Remember the old TV show Hill Street Blues. One arching story line had the plot that one police officer's wife had an affair and ran away to Las Vegas. He and some of his buddies tracked her down. She admitted her mistake and asked to be taken back. He does and his buddies asked him why after the way she had treated him. She wasn't worthy of him, they implied. He explained why he took her back saying, "What can I do? I love her." I don't know whether the writers of that script know their Bible, but that is the prophet Hosea's life. Hosea's marriage became a metaphor for him of God's love of Israel. Today's daf TB Pesakhim 87 gives the rabbinic telling of the back story to this insight.
“The Holy One, Blessed be He, said to Hosea: Your sons, the Jewish people, have sinned. Hosea should have said to God in response: But they are Your sons; they are the sons of Your beloved ones, the sons of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Extend Your mercy over them. Not only did he fail to say that, but instead he said before Him: Master of the Universe, the entire world is Yours; since Israel has sinned, exchange them for another nation.
“The Holy One, Blessed be He, said: What shall I do to this Elder who does not know how to defend Israel? I will say to him: Go and take a prostitute and bear for yourself children of prostitution. And after that I will say to him: Send her away from before you. If he is able to send her away, I will also send away the Jewish people. This deliberation provides the background of the opening prophecy in Hosea, as it is stated: ‘The Lord said to Hosea: Go, take for yourself a wife of prostitution and children of prostitution’ (Hosea 1:2). And then it is written: ‘So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaimh (Hosea 1:3)'
“The passage in Hosea continues: ‘And she conceived, and bore him a son. And the Lord said to him: Call his name Jezreel; for soon I will visit the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu, and will obliterate the kingdom of the house of Israel’ 'And she conceived again, and bore a daughter. And He said to him: Call her name Lo-ruhamah, for I will no more have compassion upon the house of Israel that I should bear them... And she conceived, and bore a son. And He said: Call his name Lo-ammi; for you are not My people, and I will not be yours' (Hosea 1:3-9).
“After two sons and one daughter had been born to him, the Holy One, Blessed be He, said to Hosea: Shouldn’t you have learned from the example of your master Moses, who, once I spoke with him, separated from his wife? You too, separate yourself from your wife. He said to Him: Master of the Universe, I have sons from her and I am unable to dismiss her or to divorce her.
“In response to Hosea's show of loyalty to his family, the Holy One, Blessed be He, rebuked him and said to him: Just as you, whose wife is a prostitute and your children from her are children of prostitution, and you do not even know if they are yours or if they are children of other men, despite this, you are still attached to them and will not forsake them, so too, I am still attached to the Jewish people, who are My sons, the sons of My faithful who withstood ordeals, the sons of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They are so special that they are one of the four acquisitions that I acquired in My world'
"Once Hosea realized that he had sinned, he got up to request that God have compassion upon him for having spoken ill of the Jewish people. The Holy One, Blessed be He, said to him: Before you request compassion upon yourself, first request compassion upon the Jewish people, since I have already decreed upon them three harsh decrees on your account, in response to your condemnation of them. There is an allusion to these three decrees in the names of the children born of the prostitute. Jezreel is an allusion to a decree for Jehu’s actions in the Jezreel Valley (see II Kings 9?10). Lo-ruhamah, one that had not received compassion, suggests that God will no longer have compassion for the Jewish people. Lo-ammi, not My people, indicates that the Jewish people will no longer be considered God’s people.
“Hosea stood and requested compassion upon the Jewish people and nullified the decree. God responded and began to bless them, as it is stated: 'Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered. And it will be that instead of that which was said to them: You are not My people, it shall be said to them: You are the children of the living God. And the children of Judea and the children of Israel shall be gathered together’ (Hosea 2:1). ‘And I will sow her to Me in the land; and I will have compassion upon her that had not received compassion; and I will say to them that were not My people: You are My people'” (Hosea 2:25).”
God loves us. We should find comfort that He is always willing to accept us back no matter how far we have strayed. As we pray every evening, "With everlasting love you have loved your people Israel- אַהֲבַת עוֹלָם בֵּית יִשְׁרָאֵל עַמְּךָ אָהָֽבְתָּ"
I encourage you to study the book of Hosea as well as reading a retelling of the story in Milton Steinberg's book The Prophets Wife.
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