Redeeming Love

​When I started writing my blog back in May of 2020, I had several friends express their love for Francine Rivers’ book, Redeeming Love. It has been many years since I first read it, so I decided it was time to read it again. The author beautifully depicts the tumultuous relationship between Michael Hosea, a Christian farmer who falls in love with a prostitute who goes by the name Angel. He marries her, against everyone’s advice, and then spends years showing her unconditional love, despite the many times she runs away from him as she struggles with worthlessness and memories of her past.
 
​The author uses the bibilical book of Hosea as the basis for her novel. The story of Hosea and his wife, Gomer, is a picture of God and Israel, loving her unconditionally and drawing her to Himself. As with Israel, God wants to draw us to Himself, even when we feel unworthy, many times running away from Him to pursue loves that never satisfy and a peace we will never find apart from Him.
 
My ESV Bible footnote states that the name “Hosea” comes from the same verb as “Joshua” and “Jesus” and means “to save or deliver.” The NIV Bible footnote says it means “salvation.” Hosea 1:2 describes the Lord speaking to Hosea, “Go, take to yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness, because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the Lord.” When the marriage begins, Gomer is faithful to Hosea, just as Israel was faithful to God at first. As Gomer falls into adultery and sin, God reveals to Hosea His desire to save His people and restore them to Himself.
 
In Redeeming Love, Michael shows Angel in countless ways how much he loves and cares for her, yet because he is only a man, he feels the hurt and pain of her rejection and faithlessness. He tells God, “I could kill her and be glad of it! Seventy times seven. I don’t want to listen to you. I’m sick of listening. You ask too much. It hurts. Can’t you understand? Don’t you know what she’s done to me? Seventy times seven. I can’t help how I feel, Lord. If I thought she could love me, maybe—As you have loved me? It’s not the same. You’re God! I’m only a man.”
 
We think that because He is God, God does not feel our rejection, but He does. Psalm 78:40 (ESV) tells us “how often they rebelled against Him in the wilderness and grieved Him in the desert!” The heart of God is love—a love so deep and abiding that we cannot comprehend it. Romans 8:38-39 (NIV) reminds us: “For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
 
In Hosea 2:19-20 (ESV), God reveals even more of His heart toward us: “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. I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness. And you shall know the LORD.” We have the privilege of not only being loved by God, but being able to really know Him.
 
The story of Michael and Angel is one all of us can relate to. At some point in our lives, each of us have “stumbled because of our iniquity” (Hosea 14:1 ESV) and need to turn to the Lord. Some of us, like Angel, make it harder on ourselves by fighting for control of our lives, unwilling to let God’s forgiveness flow over us, unable to receive His acceptance of us, and unaware of the gifts He has for us if we’ll only open our hearts to Him.
 
Reading Redeeming Love drew me to Christ in a new way. It’s one of those books that needs to be reread every so many years, and because we never remain static in our personal growth, we take something different away from it with each reading. It’s the same with Scripture. Each day I read it and meditate on it, then spend time in prayer, I come away changed by the power of the Holy Spirit through the Word of God.

I want to leave you with Francine Rivers’ comments at the end of the book: “Writing Redeeming Love was a form of worship for me. Through it, I was able to thank God for loving me even when I was defiant, rebellious, contemptuous of what I thought being a Christian meant, and afraid to give my heart away. I had wanted to be my own god and have control of my life the way Eve did in the Garden of Eden. Now I know to be loved by Christ is the ultimate joy and fulfillment. Everything in Redeeming Love was a gift from the Lord: plot, characters, theme. None of it is mine to claim. There are many who struggle to survive in life, many who have been used and abused in the name of love, many who have been sacrificed on the altars of pleasure and ‘freedom.’ But the freedom the world offers is, in reality, false. Too many have awakened one day to discover they are in bondage, and they have no idea how to escape. It is for people such as these that I wrote Redeeming Love—people who fight, as I did, to be their own gods, only to find in the end that they are lost, desperate, and terribly alone. I want to bring the truth to those trapped in lies and darkness, to tell them that God is there, He is real, and He loves them—no matter what.”

“But I am the LORD your God from the land of Egypt; you know no God but Me, and besides Me there is no Savior.” (Hosea 13:4 ESV)
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​Blessings to you!
Lori 

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