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Have you ever imagined what it must have been like for God's long suffering prophet Hosea? All that he had to go through with an unfaithful wife must have been a crushing burden, unbearable at times. Gomer was a prostitute continually giving herself away in order to get what she wanted from others. This reminds me of what God goes through when His people are unfaithful — heartbreaking and gut wrenching to say the least. The turmoil, sadness, disappointment, hurt, and jealousy, must be devastatingly painful. God told Hosea to take a wife of harlotry in verse 2 of chapter 1 therefore Hosea married Gomer and lived during the time of several kings, namely Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah of Judah, also King Jeroboam II of Israel. He was a contemporary of Amos while humbly obedient and faithful to God living amongst the unfaithful with the message of a good prophet. In our bibles, Hosea contains 14 chapters to read which makes up the entire book. There is much to unpack from Hosea in order to learn long lasting and vital lessons which are most valuable in our walk with God for today. Hosea's important message transcends the culture of his day and is written for us to take great notice of — it is especially pertinent and sobering in these end times just before Christ returns.
We want to be obedient, really obedient, even fully obedient without questioning, always relying on God's will but this account completely staggered me upon my first reading. How could God ask His faithful prophet Hosea to join in marriage to a harlot involved in harlotry? Speak about a huge mismatch when we are supposed to be equally yoked, therefore it made no sense to me (2 Corinthians 6:14). Did I have some questions! Why did Hosea marry Gomer? Was it just simply a matter of doing what God told him to do? Did he love her? Did she love him in her strange way "with strings attached"? Why didn't Hosea just divorce Gomer when she sold herself to other men? Why put up with infidelity which would wreak havoc with trust and stability within his family? Most people would run away and escape such a terrible situation. Once the trust was broken how could Hosea ever go to work and know whether his wife would still be at home looking after their children? This would be too unsettling for me to cope with and would test me more than I could bear. God does not test us more than we can handle thankfully (1 Corinthians 10:13). This leads me to conclude that Hosea could cope with all that God gave Him. Hosea's will was sacrificed in order to live God's message to show us that being unfaithful is tragic with tragic consequences. His life was like a suspenseful movie played out live in front of people who could see and consider the disastrous effects of adultery. Was this warning enough? Did they take Hosea's message to heart way back then? What about now — do we, God's people, take onboard God's message through Hosea? Annual revision is always needed at the very least in order to remind ourselves.
When I read through the book of Hosea, what stands out to me is the repeatedly shameful and dangerous thinking from a woman (symbolic of God's people Israel and Judah) who somehow thinks she can have everything in life according to her will, and if things go wrong she can then return to the safety of her husband (symbolic of God) who is always there for her, providing for her, loving her by forgiving her and showing mercy. Are we like Gomer? Unfaithful, indulging in things that are not part of God's way? Hosea 3:1 brings up the fact that God's people love the raisin cakes of the pagans. When I first read this what immediately came to my mind was the hot cross buns with raisins inside that I used to thoroughly enjoy with lashings of butter melted all over them once opened up and cut in half. Since my conversion over 15 years ago I can no longer have these as my conscience is quite troubled as the buns were traditionally made and available for Easter, which is an ancient pre-Christian pagan festival God has nothing to do with. Just like chocolate Easter eggs, Christmas trees and decorations, for we have nothing to do with these pagan symbols either. Personally, the further away we get from anything associated with the devil, the better.
Hosea 4 speaks about idols, idols of silver and wooden idols, amongst other money making articles such as statues which were connected to Baal (false gods) and steeped in superstitious paganistic practices linked to burning of incense, drunkenness, adultery, and every sinful way the heathen have and how God's people also follow to do the same. Why so? For God's people enquire about what the heathen/pagans do as they are living all around them and amongst them (Exodus 23:24, 23:33, Deuteronomy 12:30, 2 Kings 17:15, Jeremiah 10:1-10). Are we tempted to dabble just a little by merging in things we do not question or know anything about their origins such as birthday celebrations, use of make-up with the symbolism of painted red lips (my thoughts go immediately to Jezebel and temple prostitutes), or wearing necklaces with a silver or gold image meant to represent Christ? What about tattoos, shaving hair off our head, long hair on men, dyeing our hair, women wearing men's clothing and men wearing women's attire — all vanity and not approved of by God. Have you justified any of these to syncretise or merge in with what your idea is of Christianity?
How revolting does this scene appear — the picture painted is full of paganistic and hedonistic sin through having a lifestyle that does not fully align with God. On the surface we may appear righteous but the proof is found in the day to day living of whether we are fully onboard with God or whether we are trying to incorporate things we do not want to give up much like Gomer who refused to give up her lovers. This is called double mindedness. Gomer was all about herself, extremely selfish, "it's all about me and what I want" which aligns with the god of this age. Does physical and spiritual adultery rear its ugly head in your life? We do not even need to have sexual relations with others in order to be unfaithful to God. How many times throughout the Bible did God warn His people not to join in or even enquire about what the pagans do, let alone giving their children in mixed marriages? Plenty of examples for you to find especially around the Canaanite peoples living in Canaan, the Moabites, and the Philistines. God warns us to live in the world but be separate by coming out of all the pagan practices we once indulged in, or may have been involved with, prior to our conversion.
God yearns and deeply desires His people to be faithful to Him while living in this world which is full of idolatry, adultery, and sin. It is a conscious effort daily to not become entangled in any of it as much is obvious while some is subtle. Converted, faithful followers are fully immersed in all that God shows us in His Word, the Holy Bible by reading, absorbing and being acutely aware of what constitutes righteous living by emulating Jesus Christ's example. We need to be faithful in the little things just as much as in the big things and we must be wholehearted about it with no compromising. It is no good to be half in the world and half out as this is damaging spiritually. Revelation 18:4 and 2 Corinthians 6:17 warn us to come out of the world and have no part of its fornications which saturate the people and permeate the nations. What are we doing? Now is the time to examine everything we think, say, and do while cleaning up anything that has slipped by our notice. For some of us it may very well be the company we keep, the friends we have, the family urging us to join them in, for example, the soon coming festivities of Easter which is just one of the devil's holidays of celebrations that are completely wrong in God's eyes. Do not lower your guard by being tempted to compromise because we know what God says in these scriptures: Proverbs 4:14-15, 13:20, 25:26, 1 Corinthians 15:33, Psalm 106:35. There are so many more to read if you study further on this topic.
For all those out there who are married and are unequally yoked (one called by God like Hosea with a pagan like Gomer) you have a very challenging life, for you may deeply love your spouse and wonder if you can trust them. The world is full of adultery, pornography, women walking around during daylight hours, scantilly clad in revealing clothing that leaves little or nothing to the imagination. They are seen in the supermarkets, banks, libraries, and shopping centres, places we cannot avoid going to, and sadly, these days we don't even need to go to the beach to see minimally clad people. Men of the world look, gawk and stare at these things because they are weak, tempted, and full of carnal lusts. They do not have God's Spirit to help them resist and overcome. Hosea could have lashed out in jealousy to do the same thing to Gomer but he remained steadfast with self-control and according to all accounts he remained physically and spiritually faithful all his life. Perhaps Hosea was ridiculed for Gomer's unfaithfulness — perhaps people had nothing to do with him because he was the laughingstock of his village, or perhaps they felt very sorry for him and thought to themselves "So glad I am not going through what he is — imagine having to put up with that!" Whatever his life was about one thing is for sure, Hosea more than put up with unfaithfulness because He chose to do what God told him to do and it was a great sacrifice of love on Hosea's part. The prophet was demonstrating the love of God for His unfaithful people, and providing a symbol of the reconciliation that would someday take place between them and God. His was a tragic love story with a happy ending much like God's people down through the ages, and these stories/movies/plays are the best because they end well in addition to being topical and holding our interest. We need to examine ourselves to discern all the areas where we may be unfaithful to our spouse, and to God. These sermon links can give much food for thought to help in our quest for developing Godly character while we serve God faithfully: https://www.ucg.org/sermons/keys-to-develop-godly-character
https://www.ucg.org/sermons/thanksgiving-and-the-peace-offering
The following excerpt has been taken from the ucg.org commentary on the last chapter of Hosea but not completely word for word: At the conclusion of the matter God promises to restore Israel because of His most magnificent love for His people. No matter how unfaithful they have been, God has not returned the same to them. This is a most wonderful example to Hosea himself (as well as to us) who had to experience the unfaithfulness of an adulterous wife in his own life — and yet Hosea gained strength to deal with her in love and mercy through the awesome and powerful example of the God He served, and of the God we all serve. Let it be so among us, God's faithful.