Want to get an idea of the pain our sin has caused God? The sad litany of Hosea 2 opens our eyes to the heartbreak God experiences when He receives our rejection.
Like a wounded lover, God recites the sad history of His relationship with His people. Comparing Israel with a faithless prostitute, the prophet expresses the thoughts of God: "For she said, 'I will go after my lovers; they give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink"...She did not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the wine, the oil, and who lavished upon her silver and gold that they used for Baal" (vs. 5 and 8).
In His righteous anger, God vows to punish His wayward bride for her infidelities. Through Hosea, God promises to take back his gifts of wine and grain, wool and flax. He plans to uncover his faithless wife's nakedness before her lovers and put an end to all her mirth and celebrations. Her fertile fields and vineyards will be laid waste and turned into wilderness. "I will punish her for the festival days of the Baals, when she offered incense to them and decked herself with her ring and jewelry, and went after lovers, and forgot me, says the Lord" (vs. 13).
Fortunately, we have a gracious, redeeming, forgiving God! The chapter turns here to focus on the good things that God has in plan for His wife: reconciliation. After removing the Baals from her lips and restoring her blessings to her, God says, "And I will take you for my wife forever; I will take you for my wife in righteousness and justice, in steadfast love, and in mercy. I will take you for my wife in faithfulness; and you shall know the Lord" (vs. 19-20).
In fact, so thorough is God's reclamation of His bride that He takes back the hurt and pain in the names He had given Hosea's children. Recalling Jezreel (He sows), God says, "I will sow him for myself in the land." Of Lo-ruhamah (Not pitied), the Lord's word is, "I will have pity." For Lo-ammi (Not my people), God now says, "You are my people," and he shall say, "You are my God" (vs. 23).
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