Hosea Unusual Marriage
God chooses an unusual method to get a message across to His people. Hosea, will have an unusual marriage on God’s orders.
Hosea serves God for MANY years in the land of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. He may have served up to the time of Israel being carried away. His family’s history was his biggest testimony, but God also had him bring prophetic words to the people. The message from his lips echoed the message of his life. His life was a picture of Israel and what was to come.
I’m not sure how the Holy Spirit will have me tell this family’s story. It may be personal or it may be as a family. I’m going to let Him take the lead. But we will start at the beginning with Hosea’s story. Let’s jump in and see where we go. Lead on Holy Spirit, and I will follow. Show me YOUR story and what You would have us learn from it; no matter how long it takes.
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Hosea is a faithful man to the Lord. He is so faithful, if it weren’t for his lineage, one might think him a Levite. But he is from the tribe of Issachar.
God knows Hosea’s heart too, and He chooses to use him to teach the people of Israel. “Hosea is going to have a ‘special’ kind of message for My people” the Father tells the Son. He is going to ‘live out’ the lesson before the people.”
All of Heaven waits as the Father taps Hosea.
Hosea is plowing in his father’s field. He is a faithful son. His faithfulness doesn’t stop at physically obeying his father, but following in his footsteps. Beeri has taught Hosea of the true God of Israel. Neither has ever bowed a knee to an idol, including the golden calves set up by King Jeroboam when he broke ties with Judah.
While Hosea is working, he hears the voice of the Lord speaking to him.
“Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the Lord” (Hosea 1:2).
Hosea stops dead in his tracks. The oxen are more than willing to stop too. Hosea scratches his head and his face takes on a skeptical expression; eyes narrowed and head tilted to the side.
“Did I hear that right” he asks himself and the Lord. After a moment of hearing nothing more, he returns to his plowing. But, for the rest of the day, the words of the Lord keep circling in his heart.
Hosea is still pondering the words as he puts away his oxen and washes up for the evening meal. “Lord, I want to obey You, but I need a little confirmation that I heard You correctly. This isn’t something that a God-fearing man would do.”
Hosea doesn’t hear a booming voice confirming God’s words from earlier, but neither does he hear one steering him away. Hosea resolves to speak with his abba about this question. Is this truly a directive from the Lord?
Beeri finishes blessing the meal and the family begins to eat. Hosea is only picking at his food. Beeri notices and becomes concerned.
“Is something bothering you, son” he asks.
“There is indeed.” Hosea pauses for a minute to prepare how he will present this to his abba. He decides that it is best to begin at the beginning, and simply state what he is experiencing.
“Abba, while I was in the field today, the Lord spoke to me.”
Beeri’s smiles and his eyes crinkle in the corners. He waits for his son to continue.
“He told me to take a wife of ‘whoredom’ and bear children with her.”
Beeri’s smile has faded as this is a serious command. “Did He say why you are to do this?”
“He said it was because the land is committing whoredom.”
Beeri nods. “This is true. With every knee that bows to the monstrosity Jeroboam erected, the people are committing acts against the Lord; ‘whoring’ themselves out.”
“What do you think I should do?”
“Do you believe in your heart that God said this to you?”
“I asked for confirmation, but He didn’t give me any.”
“He didn’t give you…any… confirmation” asks Beeri.
“Well, I haven’t been able to remove it from my mind, and my spirit is telling me that it was the Lord who spoke to me.”
“Then you have your answer. It is His confirmation when your spirit cannot put the matter to rest.”
“So you think I should do this?”
“If the LORD told you to do it; then, absolutely!”
“Alright. I will go and select my wife tomorrow.”
Hosea’s mother has been listening in on the conversation, but it is not her place to tell her son what to do. But his statement about searching for a wife, nearly breaks her heart. This is NOT the future she had planned for her son. But she will NOT interfere with the work of the Lord.
Hosea goes out first thing in the morning. His walk takes him to the place of the temple prostitutes. He has no idea how to choose among these women, only that he must choose on to be his wife.
The women before Hosea have long since given up the dream of ever being respected by society. Most of them were either stolen or sold by their parents into this life. Few chose it on their own. Their lives are spent enticing men to come in and lay with them. And some are better at it than others. As Hosea appears in their view, they begin calling out to him, trying to entice him to choose them.
Hosea’s attention is drawn to one of the women. She is made up with lotions and powders, but is doing little else to draw attention to herself. She is not calling out verbally or striking seductive poses. Their eyes lock across the space and she offers a small smile. Hosea smiles back. And, in his heart, he hears, this is “The one.”
Hosea goes over to introduce himself. The other prostitutes recognize that a decision has been made. They stop calling out and posing. He is taken.
“Gomer has scored again” they whisper.
Gomer invites Hosea into her chambers. “If you will follow me, I will endeavor to please you.” As they near the threshold, Gomer stops and turns back to Hosea. “What will you give me to come in to me?”
Hosea knows the customs and that this is expected. Hosea clears his throat. “I do not want to come into your tent and simply lie with you. I want to make you my wife.”
Gomer throws her head back and laughs. “No man wants a prostitute for a wife.”
Hosea stands before Gomer without saying a word. He simply stares at her.
After a moment, she sees that he is not moving or turned away in any way. “You are serious” she asks.
“I am.”
“Why? Is this some kind of trick” she asks. Her eyes begin to glisten with developing tears.
“This is no trick. The Lord God of Israel spoke to me and told me directly to ‘take a wife of whoredom and bear children of whoredom’ with her.”
Gomer’s face burns with shame at the words Hosea uses, but she knows that this is exactly what she is. She focuses instead on the words that speak to her heart. “You mean that you would even want children with me” Gomer says in a choked voice. This is something that she has never allowed herself to dream of, but something that she has secretly longed for her whole life.
“Yes. We will have children together. And I will teach them of the Lord.”
Gomer drops her face into her hands and cries. Her shoulders begin to shake with the force of her tears. Hosea puts a hand on her shoulder to comfort her. After a few minutes, she is able to stem the tide of tears.
“Explain to me how this will work, as I have no one to pay my bride price or to arrange my marriage.”
“We will make it a simple ceremony and require no bride price. Will that be acceptable to you?”
“It will. But what am I to do between now and the marriage ceremony. I have no other way to feed myself and nowhere else to live. I am assuming that you do not want me to continue in my current occupation.”
“This is true. I will make arrangements for you. For now, take this”, Hosea reaches into his purse and pulls out three coins and presses them into Gomer’s hands. “This is to provide food for you until I come for you. I will try and come tomorrow, but I will not tarry more than two days’ time.”
Gomer clutches the coins to her breast and watches as Hosea leaves. The other prostitutes watch as well. Once Hosea is out of sight, they hurry over to her to find out what is going on.
“What did he say to you? And why did he pay you when you didn’t even make it past your tent door?”
Gomer still can’t believe her good fortune. She is reluctant to tell the others for fear that doing so will somehow prevent it from coming true. “I will tell you tomorrow or the next day” she says while gazing in the direction Hosea went.
The other women don’t push her for answers. They simply return to their work. Gomer goes into her tent and shuts the door. She will not open it to anyone but Hosea ever again.
Hosea goes straight home after speaking with Gomer. He needs to arrange living quarters for Gomer. He goes to his abba first.
“Abba, I have found the woman who God wants me to marry. I must prepare a home for us before the wedding.”
“As is our custom.”
“But my bride to be is a prostitute. She cannot continue in her present place while waiting for our home to be ready. I must find her a suitable place to live and provide for her while I work. What do you suggest?”
Beeri rubs his chin as he thinks about this problem. His eyes light up as an idea occurs to him. “The small shed on the north side of our house could easily be turned into a temporary home for your bride. She could dine at table with us and even help your imma with the chores.”
“Do you think imma would approve of this? Would she treat my bride with compassion?”
“Your imma is a God-fearing woman. I’m certain she will understand and follow His will in this matter.”
Beeri and Hosea will wait until evening to speak with Naomi; Hosea’s imma and Beeri’s wife.
Just before the market closes, Gomer hurries out to purchase food to last her for three days. She is careful in her choices so she doesn’t run short. The money Hosea gave her is a lot in her estimation, but she needs to stretch it as far as she can. After shopping, Gomer returns to her tent to wait.
As the sun sets, Naomi places the evening meal on the table for her men. She retreats to the kitchen area to wait until they are done eating before serving herself. She busies herself with cleaning up while her men eat their dinner. The conversation between her son and husband has not been far from her mind all day. She keeps thinking about the kind of woman the Lord has called for her son to take as his own.
“Why Lord? What good can come of my son taking such a woman as his wife? Is he not worth of a virgin for his wife? You know that the people will never accept her.”
Little does Naomi know, but she will be the first one required to accept Hosea’s bride to be.
Beeri calls to Naomi. “Please come and sit with us. We have matters to discuss.”
Naomi quickly takes a place at the table with her men. She waits for them to speak rather than asking any questions.
“Hosea has been instructed by the Lord to choose as his wife a woman of ‘whoredom’. He has found the woman he is to marry today. He needs time to construct their home. She cannot continue as a prostitute while being engaged to our son. She needs a suitable place to stay and a way to feed herself until he is ready to take her as his bride.”
Naomi says nothing. She is too stunned to speak. She expected to have more time to adjust to the idea of Hosea’s intended wife. What is she expected to do now?
Carefully, and with gentleness, Beeri presents the plan he and Hosea came up with earlier.
Naomi quickly stands up and starts pacing the floor. “You want her to live HERE? And for me to host her in our own home?”
“Imma, you would be able to teach her so much, including how to receive kindness. Your heart is full of love for the hurting. Gomer, the woman I have chosen, needs your love and guidance on how to be a good wife. She has no one to teach her.”
Naomi drops her head and stops pacing. “I will teach her, for YOUR sake. But I won’t promise to love her.”
“Neither of us is asking you to promise to love her. I will even have to work on that myself.”
The arrangements are agreed upon. Naomi will begin cleaning out the small shed in the morning and Hosea will bring Gomer.
Morning arrives and Hosea is again standing before the tents of the prostitutes. Gomer is not out among them.
“Have you seen Gomer, the woman I spoke with yesterday” he asks one of the other women.
“She is in her tent. She hasn’t come out yet and she stayed in her tent after you left yesterday. What is going on?”
“This is something she should tell you herself. Would you please bring her out to me?”
Hosea waits while the woman goes to Gomer’s tent. “The man from yesterday is back and wants to speak with you” her fellow worker calls.
Gomer does a quick check of her hair and face. She puts on a veil and comes out from her tent. When she gets near Hosea, she bows deeply.
“What is it you wish of me, my lord?”
“I have made arrangements for you, as we spoke about yesterday.”
Gomer’s eyes light up and fresh tears spill over her lashes. The other women are watching the interaction with curiosity.
“What is going on” one finally pleads with Gomer.
“My husband has come to take me away from this life” Gomer says with her eyes fixed on Hosea.
“You are MARRIED?”
“Not yet, but I soon will be. This honorable man has asked me to marry him and bear his children.”
Her fellow prostitutes would laugh if it weren’t for the way Gomer and Hosea are staring at one another.
“Gather your belongings and come with me. I will take you away from here; never to return” Hosea says to Gomer.
Her bag is already packed. She packed it last night, just in case Hosea came for her today. Gomer quickly grabs her bag and follows Hosea from the city center. Her sister prostitutes stand with gaping mouths as they watch Gomer and Hosea leaving together.
Hosea explains the arrangements to Gomer as they travel to the home of his abba. “Once I have completed our home, I will take you as my own.”
While Hosea works on their home, Naomi teaches Gomer many skills she will need when she becomes a wife. Chief among these skills is cooking. “They say that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. I am a firm believer in this” Naomi tells Gomer as they work on new recipes.
Before long, Gomer masters the skills being taught by Naomi as well as develops a deep love for her soon to be mother-in-law. Hosea is also making great strides in building their new home.
Seven months after their first meeting, it is time for Hosea to receive his bride. Gomer sobs as Naomi adjusts her veil.
“What is wrong, my daughter” asks Naomi.
“It’s really happening” whispers Gomer through her tears. “I expected it to evaporate at any moment. For it to fade away like a dream. But I am ACTUALLY getting married.”
Naomi smiles. “The Lord has a work for you. He knows your past, present, and future. And He STILL chose you to be the wife of my son.”
Deep in the hidden places of her heart that she doesn’t even admit are there to herself, Naomi wonders if Gomer will hurt her son; break his heart. And what the neighbors will think.
The wedding is small with only the closest friends and family invited. It is joyous and follows tradition; right down to the bridal tent and the wedding week inside it. The only thing missing is the one waiting outside the tent for evidence of purity.
The first night inside the bridal tent, Gomer weeps while Hosea holds her. He has grown to love Gomer over the months as she shares her days with his family. His heart aches for her as she struggles with feeling worthy of this honor.
“If your truly knew me, you wouldn’t love me” she cries into his shoulder.
“I do know you, and I love you anyway. You are not the woman you once were. You have been redeemed” Hosea says as he strokes Gomer’s hair and allows her to take her time learning to be loved.
(to be continued)
I’m going to stop here for tonight. I had not planned on getting so involved in Hosea’s story, but I did ask the Spirit to lead me wherever He wanted me to go. I just found where that place is. It is the place of KNOWING that I am unworthy of God’s love, and realizing that He loves me anyway. That must have been how Gomer was feeling as she stepped out of her old life and into a new one.
Father God, THANK YOU for loving me. My life is nothing like Gomer’s was, but You still had MOUNTAINS to move in my life to bring me to You. I am STILL not worthy of Your love, but I accept it as fact, both now and forever more. I want to learn more and more how to please You and grow ever closer in our relationship. Help me NEVER be enticed away!
