Valerie Rae Hanneman
Hosea 1:2 “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."” (NIV)
I am sure that you have heard the saying, “Marry in haste, repent in leisure.” It’s true. When I was 20 I met this man. He did his best to impress me. He told me that I was the only woman he could ever love. I, being young and foolish, was swept down the garden path. Less than 9 months after I met him we were married. We promised to love, honor, forsake all others. But he had a funny idea of faithfulness. The first time I caught him with another woman he explained that it was just sex, I was the only one he loved and his heart was faithful to me. When I told him how his adultery hurt me he promised to never hurt me again. But he did. And then he did it again. Each time I forgave him because I loved him. One night I got off work early and went home to find him in bed – my bed – with a girl. That was that. I walked out and never looked back. I still loved him, but I had run out of forgiveness. I was done with him and his adultery.
God told Hosea to go and take an adulterous woman to be his wife. This was unheard of. Even in Jesus’ day, hundreds of years later, to be caught in adultery could end up as a death sentence by stoning. But in spite of the social stigma, Hosea married Gomer. When Hosea married Gomer she had a reputation as an adulteress. When Hosea married her it restored her to a socially acceptable position. He gave her a chance to be a faithful wife. God used Hosea and Gomer as a picture of His relationship with Israel. When Father called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldeans, He covenanted with Abraham that He would make a great nation out of Abraham’s descendants. He would be their faithful God, and they would be His faithful people. That was the nation of Israel – a nation that still impacts the world thousands of years later.
Gomer was faithful for awhile and then went back to her adulteries. The Book of Hosea seems to indicate that Hosea forgave her a number of times before the relationship was broken. But eventually Hosea ran out of forgiveness and the relationship ended. Israel was faithful to God for a time, about the time it took to get to Mt. Sinai. Then they built and worshiped a golden calf. They committed adultery against their God. He forgave them and restored them to Himself. When they were finally in the Promised Land, they continued their adultery by worshipping the Baals and Asherahs – false gods. God would bring punishment down on them to bring them back to Him. When they cried out to Him, He forgave them and restored them to Himself. Time and time and time and time again Israel turned away from God to the false gods. And just as many times, God forgave Israel and restored her to Himself. Then came the day when God broke the relationship with Israel. He still loved Israel, but left her to her adulteries. For four hundred years the voice of God was not heard in Israel.
The day came when God told Hosea to go and restore his relationship with Gomer. But Gomer had gotten herself into serious trouble. I am not sure if she was being sold as a slave or if Hosea had to pay a penalty equal to the price of a slave, but Hosea paid to redeem her and restore her to himself once again. The day came when God told His Son, Jesus, to go and restore the relationship with Israel and with the entire earth. Israel and the known world were in physical slavery to Imperial Rome, but even worse, all of humanity was in spiritual slavery to sin. Jesus paid a price – His own life – to redeem us from sin and restore us to God once again.
Israel was not the only Gomer. I am Gomer. I am in a relationship with God. I have promised to love Him with all my heart, all my soul, all my mind, all my body and all my strength. I have made a vow of faithfulness to Him. But some mornings I am not even out my front door and I have broken my vow to Him. Israel committed adultery with false gods. So do I. My false gods are not named Baal or Asherah. They are named pride, control-freak, popularity, and on and on. Slowly and steadily they take over bits and pieces of me until I am worshipping these false gods and have turned away from God, the foundation and cornerstone of all that I am. Sometimes Jesus has to take action in my life to show me how I have strayed from Him. Some of those actions that I have caused Him to take have not been pleasant experiences. But they have been effective in causing me to cry out to Him for forgiveness and restoration.
His forgiveness has always been extended to me and the restoration of the joy of our relationship has always resulted. And it always will be.
God stepped away from Israel for four hundred years. The relationship was broken. Jesus’ death redeemed and restored the relationship with God for anybody who would call upon His name. Because it was Jesus, Son of God, Who redeemed us and restored us to God, the relationship is eternal. God will never break the relationship with those He has redeemed no matter how many times we turn away from Him.
I could not forgive my husband for his multiple adulteries; it broke the relationship and killed the love between us. God will not treat me that same way no matter how often I stray. In the face of His relentless, uncompromising love for me, I find that my greatest desire is to be more faithful to Him today than I was yesterday and to be even more faithful to Him tomorrow. I love Him because He first loved me.
LORD God, You are everything to me. Nothing compares to You. But sometimes I’m a Gomer. Do what is necessary to bring me back to You because this is where I want to be. Help me to be stronger and more faithful to You.
Contact Valerie or sign up for the e-Ministry of FFBC at Valerie@fresnofirst.org