"Then said the LORD unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the LORD toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love flagons of wine.
So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an homer of barley, and an half homer of barley: And I said unto her, Thou shalt abide for me many days; thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be for another man: so will I also be for thee.
For the children of Israel shall abide many days without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim:
Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God, and David their king; and shall fear the LORD and his goodness in the latter days." - Hosea 3:1-5
A prostitute, and now an adulteress. These are the women that the prophet of the LORD was ordered to marry to provide a vivid picture of the condition of the sons of Israel to themselves
Yet it is also a picture of Man's fallen condition, We should rejoice, that even though our transgressions are as prostitution and adultery in the sight of a Holy God, from ancient times, He has made PROVISION for them, and we have been privileged to live in an era where His Arm has been revealed !!! And our joy is made full, when He Himself will Tabernacle with the sons of men, in whom He delights... foreshadowed by the happy feast of Sukkoth that follows shortly after the most solemn Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur).
Once a year, we need to be reminded, as surely as the sun rises every day till it makes another year, the promises of God to redeem us, are as everlasting as the hills, and that should be our joy!
Does the LORD require us to mourn on this day with fasting and sackloth? Hear what He has to say via the prophet Isiaiah --
"Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and shew my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins.
Yet they seek me daily, and delight to know my ways, as a nation that did righteousness, and forsook not the ordinance of their God: they ask of me the ordinances of justice; they take delight in approaching to God.
'Wherefore have we fasted, say they, and thou seest not? wherefore have we afflicted our soul, and thou takest no knowledge?'
'Behold, in the day of your fast ye find pleasure, and exact all your labours. Behold, ye fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: ye shall --not fast as ye do this day--, to make your voice to be heard on high.
Is it such a fast that I have chosen? a day for a man to afflict his soul? is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? wilt thou call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD?
Is not -----this----- the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?
Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy reward. Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. ' "- Isaiah 58:1-9
Christ helped people look beyond the letter of the Law, to the intent and character of the ONE behind it.... and this is the message..... "God loves humanity." (For God SO LOVED the world..") "He has made a way for us to come back to Him at great personal cost." (That He gave His only begotten Son, so that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life...).
How true are Hosea's words that Israel will have no king, prince, sacrifices, images, ephods or teraphim till the Latter Days (having to observe Yom Kippur in a public square in recent years), yet, Even as the LORD speaks in anger to Hosea, He promises to restore!!
Love the people in your path all this year... for God loves them, even though they may be prostitutes and adulteresses (:-)), for there is NONE righteous, no, NOT ONE!... and that includes ourselves! So while you can be mad at someone that sins against you, don't let the sun go down on your anger, love them again!
Hallelujah!
