Wednesday, September 27, 2023
Session 16
Hosea and Gomer – the book of Hosea
TONIGHT’S MISUNDERSTOOD BIBLE STORY: Hosea and Gomer
Introduction: The Old Testament book of Hosea and the fact that the prophet Hosea married a harlot named Gomer is often misunderstood or at least confusing to many a reader. It’s hard to understand why God would command one of His prophets to marry a harlot. Hosea was not only to marry her, but love her unconditionally and forgive her for her adultery and unfaithfulness, and take her back.
Outline of the first three chapters of Hosea
- Adulterous Wife and faithful Husband (1:1 – 3:5)
- Hosea and Gomer (1:1-9)
- God and Israel (1:10- 2:23)
- Both Parties Reconciled (3:1-5)
The Lord commands Hosea to marry a harlot. God doesn’t ask him to do it, or think about it and get back with Him and discuss it, He commands it, and Hosea obeys. A spiritual lesson for us to learn right from the beginning is this: God commands us to do things, He doesn’t ask. When God speaks, we need to listen and obey.
The word of the Lord that came to Hosea the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel. When the Lord began to speak by Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea: “Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry And children of harlotry, For the land has committed great harlotry By departing from the Lord.”
(Hosea 1:1-2)
Hosea marries Gomer, not his plan, but definitely was God’s plan. After all, how many men really want to marry a harlot who has been with all these other men? Also, it sounds as if her children were also the offspring of her harlotry when Hosea married her.
Hosea and Gomer start a family together
So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. Then the Lord said to him: “Call his name Jezreel, For in a little while I will avenge the bloodshed of Jezreel on the house of Jehu, And bring an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. It shall come to pass in that day That I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel.” And she conceived again and bore a daughter. Then God said to him: “Call her name Lo-Ruhamah, For I will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel, But I will utterly take them away.
Yet I will have mercy on the house of Judah, Will save them by the Lord their God, And will not save them by bow, Nor by sword or battle, By horses or horsemen.” Now when she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, she conceived and bore a son. Then God said: “Call his name Lo-Ammi, For you are not My people, And I will not be your God. (Hosea 1:3-9)
Hosea and Gomer became one flesh. Marriage makes the two become one, especially through their sexual union.
“For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh”? (Jesus – Matthew 19:5)
The spiritual union, which is the most important union, if genuine and strong, will guard and keep the marriage relationship intact for a life time. Sex doesn’t keep a marriage together, children don’t keep a marriage together, though they are both gifts from God. Empty vows or promises don’t keep a marriage together either. Jesus Christ, the One the husband and wife have a spiritual union with, keeps a marriage together.
Hosea will love his wife Gomer unconditionally no matter what she does. God loves us unconditionally no matter what we do. He can’t stop loving us, if He did, it would go against His nature.
1 John 4:8 tells us this, “God is love.”
Gomer goes back to her adulterous ways (Hosea 2:2; 3:1)
“Bring charges against your mother, bring charges; For she is not My wife, nor am I her Husband! Let her put away her harlotries from her sight, And her adulteries from between her breasts; (Hosea 2:2)
Then the Lord said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by a lover and is committing adultery, just like the love of the Lord for the children of Israel, who look to other gods and love the raisin cakes of the pagans.” (Hosea 3;1)
The sinner can go back to their old ways if they give in to temptation, be in a back-slidden state for a while, yet not forever without God’s discipline and repentance.
HEED A WARNING FROM HEBREWS
For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin. And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons:
“My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; For whom the Lord loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives.” If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?
But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons. Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live?
For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness. Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
(Hebrews 12:3–11)
LOOK WHAT GOD COMMANDS HOSEA TO DO
God commands Hosea to love Gomer, take Gomer back and restore her. Hosea 3;1 indicates that Hosea had been previously separated from his wife. God commands him to pursue his estranged wife, Gomer. This illustrates God’s unquenchable love for faithless Israel.
God commanded Hosea to go back to his wife, even though she was committing adultery. It wasn’t in the past; it was in the present; yet he was commanded to go back to her and to love her.
New Testament Application of this Toward All Sinners
But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)
Some Life Application From God’s Command to Hosea
- This shows us that though Deuteronomy 24:1 and Matthew 19:7-8 permit divorce when adultery breaks the marriage union, it by no means commands If God commanded divorce in the case of adultery, then He would go against His own command here.
- This also shows us an important principle about love: Hosea is directed to love, even when it must be hard to love. We are filled with many romantic illusions about love, and one of these illusions is that love has very little to do with our will – we are just “captivated” by love and follow whatever course it leads. But in principle, the Scriptures show us another way:
That love is largely a matter of the will, and when we direct ourselves to love someone God tells us we must love, it can and will happen. This is why “We’re not in love anymore” isn’t valid grounds for a bad relationship or divorce, it assumes that love is something beyond or outside of our will.
God made the choice to love us and it’s His will to love us unconditionally forever!
The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying: “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.
(Jeremiah 31:3)
Why did God command Hosea to go back to his still-unfaithful wife? Not only for the sake of Hosea and his wife Gomer, but also so that they would become a living lesson of the Lord’s relationship with His people. The people of Israel were steeped in spiritual adultery, yet the Lord still loved them.
SOMETHING TO REMEMBER
When we think of the greatness of God’s love and compassion towards us, it should make us more loving, compassionate, and forgiving towards others.
Hosea demonstrates his love to Gomer and restores her through purchasing her.
So I bought her for myself for fifteen shekels of silver, and one and one-half homers of barley. And I said to her, “You shall stay with me many days; you shall not play the harlot, nor shall you have a man—so, too, will I be toward you.”
(Hosea 3:2-3)
Hosea didn’t really have to “buy” his own wife, to hire her as a prostitute. She was his wife! But as a display of love and commitment, he went the “extra mile,” beyond what was expected.
- In providing this way for his own wife. Hosea also showed her: “I can give you what the others can’t. You don’t need them. Let me show you how I can provide for your needs.”
- Hosea buying Gomer for himself meant that Gomer was sold as slave and he bought her out of her slavery. He was buying her out of prostitution.
- God bought us out of our slavery to sin. He purchased us through the shed blood of His Son, Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross.
knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. (1 Peter 1:18-19)
Hosea 3:3 tells us that Hosea tells Gomer that she shall stay with him many days and no longer play the harlot any longer, this is indicative of God loving us and saving us as we are, but loving us too much to leave us that way.
A NEW TESTAMENT EXAMPLE OF JESUS LOVING SOMEONE AS THEY WERE AND SAVING THEM, BUT TOO MUCH TO LEAVE THEM THAT WAY!
Now, early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people came to Him; and He sat down and taught them. Then the scribes and Pharisees brought to Him a woman caught in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst, they said to Him,
“Teacher, this woman was caught in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses, in the law, commanded us that such should be stoned. But what do You say?”
This they said, testing Him, that they might have something of which to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote on the ground with His finger, as though He did not hear. So when they continued asking Him, He raised Himself up and said to them,
“He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. Then those who heard it, being convicted by their conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.
When Jesus had raised Himself up and saw only the woman, He said to her, “Woman, where are those accusers of yours? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said to her, “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more.”
(John 8:2-11)
Conclusion: The often misunderstood story of Hosea and Gomer is in the Bible to serve as a picture of God’s unconditional love for sinners. Hosea and Gomer are the earthly pictures of the heavenly Father and the nation of Israel, and all sinners who have ever lived and will live. The story, to its very core, is a story of redemption.
God’s redemption of lost sinners, people His Son Jesus died for on the cross. Sinners who come to a God who loves them and calls them to Himself as they are, but loves them too much to leave them that way!
Next Week, Session 17 – “Why Share the Gospel if They won’t Listen Anyway?” – the book of Jeremiah.