LOVE

Hosea 11
Love exciting and new
Come on board, we're expecting you
Love, life's sweetest reward
Let it flow, it comes back to you.
(Everybody sing the chorus)
On the love boat, love was lost and found in 60 minutes. People would come on board looking for love, or they would be in shaky relationships that would be healed with a little advice from Isaac the bartender. It would be great if love and relationships could be reconciled in such a short period of time.
Many people think of God as an impersonal force, something akin to the law of gravity. The book of Hosea portrays almost the opposite: a God of passion and fury and tears and love. A God in mourning over Israel’s rejection of Him.
1 "When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son.
2 But the more I called Israel, the further they went from me. They sacrificed to the Baals and they burned incense to images.
3 It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them by the arms; but they did not realize it was I who healed them.
4 I led them with cords of human kindness, with ties of love; I lifted the yoke from their neck and bent down to feed them.
8 "How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I treat you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboiim? My heart is changed within me; all my compassion is aroused.
9 I will not carry out my fierce anger, nor will I turn and devastate Ephraim. For I am God, and not man, the Holy One among you. I will not come in wrath.
Ever witness a father in a divorce and hear him have this exact conversation with himself over the loss of not only his marriage, but also his children? Imagine how God must feel with us. That's what Hosea is all about, showing us the love of God for us.
God the lover does not desire to share His bride with anyone else. Yet, amazingly, when Israel turned her back on God, He stuck with her. He was willing to suffer, in hope that someday she would return to Him.
Hosea, and later Jesus, prove that God longs not to punish but to love. In fact, He loved us so much that He sent His Son to die for us!