O Love That Will Not Let Me Go
O Love That Will Not Let Me Go!
Hosea 3:1-5
The LORD said to me, “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the LORD loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.”
So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley. 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 live with you.”
For the Israelites will live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred stones, without ephod or idol. 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.
Rebuke your mother, rebuke her. The words of the prophet were almost a sob stammered out as though the oration was a bone caught in his throat. “She is not My wife, and I am not her husband,” continued the brave prophet of God [see Hosea 2:2].
“Keep your personal life out of this," a member of his sinful, boisterous audience taunted, the listening crowd demonstrating their approval of his insults through raucous gales of laughter.
"By the way,” another scorner mercilessly laughed, “where exactly is that wife of yours?” Another laughingly taunted, “It’s ten o’clock. Do you know where you wife is?”
If the taunts were designed to emotionally maim the prophet, they achieved their purpose royally. Always so unswerving and resolute when speaking to the people on God’s behalf, Hosea now found himself shaken by doubt, insecurity, and sadness. It is doubtful that anyone could have stood without being shaken under the conditions in which he was called to serve.
“Let her remove the adulterous look from her face and the unfaithfulness from between her breasts,” he shouted, comparing Israel to an unfaithful wife.
“That’s it, all right,” came yet another painful jab. “Sounds like Gomer to me.”
“You laugh at my expense while your very land perishes from the inside out,” rang the unspoken rejoinder inside the prophet’s head. “At least we know where our wives are!” came another cruel jeer, its stinging pain like a needle thrust into the prophet’s skin.
Another volley was slung in the direction of the prophet, “Maybe your God can tell you why your wife never seems to stay at home these days.”
As they derided him mercilessly, Hosea could not help but feel betrayed. He had come to this temple of Baal at God’s command, and now he was the helpless butt of this vicious ridicule, every taunt designed to cut another piece out of his already wounded heart.
His wife’s seemingly endless stream of adulterous encounters had become well know among the cities and towns of northern Israel. Hosea knew that Gomer’s behaviour was nothing new in the land; in fact, it had become wretchedly common, as married women – as well as unwed teens – had more than willingly offered their bodies to the deplorable Canaanite fertility good, Baal. Under any other circumstances, Gomer’s exploits would be of no consequence whatsoever to the Israelites had it not been for her husband – for Hosea was a man of God who preached against such transgressions. Because of his wife, however, he was no better in the eyes of his countrymen than they. They now felt equal to the prophet and had the courage to return his verbal attacks with the same ferocity with which he had always launched them.
“Who knows better than you, Hosea,” came a faceless voice, “of the iniquity of our people. Why, you’re married to one of the best examples of it.”
Again the assembly’s derisive laughter cut through his very soul. The vile laughter stung, almost causing him to cease speaking and to turn away in shame. The words stung precisely because the venom with which they were dripping was supplied in abundance by the actions of his own beloved wife. Were it not for the sense of divine call he had received, a call to confront the people with the truth of God, he would have ceased his address.
“I will strip her naked and make her as bare as on the day she was born,” he shouted.
“We accept your offer, prophet,” came the scornful reply.
“I will make her like a desert, turn her into a parched land, and slay her with thirst. I will not show My love to her children, because they are the children of adultery,” continued Hosea doggedly.
“Who are you to talk to us about the ‘children of adultery’?” an angry voice challenged. “Who fathered your children, prophet?”
Though the prophet trusted he had fathered all three of his children, he could not be certain because of his wife’s unfaithfulness. God knew who within the unfaithful nation were His, but most of the people had turned to Baal, trusting the pagan god to provide food and power.
With a burst of authority born of the confidence of his call the prophet quieted the crowd: “I will take away My grain when it ripens, and my new wine when it is ready. I will take back My wool and My linen, intended to cover her nakedness. I will expose her lewdness before the eyes of her lovers; and no one will take her out of My hands.”
“Ha! We’ll take our chances with Baal,” another faceless voice shouted defiantly. “Has your God fed our children or brought crops in their season? No! Until we turned to Baal, our families starved. What do you have to say to that, prophet? Meanwhile, you go find your wife – wherever she is.” And the crowd again laughed heartlessly.
Israel’s days were numbered. Despite outward appearances the northern kingdom’s temporary prosperity under King Jeroboam II was no more than a facade for the rampant moral and religious laxity that consumed the land, especially the capital of Samaria. Under Jeroboam II Israel’s borders were expanded to their farthest reaches since the glory days of kings David and Solomon – days when all Israel was one nation before the split soon following Solomon’s death.
Ever since the apostasy which was introduced into the Northern Kingdom by her first king the nation was never able to right itself. Not wanting his subjects to travel to Jerusalem, the capital of the Southern Kingdom to worship, Jeroboam set up idols at Bethel and Dan. Since that time, Israel had been plagued with a succession of godless monarchs, all more than willing to promote worship of Baal.
How seductive the Canaanite god was! Because of hard times and near famine conditions in the land, the people were seduced by promises of fertility – both agriculturally and in human reproduction – and all too willingly gave themselves over to the vile veneration of the heathen deity. With their pagan worship came the lewdest of behaviour – sexual encounters with priests and temple harlots – all to secure the favour of Baal.
None of this immoral activity escaped the notice of Hosea, who as a young man had been called into God’s service to turn the people away from their spiritually adulterous ways.
“There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgment of God in the land,” the prophet preached. “There is only cursing, lying and murder, stealing and adultery.”
The words stung those who heard, for many of his hearers, both men and women, had just been returning from the shrine after an encounter with a “holy man” or shrine prostitute. They had received a promise that Baal would grant their request for either a child or healthy crops. Those who felt their guilt rushed past the bellowing prophet, his words a searing accusation. Greater still than the immorality was the fact that the nation of Israel had deserted the God who had formed it from dust and who had made a people overflowing with promise and favour.
“When Israel was a child, I loved him,” the Lord said through Hosea, “and out of Egypt I called My son. But the more I called Israel, the further they went from Me. They sacrificed to the Baals, and they burned incense to images. It was I who taught Ephraim to walk, taking them in My arms; but they did not realise it was I who healed them.”
It was no surprise to Hosea that his people could go so far astray. After all, their entire history had been one of grumbling, never satisfied with what God had done for them, but always asking for more and turning to lifeless idols when they did not get what they wanted. Then, when the pagan gods to whom they had turned did not deliver, the people were willing to turn back, but always on their own terms, never on God’s terms.
“What can I do with you, Ephraim?” Hosea inquired one day of the swarming mass at Baal’s shrine. “What can I do with you, Judah?” he rhetorically asked the people of the southern kingdom. “Your love is like the morning mist, like the early dew that disappears. Therefore, I cut you in pieces with my prophets, I killed you with the words of my mouth; my judgements flashed like lightning upon you. For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgement of God rather than burnt offerings.” The Israelites, however, did not acknowledge God. Their burnt offerings were for Baal and not for the Living God. Whenever an answer to prayer came their way, it was always Baal who received the credit, the glory – and never the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Hosea had never felt further from his people. The more they strayed in Baal’s direction, the closer he moved toward his God. As the apostasy grew, Hosea desired to know his Lord better, to somehow know the very heart and soul of God. One day, the Lord answered Hosea’s innermost desire in a most improbable way.
“Go,” said God, “take to yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness, because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the Lord.” Imagine the confusion the prophet experienced! Can you imagine how he must have argued with God, reasoning that God had perhaps made a mistake? Whatever your reaction to this command, we are confident that Hosea entered into the marriage contract knowing that he was wedding a wife infected with wanderlust which would threaten the marriage and which would lead her into the most degrading situations.
At what point Gomer first strayed from her vows, we cannot say, but there appears a strain on the marriage early on. The first child born into that union, a son, was given the name Jezreel, “because,” said the Lord, “I will soon punish the house of Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel. In that day I will break Israel’s bow in the Valley of Jezreel.” The name is odd, but perhaps not so odd that it would indicate much else then the fact that the prophet was sensitive to the judgement which was surely coming on the land.
It was the subsequent children which truly create questions in our mind. The next child was a daughter given the name Lo-Ruhamah, or more literally, Unloved. After Lo-Ruhamah, a son was born and given the name Lo-Ammi, or Not My People. At the very least, these are unusual names. At the very most they are highly suggestive that Gomer was less than faithful to her husband. Subsequent events would indicate that the latter is close to the mark and that Gomer had enjoyed a succession of lovers. What is more, it appears clear that Hosea was aware of his wife’s waning affections, or at least he suspected that she had multiple lovers.
The day would come that Gomer would leave home, forsaking her husband and children, always seeking love in the arms of another lover. A succession of lovers alternately used her and discarded her as one would cast aside an unwanted rag for yet the next man to use her and abuse her, each lover more degraded and more degrading than the last. Her downward spiral would eventually lead her into ever deeper degradation and finally into slavery in a desperate attempt to survive.
Informed that his wife was the mistress of a succession of men, how the prophet must have grieved. His heart must have weighed heavily, his mind filled with doubts and questions concerning his own ability to love a wife. God, however, was not finished with the prophet, nor with his wayward wife.
In the third chapter we again encounter the Lord commanding His prophet: “Go, show your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an adulteress. Love her as the LORD loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred raisin cakes.”
How would you respond to such a command? In the strangest way, Hosea’s desire and prayer had been answered. Hosea wanted to know his Lord better, to know the heart of the Master and to know something of the love of the Living God. God was intervening in the life of the heart-broken prophet to provide him understanding. Hosea now knew suffering and understood its devastating effects; and he had begun to grasp the magnitude of God’s sorrow. If the prophet could be so mortally wounded in spirit by his wife’s adultery, then what must the Lord feel by centuries of such treatment by the very people He had formed for His own purposes, whom He had nurtured for His glory, and whom He had cherished as His personal possession.
Can we imagine the scene in the marketplace as Hosea scanned the slaves on display for sale? What a melange of emotions must have filled the prophet’s breast as he saw his wife of former days: tender love and compassion for her in her straitened situation; hurt and anger at the humiliation he had experienced; deep sorrow at the knowledge of her unfaithfulness. We can imagine that a knot grew in the pit of his stomach as he spoke to the slave master and indicated that he wanted to purchase Gomer.
“I know which one I want,” we can imagine Hosea saying.
“And which one would that be?” we can imagine the slaver inquiring.
“The one from Samaria called Gomer,” the prophet would have answered.
“That wretched woman?” the owner might have laughed derisively. “She does nothing but sulk all day and never speaks when spoken to. She is a miserable creature.”
“Nevertheless,” might the prophet have spoken despite his breaking heart,” I will pay the slave price for her.”
The text is quite straightforward: So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley. So Gomer was purchased, her worth measured in a handful of silver and a small amount of barley. She was of lowest value, not even bringing the full price of a slave. How awful the degradation of sin.
God was not finished teaching either His prophet or His people, for He appended the application which follows: For the Israelites will live many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or sacred stones, without ephod or idol. 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.
I wonder about the transaction with the slave owner that day. Once the transaction was complete, Gomer would have been brought to Hosea. At the sight of her he must have struggled to suppress his tears, for the youthful beauty of a short time before would be gone. Her pathetic lifestyle would have aged her beyond her years. The toll of sin always steals beauty.
Eyes lowered, unable to look at her husband, the sarcastic commentary of the slave master must have seared Gomer’s heart, for he no doubt provided caustic comment to the prophet on the type of slave purchased, her sexual prowess and abilities to please any man. Gomer, wife of the prophet of God, having lived as a common harlot was at last was reduced to the role of a slave. Hosea could do with her as he pleased. How would he treat her? Though she perhaps hoped she knew her husband, she deserved no mercy and she could expect no consideration. How odd his next words must have sounded in her ears.
“You are to live with me many days; you must not be a prostitute or be intimate with any man, and I will live with you.” Living in the same house but without sharing any intimacy, the couple no doubt tried to rebuild what they once had. Hosea no doubt fought the pain and sense of betrayal with which he had so long lived. Yet, despite grief, his heart softened each day, his greater understanding of God’s nature his motivation to endure. More than anything else, we are driven to believe that for reasons he could not fully understand, Hosea still loved Gomer deeply and realised that, no matter what, he always would.
I can only imagine, but I must imagine that Gomer one day questioned Hosea. I do not wish to think that anyone can remain obstinate in the face of selfless love. Permit me to apply a bit of sanctified imagination to the situation. One night, in the stillness of the moment, can you hear Gomer asking in a voice which was barely more than a whisper? “Hosea, how is it you can have me back as your wife? How is it that you can love me? I don’t understand.”
Considering the question, the prophet tenderly answers, “Today, the Lord gave me a very different message to deliver to the people. Through me, He said, “I will heal their waywardness and love them freely, for My anger has turned away from them. I will be like the dew of Israel; he will blossom like a lily. Like a cedar of Lebanon he will send down his roots; his young shoots will grow. O Ephraim, what more have you to do with idols? I will answer him and care for him.”
Then, turning to his wife, Hosea said, “You see, Gomer, I don’t know when, and I don’t know how, but somehow God will save His people. Despite all the horrible sins they have committed against Him, He is faithful and will not turn them away. He loves them and will continue to love them, and there’s nothing anyone can do to destroy His love.”
Hosea reached out his hand and tenderly took hold of Gomer’s hand. Surprised by the action, for her husband had not touched her in the months they had lived together, the tears began streaming down her face and she slowly raised her eyes to meet him, feeling strangely cleansed from her vast transgression.
Hosea continued, “And Gomer, I do love you and will continue to do so until the Lord calls me back to Him.”
For Hosea, it must have been a time of sweet reconciliation. At that moment, thoughts of Israel were secondary. Later, he no doubt pondered the circumstances of Israel’s future reconciliation to God. As hard as he tried to understand, however, he could not foresee that distant time when God the Father would send His only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to take away the sins of the entire world. Hosea could not foresee, nor prophesy, the glorious time when, centuries after the Son’s death and resurrection, He would one day return to the earth – at Israel’s most desperate hour – and at last redeem God’s chosen people.
The LORD appeared to us in the past, saying:
“I have loved you with an everlasting love;
I have drawn you with loving-kindness” [Jeremiah 31:3].
From a normal human standpoint, Hosea’s love for Gomer is incomprehensible. Without divine supply it would be impossible for Hosea to love his wife. Likewise, from a normal human standpoint it is incomprehensible that God should love us. Our situation before God is described in searing letters given through the pen of the Apostle to the Gentiles.
We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. 10 As it is written:
“There is no one righteous, not even one;
there is no one who understands,
no one who seeks God.
All have turned away,
they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good, not even one.”
“Their throats are open graves;
their tongues practice deceit.”
“The poison of vipers is on their lips.”
“Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”
“Their feet are swift to shed blood;
ruin and misery mark their ways,
and the way of peace they do not know.”
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
Now we know that whatever the law says, it says … so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin [Romans 3:9-19].
Despite this frightening condition we are assured through the Word of God that God so loved the world that He gave His One and Only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him [John 3:16,17]. If I should reject the love of God, what is left but the wrath of God? Whoever believes in Him [Christ Jesus the Son of God] is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the Name of God’s One and Only Son [John 3:18]. I long for sinners to see the searching heart of our God. Listen as He agonises over wayward Israel. Though they were determined to do wrong, yet He loved them.
How can I give you up, Ephraim?
How can I hand you over, Israel?
How can I treat you like Admah?
How can I make you like Zeboiim?
My heart is changed within me;
all my compassion is aroused.
[Hosea 11:8].
Just so we may be assured that God is gracious toward us in this day. When Israel was at last judged by Holy God, Jeremiah cried out in his Lamentations [Lamentations 3:31-33]:
For men are not cast off
by the Lord forever.
Though he brings grief, he will show compassion,
so great is his unfailing love.
For he does not willingly bring affliction
or grief to the children of men.
Indeed the prophet had observed:
Because of the LORD’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness
[Lamentations 3:22,23].
By those same compassions and by the mercies of God I implore you to cease from all rebellion and to receive the love of God in Christ the Lord. You who are Christians are asked to pray for those outside the love of Christ. You who are under sentence of death are invited to life and to love. Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved [Acts 16:31]. Everyone who calls upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved [Romans 10:13]. Amen.
