The book of Hosea is one of the great love stories in the Bible – a drama of persistent love in the face of rejection. Hosea was commanded to do the unthinkable – marry a harlot. His home would be a picture of spiritual harlotry, to declare Israel’s spiritual condition. Astonishingly, this situation is meant to describe the magnificence of the love of God. It is a story of betrayal and despising the marriage covenant contrasted with salvation and God’s faithfulness, patience, and mercy. In short, Hosea shows us just how faithful God is to the unfaithful. God chose us when we were dead in our sins and loved us to the end.

Lord, I thank you for this book, the words as we review them. I pray that you would burn them deep within our hearts. Teach us the ways of your love. Amen. Well, open your Bibles to the book of Hosea.

Hosea is one of the great love stories of the Bible. The love stories of the Bible are some of the most remarkable love stories ever written. They completely outperform Hollywood on every count. One way that they outperform Hollywood is that they tell the truth, number one. Secondly, they use the proper language.

In Hollywood they use salacious, sexualized language, but the language, what's revealed, what's held back, blesses the reader, whereas in Hollywood the reader is defiled. So it's a blessing to have love stories that are framed properly, that use the right words, that speak of the situations in a way that glorifies God. You find that in the book of Ruth, you find it in Song of Solomon, and here you find it in the book of Hosea. Now Hosea is one of the most stunning stories of persistent love in the face of rejection that's ever really been written. The focus of Hosea is a church that loves the world through her misplaced affections.

Hosea was commanded to do the unthinkable, to marry a harlot. His home would end up being a picture of spiritual harlotry designed by God to declare the spiritual condition of Israel. And when we read on through the story, we learn that the whole story is meant to describe the magnificence of God's love. So it's a heartbreaking story. That's a story of betrayal.

That's a story of despising a marriage covenant. And it's a salvation of the patience of God to save sinners and it's a story of faithfulness. Solomon said drink from your own cisterns. He was talking about marriage, he was talking about love, And all of this is thrown away in the book of Hosea. And what we find here is this family is a picture of something greater.

Marriage is demonstrating the spiritual conditions of people and of nations. And in this story, God uses a family to show the power of his love, specifically the persistent, dogged love of a husband toward his wife. And This is why the family is a picture of God and His church. Marriage is designed to demonstrate how a person should relate to God and how God relates to people. And all of this is displayed in the book of Hosea.

God is a jealous God and at the same time he's inexplicably patient and God will not forsake his people. Now there are two primary messages to people in this book. First, to the hardened spiritual adulterer, which is a picture of the church with a roving eye, to a church who's distracted, to a church who is allured by the silliness and the profanity of the world. And the second kind of person is It's a message to a husband who's called to love his wife in the midst of her worldliness. To love a wife like Christ loved the church.

That's what Hosea is charged to do. There are three spiritual themes in Hosea. First of all, spiritual adultery. Second, love. Third, judgment.

So that's sort of an overview of the basic sense of Hosea. Let's talk about the date. The prophecy was delivered somewhere between 750 and 725 BC during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. These were all kings of Judah, and the message was also delivered during the reign of Jeroboam II in Israel. So Hosea is a contemporary to Isaiah and Amos.

So they all were ministering about the same time. Let's talk about the man Hosea. His name means salvation or Joshua. The name Jesus is derived from this very same word. And Hosea is the prophet to the northern kingdom of Israel.

The northern kingdom is also called Samaria and Ephraim. The southern kingdom is called Judah and Benjamin. So Hosea is ministering to the northern kingdom and he prophesied for over 40 years very much like Isaiah did. And what we learned from Hosea is that life is hard when you're a prophet because God brings very, very difficult things into your life, and these things are all used to demonstrate God's love. And so the great hardship of Hosea's life is that he was forced by the command of God to marry a harlot.

And Hosea speaks about three different Israel's here. He speaks first of the northern kingdom, second he speaks to the children of Judah in the southern kingdom, and thirdly he speaks of the true people of God or the invisible church. This term is used for all three of those peoples. Here you have a man who had to buy his wife back. She was committing adultery and was a slave as a result of her adultery.

Her terrible lifestyle had gotten her in so much trouble she ended up a slave and Hosea had to pay to buy his wife Gomer back. How much did he pay? 15 shekels of silver and about a Homer of Lethic of barley. That's in Hosea 3.2. Imagine something like that happening.

It was horrific. And so you see what Hosea did to keep her, and according to the law of the land during that day, He could have killed her for her physical adultery, but he didn't. He kept her. Let's talk about the setting. The northern kingdom was about to fall to Assyria.

The Assyrian armies were rattling their sabers and everyone was terrified, and you get a very vivid picture of this in the book of Isaiah where everyone is shaking like a leaf because they're about to be devoured, and they are actually going to be devoured. Tens of thousands will be killed and they'll be deported to Assyria, and the ten tribes of Israel will disappear forever. The two tribes of Israel in the south do not disappear. It's a time when sin is rampant, there's moral and religious corruption, and Hosea and Gomer are caught in the midst of this culture of adultery. Let's talk about what I'm going to call an interpretive key to understanding the message.

And the key is that Hosea and Gomer are an analogy. They are an analogy of the Church and the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you look at chapter two, verse 19 and 20, you'll see exactly what I mean by this. You read the words, I will betroth you to me forever. Yes, I will betroth you to me in righteousness and judgment, in righteousness and justice, in loving kindness and mercy.

I will betroth you to me in faithfulness and you shall know the Lord." And in these words you can see what is the persistent message. It's the message of the unstoppable love of God towards sinners. There are many doctrines in the book. I've listed several of them there in your outline. The first is the doctrine of the sovereignty of God.

In this book you find people boasting about their own power and their own glory. And this is what you find with Ephraim in chapter 12 verse 8 and Ephraim said, Surely I have become rich. I have found wealth for myself. In all my labors they shall find in me no iniquity. But then the Lord replies, but I am the Lord your God ever since the land of Egypt.

I will again make you dwell in tents as in the days of the appointed feasts. God meets this boastful, proud, arrogant declaration of self-sufficiency with these words. No, I am. I am the Lord your God. I was the one that brought you out of Egypt.

I will make you dwell in tents. I will do that. All of your glory, all of your boasting is nothing because I'm gonna put you in tents and I'm gonna humiliate you God of sovereign in chapter 13 verse 9 we read the same principle Oh Israel you are destroyed, but your help is from me. I will be your king. Where is any other, that he may save you in all your cities and your judges to whom you said give me a king and princes I gave you a king in my anger and took him away in my wrath." Here God declares himself sovereign over kings of the earth all help that anybody ever receives.

Then there's the doctrine of holiness in chapter 11 verse 9. We read this in verse 9, I will not execute the fierceness of my anger. I will not again destroy Ephraim, for I am God and not man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come with terror." Here God is declaring himself to be completely separate, absolutely different. He's nothing like any other good thing. He is not like any other person at all.

He is holy, and He is not like a man. What is holiness? It's like nothing you've ever seen. All of the very best things in life really are dark shadows of true holiness. When we say that God is holy it means that he's absolutely beyond anything you can imagine.

That's holiness. And then also there's the whole doctrine of repentance in chapter 10 verse 12 there's a very significant phrase here that's well known chapter 10 verse 12 so for yourselves righteousness reap in mercy break up your fallow ground for it is time to seek the Lord till he comes and rains righteousness on you. You have plowed wickedness, you have reaped iniquity, you have eaten the fruit of lies because you trusted in your own way in the multitude of your mighty men. This is just a call to repentance. And what does repentance look like?

Well, it looks like breaking up your fallow ground, taking the hardness of your heart and turning it over and making your heart a place that can receive seed and there can be growth and then there's fruit. But growth and fruit and abundance doesn't happen until you break up the ground and that has to do with repentance. So let's look at the outline of Hosea. Essentially the book divides into two sections and I've given you this overall outline but then on the second page there's a far more detailed outline. We're going to use that more detailed outline to walk through this book.

I got this outline from the ESV Study Bible. So the first section of Hosea is Hosea 1 through 3, and in this section, this terrible tragedy is described in Hosea's home, And it's there that we learn that marriage is a parable. Adultery is a figure for spiritual life. And, you know, God uses matters of sexuality to bear witness to other things. And that's what we find here.

So that's the first section. The second section is in Hosea 4 through 14 and here there's a shift from Hosea's home to his homeland. So the impact is national. So he's laid down the foundation that the spiritual adultery in his house is a picture, and then he gives the illustrative matters of this picture of downfall and what has happened in the nation, because spiritual adultery in a home destroys a home, spiritual adultery in a nation destroys a nation. So he makes that connection in this second section of the book.

So Let's dive into the text now. Go and find chapter 1 verse 1, and there you see this introduction in the first verse. The word of the Lord that came to Hosea the son of Birai in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah kings of Judah and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash the king of Israel." I always appreciate it when you have historical, geographical, and calendar reference points in Scripture. Well here we know exactly the time range that he lived and he prophesied. And then in verse 2 there's no time wasted in getting to the point.

When the Lord began to speak by Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, go take yourself a wife of harlotry and children of harlotry for the land has committed great harlotry by departing from the Lord." Now I hope you noticed what's happening here. Hosea is most likely a young man. He begins to speak for the Lord. He begins to prophesy, and right at the time that he is gonna start speaking, God tells him to go marry a harlot. How about that?

What's that going to do to the integrity of his voice? Who is going to listen to this man? I mean, we have to recognize how difficult this was for someone like Hosea to do. You know, the Spirit of God was upon him, the Word of God was burning in his soul, he wanted to preach it and he's gonna marry a harlot? Really?

That's exactly what happened, and it's a most difficult command to say the least. And then as a result of the marriage, because obviously he got married, in verse 3 we begin a discussion of the birth of his children, and his children's names all had meaning. In the same way that Isaiah's children had meaning in terms of his prophecy. Isaiah's children's names really bore witness to his whole message, and the exact same thing happens with Hosea. His children's names define the message and the problem.

And so verse three, we read, "'So he went back and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblam, "'and she conceived and bore him a son.'" Verse four, "'Then the Lord said to him, "'Call his name Jezreel.'" So God commands him to name his son Jezreel. For in a little while I will avenge the bloodshed of Jezreel on the house of Jehu and bring an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel and it shall come to pass in that day I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel." Jezreel's message, the meaning of this child is very simple. The end is coming. Would you like to have a child like that? Oh, name your child.

The end is coming. Not in the top five list of names, you know, in the hearts of Christian people. Then the next child is born, verse six, and she conceived again and bore a daughter. Then God said to him, call her name Lo-Ruhama, for I will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel but I will utterly take them away." If it wasn't bad enough that the first child, Jezreel, meant the end is coming, now Lo-ru-hamah is born and what does her name mean? There will be no mercy.

Okay, another classic name. Don't name your children this. Of course, God was commanding him to name this baby girl Lo-Rama. And then verse 9, another child is born, Lo-ami. And what does Lo-ami mean?

You are not my people. What a terrifying thing. You know, people bring children into the world and it's such a joy. You give them these wonderful names that mean so much to you and maybe your other relatives. Hosea didn't have that privilege.

God commanded him to name his children for various aspects of the judgment of God. And then there's a promise in verse 10. It's a promise of a covenant. And it shall come to pass in the place where it was said to them, you are not my people. Then it shall be said to them, you are sons of the living God.

So in verse 10, there's an announcement of the mercy of God. Even though this disobedient people is marked by Jezreel, the end is coming, lo Ruhamah, there will be no mercy, and lo Ami, you are not my people. At the same time, God has mercy, and he says, you are sons of the living God. This is the mercy of God. Hosea is about the mercy and the love of God towards sinners.

And verse 11, which follows up what was just declared, there is a declaration of the Lord Jesus Christ. Where is Christ in this book? Well, he's in verse 11. Then the children of Judah and the children of Israel shall be gathered together and appoint for themselves one head, and they shall come out of the land, for great will be the day of Jezreel." And then in chapter 2, there are legal proceedings against this wayward wife. Verse 1, say to your brethren my people and to your sisters mercy is shown bring charges against your mother bring charges for she is not my wife nor am I her husband Let her put away her harlotries from her sight and her adulteries from between her breasts." And this is an announcement of proceedings and it's a warning, it's a threat.

And the Lord declares that he's going to make it very difficult for her. Verse 6, Behold, I will hedge up your way with thorns and wall her in so that she cannot find her paths. And here we learn that God is going to oppose her, God is going to stop her at every front. This is what God does to those whose hearts have been captured by spiritual adultery. He stops them, he stands in their way, he sends people to them, He confronts them in different ways.

And then in verse 7 we read, she will chase her lovers but not overtake them. In other words, it's gonna be a very frustrating kind of life. She's chosen this life of debauchery, but it doesn't work out very well. You know, she'll say, I will go and return to my first husband for then it was better for me than now. In other words, she realizes how bad it is.

She realizes how terrible sin is to you and so she desires to go back to her husband. Notice also she's religious, verse 11, and I will cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons, her Sabbath, all her appointed feasts. She's a person who keeps the Sabbath, she celebrates the various elements of the ceremonial law, she's a religious person. And this happens where you find people who claim to be Christians but really they live completely different and they do all the religious duties, they use all the God words, but there's really no substance to it. This was what Gomer was all about.

And then there's a covenant relationship that is called out for in chapter 2, if you look at verse 14. Therefore behold, I will allure her, will bring her into the wilderness and speak comfort to her. I will give her her vineyards from there." This is a promise from God that He will lure her back in. He will woo her. She has escaped.

She's really getting beat up and God is gonna allure her back. He's going to draw her with cords of love. And then there's a command to remarry in chapter 3. Astonishingly, Hosea is supposed to go back and marry her again. In verse 1 in chapter 3, the Lord said to me, go again, love a woman who is loved by a lover and is committing adultery, just like the love of the Lord for the children of Israel who look to other gods and love the raisin cakes of the pagans." You can see the connection again where there's a command to to marry her but it's a picture of the love of God for his children.

That's the whole purpose of the command. And then in verse 2 Hosea buys her back. He buys her right out of slavery. And then in the second section, now that this first section which speaks of the whole tragedy of Hosea's home life, now Hosea spells out His parable to the people with various accusations and warnings and promises and you see that in chapters 4, 1 to the very end of the book in chapter 14 verse 9. And so in this section the legal proceedings continue in chapter 4 verses 1 through 9 and there's a picture of what spiritual harlots must experience and it's a terrible thing verse 2 swearing and lying killing and stealing they break all restraint verse 3 the land will mourn Everyone who dwells there will waste away with the beasts of the field, and the birds of the air, even the fish of the sea, will be taken away.

It never works out very well to turn away from God. You always get hurt. Nobody is able to escape the natural judgments of God when they turn from Him. It hurts so much. Verse 6, my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge.

Verse 7, I will change their glory into shame. Verse 9, and it shall be like people like priests, so I will punish them for their ways and reward them. And he just goes on and on about the spiritual adultery. In verses 13 and 14 you'll get a picture of the high places and what was going on there, but the high places were places of not just spiritual adultery but physical adultery. When you find people interested in the high places, it's because there is immorality going on there, and you see that in these two verses.

And you find this very same testimony in chapter 5 of adultery in the high places. And then there's an appeal to return in chapter six. Come let us return to the Lord for he has torn but he will heal us. He has stricken but he will bind us up. After two days he will revive us.

On the third day he will raise us up that we may live in his sight." This is an appeal to turn, to turn around and go the other direction, to repent, to turn away from the things that are bruising you and hurting you. Like Isaiah said, there's nothing but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. The whole head is sick, the whole heart is faint. That's what sin does to you and so he's appealing to that. In chapter 7 verses 1 through 3 we learn that all of this is under the watchful eye of God, that nothing escapes His gaze.

And then there are four similes for unfaithful Israel. And when you read Hosea, read these carefully. There's the simile of the oven and the cake and the dove and the treacherous bow and you'll find those in chapter 7. And all of these bear witness to this terrible adultery that's been going on. And then after that, in chapters 9 through 11, there are more similes to describe the unfaithfulness of Israel.

Grapes, a vine, a calf, and a toddler. So all these vivid images are put before you to help you understand what spiritual adultery looks like and the faithfulness of God looks like as well. In chapter 10 We find a continuation of these similes, but in verse 2 there's a very interesting statement. Their heart is divided. Now they are held guilty.

He will break down their altars. He will ruin their sacred pillars. This is a warning. If spiritual harlotry is your game, it won't be long and it'll be game over because God will end it all. In verse 12 in that same chapter you read, "'So for yourselves righteousness, reap in mercy, break up your fallow ground.'" That's a classic statement in this whole book in chapter 10.

And then in chapter 11 you find the judgment against them for their dependence upon alliances. Remember in the second half Hosea is addressing their spiritual adultery on a national scale and how they're trusting in foreign countries. And in verse 1 in chapter 11 we read this, When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I have called my son. And this is a picture of God's love to bring his children out of bondage in Egypt, to come out of the slavery that Pharaoh imposed upon them. Pharaoh was abusing them, he gave them no rest, And so God says, out of Egypt I called my son, which is actually a figure of the Lord Jesus Christ who did go to Egypt and came out of Egypt.

But it's a picture of people coming out of bondage in Egypt And he says, I will draw them with gentle cords, with bands of love, and I was to them as those who take the yoke from their neck. I stooped and fed them. I've drawn them with bands of love. This is what God does. He draws you with with words of love.

He may draw you with words of terror, but my experience is that most people are drawn by words of love. They turn to him because they love him, they desire him. And yes, there is a realization of the terrors to come if they don't, but here the Lord is drawing them with cords of love. At the same time, He's also declared many terrors as well. So he, Hosea, uses both of these as ways of calling out his people.

And then in chapter 11 he speaks of dependence on alliances. Chapter 12, the same thing, Ephraim feeds on wind and pursues the east wind. He daily increases lies and desolation. In other words, all these securities that they're looking for, all these ways that they're trying to find significance and strength, it's wind. It doesn't do anything for them.

Not only does it hurt them, it's just a wind. It just, you know, how do you grasp the wind? You can't. And this is the problem with spiritual adultery. You're always grasping at the wind, and none of it fills or fulfills you.

And then there's a further indictment, and then there's a chastisement for the worship of man-made gods in chapter 13, verses 1 through 8. And here, the whole matter of Baal worship is spoken of here. And he describes what Baal worship is like, verse 3, it's like a morning cloud, like the early dew that passes away, like chaff blown off from a threshing floor, and like smoke from the chimney. In other words, you like your adulterous relationship, here's what you get. You get nothing.

It's a cloud. It's like dew that disappears. It'll abandon you. You'll have nothing at the end of it. And then there's this cry because Israel has rejected the only hope that they have in chapter 13 verse 9.

Oh Israel, you are destroyed, but your help is from me. I will be your king. This is a call to recognize the terrible condition they're in and how hopeless and unprofitable it's going to be. And then there are these closing appeals in chapter 14. O Israel, verse 1, return to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity.

Take words with you and return to the Lord. Say to him, take away all iniquity. Assyria shall not save us. We will not ride on horses. Nor will we say any more to the work of our hands, you are our gods.

For in you the fatherless finds mercy." And then God says, I will heal your backsliding. I will love them freely for my anger is turned away from them and I will be like the dew to Israel. He shall grow like the lily and lengthen the roots like Lebanon. His branches shall spread. His beauty shall be like an olive tree, and His fragrance like Lebanon." And here, Hosea is crying out to the people to recognize what happens to you when you repent.

Your life is like a garden. Everything changes. He begins to heal you and He begins to bless you and there's fruitfulness and there's fragrance and there's beauty and it's lush and this is what happens to the soul that turns to the Lord and this is what had so hurt Gomer when she turned away and then there's a real return in verse 8 Ephraim shall say what have I to do anymore with idols? I have heard and observed him. I am like a green cypress tree.

Your fruit is found in me. That's the fruit of revival. Who is wise? Let him understand these things. Who is prudent?

Let him know them. For the ways of the Lord are right. The righteous walk in him, but transgressors stumble in them." So those are the final words of the book of Hosea. On the one hand, Hosea is reminding of them of the beauty and the fruitfulness and the happiness there is in following the Lord, at the same time how transagressors stumble and they fall. And all of this drama between a husband and wife is designed to say this very thing.

It's a design to speak of the love of God because you see this persistence, you see this seeking, even though He's been spurned. It's the love of God. And that's why you see so much of Christ in Hosea. You see his judgments, you see his devotion, you see his tenderness, you see how he continues to draw you with cords of love. He continues to speak words of tenderness and mercy to his people like the Lord Jesus Christ did wherever he turned.

And so Christ is all over this book because Christ and his church is all over this book. So here's some lessons. First of all, Israel played the harlot, but God took her back. That should take your breath away. We're not as merciful as God.

Most people would not allow this to happen. They would take the exception clause in the words of Jesus for divorce. Hosea would have nothing of it. He was devoted to his wife. He took her back.

He actually bought her back. That's a picture of redemption. Secondly, the imagery is important to the New Covenant Christian because Christians are betrothed to Christ. Now, when you are betrothed as Hosea was to Gomer, you can become a spiritual harlot. So watch out.

Number three, It's easy for us to think poorly of Gomer, but our heart problem is the same as Gomer. We seek our own pleasures. We chase the things that do not bring true pleasure. We're attracted to the pleasures of this world. Instead of the Creator, we seek the creation, and we're like Gomer.

We look longingly in the world, and reading this testimony is a really good opportunity to say, is there anything in this world that I'm looking longingly to? Is there any false promise that the world has been speaking into my ears that I began to entertain? Because our heart problem is the same as Gomer's problem, and that is we are being a Lord. Or are we listening to the words of love? Are we being drawn by these cords of tenderness from God?

Number four, Hosea should help us to understand how devastating it is to have a marriage that's in trouble. Men and women who find themselves disconnected, they're going in different directions in life, laziness, pornography, workaholism, things like this. And it's a little bit too easy in this world to have your marriage in trouble because of all the things that are swirling around us. But in the midst of this, Hosea is here to tell us about a husband's love and how he deals with his wife's imperfections with dogged determination by obedience to the command of God. This marriage was saved for one reason alone.

Hosea obeyed God and that's the primary matter that we need to recognize. And you see that Hosea, he continued to love her, He continued to reach out to her. He continued to hear the voice of God. He continued to obey God every step of the way. It's amazing, really.

He never fell apart. He just kept obeying God. He kept seeing the glory that his wife could be. He never lost hope somehow. You know, I heard a preacher tell a story of a surgeon by the name of Richard Seltzer.

He wrote a book called Mortal Lessons, Notes in the Art of Surgery. And there's a story in the book about a young woman who has a tumor in her cheek and the tumor has to come out or she'll die. But in order to take the tumor out, the doctor has got to cut a very small, but very important nerve that controls the muscles on one side of her mouth. And The woman has been scarred for life and her face is droopy on one side and her smile is crooked because of what had happened. And so this doctor, Dr.

Seltzer, writes of his visit to her hospital room after surgery and here's what he says, I stand by the bed where the young woman lies, her face post-operative, her mouth twisted in palsy, clownish, a tiny twig of her facial nerve, the one to the muscles in her mouth, has been severed. She will be thus from now on. As a surgeon, I had followed with religious fervor the curve of her flesh. I promise you that. Nevertheless, to remove the tumor in her cheek, I had to cut that little nerve.

Her young husband is in the room. He stands on the opposite side of the bed and together they seem to dwell in the evening lamplight isolated from me private who are they I ask myself he with his wry mouth who gaze and touch each other so generously the woman speaks will my mouth always be like this she asks yes I say It's because the nerve is cut and she nods. She's silent, but the young man smiles. I like it, he says. It's kind of cute.

All at once I know who he is. I understand and lower my gaze. One is not bold in an encounter with God. Unmindful of my presence, he bends to kiss her crooked mouth. And I'm so close I can see how he twists his own lips to accommodate hers, to show her that their kiss still works.

And what do we think? How do we consider the love of God? How should we respond? We respond by never forgetting the persistent love that we see in Hosea. Chapter 2 verse 19, I will betroth you to me forever.

Yes, I will betroth you to me in righteousness and justice, in loving kindness and mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness, and you shall know the Lord. And Hosea is designed to proclaim that. That God, through his persistence, through his cords of love that he throws out, he draws sinners back and no one is too far. No one has gone too deep into sin to be rescued.

And Hosea and Gomer stand for time immemorial to demonstrate that to all of us, that God is love. There's Hosea.