This past week, I’ve been reading through Hosea. The language God uses to speak of Israel is quite striking. “For a spirit of whoredom has led them astray, and they have left their God to play the whore” (Hosea 4:12). The Lord, over and over in this book, describes His relationship with Israel as that of being married to a whore. And not just a one time affair or adulterous short-term fling. It is serial adultery He speaks of, a pursuit after whoredom. That is strong language to describe Israel’s unfaithfulness.
In letting this passage of Scripture read our own hearts, if we are honest with God and ourselves, we are the unfaithful one’s as well. We are the serial adulterers. We are … the “whores.” Ouch. And this isn’t just an overstatement. It is the reality. We are unfaithful to our great Husband and it breaks His heart in a way I don’t think we can comprehend. We get hints of how much it breaks His heart in seeing or experiencing the break up of a marriage due to adultery. But this is just an analogy to our relationship to God that has an eternal weight to it. And yet in spite of this He still pursues us.