Hosea 3

Intro:

Today we jump into Chapter 3 of Hosea and we will see the conclusion of Hosea’s story. We saw in the final section of chapter 2 that in Hosea, as I quoted from one commentator, “When Judgement is the theme, illustration precedes actuality, but when hope is in view, actuality takes priority over illustration.”

In our last time together we saw the tremendous actuality of the redeeming love of God for His people! We saw God move, solely in His great grace, to bring his adulterous people back to himself. We saw this wooing again of His bride pictured anew with the imagery of the exodus, that again God would draw this whoring lover out into the wilderness, speak tenderly to her, and bind her to Him again with the chords of a new and even greater covenant than He had at first.

We specifically saw images and places from Israel’s past that had marked places of dark departure from faithfulness, places like the valley of Achor where the people had marred the very threshold of the promised land with death and defeat because of their bent toward idolatry and defiance of God’s commands. This valley,we read, that had forever been marked as a place of departure from God, a valley of death and darkness would now, as a result of God’s great and redeeming love become a door of hope.

Ultimately we saw the final use of the children of Hosea to display the fullness of this redemption as Jezreel becomes a promise of blessing as God seeks no longer to scatter his people in judgment but once again plants them in the promised lad, we saw No Mercy receive the greatest mercy imaginable and we saw in all of its glory, Not My People become You are My People and the newly redeemed people cry back to their redeeming lover, “You are my God!”

This is the actuality of Hosea chapter 2, the actuality of the redeeming love of God which began to be worked out in what Hosea calls “that day” the day that we saw began when God started to move in redemption and reached its horizon as the sunrise of redemption broke over all of history when Christ died and rose from the dead and continues on even today as sinners are brought into right relation with their God through that continuing plan of redemption being brought by the Spirit to those for whom Christ died.

Today we move on into chapter 3 and we see the illustration of that reality. We see Hosea enact in his life a beautiful picture of the actuality of God’s love. This ought to drive home that actuality! If for some reason we found it hard to connect with the understanding of what God is doing to redeem his people in chapter 2 then chapter 3 and God’s illustrating of His completing of this story through the life of Hosea ought to drive this home!

Now before we jump in we need to remember that once again, as with chapter 1, we are not going to be given all of the details that our minds crave! There are so many questions left about this story that it has actually caused a lot of difficulty for expositors and preachers as they have wrestled with these things over time. I think though that we will find that a straightforward simple approach does the most justice to the story and most importantly to keeping front and center the beautiful picture of the actual reality of God’s redeeming love.

PRAY & READ

Verse 1: The Lord’s Command

This chapter and its illustration begin in nearly the same way as chapter 1. We have the Lord giving a command to Hosea. The only difference is that chapter 1 is written in the third person and chapter 3 is written in the first person. Some have tried to use this fact to suggest that Hosea was not the author of both of these sections or that significant material was added at some point as some editor wove disparate pieces of Hosea’s prophecies together into the book we now have, however it is important to note that the book as a whole often has areas written in the third person where Hosea speaks for God and in the first person where God speaks directly through Hosea. It is likely that this highlights the connection between the prophet and God, in following God’s command and living this difficult marriage that God had called him to Hosea was able to speak for God, he of all people could give expression to the full range of feeling and emotion which God sought to express through him as His prophet. So then the fluctuation between first and third person should simply give us opportunity to witness the closeness of this prophet to God, the God who sustained him throughout his ministry and certainly through the course of these difficult situations in his marriage.

We we start into this verse we see that God speaks to Hosea, now it is here that we need to point out a translation issue. The word “again” in the Hebrew is rather ambiguous as to where it should fit in the sentence. Many translators place it where the ESV has it, in the command, “go again,” however, it is more likely that the word should be read with the first clause of the verse, “the lord said to me again” this is the second time that God is now speaking to Hosea in relation to his family situation and to place the word again with this first clause places the emphasis of the verse onto God himself.

I like this placement better, even though it doesn't change the meaning of the overall passage significantly simply because it draws attention to God here as the actor. God is again calling Hosea to a task, God is speaking into the prophets life again.

This accords with the whole thrust of this book. The central person in this story is God. It is not Gomer , it is not the children, it is not Israel, and it isn't even Hosea though he comes much closer to the center because he has a role to play as the one whose life represents God in this living picture. We have seen the primacy of God as the one who is moving and acting in all these things, most importantly in the salvation passages He is the one who is doing it, He is the one who is bringing salvation and here it is He who is commanding Hosea once again. God is at the center of this story!

And God commands Hosea to “Go and Love a woman.” Note that the first command was to “Go and take”

Speaking here Davids Hubbard says:

Hosea: An Introduction and Commentary ii. Action V: Reconciliation with Disciplinary Constraint (3:1–5)

the command is reworded: ‘go, take’ (1:2) has become ‘go, love’ (3:1); this changes the whole message from the corruption of Israel’s idolatry to the constancy of Yahweh’s love.

As the culminating act of this story the focus is being drawn directly to the love that God has for these people! The sense of the word love is to have great affection for and care for and a great loyalty toward the object that is loved! Now that alone would not surprise us much until we read the next part of the command.

“Go love a woman who is love by another man and is an adulteress”

It is here that the greatest amount of disagreement comes between those who have read and sought to understand this book. We are given so few details about what has happened in Hosea’s marriage. Even through the course of chapter 2 all of the things we read there are said specifically about Israel and Gomer has but stood as a picture of Israel and so we don't know any of the specifics of her whoring lifestyle. We know that she married Hosea and we have taken the course of believing that she was likely not a sexually promiscuous woman when she was wed but that in the course of their marriage she became so though she had born children to Hosea.

The question most often posed by Bible scholars here is who is this woman of chapter 3? Is this Gomer? She goes unnamed so there is some ambiguity. The charge also changes from a woman of whoredom and immorality to a adulteress. Many have tried to say, for one reason or another, that this is a different woman.

However, I find no reason to think this and actually find a ton of evidence here to lead us to the conclusion that this woman whom Hosea is to go and love, this adulteress woman, is indeed Gomer, the wife of whoredom.

Several reasons in no particular order:

The woman must have been married, to commit adultery requires that one be married first, one can be immoral and a whore apart from marriage but the sin of adultery is specific to those who have sex with someone outside of their covenant marriage partner, this is what makes the sin so horrific.

Building off of reason one, while we wrestled with God’s command to Hosea to take a wife of whoredom it would certainly have been opposed to the law for him to take another mans wife who was actually in a sexual relationship with yet another man who was not her husband. At the very least this would make Hosea an accessory to yet further adultery unless the woman was an adulterer who had been divorced from her first husband but in that instance the adulteress woman would have been required to be stoned in accordance with the law.

Another reason that I believe carries some significant merit and simply relates to God’s overall view of marriage is that I can find no instance in the Bible where one man is commanded by God to marry more than one woman. We know that polygamy was common in the ancient world and that even many of the fathers of the faith had more than one wife, however, I can find no instance where a man took more than one wife at the command of God. In fact we have the testimony from God from the beginning in creation that a man and a woman become one flesh!

Lastly and most significantly I can think of no way in which taking this woman to be an other woman from Gomer does not do unjust damage to the intent of the command itself. The picture of faithfulness and restoration is dramatically damaged if this woman is a new woman, a sinful woman for sure but one that had need to be reconciled to another husband not Hosea!

No, the most sense comes from the passage if we take this woman whom Hosea is to go and love, to go and have great affection, care and loyalty toward, we must take this woman as none other than Gomer, Hosea’s wife of whoredom.

God then spells out the connection for us. God loves Israel! Israel has whored, we saw this spelled out for us in all of its insidious and horrifying reality in the beginning of chapter 2! Israel has sought other gods, given credit to other gods for Yahweh's own provision, has forcefully pressed the thoughts of their Covenant God out of their minds, actively forgetting Him, His faithfulness, His great love, all so that she can without blush press hard after these false lovers. Yet, as we saw at the end of chapter 2, God still loves her! She is His bride and He will have her back! He is setting out to redeem her!

Cakes of raisins there simply speaks of excess and abundance. Raisins were a sweet treat, these were often used in celebration. Israel has celebrated and feasted these other false gods. She has stuffed herself with the wedding cake of a false marriage.

Verses 2&3: Hosea’s Response

Immediately, again we see Hosea obey! We read that he went and bought her. Here again we find one of the reasons that many have trouble determining who the woman is. This is where the lack of additional information can make things difficult if we are following the story rather than the intent of God in these things.

There is no reason that we can determine precisely as to why Hosea would have to go and buy Gomer back. Nothing in the law required paying a price for an adulterous woman, there was no price that could be paid via sacrifice, death was the penalty and no sin offering could take that back. Also committing adultery doesn't seem like it would naturally lead to slavery, it would not have been common for a woman to commit adultery and somehow wide up as a slave of the other man.

It is likely that some how Gomer in leaving Hosea for another lover and thus becoming an adulteress, subsequently was deserted by that lover, we may see allusions to this in the first part of chapter 2, though again those verses focus more on Israel than they do Gomer, however, Gomer in picturing Israel surely must have had similar experiences. And so it could be that this lover left her and that she felt she could not or was unwilling to return to Hosea and so in the course of time she wound up selling herself into slavery.

Selling yourself into slavery was a very common practice and one for which you can find all of the laws and practices listed in the book of the law.

We also know that the amount paid by Hosea equates to what would have been the common price of a slave. While the exact amount is hard to translate because we have lost to history what these things exactly mean we can say with some certainty that this was about the price of a slave.

“Fifteen shekels of silver, and a homer and a lethech of barley”

Something else that we see here that is a little bit of reading between the lines maybe but I think appropriately builds on the picture God is presenting is that Hosea doesn't pay for Gomer in all silver. The likely reason for this is that he didn't have enough silver to meet the full price. We get this impression also from the fact that the word for bought carries with it the implication of having haggled over the price. The implication and I think the important key here is that Hosea bought her back at great cost to himself. This took every penny he had in addition to much of the barley he had stored up.

We cant fail to see the connections to God’s ultimate act of redemption. In redeeming us from our adulterous relationship with the world, the lovers that we have endless and willfully pursued right in the face of our great loving and faithful Creator God, in redeeming us God paid a great price!

English Standard Version Chapter 1

knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without blemish or spot.

English Standard Version Chapter 3

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

English Standard Version Chapter 5

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

English Standard Version Chapter 20

even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

English Standard Version Chapter 6

You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price.

Hosea paid a great price for Gomer, great in the same way that the widow’s offering was great, great in comparison with what he had at his disposal. God in the same way paid a great price to redeem us! In this way Hosea directs our eyes through his story directly to the cross to see magnified there this great redeeming love that he put on display so long ago as he went and put his love into action to purchase his adulterous wife back.

Hubbard puts it this way:

Hosea: An Introduction and Commentary ii. Action V: Reconciliation with Disciplinary Constraint (3:1–5)

It is love that bears all that is necessary to accomplish the divine purpose.

This was love directed by purpose, a purpose to redeem!

Hosea’s Directive to Gomer

Finally we see Hosea once he has purchased Gomer back give her a directive. This is actually the only time in the whole story where we see Hosea speak directly to Gomer and it is actually an amazingly beautiful promise that is so glorious that its has to be delivered by Hosea to give the full import of what he, as God’s representative in this whole thing is saying!

Hosea tells Gomer that she is to dwell with him for many days, again a not defined period of time but one which I am sure Hosea and Gomer understood. She was to dwell with him for many days and during that period she was to not pursue her adulterous lusts. This was a period of resetting her desires toward her husband. She was to live with him, to put herself under his care and provision, to place herself under the faithful love of the one who had just paid such a great price to redeem her. The implication here is that during this time she was to live with him but even as husband and wife they were not going to know one another intimately, during this period there is an absence of all sexual relations, illicit or otherwise.

However, after this time of chastening has come to a close Hosea in essence tells here, “I will be yours!”

This promise completes the picture of redemption, one that Hosea will apply to God’s people in just a moment but for now it is a promise spoken directly to the woman, a woman who we might note likely goes unnamed and listed only as “the adulterous woman” because her actions have relegated her unworthy of even being named as a wife. However, here in these words spoken directly to Gomer by Hosea, the only words spoken by this husband to his wife, the only recorded words anyway, here we hear him say, chastening must happen, yes, but in due time, I promise I will be yours! Redemption will be complete, the relationship will be consummated again, the fullness of marriage will be restored once and for all!

We are left to believe in hope that these words must have washed over Gomer like the flow of a cool refreshing stream. In imagery similar to the prodigal son yet without as much detail we see a woman whose wanderings have led her far away from the one who truly loved her, who has sought pleasure and gotten nothing but slavery and pain, unwilling or unable to return she has languished in her ruin until that moment when she caught his eye again. Could she even look up as Hosea approached her after paying the price, did she see him haggle with her master, could she have known how much it cost for Hosea to buy her back, did she fear in that moment that Hosea’s goal was to exact the lawful vengeance that could rightly have been wrought, life ending punishment beneath the stones? We aren't given the answers to any of these questions but the feel of the text is such that we can imagine this woman looking up into the stern and yet loving eyes of this man who tells her I have bought you back, and time must pass, but I will be yours!

Like I said, if the actuality didn't hit you at the end of chapter 2 the illustration of that actuality is meant to land with force!

Verses 4&5: Illustration Explained

Finally in verses 4 and 5 Hosea himself, speaking for God applies this picture we have just seen to his people.

English Standard Version Chapter 3

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.

In verse 4 we see that the children of Israel are going to be deprived of rule and worship. This is both who God was to them and what they had sought apart from Him. For a time, like Gomer, they will be without these needed aspects of life, Gomer would be without intimacy with her husband or any other man, Israel would have no one to serve and no one to worship.

However, what is truly interesting is the reversal of these things, the restoration.

Verse 5 is full of messianic significance!

The people will finally and forever return to seek God but not just God but also David their king. Now if this just simply meant that they would seek to submit again to the kingly line of David, which in its own right would be quite the thing since this is after all a prophecy to the northern 10 tribes who had rejected the Davidic line, this would be an amazing thing. However, if that is what Hosea means then he would have likely said “house of David” speaking of the line of David, however he says David their king which clearly puts this into messianic territory.

Hosea is early in the prophetic literature and as with his references to the new covenant these things would be fleshed out more for the people as time progressed but we see here that there is coming a day when these redeemed people will seek Yahweh and David their King.

English Standard Version Chapter 3

they shall come in fear to the LORD and to his goodness in the latter days.

This is a picture of redemption, as with the end of chapter 2 and the declaration:

English Standard Version Chapter 2

and I will say to Not My People, ‘You are my people’;

and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’

So here we see these people, as Gomer surely experienced, once again fully established in the marriage covenant , a place where faithfulness, justice, mercy, steadfast love, righteousness, and here, goodness abound! This is to take place in the latter days which as with “that day” in 2:16 should simply mean the time when redemption is brought, it is not going to come quickly but when that day comes, and as people on this side of the cross can attest, it has come, when that day comes Hosea says, redemption will be complete and goodness will abound!

The story is complete, redemption has been wrought, the bride has been restored.

I am immediately reminded of these words from the book of Revelation:

English Standard Version Chapter 21

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

The bride in all of her restored beauty stands before the groom who Himself is the center of this story and the wedding commences, the former things have passed away, all has become NEW!