Introduction:
Read Hosea 1. (Hosea 3 is read earlier in service by a teenager)
As I read and studied this passage of Scripture, I felt like it needed to be put in a modern day setting so that we can relate to these characters. From the text, too many questions, too many things left out, and too much OT history and symbolism.
Don’t want to deal with most of that that so first lets hear this from a modern day perspective: Tami grew up in an urban middle class family. Her memories of early childhood were filled with sadness and tears. Her mother and alcoholic father fought long and often. As the oldest child, Tami came to feel that she was somehow the cause of the bickering and the anger which exploded into yelling, cursing, name calling, pushing, and the occasional beating. When her father came home drunk on his weekend binges, she cringed with fear, wanting to protect her mother and knowing at the same time that she would become the object of his anger as well.
Most such weekends, her father would find a time alone with Tami, since her mother worked weekends. “You can make up for being bad- and for your mother,” he would say as he did unspeakable things to her. After he was satisfied, he would often say, “If you tell your mother, you’ll break up our family. She won’t understand.”
Tami’s mother found out about the secret when Tami was twelve. She sued for divorce and obtained custody of the children. Her mother assured her, “What your father did to you was terribly wrong.” Yet Tami could not rid herself of the feeling that she was responsible for the divorce and the hardships that followed.
They moved into an apartment in another part of the city. That meant changing schools and making new friends. Tami was desperate for friendship and affection and felt lonely. She thought, “I don’t know anyone here. Nobody loves me. I’m not worth anything.” She found it harder to concentrate on schoolwork. Her grades dropped.
Tami began hanging around with a group of fringe students. They accepted her. When her dates began asking for favors after an evening out, she complied, hoping to find the acceptance she was looking for. But instead of feeling loved, she felt used. They just reminded her of her father. “Men are all the same!” she thought.
Except for Steve. He was a good student and helped her with her homework, saving her from public embarrassment. Through him, Tami got to know another group of students- clean living, drug free, many of them members of a Christian group. Tami struggled with loyalty to her friends, who seemed to represent two different worlds. In her junior year, Tami became a Christian. It was difficult to leave her partying friends, but she was committed to a new way.
After high school, Steve and Tami attended the same Christian college and were married soon after graduation. They had received counseling which addressed Tami’s dysfunctional family relationships and her personal abuse by her father and many dates. Steve and Tami were determined to have a Christian marriage and family. They identified with a local church, nurtured their spiritual life together, and were blessed by the arrival of a son.
Tami, however, developed a severe case of postpartum depression. She was again overcome by feelings of worthlessness. She refused the help offered by friends and counselors. Steve and Tami agreed not to have any more children until she recovered emotionally. One night Steve and Tami got carried away physically and they conceived another child. They talked about what they were going to do. They were against abortion so that was ruled out. When the daughter was born, Steve found it hard not to think of her as an “Accident.” He thought it was funny that they had only been together once in several months and a baby came from that.
After the daughter, Tami’s depression deepened, and she began a pattern of unfaithfulness. Steve was as understanding as he knew how to be, but he could no longer get through to Tami. Their third child, a son, was not fathered by Steve. As much as Steve tried to rid himself of the thought, the more persistent it became: “This child is not mine!”
Tami, distraught, left Steve and children. She moved in with an old high school friend for a while, prompting Steve to file for divorce and the custody of children. Both were granted.
Years went by. Steve remained single; Tami remarried, divorced, and then lived with another man- an abuser- until she developed hepatitis. Steve heard that Tami had been admitted to the local hospital and went to visit her. The illness seemed to have had a powerful impact on Tami, restoring her to her Christian commitments. The medical and hospital bills mounted, and she felt that there was no way she could ever pay them. But when Steve came to visit, he paid her bill in full. He offered to cover her counseling costs if she would return to a Christian counselor who had helped them before. It was years before she was ready to accept a new offer of marriage from Steve, a marriage they did not consummate until she was able to reach down to the roots of her alienation and depression.
This modern day parable helps us to sympathize with Gomer because Tami is Gomer. In the Scriptures it is hard to sympathize with her and understand her.
In the New Testament Jesus says that divorce is permissible because of adultery. Matthew 19:9: I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery.” KJV says fornication. NASB says immorality. Now Jesus says that it is acceptable to divorce a wife for this but it is not required that a husband do this. Best to work through this and try to seek to restore the marriage.
In the OT, there were two ways to deal with adultery. One was to have wife stoned to death. The other was to give the wife a certificate of divorce and send her on her way. Jesus called this hardness of heart in Matthew 19:8. But honestly, who would want to be reconcilled and restored to Gomer, she is described as a promiscuous woman, a prostitute, an adulterous wife?
Don’t know if Hosea legally divorced Gomer. Statements in ch. 2 seem to indicate that he did. However, under the Law of Moses a husband could not go back to his former wife after she has been married to another man because she would be defiled and that would be detestable in the eyes of the Lord (Deuteronomy 24:1-4). However, this leads us into issues that distract from the main point of this story.
In the Scriptures we see Hosea as being the hero. However, it is hard to understand Steve. How many men would endure years of adultery and still want to be married to that wife?
Hosea and Gomer is a true story and it happened to illustrate how the Lord feels about his adulterous bride. Hosea is the figure of the Lord and Gomer is the figure of the church.
The NT says that we are married to Christ. 2 Corinthians 11:2 Paul says: I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him. The OT uses this same imagery especially in the prophets. Ezekiel 16:8 in reference to Israel but it also applies to us: When I looked at you and saw that you were old enough for love, I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness. I gave you my solemn oath and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Sovereign LORD, and you became mine.
Hosea 3:2 symbolizes the price that Christ paid to redeem us from the slavery of sin. Hosea does the pursuing. He is the one who keeps up with Gomer’s whereabouts and without her even knowing it makes sure she is provided for. He is the one who tracks her down in the slave market. He is the one who gives of his own money to buy her back.
What a grand picture of our God and Savior. Jesus came into this world as the Great Shepherd to track down the lost sheep. He pursues us and pays the price to redeem us. What a price he paid! He gave His all in the suffering and death of the cross.
Like Gomer, my life has been filled with spiritual adultery. I have loved other things and other people more than God. I have at times rejected His love for me. Some days I have completely ignored Him and other days I have accused Him of not loving me. He has found me time and again being unfaithful to him. How it must break His loving heart. The astonishing thing is that He still loves me. That is the real scandal. He is not ashamed to call me His own.
Thesis: So what? What should this mean to me? (Hosea 3:5)
For instances:
Trembling to his goodness (NASB)
A. God is so good to us in spite of ourselves. Psalm 116:12-13: How can I repay the LORD
for all his goodness to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the LORD.
“We cannot repay!” Indeed, we cannot even pay the interest on the great debt we owe Him.
As Christians, we lift the communion cup in witness of our acceptance of Jesus as Messiah and as the forgiver of our sins.
God is so good, God is so good, God is so good, He’s so good to me!
Notice that we tremble at his goodness.
We are in awe of God’s goodness, so it has an element of fear. Why has He been so good to us through so many years? Mistrust this goodness and his intentions.
God is so holy and we are so not. Isaiah 6:3: Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory. Later Isaiah said that he was ruined...
Trembling in fear (shall fear the Lord- KJV)
I know I am His by Phillip Bliss- Oh, mercy surprising! He saves even me! “Thy portion forever,” He says, “will I be” On His Word I am resting—assurance divine: I am “hoping” no longer, I know He is mine. I know He is mine, yes, I know He is mine, I’m hoping no longer—I know He is mine.
Are you resting on His Word? Plan of salvation. Once we know that then we want to please Him because we are His and He is ours. We dread to displease One so good.
Notice that Hosea says in vs. 3- You are to live with me... and I will live with you. A truly successful marriage will follow that standard of commitment. We have an obligation to keep our vows with our spouse and we have an obligation to keep our vows with God. Want to put a smile on our loved ones face. Hate to see that look of disappointment on my loved ones face or in the tears of their eyes.
As far as we know Gomer stayed with Hosea the rest of her life. May we do the same.
