Go Take a Wife!
More than 700 years before the advent of Jesus, God told His prophet named Hosea, to take and wife and marry her, though she would be unfaithful to Hosea. This wife would provide an example to Israel of God's chosen people's unfaithfulness. Hosea's wife, (Gomer) would bear him children, but she, in her unfaithfulness, would also bear children to other men. So, before Hosea married Gomer, he already knew she would prove unfaithful, but in obedience to God, Hosea, married her and continued to love her even though she was having adulterous affairs and having children outside her marriage vows.
Why would God initiate such a marriage for Hosea?
Through the thousands of years after God told Abraham that his seed would be a "chosen people" unto the Lord, the Hebrews, (the chosen) would "off and on" with their faithfulness to God. They would go through seasons of faithfulness and be fruitful to God, then they would do just the opposite and abandon God to follow their own lusts.
Does that sound familiar to us?
The bad news is that we are sometimes unfaithful to God ourselves. But the good news is that even while we were yet sinners, God loves us anyway! God is always faithful to us, even though we often go away from Him.
Give thanks to God today for His grace! For by grace you are saved!