I Do: What Hosea Shows Us About Our Holy Husband
"And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord." — Hosea 2:19–20 (ESV)
There is a kind of love that makes no sense. Not the love that responds to loveliness. That’s not hard to understand.
No, I’m talking about the love that makes no sense. The kind that pursues what has already walked away. That goes looking for what has chosen something else. That pays to bring home what was already supposed to be home.
This is the love at the center of Hosea. And before we can receive it, we have to be willing to see ourselves clearly in it.
We Are Gomer, Not Hosea
Hosea’s story opens with a command from the Lord. He asks him to do the unthinkable: to marry a woman He knows will be unfaithful. Who in his right mind would sign up for a life of guaranteed suffering? But Hosea does it—not because he is better than we are or knew the plan. He did it because God commanded it.
Now it’s important to remember God did not mean for this to be a cruel assignment. He had a purpose: a lived sermon — in which Hosea enacts out through his actual marriage, with all its humiliation and heartbreak, what is happening between Himself and His people.
At that time, the northern kingdom has been committing spiritual adultery, turning from exclusive worship of God to the fertility gods of Canaan. They have gone looking elsewhere for what only their husband could provide.
For them, just as it is for us today, we are meant to not read this story as a call to be faithful like Hosea. That’s not the point. As a prophet, Hosea’s mission is to call sinful people back to the Lord.
As unflattering as it sounds, we are to ask ourselves the uncomfortable question: how am I like Gomer? And that’s hard because Gomer is not a sympathetic character in this story. She is unfaithful, repeatedly and without apparent remorse. To read Hosea correctly is to sit with the uncomfortable recognition that this is us — and then to be humbled and amazed by the fact that her husband keeps coming back.
To fully appreciate what Jesus shows us about himself, we need to challenge ourselves to consider our own idols. While we may never use the word adultery for what we do, we need to call it for what it is. Whenever we turn to other sources to get what only God can provide — security in circumstances rather than in Him, approval from people rather than from Him, comfort in control rather than in His sovereignty—it is a form of adultery.
This is not a small drift. And our heavenly husband sees it.
Christ, Our Holy Husband
Not surprisingly, the story unfolds as we expect. Gomer leaves. And in Hosea 3, God tells the prophet to do something equally unthinkable: go find her and bring her back.
Just as before, Hosea obeys. He finds her and buys her back at the price of a common slave. She is already his wife, but out of love for God and for her he pays for what is already his.
Again, this is not to encourage us to be forgiving like Hosea. As before the point is to send a message: Israel, your Lord loves you, even if you have turned to other gods. Come back!
This is the gospel in marital form. Hosea does not go back to Gomer because she has improved. He goes back because of his promise.
Likewise, God's love for us is not a response to our behavior. It does not rise on our faithful days and fall on our faithless ones. It is a commitment grounded in His own character of steadfast love, mercy, and faithfulness.
The point is this: the success of this marriage does not depend on the bride's faithfulness. It depends entirely on the husband's.
But the unfaithfulness cannot simply be overlooked. Because God is holy, the adultery must be addressed.
And here is where Hosea reaches its Christological center: God does not punish the bride. Instead, He pours the punishment out on the bridegroom, His Son, who bore the shame, drank the cup of judgment, and received no mercy so that his unfaithful bride might receive abundant mercy. He bought her back not at the price of silver but at the price of His own blood (1 Peter 1:18–19). He did all this—not because of what she will do in the future, but because of who He is and what He promised.
Christ bore what Gomer deserved. What we deserve. He went into the far country of our sin and bought us back. Though we are already His because he is our creator, He pays the ultimate price and buys us back anyway.
Our Eternal Bridegroom
But wait. This is not yet the end of the story. Hosea 2:14–23 gives us a vision of what is still coming. Our bridegroom is returning. Even now he is wooing His bride in the midst of this wilderness we now live in. When we are unfaithful, he speaks tenderly, seeking to restore us.
Though we are not fully back home with him yet, though we still struggle with the relentless temptation to drift to other lovers, He will still be faithful to us. Not because we deserve it but because he is 100% dedicated to his covenant promise.
Our wedding day is coming. Ephesians 5:27 describes the bride as she will be — glorious, without spot or wrinkle, holy and without fault. In Revelation 21:3, we will see God’s completed work in us (Phil. 1:6). At long last, He will have his heart’s desire: to dwell with His Bride and we with Him. This is the perfect marriage we have always longed for, finally and fully consummated.
So the question Hosea leaves us with is not whether God will be faithful. He has already answered that question at the cross. He has guaranteed the wedding will happen with his resurrection.
The question is whether we will turn from our personal, sometimes hidden, adulteries and recommit ourselves to the One who has already pursued us into our worst.
Not as a transaction. Not as a resolution we will try harder to keep this time. But as a response to a love that came looking for us, paid for us, and is even now preparing a wedding day that will make everything before it look like a shadow.
Will you say I do?
