February 6
Verse of the Day for February 6
Then said the LORD unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the LORD toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love flagons of wine.Hosea 3:1 KJV
The Key of Love · Day 6 of 29
Reflection · 4 min read
Go Yet, Love Her
Hosea is the most uncomfortable book in the prophets because the prophet is not given a sermon to preach. He is given a marriage to live, and it is a marriage that keeps failing publicly.
Then said the LORD unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the LORD toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love flagons of wine.
Go yet. Two words carrying an entire second act. He has already done this once, and he is being sent again.
And the instruction is not go and rebuke her, or go and be reconciled if she has changed. It is love her, stated as an action he is to perform toward someone who is currently in another man's house.
The next verse is stranger still. He buys her back — fifteen pieces of silver and a quantity of barley, which is roughly the price of a slave, scraped together in cash and grain.
God says the whole arrangement is a picture: according to the love of the Lord toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods.
Not go and rebuke her.Go yet, love her.
This is not a passage about staying in danger, and it has been misused that way. It is about what God's love costs Him.
He went yet. He is still going yet, in your direction, having done it before.
Carry this today
Where has God come after you more than once?
Pray
Read Hosea 3:1–3
1Then said the LORD unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the LORD toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love flagons of wine. 2So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an homer of barley, and an half homer of barley: 3And I said unto her, Thou shalt abide for me many days; thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be for another man: so will I also be for thee.
Keep praying
Reflection by Collins Asein, from the daily devotionals in the PrayerKey app. Bible text: King James Version.