The Preacher & The Prostitute

they’ll say, “That boy is crazy!”

And I can imagine that their talk hurt Hosea. It’s a hurting thing when you are trying your best to preach and teach the word of God, but it seems to fall on deaf ears. And so Hosea is rather discouraged and in the opening chapter of this little book of prophecy we read a personal note about him. He went to God and God told him to do a strange thing. God said, "I want you to get married." I think Hosea brightened up at that, because he was a bachelor, and God said, "I have a girl picked out for you." When he mentioned her name, Hosea’s heart must have fluttered, because the name of this girl was Gomer, the most beautiful girl in Israel. Hosea was definitely interested.

But God said to him, "I want you to know the whole story about this girl. I want you to marry her, but she is going to be unfaithful to you; in fact, she will become nothing but a common street prostitute. But I want you to marry her anyway." Now undoubtedly Hosea was very puzzled by God’s strange command just as Abraham was puzzled by God’s command that he take his son out and kill him, put his own son to death. God does strange things at times, things we don’t always understand, things we can’t categorize, things that don’t fit into what we think we know of him. And this is one of those strange things.

He told Hosea, "I want you to marry this girl and she is going to be a harlot, a hussy, a skeezer, a hooker, a wench, a common street walker. And you are going to have three children by her, two boys and a girl. And when they are born I want to name them for you."

Hosea then began to understand a little bit of what God was doing. He knew it was customary in Israel to teach by symbols and God often used this method of instructing his people. He also know that names were very important - for God often used the meanings of names to teach Israel certain truths. And now God was planning to use this prophet and his family as a lesson for his people.

So Hosea went courting. Sure enough, Gomer was attracted to this shy young man, and at last he summoned up the courage to ask her to marry him. To his great relief, she said “Yes,” and they were married. At first it was heaven on earth.

I’m not trying to suggest anything about my own married life, or anyone else’s life for that matter, but let me illustrate what can happen to married folk if things start to go south. I have here some boxes of cereal that I want to use as an illustration on married life.

First we have a box of Rice Crispies:

Rice Crispies are very fresh and crunchy when you first open the box. They snap, crackle and pop. Which is typlical of new love. When you first meet, there are fireworks! There’s a lot of snap, crackle and popping going on. But when the milk gets on and stays there for a while, the snap loses it’s snap! The crackle loses it’s crackle! And the pop loses it’s pop!

Next we have a box of Cheerios:

Cheerios are little circles that float in the beginning. But after the milk has been on them for a while, cheerios sink and get soggy in the bowl. So it is with some marriages. In the beginning, you seem to be in a state of perpetual floatness! Whenever the love of your life and the apple of your eye walks into the room, you float with passion. But if you’re not careful, or if something goes a-rye in the marriage,