NOTES for Hos 2:19-20

For God, the unfaithfulness of His people is the same as a wife's adultery is for any normal man. It is not only terrible pain; it is also betrayal and humiliation. And in the book of Hosea the Lord says many bitter words to His people. But now He says the main thing: yes, Israel has sinned, but all that is needed is to repent, abandon iniquities, and turn to God. God requires nothing from His people except one thing: to remember with whom mercy is found, to renounce false gods, and to turn to the one true God. He does not set "probationary periods"; He does not simply say, well, all right, I suppose I will accept you. He accepts the "unfaithful wife," His people, as the only and incomparable beloved, to whom everything is forgiven not because she has earned forgiveness, but because she is simply loved. And the promise of God's blessings to Israel most of all resembles poems of love, and so it is in essence, for the whole Bible is a poem about God's boundless, mad love for each of us.