I am Israel

During my month hiatus from blogging, I have been working on a couple posts, which are still in progress and will be posted soon. Tonight, though, I just wanted to share something really quick that is on my heart before I forget. Blogging can be such a good exercise of reflection.

Over the past two days, I have been reading through the book of Hosea. I absolutely love the story of Hosea's love for his wife, Gomer. If you haven't read Redeeming Love, do yourself a favor and go buy it. You won't regret it. It is a fictional account based on the story of Hosea. But that's not what caught my attention during this last read through of Hosea. I don't know that I've ever really carefully read the book, or if I've just been so focused on the fact that Hosea married a prostitute, that I missed the bigger picture. Of course, Hosea marrying Gomer is an example of God's love for us in that even when we throw ourselves at other things, God still pursues us, but the main subject of the book of Hosea is God's love for Israel and his chosen people.

The book of Hosea is devoted to Hosea giving the Israelites a message from God of how God is turning his back on them because they've continued to live in sin and have run from the things of God. Several chapters go on and on about how God was faithful to the Israelites and they continued to run from him. Hosea's whole message seems to be leading to the fact, that once and for all, God is done with Israel. However, in the end, Hosea tells of God's great love for Israel and how God would always pursue her. In fact, Hosea is just one of the many places in the Old Testament where God uses a prophet both to rebuke Israel and to tell of his great love for the nation.

I love the story of God's love for Israel because it is a picture of how vast God's love is and how passionately he pursues those he loves. Then, tonight it hit me...I AM ISRAEL. God's love for ME is beyond measure. God passionately pursues ME.