Searching Your Heart

God asked Hosea to do something unthinkable. To take a wife whom he knew to be harlot. In that culture, being a harlot was perhaps the ultimate disgrace.

This violated the Law. It was contrary to God’s Word and all that He revealed about His nature. He warned His people not to “fall to harlotry” (Leviticus 19:29). And harlotry was to result in harsh penalties (Deuteronomy 22:13-24).

Harlotry also was a symbol of people who were not committed to God. Who had violated His laws and worshiped idols and false gods (Exodus 34:14-16).

Thus, by asking Hosea to marry a harlot, God was asking him to do something he never would have considered. Why would God tell him to “take a wife of harlotry”?

Hosea was being asked to be a symbol, representing all that God’s people had done to Him. Through his example, God would reveal His mercy and grace. How He would have “compassion on the house of Judah” in spite of their sins. But He also was calling them to holiness. To remember His standards. To repent from her sins and “put away her harlotry from her face.”

No longer to go after her lovers, they were to return to God, and recognize that it was God who gave “the grain, the new wine and the oil, and lavished on her silver and gold” (Hosea 2:1-8).

Today, many are like the people of Hosea’s time. Pursuing the wrong goals. In love with the wrong things. Seduced and deceived by the world. As individuals and nations, God offers us choices.

Search your heart and mind to see if you have become a spiritual harlot. Remember that Jesus loves you so much that He died for you. Fall in love with Him anew.