This weekend millions of Christians around the world are studying the life of the prophet Hosea. He could be described as called to be a Super Pastor, his pastorate being the entire nation of Israel.
Anyone so called to be a pastor needs a wife who stands by his side as a “help meet,” a woman also “called” to be a pastor’s wife whose influence in the congregation is uplifting, encouraging spiritually to the people. Pastor and wife are a happy team in the service of the Lord.
The last kind of a wife the pastor needs to team with him in his divine calling is ... horrors! a prostitute!
And that was just the woman that the Lord permitted his unfortunate servant to fall in love with and marry!
Yes, Hosea loved this woman, whose name was Gomer. He couldn’t stop loving her.
A pastor and his wife deserve to have a love affair like other people enjoy; they are not frigid digits forced to be holier-than-thou’s on a diet of love denied. Hosea couldn’t help himself; an unfaithful wife to him is not like the pastor’s car breaking down—junk it and get a new one. You can’t do that if you love a woman, and Hosea was himself deeply wounded by love betrayed. He still loved the junk heap in the wrecking yard.
Nothing can hurt a man, wound him, tear him to bits, like the woman whom he loves and who has sincerely committed herself to him in love, turning on him and ditching him for another man. It tears him to bits inside; he never gets over it for “love is strong as death, jealousy is cruel as the grave; its flames are flames of fire, a most vehement flame. Many waters cannot quench love, nor can the floods drown it. If a man would give for love all the wealth of his house it would be utterly despised” (Song of Solomon 8:6, 7).
The point of Hosea’s story is that the Lord God of Israel has become a real man, incarnate in humanity; He loves as a man loves, with His whole soul. He is deeply wounded by His Bride’s infidelity.
The Lord was not letting Hosea be tortured for nothing. The Lord Jesus Christ is deeply wounded in His heart of hearts by the heart-fickleness of the “woman” whom He finds Himself in love with (He can’t help it!)—her name: Laodicea.
Be sure to check your e-mail for "Dial Daily Bread" again tomorrow.
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