As I opened a container that had been neglected at the back of the fridge, a foul odor filled the air and nearly made me gag. Over way too many weeks, some leftovers had turned into a repulsive, moldy mass.

In Hosea, we find God holding His nose—being repulsed—as He viewed His people. In a well-known account, He compared unfaithful Israel to Hosea’s wayward wife Gomer (1:2–3:5). Something was stinking in the northern kingdom, and a loving God was about to clean house.

As you turn the pages of Hosea, however, you can’t miss the relentless love God had for His people (1:7; 2:14). He had made a covenant with His rebellious nation and He compassionately chose not to destroy them completely (11:8-11; 14:4-7). But He did allow them to experience the destruction of their kingdom by Assyria in 722 BC (Hosea 5:13-14). Why? So they would “admit their guilt and turn to [Him]” (v.15)

With those thoughts in mind, the prophet penned, “Come, let us return to the Lord” and “let us press on to know Him” (6:1,3). Hosea cried out to His people to repent and return to God—the One who said, “I want you to show love . . . . I want you to know Me” (v.6). God implored them to turn from sin and embrace Him.

When we choose to turn from the Lord and pursue sin, we fall headlong into a state of spiritual death. We take another “lover” into our arms, as Gomer did, and our hearts grow cold. To bring us back, God must lovingly discipline us.

But if we repent, He will replace the stench of our sin with the sweet smell of restored relationship. God’s “love will know no bounds” as it fills the air with fresh fragrances like “the cedars of Lebanon” (14:4,6).