She'll be back. She'll be back.

I read: Hosea 1-4

I'm not quite sure how the guy who figured out the chapters and verses of the Bible decided to do that 'cause chapters 2 and 4 of Hosea are huge with lots of stuff and then you get three paragraphs for chapter 3. And if you look at how Peterson breaks up the chapters, they never seem to coordinate. Very weird. I have a feeling that Peterson wishes he could re-number the Bible!

In chapter 2 God told Israel he was going to start re-courting them. He's been humiliated and shown his jealousy towards his jealous lover, but he's ready to take "her" back. In this chapter he begins to make good on that promise. God commands Hosea to take back Gomer and he does. Hosea reports that it cost him "the price of a slave."

The price of a slave? It cost Hosea something hefty to get her back. But the key is that it cost him. He couldn't just snap his fingers, he had to go and find her and find her pimp and pay for her again. If this is a book of prophecy (which it is) and I've interpreted the book correctly so far (I hope I have), God's re-courting of Israel takes place through Christ and then the "price of a slave" here can refer to Christ's own life, given up freely on the cross to buy us back. What does this all mean? Hosea is one heck of an awesome trailer for the New Testament, that's what ;)