Gomer's Song

Hosea 1:1-2 KJV The word of the LORD that came unto Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel. [2] The beginning of the word of the LORD by Hosea. And the LORD said to Hosea, Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the LORD.

Hosea 3:1-3 KJV Then said the LORD unto me, Go yet, love a woman beloved of her friend, yet an adulteress, according to the love of the LORD toward the children of Israel, who look to other gods, and love flagons of wine. [2] So I bought her to me for fifteen pieces of silver, and for an homer of barley, and an half homer of barley: [3] And I said unto her, Thou shalt abide for me many days; thou shalt not play the harlot, and thou shalt not be for another man: so will I also be for thee.

l. THE WAYS THAT GOD WORKS

-God’s ways are far beyond the ways of men. God has many ways that he uses to reach the wayward hearts of men.

-Often, the servants of God find that they must be acquainted with bitter trials and sometimes personal loss in order for patience to have her perfect work (James 1:3). God may often use sorrow as a stern teacher to bring men back to the right place with God.

-Hosea spoke of the methods of God in this manner:

Hosea 2:14 KJV Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her.

-In order for God to speak to us, He brings us among the barren rocks and dry sand of the wilderness to speak to our hearts. In the wilderness, God often brings to light wisdom and strength that is only found through the disciplines of sacrifice and pain.

-Some of God’s greatest men found their solace in the wilderness.

• Moses -- Sent to the deserts of Midian where he becomes accustomed to the endurance of difficulty and opposition. It was in a place where he was shut out from the fellowship of friends but only to find the closest fellowship with God.

• Paul -- Some of the highest ideals of theology is found in the epistles that Paul wrote while he was in the prison house of Nero. They are his loftiest and most profound contributions that make their way from the prison.

-Hosea was also placed in a similar situation, yet his circumstances seems to supercede any of the Old Testament prophets.

-God’s ways are far above the ways of men, therefore faith must give it’s total attention to the purposes of God. It was in the schoolhouse of sorrow that Hosea was shaped and God fashioned a prophet into a man of God.

ll. THE STORY OF HOSEA

-Hosea was a prophet called by God to minister to the Northern Kingdom of Israel. This portion of the Kingdom always had a tendency to be even more wicked than the Southern Kingdom (Judah and Benjamin).

-Hosea witnessed firsthand the violence, the immorality, and the forgetfulness of the people concerning their God. His voice sounded with the shrill pitch of a trumpet but despite what God gave him to say, he loved the people with all of his heart and yearned for them to return back to their God.

-Hosea came to the land at a time of political instability. When God called him, Jeroboam ll, was the king. After this king died, things continued their downward spiral. One king after another began to try to rule. Zechariah, Shallum, Menahem, and Pekahiah found that they could only sit in the royal courts for just a few months before being cast aside.

-While the government seemed to settle itself in great instability, the ways of the people seemed to mirror those actions. They seemed to lose all of their sense of shame, they cast every restraining influence in their lives to the wind, there was no moral energy in their hearts, and no self-control in their lives.

A. His Marriage to Gomer

-God, using a picture that few men would even submit to, commanded Hosea to go out into the streets and find himself a harlot and marry her.

-Hosea already being a prophet, probably extremely skeptical and probably argumentative with God, took to the streets. Led of God but with hesitation in his step found Gomer the daughter of Diblaim.

-Gomer, the harlot. Gomer, early in her waywardness, probably had that youthful attractiveness to her that won the heart of Hosea. Gomer probably thinking that Hosea was just another suitor began to attempt to entertain him. But Hosea, bound by the laws of God refused to allow himself to drop into the role of the sinner.