Hosea Shows Us Good News

You may have heard about the prophet Moses (Musa). You may have heard about the prophet David (Daud). Have you heard about the prophet Hosea (Hoshia)? Like the other prophets, Hosea listened to God, obeyed Him, and spoke God’s words faithfully to the people.

At the time of Hosea, God was very sad and angry with the people. They were very unfaithful and were not following God. God told Hosea that He was going to use his life to show the people how much God loves them. God told Hosea to marry a woman named Gomer, even though she would be unfaithful to him. Hosea was a man of faith. He trusted God and honored God above everything else. So Hosea obeyed God and married Gomer.

Then, everything happened just as God had said. Gomer became unfaithful to Hosea. Although she lived in his house, she slept with other men. After some time Hosea sent her away because she continued to be unfaithful to him and to God. Now the prophet Hosea felt wounded, sad, and angry because of what his wife had done. He understood how sad and angry God was against the people, because they were unfaithful sinners. The people chased after many other things and did not try to follow God. They chased after money. They chased after pleasure. They chased after power. These things became like gods to them.

Think about this. Do we chase after money, or pleasure, or power, more than following God? By doing this we are following our own desires, not what God wants for us. We forget that God is the one who gives us money and pleasure and power. We’ve lied and cheated. We have stolen from other people. We serve ourselves. We do not serve God. . Living like this only brings shame on us, because we are dishonoring God. We are unfaithful to God, like Gomer was unfaithful to Hosea.

The prophet Hosea told the people about God and about their sin. He reminded the people that from the time of Adam, people have been unfaithful to God, our Creator. They should not bow down to any idols. But when they put things like money and pleasure first in their lives, instead of following God, these things become like idols to them. Hosea told the people that they should turn back to God from their selfish ways.
God does not want to punish people, but if they choose to be unfaithful to Him, He will punish them. God wants people to come back to Him, because He loves them. This is how Hosea spoke to the people.

Gomer, the wife of Hosea, had become a public prostitute. She was for sale in the marketplace. She had sold herself to men and to sin. The shame and dishonor of her unfaithfulness was seen by everyone. But Hosea did not have Gomer stoned, as the law allowed. Genuine love does not destroy. Genuine love finds a way for the guilty person to be redeemed, by paying the ransom price. Genuine love makes a way for a broken relationship to be restored. Genuine love is the love God has for us, even though we have all sinned against Him.

Now God wanted to show the people how much He loved them. He told Hosea to go and buy Gomer back, and to love her. God said, “Go and love her just as I love My people, even though they are not faithful to Me.” God gave Hosea the faith and strength to obey Him. To honor God was the most important thing for Hosea to do.

For Hosea to love Gomer again as his wife, he had to go to the market place and buy her back. Remember, Gomer belonged to Hosea. She was his wife. He was the only person who could rescue her from her shame and unfaithfulness. But Hosea did this. He went to that marketplace to redeem her. There he paid the ransom price. It cost him more than just money. He was humiliated and dishonored while he was buying her back. Then, he took her home. After this Gomer changed and became faithful to her husband Hosea. She lived with him as his wife and did not go to other men any more. Hosea’s love and forgiveness changed her heart.

Think about that. In the same way, God wants all people to come to Him. He wants all people to turn from their sinful, selfish ways and follow Him. That includes you and me. God in His mercy is ready to forgive our unfaithfulness. We have all dishonored God in our lives. God loves us and He wants us to become His followers, and to know His love and forgiveness.

How can we know God’s forgiveness? Muslims know that the penalty for unfaithfulness is death. Money cannot restore the honor of a man who has been shamed by an unfaithful wife. We all know that we have sinned against God. Many people try to do good things so that at the judgment their good works might be more than their bad works. They hope that God will have mercy on them. But how can an unfaithful sinner be restored to a position of honor before God? God is so high/great/almighty, who can pay the high price to free us from our shame and dishonor? The penalty for sin is death. At the last judgment we will be condemned. So each of us must die for our own sin. Each of us must suffer eternal death in hell because of our sin.

Hosea spoke God’s words to the people again. This is what he told them. “God says, ‘I am the Lord your God. You should have no other god but Me. There is no other Savior.’” That is what Hosea said to the people.

Gomer needed her husband Hosea to save her out of her unfaithfulness. In the same, way we need a Savior to save us from our sin and unfaithfulness. The Savior that Hosea spoke about was the Lord Jesus Christ (Hazrat Isa al-Masih). When Jesus was born God’s angel said He was to be given the name “Jesus” (which means salvation) because He will save His people from their sins.

How can Jesus save people from their sins? Hosea saved his wife Gomer from shame and unfaithfulness by going to the slave market and paying the ransom to rescue her. In the same way, Jesus came to rescue us from our guilt and shame and our sin of unfaithfulness. No amount of money or good works can rescue us at the last judgment. Death is the only thing we deserve. God’s justice must be satisfied. Only the death of a perfect and righteous man who is close to God can satisfy God’s justice.

This is what Jesus did for all people: Jesus came from God and lived a sinless life here on earth. He was a perfect, innocent man, with no sin. Sinful men were jealous of Him. They accused Him wrongly, and had Him arrested. He was taken before the judge, and sentenced to death. He was beaten with whips, publicly shamed and unjustly dishonored, and nailed to a wooden cross to die. After He died He was buried in a tomb. However, three days after His death He became alive again. God restored His life, defeating death, the price that Jesus paid for the sins of all people, your sins and my sins.

That is how much Jesus loves us. When Jesus was punished for sins that He did not commit, he took upon Himself the sin of all people. He was punished for our sin. In this way, Jesus paid the price to redeem us from the punishment of eternal death in hell that we deserve. This is good news for us. Jesus is our Redeemer. Our penalty has already been paid. In the Injil we read, “God made Jesus Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.” (2 Corinthians 5:21)

If we acknowledge our sin and accept Jesus as our Savior, God will forgive us and give us eternal life in Heaven. God’s salvation comes through trusting in the work of Jesus, not through our good deeds, because we will never be good enough.

God loves you so much that He has given you the only way to have a right relationship with Him. That is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Trust in Him, and you will be saved. Will you accept His offer to you? Will you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? Will you ask Jesus to come into your life to be your Savior? When you do this He promises to give you peace that you cannot find anywhere else. Ask Jesus into your life today.

You can pray something like this: “Almighty God, I know that You are holy and good, but I have been unfaithful to You and have done many bad things that are against Your law. I thank You that in Your mercy You sent Jesus to us to be our Redeemer. I believe that He gave His innocent life to pay the penalty for me and to deliver me from the Last Judgement. I accept Him as my Saviour and Lord, and now I want to live for You always and follow in Your ways. Amen.”