The Gospel of Hosea, Ch. 1: Spiritual Adultery!

The Gospel of Hosea, Ch. 1: Spiritual Adultery!

“When the Lord Yahweh first spoke through Hosea, He said to him, ‘Go and take a promiscuous woman and have children who come from her unfaithfulness. This will represent how the land of Israel has abandoned Me and become a prostitute to other masters.” (Hosea 1:2).

Spiritual Adultery. But what was God’s point in this publicly visual aid? Why did God put Hosea through this strange marriage? God wanted to teach the Israelites a monumental lesson, what turned out to be a gospel lesson about His love. The Lord wanted Hosea’s marital union with Gomer to provide a graphic picture of the covenant relationship between the Lord and His people Israel. Ever since the ketubah, the marriage ceremony on Mt. Sinai, Yahweh has considered Himself to be the divine husband of Israel. But now My wife has become unfaithful to Me, says the Lord. They are prostituting themselves after other gods. As the Message puts it, “This whole country has become a whorehouse, unfaithful to Me, the Lord Yahweh!” (Hosea 1:2). My chosen people have violated our covenant of faithfulness, our sacred marriage vows, says the Lord. They have become spiritually promiscuous and are uniting themselves with other gods!

The Children of Hosea’s Marriage with Gomer. Hosea was definitely the father of the first child in their marriage, a son that God named Jezreel. It meant “God sows it” or “God Scatters.” Jezreel was a lush, beautiful plain in a valley that became notorious for becoming the major battleground in Israel, one in which much blood was spilled because of its accessible location for enemies to invade. This boy’s name was a prophecy of Israel’s disastrous defeat by the Assyrians 25 years after this time. Jezreel was also the name of the city in which the murderous king Ahab promoted Baal worship as Israel’s national religion and met with a bloody death. So Jezreel seemed to be a name of judgment, a reference to the ongoing presence of Baalism in Israel, as well as a symbol of a beautiful place that had become disfigured by violence and bloodshed, God’s word picture of His blessed nation Israel that was marred through sin and idolatry.  But after Jezreel, all bets are off in terms of paternity.

“Unloved.” It’s obvious that Gomer had two more children by different fathers: the first, a daughter that God named “No Tender-Mercy” or “Unloved“, which was a sign of His judgment on Israel. Yahweh promised that He would certainly not forgive His people, and He didn’t want the people to forget it. More to come on this later, so hold that thought. The word God used in this name was “rachem“…

• Rachem” = Another primary word for mercy used a number of times in Hosea. The word rachem is translated in Scripture as tender mercy, deep compassion, and, profoundly enough, womb. In the Hebrew mind, the womb is much more than the sacred place in a woman that enables the unborn baby to safely develop till birth. Womb also became a metaphor for mercy because of its linguistic roots. The Hebrew word rachem is intended to mean mercy-womb. God formed each of us with rachem when we were mere unborns, and we were conceived and nourished within His rachem, the mother’s mercy-womb. The baby within the woman is the ideal time to extend God’s compassion to that human being inside of her. The developing baby utterly depends on a mercy-womb. And God wants Himself to be experienced as our womb-sanctuary, our safe place in Him, our refuge and shelter. God Himself yearns to be experienced as a womb of mercy for each of us, a refuge and shelter and safe haven. The purpose of our lives is to live in God’s rachem, God’s womb of love.

“Unwanted.” The third child in their rather tumultuous marriage was another son from another lover, and God named him “Not My People” in another not very subtle judgment on Israel. The literal Hebrew with this name is “I Am Not I AM for You,” or “I Do Not Exist for You.” Referring to their marriage celebrated on Mt. Sinai, this was a formal decree of divorce issued by Yahweh after Israel’s continued unfaithfulness. This name reveals God as He canceled their covenant relationship. But wait a minute, in the very next breath the Lord is promising to rename these two children representing the people of Israel… “Unloved” is to be called “Shown-Tender-Mercy” and “Unwanted” is to be renamed “Children of the Living God!” The Lord has turned His scathing judgments into tender blessings. Yes, here we find Yahweh seemingly changing His mind because of His heart’s instinct to show mercy, His overall desire to have mercy triumph over judgment…

Nothing Gets By St Peter. Could it be that Peter was referring to Hosea’s children when he was reminding all those early believers (and all of us) of God’s mercy and covenant faithfulness in this word from the Lord… “Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” (1 Peter 2:10). I suspect that Peter was offering here the insight that Christ’s Church is the fulfillment of God’s naming and renaming of Hosea’s children that occurred hundreds of years earlier in Biblical history.

God’s Second Thoughts. There certainly is a bit of a mystery concerning God’s tough love, but there’s no question that God punishes in order to save, He judges in order to show mercy. The Lord seems to reject in order to accept, and He welcomes the chance to show judgment in order to demonstrate blessing and grace.  The Hebrew Bible reveals a Lord of creation who established a pattern of restoring whatever He has judged. The Father would relent of His promised judgment when the people would repent. He would heal those who were punished. His anger was not forever, and whatever punishment He meted out was intentionally redemptive. Yahweh time and again revealed Himself as a God “who does not take pleasure in the death of anyone.” (Ezekiel 18:32, 33:11). In the same breath, God would say, “Moab will be destroyed,” and then “I will restore the fortunes of Moab.” (Jer. 48:4,47); “I will bring disaster on Elam, making an end to them,” and then declaring, “I will restore the fortunes of Elam.” (Jer. 49:37); “I will strike Egypt and then I will heal them! Blessed be Egypt my people!” (Is.19:21-25); “I will restore the fortunes of Sodom and of Samaria.” (Ezek. 16:53-55). Or how about the famous complaint of Jonah after the Lord relented from destroying the Ninevites, an amazing, backhanded compliment... “Isn’t this what I said, Yahweh, when I was still at home? This is what I tried to delay when I fled to Tarshish! I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love! Yes, you are truly a God who relents from sending calamity!” (Jonah 4:2-3). Time and again in the Psalms we see that the Lord’s anger lasts only for a moment. (eg, Ps. 30:5). There is always a redemptive purpose motivating God’s punishments and judgments.  Jeremiah 23:20 and 30:24 declares, “The anger of the Lord will not turn back until He fully accomplishes the purposes of His heart.” It seems clear that the God of the Hebrew Bible will not abandon anyone forever, He ultimately doesn’t give up any anybody, and that He continues to love those whom He has judged. Maybe Isaiah said it best… “In a surge of anger, for just the briefest moment, I hid My face from you, but with everlasting kindness, I will show you My cherishing love, says Yahweh your Kinsman-Redeemer.” (Is. 54:8).

“Yet someday, the number of all the chosen people of Israel will become as innumerable as the sand of the seashore, which cannot be counted. And in the place where it was said to them “You-Are-Not-My-People”, He will restore them and it shall be said to them “Children of the Living God.” The divided people of Judah and Israel will be gathered together and they will reunite. They will appoint for themselves one head, one leader, and will once again come up out of the land. How great then will be the day when the meaning of Jezreel’s name is fulfilled: “God-Sows”! Then you will call your brothers ”My-People” and your sisters “Tenderly-Loved.” (Hosea 1:10-2:1).

Covenant References. In verse 10, Yahweh is hearkening back to His beloved covenant with Abraham, when He told him that he would be blessed with numberless descendants, and “I will surely bless you and will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore.” (Gen. 22:17). That is God’s heartfelt desire, that they be united once again in covenant relationship just like in the very beginning with Abraham. Equally as telling is Yahweh referring to “in the place” where He had once said “You are My people” on Mt. Sinai, the ketubah, the marriage vows between God and His Chosen people in which He is the Husband and His people are the bride. God wants to return to those days in His yearning for the restoration of Israel. God desperately desires to replace “Not-My-People” with “You-are-My-People.” God wants to revoke His earlier divorce and walk down the spiritual aisle once again with His people.

Messianic. Verse 11 has clear messianic overtones as Yahweh predicts that His chosen people will one day choose
“one leader, one head” to unite the people and enable them to flourish as God’s planting in the world. Jerusalem and Samaria will unite together, as well as Jew and Gentile. This messianic reference is confirmed a little later, “But afterward, the Israelites will return and again long for Yahweh their covenant God and for David their king. They will thrill over Yahweh, trembling in awe, and rediscover His goodness and gifts in the days to come.” (Hosea 3:5). Since David had been long dead at this time, Hosea is referring to a David-like king, a just ruler in the lineage of David their heroic leader of long ago. Jewish tradition has interpreted this as a messianic prophecy, and even names this person as “the king Messiah.” As the “one head” underlined in this passage, many of us believe that Jesus Messiah is the “head” who both unifies and reconciles as prophesied in Hosea. “Jesus is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything He might be preeminent. For in Him the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether in heaven or on earth, making peace by the blood of His Cross.’ (Colossians 1:18-20); “Therefore remember that you Gentiles in the flesh were at that time separated from Messiah, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of the Anointed One. Through Christ both Jew and Gentile have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.” (Ephesians 2:11-29).