Understanding God’s Heart

Hosea & Gomer: When Matches Are Made in Heaven

A lot of people may not understand me when I say this, but the concept of marriage absolutely terrifies me.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I love love, and I’m all for the idea of romance. I’ll even be front and center if you ever need someone to “awwwwwwww” or scream, “SAY YES!!!” because while I’m all for the idea of Happy Ever After, the reality of what that means is enough to make me cover my head with a blanket and hide from the world. I understand that I might not be alone, and a number of people may understand the depth of what I mean. Still, on a serious note, it just gives “naked and unashamed” a whole new definition when you think about living with one person, the same person, every day for the rest of your life. I mean, why???? Aren’t you people shy?

Oh well, in recent years I’ve had to confront the idea and realities of marriage, and develop intentional principles regarding this, and one of the most important principles revolves around knowing the heart of God when it comes to what a good marriage should look like. Because if you look to the world, my dear, you’ll fall inside gutter and you won’t even know how you got there. And like always, the easiest way to know what God says concerning a subject is to look into His Word, so today, we’ll be looking at one of what I have always considered to be the weirdest marriages in the Bible, if I’m being honest. I am talking about the marriage between God’s prophet Hosea, and Hot Girl Gomer. I will tell you why I think this marriage was weird, because context is very important. So let’s get right to it.

In those days, the Israelites had started their usual nonsense behaviour of chasing after everything that looked nice and falling down to worship whatever it was. The same thing that put them in trouble a hundred times before was still the same problem at that point. Now, you know how some people say that if they do some type of wrong things, God would use their lives as examples to teach others? Yeah, that was exactly what happened to innocent Hosea. The only difference, he didn’t even do anything. God just wanted to use his life and marriage to foretell what He was going to do with the Israelites, and that was the issue. But I’m getting a bit ahead of myself; perhaps it’ll be better to begin at the beginning.

The book of Hosea chapter 1 tells us that the very first time Hosea heard from God, he was instructed to go and get a wife. and not just any wife, but a prostitute (Hosea 1:1-2). Just like that, right off the bat. No soft landing, no Introduction To The Prophetic Life and OT Discipleship. Not even the usual introduction of being the God of his fathers, or anything like that. Just, “Go and marry an established lady of the night, and have children with her” straight. Just. Like. That. It’s something to be said for Hosea’s conviction that he did not immediately rebuke, cast and bind such a revelation as the work of the enemy, because sorry? Excuse me? What do you mean, go and marry a night worker??? Surely, I must have heard wrong. I mean, surely????? But no, he went straight into obedience mode and picked his bride.

Hosea chose Gomer, out of all the wonderful women of the night; he just went and picked her. Why? Not a clue. But he did. God told him the sort of person to marry, but not who exactly to marry, and I think that’s quite significant. If you examine this scenario closely, you might even find the origin of the “God said that you are my wife” nonsense that is running rampant in the church these days, and how people can twist the Word to suit their desires; however, this same story debunks that completely. Ultimately, Gomer was Hosea’s choice.

So he took her, married her, and she conceived (vs 3). This babe, who had been used to a specific lifestyle, looked at the prophet that came to her, and somehow agreed to marry him. I can’t even begin to imagine what Gomer must have thought. From this man of God showing up in her space, to him saying he wants to marry her. From where to where, bros? If you’re a customer, say you’re a customer. Which one is now marriage again? But she agreed, eventually. But marrying her was just part one of the instructions Hosea was given. He had been specifically instructed to bear children with this woman, who not only had a colorful experience before him, but was also guaranteed to be unfaithful to him in marriage. And she was supposed to adjust to living with Mr. MOG, when she had been used to doing whatever she wanted before. But is that not what precisely marriage does? It brings two people who might have had vastly different backgrounds together in consistent, permanent proximity.

Now, although this was undoubtedly done to highlight Israel’s unfaithfulness to God (Hosea 1:2; 2:1-7), make no mistake, you need to understand that you can only be faithful to someone you are committed to. And while God was warning His people then, He was also teaching the importance of commitment in a union with Him, and with one another. Israel wandered constantly because it took little to make them lose their commitment to God and their covenant. The whole idea of using marriage to describe His relationship with His people was not to whitewash the severity of that bond; on the contrary, it was to emphasize the extent to which He was willing to go for them and to elevate our own understanding of this reality.

When Gomer eventually gave birth, God came again and named her child. In fact, He went ahead to name all her children: all 3 of them (Hosea 1: 4-8). 2 sons and a daughter; Jezreel, Lo-Ruhamah (Not pitied), and Lo-Ammi (not my people). These were all unusual names, significant on the basis of what God was prophesying through them, but so unusual. And from the human point of view, it would seem like Gomer did not have a lot of free will in this matter, up to even the names of her own kids, but that would not be exactly right. After all, you can’t exactly make someone stay if they don’t want to. And down the line, when it looked like she had left, Hosea was instructed by God to go again, bring her back and love her, even though it was crystal clear that she had been unfaithful to him (Hosea 3:1-2). Again, sincere kudos to Hosea because bruhhhhh…

Anyways, he went, and this time, he paid for her so that she became rightfully his (I don’t know about this ownership thing, but that’s another topic on its own). Then he brought her home, and tried to define the concepts of monogamy and commitment in a way she could understand (Hosea 3:3). Of course, this was reflective of God’s redemptive plan for man, and a beautiful plan it was. But can you just take a minute and try to see things through their eyes? Hosea had to not just live with, but also genuinely find a way to love a woman who did not necessarily appreciate or reciprocate his love. And then there was Gomer, caught in the cycle of monogamy and motherhood, when that might not have been her desired plan for her life. It was not the ideal marriage, and it definitely could not have been easy for either one of them. But what if that was the point? What if there’s no such thing as an ideal or an easy marriage? What if we can all stop lying to ourselves and admit that commitment is not always going to be a walk in the park, hand-in-hand?

In reading the depth of God’s dedication to saving Isreal, and indeed humanity, we usually fail to see the parallel lessons that we are being taught at the same time. God has modelled love, kindness and commitment and even marriage for us, making quite clear the path to tread. Think about it. If you do, you’d realise that even the common vows we take during the wedding ceremony are deeply rooted in the principles of love, kindness and long-term commitment that God has and is still showing us today.

“In sickness and health, for richer and poorer, for as long as you both shall live…” are not mere words to be reeled off in a haste to get to the reception. These are binding words, legally, culturally, but also spiritually. Hosea and Gomer waded the fords of marriage despite the huge disparity in their backgrounds and history because that was the will of God for their lives, and they were to be a sign of His redeeming mercy, to Isreal and the rest of the world. But maybe they were also to be a serious lesson to us, a lesson we’ve all overlooked and ignored but desperately need to consider. Maybe knowing what God desires your marriage to look like does not require 21 days dry fasting or going to the mountain top. Maybe it just requires you to know His heart, and He shows that to us every single day in His Word and in our lives. Maybe, just maybe, it’s simple. I mean, it might not be easy, but what if it really is just that simple?

Then again, what do I know?

Learning Right Beside You,

Gabrielle…