Oh, To Be Betrothed!

Many mornings (when we are not running off to an early appointment) my husband and I share breakfast together and always, quiz each other with Bible Trivia cards. We read the easy blue card first and then the hard white card. It helps to keep our brains in tune to names, places and stories that are often (white cards) obscure.

This mornings card asked a question about Hosea the prophet's wife and I couldn't remember her name. She didn't have a pretty name like Rachel, Rebeccah, Sarah or Mary . . .no, her name is Gomer . . . no wonder I couldn't remember it. So, naturally I had to go look it up and read a little in Hosea. I got so caught up in the story that I had read the whole book. It only has 14 chapters, so that wasn't hard to do.

What caught my eye was the passage from chapter 2 verse 19. It says:

"And I will betroth you to Me forever; Yes, I will betroth you to Me in righteousness and in justice, in lovingkindness and in compassion, and I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness. Then you will know the Lord."

I am still marveling after reading that. I mean, really! God's people had been unfaithful to Him for generation after generation. His people turned away to do their own thing, they played the harlot, so to speak, meaning they declared they loved God, then in a flash turned their backs and worshipped other gods. And yet, here God is saying "I will be married to you anyway. I will love you wholeheartedly and singleheartedly forever! In MY justice and MY righteousness and MY love and kindness, and in MY compassion . . . and then when I've loved you like that . . . with total and complete devotion . . . you will know that I am Lord."

The thought of this brings me to tears, I am so moved by the thought of how much my God; the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, loves ME! I consider myself a good Christian, a moral person, and an upstanding citizen. And still, I fail! I too, play the harlot! Knowing that just breaks my heart and I'm sure it breaks the heart of God too. How do I play the harlot? Well, when I fail to come to Him in prayer about a particular thing and go about handling it on my own. I play the harlot when I don't spend time building relationship with God daily, all the while, declaring how hard I work for Him. And yet, in spite of myself, God is there to embrace me; He's there to reconcile me back to Himself, because He loves me that much! Now that is love!!