THE BACK STORY
Hosea was a prophet in Israel about 200 years after Israel broke up into Judah in the South, and Israel in the North. As a prophet, Hosea was tasked with being the mouthpiece of God and speaking God’s word to the Jewish people during the reign of one of Israel’s worst kings: King Jeroboam the 2nd.
The book of Hosea
Chapters 1-3: about Hosea’s marriage to Gomer
Chapters 4-11: accusations and warnings for Israel
Chapters 12-14 have more warnings to Israel
the history of how Israel has failed God
THE STORY OF HOSEA AND GOMER
Hosea 1:1-3
1 The word of the Lord that came to Hosea son of Beeri during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and during the reign of Jeroboam son of Jehoash king of Israel:
2 When the Lord began to speak through Hosea, the Lord said to him, “Go, marry a promiscuous woman and have children with her, for like an adulterous wife this land is guilty of unfaithfulness to the Lord.” 3 So he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.
Hosea is going to be a walking metaphor
showing all of the adulterous Israelites
what it’s like to for God to have to be married to them
in a covenant relationship.
He literally had to marry a promiscuous woman
knowing that she was going to be that way.
This is truly a Disaster Scenario for Hosea.
Hosea 1:3-9
3 So he married Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.
4 Then the Lord said to Hosea, “Call him Jezreel, because I will soon punish the house of Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel. 5 In that day I will break Israel’s bow in the Valley of Jezreel.”
6 Gomer conceived again and gave birth to a daughter. Then the Lord said to Hosea, “Call her Lo-Ruhamah (which means “not loved”), for I will no longer show love to Israel, that I should at all forgive them. 7 Yet I will show love to Judah; and I will save them—not by bow, sword or battle, or by horses and horsemen, but I, the Lord their God, will save them.”
8 After she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, Gomer had another son. 9 Then the Lord said, “Call him Lo-Ammi (which means “not my people”), for you are not my people, and I am not your God.
Kid #1 - Jezreel
Jezreel means, “God sows"
which is a metaphor for actions reaping consequences to remind the Israelites of the massacre that took place in the Jezreel valley in 2 Kings 9.
Kid #2 - Lo-Ruhamah
Lo-Ruhamah means, “not loved” which serves to let the Northern kingdom of Israel know that God wants to stop showing them love, and instead only support Judah.
Kid #3 - Lo-Ammi
Lo-Ammi means, “not my people” which I think is pretty self explanatory God is essentially disowning the Jews for their disobedience.
Hosea went through absolute HELL, so that the people around him could see the Goodness of God, even in the midst of their disobedience, and in the middle of whoring themselves out to other gods in the name of: their “comfort,” their “rights,” their “freedom,” their “insert-selfish-motive-here.”
For the sake of the people of God being saved, and their covenant with God not being cancelled, Hosea laid his whole life on the line and did EXACTLY WHAT GOD SAID.
Hosea 1:10-11
10 “Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted. In the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘children of the living God.’ 11 The people of Judah and the people of Israel will come together; they will appoint one leader and will come up out of the land, for great will be the day of Jezreel.
Hosea 3:1-5
1 The Lord said to me, “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another man and is an adulteress. Love her as the Lord loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.”
2 So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley. 3 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 behave the same way toward you.”
4 For the Israelites will live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred stones, without ephod or household gods. 5 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.
So, like God did with the Israelites, Hosea went after his wife, and welcomed her back in even though she had stabbed him in the back. He literally BUYS her back out of slavery with silver and barley, and tells her he wants to grow old with her anyway.
I think every one of us, get’s faced with this Disaster Scenario more than you think. If we are willing to listen, I think we are constantly told by God to do uncomfortable things, and we can so easily write them off and not do them because we can’t see the outcome at the start.
If God put you there, whatever situation you are in… Are you going to obey Him, and represent Him well in the midst of it?
