be my people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with great joy. (Jeremiah 24:7 TLB)

This is something every sinner can attest to: God has given them a new heart, one that beats after Him. It was a desire of David’s too, as he expressed it in Psalm 51:

Create in me a new, clean heart, O God, filled with clean thoughts and right desires. (Psalm 51:10 TLB)

Israel will confess God

Verse 23 makes it clear:

You are our God!

Verses 22 and 23 constitute a play on words that doesn’t come across in the English translations of our Bible. The play on words has to do with Gomer’s children, a son called Jezreel, a daughter Lo-Ruhamah and another son Lo-Ammi. God will not only bring the family back together again (regather Israel), but they cease to be “Lo-Ruhamah,” the pitiless daughter of a harlot. God will show them mercy. In our day today, Israel is really “Lo-ammi,” they are “not God’s people.” But in that future day, God will finally declare that “they are my people” and they will say in all earnestness, “You are our God.” This isn’t happening yet. It will happen in the future. This is an exciting prophecy for the Millennium.

Israel will be partners with God

This is something to stop and ponder for a moment. According to Genesis, a wife is to be a husband’s helper; she is to bring into a marriage something her husband lacks. She becomes his partner in life. So it will be with Israel. When she is finally united to her Lord, she will become His partner in the Kingdom. Again, this finds its fulfillment during the Millennium when the Jews become the great evangelists, taking the Gospel of the Kingdom all over the world.

But consider how this applies to believers today. Today we are co-workers with Christ.

We are only God’s coworkers. (1 Corinthians 3:9a TLB)

We, who have become part of God’s family, have a responsibility today to work with Christ in building His Church; it is our responsibility to work to extend the Kingdom in the here and now through witnessing and sharing the Gospel with the lost. If you are in God’s family, then “the family business” ought to be yours.

Hosea: Spiritual Ignorance

Published August 13, 2013 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
Tags: Hosea, sin and rebellion

Hosea 4:6—11

Israel was in deep trouble. Hosea’s marriage was on the rocks because the unfaithfulness of his wife. Out of the heartbreaking experiences in own life, Hosea the prophet well understood how God felt. God loved Israel, yet Israel had been behaving just like Hosea’s adulterous wife; she was cheating on God! Like Gomer, Israel had become no better than prostitute. The wisdom literature of the Old Testament talks a lot about two things: how to live in harmony with God and the importance of avoiding prostitutes. The two issues are not unrelated and Hosea demonstrates the wisdom of wisdom literature. Consider Proverbs 23:26—28,

O my son, trust my advice—stay away from prostitutes. For a prostitute is a deep and narrow grave. Like a robber, she waits for her victims as one after another become unfaithful to their wives. (TLB)

Love that doesn’t cost the lover anything is not real love. Both Hosea and God paid a high price to love. Hosea sought out his wayward wife and literally bought her back. God seeks out sinners and brings them back from their broken lives. Hosea and God paid the whole price with real love.

Chapter 4 of Hosea delves further into the problems of His sinful people. The more God spoke through Hosea’s words, the more the religious leaders opposed him. Religious leaders are frequently unable to deal with the true Word of God. Amos, another minor prophet, faced similar opposition from a priest at Bethel named Amaziah:

“The idol altars and temples of Israel will be destroyed, and I will destroy the dynasty of King Jeroboam by the sword.” But when Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, heard what Amos was saying, he rushed a message to Jeroboam, the king: “Amos is a traitor to our nation and is plotting your death. This is intolerable. It will lead to rebellion all across the land.” (Amos 7:10, 11 TLB)

If you want to get the ire of religious leaders up, just preach the simple Word of God! Nothing drives them crazier than that. Why? It’s because while they may know a lot about their brand of religion, they know little of the Word of God. And frequently, Biblical doctrines are at odds with religious doctrines. Ignorance is not really bliss, especially when it comes to God.

1. Ignorance of God is very common

The Lord has filed a lawsuit against you… (Hosea 1:1a TLB)

This is pretty serious! God was angry and hurt with His people, and the only way He could get their attention was to “file a lawsuit” against them! In all, the Lord lists three things in His suit against His people: they showed no faithfulness , no kindness (or mercy), and there was no knowledge of God in the land. How could this be? These were God’s people, after all. How could there no longer be knowledge of God in the nation? Where did all that knowledge go? How many generations does it take for memories of God to fade away? The first two charges—no faithfulness or kindness—are completely natural results of not knowing about God. A person’s actions begin in his mind, and if he has no knowledge of God, how can his actions be godly?

In years gone by, Israel had enjoyed many manifestations of God’s presence, wisdom, and power. They witnessed supernatural demonstrations of God and heard His word through the prophets. In spite of such blessings, the people had for generations drifted further and further away from God.

The same is true today, even in our “Christian nation.” In terms of knowledge of God, this present generation is probably the most ignorant ever. Ask many people about whether they “know God” or not and often you’ll get a response similar to, “God is unknowable.” While this sounds like an intellectual, progressive thing to say, it’s actually dumb and flies in the face of what the Bible declares:

Christ is the exact likeness of the unseen God. He existed before God made anything at all, and, in fact, Christ himself is the Creator who made everything in heaven and earth, the things we can see and the things we can’t; the spirit world with its kings and kingdoms, its rulers and authorities; all were made by Christ for his own use and glory. (Colossians 1:15, 16 TLB)

How can anybody claim that knowing God is impossible? If you can read, you can read the Bible and get to know God. If you can hear, you can listen to the audio Bible and get to know God. So, of course you can know God. The problem is, most people don’t want to know Him, and so there is widespread ignorance.

2. Ignorance of God is usually willful

My people are destroyed because they don’t know me, and it is all your fault, you priests, for you yourselves refuse to know me; therefore, I refuse to recognize you as my priests. Since you have forgotten my laws, I will ‘forget’ to bless your children. (Hosea 4:6 TLB)

The very root of Israel’s sin was a lack of knowledge of the Word of God. If you are a Christian, you are doomed to mediocrity at best if your knowledge of the Word is lacking. Regardless of how many camp meetings, Bible conferences, evangelistic revival meetings you go to, or the number of hours you spend listening to KLOVE, if you don’t know what’s between the covers of your Bible, there is no way you can live a successful Christian life in this world.

There are no gimmicks or short cuts that can replace study of the Bible. People are literally destroyed from a lack of knowledge. The reason is simple and has been stated all ready: our behavior descends from our knowledge. If our minds are filled with the Word of God, that knowledge will dictate our behavior. But our minds are like a vacuum—something will fill that space if the Word isn’t there. And given human nature, that “something” will be sinful.

3. Willful ignorance of God is fatal

Destruction follows ignorance of God. It is fatal to ignore God.

Don’t be misled; remember that you can’t ignore God and get away with it: a man will always reap just the kind of crop he sows! If he sows to please his own wrong desires, he will be planting seeds of evil and he will surely reap a harvest of spiritual decay and death… (Galatians 6:7, 8a TLB)

This “spiritual decay and death” involves the following:

a. God’s rejection

…you yourselves refuse to know me; therefore, I refuse to recognize you… (Hosea 4:6b TLB)

This particular admonition is aimed squarely at the priests of Hosea’s day but the principle encompasses all who claim to be believers. We have a responsibility to “know” God. All human beings are created in the image of God, and that image of God is stamped on our hearts whether we acknowledge it or not. All human beings therefore have a desire to worship—to get to know—God. Romans 1 makes it clear that no one is without excuse in this matter. Not knowing God is almost always a result of refusing to know God. Refusing to recognize God will result in God not recognizing you. Most of us are vaguely familiar with what Jesus said along these lines:

If anyone publicly acknowledges me as his friend, I will openly acknowledge him as my friend before my Father in heaven. But if anyone publicly denies me, I will openly deny him before my Father in heaven. (Matthew 10:32, 33 TLB)

To reject the call of God to salvation is to be ultimately rejected.

b. Glory turned to shame

The more my people multiplied, the more they sinned against me. They exchanged the glory of God for the disgrace of idols. (Hosea 4:7 TLB)

Previously, God had promised Abraham to bless the nation by causing them to multiply. It’s undeniable that this had always happened; wherever the Jews ended up, they grew in numbers. God declared that His people had exchanged His glory for the pseudo-glory of idols. The “glory” of Israel was God’s Shekinah glory; the visible presence of God in the Temple. His glory was their glory; the glory of being the one nation that worshipped the One true God while all the nations around them worshipped a multitude of idols. That was their glory, and that glory was obvious in the world; even the Queen of Sheba came to visit! The fame of Israel was God’s presence among His people.

But, thanks to fraudulent religious leaders who led the nation astray, the people forsook God; they ignored Him and God withdrew His presence from the Temple. And this was to their shame. The one thing that set Israel apart from all other nations was gone.

Israel’s decline was a result of their willful ignorance of God, but it was God who caused it to happen. Notice how the NKJV translates verse 7:

The more they increased, the more they sinned against Me; I will change their glory into shame.

Our God is a jealous God, and He will not tolerate any idol in His place. He will not put up with any rival for our affections. If you are determined to let any idol take God’s place—an idol could be your job, your children, your spouse, money—that idol will certainly be changed into something shameful.

c. Fruitless effort

They will eat and still be hungry. Though they do a big business as prostitutes, they shall have no children, for they have deserted me and turned to other gods. (Hosea 3:10 TLB)

The priests were “eating” the sins of the people (verses 8, 9); that is, their appetite for sin was literally insatiable. But also, a real famine was coming to the land. This famine would cause real hurt and it was a direct result of the sins the people were committing.

God’s judgment is always interesting to consider, unless it’s against you. When you are in willful sin; when you are turning away from God and attempting to fill your life with idols, whatever you try to cram into your heart to make you feel good and satisfied will never be enough. This is most certainly the experience of every backslider. Those who try to find meaning outside of a relationship with Christ will always find disappointment. Searching for love, peace, acceptance, or anything meaningful outside of God will be a fruitless effort. Jesus said that He was the “bread of life.” If you seek satisfaction from other bread, you won’t find the life you are looking for.

Hosea’s Israel was lost and spiritually blind and had no interest in doing what needed to be done to change their deplorable condition. Do you? True, lasting fulfillment is found only in a relationship with Jesus Christ:

For in Christ there is all of God in a human body; so you have everything when you have Christ, and you are filled with God through your union with Christ. He is the highest Ruler, with authority over every other power. (Colossians 2:9, 10 TLB)

Hosea: God’s Eternal Purposes

Published August 2, 2013 Uncategorized Leave a Comment
Tags: Hosea, sovereignty of God

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Hosea 2:14—18

The book of Hosea is the first of the Minor Prophets. This section of the Old Testament concludes with Malachi. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel are the Major Prophets. Most Christians would be hard-pressed to name the Minors. We call them Minor Prophets, not because their messages are minor but because their books are much shorter in length than those of the Majors.

The Minor Prophets were very nationalistic; they continually drove home the point that their people had broken faith with God and broken the Law of God. Many of their sermons deal with how Jews mistreated other Jews. For this reason, many of today’s “social gospel” persuasion love to quote from the Minors. Of course, there is much more to the messages of the Minors than just what some have deemed their “social awareness” message. The Minors all warned against dangerous, godless alliances with other nations. These prophets were very patriotic and railed against moral, cultural, and political corruption. In that sense, the messages of the Minors are very timely.

Biblical prophets were an interesting bunch of men. They didn’t just predict the future. What they really wanted to do was to encourage faith through the preaching of God’s Word. Sometimes this involved a predictive element, but more often their sermons were more like exhortations: repentance is a key theme throughout the Minors.

Another dominant theme seen in the Minors, and especially in Hosea, is that of God’s love for His people. Did God still love Israel? If He did, why was He punishing them? Hosea addresses these questions masterfully. Yes, God did still love His people. But that love placed on them certain responsibilities.

Hosea was a contemporary of Isaiah, and he was a prophet called by God to the northern kingdom of Israel.

These are the messages from the Lord to Hosea, son of Beeri, during the reigns of these four kings of Judah: Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah; and one of the kings of Israel, Jeroboam, son of Joash. (Hosea 1:1 TLB)

God’s Word came to Hosea through his vital and living relationship with God but it also came through his relationship with his wife—a depraved and faithless wife. God used her to illustrate Israel’s treacherous relationship with Him.

We may learn a lot about God’s abounding grace by looking a few choice verses in the wonderful book written by the prophet Hosea.

1. How God works

Some sins are just worse than others. Murder, for example, is worse than stealing a Ding Dong from the corner store. But both are sins. The very worst sin of all, though, is the sin of forgetting God.

“…But Me she forgot,” says the Lord. (Hosea 2:13, NKJV)

Christians have short memories when it comes to God, too. Many who consider themselves to be Christians routinely forget all about the Lord on His day, but they never seem to forget the ball game or that early morning on the links.

Of all the things Israel was guilty of (and that list was long!), this was the one that cut to the divine quick. In spite of that, we read this in the very next verse:

But I will court her again and bring her into the wilderness… (Hosea 2:14a TLB)

The KJV uses the word “allure” instead of “court,” but the idea is clear. The natural, human response to being mistreated (or to use Hosea’s analogy, cheated on) would be to “drive” the adulterous wife away into the wilderness and leave her there to fend for herself, but God said He would “court” her; He would actually take the time to bring her to a place (the wilderness) where her sinful habits would fall away and the influence of sinners would not have the same effect. God first spoke to Israel in the wilderness (Exodus 20), and so it is most fitting that God would want to take her back there to rekindle her love for Him.

Verse 14 blends beautifully the ideas of the sovereignty of God and the grace of God. Previously, God had spoken harshly to Israel from the throne of judgment:

Now I will expose her nakedness in public for all her lovers to see, and no one will be able to rescue her from my hand. “I will put an end to all her joys, her parties, holidays, and feasts. I will destroy her vineyards and her orchards—gifts she claims her lovers gave her—and let them grow into a jungle; wild animals will eat their fruit. (Hosea 2:10—12 TLB)

But now, the first movement of grace is seen: God will once again court Israel. God is always the Initiator when it comes to grace. Jesus came “to seek” the lost. It is God who calls. Here is the perfect illustration of God’s method: He will allure Israel. We might call this an invitation “a spiritual second honeymoon.”

It’s sad that so many seem capable of ignoring this singular work of the Holy Spirit. The folly of thinking the temporary things of this world are better than the things of God is breathtaking. Yet there are Christians that seem intent on dying in their worldly experiences, rather than trusting in God. But sometimes, in His sovereignty, God will try to bring these backslidden believers to a place where the things of this world don’t look so good. It is during these “wilderness” experiences that God’s voice may be more clearly heard.

2. God’s merciful purpose

… I will speak to her tenderly there. (Hosea 2:14b TLB)

God knows what our needs are. We think we do, and when we try to meet those needs ourselves, we find only more needs. This was Israel’s problem. They thought anything—from other gods to other nations—would get them what they wanted most, things like peace, prosperity, acceptance.

In the wilderness, away from all distractions, God would “speak comfort to” Israel (KJV). In the Hebrew, God said He would “speak to her heart.” It’s an expression of courtship seen elsewhere in the Old Testament (Genesis 34:3; Judges 19:3, for example).

So God’s merciful purpose in bringing Israel to the wilderness – indeed His purpose in the judgments mentioned in previous verses – was so that His voice would be heard by her. God didn’t want to yell and rage at the people He loved so much. His punishment was not meant to drive His people away. The opposite was intended. When stripped of all they thought was so important, Israel might be able to hear from God. That was His purpose.

3. The results

(a) There I will give back her vineyards… (Hosea 2:15a TLB)

The very vineyards God destroyed in judgment would be completely restored. God didn’t want to leave Israel stranded in the wilderness forever, bereft of all hope! His purpose was to return her to her own land and to the vineyards of her own land.

How many times have those who have forsaken God returned to Him under similar circumstances? Out of seeming failure and disaster, weariness and wandering, a backslider can finally find perspective. The prodigal son did.

God promised to lead Israel back from the precipice. In spite of circumstances, God’s leading is never contrary to our highest good. God’s hand is never out of step with His heart. Whatever may be happening to us—as negative as it may be—it is always for His glory and it’s ultimately it’s what’s best for us. God’s wisdom never opposes His love. Knowing this about God, why run away from Him? We ought to joyfully, confidently trust Him, even when we face rack and ruin on account of wrong decisions and choices we have made. No matter the crooked road you may have wandered down, you can trust the Holy Spirit to lead you back to the straight and narrow.

(b) I will give her the Valley of Achor as a door of hope. (Hosea 2:15b NKJV)

At the time Hosea wrote his book, Israel’s sins had been judged. The Valley of Achor, which was the site of trouble when Israel first entered the Promised Land (Joshua 7), would be turned into “a door of hope.” Only God can take a negative like that and turn it around in a positive!

It’s amazing what God can do in the darkest valley! No wonder David wrote this:

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. (Psalm 23:4 NKJV)

We dread “the valley of the shadow of death” because we think that somehow it leads us away from God. In fact, sometimes—often times—the opposite is true! Out of those troubling times we may emerge to find God, bigger and more real than ever before. We don’t make spiritual progress only when we are “climbing up Mount Zion,” singing all the way. Our miracle-working God can make every valley of trouble a place of spiritual renewal.

Sharon shall be a fold of flocks, And the Valley of Achor a place for herds to lie down, For My people who have sought Me. (Isaiah 65:10 NKJV)

(c) She will respond to me there, singing with joy as in days long ago in her youth… (Hosea 2:15c TLB)

This brings the mind back to the early days of courtship in any relationship, when emotions ran high and the sky was the limit. Like when Israel was delivered out of Egypt. God wanted to get Israel back to the way she was back then—return her to her “first love.”

Israel had fallen far from those heady days. She was stuck in the rut of sin. But God would be able to pull her out. That’s grace in action! This is the stunning connection between problems and hope that serves to reveal God. It is the relation between Law and grace. Law creates the problem as the result of sin, but grace creates hope through the problem. No matter what your personal Valley of Achor may be, hope is closer than you think!

He forgives all my sins. He heals me. He ransoms me from hell. He surrounds me with loving-kindness and tender mercies. He fills my life with good things! My youth is renewed like the eagle’s! (Psalm 103:3—5 TLB)

All of this results in a new relationship:

(d) “In that coming day,” says the Lord, “she will call me ‘My Husband’ instead of ‘My Master.’” (Hosea 2:16 TLB)

In the original, “my husband” comes from the word ishi and “my master” from baali. This is actually a very telling statement. Israel was literally putting God on the same level as Baal; they were treating the One True God just as though He were nothing more than a cold idol.

But that’s not the kind of relationship wanted to have with His people then, nor does He want that kind of relationship with believers today. The analogy of husband/wife, God/His people, implies one of loving concern, intimacy, and personal interest. It’s a relationship based on love. This is the kind of relationship God wants with believers today.

I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine. (Song of Solomon, 6:3 TLB)

Just like when you have a happy marriage relationship you have a peaceful, happy home, so it is when your relationship with God through Jesus Christ is right: your life will be happy. For the Christian, serving God is about love, not fear or intimidation. When you love God, your problems will get solved, your questions answered, your fears taken away.

This is the kind of relationship God wanted with Israel. It will happen. It hasn’t happened yet. But this kind of relationship is possible today for anybody who wants it. It all starts with heeding the call from God and placing your full trust in Him. It’s like a marriage vow between the Savior and you!

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