The NIV 365 Day Devotional

God Loves You Deeply

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 a door of hope.
There she will respondas 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.’
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[d] righteousness and justice,
  in love and compassion.
20 I will betroth you in faithfulness,
  and you will acknowledge the LORD.

Hosea 2:14-20

God had an odd plan for Hosea. The Lord told the prophet to marry “a promiscuous woman,” a woman who chased after other lovers (Hos 1:2). That command makes no sense — until you hear what God planned to teach the nation through his prophet. God said his people were acting like an unfaithful wife having sex with other men. That charge really hit home, especially because Israel followed false gods whose worship included sex with temple prostitutes to guarantee prosperity (see Hos 4:11 – 14). When the Lord told Hosea to take Gomer as his wife, he painted a living picture of his own persistent love for Israel. The crazy drama taught everyone that God loved them no matter what. That’s the same point the apostle Paul makes in the New Testament when he says God loves us even while we are sinners, long before we love him (Ro 5:8).

Taken from the NIV Starting Place Study Bible.