HOSEA CHAPTER 1: Faithless Bride
Hosea the son of Beeri preached to the people of Israel about sin and about repentance. He also lived out a terrible marital situation which was meant to communicate the sin cycle of Israel. The entire Old Testament is filled with the cycle Israel went through. This cycle can especially be seen in the book of Judges.
The opening of the Book of Hosea (chapter 1) reveals that Hosea’s marriage to Gomer begins as his prophetic ministry begins. The most natural reading of this passage seems to indicate that God commands Hosea to marry a woman of ill repute, a prostitute, and marry her even though he knows her character flaws.
Verse 3 shares with us that Hosea obeys God and marries Gomer, a woman of adulterous character and loose sexual morals. There is no mention of his feelings or doubts or prayers of complaint. There is no mention of a courtship or betrothal period. Hosea simply obeys the Lord His God and enters a marriage with a woman who he knows will not be faithful to him in marriage.
It says in verse 3 after their marriage that Gomer bore Hosea a son. The son was to be given a symbolic name. Hosea was not the first prophet to give their child a symbolic name. This also happened in the life of the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah 8:3-4 and Mary in Matthew 1:21.
The boy born to Hosea was to be named Jezreel. Hosea could share with those he preached to that God was not pleased with the people of Israel for what occurred in Jezreel which is recorded in 2 Kings 9-10. The second child born to Hosea is a daughter. Verse 3 says, “she conceived and bore him a son.” Verse 6 says, “she conceived again and bore a daughter.” It says absolutely nothing about Hosea being the father.
The second child born to Hosea seems to be the result of unfaithfulness on the part of Gomer. The girl is given the name Lo-Ruhamah which means “not loved” or “no mercy.” God says that He will not show mercy to Israel in verse 6. We wonder if the name of the child also reflected that Hosea did not feel loved by Gomer because of her betrayal or if the name reflected that Hosea did not love the child. In any case, there is a breaking of trust all around.
Note that in verse 7, salvation and love is only going to come by way of “the Lord their God.” Sinfulness breaks down everything, but it is only YHWH that will provide salvation. In the New Testament, see John 14:7 for a similar theological thought. God bears all of our sins and provides a way of love and salvation.
Some time passes and verse 8 tells us that Gomer had another son and again Hosea is not mentioned as being the father; only that Gomer had the child. The boy is given the name Lo-Ammi which means “not my people.” God again is telling the people of Israel that they have cut themselves off from Him and are not His people in verse 9. Again, we get the sense from the name of the child that he is not from Hosea and is “not mine.” This prophet has now endured years of being married to a wife who is not faithful to him. She has children by other men.
What was the point of all this? Why would God have his prophet marry an adulterous woman? The message that Hosea had to give to the people of God had then and has now to do with faithfulness and unfaithfulness. The language in Hosea 1 is very crude and intense. The issue at hand was God’s relationship with His people in which God felt deeply betrayed. The entire Book of Hosea is flavored with the language of adultery and unfaithfulness and shame and anger because God is telling the people that they have betrayed Him as one spouse betrays another. Every other paragraph has language that is hard to read and is intense.
THROUGH THE LENS OF THE MESSIAH’S LIFE
We see in the Book of Hosea God chose one prophet to live out the pain He felt because of the adulterous and faithless relationship He was experiencing with His people in the Northern Kingdom of Israel. The Truth about God, the God who made the world (Genesis 1), the God who called Abraham to make a nation (Genesis 12), the God who saved Israel from Egypt (Book of Exodus), and the God who is described in the Old Testament and the New Testament is a God who desires to have an abiding exclusive personal relationship with His people. That is why He calls Hosea to prophetic service and frames everything He says with painful relationship and sexual terms.
Hosea’s life was a type and shadow of what the future Messiah would suffer because He can bear us and our sin. Jesus would suffer for His bride (the Church) that was enslaved for sin. This is not a metaphor exactly, but the story of Hosea is a future picture of what Jesus would do and endure because of our faithlessness. Jesus connects Himself to spiritually adulterous people and He remains faithful. God’s response to us stepping away from Him is offering His Son. God will not force Himself on humanity, but does remain faithful to Himself amid pain.
As we dig into the rest of Hosea (chapters 2-14), we will see more fully the need and the passion of Jesus Christ hinted at and given a shadow of what is to come. He is the One who makes the wayward sinners “sons of the living God” (verse 10).
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Dwelling In Scripture 