So I was reading this story the other day about a man named Hosea, it’s in Hosea chapters 1 – 3. He was an Old Testament prophet who was told to marry thiswoman named Gomer. (I can’t imagine growing up with that name was a lot of fun).

She was a prostitute. Or as God referred to her, “an adulterous woman.” Hosea marries Gomer and they have a son… Gomer also has two more children, but they’re not necessarily Hosea’s. She is a very unfaithful woman and has many other lovers and affairs. She even uses the wealth and food that Hosea has given her to seduce her other lovers.

Now even though am not married you can agree with me that Marriage usually starts out full of hopes and dreams, but not for Hosea. 
It is difficult for me to even imagine being in Hosea’s shoes. Knowing ahead of time that my spouse would be unfaithful.

It is hard to conceive what I would do, if the preacher announced during my wedding ceremony right after, “Do you take this man?”…..”Oh, and by the way, he will cheat on you….A lot!”
Nevertheless, Hosea honored God by taking Gomer as his wife.

Eventually, she leaves Hosea altogether for this adulterous way of life. I can only imagine the pain Hosea is feeling at this point. Then God says this, “Go get her back.” Excuse me?  She’s sleeping with all these other men, even after all I’ve done for her, and you want me to go get her back? Hosea obeys, though, and even has to purchase her back for 15 pieces of silver.

In the book of John we find a story  about a woman caught in the act adultery. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees bring her in front of Jesus. They tell him that it says in the Laws of Moses that because of her actions, she should be stoned. But, this is what Jesus said to them about it…

John 8:7
 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”

When that scene played out in Biblical history Jesus was the only person that could have picked up a stone and thrown it at the adulterous woman…….but He didn’t!

To the world the sins that Gomer committed against Hosea are sometimes impossible things to forgive, but not with God.

Luke 1:37
 For nothing is impossible with God.

The reason God tells him to do these things is that Hosea was to be used as a living example for the people of Israel. See, they had completely turned away from God and were living in sin. God was showing them that, spiritually, they were being the equivalent of whores.

This story hits home for me, if only because it is put into a way that I can understand. The pain Hosea felt when his wife gave birth to a child that wasn’t his must have been unbearable. I put myself in that situation and imagine how I would feel being betrayed like that by the person I had chosen to spend the rest of my life with and love with every part of my being… it would kill me. I would simply snap.

And now for the whole point: This is how God feels when I sin. Christ has called me, as a Christian, his bride… So when I sin, I am betraying the very God who sacrificed himself for me… he bought me back even when I was living in sin. When I knowingly sin against God, it hurts him because he loves me so much….

I am so humbled by Hosea’s story and his walk with the LORD. So here is my question to you regarding your walk with God.  “If God was writing The Bible Part Two would your story make the cut?”………It definitely makes you think, doesn’t it?

Be Blessed…