It has been said that when God saved us God took His greatest risk. Because the truth is the investment that came along with God bringing us into relationship with Himself is something that can not be fully comprehended and it is often something that is devalued and underappreciated. God is a God of relationship. And it is His desire to bring you and me back into relationship with Him.
• Relationships require commitment
• Relationships require reciprocity
• Relationships require sacrifice and the rendering of expressions and concern and care
God has been faithful at keeping his end of the relationship.
• The problem has not been with God but the problem has been with us.
Because we are wishy washy—we have our own agendas. We are prone to unfaithfulness. When the truth is that Jehovah, God—the Creator of the Universe—our Savior and Redeemer…looked beyond our faults and He supplied our needs.
Nowhere in the scripture will you see God’s love demonstrated in a profound way as it is exemplified and given in the book of Hosea. According the critical scholarship the book of Hosea is an autobiographical sketch that is written by Hosea about Hosea. Here we have a very interesting story that gives us a very vivid and clear cut picture about love of God for the people of God throughout eternity and time. Here God tells Hosea the prophet to go and marry a wife named Gomer. You will discover that Gomer is a prostitute, Gomer is a Harlot; Hosea is the man of God; called and equipped to carry the good news of the coming Messiah throughout Judea. Upon deeper and further investigation we discover that Hosea represents God; and Gomer represents and depicts the people of God who have a wicked tendency and hellish proclivity to stray and are unfaithful to Him and reject His love. Here we have a pattern of a woman of loose living and a shallow understanding of the value and virtue love. But the prophet marries this woman of loose living…this prostitute—in hopes of loving her out of her old ways. But much to his dismay, despair, and detriment, to add insult and injury to his already miserable situation, he soon discovers how entrenched and immersed she is with her own and old lifestyle. In other words:
• she comes home late
• she wakes up in strange and unfamiliar places
• she favors other lovers and runs after other men
• she sales her body and gives herself for money
• she stands at the corner of 5th and 9th in red the district though she is married to the Pastor of the largest local church
• she performs cheap favors on men and makes a living on her back rather than cultivating her mind
What does Hosea do and what is his response? He doesn’t have his attorney issue a divorce decree/He doesn’t put a hit out on her/He doesn’t run over her with his SUV/He doesn’t beat her and abuse her.
But the prophet, her husband, goes after her and nurses her back to health. Why? Because he loves her. Over and over again, she is unfaithful; but the prophet, is faithful to the commitment of the marriage. Now before you point your religious scalpels and point your pious finger and become too hard on Gomer, I know you are saying ‘Wow…how can a woman who has a husband to love her like this be that unfaithful?’ Before you beat down Gomer the Harlot—let me take this opportunity to remind you that there is some Gomer in you.
• You prostitute your principles
• You misplace your priorities
• You compromise your convictions
• You settle for the suitable
• You contradict your calling
You may not be known as: CALL GIRL, STREETWALKER, LADY OF THE NIGHT, LADY OF PLEASURE, SCARLET WOMAN, SOILED DOVE, which are modern synonyms for those entrenched in harlotry. But you do lie on your income tax, throw rocks and hide your hands, disrespect your elders, slander and ridicule your government officials and spiritual leaders—lie, cheat and steal. Let’s go further—you steal from God (His word says you are cursed with a curse because have robbed me); you misuse and abuse your body—your body doesn’t belong to you (His word says your body is the temple of God…to be used as a vessel of honor); you run after the world and the things that you think the world can give you to give you temporary pleasure and worldly gain (His word says to ‘…seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness).
Before you look down on Gomer the prostitute, examine the Gomer in you.
Galatians 3:22 ‘…the scripture has confined that all are under sin’
I John 1:8 ‘…if we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us’
Ecclesiastes ‘…there is not a just man in the earth that does good and does not sin’
• There is sin in me, in you and in us; there is Gomer in me, in you and in us.
Webster’s Intercollegiate Dictionary defines a prostitute in the following way: One who solicits and accepts payment for sexual intercourse. One who sells his abilities or name to an unworthy cause.
Looking at the definition literally, that may apply to none of us; But spiritually, it applies to each of us.
When was the last time you found yourself looking, lingering or lusting after some worldly pleasures? Gomer in you!
When was the last time you found yourself taking payments from the Devil—in the installment plan?
When was the last time you found yourself in a rendezvous with the world and the things of the world, performing worldly intercourse with Satan and his imps? A ménage e tua with the your flesh and your selfish desires that were driven by the Devil?
When was the last time you sold yourself and your abilities to the paymaster? And you compromisd your name to satisfy and gratify your fleshly desires?
There is some Gomer in you. No matter how long you’ve been going to church—we have a tendency to break our commitment with God and to literally break God’s heart. That is why whenever you come to church you are unqualified to judge and pre-judge other people—for the truth be expressed if it were not for the faithfulness and favor of God—not the house/job/Mercedes/wife/husband—the favor and faithfulness of God. If it were not for that faithfulness and untireless of God with you when you got on His nerves time and time again…you would be in the same position as the one you judge.
You’ve got to understand that God is an awesome God and that is why every available opportunity you have, you should thank God for using you despite you. You ought to thank God for blessing you despite of the Gomer inside of you. You ought to thank God for working on you despite of the messed up issues inside of your life. God brought you here today simply to let you know that even when things go wrong and when you mess up and when people look down on you and even when you stray, God is going to keep on loving you until you learn how to love Him back.
Here we have the story of the man of God on an assignment who God tells to go and take a wife of whoredomes—(take a wife of harlotry)
I. It is an unthinkable request.
It speaks of the extent that God would go to in order to engage us into relationship with him. He asks Hosea to do something that would be viewed as taboo for the culture in which he lived. The man of God to marry a prostitute? That is an unthinkable request. But nonetheless, God say go and proposition her. Hosea is known as the sandwich board prophet—who walks the streets with the sandwich board on declaring ‘thus saith the Lord’. And God says to him while prophesying, “Hosea, I want you to take a wife”. Well, God, where is she? Usher board, Choir Department, Praise Team? ‘Nu uh, there she is Hosea, on the corner.’ Where is she, God? There she is—with the fish net stockings that are torn; there she is the 4 inch heals; there she is with the wig…I know you don’t recognize her because yesterday it was blonde and today it’s red, tomorrow it will be pink—but that’s her. She’s got lipstick running down her cheek. That is the woman I want you to take as your wife. And I want you to go and proposition her.’
• Gomer had been accustomed to being propositioned. She was used to men propositioning her for sex. But when Hosea goes propositions her, he was after her heart.
- You need to understand that when God comes after you, He comes after something that you have never been offered before. Before he came after us, we were used to short-term encounters with no depth and no meaning; we were used to chaos and instability. But when Jesus came in our lives, He brought us joy/peace/stability.
• What I love about God—is that when you have been rejected, abused, been through hell and hot water—He will show up and give you what you never had before.
Gomer wasn’t used to boundaries/accountability/commitment. She had been with many people. Her reputation was bad and her bad reputation preceded her. She hadn’t lived life, life had lived her out. And this is why it is so difficult for people to conceptualize the love of God—because you cannot imagine somebody want to invest in you after all that you have done. It’s unthinkable that somebody so amazing wouldn’t care about what you’ve done and who you did it with. But that is why we serve a God that says ‘…whosoever will…let him come’.
God specializes in qualifying the unqualified; calling the outcast; using the unusable; wanting the unwanted; recycling the messed up.
Illustration: Now I used to wonder about one my mentors Freddie Haynes and call him strange and deranged when he would talk about speaking object…but I was working on the message on my computer when all of a sudden my computer screen began to talk to me. Now I thought that I was hallucinating or having a breakdown until I remember that Shakespeare said that there are sermons in stone so certainly I could get a message from monitor. I had bought this pretty black, 19 inch screen for a huge discount…so I knew I didn’t have much to lose. So I said talk on monitor, talk on. All of a sudden the monitor began to say to me, ‘Kraig…I am just like you and so many of the people that you preach to.’ I said, ‘what?’ The monitor began to say, ‘look behind me and you’ll see what I mean.’ I knew that I didn’t have much to lose being that I bought this monitor at a discount. When I looked on the back of this monitor, there I found three stickers, the first said—damaged; the second said—restored; the third said—good. As I thought about that I realized that what the monitor was saying to me: Kraig, at some point in my history I was damaged and deemed unusable; but somebody saw some potential in me and began to work on me until I was restored…and then after my restoration, somebody came by, stopped, looked at me, picked me up, purchased me and is now using me to convey a message. Don’t you know that that is what God did? You were damaged by the world because you kept allowing the world to use you. But through the blood of Jesus, that which looked like trash, He turns around and makes it treasure. And your life is marked…damaged, restored, good. And if you are Gomer today and know nothing about Him picking you up…when you accept His free gift to purchase you—your life, too, can be marked…damaged (Past tense)…restored (present tense)….good (that can be your future!)
• God wants to love on you—no matter your mistakes, mishaps and failures. You’ve done whatsoever with whomsoever, wherever and however.
It is unthinkable that God would like at somebody as dirty as Gomer and says, ‘I want you’. The you that you think nobody wants. The you that is still looking for something that man cannot give you.
And when he marries her, Gomer is unfaithful in the relationships. Prophet Hosea made a commitment to love her beyond her pain and her issues.
• For Gomer doesn’t just have an issue; you’ve got some issues (plural).
He has provided for her stability. First time sister girl had a house. She is used to the hotel and temporary dwelling. She’s got a house now; she’s never known the environment that she knows now. But she’s still unfaithful in the relationship. How can Gomer have it all—how can Gomer have a husband that invests in her have a husband that invests in her when nobody else would and still be unfaithful? I’m using Gomer’s name but I’m really asking you—how can Gomer have all that God has blessed you with and still be unfaithful and ungrateful and wander and stray?
They teach you something in seminary that is called a hypothetical inference. What we do is we bring to the table a hypothesis or an educated guess to the scripture, suggesting that something is inferred or implied in the scripture and, as long as we do not dilute the integrity of the story, you can make this inference—you can imply or suggest what the text says though it is not saying it straight out. And so, the truth is, I wondered what would cause a sister to have all the hook up at home and still be unfaithful. And so I began to work my little theological hypothesis. And said to myself now when Hosea found her, she was a prostitute.
• Maybe she was still being controlled by her pimp. Because the pimp represents that thing that has controlled her so long, that although she has everything that she needs and should want, she is still bound by the past that manipulates her future. When the pimp calls, she sneaks out of the bed with her husband to go back to her old life. When the pimp calls, she loses all sense of reason. When the pimp calls, she forgets how far she has come from, relapses, and then goes back into what she thought that she had broken away from.
And that is how we do God. We allow Satan to pimp us. Although we say that we love God and we enter into relationship with Him. And we come to the altar and we cry, shout, whine and we dance. But when the pimp calls…you forget about the privileges He has given you through Jesus and His blood.
How is it that you can do what you want to do and how much you love God, but when the pimp calls, you are unfaithful in your relationship to God.
Question: What is it that is pimping you? What is it that is so strong that it will take priority over your relationship with God? What’s his name? What’s her name? What’s the organization’s name? What’s the football team’s name? What’s the club’s name? What’s the chronic’s name? What’s the job’s name? What’s the drugs name? What is it? What is it that is so strong that it takes priority over your relationship with and responsibility to God? Please tell me—what’s pimping you?
Nevertheless, when it happens…when Gomer, the love of his life, is unfaithful and strays, it breaks his heart. When you, the love of God’s life—the apple of God’s eye, strays….it breaks God’s heart. How can it not? After all that Hosea had done to make the relationship work? After all the investments; after all the time spent pouring into Gomer and Gomer keeps sneaking away at night; after the time Hosea had to borrow money to buy her off of the auction. How could it not hurt him? It breaks God’s heart. How can it not? After all that He’s done to make the relationship possible, let alone what He’s done to make it work? God says, ‘Why do you keep breaking my heart?’
God says all of the gifts I have placed inside of you and you are still a pew member…why are you still breaking my heart?
All of the ways that I made for you and you are too busy to tell me thank you…why you keep breaking my heart?
Every job I give you and you don’t even have it in you to give back 10 percent…why you keep breaking my heart?
All of the things that I have blessed you with and now you are too sophisticated to lift up your hands and say ‘Lord I bless you’…why you keep breaking my heart?
Some Gomer in the room today should not leave without saying today, ‘I’m getting it right today…I’m tired of being unfaithful to God…I’m tired of leaving here the same way….If nobody else will give Him glory. If nobody else will show up and tell Him thank you…I will’.
You mean to tell me that a holy God will tell a prophet to marry an unholy woman? You mean to tell me that a Holy God would tell the prophet to have a relationship with public spectacle like Gomer? And then, you mean to tell me that God would tell Hosea to have a child with a woman who would be unfaithful? Because whenever God engages us in relationship to Him, He always births things out of us—knowing that we are going to be unfaithful. Look at all the gifts; look at the things God has birthed in and through you and you are still unfaithful to Him. And you keep going back and forth and back and forth. Why would a God like that do that for somebody like me? Because He says, ‘I love you and I give you unconditional redemption’. What do you mean preacher? God’s love is not measured by your love—I’m glad it isn’t. Because your love is conditional. Because your love clocks in late and leaves early. Because your love comes asking ‘What’s in it for me?’ But the Bible says that ‘…while we were yet sinners...Christ died.’ He loved me while I was still hurting Him. He loved me while I was still walking on the cob webs of carnality over a burning Hell—but he loved me. God loved me while I was still dipping and sipping and tipping. While I was still doing my own thing—He still loved me.
• And the theme of Hosea that he represents in the text is a picture and depiction of God’s patience. God kept putting up with it.
Hosea would go out every day—go out to work in ministry and do God’s work—and he would come home in the evenings only to find his son in the crib, crying unattended—dishes in the sink and the house a mess. And he would think, ‘oh she’s at it again’. And his wife would be out on the street corner, running in and out of stuff. She would come home at 2 or 3 o’clock in the morning, beat up, black eye, bruised—but he never would condemn her—he would just bring her in, tuck her in, feed her, give her something to drink and put her to bed. Next day he would go out again, doing God’s work—calling out to God—and he would come home and again she was no where to be found. Some nights he would be in the bed and he would reach out for her and she wouldn’t be there. He said, ‘I loved her and provided and house and a home for her and she would be there’.
Pastor, why are you bringing this up—what does this have to do with me? God says, ‘every day I’ve been looking for you—I see you every now and then stopping to come around me…but I was looking for you when more than when it was just convenient for you. I’m looking for you. I’ve been good to you. I’ve blessed you. I got you in school. I kept you in your right mind. I gave you a house and a car. But do you love me enough to the point that you can say bye to your pimp.’
God says that He’s been patient with you. I thank God that He never gave up on me; that when everybody else gave up on me—that He said that He would keep on loving me. He says He is going to keep on loving you until you learn how to love Him back.
• We are all akin to Gomer because we all have the same blood type: blood type A. A for Adam. (Federal headship of Adam—free moral agent—sin in the garden) That is why you need blood type J. The only way to get it is to be born again. Jesus is the only man in human history to know no sin and have no sin. M.R. Dehaan, in his book ‘Chemistry of the Blood’ simply defines it as when a mother conceives and gives birth the child, while the mother’s umbilical cord is attached to the child and the placebo surrounds the child…the child receives no child from the mother. All blood that is in that child’s anatomy, 100%, comes from the father and the father alone. That is why from natural birth, we are all children of Adam. But because Adam sinned, we are born in sin. But the blood that ran through the veins of Jesus, that was the blood of His father, Jehovah…the living God. That means having a new birth, where the old life has no more power and no effect because I’m a new man, new creature, new women, new child. So while the first Adam would give me death—the 2nd Adam, Jesus, can give me life!
God says that I want you and I need you---that one day you are going to outlive the foolishness. That is what it means when he says…’when I was a child…I put away childish things.’ God could have divorced me; could have given up on me. But I thank God--that ‘God so loved the world that He gave….’
Is there anyone who can say from this day forward, I won’t let anything get in the way of you, Lord (not sorority, fraternity, boyfriend, girlfriend, things, problems, people, desires, drink, etc.)
