Why God told Hosea to marry a prostitute.

We are quick to assume that we know what God's will is. If I told you of a man who claims that God told him to marry a prostitute and to have children with her, knowing that she would likely continue in her old ways, would you not say that that man is mad and that God would never instruct such a thing? Yet this is exactly what God instructed Hosea. And this is only the beginning of what happens in the story of Hosea. Hosea 1:2 says, when the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, go take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord. Why does God command Hosea to marry a prostitute? What beauty is to be found amongst the ashes of adultery? How could there be a happy ending to such a horrible beginning? And what is God's game plan for this marriage in the first place? And last but not least, how is his will intertwined with with such a controversial covenant? Welcome. My name is PD because this is a summary of the book of Hosea, Please understand that we're going to need to read quite a few scriptures. After God tells Hosea to take Gomer the prostitute as his wife, God tells him to quote unquote, have have children with her. For the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord. So immediately we see God instructing him to have children with her and directly connecting that to the land that they are in. For the land commits great whoredom. And this connection to the land immediately indicates to us that there is a prophetic message attached to this whole story with Hosea. And it's so necessary to understand this message, to understand why God told Hosea to marry a prostitute. But it's not just shocking for it to be shocking, it's shocking because it's all real. Because Hosea's journey with his adulterous wife is a mirror image, a parallel of God's journey with humanity. Therefore, when we look at the names of the children that will now be coming forth out of this marriage, we should look for prophetic meaning. We see that the first child is named jezreel. In Hosea 1:4 we read God says, call his name Jezreel, for I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel. And so the name Jezreel has something to do with the ending of this nation as she is, and Jezreel. In fact, in its definition, the name means to scatter like a man who's walking in a field and scattering seeds. That's what Jezreel means. This people will be scattered. We know that's what happens because shortly after, after this, in Israel's history, we know that Israel was scattered into the nations, including into Assyria. After this, Gomer conceives again and has a daughter this time. And the Lord says, call her name, no mercy, for I will no more have mercy on the house of Israel to forgive them at all. And then lastly, they have another child. And the Lord said in verse nine, call his name, not my people, for you are not my people and I am not your God. You know, when we are reading these words, we can just feel how tragic the breakdown is of God's relationship with his people. It's real, it's tangible. You know, I think what often happens is we tend to over spiritualize our relationship with God. It's like, yes, I have a relationship with God, we say, but it's not tangible. It's airy. But here God is making something very clear. He's saying, these children that are born and that are real, as real as they are, is how real my message is this day to Israel. In fact, God's messages are placed upon these children, children's lives. Hosea wasn't the only prophet. Each of his children became a walking, living, breathing, prophetic message of what God is going to do and the separation that exists between God and his people. Okay, so Hosea and Gomer, they marry, they have children, and what happens next? Well, first Gomer does what everyone expected would happen. She continues in her ways of prostitution of the past, despite now being married to Hosea. And we read about her punishment in Hosea 2:7. And on it says, she shall pursue her lovers, but not overtake them, and she shall seek them, but shall not find them. Then she shall say, I will go and return to my first husband, for it was better for me then now. And she did not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the wine, the oil, and who lavished her on silver and gold which they used for baal. Therefore I will take back my grain in its time, and my wine in its season, and I will take away my wool and my flax, and which were to cover her nakedness. Now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one shall rescue her out of my hand. So something happens to Gomer which is a very common pattern of what happens to an adulterer after betraying her husband in adultery. She realizes what she had done and what she had in him and tries to return to him for the sake of the provisions that he had provided her and for the sake of the care that she had through him. Her husband became her backup plan instead of her one and only, who's always provided for her. And this is what happens even today. This is what's the pattern of humanity's relationship with God. We've been prostituting with the world in our sinful desires. God comes and he snatches us out, and then we leave his house again and we get involved in the sin of the world, whether material possessions, whether immoralities, whether lavish feasts and parties of vice, whatever it is. And then we are like, oh no, we are becoming destitute. Let us go back to the house where we came. And we were trying to have this strange relationship, like Gomer and Hosea. Gomer Hosea was just providing. Hosea was loving. Hosea was doing everything a good husband was to do. But Gomer wanted it her way. She wanted the care of Hosea, the provision of Hosea, but she also wanted the love of all of her lovers of the world, all at the same time. And so that's why she's like moving in between the house of Hosea and the world. But God says that just as her husband will stop providing for her in that situation and expose her sin, so he will deal with any of his people who pretend to be married to him while entertaining hidden immoralities in secret. And this is what happened to the adulteress, Gomer, Hosea's wife. She continued in her adulteries and became destitute eventually, and a slave. And so, as we continue to speak about Gomer, I want you to think about how this relates to us. Hosea is a picture of God and Gomer, his adulterous wife, a picture of God's people. And so now we read thereafter Hosea 5:4. Their deeds do not permit them to return. Turn to their God, for the spirit of whoredom is within them, and they know not the Lord. But like Adam, they transgressed the covenant. There they dealt faithlessly with me. But they do not consider that I remember all their evil. Now their deeds surround them. They are before my face. Woe to them, for they have strayed from me. Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against me. I would redeem them. But they speak lies against me. God is speaking of those who have transgressed the covenant, just like Adam, and that is who all of Adam's offspring, all of his offspring have transgressed the covenant, just as Adam did, just as Gomer did with Hosea. So God is giving us the story of Hosea's incredible pain so that we can begin to imagine perhaps what we have done to God. For as crazy as this story may sound to us in this world, this is exactly the story of where God was with his people. If we imagine marriage to a spouse, like to someone who's like Gomer, who we've made covenant with and who's now going to love others and who's now whoring with others, while all we would want is for her to come home to just be our wife, then you can begin to understand God's position. Now, just a quick disclaimer. I think it's important for us to understand that Hosea is a prophet and this is an unusual story for a good reason. It's not wise to marry an unrepentant prostitute. And this story is not God endorsing men in general to do such a thing. Rather, this was a special case. Hosea heard from God directly. He was called to this, and his life and writings were used to communicate a deep prophetic message to the world. That message that we are reading right now. Alright, so with that out of the way, next we see God explains how Gomer or Israel deals with her sin. In the midst of this chaotic relationship, We see that Israel tries to mask their sin with dead religious deeds. They keep feasts, sabbaths, and keep up with other religious appearances as we read in verse 6 of Hosea 6, for I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings. See, when we've transgressed against God, our default is to try and do a bunch of religious things to make ourselves feel better about our ratchet behavior and to appear righteous before others. But the thing is that God is looking for, as he said, our love and our knowledge. For if we love God, we would do what he asks. And if we have knowledge, we will know what he is asking. Isaiah 8:12 says, For I to write for him my laws. By the ten thousands they would be regarded as a strange thing. Instead of trying to cover up, God is saying, I want you to show me your love for me and your knowledge about my ways. That's the true path to walking out repentance. But this is the part where things get really interesting as it seems that this relationship is going to go nowhere. Just separation because of this incredible sin. God does something as he observes her evil deeds. He remembers something about her. Hosea 11:8 how can I give you Up. O Ephraim, how can I hand you over? O Israel, how can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboim? My heart recoils within me, my compassion grows warm and tender. I will not execute my burning anger. I will not again destroy Ephraim, for I am God and not a man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath. So earlier we heard God speak to Israel and saying, you are not my people, you have no mercy, you are going to be scattered. And now there is this shift in God's heart talking about compassion. But how does God have compassion on an adulterous bride? How does Hosea have compassion on his adulterous bride? I mean, after everything she's done, after everywhere she's been, I want to submit to you that even though her deeds were evil, God remembered something about who she truly was beneath the surface of all of the immorality. It was in this moment where God decided to not base her identity on what she's done, but to view her for who she is below the surface, his beloved. This is why God said, I am God and not a man. See, men would just abandon a whoring bride because they would not be able to look past her actions. And God telling Hosea to not abandon his whoring bride, It's a shocking idea to us all. Let's be honest, it makes no sense to our humanity because we're thinking like man. But it's not shocking. Oh, not shocking at all. If we put on the mind of Christ, who doesn't see an adulterer, but a cleansed virgin, cleansed by the blood of the Lamb, the compassion and the perseverance of Christ towards humanity should truly bring us to awe and joy for this very reason that he did not leave us destitute. Even though, just like Gomer, perhaps you could say we deserved it, that he should have never looked our way again and he should have abandoned us, because according to the law of God, he has the full right to do that. But Christ even went further than what the law allowed Him. He showed forgiveness and he showed mercy and, and grace in areas he didn't need to, but he did. And this is the great miracle that we call salvation itself. You see, I think sometimes we want to have the law of God fight for us. And the law of God is there to protect us as well, right from abusive situations. But I also want us to remember, just in this moment, how Christ was abused by humanity stricken. He had a crown of thorns on his head. He was crucified. The law gave him a way out. The law allowed him to condemn all of us because of our sin. And so with that, I think it's important to recognize that he did something greater than merely obeying the law. He actually went further and extended the law of forgiveness. That is what God's modi operandi is, how he forgives us and shows us grace, even though man. It's arguable that he shouldn't, because really, it was so unfair, right? From humanity's perspective, actually, let's be real. If we put any one of us in his position, we'd all say, it's so unfair. Like, I don't know if I could do that, right? But that's why he says, I am God and not a man. I am God and not a man. Because if it was a man, it wouldn't happen the way it did. And I'm saying all this because I want that weight of what he's done to really hit you in this moment. This story is not a general commandment for us to remain in a relationship where adulteries are taking place. Rather, this has been an explanation on how God has decided to treat us. Christ has given permission for there to be divorce in the case of adultery. Those are situations that need to be prayed about. But I just wanted to put that out there, that we shouldn't take this situation between government and Hosea as law. Next we read further about how God's heart is towards her in the midst of her rebellion. We read in Hosea 2:14. Therefore, behold, I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness and speak tenderly to her. And there I will give her her vineyards and make the valley of a core a door of hope. And there she shall answer, as in the days of her youth, as at the time when she came out of the land of Egypt. And I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and in mercy. And so now we're reading a lot of things that God is saying that he will do in the future. God is prophesying things forth. I mean, in Hosea 2, where we are reading right now, right? The relationship between man and God is not yet restored. She, the bride of God, is still in adultery. But God is saying, despite her deeds, I will allure her, I will speak tenderly to her, I will give her vineyards, I will betroth her to me forever. He's prophesying these things of his bride for how we view. The future of a relationship is how we will treat the person. If God viewed our relationship with him in the midst of our rebellion, as done, he would have treated us in light of that. If he viewed there to be hope, he would treat us in light of hope and in the same way for our marriages and relationships. If we treat a relationship like there is no future for it, we will treat that person as if there is no future. If we treat the relationship with hope of a future and restoration despite what's happened, then we will treat the person in light of that coming hope. We need a godly perspective of the future, for God has a godly future for us where repair and healing is possible. But there is also a satanic future for us where there is devastation. So what will it be for you? A future that God has for you, or a future that the devil has for you? For the choice is yours, but it will depend on which voice you listen to and what words you echo, speaking life or speaking death over your relationships. As for God, he is God. He speaks kindly to his bride despite her sin. And God prophesies of this hopeful future where there is a restoration of provisions, a new betrothal, a new covenant. And this is exactly what Hosea does next with Gomer, despite Gomer continuing in her adulterous sins and becoming a destitute slave. At the end of that, God tells Hosea to redeem her from her slavery. And we read about this in Isaiah 3:1. 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 that they turn to other gods and love cakes of raisins. So I bought her for 15 shekels of silver and a homer and a lecheh of barley. 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? Okay, guys, let's just take a step back. Let's be real here. If we place ourselves in Hosea's position, this story makes little sense. I mean, it's kind of like watching a movie and you're wanting to scream at the character, saying, like, what are you doing? What are you doing? What are you doing? Over and over, like, stop it. I mean, come on, Hosea. First you married a prostitute, then after she does what a prostitute does and commits adultery, and she bears the consequences of that being left destitute and now even sold into slavery. Now what do you do? Hosea, you go and you buy her out of that slavery and bring her home again. But this is what happens. And Hosea, chapter three, all the way to around chapter 14, explains in detail the roller coaster of emotions that a man like him, betrayed by his wife, is experiencing. There is anger, there's hurt, there's sadness and compassion, all mixed, coming and going at different times. Hosea felt these emotions when Gomer left to indulge in her sins. And God felt these emotions when we went to indulge in our sins. I want us to remember this because I think sometimes we don't recognize we've been made in God's image. That means that just as we can have this thing called emotions, we can feel things. So God can have emotions. He can feel things. This is why Christ, even at Lazarus death, right, he's mourning, he's crying. Because he also experiences what we experience, mourning, sadness, death, anger. Whatever happens to us, he feels it too. You know, like I keep saying to myself, this story between Gomer and Hosea, it's just so crazy. But then I have to bring it back to like, yeah, but it's so real. This is so real. This is exactly what I've done. I've been Gomer, I've done this to my God. He saw me prostituting with the world in sin, right? He came to redeem me, and then I stumbled. And then he came to redeem me from slavery. He brought me back into his house. He said, now you are going to be my wife, right? You are going to be in the role that I've called you to be. And it is at this point in the story where something begins to shift in Gomer's heart. We Read in Hosea 14:1, Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity. Take with you words and return to the Lord. Say to him, take away all of our iniquity. Accept what is good, and we will pay with bulls and the vows of our lips. Assyria shall not save us. We will not ride on horses, and we will say no more our God to the work of our hands. In you the orphan finds mercy. And so we're reading now of how, after being scattered, Israel looks up again and realizes we've been worshiping the work of our hands. We've been worshipping other things of this world that we've made and built and put our hand to. And Assyria, which is the nation they're now living in, they're not going to be able to actually give us happiness and fulfillment. And that's what a lot of us have been like. We realize that this world is not going to make us happy. Assyria is not going to save us from ourselves. And so Israel is finally realizing her sin, that the grass isn't greener on the other side. And God responds, saying, I will heal their apostasy. I will love them freely, for my anger has turned from them. Before Israel ever repented, God was working in their hearts. He was patient, he was healing them without them even realizing it, as Isaiah 11:3 mentions. But it is when Israel were finally like, oh my, what have we done? And they had this repentance taking place in their hearts that there is a sudden, miraculous shift in the relationship between them and God. See, God never shifted. He was always there, always stable, always patient, always waiting, never leaving them, even though at times it felt that way. But he allowed him to go through what they went through, being scattered into Assyria so that they can come back to his house and see him for who he is, the provider and the Father and the Savior that he is. He's always there, always waiting, eagerly waiting for her to turn her heart back to him again. And it is in this moment where we see that those names given to Gomer's three children, those prophetic names we read in Isaiah 2:22, and the earth shall answer the grain, the wine and the oil, and they shall answer Jezreel, and I will sow her for myself in the land, and I will have mercy on no mercy. And I will say to not my people, you are my people. And he shall say, you are my God. So we are seeing this beautiful change where Jezreel, the first child's name, which means to be scattered, God is saying, no, I'm going to now scatter you in my field. I will sow her for myself in my land. So the name is now taking on a new meaning. And he says, I will now have mercy. I will now call you my people. There is a sudden shift from righteous judgment to mercy. And God's plan is at this moment unearthed, revealed. We see that just as Isaiah had to die to himself in his relationship with Gomer, that God redeems his bride by dying for her. Yeshua on the cross in what appears as a curse to Hosea, being married to this woman, or what appears as a curse upon Christ, being nailed to the stake is a message of salvation for the whole world. None of it was in vain. It wasn't in vain for Hosea. That's why we're reading about it here. It wasn't in vain for Yeshua. That's why we can be resurrected again. And it's not in vain for you, dear brother, dear sister. If you find yourself in the midst of trial for the sake of his kingdom. I'm not sure if Hosea knew where this was all going. From the moment God told him what to do, he didn't understand in the beginning. But today he'd be more than pleased to know how many have come to understand the beauty of God's relationship with his people through his marriage with his wife. So to answer the question, why did God tell Hosea to marry a prostitute? Well, the message was much bigger than Hosea's life. The prophetic picture would be the fulfillment of his life's calling. Sometimes I think we see trial as an opposition to our calling. But what if the trial you've been trying to escape is a part of your calling? What if it's a necessary work that you don't understand yet? That's going to accomplish a great miracle for many. Marrying a prostitute right in general sense is unwise. It invites a life of hardship. But it was godly. God instructed it. No matter what men whispered around Hosea, God's ways are not our ways. There are moments where he will do things that men don't understand. But the pattern of Scripture demonstrates to us that the trials of life are more interwoven with God's will than we realize. Hosea's wife's prostitution. It wasn't God's doing. It wasn't God's will, and it didn't receive his endorsement. And in the same way, Israel's prostitution, our rebellion, it was not God's doing, it was not his will, and it never received his endorsement. But just as God used Gomer the adulterer's life to tell a story of redemption, God is saying that our deliverance from our sin also has a redemptive purpose. If we share our testimony with others as Hosea has shared his with us, we can have what we have gone through, even the sin we have committed and yet have now been delivered of be a witness of the power of God. We can also now, in light of understanding this great love of God and His great forgiveness, be what drives us to love others and forgive others when they transgress us 70 times 7. And we can let our familiarity with the trials that has come across our life allow us to show compassion on others when they have had trials upon their life, like for Hosea, Our lives are a part of God's story. And the story of God is much bigger than ourselves. You know, I think sometimes we are looking at our life from our own perspective, and our life is so big, and our life is everything, and we make it all about our life. But ultimately our life is there to serve a purpose and to build God's kingdom. It's to become his servants, and it's to worship him. As Hosea's marriage was prophetically weaved into God's marriage with his people, so our marriages, for example, today continue to be prophetic as well. Paul writes in Ephesians 5:32, that this mystery is profound and that I'm saying this, that it refers to Christ and the church. And so when our marriages go through tension, difficulty, joy, compassion, deliverance, repair, and all of the many different emotions that there are under the sun, recognize that those emotions may also well be present between the church and Christ in different times of that relationship. And that is part of the mirror. But what is most important is that we follow the trajectory and the goal of Gomer and Hosea that is ultimately healing, ultimately restoration, salvation, deliverance, love, peace. What is the ultimate place that we're heading to with Christ? Eternal life, A place of life, not death. And so our marriages are to be a place of life, not death. And wherever there has been anything dead, God can surely bring it back to life, because we've been dead as his bride before, and he brought us back to life by giving his life. And so what can we learn from Hosea in our marriages? That marriage will be difficult and even at times seem irreparable. But take heart, the story of our lives is a love story of God repairing a completely broken covenant with humanity. That's why what we have today is called the New Covenant, because there was a broken covenant. That was before it. Just because the covenant was broken before doesn't mean that God ceased His relationship with us. He made a new covenant. Let us not forget the power of God when it comes to his relationship with us and our relationships with others. But also remember that just as it takes two in our relationship with God, I have to participate as God participates in my relationship with Him. So in the same way it takes too, in our relationships with people and with our spouses, that we have to look to ourselves first to put in the work that's needed, and they have a responsibility as well. Be equally yoked, like animals who are pulling a cart together. There is a load, a burden in life, there are challenges, and you have to be united, especially against your Spiritual common enemy, Satan. So that which God has brought together, let man not separate. That is my prayer for you with your relationship with God first and foremostly. And that is my prayer for you in all of your relationships. Father, I pray that you would help us to see the immense love that you've had for us. Lord, you could have cast us off like an adulterous woman. You could have said, I do not know you. You are not my people. I will not have mercy and I will scatter you and leave you in that place forever. But God, what you did is you always had your eye on us. You always recalling our name. You had compassion and you always remembered that we are your children. You did not hold our sins against us, but forgave us of them all to unite us back to you. That's the only way it could have happened. And you made it happen, Lord. You didn't need to, but you did it. And that I worship you for that. I praise your name for the rest of my life, God, I ask that everyone listening to this, the weight of this would be grasped not just intellectually, but in the depths of their soul. Help us to treat and love others the way that you've loved us, the way that you've forgiven us. Even if they don't deserve it. Even, and especially if they don't deserve it. I pray that in the name of Yeshua, the Messiah. Thank you for joining me. I hope this was a blessing to you. Subscribe to this channel if you're new here. Like this video and subscribe. I can't wait to see you in the next one. Shalom, Sam.