Hosea is a living parable of God’s true love for His chosen people, even when they turn away. Using Hosea's marriage as His example, God tells Hosea to choose a wife of harlotry. This was at the very beginning of Hosea's ministry:
"When the Lord began to speak by Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea: 'Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry and children of harlotry, for the land has committed great harlotry by departing from the Lord.'" Hosea 1:2
Many teach that Hosea married a prostitute, but that's not what is written at all. Throughout His Word, God always uses the word "harlotry" to describe His people going after other gods. And that's exactly who Gomer was - she was a woman who did not know God and worshiped other gods. To God that is idolatry or harlotry.
So Hosea was obedient to what God had called him to do. He chose a woman named Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim. It doesn't say in scripture, but both Diblaim and his daughter Gomer were obviously worshipers of other gods. And so this is the family that Hosea chose his bride from - pagan worshipers.
At some point, though the text does not specify when or under what circumstances, Hosea’s wife Gomer, leaves him for a lover and enters into an adulterous relationship with him. We can only imagine Hosea’s pain and likely anger at this rejection. The text remains silent as to Hosea, but as we shall see, God’s reaction is well attested.
After some unspecified period of time God instructs Hosea: Give your love to a woman beloved of a paramour, an adulteress; Even as the LORD loves the people of Israel, though they turn to other gods and are fond of raisin cakes (Hosea 3:1) Now, while the quoted text is not clear to specify that this is the same woman he is to love, the overall context of chapters 1-3 of Hosea demand that this is the same unfaithful wife, Gomer. God tells Hosea to redeem, to buy back Gomer and re-establish his marital bonds with her.
The example of Hosea buying Gomer back for fifteen shekels of silver and one and a half homers of barley, is showing how Jesus bought us back with His life and blood. And once we come back to Him, we will not play the harlot (again being worshiping other gods) and we will be with Him forever.
"Then the Lord said to me, 'Go again, love a woman who is loved by a lover and is committing adultery, just like the love of the Lord for the children of Israel, who look to other gods and love the raisin cakes of the pagans.'" Hosea 3:1
Hosea and Gomer have three children and God names them to show how He felt about Israel: Jezreel, "God sows" (1:4), Lo-Ruhamah, "No compassion" (1:6f), and Lo-ammi, "Not my people" (1:8ff). She eventually betrays him, just as Israel betrays God. But he takes her back again.
God's loyal love and faithfulness as compared to the idolatry and unfaithfulness of the nation.
Throughout the fourteen chapters of Hosea, he prophesies the words of God. They are prophecies of the past, present and the future. Because of God telling Hosea to marry a woman of harlotry, his life is a living parable of God's true love for His chosen people, even when they turn away from Him.
The prophet’s message is demonstrated through the picture of his marriage to the harlot Gomer and the birth and naming of the children. Just as his wife is unfaithful, so the nation has become unfaithful toward God and lack knowledge of him.
"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children." Hosea 4:6
This scripture would play out once again when the Jews rejected Jesus, God's Son, whom He sent to save them. But it is because they rejected the knowledge of Him, as today's people do.
"Come, and let us return to the Lord; for He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up. After two days He will revive us; on the third day He will raise us up, that we may live in His sight. Let us know, let us pursue the knowledge of the Lord. His going forth is established as the morning; He will come to us like the rain, like the latter and former rain to the earth." Hosea 6:1-3
Sound familiar? It should. Its not only a description of the witnesses in Revelation chapter eleven, it is also a description of Jesus's death and resurrection.
If you haven't figured it out by now, the Old Testament shows us every step of the way - God's way. He has been showing us from the beginning what His plan is to save us. You can't read the New Testament without the Old Testament for they go hand in hand. The whole Bible is God's plan of salvation, played out through people's lives and prophesies in the Old Testament; and then fulfilled in the New Testament.
If you have never read the Old Testament, I hope these studies have encouraged you to do so. As Hosea said in 4:6:
"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge."
Summary:
Hosea’s prophetic career began near the end of a time of great economic prosperity and military success for both Israel and Judah. His primary ministry was to the northern kingdom of Israel during the reign of her greatest king, Jeroboam II. However, Assyrian influence began to strengthen under Tiglath-pileser III, who conquered Israel in 722 B.C. The reigns of Israel’s last five illegitimate kings (usurpers to the throne of the line of Jehu, 2 Kings 10:30; 15:12) were short-lived and confused. Chaos and weakness characterized these last years of the northern kingdom. Still, her people refused to heed Hosea’s warning of imminent judgment. The people were in a spiritual daze, filled with sin and idolatry. Hosea’s ministry to Israel parallels the coming ministry of Jeremiah to the southern kingdom of Judah. Like Jeremiah, Hosea relates God’s deep sorrow over the state of the people and the nation He loves. Israel is God’s silly dove (7:11) refusing to repent (4:1), and it breaks God’s heart to discipline her (chapter 11).
The personal tragedy of a marital unfaithfulness becomes a powerful illustration of the greater tragedy of a nation in rebellion against her God. It’s a story of loyal love—between the prophet Hosea and his adulterous wife, Gomer, and between God and His idolatrous people, Israel. Just as Gomer breaks Hosea’s heart by playing the harlot, Israel breaks the heart of her God as she spurns His love. But unconditional love is the theme: Just as Hosea buys his wife out of slavery, God will redeem and restore His people—after a time of purifying punishment. Unconditional love keeps seeking even after it is rejected. Hosea, whose name means salvation, is a prophet from the northern kingdom of Israel, often called Ephraim because that was the dominant tribe in the north as Judah was in the south. He writes with the detail and passion of a native eyewitness to the demise of Israel. “In no prophet is the love of God more clearly demarcated and illustrated than in Hosea”.
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