The story starts off with God telling Hosea to marry a prostitute. Now, straight out of the gate, I'm thinking "DO WHAT?!?" But the beauty of this will be at the end of the story. Hosea follows God's command and goes and marries Gomer.
Gomer bore three children. All were named to display the attitude of the Lord towards Israel at this time. However, in the end of Chapter 1, we see that God's intention is forgiveness. Although He calls Israel "Lo-Ammi" (not my people), in the next breath, He says that they'll be called "children of the living God." So here we see the end of the story. But the beauty is the story doesn't just end there with a spoiler-alert.
God goes on to describe the punishment that awaits Israel. Particularly not being considered God's people and all the empty pursuits they will chase after that apart from God, will not bring them any satisfaction. But then, He promises to "allure her" and to "speak tenderly to her" and that he will turn trouble in to hope (Hosea 2:15 mentions the Valley of Achor and Achor means trouble). God can take anything we are going through and use if for His glory and our good!
God then commands Hosea to go and reconcile with his wife, who has gone back into prostitution.
THIS IS THE BEAUTY OF THIS STORY!!!!
Gomer is an adulteress. Hosea still goes in and finds her. In a sermon on this topic, Judah Smith points out what this must have been like for Hosea. Imagine where he has to go to find her. Who he has to encounter. What his eyes have to see. So he goes in and buys Gomer. For lack of a better comparison, Gomer is already his wife, he essentially already has possession of her. He still goes and gives fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and lethek of barley for her. He takes her back home! Just as Jesus did for us. This happened years before Jesus came and did this for the entire human race, but it is such a vivid picture of what was to come! Hosea tells Gomer that she will not be a prostitute any longer and that she can not be with any man. God expects the same of us, to be completely devoted to Him and Him alone!
To finish out the book, the history of the relationship of Israel and God is explained. The future is also seen. If there is repentance, there will be healing and blessing. God will come through if we only repent of our sins.
We are essentially prostituting ourselves out to our sinful desires. It is an extreme way to see it, but it is exactly what we do. We sell our souls (which belong to God) to sin, work, drugs, sex, sports, money, and so much more. The great thing is, in the midst of our wallowing in the things of the world, God has come through all of it and found us. He paid a price for us even though we were His to begin with!
God loves you and He's paid for you. He's waiting for you to be faithful to Him!
God then commands Hosea to go and reconcile with his wife, who has gone back into prostitution.
THIS IS THE BEAUTY OF THIS STORY!!!!
Gomer is an adulteress. Hosea still goes in and finds her. In a sermon on this topic, Judah Smith points out what this must have been like for Hosea. Imagine where he has to go to find her. Who he has to encounter. What his eyes have to see. So he goes in and buys Gomer. For lack of a better comparison, Gomer is already his wife, he essentially already has possession of her. He still goes and gives fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and lethek of barley for her. He takes her back home! Just as Jesus did for us. This happened years before Jesus came and did this for the entire human race, but it is such a vivid picture of what was to come! Hosea tells Gomer that she will not be a prostitute any longer and that she can not be with any man. God expects the same of us, to be completely devoted to Him and Him alone!
To finish out the book, the history of the relationship of Israel and God is explained. The future is also seen. If there is repentance, there will be healing and blessing. God will come through if we only repent of our sins.
We are essentially prostituting ourselves out to our sinful desires. It is an extreme way to see it, but it is exactly what we do. We sell our souls (which belong to God) to sin, work, drugs, sex, sports, money, and so much more. The great thing is, in the midst of our wallowing in the things of the world, God has come through all of it and found us. He paid a price for us even though we were His to begin with!
God loves you and He's paid for you. He's waiting for you to be faithful to Him!
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