Almost everybody loves a good love
story.
·
Romeo and Juliet
·
Antony and Cleopatra
·
Edward VIII and Wallis Warfield Simpson
·
Tom Cruise and Mimi Rogers
·
Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman
·
Tom Cruise and Penelope Cruz
·
Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes
·
Tom Cruise and Tom Cruise
The world loves a good love story.
In the history of the world and in
the pages of literature, few love stories surpass that of Hosea, the son of
Beeri. May I tell it to you? You may follow along in your Bible or you might
just listen and then read it later in the day.
Hosea was a prophet of Israel in
about the year 750 B.C. Now before we get too carried away with Hosea’s
story, perhaps we ought to pause long enough to make sure we understand what
the work of a prophet was.
Today, we often think of
prophesying as foretelling the future. In Biblical times, that was not the
role of a prophet. A prophet’s task was to tell God’s truth to the people.
Sometimes that involved telling them what was going to happen in the future.
But more often it required telling them what God wanted them to know and do
right now.
There is a sense in which the
prophets were, in their day, what preachers are today. The big difference is
that the preacher of today has access to God’s word through the Bible; while
in the days of men like Hosea, the prophet received God’s word in a different
manner. Sometimes God spoke to prophets in dreams and visions, sometimes in
an audible voice or with a visible sign, sometimes He gave the prophet a sense
of conviction or compulsion.
But whether the prophet was
confronting the people about their lives today or was predicting their fate in
the future, he still had only one job and that was to convey God’s word to the
people God was addressing.
So, in about 750 B.C., there was a
prophet (or a preacher) by the name of Hosea, who had a message from God for
the people of Israel. To prepare Hosea for his ministry, God did not send him
off to Bible college or to seminary. To prepare Hosea for his ministry, God
had him get married.
Hosea 1:2-3 begins with these
words:
2
When the
Lord began to speak through
Hosea, the Lord said to him,
“Go, take to yourself an adulterous wife and children of unfaithfulness,
because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the
Lord.” 3 So he
married Gomer daughter of Diblaim.
God told Hosea to marry a woman who
was a notorious adulteress. In fact, many Bible scholars believe she was a
prostitute. Don’t you suppose that got the gossips to gossiping? The
preacher has married a prostitute!
The last phrase of verse 3 says
that Hosea’s wife, Gomer, became pregnant and bore a son. God told Hosea to
name the little guy Jezreel, meaning “God scatters”. God intended for the
preacher’s kid to wear a name that would tell everyone that God was going to
massacre the nation of Israel and scatter any survivors among the other
nations that surrounded them. That would be a tough name to wear, don’t you
think?
But wait, there’s more. Hosea’s
wife became pregnant again and this time she had a little girl. God told
Hosea to name the baby Lo-Ruhamah, a name that means, “not loved”. God wanted
Hosea’s daughter to be a notice to the Israelites that He would not show love
to them any more because they had been so unloving to Him. How pitiful, for
the little thing to go through life named Unloved.
Then, when baby Unloved was weaned,
Hosea’s wife became pregnant again; this time with another boy. And Hosea
named him Lo-Ammi, which means “not my people”. God wanted the Israelites to
understand that because they had been so unfaithful to Him that He would no
longer regard them as His children.
Now all of that was the ultimate
meaning of the names of these children. But I believe there was an immediate
meaning, too.
·
When Hosea named his firstborn Jezreel (God scatters), he might
have been thinking that his wife was spreading out her affections to other
men.
·
When he named his little girl, Lo-Ruhammah (not loved) he may
have been thinking about how his wife didn’t love him any more.
·
And when he named his little baby boy, Lo-Ammi (not my people),
he might very well have been making a statement that he knew that this boy was
not his son. He may not have known who the real father was but it wasn’t his
son.
Now you may think that all of that
is just conjecture but I have reasons for suspecting what I have just told
you.
First of all, God had intended that
Hosea’s family would be a parable to Israel to teach them what they were doing
to Him. The theme of Hosea’s life is the prophet’s faithfulness in contrast
to his bride’s unfaithfulness. The lesson becomes all the more clear if
Gomer’s children are not Hosea’s children. That would fit the pattern of the
parable.
Another reason I believe that Hosea
suspected his children were not his own is because in Hosea 2:2, the prophet
tells his children to rebuke their mother because she is not behaving as his
wife; she is not acting like he is her husband. Then, in chapter 2, verses
4-7 Hosea writes:
4
I will not show my
love to her children,
because they are the children of
adultery.
5
Their mother has been unfaithful
and has conceived them in
disgrace.
She said, ‘I will go after my
lovers,
who give me my food and my water,
my wool and my linen, my oil and
my drink.’
The wording of the text would lead
me to believe that Gomer’s children were not Hosea’s children.
Then, in Hosea 3:1-2, Hosea wrote
these poignant words:
1
The
Lord said to me, “Go, show
your love to your wife again, though she is loved by another and is an
adulteress. Love her as the Lord
loves the Israelites, though they turn to other gods and love the sacred
raisin cakes.”
2
So I bought her for fifteen
shekels of silver and about a homer and a lethek of barley.
“She is loved by another and is an
adulteress”? Does that leave any doubt about the problem in the preacher’s
home? His wife was cheating on him.
Then Hosea wrote that he bought
her. He bought her? What could that possibly mean? In that culture, what
did it mean to buy a person? It meant she was a slave.
Here is how I see the scene. Gomer
had been cheating on Hosea for years. At first he suspected it and then
eventually he knew. But he faithfully loved her anyway.
Then one day he came home and the
kids were hungry and dirty. Jezreel, the oldest, was doing his best to care
for his younger brother and sister but that was not what they wanted. They
wanted their mom.
I picture Hosea walking around the
house calling for Gomer. I imagine him washing the children, feeding them
their supper and putting them to bed. I can almost see him as he tucks them
in and prays with them and each of them prays that mommy will come home
tonight.
But the next morning, she’s still
not back. So I can picture Hosea leaving the kids with a neighbor and going
out to look for his wife. I imagine that he would have checked with all of
her friends. No doubt he also checked with all of her previous lovers. Can
you imagine his shame as he walked down every street and every alley calling
out her name? But still he had not found her.
As I conceive the scene, Hosea’s
steps take him from familiar places to unfamiliar and eventually he finds
himself in the slave pits where human beings are being bought and sold like
livestock. He gets to the auction block just in time to hear the auctioneer
telling the lewd crowd about a woman on the block.
“Now men, she’s pretty worn and
kind of tired but she’s got a few good years left in her. In her day, I’ll
bet she turned a few heads.” Some crude man at the back of the hall yelled
out, “I’ll bet she turned a few tricks. Quite a few!” And all the men
laughed…while the woman on the block hung her head in shame.
Hosea noticed something familiar
about the woman. Then he realized: it was Gomer. It was his wife.
Apparently one of her lovers, not content to love her and leave her, had
decided to use her and then sell her. So here she was being auctioned off to
the highest bidder.
I imagine Hosea might have elbowed
his way to the front of the crowd so he could speak to the auctioneer. “Hey,
that’s my wife. She’s got three little kids back at our house. Can I take
her home? Please?”
But the slave dealer is a
businessman. He’s got some money invested in this woman and he needs to get
it back. So he tells Hosea, “Sure, fella’.” You can take her home but ya’
gotta buy her first.”
So Hosea takes his place with the
people whose business it is to trade in human flesh. And he enters into the
bidding. He bids 3 shekels of silver and the bid goes to 4. He bids 5 and it
goes to 6. He bids 8 and it goes to 10. He bids 12 and it goes to 15. At 15
pieces of silver, Hosea has a problem. That’s all the money he has. He can’t
offer 16 pieces of silver because he doesn’t have 16 pieces of silver. And
even if he did, the bid would probably go to 17…or 18…or even 20. So Hosea
makes a last desperate attempt to buy back his wife. He offers 15 pieces of
silver and an homer and a lethek of barley.
Maybe it was enough. Or maybe the
crowd took pity on the hapless husband, the desperate dad.
Whatever the reason, Hosea was able
to buy his bride for the price of a slave. And with that, the book of Hosea
leaves the story of the prophet’s marriage and focuses on the story of God’
love for Israel.
Over the next few weeks, we will
follow the relationship between God and Israel. But for today, let’s see what
we can learn from the life of Hosea. More than anything else, we can learn
about the nature of faithful love. If we draw close to the prophet and look
at his life, we will see that Hosea’s love was:
