Married to a Harlot

Married to a Harlot

Hosea 1:2 NKJV
When the Lord began to speak by Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea:
“Go, take yourself a wife of harlotry
And children of harlotry,
For the land has committed great harlotry
By departing from the Lord.”

   I have read and heard many talk about Hosea and admit they do not understand why God commanded him to take a harlot as a wife.  (Also known as a prostitute or a lady of the evening.)    But the explanation is right here in the verse where God gave the command.  “For the land has committed great harlotry…”  The “land” mentioned here is the nation, and people, of Israel.  And the harlotry they committed was to leave the God Who loved them and provided for them and protected them and begin worshipping other gods.
   We often think people just one day wake up, throw away their Holy Scriptures, and buy a stone or wood idol and set it up in their home and bow down to it.  This is hardly ever the case.  What happens is that in one house a wife does not have a baby the first year and she buys a small, wooden fertility goddess.  She prays to Yahweh and then prays to Astarte, the Canaanite goddess of fertility.  And in a neighbor’s home a man has planted his fields and watched his crops wither and die.  He prays to Yahweh and then buys a small carved stone image of Dagon, the god of harvest and crops.  Idolatry did not fall on Israel overnight, it worked its way in one heart at a time, quietly, without calling attention to itself.
   Many commentators try to explain that Gomer was not a prostitute when Hosea first met and married her, but she only became that later and Hosea knew from God that she would become one.  What I see in the text is that she was a prostitute already and Hosea was commanded to take her as wife anyway knowing she would later betray his love.  It showed a lot of obedience for him to actually carry out this difficult command.  And it is clear from the text that when Hosea married Gomer, she did not give up her career as a prostitute.  It wasn't that Hosea found a fallen woman and through love and kindness restored her to virtue.  He married a prostitute and she stayed a prostitute.
   When Hosea and Gomer first married, she probably promised eternal love and devotion.  She probably showed every sign of being committed to Hosea, but after a while and after some hard times she fell back into prostitution.
   So why did the Lord God have Hosea go through all this?  He wanted us to have an example we could understand.  And if you read Hosea, (when we get to Heaven, I can tell Hosea I read his book, can you?) you will be able to see a sad story unfold right before your eyes.  And if you pray and ask the Holy Spirit to open your eyes, you’ll see the parallels to Israel’s idolatry and then you will be able to see our own idolatry today.
   Jesus uses the comparison of our relationship to God and His for us as being like the relationship between a husband and wife.  God loves us and loves us completely.  He showed us His love by the extraordinary lengths He went to to provide us with salvation.  But is our love for Him as strong?  Is our devotion to Him as fervent?  Maybe in Heaven it will be, but in this life we are Gomer and treat God the way she treated Hosea.
   In this book we are shown in graphic detail how our idolatry and rejection of the Lord God feels to Him.  We casually put things in front of God, choosing to do whatever we want rather than give Him a few minutes to pray or read the Bible or witness to an unsaved person.  When we put anything before our time with the God it hurts Him like unfaithfulness hurts the victim of an adulterous marriage.  By commanding Hosea to take a harlot as a wife Hosea is put in the place where he can experience what God feels, the rejection of the one he loves.  Sadly, we share the same sad story in our relationship with God.  We start out so fervent in our faith and we love God with all our heart.  We sing praises to him and share what happened to us with others without shame or fear.  We promise Him our eternal love and devotion.  And we really mean it.  So what happens?  Life happens.  We go through a hard time and find ourselves hurt and confused.  We expected life to be roses and sunshine but now the thorns have stuck in our fingers and clouds fill the skies.  We begin to look for answers to questions that don’t have answers.  Why did God let (fill in the name of a loved one) die?  Why did I lose my job?  Why did I get sick?  Why does (fill in the name of person) hate me?
   I would like to say I still felt that way, but life has pushed me off that path many times.  Staying faithful to God is hard work and this world makes it hard to stay faithful.  Life takes effort and determination and sheer guts.  We must work hard and keep diligent in our spiritual lives.  We cannot let ourselves be drawn away from God every time some distraction comes into our lives.  We need to examine our hearts and our motives and see where we stand.
Mark 12:29&30
Jesus answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.
30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment.



Stephen Cram                           September 30, 2012                    Colossians 2:8

Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.  Colossians 2:8

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