In English there is only one word for love; however, as seen in the side bar there are several words for love in Greek because each one has a different meaning. It is no wonder that our culture is confused on what love is because our language limits by using only the word “love” in every circumstance. Thus, we often choose worldly love over godly without understanding the difference. In 1 John 4:8 it says,” Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.” God has a design for love, and He alone is love. Although He illustrates love throughout the scriptures, it truly compares to no other. Like it says in Jeremiah 31:3, “His love is an everlasting love.” The best way He illustrates His love is one that is perfect, eternal, unconditional, and sacrificial, which is the Greek word Agape.  God designed relational and covenantal marriage to illustrate His love for us. This can be displayed in the Old and New Testament.

• Read Ezekiel 16:8-14 Isaiah 62:4-5; Jeremiah 31:31-33; Ephesians 5:25-33; John 3:29; Matthew 9:15, 25:1-13; 2 Corinthians 11:2; Revelation 19:7-9, 21:2

As you read through these scriptures, you can see the connection of God’s love displayed in His promise for His people. God’s promise tells us that if they repent and return to Him, He will always show compassion and love by welcoming them back into His merciful and loving embrace. This isn’t easy to comprehend for us because we as creation, not the Creator, could never display a love that is as unconditional or sacrificial. We struggle in that no matter what another does to us it would be hard for us to always love them and embrace them fully back, as nothing had happened. Therefore, God’s love is different and can be like no other. It is unlike what man has invented by sinfully twisting it’s meaning.

A biblical account that illustrates God’s love and mercy can be seen in many depictions throughout the scriptures. The one we will look at is in the book of Hosea. To get an idea of this era, it was a time of spiritual apostasy (or falling away) and social fragmentation due to the people rejecting the knowledge of the One True God. They were a people of self-satisfaction and pride, engaged in idolatry, trusted in human devices rather than God, and were guilty of injustice and violence (Holman Study Bible). So during this time God called to His prophet Hosea, which in Hebrew happens to mean salvation, to minister and warn Israel of God’s impending judgement if repentance and returning to Him does not take place.

God calls to Hosea to display His love for Israel by involving Hosea to take a bride. This isn’t just any bride, God instructs Hosea to marry Gomer, a prostitute. After Hosea obeys and takes Gomer as his wife, they have three children in which are all named to be a depiction of God’s judgement. One name was Lo-ruhama, which in Hebrew means “No Mercy”. Gomer becomes restless and decides that she wants to return to her old way of living. She leaves her husband and children behind and returns to prostitution.  God knew this would happen and has Hosea use his own life experience of his marriage to illustrate what God wanted to let His people know about who He was. He has Hosea explain to God’s people that what Gomer had done is what Israel had done to God, repeatedly. Like Gomer, God’s people were guilty of unfaithfulness through spiritual adultery.

But wait! In Hosea 2, you can read how God (husband) calls Israel (wife) to repentance, that He forgives and pursues her, and He announces a restoration in the relationship.  In Hosea 3, God tells Hosea to go get Gomer back! And the Lord said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins.” Hosea 3:1 This is important to remember, Hosea went and BOUGHT Gomer back, as the Lord instructed. As you continue to read on, Hosea says to Gomer that she is to not be with another man, and that he will be faithful to her. Then Hosea returns to speaking to Israel in verse 4 where he foretells of a time when they shall go “many days” without a ruler or worship. In verse 5, Hosea then states that there will be a time when God’s people shall seek for their God, and for the fulfillment of the Davidic covenant (the Messiah).

Going into Hosea 4, we still see that God is refuting the people for having no knowledge of Him and rebuking their continuing spirit of unfaithfulness. As the Holman Study Bible states, “These adulterous inhabitants have abandoned truth or integrity, the quality of being reliable and genuine; mercy or faithful love to friends and associates; and the knowledge of God. They had ceased to care about knowing Him or the truth about Him”. But, God in His abundant mercy and love already had a plan of redemption, a way to return to Him fully. In Hosea 6:1-3 it says, “Come, let us return to the Lord; for He has torn us, that He may heal us; He has struck us down, and He will bind us up. After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will raise us up, that we may live before Him. Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord; His going out is sure as the dawn; He will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth”.

There are not literal words in Hosea that point to God’s love and mercy, through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. However, in essence, He reveals His attributes of love and mercy through His word. By His love and mercy, God exposes His plan for redemption. When we look at Hosea 11, we read of hints that direct us to see His restorative solution, because of His love and mercy for us. How do we know that Hosea 11:1 is saying that the “son” is God calling His Son Jesus?

In Matthew 2:15 it states that Mary, Joseph, and Jesus remained in Egypt until the death of Herod, then left as directed by the Lord when it was safe for them to return to Nazareth.

Matthew 2:15

And remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”

 

See the sidebar commentary to see how this “son” is a typology. A typology is a special kind of symbolism where that symbol is something that represents something else. God so lovingly has included so many Jesus “types” in the Bible, such as Moses and David. In which they are Christ-like; however, only Jesus could complete and fulfill perfectly what they were ordained by God to do. So you see, God’s love and mercy always was and is perfectly fulfilled through His Son Jesus Christ.

Do you remember how that Hosea BOUGHT Gomer back? Well Jesus has BOUGHT us with a high price, and He did this because of His perfect compassionate love for us, though we do not deserve it. Jesus bought us with His blood by being the perfect sacrifice on the cross for our sins. Like Gomer who was purchased by Hosea, she was no longer enslaved to her life of prostitution, but enslaved to her loving husband. Who did not hold that shame over her but said to her that it is done and she is to remain with him. This is a beautiful parallel to how Jesus has purchased us, and when it is acknowledged, He doesn’t let us go.  In 1 Cor. 6:19-20 it says, “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were BOUGHT with a price…..”.