The Prophet and The Prostitute (Part 5)

Bought Back

Hosea 3:1-5

Scripture

Hosea 3:1-5

And the Lord said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the Lord loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins.” 2 So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley. 3 And I said to her, “You must dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore, or belong to another man; so will I also be to you.”4 For the children of Israel shall dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or household gods. 5 Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the Lord their God, and David their king, and they shall come in fear to the Lord and to his goodness in the latter days.

Pray

God receive the glory

Help us to see Your heart in this story

Story

Second chances. Let me read this incredible true story to you:

A man named Ted Williams didn’t think he’d ever get one. He had no idea that January 3 would be any different than January 2, November 17 or May 23. He figured he'd be spending the day panhandling beside a freeway exit in Columbus, Ohio, as he had for the past two years.

However, Williams was on his way to a worldwide audition, thanks to a reporter from the Columbus Dispatch. The reporter told Williams he'd give him a dollar if he spoke a few words in his golden "God-given voice," as described on Williams' cardboard sign. So he did.

Williams said he used to be a radio announcer, but he fell into alcohol and drug abuse and lost everything, accumulating a thick police record over two decades. Though Williams had been clean for two and a half years, he still was without a job and a home—but not without hope.

The reporter posted a video on YouTube, and it promptly went viral. By Wednesday, he was being interviewed on morning shows. By Thursday, an agent was weeding through job offers for Williams—including one from NFL Films.

The Cleveland Cavaliers have offered Williams a gig as its arena announcer—in spite of his checkered past.

"We believe in second chances and second opportunities," Tracy Marek, the team's senior vice president of marketing, told the Associated Press.

Williams knows he's been given a second chance—and he believes this time he can make good … thanks to God.

Application 1

Sometime during the last passage and this one, Gomer has run away from her husband Hosea and has chosen to live with another man.

We’ll get to raisin cakes in a minute, but let’s really break this down.

Hosea had taken Gomer out of a life of prostitution. A life where her next meal depended on whether or not some stranger thought she was good-looking. Her well-being all depended on not who she was as a person, but what she could do for her next customer. She was literally used and abused as a prostitute, either for Baal or for secular purposes.

Then comes Hosea. A loving and faithful husband. We see nowhere in the story that Hosea ever treated her poorly. We see no mention of him even being hung up by the fact that she had multiple partners.

All we see is Hosea becoming a faithful and loving husband to a prostitute. Raising their children up (even though he’s not sure if they are actually his kids or not) and yes, giving them really weird names, but still being their dad and her husband in love.

And then she leaves him.

Can you even imagine the pain that must be going on in Hosea’s life? Can you think about what might be going through Hosea’s mind?

“Didn’t I give you a home? Didn’t I give you love that wasn’t based on your performance? Didn’t I raise our kids with you? Now you just run off with some other guy?”

Now, look at two words here: “Love” and “another man.”

The word for “another man” could literally mean a neighbor. The man Gomer ran off with could very well be someone Hosea knew. It could be a former “customer” or even some sleaze ball she just met. We’re not sure why Gomer desired to go back to her former way of life, but when we look at our own lives and our own sins, maybe it becomes a little easier to see what’s happening.

Especially when you look at the word “love.”

Hosea is commanded to “go love Gomer again” even though she is “loved” by another man.

Now, before you girls get too romantic and say things like, “Maybe Gomer just found her REAL love so she had to leave the man who was faithful to her and loved her and her children because this new guy was mysterious and attractive.”

Look at the second part of the verse: “Just like the Lord loved Israel though they loved other gods and raisin cakes.”

Do any of you love food? What is a food that you love? I love pizza. I love Mexican food. I love chocolate cake. And I love my wife.

Now, do I love Rachel the same way that I love food? No way! There’s no comparison! I love my wife. I like food.

God is saying, “I loved Israel. I rescued them from Egypt. I gave them food and water in the wilderness when they were starving. I set a part a land for them. I gave them laws to live by for their good. And now, instead of showing me love, they go and ‘like’ Baal.”

Remember, Baal is a fertility god. Raisins were thought to contain a ton of seeds. So the more raisins you ate, the more fun you could have worshipping a fertility god and maybe even have babies. … this is probably a topic best covered by your parents.

God is saying that Israel traded the love of a faithful and caring God for the “like” of an idol of wood who pretends to be god.

So what we can trace back to Gomer is that she has traded the faithful love of a Hosea for the “like” of “another man” who may have just caught her glance and convinced her that her life was too boring and needed some adventure.

Now, she finds herself back in a life of prostitution. But even more so than that, Gomer now finds that she is in a life of slavery.

We don't know why Hosea had to buy Gomer back. None of the possibilities sound awesome.

Maybe she was loved by another man, but then kicked to the curb after a time. Maybe she thought that she couldn't go back to Hosea because of her unfaithfulness and so sold herself back into prostitution to make a living.

Maybe she was loved by this new man, but he then turned around and used her as a thing he could make money off of and offered her up as a prostitute.

Maybe she had become a slave to anyone who would take her, knowing her past, just so she could eat another meal.

And in comes Hosea. How do you imagine that scene went down? Remember trying to imagine Hosea going out looking for a prostitute to marry? How awkward that may have been?

"Sup girl. Wanna get hitched?"

Well, think of this scenario. Gomer has known what real, faithful, affectionate love looks like. Then she runs from it for reasons that don't make sense to us looking from the outside in. She's used. She's abused. And now she's property.

Perhaps, on top of her "nightly responsibilities," she's also forced to work for her owner. Clean the house. Cook the food. Take out the trash.

And as she's doing her chores one day, thinking about her life and how she got to this point—maybe she's even thinking about her children. They certainly aren't mentioned as being with her. Maybe she left them with Hosea, as well. And now, she looks up from the trash pile, walking down the road is Hosea. The man she left for the "good life."

She runs inside and tries to hide from him. Maybe she's seen him several times as he's pleaded with her to come back. Maybe she's run from him every time. But this time it's different.

He's not just walking by, he comes inside the house. He's got a cartload of barley and a sack full of money. He's talking with the guy who she cheated on him with. The guy who now owns her.

And then Hosea, Gomer’s former husband who loved her, begins to ask how he can get his wife back.

The guy says he owns her. Hosea says he’s willing to pay. She hears them haggle and debate. Then, they finally land on a price: the price Moses laid out in Exodus 21:32 for a female slave.

So Hosea gives the man 15 shekels of silver and five bushels of barley. All together it’s worth 30 shekels of silver. The price of a slave.

Have you ever been in a car where it got real awkward real fast? The car is the worst place for that to happen.

A friend and I took turns being the awkward third wheel in high school. Either it was me with him and his girlfriend or him with my girlfriend and me. Once, when it was him and his girlfriend, they started getting into a disagreement. Which turned into an argument. Which turned into a fight.

And I was trying my best to just disappear into the bucket seat.

In a car, there’s nowhere to hide! This was before everyone carried around his or her music and LONG before games on your phone. Instead of getting lost playing Minecraft, you just had to endure it.

Can you imagine the walk or cart ride back to Hosea’s place? Again, girls, before you get all mushy and expect the, “I’ve always loved you” speech from Hosea as they kiss in the sunset/rain/on top of the city skyline, that’s not exactly what he says to Gomer.

Uh. Well. That wasn’t very romantic.

Well, actually, yes. It’s so beautiful. And ladies, your man may not be good with words. But you better pray for a husband like Hosea!

What did Hosea JUST do? He just bought Gomer from someone she had sold herself to. She had gotten herself into a situation that she was unable to get out of. She was no longer able to provide for herself. She was going to be trapped in slavery for the rest of her life.

And Hosea technically didn’t have to do a thing. In fact, under Mosiac law, he could have had Gomer executed and not had to deal with her and her rebellious ways every again.

But instead ,he bought her back. And what does he do once he buys her?

Because, by law, he now “owns” her! They were just married before, but not she is his property. He purchased her. She could work for Hosea for the rest of her life as a slave, and no one would think twice. And remember what she’s done. She left him and the kids, ran off with a neighbor, got into trouble and debt, sold herself into slavery, and at his own expense, Hosea purchased her back. So does he keep her on a chain and tell her she’s now a slave?

No. Instead, Hosea brings her home, removes the chains, and says, “Now that you KNOW I love you, don’t run off again. Stay here. Be faithful. I’ll be faithful to you, as well. Let’s take things slow. Let’s spend some time getting reacquainted. Let’s do this again.”

And so, as far as we know, Gomer stays. The rebellious prostitute who thought she would prefer her old way of life goes back to her husband who just proved his love for her by purchasing her out of slavery and bringing her back to his house—not as a slave, but as his bride.

Throughout this whole series, we’ve seen that what’s going on between Hosea and Gomer is a picture of Israel’s relationship with God. What does this next part of the story tell us?

Story 2

Me living a double life and then walking away from Jesus

Supporting Scripture

John 15:15

15 No longer do I call you servants,[a] for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.

Application 2

Israel is about to go into captivity. They are about to be conquered by a foreign nation and sent away from their homeland. They will no longer have a king. They will no longer have a temple to worship God in or even an idol they could pretend was a real god.

But during this time of exile, the people will seek out God. They’ll return to Him. They’ll seek after the God who made them and loved them and remember that it was better for them with God than with any other. They’ll come to His goodness in the last days.

But what does this mean for us? What does this short and very real chapter mean for us today?

This whole time we knew that Gomer is us, and Hosea is God. There are some times when we can relate to the story of the prodigal son. We think of ourselves as the one who’s run off and made a fool of ourselves, then we come to our senses and return home to find our heavenly Father waiting for us right where we left Him.

We see a different picture here in Hosea. Instead of us coming to our senses and returning to God, God purposefully comes after us. We are pursued. We are the ones who were created by a loving and faithful God. But instead of loving Him, we run from Him. We deny Him and turn to others who barely “like” us and will throw us to the curb as soon as we are used up.

And then what? We end up in so much trouble and so much debt we have no hope. We have no other resources. We have no other options. So we sell ourselves over completely. We become slaves to the sin we’re so entangled by.

And what does God do? Does He leave us to rot like we deserve? Does He let us work the rest of our lives in order to potentially earn His favor?

Not our God. He buys us back. He sent Jesus to be the ultimate payment. He didn’t just pay for us what we were worth. He didn’t pay the price of a slave. He paid for us as if we were His own children, because He paid with His son.

And then He calls us to come home with Him. He calls us to come and to live with Him many days and no longer run away and no longer rebel against Him.

We are the objects of His relentless love.

So where do you stand tonight? Are you sold to sin? Are you living in rebellion from God? Today, understand that God is relentlessly pursuing you. He sent His Son to pay your price. He loves you. He will find you. Will you let yourself be found?

Are you living with God, but being enticed by the sins that are around you? Do they seem better than what you have going for you right now? Don’t give in to the lie! Don’t go through the pain of selling yourself completely to sin. Recognize that there is no better place than in the arms of God.

Will you accept God’s gift of the payment of Your sin?

Pray

God help us to see the terrible price you paid in order to free us from the slavery of sin and death