How Can I Give You Up? – Hosea 1:1-9, 11:1-11

Hosea is a book
that defies common sense.
God remains faithful
to a faithless people,
steadfast toward those
who have given their hearts
to almost everything else.

Most systems tell us
to improve,
to climb higher,
to bring something impressive.

But the Lord is not like that.
We have erred and strayed
like lost sheep.
Prone to wander.
Still pursued.

Hosea is told
to marry betrayal,
to build his home
inside Israel’s unfaithfulness.

And the children are named:
Jezreel.
Massacre.

Lo-Ruhamah.
Not Loved.

Lo-Ammi.
Not My People.

Imagine him at a gathering:
This is my firstborn,
Massacre.
My daughter,
Not Loved.
My youngest,
Not My Child.
The room falls silent.

God will not pretend
that destruction is harmless.
His wrath is not
the absence of love,
but love refusing
to call evil good.

Like the mother
who has opened the door
again and again
to her addicted son,
until, through tears,
she says:
Next time
I will not open it.
Not because I do not love you,
but because this is not helping you
and it is destroying us.

There will be consequences.
Yet judgment is not
the deepest thing
in the heart of God.

When Israel was a child,
I loved her.
I taught her to walk.
I bent down to feed her.
How can I give you up?
My compassion grows warm
and tender.

God pursues his people
like a faithful spouse,
paying the price
to bring home
the one who left.

Bleech 9:3 take their name
from Mark 9:3
the mountain
where Jesus stood transfigured,
his clothes dazzling white,
whiter than anyone
could bleach them.^#

Perhaps recovery
is also a kind of transfiguration:
not the erasure of scars,
but the revealing
of a life darkness
could not finally possess.

Barry reached
one thousand days sober,
yet the ache remained.
Then, in a room
with Buddha on one side
and Christ on the other,
he heard:
Come and speak to me.

Not become worthy.
Not prove yourself.
Only:
Come and speak to me.

That is the voice
beneath Hosea.
Not Loved
becomes Beloved.
Not My People
becomes My People.

The God who is holy
will not ignore
what destroys us.
The God who is merciful
will not let us go.

How can I give you up?
Come
and speak to me.

^# Irish rockers Bleech 9:3 on struggle, sobriety and their stunning debut

Original message by Josh Maule
The Bridge Church, Macquarie Park NSW
2 August 2026