ADULTEROUS: THE CHOSEN BRIDE
“When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea, “Go, take yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom” Hosea 1:2.
So, while Gomer was a pagan, self-seeking, harlot, Hosea chose her, knowing completely the pain and trouble she would repetitively bring to him. Hosea did not chose to marry Gomer because she was seeking God, or even because she showed potential of being a faithful wife someday. Hosea chose Gomer because she was hopelessly depraved, and unknowingly desperate of redemption.
As I continually see God’s choice as the only factor in the redemption of mankind. I see it in the moment God choose a people, starting with Abram.
“And Joshua said to all the people, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Long ago, your fathers lived beyond the Euphrates, Terah, the father of Abraham and of Nahor; and they served other gods. Then I took your father Abraham from beyond the River and led him through all the land of Canaan, and made his offspring many. I gave him Isaac'” Joshua 24:2-3.
God did not choose Abram because Abram was a worshiper of God. Abram and his family were idol worshippers. It wasn’t until God called out Abram that Abram put his faith in God and left his family for a distant promise. It was God who drew Abram’s heart toward Himself, even giving Abram the necessary faith in order to make a covenant with a sinful man and giving Abram a new name…Abraham. And through Abraham, God chose Israel, a people he knew would utterly reject Him over and over, causing Him great grief.
“For you are a holy people to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but because the Lord loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the Lord brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt” Deuteronomy 7:6-8.
And now it is I, I am the one who has been chosen. As the gospel was spread to all the parts of the world to fulfill God’s plan, here I am today, several thousand years after Christ’s atoning blood was shed, rejoicing in the truth that I too am “a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy” I Peter 2:9-10.