Hosea 1-4: Trembling to the Lord

The LORD said to me, “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the LORD loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.”
 So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley. Then I told her, “You are to live with me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will live with you.”
 For the Israelites will live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred stones, without ephod or idol.  Afterward the Israelites will return and seek the LORD their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the LORD and to his blessings in the last days. - Hosea 3:1-5 NIV

How broken and miserable Hosea must have been.    Was he as miserable as those men who were willing to share the wife of another man?  Was he as miserable as his wife who sold herself to other men for a few trinkets?

There is no life more miserable than one separated from the only one who truly loves you.  None.  Surrounded by gifts from those who would buy you, you realize one day that amidst the flowers and perfume, gold and precious stones, gifts from those who would have you but only to use, surrounded by all they have given you, you have nothing.  You have given all you have and you have nothing left.  When you come to the end of yourself, like the Israelites, who have lived many days in exile, without king or prince, only then, can you come trembling to the Lord and to his blessings. 

2010 Post - Hosea 1-4:  Adultery Personified