God's Unfailing Love
2/6/26 Bible Thought (Hosea 3)
Main Idea: God in His nature is a God of unfailing love.
A Look at the Text:
In previous chapters, we saw Hosea the prophet marry a woman named Gomer. It was foretold, even before their marriage, that she would be unfaithful to him. We are then shown that Gomer’s faithlessness to Hosea in marriage is a living illustration of Israel’s failure in their covenant with Yahweh. They had cheated on Him with other lovers, worshipping any local god or goddess that promised blessings.
In today’s text, we see that living illustration taken a step further—Hosea is commanded to redeem his wife.
The circumstances are a bit unclear. It appears that Gomer somehow ended up in a sort of debt-slavery.[1] While her exact plight isn’t certain, what is certain is that Hosea goes out of his way to take her back to himself.
With this, we see God’s way with the wayward—pursuit. It is an absolutely scandalous thing to realize that even in the midst of Israel’s rebellion, it is said that “the Lord loves the children of Israel” (Hos. 3:1c, emphasis added).
That love is written in the present tense.
Israel at that time had abandoned Him in favor of other gods. Yet, He still loved them. Right there, in the middle of their sin. They were still the object of His steadfast love. Not because of anything special they did, but because God is love and He had chosen them to be His own!
Had it not been for the Lord’s gracious intervention every step of the way, they would have been utterly without hope. While God did bring about judgment, His people weren’t to be cast off forever. One day, they would live under David’s reign with Him as their God.
A Future David:
That future Davidic ruler came in Jesus Christ. Yet even then, the people rejected God’s rule. As John, the Gospel-author, reflects:
“He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him” (Jn. 1:11).
Yet even still, despite their continual rejection of God from past unto present, there is a future day of hope for the Israelite (Rom. 11:23, 26). The gospel was a message of good news first to the Jew, and then to the Greek (Rom. 1:16).
Why?
Because God is a God of unfailing love.
Bringing it Home:
This passage is one of the most beautifully illustrative of the steadfast love of the Lord that never ceases. God is a God who is holy, and just, and awesome, but He is also in His very nature a gracious, kind, and merciful God who keeps covenant with the adulteress.
The example of Hosea taking his wife back seems like such a scandal. He really would go and purchase her after all she did to him?! Yet, is that not the very nature of grace? Fully unmerited. Wholly undeserved. Yet so lavishly given.
Consider then the great cost that God paid to redeem you from your transgressions—a cost paid in blood.
If that isn’t love, then I don’t know what is.
Challenge:
Do I ever think that personal failure will disqualify me from the love of God?
Let us always remember that God’s love is a covenant-keeping, faithful love. He does not cast His people away. There may be discipline or consequences, but His love is inescapable in Jesus Christ (see Rom. 8:38-39).
[1] John D. Barry et al., Faithlife Study Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012, 2016), Ho 3:2.
Do I ever think that personal failure will disqualify me from the love of God? I feel that if we can do nothing on our own to gain God's redeeming love, then once received, we can do nothing to lose it.