Project 119: Hosea 3
| Project 119
“A Relationship Restored”
Hosea’s prophecy bounces back and forth between the prophet’s personal situation and how it symbolizes where the nation is with respect to God. In this chapter God commands Hosea “go, love a woman who has a lover and is an adulteress, just as the LORD loves the people of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love raisin cakes” (Hosea 3:1, NRSV).
Commentators are divided on the identity of this “other woman.” Some contend that God was instructing Hosea to go and marry yet another woman of harlotry after his first wife Gomer had abandoned him for another man. However, most take the identity of this woman to be Hosea’s first wife, explaining that this chapter reflects Hosea’s personal account of his original calling in the first chapter. Regardless of those differences, this part of the prophecy points to how the fulfillment of God’s call required Hosea to dig deep into his pockets for her redemption (Hosea 3:2), working hard to pull together the necessary resources for the purchase.
After this account, Gomer is no longer mentioned in the prophecy. Her story is a model for how God would allow the nation to be on her own for a while, only to receive her back “in the last days” (Hosea 3:5, NIV).
Every time I read this story, I ask myself, “Will Gomer remain faithful?” Hosea doesn’t seem to offer an answer. Perhaps the lack of one is intended to cause us to reflect upon our own faithfulness to God so that His redemptive love for us in Jesus Christ, who paid the price for our sins upon the cross, might work for the best both in us and through us.
Hosea 3 (ESV):
Hosea Redeems His Wife
1 And the LORD said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by another man and is an adulteress, even as the LORD loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins.” 2 So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a lethech of barley. 3 And I said to her, “You must dwell as mine for many days. You shall not play the whore, or belong to another man; so will I also be to you.” 4 For the children of Israel shall dwell many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or household gods. 5 Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the LORD their God, and David their king, and they shall come in fear to the LORD and to his goodness in the latter days.