God's Faithfulness to the Unfaithful

I finally got back to Hosea 2. It is a prophecy about how God will treat Israel when they have in essence become a harlot by worshiping other gods (note the parallel between this and the prior passage). Take a look at verse 3.

Or I will strip her naked and expose her as on the day when she was born I will also make her like a wilderness,make her like desert land and slay her with thirst.

This is interesting. God seems to have absolutely no mercy. He is going to completely humiliate Israel and basically torment them, and yet if we read further in verse 16 and following, we see God's plan to restore Israel.

It will come about in that day, declares the LORD, that you will call Me Ishi and will no longer call Me Baali.

Here we see a heart of repentance... turning from false gods and turning to Him as the supreme ruler... this is followed by a renewal of relationship with Him in verse 23.

I will sow her for Myself in the land I will also have compassion on her who had not obtained compassion, and I will say to those who were not My people, You are My people! And they will say, You are my God!

It is such a blessing that we serve a God who is completely faithful not only to punish us when we stray from Him, but to also bring us to repentance and draw us near to Himself once again. I think if we look at the summary of our lives... we will see this pattern throughout... our unfaithfulness followed by His faithfulness and work to bring us back to Himself. What a blessing!