The book of Hosea is a love letter that God gives to the Israelites.  The whole book describes a tale about "a harlot being loved."

From this, we can be aware that God gives his people the complex passion of love, hate, and its conflicting emotions.  This "love" means that the Israelites are a people who are especially loved and selected by God.  There are signs of God's love and grace on them.  This "hate" means that the Israelites are a people who are disobedient and forgetful of the grace coming from God frequently.  Based on the above, God really loves as well as hates the Israelites.  The words, coming from Hosea, show this conflicting state of mind.  For example," ... my compassion grows warm and tender" (Hos 9:17), “I will fall upon them like a bear robbed of her cubs, I will tear open their breast, and there I will devour them like a lion, as a wild beast would rend them” (Hos 13:8), “I will heal their faithlessness; I will love them freely....” (Hos 14:4), and so on. We can say that God's tender and true love towards the Israelites are deep and have no need of return.

God creates the human body miraculously and more importantly, He gives human beings precious feelings.  Thus, people can be filled with joy, anger, sadness and happiness, which enrich their lives.  From ancient to modern times, various human feelings such as helplessness, indecisiveness, agitation, and regret spread continuously with the mixture of joy and sadness.

In Hosea, God commands the prophet to marry a harlot, which is unacceptable, but God's command is too hard to understand.  Yet, the prophet marries the harlot, Gomer, obediently.  Then, Gomer betrays her husband and gives her love to another one. Despite sadness, the husband, according to God's command, brings Gomer back twice.  He does not try to shame nor avenge her, but pardons her and accepts her with no regrets.  From the bottom of our hearts, if we try to realize the deep love between Hosea and Gomer, God and the Israelites, would we be touched by such unchanging love, whether it is alive or dead?

Human beings are weak when it comes to feelings. Many people often feel so much injustice in their feelings that they spend the rest of their living in melancholy or even hating each other.  The harlot betrays her husband, but her husband redeems her with tremendous love and at a great price.  How great is the affection when the Israelites, just like the harlot, are not loyal to God in their faith and desert God, but are found back repeatedly.  Whenever they turn back to God, God hugs them with His mighty arms.  Although they get hurt several times, they do not know God's cure.  God says, "I led them with cords of compassion, with the bands of love, and I will heal their faithlessness; I will love them freely, for My anger has turned away from them." These words show God's love, which harbors no disputes but is complete and holy.  Doesn't God treat disobedient people in the same loving way?

Today, God is still waiting for us and tolerating us, for "God is love." We ought to be led by His compassionate cords and bands of love, because the love of human beings is too difficult to keep from changing.  But we in the Lord know deeply that God is honest and that His love will never change.