"she decked herself with rings and jewelry, and went after her lovers, but me she forgot,” declares the Lord.
14 “Therefore I am now going to allure her; I will lead her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her. 15 There I will give her back her vineyards, and will make the Valley of Achor[b] a door of hope. There she will respond[c] as in the days of her youth, as in the day she came up out of Egypt.
16 “In that day,” declares the Lord, “you will call me ‘my husband’; you will no longer call me ‘my master.[d]’ 17 I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips; no longer will their names be invoked. 18 In that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field, the birds in the sky and the creatures that move along the ground. Bow and sword and battle I will abolish from the land, so that all may lie down in safety. 19 I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in[e] righteousness and justice, in[f] love and compassion. 20 I will betroth you in[g] faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the Lord.
21 “In that day I will respond,” declares the Lord— “I will respond to the skies, and they will respond to the earth; 22 and the earth will respond to the grain, the new wine and the olive oil, and they will respond to Jezreel.[h] 23 I will plant her for myself in the land; I will show my love to the one I called ‘Not my loved one.[i]’ I will say to those called ‘Not my people,[j]’ ‘You are my people’; and they will say, ‘You are my God.’”-Hosea 2:13-23
“I will betroth you in righteousness and justice”- they don’t put that on Valentine candy hearts am I right ladies?
In the book of Hosea God is specific and intentional in expressing His love for his people Israel. He uses Hosea’s love for Gomer as an earthy comparison so we can understand just how underserving we are of His grace and mercy.
I have really cool friends. Like so cool they have to put the word “official” on their Instagram handle. And I’m over here just trying to get the Amazon Prime Costumer Service guy to like me. But when I am around my friends sometimes I find myself acting or saying things I would never say or do if I wasn’t around them. I forget who I am and become enthralled by the things of this world. There was the time I misused a profanity in my rage and was then banned from poker nights out of sheer embarrassment from my team. Then there was the time I tried to rap and accidently morphed into the soundtrack of Princess Diaries (Stupid Cupid can be sung over any rap in case you’re wondering). I forget who I am and what I stand for sometimes, I get distracted by the materials and lifestyles in this world, just like the Israelites. I’ve never sacrificed an animal to a trinket god or sold all my children for sparkly bracelets, but I did cheat on a spelling test in Mrs. Hardy’s first grade class and copied Meghan Brown’s answer on the word “Miscellaneous,” which I feel carries some weight in the realm of forgetting ones self identity.
But God remembers us, even when we forget Him, or who we are in Him. What is important is to acknowledge when we have gone astray and ask him to bring us back home.
HE NEVER FORGETS YOU.
You will forget who you are in God sometimes. You will be distracted by the pressures of this world and make mistakes. But God will never forget you and He will never stop loving you. You are so important to God he can’t stop thinking about you. Live freely in the knowledge that you are loved deeply and eternally by a God who remembers His children.
You’re never forgotten and always loved.