Book review and my thoughts on "Redeeming Love" by Francine Rivers
The book Redeeming love is all about powerful retelling the bible story of Hosea and Gomer and their marriage who lived in the eighth century B. C in the northern portion of Israel. The setting of the book "Redeeming Love" is in the 1850s Gold Rush in California, a historical romance novel by Francine Rivers.
Angel's past years of her life haunted her continuously. My favorite quote in this book is "Everybody wants something. Nobody gives you anything without expecting something back". Michael Hosea took Angel out of a brothel. He fell in love with her for the first time he saw her and loved her unconditionally. Michael had seen Angel in a worse place than one could imagine and still, he took her back. Even after she deserted and betrayed him he fought for her. She could never understand him. She had thought men like him were weak, but Michael wasn't. Rivers describes Michael Hosea as, He was quiet and steady, unyielding like a rock. How could he still look at her with anything but loathing after all she had done? How could he love her? When a reader reads this story any woman would want a man like Michael Hosea, a wonderful man willing to fight for you and won't let you walk away from him.
But the past kept catching up with her, no matter how far she ran, sometimes she felt though she were on a road and could hear the hard beat of the horses' hooves coming, as though a coach were coming, straight at her but she couldn't get out of the way. In her mind, she could see it racing toward her, and within it were Duke, Sally, Lucky, Duchess, and Magowan. And there on the high driver's seat were Alex Tafford and Mama. And they were all going to run her down.
Angel's father was selfish and cruel.
How we can see God's Redeeming Love in this book
Redeeming means - the purchase back of something that had been lost, by the payment of a ransom.
Hosea 3:1-5 (ESV) 1 And the Lord said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins.” 2 So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley. 3 And I said to her, “You must dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore, or belong to another man; so will I also be to you.” 4 For the children of Israel shall dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or household gods. 5 Afterward, the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and they shall come in fear to the Lord and to His goodness in the latter days.
God loved the nation of Israel. God commanded Hosea to love an adultress which symbolizes the relationship between God and Israel - the adultress nation of Israel.
We can easily relate ourselves to Angel(Gomer) in the story. We wandered after other lovers and idols of our hearts. All of us have gone astray after lust and have been deceived by satan's lie into thinking that they will bring satisfaction to us. All it can do is land us in hell.
If you are married, keep your wedding vows, do not abandon your spouse "until we are parted by death". "Better or worse, richer or poorer, in sickness and in health". It shows god's love for his people and his faithfulness in covenant with his people. Husbands, love and cherish your wife as christ loves and cherishes his bride, the church. Husbands lay down your lives for your wives. Just as Christ laid his life for his bride, the church. Ephesians 5
What I learned from the story is "Redeeming Love of God":- In Michael Hosea and Angel's story we can see how amazing is God's love that redeemed Angel and God working through Michael Hosea to free her from the pit of hell and darkness of sexual sin and helping her to see her unrepentant sin. Isaiah 44:22 I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you. You can read how much Angel wanted to keep herself pure.
1 Peter 1:18-19
knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.
1 Corinthians 6:19-20
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
1 Corinthians 6:12-20
Flee Sexual Immorality- “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything. “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
Colossians 1:13
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
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