Good Morning Friends,
“The LORD said to me, ‘Go, show your love to
your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her
as the LORD loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the
sacred raisin cakes.’ So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about a
homer and a lethek of barley. Then I told her, ‘You are to live with me many
days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will live
with you.’” (Hosea 3:1-3)
Hosea married a wife of adultery, but she did
not stay with him. She left his love and returned to her old ways. Then the
Lord told Hosea to find her again and buy her back. Apparently she had fallen
into slavery because of her sinfulness and Hosea bought her back from her
slavemaster to be his wife again.
That’s an awful image -- a wife who has
become a slave through her sexual sin and then the husband buying his wife back
for himself again.
Although it is an awful image, it is a true
story. What Hosea did for his wife provides a picture of what God has done for
us. We left His love and turned to our own sinful ways. We got trapped in our
sin and were made slaves of unrighteousness. And God bought us back. He didn’t
have to. He owned us in the first place and then we left Him. It cost God a great
deal to buy us back -- the sacrifice of His own Son.
God wanted us back. He loved us and wanted us
back! He was willing to pay whatever price was necessary. He loved us that
much.
He bought us back for Himself. Not so we
could continue to wander in sin, but so that we would be His. He bought us back
to change us.
He loved us – and He bought us back. He still
loves us!
His, by Grace,
Steve
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