 The prophet Hosea offers us one of the boldest and most controversial metaphors for God in the Bible, controversial then and now. He compares God to a husband who loves the people of Israel as his wife, a heartbroken husband because his beloved has been unfaithful, a heartbroken husband who wrestles whether to continue to pursue his beloved or to divorce her. In the end, God expresses his unconditional love. We read in Hosea chapter 11, How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? My heart recoils within me, my compassion grows warm and tender. I will not execute my fierce anger. I will not again destroy Ephraim, for I am God and no mortal, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath. For us Christians, we see the fulfillment of this prophecy in the person of Jesus. In Jesus, God did not come in wrath.