Hosea..........

Through out the old testament their is a very common theme. Its sort of like a violent shoreline that God orchestrates into something beautiful. The shore line is of course Israel but what is so interesting about Israels story is the way that it mirrors our personal human story. This is maybe no better summed up than in the book of Hosea. A lot of people think I'm crazy when I say thats my favorite book of the Bible but for me I think its a no brainer.

You see Hosea is about a whore. Thats right, a prostitute. Its also about a man that is commanded by God to go and take this whore as a wife. A odd request from and even odder God but as always their is beauty in this bit of madness.

You see God uses this couple, people from two completely different worlds to show Israel itself. To show the depravity of the situation. God even goes so far as to have the kids conceived from this marriage named after the different parts of the situation. I find this to be well, crazy! But God shows his faithfulness to this situation.

You see once a whore, always a whore. Or so they say. However whats truly amazing is the God of the universe doesn't really believe in all that rubbish. In fact God proved his faithfulness to the whore by having her husband take her back.....again and again. God also took Israel back very much the same way.

And then their's us. Yes we are whores. We are rampant sinners stuck in these frail frames that have been destroyed by so many years of abuse, brokeness, depression, and addictions. Like the story of Hosea we are bought, paid for, redeemed. We have been given names in Christ. Second chances, third chances, and so on.....

I am in awe of this story. Mostly because I am constantly in awe of our story. The story of whore. That whore was and is me. A man that lost his way. That had no chance to survive.

Then someone came and took me home and said your a part of the family now.  You are my son. I am your father.

What a story. What a narrative to be a character in.

I am so thankful for Gods love for me and for never giving up on 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" Hosea 3:1