NOTES for Hos 2

In the book of the prophet Hosea, Israel is compared to an unfaithful wife. For God, the unfaithfulness of His people is what a wife’s adultery is for any normal man. It is not only terrible pain, but also betrayal and humiliation. In the book of Hosea, the Lord speaks many bitter words to His people. But now He says what matters most: yes, Israel has sinned, but all that is needed is to repent, abandon lawlessness, and turn to God. God asks nothing of His people but this one thing: to remember with whom mercy is found, to renounce false gods, and to turn to the one true God. He does not impose “probationary periods”; He does not merely say, “Very well, I suppose I will accept you...” He accepts the “unfaithful wife,” His people, as His one and irreplaceable beloved, who is forgiven everything not because she has earned forgiveness, but simply because she is loved. And the promise of God’s blessings to Israel resembles love poetry more than anything else. In essence, that is exactly what it is, for the whole Bible is a poem about God’s boundless, overwhelming love for each one of us.