God hasn't given up on you.

Each Spring, my sons and I engage in a pushup challenge.  It isn’t a competition, but it is meant to keep us all mutually accountable and pressing on toward the same goal.  Each day for an entire month, we aim to do 100 pushups.  They don’t have to be done consecutively, but we each need to reach that total before the end of the day.

 Here’s what I’ve learned about doing pushups.  It isn’t the first few pushups that make the most difference.  It’s the last few, once your arms are tired and you’re tempted to give up.  The pushups you complete right when you’re tempted to quit are the pushups that have the best personal benefit.  So if you take a challenge like this, don’t quit too soon.

 I’m grateful that when I observe the hand of God in my life and in the lives of those I love, that He doesn’t quit too soon.  Even though I wouldn’t blame Him for wanting to give up on us, that isn’t His pattern.  And if you’ve been personally wondering if God has given up on you, I’m confident He hasn’t.

 We are given a powerful example of God’s patient, long-suffering nature in the second chapter of the prophetic book of Hosea.  Look with me at what this chapter reveals to us.

Is there anything you desire more than God Himself?

Say to your brothers, “You are my people,” and to your sisters, “You have received mercy.”

2 “Plead with your mother, plead—
    for she is not my wife,
    and I am not her husband—
that she put away her whoring from her face,
    and her adultery from between her breasts;

3 lest I strip her naked
    and make her as in the day she was born,
and make her like a wilderness,
    and make her like a parched land,
    and kill her with thirst.  (Hosea 2:1-3)

As was revealed in the first chapter of Hosea’s book, the prophet Hosea married a woman named Gomer who eventually became unfaithful to him and conceived multiple children outside the bonds of their marriage covenant.

 Gomer’s behavior was the fruit of her false beliefs.  Just as the culture of Israel at the time was steeped in false beliefs, so too was Gomer.  In fact, Gomer’s life was meant to symbolically illustrate the unfaithfulness of the people of Israel.  Just as they had been spiritually unfaithful to God, so too was she unfaithful to Hosea.

 Gomer had fallen into the same trap that humanity in general often falls into.  We find ourselves desiring something or someone other than God to satisfy our deepest longings, then we pursue whatever we believe will bring us that level of satisfaction even if it hurts us and everyone around us.

 Gomer chose sexual immorality as the vice that she believed would satisfy the longings of her soul.  The nation of Israel at the time had chosen the same thing.  Maybe you’ve chosen that as well, or possibly something else.  There’s no end to what we can become addicted to in our attempts to fill the void in our souls.

 The truth is, there is nothing in this world that can satisfy the longings of the heart like Jesus.  He who created us has designed us to live in relationship with Him.  If that relationship is missing from our lives, we’ll become confused, empty, and disappointed.  But once you find life through Jesus, you’ll see that He indeed was the one you were longing for.

Are your setbacks providentially intended to protect you?

6 Therefore I will hedge up her way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her, so that she cannot find her paths. 7 She shall pursue her lovers but not overtake them,and she shall seek them but shall not find them.Then she shall say,‘I will go and return to my first husband, or it was better for me then than now.’  (Hosea 2:6-7)

 Have you ever experienced a season of life when it felt like things weren’t working very well and you kept coming up against roadblocks of different sorts?  How did you respond to those setbacks?  Did you wonder if there was more to what you were experiencing than simple misfortune?

 As the Lord spoke prophetically to the nation of Israel through Hosea, He described a season when Israel would have its way “hedge[d] up with thorns.”  She would be blocked with walls and unable to pursue the things she loved more than the Lord.

 Why would the Lord do this?  Was it because He didn’t love Israel or because He loved Israel deeply?  Likewise, in our lives, why would God providentially prevent us from taking our lives in certain directions.  Could it be because He loves us and wants to prevent us from experiencing the pain that’s waiting for us on the other side of our misguided choices?

 The Lord revealed His purpose for doing this to Hosea when He said… 

Then she shall say, ‘I will go and return to my first husband, for it was better for me then than now.’ (Hosea 2:7b)

 God cares for you enough to keep you from mistakes you don’t even realize you’re about to make.  He loves you enough to draw you unto Himself.  At present, this is precisely what the Holy Spirit is doing in this world.  He’s guiding us back to our first love and reminding us that He’s the one we needed all along.

The day of a restored relationship with God is coming.

“And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband,’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ 17 For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. 18 And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens, and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword, and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety. 19 And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. 20 I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord.  (Hosea 2:16-20)

 During the days in which Hosea ministered, worship of the false deity Baal prevailed throughout the nation of Israel.  They praised Baal when they were blessed with children.  They praised Baal when their fields produced crops and the sky produced rain.  They praised Baal when their wealth increased, but they forgot the Lord who had made them a nation and blessed them in more ways than could be counted.

 But that won’t be the case forever.  The day is coming when God’s people will no longer call on the names of false deities.  The names of idols will be removed from their lips, and they will acknowledge their genuine relationship with the Lord.  

 In that day, things will be so good that animals won’t attack humans and nations won’t threaten each other with war.  God’s people will live in safety, righteousness, justice, love, mercy, and faithfulness.  His people will know Him and will want to know Him.

 That day is spoken of in multiple places in Scripture.  It’s the day when Jesus will rule and reign on this earth.  It’s the day when His kingdom will be fully established and experienced in all of its glory.

He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples;and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks;nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.  (Isaiah 2:4)

The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat,and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them.  (Isaiah 11:6)

 No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. (Revelation 22:3)

 I look forward to that day, but I’m also grateful that through Jesus, I experience a restored relationship with God right now.  I don’t have to wait for these wonderful promises to be completely filled and realized on this earth for these blessings to already be experienced in my heart.

God is preparing His bride for eternal glory.

And I will have mercy on No Mercy, and I will say to Not My People, ‘You are my people’; and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’” (Hosea 2:23b)

 I love the way Hosea 2 ends.  It references the names that were given to the children born in chapter 1, children who were symbolically named “No Mercy” and “Not My People” in order to illustrate the challenges Israel was going to face as they turned away from the presence and power of God.

 But God graciously reveals that He hasn’t given up on them.  He will have mercy on those who were attempting to live outside the blessings of His mercy.  He will make those who haven’t been living as His people part of His eternal family.  God is preparing His bride for eternal glory, and that compassionate work was being illustrated through Hosea’s relationship with Gomer.

 This very passage was also quoted by the apostle Paul in the ninth chapter of Romans.

What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, 23 in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory— 24 even us whom he has called, not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles? 25 As indeed he says in Hosea,

“Those who were not my people I will call ‘my people,’
    and her who was not beloved I will call ‘beloved.’”

26 “And in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’
    there they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’”  (Romans 9:22-26)

 If God has been willing to demonstrate His great patience to the nation of Israel while wooing them unto Himself and even sending His Son, Jesus their Messiah to them to call them back, is it a far stretch to believe He would do the same thing for you?

 The truth is, God didn’t create humanity for us to live at a distance from Him.  Man was created in God’s image and designed to have a deep, abiding, and healthy relationship with Him.  If you’re contemplating these thoughts today, understand that the very fact that the Lord allowed these words to reach your heart demonstrates that He hasn’t given up on you.  You may not feel deserving of this blessing, but God genuinely desires that you remain near to Him forever.

© John Stange, 2025