I read of a shepherd and his small dog who lived in Edinburgh. This dog was so faithful to his master that he followed him everywhere, at all times. Years later, the man died, and he was buried in the local cemetery. People didn’t notice the little dog present in the funeral procession leading out to the graveside. But as people were leaving they noticed the dog curl up and lie down on the shepherd’s grave. Not just for a day. He would not leave. People brought him scraps of food, but there he stayed, and there he lay, not just for days, but for years. In fact, he stayed at his post for another twelve years, until he died.

When God made dogs, he clearly wanted them to be illustrations of loyalty and faithfulness. Dogs are loyal, even when they are mistreated. Cats, on the other hand, would probably sell their owners into slavery for some extra cat-food. I think the reason our hearts warm to the loyalty and faithfulness of dogs is because we see so little of it among people.

No one needs illustrations to tell us that we live in a world of lies and liars. People break their oaths to be faithful to one person till death do them part. People break their oaths to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth in court. People break their oaths to faithfully worship, love, attend, support and serve their local church. Everywhere we look today, there are lawyers: lawyers who draw up contracts that will hopefully bind people to keep their word. We have contracts for employment, for property, for marriage, for insurance, for loans. Lawyers would be practically unnecessary if we lived in a world of truthful, faithful, promise-keeping people.

But we don’t. And such is the prevalence of lies and unfaithfulness, that we must beware that we do not become cynical about the very existence of truth, or the existence of faithfulness. Because piercing through all this darkness and lies is the brilliant truth that the God of Scripture is faithful and true. He is the true God, He speaks only truth, and what He promises, He keeps.

One of the most beautiful, and bittersweet illustrations of the faithfulness of God to an unfaithful people comes in the book of Hosea. We don’t know very much about Hosea, except what is provided in this rather short book of the Bible.

Hosea takes place during the time when Judah and Israel were separate kingdoms. He was one of the prophets sent to the northern kingdom, along with Jonah. He had a long ministry, around 45 years, spanning the reigns of six kings of Israel, and four kings of Judah, from around 760 to 715 B.C. He lived at the same time as the prophets Amos, Micah, and Isaiah. Hosea’s name is actually the same name as Joshua, and therefore the same name as Jesus. It means ‘Yahweh is salvation’.

But Hosea’s story is one of the most bittersweet in all of Scripture. Hosea is another example of a prophet who became an object lesson for God’s teaching. During Ezekiel’s ministry, God made Ezekiel perform several bizarre actions as witnesses to the people. Ezekiel had to create a mini-siegeworks like a toy battlefield, lie bound with rope on his left side for 390 days for the sins of Israel and 40 days on his right side for the sins of Judah, eating just 200g of food and drinking 600 mls of water a day, baking his food with human excrement all as an object lesson of the coming siege of Jerusalem. Other illustrations included shaving his head and beard (Ezekiel 5:1-4), digging through his wall (Ezekiel 12:1-7) and remaining mute for two years (Ezekiel 24:25-27). God uses his prophets as visible object lessons of His relationship to His people.

For Hosea, it was a heartbreaking illustration with devastating personal consequences. He lived during a time when the northern kingdom was enjoying peace, prosperity, but ever deepening moral corruption and spiritual adultery. It was drifting further and further from the Lord, and God used Hosea to illustrate what Israel was like to Him, and what He was like to them. And in this account, we behold our God as faithful and true.

Hosea 1:1 The word of the LORD that came to Hosea the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.

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.”

So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. (Hos. 1:1-3)

God’s prophetic word came to Hosea, and at some point, God told the young bachelor Hosea to take a wife. One can imagine Hosea brightening up at the thought of marriage, particularly an arranged marriage by God Himself. God has a girl for Hosea named Gomer.

But God tells Hosea some disturbing news in advance. Gomer is going to be an immoral woman, and their children will be tainted by this immoral unfaithfulness.

Now there is a debate between interpreters of Hosea whether Gomer was already an immoral woman when Hosea was commanded to take her, or whether she became that way after marriage. You can make a good argument for both, but I believe Gomer was not yet given to adultery at this time. Here’s why.

• First, a known and immoral woman in Israel was to be stoned to death, according to Deuteronomy 22:21. Certainly it’s true that the Law wasn’t always carried out, but it would be strange for God to be telling Hosea to break the Law by marrying someone who should already be stoned.
• Second, since Hosea and Gomer picture God and Israel, it isn’t true to think of Israel as spiritually unfaithful at the time God married her. God married Israel at Mount Sinai, and God speaks of the sweetness and innocence of her devotion to him then in Jeremiah 2:2. The unfaithfulness came later.

Now stop and ask yourself, if you were single, and God told you to marry someone, but told you in advance that this person would cheat on you, would you go through with it? If you knew that this wonderfully devoted person would in a few years be in the arms of someone else, would you go through with the ceremony?

I imagine most of us would say no. Most of us would say that it isn’t worth beginning a marriage if the person isn’t going to be faithful to us. But this is the first truth about God that should bewilder us:

God chooses a people He knows will be unfaithful to Him

God chose Israel, knowing they would turn to other gods, knowing that they would even reject His Son. But He chose them. God chose all believers, knowing that in our lives we would turn to the world, and find our pleasure there, that we would make gods out of family, and money, and entertainment, and sports, and possessions, that we would take His gifts and love them more than Him.

In God’s case, this is not some colossal blunder on His part. He knows the future perfectly, He has all power, He could choose a different future, and His grace is completely optional and free. But in spite of this, God chooses a people, knowing the heartbreak that is ahead.

Well, Hosea was perhaps hoping against hope that God had spoken of Gomer’s immorality in a conditional sense, that perhaps Hosea could be the kind of husband that no woman would cheat on. I imagine Hosea working hard to meet her needs, to be affectionate, to be the husband she wanted. And early on, things seemed okay.

Hosea and Gomer had three children, two sons and a daughter. Each of them was named to represent God’s displeasure with Israel: Lo-ammi means ‘not my people’, Lo-ruhama means ‘no mercy’, and Jezreel reminded Israel of unavenged bloodshed that took place there.

But all was not well at home. We imagine a human scene played out hundreds of thousands of times in human history. A husband away, travelling, or working late hours, Hosea undoubtedly travelling fair distances to preach. A wife, growing resentful of her responsibilities, feeling neglected, unappreciated, increasingly feeling like her life is caged and confined. And as so often happens, at those moments of loneliness and discontent, a handsome stranger is met, perhaps at the market, perhaps a friend of a friend. And soon the initial objections and conflicted conscience give way to rationalisations: my husband’s too busy for me. Who knows what he’s doing when he’s away? Is it too much to ask for a girl to feel noticed and appreciated?

And Gomer had begun a life of sin.

We don’t know when Hosea began to suspect. Perhaps it was her longer absences when he was back. Perhaps it was her coldness to him. Perhaps the children began telling him about the men visiting the house when he was gone.

But at some point, Gomer left the home, forsaking her husband and children. She no doubt had a promise from a man who told her that he knew how to take care of her and treat her the way she deserved. But the sad truth of adultery is that there is no covenant, there is no vow, and so there is no obligation. And once the man has grown tired of her, he rejects her. So in Gomer’s case.

Now try to picture the anguish of Hosea, the prophet, with three children, and a ministry of declaring God to the nation, with a wife who had left the home, and it was known that she lived with another man.

That anguish is there to illustrate the holy jealousy of God. We can say this second thing of God.

God is true to His people and expects the same from them

God is not one of many gods. Scripture tells us repeatedly that there is only one God in reality.

“And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (Jn. 17:3)

Israel, after arriving in the promised land, quickly turned to false gods. From swearing covenantal faithfulness to Yahweh and Yahweh alone, Israel soon began looking to Baal and Ashtoreth, and Molech, and Dagon. Not only did they look to these foreign gods, they looked to the foreign nations themselves, making military alliances with them, placing their trust in the might of another nation rather than in the might of God.

God looked at this as cheating on Him, committing adultery, since He is the only true God, and is true to His people, and expects the same from them.

There are many competitors to Yahweh for the title of God, but they are false gods. They cannot bear the weight and responsibility of being God to mankind, because they are not powerful enough, not beautiful enough, not glorious enough. Put a man, a woman, a child, an angel, a demon, an object, an achievement, an experience in the place of the true God, and it will fail you, 100% of the time. False gods always do three things: they demand all of you, they will betray you, and they will destroy you.

Every god demands all of you. So whatever you put in the place of the centre of your life will call for your complete devotion.

Matthew 6:24 No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other.

Every god will slowly shape you into its image, and if it is false, it will destroy you.

Psalm 135:15-18 The idols of the nations are silver and gold, The work of men’s hands.

They have mouths, but they do not speak; Eyes they have, but they do not see;

They have ears, but they do not hear; Nor is there any breath in their mouths.

Those who make them are like them; So is everyone who trusts in them.

Make money your god and you become a man whose life is debits and credits. Make pleasure your god and you become a slave to appetite. Make your children your god and you become a monster of vicarious self-love.

A false gods always betray you. They fail to deliver, they leave you, they age, run out, end, or no longer love you.

“For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, And hewn themselves cisterns– broken cisterns that can hold no water.” (Jer. 2:13)

But God is the true God. He likewise demands full devotion, because He deserves it. He shapes us into His glorious image, and He can, and does deliver lasting satisfaction, and fullness of joy. This is why God so often compares His relationship with His people to marriage.

“The Lord very frequently addresses us in the character of a husband; the union by which he connects us with himself, when he receives us into the bosom of the Church, having some resemblance to that of holy [marriage], because founded on mutual faith. As he performs all the offices of a true and faithful husband, so he [commands] love and conjugal faithfulness from us; that is, that we do not prostitute our souls to Satan, to be defiled with foul carnal lusts… Therefore, as the purer and chaster the husband is, the more grievously is he offended when he sees his wife inclining to a rival; so the Lord, who has betrothed us to himself in truth, declares that he burns with the hottest jealousy whenever, neglecting the purity of his holy marriage, we defile ourselves with abominable lusts, and especially when the worship of his Deity… is transferred to another’ – John Calvin

God is the true God, and speaks only the truth. When He joins us to Himself in union, in the act of regeneration in which the Holy Spirit unites us with Christ, He has a right to expect that we will now regard Him as our first love, and look to Him as our ultimate devotion, and ultimate delight, and ultimate dependence. Coming to Christ is not booking a ticket to Heaven; it is a marriage, a wedding with Christ. The day of your repentance and faith is the moment of marriage, your baptism is the ceremony and wedding ring, the Lord’s Supper and corporate worship are the sweet times of devotion. And how you live your life is the marriage in total.

God, for His part is completely true to us. He speaks only truth to us in His Word, no lies, no half-truths, no exaggerations. Being the true God, He speaks only truth. He represents reality to us exactly as it is. Picture a spouse, who when he or she opens her mouth, nothing is inaccurate, nothing is lopsided or skewed, nothing is omitted, nothing is a partial truth.

Because He is truth and true, He is perfectly consistent. As we saw when we considered His eternality and immutability, He never changes. He is perfectly consistent with Himself. He does not shift in moods, grow tired of you, slowly chill in His affections. He does not forsake us. He does not change His mind toward us. What He has vowed to do and be for you, He will fulfill exactly as He said He would. His promises, and His threats are not idle, overblown, exaggerated, or forgotten. This is how He is true to us.

Not a word failed of any good thing which the LORD had spoken to the house of Israel. All came to pass. (Jos. 21:45)

Your mercy, O LORD, is in the heavens; Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds. (Ps. 36:5)

“Therefore know that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments; (Deut. 7:9)

Adultery is evil because you leave the one you are pledged to – your true love. Spiritual adultery is evil because we turn from the only true God, who speaks only truth, who is only true to us, and we turn to false gods, lies, and gods that will betray us.

Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. (Jas. 4:4)

Chapter 2 of Hosea expresses God’s outrage at Israel. The conflicting emotions of Hosea, from anger, to grief, to outrage, to compassion illustrate how God sees the spiritual adultery of His people.

How did God respond to Israel? The answer is in chapter 3.

Then 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.”

Here was the tragedy of Gomer. Her life of sin was not what she had expected. She had thought she would find what she had not found in Hosea: excitement, affection, romance, pleasure. But instead, as every unfaithful wife finds, the man who accepts your unfaithfulness to another, thinks little of your devotion to him. And soon she was kicked out of one house, too ashamed to return to Hosea, and being passed from man to man. Finally, Gomer found herself at the very bottom. Whether it was through getting herself into debt, or whether it was the callousness of her last lover, she was now being sold as a slave. Pursuing her own freedom, she was entering now the deepest bondage, chasing after her independence from Hosea, she had now come to lose all independence, and was about to become the physical property of a man willing to pay fifteen pieces of silver for her.

And now God came to Hosea and said to him, “Go and buy her back.” Did Hosea still love her? Amidst all his pain, and shame, and outrage, and anger, he did. Did he still want her, now that she had been used and abused by so many wicked men? In spite of all the turmoil of her unfaithfulness, by grace, he did. His love, and his faithfulness to the marriage was greater than her unfaithfulness.

So I bought her for myself for fifteen shekels of silver, and one and one-half homers of barley. And I said to her, “You shall stay with me many days; you shall not play the harlot, nor shall you have a man– so, too, will I be toward you.”

So Hosea went to the marketplace, where Gomer was probably clothed in rags. Perhaps it was an auction, and some men bid on her. What would Gomer have thought as there stood Hosea, her first and true husband, the father of her children, the only man who had not used her, willing to buy her? What must she have felt as she could see he was willing to outbid anyone else to buy what other men now saw as worthless, damaged goods. But Hosea paid the price needed to free her.

And then he led her home, and as it were renewed their wedding vows. Notice, it is not coming from GGomer, but from Hosea’s unconquerable faithfulness. He says, you will now be mine, you will no longer be anyone else’s, but mine alone, as I am only for you. As we say in our wedding ceremonies, forsaking all others, till death us do part.

But this is then the most amazing part. We said first that God chooses a people He knows will be unfaithful. We saw that God is true to His people and expects the same from them. But then the third truth coming from the book of Hosea is this:

God is faithful even to His unfaithful people

God’s hesed is sometimes translated “steadfast, loyal love”. God remains committed to His people because He makes promises which He cannot break. He makes unconditional covenants based on His own oath. He makes promises rooted in His truthful nature.

God’s faithfulness is not a witless gullibility that allows itself to be abused. God’s faithfulness is a fully-aware, deeply committed covenant-keeping that knows what it will mean to betroth us, what it will cost, how we will fail, and what it will mean to sustain our faithfulness to him. Spurgeon said, “The glory of God’s faithfulness is that no sin of ours has ever made Him unfaithful. Unbelief is a damning thing, yet even when we do not believe, God is faithful. His children might rebel. They might wander far from His statutes and be chastened with many stripes. Nevertheless, He says, My lovingkindness I will not utterly take from him, nor allow My faithfulness to fail. My covenant I will not break, nor alter the word that has gone out of My lips” (Psalm. 89:33–34).

If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself. (2 Tim. 2:13)

Trust in Him, ye saints, forever— He is faithful, changing never; Neither force nor guile can sever Those He loves from Him.

This is why we believe in eternal security. Not because we think you can have a free pass into Heaven, even if you act like Gomer your whole life. No, because God has promised to save His people to the uttermost, He has promised to seal us to the day of redemption, He has promised to keep us from failing and present us faultless before the presence of His glory, He has promised to complete the work He began in us, He has promised that nothing can sever us from His saving love.

When He promises to save you, and gives you the down payment, the engagement ring of His Holy Spirit, He is making a promise of permanent union.

In fact, one of the reasons Romans 9-11 follows Romans 8 is because in Romans 8 Paul makes the case for the believers absolute security in Christ, so the natural question arises, didn’t Israel lose their salvation? And Paul explains that Israel was not saved as an entire nation, but as a nation within a nation. He explains God is still being faithful to ethnic Israel, and one day, they will come back to God. The first ones to be saved will be last to come back, and those last to come back will once again be first in honour.

Look at the prophecy.

For the children of Israel shall abide many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred pillar, without ephod or teraphim.

Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the LORD their God and David their king. They shall fear the LORD and His goodness in the latter days. (Hos. 3:4-5)

“I will betroth you to Me forever; Yes, I will betroth you to Me In righteousness and justice, In lovingkindness and mercy;

I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness, And you shall know the LORD.

“It shall come to pass in that day That I will answer,” says the LORD; “I will answer the heavens, And they shall answer the earth.

The earth shall answer With grain, With new wine, And with oil; They shall answer Jezreel.

Then I will sow her for Myself in the earth, And I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy; Then I will say to those who were not My people,\`You are My people!’ And they shall say,\`You are my God!'” (Hos. 2:19-23)

That day is still coming for ethnic Israel. But as surely as God is faithful, we believe it will take place.

Now God’s faithfulness is to his people, not to those who pretend to be His. Christ has a true bride, the truly saved. He is not a polygamist. And one of the marks of the saved is that when God comes looking for us, and pays the price to redeem us, and comes looking for us when we go astray, we come home.

Gomer didn’t stay on that slave block. She didn’t refuse Hosea’s purchase. She didn’t wallow in guilt and shame and remain in a life of adultery. Best we can tell, Gomer came home, and became an honest, faithful, industrious wife, supporting Hosea, and being a mother to her children. Yes, she was scarred by her sin, but not crippled from living a life of joyful obedience. And so the mark of God’s children is that when the faithful God comes to them and convicts them, and disciplines them, and calls them from their unfaithfulness, they come back. They persevere in faith, because the faithful, reliable God, has given them their reliance on Him. And however far they have fallen, be they eating pigs’ food, they come back to the Father’s house. They persevere in faith, they are faithful. Why? Because He who called us is faithful.

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. (Heb. 10:23)

So as we worship our God for being self-existent and self-sufficient, omnipresent, eternal and immutable, omnipotent and sovereign, omniscient and all-wise, just and righteous, gracious, and merciful, we must adore Him for what John said of Him:

Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True (Rev. 19:11)