Love For The Undeserving Series

In 1990, there was a romantic comedy that hit big screen called “Pretty Woman”. It was marketed as a modern update of the story of Cinderella. Richard Gere played an unscrupulous businessman who was on a business trip and - on a lark - he picks up a hooker – played by Julia Roberts. As the movie unfolds, the two fall deeply in love and they end up living happily ever-after. Although it’s left to your imagination if they actually get married.

The film saw the highest amount of sales ever in US for a romantic comedy. And worldwide, at the time of its release, it was the 4th-highest-grossing film of all time. The top 3 movies at the time were: E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial ($619 million at the time), Star Wars ($530 million at the time) and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade ($474 million at the time). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pretty_Woman

But “Pretty Woman” was built on a classic Hollywood concept: A hooker with a heart of gold - forced into a wayward life by adverse circumstances, but longing to be delivered by the handsome leading man who discovered her true worth, falls in love with her, and they settled down to raise a happy family.

Now that was a movie. That was a classic Hollywood script.

However, in Hosea, we see a real-life script being played out. A drama in real time. A man marries a prostitute (who does NOT have a heart of gold) they have 3 kids and she leaves him for other men and, when her life falls apart, he goes, he buys her back and restores her status as his wife.

The point of the book of Hosea is that the prostitute (Gomer) symbolized the spiritual problems that Israel had.

Hosea 4:9-10 “I will punish (the people of Israel) for their ways, and reward them for their deeds. For they shall eat, but not have enough; They shall commit harlotry (prostitution), but not increase; Because they have ceased obeying the LORD.”

Hosea 5:3-4 “O Ephraim (another name of Israel), you commit harlotry; Israel is defiled. They do not direct their deeds toward turning to their God, for the spirit of harlotry is in their midst, and they do not know the LORD.”

The rest of the book of Hosea is built on that concept. Israel had become a harlot/ prostitute because they were God’s wife and they’d sold themselves like a prostitute to other nations. And they refused to repent.

For centuries, theologians have struggled with this story of Hosea marrying prostitute. The idea of this prophet marrying a prostitute… just doesn’t sound moral. And so they’ve come up with all kinds of explanations to make it more palatable. And one of those explanations was that Hosea’s marriage was a vision - it wasn’t real. And other theologians speculated that it was merely a parable - it didn’t really happen! They couldn’t imagine God having a prophet do this.

So I gave some serious thought to these speculations… and I’ve concluded that I DO NOT AGREE with those theologians. And one the reasons I don’t agree with them is this: there was nothing morally wrong with what Hosea did. There’s nothing in the Bible that condemns a man of God marrying a woman with a sordid background.

ILLUS: I recently heard a preacher tell of a friend of his who’d recently entered the ministry. His friend was about to get married and he and his fiancé were at a gathering with the preacher I was talking with. While the friend was distracted with something else, the fiancé came up to the preacher and began to cry. She admitted that before she met her soon-to-be husband she’d led a life she hadn’t been proud of. She’d slept around and taken drugs, and she was ashamed. And she wept as she confessed that she was worried her husband was being forced to lower his standards by marrying her. Now, she’s a Christian and God’s forgiven her. But she couldn’t accept the idea the idea that her husband would be able to forgive her.

You see, that’s the message of Hosea: God forgives sin. He can - and He will - forgive any sin. And He wants to forgive our sins. God is a relentless lover. But you’ve got to want to change. All through Hosea, God is telling Israel – there are consequences of sin. There are punishments for rejecting and disobeying God.

Speaking of Israel (his bride), God declared “I will hedge up her way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her, so that she cannot find her paths. 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 than now.’